setting element Archives - Page 5 of 7

January 15, 2008

The Elminster Temptation

When I wrote the post on Arcane Texts of the Second Age, I was very tempted to create an NPC in the setting – a wizard who used psychology texts upon human animae in the way that other wizards use tech manuals on techgods. Then I stopped myself. Yeah. Its a cool idea – but it could be a PC...

January 11, 2008

Heroes of the Second Age

So… who are the PCs in a Second Age campaign? PCs are individuals who have learned (consciously or unconsciously) to empower their anima and/or affect the spirit world. These fall, roughly, into three categories: 1. Those who have learned techniques (through study, natural talent, or happenstance) to manipulate the spirit world. Wizards fall into this category. 2. Those who have...

January 9, 2008

Necromancy in the Second Age

Upon death, the spirit of a living thing shatters. Shreds of it stay with the physical remains, becoming the spirit of the corpse (or the spirits of the pieces of it). What happens to the rest varies. In some cases, however, it is known to remain more-or-less intact as a free-floating spirit, or ghost. Other times, the shattering of the...

January 4, 2008

Arcane Texts of the Second Age

Spirits are governed by the laws that created their hosts. For the spirits of living things and the spirits of nature, these are simply the laws of the natural world itself. The true gods are the spirits of concepts, themselves, and would not exist but for the ideas in the minds of mankind – which is why they feed off...

December 28, 2007

Taxonomy of Spirits, Addendum

All spirits benefit from attention – whether that is emotion directed at them or, even better, conscious worship. Such things not only empower the spirits who receive them, but gradually shape them. This is reflected in animae as well. For example, a creature (or a person!) who is feared will gradually become more dangerous while a child-prince who is beloved...

December 28, 2007

The Taxonomy of Spirits in the Second Age

It looks like the Thundarr/Exalted mash-up is likely to happen. I’m personally trying to flesh out the setting in my head. I came out with a bit of cosmology the other day – it will probably have little bearing on the game, but I think it is neat. The Taxonomy of Spirits in the Second Age Inanimae are the spirits...

December 23, 2007

Thundarr meets Exalted

I might as well flesh this out a bit, even if I never use it: The First Age was a time of technological wonder. Over a thousand years ago, the spirits arose and magic came into the world. The First Age ended not in a Cataclysm, but in a century-long period of death and rebirth as the technological world struggled...

December 18, 2007

Magic Items with Purpose

I always liked the idea of intelligent magic items in D&D with special purposes. I appreciate that 3rd ed expanded the options to include things other than weapons. I was thinking, though… what if all permanent magic items had purposes? Maybe without a purpose, a magic item couldn’t sustain its magic. This wouldn’t require the magic item to be intelligent...

December 6, 2007

Why aren’t humans weird?

About a month ago, Jeff wrote this nifty post describing religion in a home-brew campaign world he’s creating. In it, he describes how religion is a distinctly human activity and other races find it kind of creepy. Personally, I think the idea would work without his cosmology… even letting other races believe in the existence of gods without worship or...

November 5, 2007

Ticking goblins

What differentiates goblins from other creepy little monsters? I think there are a number of possible answers for this. I’m just going to focus on what makes goblins tick for me. To me, what makes goblins special is their adaptability. I see goblins as highly mutable. Hobgoblins and bugbears are, in my world, essentially mutant strains of goblins. The adaptability...

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