Humanoids not in charge?

[CrosshairCollie]

Just kind of a weird random thought ... has anybody ever made a game world, or been in one, where the 'folks in charge' weren't humans or other PC races? Most FH games I've ever seen, the governments are run by the humanoids, most frequently humans. The Arcana Unearthed setting had the Giants as the overall rulers (the dragons had taken over the human etc. lands, then the giants came in and defeated them, then stayed in charge). And then there's the Elfland, Dwarfland thing (which has always annoyed the heck out of me).

 

Anybody ever been in a game where these assumptions were turned upside-down?

[tkdguy]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

There's the Council of Wyrms setting TSR created during its 2nd Edition days. All the PCs there are dragons. I haven't played it though, so I can't tell you how well they pulled it off.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

Me neither. I wasn't specific, enough, though, I guess ... I was meaning that the PCs were more standard 'PC fare' (for lack of a better term), but the people who really call the shots weren't.

[ClassifiedTSBBR]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

DragonStar for D&D3.0 was officially a Fantasy-Space Empire run by & for the Draconic Races (i.e. the Big "Coloured" Lizard-like things, not the humanoids with a draconic theme).

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

I did once play a few games set in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar (the lost world beneath the Earth), in which primitive humans were dominated by the flying reptilian Mahars. The point of the campaign was supposed to be first escaping the Mahars, then starting a war of "liberation" for the humans. The game didn't last very long, though.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

Hmm. Sounds funky.

 

I was thinking about dragons (because, y'know, everybody likes dragons). I treat dragons (and just about everything, really) as unique NPCs, rather than 'all dragons are greedy arrogant tyrants' or the D&D color-coded for your convenience thing on the personalities, so it wouldn't necessarily be a case of 'the game overview involves overthrowing the dragons'. In the Arcana Unearthed setting, even though the giants are by and large wise and benevolent rulers, there are still some people who don't like the idea of being ruled by them. I would expect a similar situation would arise in 'Dracoworld'. And some of the dragons *would* be tyrants, of course.

[Escafarc]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

I've used the ruled by Dragons(rolemaster/Fantasy Hero) and the Kamandi ruled by Humanoid Animals(Gamma World) themes both worked out well.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

We had a campaign in which the heroes found themselves in a land controlled by undead. Normal folks were effectively cattle for the vampire lord that ruled the place. There were zombie and skeleton sentries to keep the humans in line for the most part, and the whole place was under spell that kept it overcast so that the vampires and other powerful undead could roam during the day (except for the fields where the peasants grew food).

 

The setting was dark and creepy, but short-lived as the adventure there was pretty much just a military strike to take out the vampire lord. It would have been interesting to establish a long term undead kingdom though.

[Old Man]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

Me neither. I wasn't specific' date=' enough, though, I guess ... I was meaning that the PCs were more standard 'PC fare' (for lack of a better term), but the people who really call the shots weren't.[/quote']

 

Dark Sun was one of these. Each city-state was ruled by a dragon. Of course, said dragons were like unto demigods, with ludicrous sorcerous power and the ability to grant spells to their Templars (clerics). You basically don't see them in game.

[Markdoc]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

Hmmm. I hadn't thought of undead (kind of lumping them in with humanoids) but I have a few places in my game world where they are in charge.

 

One of them is a medium-sized city-state, ruled by an exceedingly ancient and powerful vampire queen: a sorceror with thousands of years pf experience (and Xp). She's relatively restrained when it comes to her own city: a few people wake up feeling a bit anemic, from time to time, but there's relatively few deaths/disappeances among the law-abiding folk. She takes human lovers, who also become de facto head of state/mouthpiece. The very, very luckiest get turned into vampires and become part of her inner circle, while most end up as dinner (but hey, they get a pretty good run up until that point ....). Criminals, monsters and invading armies on the other had are basically an all-you can eat buffet for the queen and her coterie. The citizenry are not wild about having a vampire queen, but are quick to point out that on the other hand, her little kingdom has enjoyed an unusually long reign free from wars and rampaging monsters.

 

There's another culture - on the other side of the globe that also reveres their undead as "living-well-sort-of-living-ancestors"). There the vampires don't rule the roost alone: the sorcerer-priests handle day to day business, but the vampires are seen as honoured predecessors, are consulted on important matters, get festivals in their honour, are leading warriors in the inter-tribal conflicts and get unimportant visitors as "guests" (nom, nom, nom) in their warrens below the tribe's holdfast. So they are part of the political process, sort of like a management board. Important sorcerer-priests and similar worthies occasionally get to join the "management board" once they start to get concerns about mortality.

 

Another city state is ruled by a giant vessel/temple that holds the spirits of the departed, important dead. They are incorporeal, but can talk with their priesthood by magic. They have centuries of experience with which to guide their city and occasionally possess one of their priesthood, when there is need for their particular expertise outside the city's boundaries (or just occasionally when they are yearning to re-experience the joys of the flesh: it's nice to be able to just hop put of the host body before the monumental hang-over sets in ).

 

I also stole the "dragons ruling a city" thing though that was only used for one world where the PCs were plane-hopping, not my homebrew standard game world.

 

cheers, Mark

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

The sourcebook for Palladium's Rifts game, Vampire Kingdoms, has most of Mexico ruled by vampires, with living humans mostly kept as slaves and food stock. The ultimate source of these creatures are "vampire intelligences," alien non-human entities from another dimension which create human-derived vampires to serve them.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

The sourcebook for Palladium's Rifts game, Vampire Kingdoms, has most of Mexico and Central America ruled by vampires, with living humans mostly kept as slaves and food stock. The ultimate source of these creatures are "vampire intelligences," non-human demonic entities from another dimension which create human-derived vampires to serve them.

 

Here's a review of the most recent edition of the book, which describes some of the salient points: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15634.phtml

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

Dark Sun was one of these. Each city-state was ruled by a dragon. Of course' date=' said dragons were like unto demigods, with ludicrous sorcerous power and the ability to grant spells to their Templars (clerics). You basically don't see them in game.[/quote']

 

Hmm. I barely played Dark Sun (I really hated the setting), so was unaware of this. The dragons would not be so crazy powerful, and I don't do divine magic, so that wouldn't be quite such an issue.

[Old Man]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

I think the Dark Sun dragon's power level was set at a level to prevent PCs from seriously considering taking them on in combat.

 

Also Dark Sun might be my favorite fantasy setting ever, so your hating it makes me sad.

[Escafarc]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

For inspiration check out Michelle Sagara's Elantra series it has a city ruled by Dragons.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

I think the Dark Sun dragon's power level was set at a level to prevent PCs from seriously considering taking them on in combat.

 

Also Dark Sun might be my favorite fantasy setting ever, so your hating it makes me sad.

 

Sorry, but I don't do dark and dismal.

[Pegasus40218]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

The sourcebook for Palladium's Rifts game' date=' [i']Vampire Kingdoms[/i], has most of Mexico ruled by vampires, with living humans mostly kept as slaves and food stock. The ultimate source of these creatures are "vampire intelligences," alien non-human entities from another dimension which create human-derived vampires to serve them.

 

Hmmm...Was Congress the inspiration for this setting?

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

The impression I get of the Eberron setting (from DDO, granted) is that the humans aren't the dominant race, but just one of many. The more powerful races of dragons and giants sort of blew each other to kingdom come sometime in the past, so while they're still around and have influence, the "lesser" races have free reign. You've got the typical Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling mix as one conglomerate, and the monstrous races as another, with some extra dimensional races annoying everyone. At least, that's the way the area of the world used in DDO is laid out. The monstrous humanoid races are given good fleshing out as societies and as players on the world stage.

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

This was three decades ago, so I don't remember the name of the game. It was a science-fictiony 'space opera' type, where some 300 years ago the Terran Empire tried to conquer the galaxy and failed. Then, 200 years ago, the suvivors tried again and failed. Earth was hit with a planet buster, the only surviving humans were from six 'seperatist' colonies that weren't part of the Terren Empire. The 'Pan Sentient Federation' didn't allow any of the six surviving worlds to have spacecraft or WMD, but recruited from them for assault troops/marines. Seems that most of the federation remembers how humans almost conquered the universe (twice) and will often surrender rather than face human marines.

So, the players are marines with non-human officers, serving a non-human Federation as soldiers.

 

Damned if I can remember the name of the system.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

The impression I get of the Eberron setting (from DDO' date=' granted) is that the humans aren't the dominant race, but just one of many. The more powerful races of dragons and giants sort of blew each other to kingdom come sometime in the past, so while they're still around and have influence, the "lesser" races have free reign. You've got the typical Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling mix as one conglomerate, and the monstrous races as another, with some extra dimensional races annoying everyone. At least, that's the way the area of the world used in DDO is laid out. The monstrous humanoid races are given good fleshing out as societies and as players on the world stage.[/quote']

 

Well, yes and no. Humans still run the main nations (Aundair, Breland, Karrnath and Thrane), and you still have Elfland (Aerenal, Valenar), Dwarfland (Mror Holds), and Halflingland (Talenta Plains), and then MonstrousHumanoidLand (Droamm). But those are all still humanoids-in-charge ... the only place non-humanoids run the shots are, IIRC, Sarlona and Argonessen.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

What about a world or sub-world campaign setting where the humanoids only think they're in charge? There are human kings, pontiffs, etc. but they are all pawns in a great game played by a council of dragons.

 

The dragons live so long naturally that by comparison to humanoids (even elves) they are practically immortal. They are super-intelligent and their magic can be subtle, and flows throughout the world changing things in great ways and small. They are the power behind every throne, and all compete to see their proxies wax and wane with the fortunes of their conflict.

 

Individuals still have their free will and can make their own way in the world, but anyone who reaches a position of power will sooner or later fall into the view of the dragons, who will compete for his "services". Again, it's all a game to them. To them, humanoids are a diversion -- they will work to prevent any species from becoming extinct, but only because they don't want to break their favorite toys.

[ClassifiedTSBBR]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

The impression I get of the Eberron setting (from DDO' date=' granted) is that the humans aren't the dominant race, but just one of many. The more powerful races of dragons and giants sort of blew each other to kingdom come sometime in the past, so while they're still around and have influence, the "lesser" races have free reign. You've got the typical Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling mix as one conglomerate, and the monstrous races as another, with some extra dimensional races annoying everyone. At least, that's the way the area of the world used in DDO is laid out. The monstrous humanoid races are given good fleshing out as societies and as players on the world stage.[/quote']

 

AIUI the main setting of DDO is one of the continents of Eberron where Humans aren't in charge, I think it's meant as a sort of "Deepest Darkest Africa" cognate, where there used to be major civilisations (Giants then Elves IIRC) but they've fallen, so it's now Ruins, Jungles, & Monsters.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Humanoids not in charge?

 

AIUI the main setting of DDO is one of the continents of Eberron where Humans aren't in charge' date=' I think it's meant as a sort of "Deepest Darkest Africa" cognate, where there used to be major civilisations (Giants then Elves IIRC) but they've fallen, so it's now Ruins, Jungles, & Monsters.[/quote']

 

That would be Xen'drik.