One more post… I’ve got some new experimental rules for the Kickstarter I’m working on. That’s right! My new RPG system is coming out [date unknown]! I’m just wondering if any of you wonderful people (good. I got the flattery in. They’ll definitely help me now) would like to take a look at some of the rules and mechanics I’m implementing to give some feedback. This is a Blades in the Dark size RPG, so not as big as D&D or PF but not as small as something like Kids on Bikes.

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

My elements are quite similar to the base four. However, I’ve recently borrowed from Pathfinder to add in wood and metal. I’m using these in my world prep because I like the idea of more elements, but I’m not sure that I will keep them (in their current form at least) due to issues with how it feels thematically to me. I definitely will have more than four, but it’s been a process to figure out what I will bring in. I do know that I will not be using aether or void (or whatever other names you call these by) because they have too much around them when it comes to things that have already been written. I am considering an element of light, however, along with one of spirit. The spirit thing I could go deeper into. So I will!

 Aether is the traditional "spirit" in the traditional western model (it binds the other four to make everything). It was added by Aristotle to the traditional  (even then, indicating a likely proto-indo-european origin for the idea) as "Quintessence". he's why Plato called the five of them the Platonic Solids.

Void was mixed in from Indian thinking after cross pollination via Byzantium; the two are not very compatible in truth, but sound good. That came much later -- likely 9th through 14th century. Was very popular among Venice and Florence types.

Solid, Liquid, Gas, and Plasma are quite "semblance"-related to the classical elements, and that's something to consider (Gas = Air, Plasma = Fire, Liquid = Water, Solid = Earth), especially if you are thinking about bringing in Wood and Metal.

Wood and metal hopped into the Tao system of Wu Xing because that system has a cycle of life and decay and rebirth built into it (wood is growing, metal is dying, in over simplified terms) -- the whole becomes about the process, and is more closely related to that idea of "states of being" or "essence of being" like the states of matter above than the traditional elements.

It is also a rock paper scissors kind of thing -- there is a hierarchy to that system, because it isn't about elements in the western way, but rather about process, again.

I used the hippocratic humours as the baseline for the Miasmatics that I have -- they are gaseous little parasites that are how you make Golems work, lol. Undead, too. They are Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Blood, and Black Bile traditionally. Clive Barker is fond of that system as a starting point in his works -- Hellraiser is rather stomach turning as a book, lol. Galen's work around that linked the Spiritedness, Wisdom, and Desire that were all elements of Soul/Spirit(what made a person a person) to those Humours influenced far more than just medicine for centuries. the Blood Hunter class here owes this kind of stuff a debt as well.

Alchemy is where I started to draw my initial lines (and in older incarnations, what I used) -- hence the reference to Paracelsus. He identified three elements: Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt -- the first two from some prior work centuries earlier coming out of Muslim north africa. He tended to have an issue separating what he saw from what he knew (the model that Aristotle set from Plato that is the traditional Western four plus one), but he was early chemistry, so meh.

A lot of the more odd D&D stuff comes from the Alchemy era of the West (as opposed to the Araby-Egyptian influenced prior alchemy) mixed with generous doses of biblical apocrypha and Jewish mysticism (kabbalah) filtered through the late 19th and early 20th century Hermeticists (not the older folks). These are the folks who commissioned the ubiquitous Waite Tarot, so, um, yeah.

I ended up with mine essentially because of damage types in the game, to be blunt. The rest I built around that. It is why Radiant, Necrotic, Shadow, Psychic, Celestial, and Infernal energies are all planar. That's why I don't have "traditional" elements, lol. 

Go with what works best for the set up. Eastern models tend towards "why do things change" and Western models trend towards "why do things exist". 

Also, sorry, I got carried away again, didn't I?

Quote from AEDorsay >>

What are your elements?

 

Once again, I've got a very Greek-based world, so the "elements" were created by Gaia, who felt that her surface was too barren. She singlehandedly birthed Uranus, the sky (effectively air); Ourea, the mountains (effectively earth); Pontus, the sea (effectively water); and Ignus, the magma (effectively fire). So, pretty much just the classic four. I suppose I could add more, especially considering I already added Ignus onto the original canon, but I'm not sure that I really want to, since the world is very much supposed to ease new players into D&D. That's why I chose Greek mythology in the first place- most people have at least a basic understanding of it, so it's less necessary to teach them abou.

I suppose what I could do if I wanted to make an expanded list of elements would be to draw from other primordials (pre-titan deities), although I haven't got that list very fleshed out yet. Chaos could be void, Aether could be eponymous, Hemera could be light, Nyx or Erebus could be darkness. They'd all be much less present on Gaia, though, since they aren't nearly as linked to her as the main four.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

What are your elements?

 Fire, Ice, Slime, and Candy of course.

I kid, there is Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, and then there is the fifth element... Love.

Those are both references to different stories. I really just have the standard four.

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

How do ghosts work in your world? And do you have electricity?

 Pretty much how they usually are. Ghosts are the souls of the dead that have not passed on. They remain in the realm of the living even though their bodies have died. 

There is no household electricity, but some artificers have managed to create electric powered devices. However most technology in my world is more steampunk than anything else. 

Quote from The_Summoning_Dark >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

What are your elements?

 Fire, Ice, Slime, and Candy of course.

I kid, there is Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, and then there is the fifth element... Love.

 
All you need is Love.

Love is a many splendored thing.

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

So, in my world we have ghosts (One of the worlds. Not the one I’m working on. A different one… Don’t worry. I’ve narrowed my worlds down to only two that I’m actively working on.). These ghosts are the echoes of a person in the final instants before they were dead. However, for a ghost to form, electricity must have been involved in the final moments of their life. Electricity stimulates the body for an instant and ghosts are born of the final electrical impulses running through the synapses of the brain. The ghost acts on the final thoughts, which are usually very simple for most people. These ghosts cause shivers because of the currents that create them (like when you get a shock because your socks are just wooly enough to rub on the carpet and build up some static) and they can manipulate (small) objects and things that run on electricity. In addition, an unnamed type of mage that can manipulate electricity is all about controlling and altering ghosts.

How do ghosts work in your world? And do you have electricity?

Oh, now you did it.

So, one of my personal things was I wanted to **** with the whole idea of undead, the way the game categorizes and uses them. So...(spoiler alert) ... I did.

Ghosts are dead people. Specifically, they are dead people laboring under a curse from some Spirit Of or In the World. in terms of what we know, the brownies who used to fix all the shoes for the cobbler in the story? Well, he done pissed them off, got cursed, and now he haunts the shop and its surrounding area.

Ghosts do Psychic and Heart Damage, and powerful ghosts can do Corruption.

Ghosts are not undead. Neither are Vampires or Liches. Nor are ghouls, wraiths, ghasts, wights, phantasms, or specters. Ghosts have been stripped out of The Cycle. They literally have to be reincarnated using the spell. They can be destroyed, but one is destroying a person when you do it.

Vampires, et al, are Undying. They draw from a combination of Infernal, Necrotic and Nether energies, so there are psychic emanations and lots of those predatory sentient possessing parasites around them.  They are very traditional slavo-ugric Vamps. So Sun Element is really useful, and Paladins are super handy, because they are always corrupted.

Ghouls ghasts, wraiths, wights, phantasms, specters are all Denizens -- extra dimensional beings. Like the Githyanki -- they are people who live on other planes. Like Fae, Devils, Demons, and Hags.  So they are not undead.

Undead are those deceased beings and other once living things (including plants and insects) that have been infested by one of the miasmata -- miasmas, specifically. the reason we say "bless you" after a sneeze, but in game terms, lol, or as a fan of a certain video game tv show has said, cordyceps from another dimension. I am not sure what the mold has to do with zombies, but she says its true.

They just keep coming. Even the little pieces.  It takes someone empowered by Heart and Radiance to tackle the undead and other necrotic beings. Which leaves poor Paladins out.

Nope, that is what Magical G -- , err, I mean, Shrinewards are for. Not only can they consecrate ground for the dead, not only can they lay the dead to rest properly, they can banish and otherwise Turn Undead. Because if you die and are buried without security, you may just come back as a corpse, where "may just" is a nice way of saying get the pitchforks.

But Shrinewards can't do anything about ghosts except listen tot hem and hear their sad tale of woe, and kindly ask them not to keep hurting people.

Got a ghost problem? You gotta talk to a Druid. They can handle ghosts. They don't have wildshape, though on Wyrlde -- they aren't that kind of druid. They are closer to Shamans and Houdon, spirit stuff. They can actually have a spirit make someone a ghost.

Yes, I have electricity. There is lightning, for crying out loud.

What you mean is do I have electrification, and the answer is "maybe?". Those Lyonese folks are way to crafty. I have flying airships that are not flying sea ships or blimp/balloons, but kind of a cross between the two?  I have Trains that circle a gigantic inland sea. I have carriages that don't need horses to draw them.  All three operate on distinct and different secret designs. None of them are strictly electricity, and all are magical.

They just re-invented mechanical clocks. I expect electricity will show up sooner or later if it hasn't already. And Electricity is probably part of what makes Meka work.

I do have indoor plumbing. In Sibola, and Aztlan. Still using outhouses in Dorado, and they use a system like the romans in Lyonese. Not sure what they do in Qivira, but it is probably chamber pots, like Durango, where folks collect it all into cesspits that are later used for fertilizer in the fields. Pretty sure Akadia just turns it into something else.

Dang it, did it again...

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

How do ghosts work in your world? And do you have electricity?

 My setting is just one big, BIG city. Like the whole country big. Over the past 10,000 years since the cities founding, necromancy magic has been lost. Other forms of magic are still alive, but electricity and machinery was also invented. Basically magic/modern tech city/country. As for the ghost question, near the beginning of the city's history, an angry lich cursed the land, making every death on the land lead to the soul taking on a new form forever. The undead created by this don't have many rights, because they aren't legal citizens anymore, cause of some stupid law made by a stupid and fearful council member years ago. There are two groups trying to change this. One with peace and protests, and putting their people in high positions of government. The other are terrorists, causing destruction and fear. I think that's all.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

My elements are quite similar to the base four. However, I’ve recently borrowed from Pathfinder to add in wood and metal. I’m using these in my world prep because I like the idea of more elements, but I’m not sure that I will keep them (in their current form at least) due to issues with how it feels thematically to me. I definitely will have more than four, but it’s been a process to figure out what I will bring in. I do know that I will not be using aether or void (or whatever other names you call these by) because they have too much around them when it comes to things that have already been written. I am considering an element of light, however, along with one of spirit. The spirit thing I could go deeper into. So I will!

 Aether is the traditional "spirit" in the traditional western model (it binds the other four to make everything). It was added by Aristotle to the traditional  (even then, indicating a likely proto-indo-european origin for the idea) as "Quintessence". he's why Plato called the five of them the Platonic Solids.

Void was mixed in from Indian thinking after cross pollination via Byzantium; the two are not very compatible in truth, but sound good. That came much later -- likely 9th through 14th century. Was very popular among Venice and Florence types.

Solid, Liquid, Gas, and Plasma are quite "semblance"-related to the classical elements, and that's something to consider (Gas = Air, Plasma = Fire, Liquid = Water, Solid = Earth), especially if you are thinking about bringing in Wood and Metal.

Wood and metal hopped into the Tao system of Wu Xing because that system has a cycle of life and decay and rebirth built into it (wood is growing, metal is dying, in over simplified terms) -- the whole becomes about the process, and is more closely related to that idea of "states of being" or "essence of being" like the states of matter above than the traditional elements.

It is also a rock paper scissors kind of thing -- there is a hierarchy to that system, because it isn't about elements in the western way, but rather about process, again.

I used the hippocratic humours as the baseline for the Miasmatics that I have -- they are gaseous little parasites that are how you make Golems work, lol. Undead, too. They are Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Blood, and Black Bile traditionally. Clive Barker is fond of that system as a starting point in his works -- Hellraiser is rather stomach turning as a book, lol. Galen's work around that linked the Spiritedness, Wisdom, and Desire that were all elements of Soul/Spirit(what made a person a person) to those Humours influenced far more than just medicine for centuries. the Blood Hunter class here owes this kind of stuff a debt as well.

Alchemy is where I started to draw my initial lines (and in older incarnations, what I used) -- hence the reference to Paracelsus. He identified three elements: Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt -- the first two from some prior work centuries earlier coming out of Muslim north africa. He tended to have an issue separating what he saw from what he knew (the model that Aristotle set from Plato that is the traditional Western four plus one), but he was early chemistry, so meh.

A lot of the more odd D&D stuff comes from the Alchemy era of the West (as opposed to the Araby-Egyptian influenced prior alchemy) mixed with generous doses of biblical apocrypha and Jewish mysticism (kabbalah) filtered through the late 19th and early 20th century Hermeticists (not the older folks). These are the folks who commissioned the ubiquitous Waite Tarot, so, um, yeah.

I ended up with mine essentially because of damage types in the game, to be blunt. The rest I built around that. It is why Radiant, Necrotic, Shadow, Psychic, Celestial, and Infernal energies are all planar. That's why I don't have "traditional" elements, lol. 

Go with what works best for the set up. Eastern models tend towards "why do things change" and Western models trend towards "why do things exist". 

Also, sorry, I got carried away again, didn't I?

 No! This is absolutely fantastic! You’ve helped my worldbuilding more than you know!

Ahhh, a city that spans the whole world, an underclass of undead doomed to servitude, a faction of rioters and a faction of bureaucrats, eh? Ravnica is calling, they want to add like seven more factions into your game and give them all fun Slavic names.

I had an idea that elves could manifest something like a ghost using the collective unconscious. An echo of a person, formed of the opinions and impressions of people who once knew them. They even do this while the person is alive -- and the echo is linked with the person themselves, basically overlaid on them, to the extent that it's not entirely clear where one ends and the other begins, or who's in control. When the person dies, the echo is more clearly its own entity because it lacks the internal life of the actual person. It only does what people would expect it to do.

They can't stop themselves from doing this, and the effect is stronger the more elves are around. So they're occasionally haunted by ghosts of people they'd rather forget. And the effect of this overlay is unnerving, maybe even existentially horrifying to anyone who's not an elf, who wasn't born into that mindset. Someone else in your head? Controlling your decisions? Ick. Thus, hardly anybody wants to live among elves except other elves.

Now if you also keep the reincarnation aspect of elves, where they're born with the soul of a previous life and some of their memories, you could get some interesting stuff. But I'm not gonna bother.

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

How do ghosts work in your world? And do you have electricity?

I think I'll have all ghosts be the products of curses, or maybe just one godly curse on one person that spread somehow. The standard stuff wouldn't make much sense, since Charon doesn't care about "unfinished business." He'll only look the other way if he sees shiny things or if he's strong-armed by the gods.

Electricity (in the terms of machines, I assume) is a solid maybe. I've determined that there's a cult out there somewhere whose name is still up in the air (either Prometheus's Children or something to do with clay) largely consisting of Artificers who seek to use human(oid)ity's gift of fire/civilization to its fullest potential. They're mostly there as a possibility for introducing some early firearms, but I can imagine them having invented a couple devices powered by harnessed lightning.

Quote from ChoirOfFire >>

Ahhh, a city that spans the whole world, a underclass of undead doomed to servitude, a faction of rioters and a faction of bureaucrats, eh? Ravnica is calling, they want to add like seven more factions into your game and give them all fun Slavic names.

 I can’t tell if you like the idea or not.

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

How do ghosts work in your world? And do you have electricity?

 There are two kinds of ghosts in my world, Death Echoes and Vengeful Spirits.

Death Echoes are ghosts born of sudden, violent deaths and mostly just repeat their own death scenes over and over and don’t really interact with or even notice the rest of the world, but if you do catch the attention of one of them it’s bad news as they will usually seek to possess you and reenact their death while wearing you as a meat suit. But as long as you don’t force interaction onto them Death Echoes are generally harmless for the most part since they’re stuck in their loops. These ghosts get fewer HP, and will generally take no action unless provoked.

Vengeful Spirits are the ghosts of people who died with serious unfinished business that drives them mad over time. They will do anything in their power to seek whatever resolution to that they can, even if it’s only temporary. These ghosts are very dangerous as they can and will take their vengeance out on people, preferably the target of their vengeance if possible and reachable, but if those targets are unreachable or impossible to seek vengeance against, they will target the next best thing which can include anyone and everyone they encounter depending on how they perceive those individuals in relation to their unfinished business. These ghosts get extra HP, and will gladly take action against anyone they deem to be a viable target for their wrath.

Electricity is rare in my world, only artificers a very few wizards generally make use of it in their laboratories.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

What are your elements?

 

 
The element of SURPRISE!

I kid - as of now, it's the generic: Earth, Water, Fire and Air.

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

How do ghosts work in your world? And do you have electricity?

 
Ghost operate pretty similar to how common lore is...
They can be the spirit of someone who is so evil, that they refuse to accept they died... or someone, so greedy, for example, who refuses to move on, believing someone will steal their money/treasure... But a spirit can also be good. Someone who was murdered, may remain and seek help from the living in hopes of getting justice or finding peace to be able to move on.

They do not have electricity. They do have, at will, a necrotic touch however.

So, my little toss out about elements might have hinted that I know a tiny bit about things.

I mentioned Druids in a different post, and feel like rationalizing the **** out of my decisions there, lol.

First, Druids are a Class of people of a specific culture, and we draw the notions for the archetype from them. We mixed all manner of weird ass Nordic, Saxon, Angle, and other crap, and half of what we do know is supposition of the barest sort, made worse by several centuries of people making shit up and everyone else deciding it sounded good and running with it.

I don't have any group historically that really fits well with the D&D idea of Druids. However, Druids are one oof those things I know a little bit about. And what I do know is that they were decidedly tribal magical folks: Shamans, of a particular and specific people.

Now, the term Shaman has lots of baggage, and among that baggage is the idea that it is tied to a "primitive culture", and, well, that won't fly.  I mean, I could just say that Druids can only be from this one place or that one place, but those places have, respectively, a Bedouin and Mongol basis that "druid" doesn't work well with. Yes, I mixed them with other steppe peoples and one tends towards Arabian nights in appearance and the other Indigenous Americans, but that's because I was a damn fool with the AI tools.

Does not work. Can't use Shaman, loaded term. Can't use Witch Doctor or Medicine Man, also loaded, in different ways, plus well, tis is D&D. So I needed a Druid. the name, at least. At one point I merged them with Monks -- did not work well. Then the Mortal Kombat thing came along and so I fixed Monks. 

So I sat down and did me some thinking about Shamans, Medicine men, Witch Doctors,  and other animistic tribal roles. Storytellers, history keepers, healers and seers. And among all of them, a couple of traditions stood out that were cemented by a single image I found while googling.

The image was and is petty spectacular to me. But it triggered something that had been buried in the back of my head for a long while, and I cackled as it allowed me to look at two traditions more closely and create a "new druid", for lack of a better term.

I took the Druidic tradition, Shinto, and the Loa of Houdon, smashed into them the underlying ideas of genius and numen from greek myth that fed into and helped create the ideas of all the little fairies of house and village we know fairy tales about thanks to a couple of brothers collecting folk tales, and poof, I had a solution and a role for Druids. They are still "people of the wilds" but they are not the protectors of the wilds -- that went over to Rangers, who suddenly seem interesting again.

They don't need wildshape. Getting close to one is rough, because they have the ability to summon, comand, and be defended by the spirits. They are never alone. They have a Fetish Totem for a spell casting focus, and it also doubles as their spell book. They don't rage, but they have some features from the Path of the Ancestral Warrior from Barbarians and The Totem Warrior. Divination is a major gift (they ask the spirits), so they snagged College of spirits stuff from bards (who are part of why Shamans are so hard to handle, since that is most of what a Shaman really is).

They occupy an important role, but are very off putting -- because their focus is made from things that were once alive, and they have to follow the assorted rules of the varying spirits of the world. Everything they do is based around those spirits, so they can make deals with them, and even channel them -- in the sense of the spirit can speak through them.

The role they occupy in the broader world is one of helping to keep the spirits from making more ghosts, in part, but also to broker a balance, an accord between the gazillion spirits and the people as they all wrangle for space and place. So they are a kind of bounty hunter and mediator between the natural world and the settled world. This also places them in a role to be front line defenders against incursions from the other dimensions (and yes, I have a dimension called Ex and one called Eighth, and almost had one called Nth, but it didn't survive a cut that simplified things -- though maybe I will go back and change Karma...), so they often work with Nomads, who are all about using Mana to reinforce the Veil through their secret societies.

Lastly, while they look like they are crazed wild folks, they are incredibly literate and have a secret skill related to runes. As storytellers and history keepers, they are a sort of living memory of the people, right alongside bards, though in the case of a Druid it tends to tell the other side more often. As a result, those who are parts of the Exile, Hyborian, or Kahokian peoples do tend to occupy roles and positions of authority and influence.

So, yeah, I changed Druids, but in doing so I made them a force multiplier, lol. And should they choose to forego the higher level spells and choose to take up a weapon skill instead, they can hold their own beside a Ranger or Paladin or Swordmage.

It is the most dramatic change I made to current "core classes" -- Warlocks are pretty severe a change, being elementalists with something similar to pacts there, and I pretty much spread Sorcerers out among the entire set of magic using classes so that whole class is gone -- but I am super pleased with it as a whole, and so I needed a moment to rationalize it out to people who don't care, lol.

But this is what comes of having too much crap in my head.

Two Questions: What is the weirdest homebrew a player asked to have, and what is the weirdest homebrew monster you had to fight?

Quote from DrakenBrine >>

Two Questions: What is the weirdest homebrew a player asked to have, and what is the weirdest homebrew monster you had to fight?

 
I can't think of a homebrew creation I would classify as weird. The closest is the Meka -- a mechanical person from Anime, akin to killer dolls. But I don't thin of them as weird because they are just a variant on the exiting warforged, afaiak.

Weirdest homebrew monster i have ever had to fight was a Vampire based on a blend of Egyptian, Byzantine, and proto-georgian concepts. Didn't have to actually fight us, just be within 20 feet of us to start draining our hit points, could hang out in the sun, had no problem with ash or rowan stakes, and had a split personality -- he had actually hired us to find and kill him.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from DrakenBrine >>

Two Questions: What is the weirdest homebrew a player asked to have, and what is the weirdest homebrew monster you had to fight?

 
I can't think of a homebrew creation I would classify as weird. The closest is the Meka -- a mechanical person from Anime, akin to killer dolls. But I don't thin of them as weird because they are just a variant on the exiting warforged, afaiak.

Weirdest homebrew monster i have ever had to fight was a Vampire based on a blend of Egyptian, Byzantine, and proto-georgian concepts. Didn't have to actually fight us, just be within 20 feet of us to start draining our hit points, could hang out in the sun, had no problem with ash or rowan stakes, and had a split personality -- he had actually hired us to find and kill him.

 Which anime?

Neat idea.

Quote from DrakenBrine >>

Two Questions: What is the weirdest homebrew a player asked to have, and what is the weirdest homebrew monster you had to fight?

A homebrewed subclass to represent true Witcher lore. I honestly couldn’t say what the weirdest monster was.

Quote from DrakenBrine >>

Two Questions: What is the weirdest homebrew a player asked to have, and what is the weirdest homebrew monster you had to fight?

 I don’t really know. For the monster, maybe a vampire bear? But weird is relative and in Dnd you really have to work hard to make things strange.