Tuesday 22 February 2011

Broad-Brush Human Cultures of Nagoh

 
Just a quick-and-dirty cultural origins table for humans IMG. Differentiates them nicely from one another, gives new players a handle on what the world is like, and keeps distressingly cliché RL archetypes ("Oh, a Viking named Olaf. How... unexpected.") to a minimum.

Game-mechanical effects? None as written. This is classic D&D. It's intended as nothing more than a hook for the player to hang characterisation on. If the players whine (and I'm feeling generous) I *might* allow some minor mechanical benefits.

Roll d8:  
1-3 Urban   
4-6 Rural
7-8 Oddland

Urban (d8)
  1. Cinnabarite - You come from solipsistic Cinnabar, City at the Centre of Time. Your physique is godlike, your skin golden, your self-satisfaction total.
  2. Elsweran - You come from the misty city of Els. Your eyes are unusually large and you have feathers rather than hair.
  3. Tarasqualtan - You come from Tarasqualta, City of the Godbeast. Your teeth are disconcertingly sharp, your nails are iron-hard black claws.
  4. Throxian Vatborn - You come from the Dome City of the Emperoress, where men are created rather than born. Your flesh is hairless and ghoulishly pale, your mien distant.
  5. Viridian - You are a descendent of the mighty sea-kings of Viridia the Ever-Glorious. Your skin is green-tinged, your eyes black and slightly bulbous.
  6. Aftani - You come from far Aftane, City of the Seven Red Kings. Your hair blows in unseen winds. Your voice echoes strangely.
  7. Adari - You come from Adar, Temple City of the Ten Thousand Gods. Your neck is elongated, your eyes slanted. Your skin is tattooed with scriptural passages.
  8. Neteshan - You come from Netesh the Damned, Peripatetic City of the Apostarch. Your red limbs are short but sturdy, your face unusually flat. You're not sure how to get home...

Rural (d8)
  1. Nagai Plainsman - You come from the wind-swept plains beyond the Nagai Pass. Your eyes are narrowed, your blue-tinged skin weathered. You call no man master.
  2. Nagai Hillsman - You come from mining country. Your hands are large, your eyes beady, your skin ingrained with soot. Things can only possibly get worse...
  3. Nornmonter - You come from the Nornmounts, the cursed mountains beyond the ruined City of Nagoh. You have an unusual number of fingers and a tendency to flinch from things others can't quite see.
  4. Toxfeller - You come from the cratered, sinkhole-infested Toxfells around the ruined City of Nagoh. Your features are malleable, your limbs oddly articulated. You don't like to be out after dark.
  5. Funglan - You come from the outlying areas of the Fungal Forest. Your features are strangely elfin, and you are carry curious infections. You are also prone to periods of vacancy.
  6. Vorran - You come from the rich downlands of the Vorra River. You are broad-beamed and web-footed, and you like livestock entirely too much.
  7. Islander - You come from one of the islands of the Sea of O'sr. Your people are unique and especially marked by the gods; not like all those other islanders, who are merely inbred arrogant weirdoes.
  8. Hexlander - You come from the mysterious Hexlands, where the ground falls away and men are prey to alien beasts. Your arms are long, your skin radiates a subtle orange glow.

Oddlands (d10)
  1. Ganymedean - You come from the Gandymedean Marches, where true warriors ride the mighty Men-o-War in glorious aerial combat. Your skin is bronzed, your voice LOUD!, your mettle true.
  2. Crab Dancer - You come from the shoals of Thadamkrabh. You wear garments of coral and shell. Your feet are strangely jointed and your eyes retract rather than blink.
  3. Anachron - You come from the land of Anachronia, where the impossible is everyday. You carry in your body artefacts of strange make and obscure function.
  4. Janus - You come from the land of the Januses, where men have two faces. Some call you dishonest, you prefer to think of yourself as multi-faceted.
  5. Amazon - You come from the land of the amazons, where men are slaves or sacrifices. Sharp-edged stony shards grow from your shoulders.
  6. Pan - You hail from the idyllic hill-country of Panistan. You are goat-legged and sybaritic.You do not answer to 'Mr Tumnus'.
  7. Stiffneck - You hail from the fog-shrouded Vergrun. Your neck is thickly-muscled and rigid, your eyes wide-set. The Mindslugs of Shgaxx are your ancient enemy and rightful prey.
  8. Shug - You come from the eastern margins of the infamous Iron Forest. Your extremities are disproportiately large. Your mouth is in your belly.
  9. Resonite - You come from the sulphur swamps of Mokad'nar. Your face is eyeless, your head crowned with antlers. You don't seem to bump into things...
  10. Merelunder - You come from the ever-damp Merelands, domain of the Sleeping King. Benign leeches suckle your blood and feed you exotic drugs. Your eyes are close-set, your legs long and gangling.
Sources:
image from The Book Palace Moebius gallery
Tarasqualta from The City Built Around the Tarrasque by various
Cinnabar from "Cinnabar" by Edward Bryant
Throx from World of Thool by Scott Driver
Viridia from Majestic Wilderlands by Rob Conley
Aftane from Birthright by Rich Baker, et al.
Sea of O'sr from Sea of Os'R Adventure Path by Carter Soles and others
Oddlands from Map of Mosaic from DC's Green Lantern

7 comments:

  1. Nice!
    Incidentally, I rolled myself as an Aftani (...aftani...aftani....). Does this mean I can cast Gust of Wind as a 6th level caster 3/day?
    Please?

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  2. "Some call you dishonest, you prefer to think of yourself as multi-faceted."

    I think that place is around here somewhere

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  3. Top fluff, Chris!

    I rolled a Hexlander - 'your skin radiates a subtle orange glow.' - ah, obv. from Middlesbrough

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  4. or Essex - innit ?

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  5. I like this quite a lot. I think your capsule text is just enough flavor that even a newbie could play one of these and yet they are distinct.

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  6. Very cool. A strong taste of weird with subtle hint of the absurd.

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  7. I rolled a Nagai Plainsman... hope I scored enough wisdom to maker ranger. :)

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