Thursday 22 March 2012

Sabaw

So yesterday I generated some random races on which to hang a campaign setting. They were the Jackalwere, beaver, sirine, ankheg, wererat, and satyr. Here goes:

Jackalwere and Wererats
These are the females and males of the same race. Their society is matriarchal and dominated by the Jackalwere, who select mates from the wererat populace. In order to breed, both must assume human form, though generally they appear as hybrids. They live in cities of pyramids, surrounded by moats. The Jackalwere inhabit the pyramids and the wererats live in the subterranean moats around them.

Sirine and Satyrs
The sirine inhabit reefs and kelp forests in off shore shallows, and like the Jackalwere and Wererats form a symbiotic relationship with coastal communities of satyrs, who provide them with "companionship" and breeding. Neither sirine nor satyr forms organised societies, preferring to live in relative anarchy.

Ankheg
Intelligent Ankhegs live in huge underground kingdoms deep underneath the thickest forests. They war constantly with all other beings, seeing them merely as food, and they cannot be communicated with - their language is composed entirely of posture and the release of hormones, which other races cannot emulate. Their culture and society is largely unknown.

Beaver
Intelligent beavers inhabit lakes and rivers, creating huge riparian dam-cities. Surrounding these cities they tend huge areas of cultivated forest, so as to provide them with endless supplies of wood. This brings them into constant conflict with Ankheg interlopers who seek the loamy soil of these beaver-made forests.

I call this campaign setting "Symbiants and Also Beavers and Ankheg World". Or Sabaw for short.

9 comments:

  1. I would love to see sketches of "huge riparian dam-cities". Phrase of the day!

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  2. The Ankhegs ring truest for me. I am also in complete agreement with the "One Hour D&D" post. My group's sessions are a few hours after work on weekdays once every other week or so. I'm also getting less and less patient with complex rulesets.

    On a completely different note: I was perusing old blog posts here and it seems the earliest accessible one is http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2008/05/shakespearian-aspects.html

    My vague recollection is that the blog is older than that. Am I off base? Is there any way to access earlier posts?

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    1. I think that might be the earliest post, actually. May 2008 sounds about right for when I started it.

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  3. The jackalwere/wererat society is very enticing. I especially like the thought of it as the main PC race. There's only so far you can go playing a beaver.

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  4. Dam-cities sound amazing, enough for me to include sentient beavers into my own campaign I think. Or maybe like river people with beaver companions?

    Anyway, cool stuff.

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  5. I'd play a beaver in a heartbeat. Can they communicate with the other races?

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  6. Thank you for putting in a matriarchal society. Also, Sirine Amazons. :D

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  7. Here, Judd describes a similar method for creating China Mieville-style cities:
    http://githyankidiaspora.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/make-your-own-new-crobuzon/

    We used it once and it turned out great although we didn't get to play in it.

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  8. Coincidentally, I'm working on a giant-beaver-dam dungeon as we speak. I love the jackalwere/wererats sexual dimorphism thing, that's freaking awesome.

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