So /tg/ I just had an idea for a fantasy setting.
Basically, elves and dwarfs were precursor races who were locked in endless war due to their differences. Both races were taking heavy casualties, so the elves decided enough was enough and magically created a warrior race. This new race was more physically imposing than the elves, they were sturdier, stronger and more aggresive. Their name was Humans.
With humanity as their front line, the elves pushed back the dwarfs to their deepest strongholds. And as the end seemed inevitable, the dwarfs came with an answer. From captured humans, through the means of alchemy, they created their own race of warriors. They distilled qualities such as brute strength and aggression and unleashed the orcs upon the world.
The battlefield equal again, the two new races thrived in the war they had been born to wage. It wasn't long before neither of the precursor races actively participated in the war. As time passed the dwarfs retreated deep in their mountains and the elves disappeared in their ancestral forests.
Now, millennia has passed and the precursor races are nothing more than a myth, a faint memory of times long past and gone. The known world is split in the Empire of Man and the Orc Khanate. The war continues, as it always has, as it always will.
Is it good/bad/terrible?
Would you run/play this setting, and if yes, how?
What system would you use?
>>43805257
It's alright.
>>43805257
It's fairly interesting. It wouldn't get me to play the game just because of the lore, but it's not turning me off the idea.
Would be cautiously optimistic. 8/10
OP here. Glad to see some you folks like it. I was wondering how a campaign in the setting would look like. I was thinking that perhaps the 'end goals' would be finding the precursor races and putting an end to the war, or something along those lines.
>>43805257
>So /tg/ I just had an idea for a fantasy setting.
>Basically, elves and dwarfs
>>43805365
Erm, well, I don't quite understand what you mean. Yes, the elves and dwarfs hating each other is nothing new but I thought the rest puts a nice spin on it.
You could have an in game secret to uncover be that the elves and dwarves were both created by two older races to fight as their proxies.
Maybe Lizard people vs something that looks like a Roswell Grey alien.
The implication being that there is no start to this old war. Or if there is it was so far back that nobody knows even the name of the people who started it or why.
Sort of like Assassins Creed with the Templars and Assassins but without the story disappearing up its own arse after AssCreed 2.75
Reminds me of an idea where Humans, Demons, and Angels were all the descendants of an ancient race who split off at some point in history. I like it.
>>43805403
Its still tolkien derivative garbage, with nothing new, just taking the stewpot of stock fantasy and giving it another stir.
>>43805408
>Not Lizard men of the bog versus the bird people of the clouds
>who were predated by angels and devils
>who were predated by gods
>who were predated by men and orcs, making the entire thing a massive cyclical conflict with no beginning or end, spanning all of eternity, unless the heroes put an end to it.
>>43805257
As a excuse to run completely generic fantasy campaign is as good as any, but really, it's just a completely cosmetic variation on Tolkien. Wishing no offence here: there is absolutely nothing creative or original about this. Sometimes I wonder if fiction like this even should be called "fantasy", because I really fail to see where the imagination had played a role in it's creation.
Also: there are only TWO political bodies in the entire known world? Really?
>>43805257
>Basically, elves and dwarfs were [...]
Dropped at the speed of sound. Fuck this.
>>43805569
Elaborating on this
>>43805521
>Also: there are only TWO political bodies in the entire known world? Really?
Monoculture is the cancer, and having only one political entity per faction as a result is a logical result of said cancer.
>>43805257
Suggesting you to take notes from famous universes like The Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Warhammer. Or time to study ancient mythology(not just Greek/Roman, they are overused) religions and cultures(not just Greek/Roman and Japanese/Chinese). Suggesting to study some languages too.
To make a good fantasy you need to study and/or you need a very good imagination.
>>43805582
>Monoculture is the cancer, and having only one political entity per faction as a result is a logical result of said cancer.
Actually, I would argue that monoculture does not necessarily have to be the "cancer", as long as your "culture" is constrained and/or mythological in nature. If you are trying to capture the "feeling" of say, mythological Huldufólk from Iceland or Aos Sí of Ireland, you probably don't want to bog them down with the complexities of modern understanding of anthropological development, because that would actually take away their charm and mystery. Having them as "monoculture" is fine.
The problem is when you want to present a major POLITICAL player and focal race of your world as monocultural. This is especially bad with humans, because it just directly contradicts our entire experience and understanding of the species: you are basically denying what your player/reader knows makes humans human.
Not to mention that it's just... plain boring and basically kills off like 95% of all possible plot-hooks and stuff to do, explore, learn, play with.
>>43805365
>>43805442
>>43805521
>>43805569
>>43805585
I do realize it is nothing new or innovative, that it lacks completion. That is why I posted here. How would you spin it to make it interesting?
Also, I understand that dwarfs and elves are getting really old, but does it really matter what the races are? I could take creatures from my eastern european mythology and make them into entirely new races, especially to the western world, but what difference does it make?
I just wanted the concept of asshole precursor races, who might or might not still be around, and existing races suffering the consequences, fighting a war that is not theirs and so on.
>>43805257
How'd they make the race? Don't just say "magic" because if you can whistle up a race of warriors, you would have done that earlier, and also probably whistled up a servant race, tastier cattle, etc. Making a species out of whole cloth is some big goddamn mojo, and should have some kind of cultural impact.
If you want weird uplift-y bioengineering elves, rad. But why are dwarves that way, too?
>>43805444
The trips has the right idea
>>43805695
You... honestly, really don't have the experience to do this, I'm afraid. You're just not well read enough.
>>43805674
Yes, that actually sums up my issues with it well. It's when people go THE DWARFS or THE ELVES or THE HUMANS that I get serious issues. I think it's one of the reasons I ended up loving WoD so much back in the day, because even on the city level you have a dozen different types of the same basic monster.
>>43805695
Not new or innovative isn't necessarily a bad thing. It IS if you're trying to be the next Andrzej Sapkowski, but if you're just running a game for friends it's perfectly fine.
As a setting idea, "asshole precursor races, who might or might not still be around, and existing races suffering the consequences, fighting a war that is not theirs" is pretty solid. But you need a good deal of backstory and explaining as to WHY and HOW all this went down. First you need to nail down your setting; this almost sounds sci-fi. Which isn't a bad thing, but if you can tailor-make species why are you still confined to a single rock? You gotta hammer out some details about the whole shebang. Is making races going to be a thing in your setting? Is the world littered with the castoffs and rejects of these precursors? Are you going to have weird biopunk weapons and shit? Why did elves make beefier versions of themselves and dwarves make tusked grey monsters?
You have a little grain of something, and if you like it, rad. But you have a long way to go; keep at it, keep asking questions, and keep writing things down. Try your best to make your setting internally consistent.
>>43805695
>Also, I understand that dwarfs and elves are getting really old, but does it really matter what the races are?
It's very simple: when you say "dwarves" and "elves", you are IMMEDIATELY calling up 70 years of accumulated clichés and assumptions that inevitably follow these terms. It's THE difference. Because even if you don't imagine them as the stereotypical Tolkien/Forgotten Realms bullshit, that is precisely and immediately what people will think off the very second you use those terms.
So just NOT CALLING them Elves and Dwarves alone would actually be a step in the right direction. There is a good reason why Elder Scrolls gradually shifted from "High Elves" and "Dark Elves" to Altmer and Dunmer, and it was part of the process to actually make those races more interesting as the writer team grew more confident in their world.
And while you are not calling them dwarves and elves, maybe you could start looking for some other ways to characterize them.
Also, you should probably start thinking a little more indepth in the process of creation of the secondary races, and the nature of the conflict in general. Why did the precursor races fight, and why did they suddenly stopped giving a fuck? Why do humans and orks actually fight? What IS the core of the conflict?
And the monoculture... the monoculture thing is a big deal too.
I don't know: If I were you, and wanted something else than a generic fantasy, I'd start all over again. I'd probably start with ONE ancestral race, and explained the conflict as internal, rather than having two arbitrary ones, and I'd devoted a lot more to explain WHY was there the original conflict in the first place, and how did the conflict translate into the two daughter races.
>>43805777
>It IS if you're trying to be the next Andrzej Sapkowski
Actually Sapkowski of all people is the one who gets away with being purely derivative.
>>43805749
THE DWARFS or THE ELVES works if THE DWARFS are just an offshoot of humans or goblins or whomever; a subculture or ethnicity rather than a millenia-old race of stumpy drunken metalsmiths. Monoculture isn't much of an issue if you're dealing with a geographically limited area. If you're playing in Not!Whales sometime after the battle of Not!Hastings with Elves instead of Normans, there's not a whole lot wrong with just having Norman Elves. But if you're making a world-spanning conflict, you're gonna need a little more variety.
