Eberron thoughts

 For the longest time my favorite official D&D setting was Eberron. I’ve run many adventures there, but I always found myself leaving Khorvaire for farther shores of my own invention. I think in large part this is due to the fact that Eberron was designed as a kitchen sink setting that, to paraphrase one of it’s chief creators Keith Baker, if it could fit in D&D there was a place for it in Eberron. Baker was quick to follow this statement with another saying that no two Eberron needed to look alike. I never took this to heart, but merely brushed it off as a given that each GM would change and warp the setting to their preferences and players. 

My response to this is that a kitchen sink setting is too much for me, and I need to pare down Eberron to my liking. And to foreshadow a bit, my liking trends toward a humanocentric setting. In short, my response is to burn the cruft of D&D away and keep only what I think makes Eberron sing.

I’ll start with the best parts of Eberron: the new character options. The ancestries* that are introduced (warforged, shifter, kalashtar, and changeling) all present a form of humanity that is changed in either mind, body, or spirit. 

The Shifter is changed in body. The Kalashtar is changed & expanded in spirit. The Changeling is changed in mind & body. And the Warforged is changed in all three (maybe this is why they seem to be the most popular part of Eberron, but also maybe it’s just because they look like robots (they’re not!)). 

All other ancestries need to be removed to make the unique denizens of Khorvaire really sing. Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Gnomes and Orcs all gone. This means that the Dragonmarked Houses are all filled with Humans. 

The one other ancestry I like that can stay is the Hobgoblins that have returned to the continent from long generations hiding in their vaults. In Eberron’s ancient history the land was ruled by Goblins, and in fact theirs is the empire that fought back the Daelkyr (flesh-warping monsters from the Plane of Madness) invasion and possibly jailed the Overlords?? I don’t remember right now, but they call themselves “Ghaal’Dar” meaning Mighty People and I liken them to Neanderthals. Near-mythological ancient enemies of humanity that were close to us in likeness, but still too different to never stop warring. They died out, and humanity took off. EXCEPT this society that built doomsday vaults and decided to wait an untold number of generations before coming to the surface again. I think they’re neat.

I don’t have much else to say - but my next post will tackle Shifters and their role in the world.

*As a Pathfinder 2e GM I will be referring to the peoples and species of character creation as “Ancestries.”

PF2e Ancestry: Barsook (Badgerfolk)

As part of my ongoing development of my campaign setting I needed a badgerfolk. Badgerfolk themselves are a carryover from a few Autumnlands inspired adventures I ran using Numenera an eternity ago, and at that point they were just a re-skinned Jack (i think). I don't really have a fluff inspiration, but upon my search to see if anyone had done this yet and save myself some work I came across DMDave's post here. It works for me, but you'll notice that I made them a medium size. If I'm feeling creative writerly, or if a player wants to put their stamp on the Ancestry I'll

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Barsook

Hit Points

8

Size

Medium. About 4 feet tall, just under that of dwarves.

Speed

20 feet

Ability Boosts

Constitution
Wisdom
Free

Ability Flaws

Dexterity

Languages

Common

Barsook

Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive).

Low Light Vision

You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, so you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.

Traits

Barsook

Humanoid

Beastfolk

Level 1 Feats

• Barsook Lore: Having studied with the great thinkers of your community you have learned to look at the world with an objective, academic eye. You gain the trained proficiency rank in Nature and Society. If you would automatically become trained in one of those skills (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. You also become trained in Barsook Lore.
• Barsook Weapon Familiarity: You favor the unusual weapons tied to your people, such as blades with curved and peculiar shapes. You are trained with the glaive and kukri. In addition, you gain access to kukris and all uncommon Barsook weapons. For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial barsook weapons are simple weapons and advanced barsook weapons are martial weapons.
• Keen Smell: You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to all Perception checks that rely on smell.
• Badger Claws: You have the strength in your claws to dige through sand, earth, mud, or ice but not rock. You gain a burrowing speed of 10 feet. In addition, your claws are a natural weapon granting you 1d4 + STR slashing damage. Your claws are in the brawling group and have the unarmed trait.
• Burrow Elocutionist: You recognize the chittering of ground creatures as its own peculiar language. You can ask questions of, receive answers from, and use the Diplomacy skill with animals that have a burrow Speed, such as badgers, ground squirrels, moles, and prairie dogs. The GM determines which animals count for this ability.

Ancestries of the Known World

 My last two campaigns were run in and around the Nentir Vale as presented in the D&D 4th edition with some forays into Kobold Press’s Zobeck and Mharoti dragon empire. In our game the dragon empire was run by a dragonborn dynasty that used enslaved dragons as siege engines. The party’s paladin was the exiled prince and final heir which mostly added texture because his player was keen not to hog the spotlight too much. As I type that out I see now why this was the storyline the players most often stayed close to despite the distractions of orcish hordes and magical circuses they could have run away to join. That campaign is over and new characters will be rolled next time we head this direction.

All that being said our game is now in a Pathfinder 2e coating. So here’s what I’ve been thinking for Ancestries in our specific setting. Notice here the Kobold Press and Hydra Cooperative influences: ratfolk, bearfolk, lizardfolk, etc. 

I have adapted this rollable table from WFRP4e.

The dominant ancestries of this age (roll d100)

01-85 Human

86-89 Halflings

90-93 Dwarf: Rock & Stone.

94-95 Orc

96-97 Beastfolk (roll again 1d10)

1 Barsook (badgerfolk)

2 Gnoll

3 Medved (bearfolk)

4 Tabbit (catfolk)

5 Iruxi (lizardfolk)

6 Shoony (dogfolk)

7 Strix (talonite/birdfolk/Zelda bird people)

8 Ysoki (ratfolk)

9 Leshy (plantfolk)

10 Grippli (frogfolk)

98 Drake

99 Elf

00 Automaton

Rolling on this chart to choose your ancestry grants you 100xp at the start of play. Additionally, rolling randomly for your Background and Class grants 50xp and 100xp respectively.

Oh yeah you can see the influence of WFRP with the Ogre there. I like the idea of large races in my game. Give me PCs big and small, it’s not unbalancing it just changes the game. Good luck getting your big Ogre or Iruxi into the dungeon. 

So what did I leave off? Gnomes, (hob)goblins, all sorts of things that make me say “meh” when I read them. If a player super wants to be one of those things I’d allow it because that’s something that makes them excited, and who am I to squash nerd joy? (Nobody that’s who). 

I plan on writing up a PF2e and B/X version of the Ogre, the Bearfolk, and Badgerfolk first, and then customizing the rest of the ancestries to our particular world. 

Star Wars RPG is dead, long live Star Wars

I was having a lot of trouble preparing NPCs and ship types using FFG’s Star Wars game, so I moved my players over to Scum & Villainy RPG after we played an interlude using MF0: Firebrands. FFG Star Wars is a great game, but I didn’t have the personal time to accomplish my goals. I’m low-key regretting jumping back into Star Wars after the Firebrands interlude because it was such a clear point to send it into hiatus and move onto a different setting. It didn’t feel like we had finished telling the story of these characters yet, and I really like our vision of the future of the galaxy post-original trilogy.

I’m also planning a series of one-shots so that I can either get a taste for different settings or get them out of my head like a song stuck in there. I picked up the Avatar: The Last Airbender rpg starter set which is a really beautiful collection. It comes with not one, but two different adventures with 5 pregen PCs for each. One adventure is set in the era of Aang, while the other jumps forward in time to the era of Korra. As someone who liked the shows I’m pleased as punch. 

BREAK!! Is coming out soon (in pdf anyway) and I’m actively clearing mental space for when I get a chance to read it. Growing up on console rpgs and anime means I am beyond stoked this project finally came to fruition. Long ago when I ran Labyrinth Lord/LotFP I had a couple players play as a Battle Princess or Mechengineers and those ruled. (Why am I not still running LL?) 

I’ve also lately become obsessed with running a d100 game. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition keeps tugging at my attention. I’ve seen Night of Blood recommended as a good intro/one-shot so that will be up next after Avatar (or third if BREAK!!! comes out in time). I dunno, we’ll see. 

To be honest I’m getting pretty burnt out on running using a virtual tabletop, but that’s a topic for another day.

intro

 Hey OSR-tober, or Oct-OSR, or whatever is almost over so I figured I'd start at the end by creating a blog. Old-school style eh? Anyways I like ttrpgs like D&D and Pathfinder and what not. Currently I am GM-ing Dungeon World and Star Wars RPG (formerly of Fantasy Flight and now by Edge). It's good fun, but it's too late now so I'm gonna just write this bare intro and go to sleep.