5E Race: Ferrusans

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here is the write-up for the Ferrusans, a new race for 5E.

“Please stay behind me, mage. You are soft and not meant to withstand such punishments.”

- Bok, Ferrusan Paladin

Large and bulky humanoids who appear to be made of stone. They are descendants of Earth Elementals who sided with mortals during the War of Elements, and thus gave up their immortality.

Strong and Monolithic
When the Earth Elementals who sided with the mortals did so, they gave up their immortal forms, and took humanoid shapes. Therefore, all Ferrusans resemble large, muscular humans with stone skin. They are markedly larger than most humanoid races.

Ferrusan flesh is a “living stone” which moves and appears much like a human’s flesh. However, it varies in shades that resemble the many ores and minerals common to the mortal world. Ferrusans have no hair, but often grow outcroppings of rock that mimics the shape of hair. They have human-like facial features, and their eyes range in varying shades of green and purple, often seeming to glow with an inner fire.

Logical and Law-abiding
Ferrusans have a very rigid sense of logic, and have difficulty with the flights of fancy and imagination present in other races. They are strict adherents to the law, and don’t always grasp the idea of “rules are made to be broken.”

Most younger Ferrusans do not like their homeland, and often leave at their first opportunity. However, as they get older, they sometimes feel the need to return to live out the rest of their existence there. The Burned Lands are a vast wasteland of deserts and active volcanoes.

Due to their connection to the earth, Ferrusans are not fond of flying, and suffer a -1 on all rolls while doing so.

Solitary and Stoic
Ferrusan parents usually only produce two or three offspring in their lifetimes. Subsequently, the Ferrusan population is relatively low, especially when compared to humans. Ferrusans don’t gather in towns or villages, and there is no central government to their society. However, every household has a copy of the Foundation Laws, and all Ferrusans are expected to memorize them, and adhere to them.

Though they care for their families, Ferrusans are not as connected to their relations as other races. It is expected that when a youngling is of age, he will simply leave the home, to quite possibly never return.

In their homelands, Ferrusans spend the majority of their time living an agrarian lifestyle. They subsist mainly on fire beetles, and other fauna that exist in their harsh environment. However, all Ferrusans feel it is their duty to guard over the various elemental rifts that still exist in the Burned Lands, and will often build their squat homes over them.

There is said to be some Ferrusans who have established a thriving community in the highest peaks of the Dragonback Mountains.

Protectors and Defenders
Ferrusans view themselves as protectors, and will often join adventuring parties to help the other members stay safe. They are also somewhat curious about the world outside of their remote homeland.

Most Ferrusans are indifferent to religions and deities, having descended directly from immortal beings who were often in competition with pantheons of deities. However, a few have embraced the worship of various gods, particularly those of the protection domain.

Ferrusan Names
Ferrusans only have given names, and no family names. These names are often short and simple, consisting of hard letters and short vowels. To most other races, male and female names often sound indistinct.

Male Names: Akrix, Bebko, Bok, Haket, Kik, Rorik, Tukru.

Female Names: Ekra, Botam, Hultu, Kara, Rukib, Tarma

Ferrusan Traits
Your Ferrusan character has several natural traits, unique to their physical nature.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength increases by 3, your Constitution increases by 2, and your Dexterity decreases by 2.
Age. Though no longer immortal, Ferrusans can live up to 400 years, and reach maturity at about 30.
Alignment. Ferrusans tend to be Lawful in alignment, due to their strict adherence to their own laws.
Size. Ferrusans average 6-8 feet in height, and can weigh up to 400 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Base walking speed is 25 feet. Ferrusans suffer only half penalty for traveling over difficult terrain.
Darkvision. Like all elementals, you can see 60 feet in dim light as if it were bright, and in darkness as if it were dim. You cannot discern colors in darkness, only shades of gray.
Temperature Tolerance. Ferrusans are immune to the effects of extreme temperatures, and have 10 DR against attacks that rely on burning or freezing.
Stoney Skin. Ferrusans have stone-like skin, giving them a natural +2 to Armor Class.
Languages. Ferrusans speak their own language, referred to as Ferrusan, and will speak an additional language for each bonus to Intelligence (min 1).

New Races: Add or Replace?

So, my latest RPG-related undertaking is to build an entire world from scratch, and have it compatible with D&D5E. I am doing this in the hopes that someday in the distant future, after my wife is done with her Dragon Age campaign, I can take a turn behind the DM’s screen for a while.

The concept of my world is pretty simple, and not all that original. But, it allows me to have the world I want, which is what this whole DM thing is all about, right? Basically, I’m pulling ideas and concepts from various other worlds, mixing in a few of my own, original creations, and building something that is fun and whimsical, yet with an underlying darkness.

Anyways, one of the first things that came out of my brainstorming for ideas was the notion of new races. Now, the PHB has a laundry list of races, and sub-races, so it seems like adding more in might crowd the playing field a little bit. But, I really like the races I have come up with.

Some of you may recall an earlier post where I detailed my first 5E creation, the dwarfling. Well, I like them so much, I’m putting them in there. And the other day a new race sprung out of my head (highly influenced by Wildstar MMO race, the Granok), called the ferrusans. The short of it is that dwarflings are a mix of dwarf and halfling parentage, and are highly personable and charismatic. Ferrusans are the descendants of earth elementals who were trapped on the material plane and forced to take a mortal form to survive. I’ll post my write-up of the ferrusans at a future date.

But, my question to you is, should I simply add them to the lexicon of races from the PHB? Or should I maybe replace standard races with them?

I’m inclined to go with just adding them. But, I have to admit that using them as replacements might be a better way to go. In their first incarnation (for 2E) I envisioned dwarflings as a replacement for gnomes. However, I kind of like gnomes now, so I’m torn. Maybe replace tieflings?

For the ferrusans I would probably replace the dragonborn. I briefly thought about replacing half-orcs. But, my world would not be MY world without my beloved half-orcs. So, if I go that route, it’s bye-bye dragonborn.

Lots of other details are slowly being fleshed out. And like I said, this is something for a far future date. But, I’d be interested in your thoughts, fellow adventurers!

Martial Arts Mayhem!

Finally decided it was time to just put it out there.  My latest product is a simple, rules-lite tactical game of martial arts combat. 

From the description:

Fists & Fury is a tactical combat game where the players create their indivudal fighters through a simple process, and pit them against each other in one-on-one, or even group combat, utilizing a hex-grid and tokens.  Included are rules for:

• Building a unique Fighter
• Creating a unique style
• Advice on setting up duels and tournaments
• Advice on how to expand F&F into a full-on RPG
• Adding and using weapons

Designed to be a "beer & pretzels" game with minimal preparation, F&F is flexible enough to handle most any style of play you can imagine within the genre.

Available at RPGNow!

MMO’s and me

Dynamo-Man and Diana Cutthroat from CoH.

I got my first taste of MMO play when my roomie and best friend let me sit at his computer and try out EverQuest many years ago. I was intrigued with the idea and the interface, if a bit meh about the game itself.

A few months later, a bunch of my friends were playing City of Heroes. I wasn’t able to join because where I lived we didn’t have a stable, non-dial up internet connection. So, I got to hear all about their exploits and view their screenshots with envy. Then that same friend let me log into his account for a half-hour at the local game store where we played tabletop RPG’s, and that was it. I was hooked.

When I was finally able to get into CoH, I was thrilled. Despite my computer chugging along, and looking like a slideshow during fights. Over the following years I managed to upgrade my hardware to the point where CoH became an addiction. I also added World of Warcraft, and for many months would alternate my subscriptions between the two as my mood struck. I even met my current wife on a forum for CoH.

One of the things that I liked about MMO’s was that I could get into the story of the game itself, or I could make up my own. Once I got used to ignoring the fact that there were other characters following the same quests and missions as I was, I was able to immerse myself in the game with my own imagination filling in details.

One of my first WoW characters was a Tauren Hunter. At the time, none of my friends really played WoW, so I played by myself a lot. And I wasn’t into PUGs yet, so I spent a lot of time making up stories about my character as I played. I would take quests, and wouldn’t even pay attention to the narrative. I would make up my own reason for doing the job based on the story in my head.

I did the same thing in CoH for a long time, until I moved to the Virtue server and started playing with friends. And even after that, I still made up my own stories, and created new Alts specifically for that purpose.

Anyways, eventually I got burned out on WoW. And CoH was cancelled by NCSoft. So, I became devoid of MMO outlets that really grabbed me. Sure, I tried others. DCUO was fun, Champions Online was (and still is) kinda cool. Tried a couple of other FTP fantasy games, and even played Star Wars for a long time. But, none of them ever captured the magic of CoH, or even WoW from those early days.

Yesterday I saw a "suggested post” on Facebook for a newer MMO called Wildstar. It’s made by NCSoft, who was responsible for CoH. It’s Science Fiction, but done in a more cartoony, light-hearted manner (kind of like a slightly more mature version of Skylanders). Ironically, after I had decided to just give it a go (it’s FTP), and was downloading it, a friend who is very into MMO’s gave me his 2 cents about it. Not much glowing praise, but in the context of the kind of gamer he is, I understood his points.

So, I finished the install, and logged in last night. It was late, so I only got through the intro cinematics, and made my first character. I’m already loving the art direction, and the controls and interface are pretty standard and familiar. I’m going to give it a go again tonight and see how it goes.

If it does disappoint, I can always uninstall and move on.

Dragon Age Continues

So, we’ve had a total of three sessions of Dragon Age now, and things are starting to get interesting. We’ve pretty much got our main party now, since our former DM has joined with his character (he missed the first session). We have one other player, but he has yet to make a session. He lives out of town, and plays via Google Hangouts, so I’m not sure if he will ever be able to join us.

Anyways, it’s interesting not being the powerhouse meat shield like I had been for 6-year D&D campaign. I’m a former military scout, who grew up in the city of Denerim. My wife is basing a lot of the background of the campaign on the DA: Origins video game. So, some NPC’s from there are featured in our tabletop game (including her character). The game takes place not long after the last blight was defeated. Allister sits on the throne. And life is slowly settling back to “normal” for Ferelden.

The main thrust of the campaign so far centers around slavers kidnapping elven children from the Alienage. We rescued a bunch of the them from a renegade mage, but that just opened up whole can of worms, and now we have been tasked with ridding the city of slavers by Allister himself. Then there’s the mystery surrounding a Templar Knight-Commander, his forbidden love for a Circle Mage, and another mage with dark and mysterious motivations…whom we can’t seem to find yet. However, we did commandeer his home as our headquarters, so there’s that.

The last session saw two of our party begin semi-romantic relationships with NPC’s, quite by accident. And my character got a mabari partner. When we rescued the elven girls, they were in cages surrounded by starved mabari. After defending myself against one, and killing it, I used intimidation and reason to calm the other three. We then gave them over to a local mabari trainer I knew, who paid me back with a young, unbonded dog. His name is now Kalidor.

I think our next session will see us actually leave the city, and probably get into some fights. The last two sessions had little to no combat at all, aside from an archery tournament which one of our warrior-types won.

I’m just happy to be gaming again. This summer’s hiatus was almost depressing.

EVIL spelled backwards is LIVE

Last time I discussed the nature of Alignments in D&D, on an individual level, as well as a racial level. It sparked a bit of discussion over Google+, as well as some commentary on Facebook. So, I thought I would elaborate on the idea, based on those comments.

The gist of most of the contention boils down to the mechanics of such spells as Detect Evil and Protection From Evil. Traditionally, casting Detect Evil to see if there are any evil monsters in the next room, and having that room be occupied by an orc (with or without pie) would return to the caster the feeling that, yes, evil is present beyond that door. But, what if the orc isn’t evil himself? By a strict interpretation of the rules, this wouldn’t matter. The orc is from an “evil” race, therefore he registers as “evil” himself.

If you choose to define a monster’s alignment individually, rather than as a member of his race, you could say that the orc isn’t actually evil, and therefore, would not register as such. Does this mean he won’t fight you when you enter? No, of course not. Because being willing, even eager, for a fight isn’t evil in itself. It’s what motivates that willingness that is. In other words, intent. If the orc is fighting to protect his pie, that’s not an evil intent. If the orc is using the pie to lure unsuspecting victims (through a closed door…ok, so no one said orcs were all that bright, regardless of alignment), then that is an evil intent, and thus he would register as evil.

So, the bottom line is, as a DM, you are free to define the alignment of any given monster any way you like. And doing so opens up a lot of interesting play possibilities. For instance, say the Detect Evil caster is a Paladin, sworn to stamp out the “evil” races of the world. Imagine his surprise when he expects to find no evil, but opens the door to see an orc standing there. A good player would instantly recognize the conundrum here. And as the DM you should maybe coax the realization if he or she doesn’t (otherwise, why did you bother to make the orc non-evil?).

This is the type of situation that can make tabletop games so much more enriching than their computer or console counterparts. Because now the Paladin must come to terms with his own intent. And if he intends to kill the orc simply because they taught him at Acme Paladin College that all orcs are evil, how does that reflect on his own alignment?

I think this kind of thing also has the side-benefit of mitigating the widely-popular notion of the “Murder Hobo.” Now players are forced to justify their actions, and as a DM you can justify consequences for those actions, based on what you know, and what the players fail to investigate. It’s easy to walk into a room, see an orc, decide it’s evil because its race is, kill it, and take its pie. But, if he’s not evil, then you just murdered someone and took their property for personal gain. Does that sit well with your alignment?

Obviously, this is not a simple solution, and probably shouldn’t be too widely used. I mean, for the reasons stated in my last post, the vast majority of orcs will register as “evil” and that will be that. But, dropping an occasional “good” orc into your adventures can spice things up and keep your players guessing.

Bonus points to anyone who knows the reference in this post's title.

Universal Alignments

Ahnuld is the epitome of Chaotic Good.

One of the long-standing issues that many gamers have had with D&D is the idea of Alignment. I’ve seen commentary ranging from “I don’t understand how it works” to “I think it’s complete nonsense.” This is brought up most often when discussing the idea of “Racial Alignment.” And, admittedly, the notion that all members of a species are good/neutral/evil is pretty far-fetched. I mean, RA Salvatore has made a killing debunking this myth for decades.

So, how do you, as a player or DM, deal with this in-game? The answers will vary, based on tastes and views. And, here I will present mine.

Many moons ago I worked fervently on a project that was intended to be my interpretation of an updated “Player’s Handbook” for OSR D&D-style games (eventually published in rough form as Hero’s Journey). In this work, I defined Alignment in the following manner:

“Every character has a set of social values and a moral compass. Together, these two facets form the character’s Alignment, and define much about a character’s personality, and how they interact with the world around them.” Followed by: “A character’s Alignment is mainly for background purposes. It is there to help a player define a character’s personality, and guide him in how the character will react in any given situation.”

This is how I interpret the Alignment rules, regardless of edition. And it works for me on most levels. Even on the idea of Racial Alignment. In order to understand it, you have accept a few aspects of a “race” in D&D. I will use my beloved Orcs as an example.

In every edition of D&D (and even in other games of the same genre where they appear), orcs are universally accepted as being “evil.” It makes them easier to plug in as villains, and it makes it simpler for the players. If they are confronted by a group of orcs, there is usually very little question as to how the encounter will proceed. But, why is this? A couple of reasons come to mind.

The first is perception. In most fantasy worlds, it’s a given that civilized society views orcs as evil, usually due to some past transgression, such as serving the Dark Lord du Jour as foot-soldiers. So, orcs are never given a chance to be anything else. They are attacked on sight, even if they aren’t being all that aggressive. This has the effect of ingraining in them that they will be opposed by whomever they meet, and the only way they can survive as a people is to fight back. Often preemptively.

The second is related in a couple of ways. In the orcs’ case, they are generally more primal in nature, prone to violent tempers and outbursts. Naturally, these attributes make them brutish, and emotionally shallow, which in turn makes them easier to manipulate (by the aforementioned Dark Lord du Jour). So, their natural aggression and violent tendencies are viewed as “evil” to most civilized folk. This is why they, as a race, are viewed as such.

But, as a DM and/or player, we have the option to ignore or change these rules. That lone orc who deserts the evil army in search of a higher purpose might not be such an outlier. He may be indicative of a whole movement among orc society. These kinds of orcs would naturally run afoul of their more traditional brethren, which explains why so few, if any, of them are encountered by Player Characters.

I think I have been in love with this idea since reading The Crystal Shard back during Desert Shield. And games like World of Warcraft have only cemented this idea in my head. Which is why I write games like Life of Rage, and why I am a big proponent of “monster” races being an occasional option in D&D games.

It’s also why I’m working on my latest RPG project. But, more on that later…