Fantasy HERO Setting -- World of Generica

[shadowcat1313]

Dwarves with repeating crossbows, then gnomes with gunpowder weapons, whats next hobbits with chainsaws?

I just an image of a hobbit chainsaw drill team


just being silly... chainsaws are too high tech anyways

[gojira]

whats next hobbits with chainsaws?

Riding lions.

[AmadanNaBriona]

I've always fancied the idea of pygmy war moose as Hobbit cavalry steeds.

I missed this one earlier, somehow.
Verra cool idea, KS!

For my tuppence, I'd say go ahead with guns.
It's too established in generic high fantasy to avoid...
Tunnels & Trolls has guns, Warhammer has guns, Runequest has guns...
besides,
gunpowder equals cannons equals high seas action, no?

I'm not as keen on the total lack of dark elves.
This is supposed to be somewhat generic, no?
Aren't dark elves a pretty solidly established generic fantasy trope now, even if J.R.R.T. & E.G.G. both ganked them from Norse myths originally.
And as a side note... Tolkien "Dark Elves" aren't the classic D&D model Evil elves, either, IIRC they were just elves born away from the Light of Luva (i.e. born in Middle Earth), tho I'll freely admit this is off the top of my head.

We could get all proto-myth snobby and call them elfs instead

[shadowcat1313]

or go with modern proto-mythology and call them Dark Elvis

[ghost-angel]

Catching Up and Jumping In

KS: have you checked dokuwiki out? It's pretty dirt simple, text based, wiki that you can drop into a separate directory on your domain space and it'll be completely self contained.

I like the idea of silo creation and then coming together to stitch it in place. It feels like the old D&D Gazeteers, where you could use each one completely stand alone or branch out and start using realms around it.

I have some ideas for a dwarven nation(s) that might be an interesting work in without getting specific. It hinges on how dragons are planned on being viewed - as massive animals or thinking adversaries...

[Killer Shrike]

Ill check dokuwiki out if I can't get the one im playing with now to bend to my sinister will. I've already got some time invested in it, want to see it out.


The D&D Known World is a pretty good parallel thought.


As far as Dark Elves, I can be convinced, I just don't want TSRs version of Drow. My Drzzt loathing is showing. Some generic "dark elves" can be made to work if its desired by the collective.

[ghost-angel]

If (big IF because I'm with KS in my Drzzt loathing) there are "dark" elves, we should avoid the whole "evil race of matriarchs" schtick. Which was a really crappy way to shoehorn the Seelie and Unseelie courts into D&D.

Perhaps a nation or region of underground elves instead would work better, we can fabricate some form or meta-reason. Maybe include the almost obligatory eco-disaster for the modern age.

[Ninja-Bear]

Here is an evil of dwarves known as the cult of the anvil. They believe that metal working is and should be the sole right of the dwarves. They do not nessecarily dislike other races per se, only prejudiced if said race works metal. This group is very behind the scenes, pulling strings to achieve their ends. I thought that they could have caused a diaster which lead to lost dwarven kingdom. (or at least creators of Rust Monsters!)

[Killer Shrike]

Ok, starting in from the 10,000 foot level:

I envision a collection of "Realms", regions or bodies of work with a theme or that hang together somehow (influenced from a common fictional source or mythology or culture), but filtered thru a High Fantasy lens.

A Realm can be a region or continent or sub continent or an island or a pocket dimension, or whatever makes sense. Each Realm should be self contained, but sufficiently vague as to allow for crossover from other Realms when we get to the stitch it all together stage.

They all sit on top of the same Paradigm (ref the doc I posted before for version 1.0 of this), and the underlying HERO System mechanics should be basically compatible between the Realms. It should be possible for a character from the Realm of Barbarica to travel to the Realm of Tolkenica or the Realm of Gygaxica.

Off hand, I have the following realms in my mind:

Barbarica: a Conan-esque Realm with mighty thewed barbarians, dark magics, hawt evil princesses, warring kingdoms, and so forth.

Celtica: a Celtic / Arthurian themed Realm with high chivalry, Merlin / Morgan Le Fey type characters, standing stones, lots of spears and blue body paint, and so forth

Gygaxica: a Realm with a melange of DnDish concepts and themes.

Tolkenica: This one I'm the least interested in personally, but a Realm w/ a Middle Earth theme, with a power escalation to High Fantasy levels. Or if not Tolkeinesque then at least a classic / fictional "fantasy" implementation. Midkemia (Raymond E. Feist), Shanara (Brooks), and other Tolkein influenced settings could all be melanged together.


More fringe, but doable:

Etherica: an extradimensional Realm combining aspects of Planescape and Spelljammer and any other weirdness

Apolyptica: a deconstructionist / post-apocalyptic High Fantasy Realm. A place for material revolving around what exists after a magical cataclysm of some sort.




And so forth. As this is modular, more Realms can be spun up at need. Those of us with interests in different flavors of Fantasy can concentrate on Realms that appeal to us.

Ideas?

[ghost-angel]

Closing in just slightly. Many of those realms can piece together closely (Celtica + Barbarica) while some may need a physical distance offset (Apocalyptica) for a plausible coherence without affecting cross polination.

Moving back up I suggest we build 3-4 major Land Areas (Continents, Island groupings, what not) and identify which groupings fit closely thematically and place them nearer each other.

Given distance is, in itself, a barrier of sorts in a Fantasy setting.

This allows for some really cool things(tm). In the blasted Apocalyptica the powerful Sorcerer in the dark tower is really a mage fleeing Gygaxica for one reason or another.

This will help us zoom in and out of things without too much disbelief being broken (if any).

[Killer Shrike]

Closing in just slightly. Many of those realms can piece together closely (Celtica + Barbarica) while some may need a physical distance offset (Apocalyptica) for a plausible coherence without affecting cross polination.

Moving back up I suggest we build 3-4 major Land Areas (Continents, Island groupings, what not) and identify which groupings fit closely thematically and place them nearer each other.

Given distance is, in itself, a barrier of sorts in a Fantasy setting.

This allows for some really cool things(tm). In the blasted Apocalyptica the powerful Sorcerer in the dark tower is really a mage fleeing Gygaxica for one reason or another.

This will help us zoom in and out of things without too much disbelief being broken (if any).

Yes, exactly.

Round one: define the Realms, high level / universal concepts (like a broad cosmology), acceptable power ranges, a list of things that are configurable by Realm (like say gunpowder, resurrection magics, deities), and a list of things we agree we DO NOT WANT at all in any Realm (if there are any).

Round two: we go off and develop material, primarily Nations or equivalents, for different Realms in silo / asking for feedback as we desire it. Once we have three or four contributions for a given Realm we convene a Round Table as a group and review the material, collectively tweak it to fit the vehicle, and then add an overarching layer that ties them together (leaving some room for more new material to come in and be added later); this includes a loose / vague / fuzzy around the edges map for the Realm leaving "here there be dragons" placeholder spots to leave room for later add ons.

Round three: when we have three or four Realms pieced together, we do a high level pass and decide how proximate the various Realms should be, add an overarching layer that loosely ties at least some of them together, and a vague cross Realm map.


As more material comes in we repeat rounds two and three.

[Killer Shrike]

http://www.killershrike.info/

More to come.

[ghost-angel]

Very cool. I'll get in and register this afternoon when I get off work.

[AmadanNaBriona]

I totally agree with avoiding the matriarchal Drow-style Dark Elves as well (for the same reasons, even), and might suggest following summat close to the Warhammer model (Rebel high elves, basically, no negative image "Black skin white hair" crap), as the proposed Wood Elves already have a somewhat Warhammer-ish cast proposed to them.

[Odraude]

Well for the "dark elf" troupe, how about this?

Twilight Elves

Twilight elves can be elves that are simply nocturnal. They can have a moon-pale skin tone to them and a pale blue hair colour. Eye colour can vary, maybe also pale blue. Nightvision would be needed, as well as enhanced hearing and maybe smell. Body-wise, they can be a bit more in the middle of Wood and High, having more of a lean build. Ears can also be a tad different, with the classic ear point of elves as well as the ear lob curving back a bit, making the ear look like a crescent moon. They can have more of an affinity for the night, though they won't exactly burn in daylight. Their vision, however, can suffer a bit in the sunlight as their eyes may not be able to adjust to it.

Locations could be along the coast, living in cities similar to the Meditaranean. Or, there could be cliffside cities. They can be more of a seafaring people and with that, their cities can have other races in them (most notably humans).

How is that for a change in dark elf?