Races - Gnolls

The gnolls are a relatively primitive people who once resided in the hills to the southeast of the Grasslands, before increasing passive arach activity began to infringe on their lands. Unwilling to risk the wrath of the mercantile arach’s many powerful allies, the gnolls instead attempted to retrieve a small portion of veloci land by stealth.
The attempt failed, however, and the veloci swiftly wrought their vengeance by displacing the gnolls from their homeland, pushing them back until they were well within the antheran-tiloca Grasslands. Unable to seek aid from their molluscan allies, who had been cut off by the manfolk merchant fleet in an attempt to bolster the naga against them, the gnolls sought refuge with the Grasslands races.
Antheran-tiloca recognition of their plight was minimal, and unwilling to make the same mistake as they had with the veloci, the gnolls avoided the antherans and began to shift towards the tiloca, eventually beginning to prey on them as their own food rations wore out. The tiloca fled their homes and began to migrate southwards, complicating the border dispute between the hnoca and naga.
The antherans, however, acted on overexaggerated tiloca reports of fatalities and used them as an excuse to refuse asylum to gnoll refugees and actively take up arms against the gnoll people. Strongly reminiscent of hyenas, gnolls rely more on cunning and guile than brute strength to get by.

Races - Veloci

Since it was my birthday yesterday, I'm going to post two races today. As a birthday present.

The veloci are one of two races inhabiting the escarpment on the eastern side of the continent, and have fought diligently to ensure it stays that way. Veloci are fiercely isolationist, spurning their nearest neighbours such as the podida, gnolls and arachs. Hnoca support of their ideals on a continental level has lead the two races to forge a wary alliance, though the veloci are content to let the hnoca wage their own war against the manfolk-antherans.
The recent attempt of the gnolls to capture a slice of veloci territory lead the veloci to rally their people together in an all-out assault on the gnolls, ultimately uprooting them and driving them westwards into the Grasslands. The veloci, however, did not see the full extent of their actions, and ensuing gnoll attacks on the tiloca lead the tiloca’s allies, the nearby podida, to sack the veloci capital in retribution.
The veloci themselves have now been pushed back almost as far as traditional gnoll territory, and the conflict with the podida is continuing to escalate. The veloci are a strong reptilian race with sharp claws and fast legs, making them perfectly suited for more combative endeavours.

Races - Molluscans

The molluscans are the shelled island inhabitants who, together with the hnoca, oppose the autocratic mandate of the manfolk-antherans. Initially disturbed by manfolk activity in the channel separating them from the mainland, the molluscans allied themselves with the hnoca and naga in a bid to push the aggressive merchant fleet back.
Much of the south-western coast is relatively untouched by manfolk influence as a result, and the molluscan were able to set up profitable ferries to and from the hnoca and pre-displacement gnolls to forge alliances and enable trade between the peoples. A misplaced sympathy for their manfolk-antheran enemies later lead the naga to leave their alliance, and the ensuing construction of a manfolk town near the molluscan channel cut off their contact with their gnoll kin.
As a result, molluscans were unable to lend their support during the gnolls’ displacement and have since been unable to harbour refugees due to the presence of manfolk in the channel. The hnoca-veloci agreement has also placed stress on the molluscans’ relationship with the gnolls. Although they are slow-moving, molluscans are well-muscled and their shells offer them unparalleled protection in combat.

Races - Antherans

The antherans are the lion-hearted guardians of the Grasslands, strong, bold, and unwavering in their pursuit of justice. They are loyal allies to the manfolk and tiloca, having forged a long-standing peace treaty with the latter to share much of their territory which now threatens to be overrun by the gnolls.

Since the gnoll displacement, the antherans have moved further westwards and have refused asylum for any gnoll refugees since they began preying on the tiloca. Sharing much history with their neighbours, the manfolk, the antherans’ muscle has gone a long way to protecting manfolk-antheran interest in the increasing conflict with the hnoca and molluscans.

Antherans have also played an important role in defending key naga positions from their hostile neighbours since they defected from the hnoca-molluscan alliance. Large and muscular, the antherans have a tendency towards warrior professions, fighting for their nation, their allies, and standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. Many antherans also work as mercenaries and bounty hunters.

Races - Manfolk

Wow, I'm not late on this one. So, here's the first of the racial descriptions. The Manfolk.

The manfolk are one of the most influential races despite having no real territory to call their own. Inventive and resourceful, the manfolk’s vast merchant fleet transport them and their wares to several seaside towns, including the important trading ports of the podida, naga and arachs.

The manfolk’s claim to the ocean is the basis of the long-standing rift between them and the hnoca and molluscans, and was initially also challenged by the naga. Their capital, Wattle City, sits protected high in the Northern Mountains on the spring of an ancient waterfall, on the edge of what is traditionally antheran territory.

The antherans share strong historical and cultural bonds with the manfolk and are their most trusted allies, helping them to construct the highway that once ran from Wattle all the way to the arach nation. Manfolk evolved from primates, and share their ancestors’ broad build and dexterous tails, allowing them to be proficient in most skills.

My RPG. Part 4

I started university this week, which is my excuse for the lateness this post. I'm going to try and get at least one post a week from now on.

So, this week I got a new member of the RPG project. Mitchell Crouch. He's been working away at making new races and a world.

Now, the game is a fantasy game, with swords and bows and magic. But I didn't want typical fantasy races. So, no elves, no dwarfs, no orcs. So, I told Mitchell how many races I wanted (less than 20) and let him go to work.

Here are the results.

Rounded

• Manfolk (monkey)

Combat

• Antherans (lion)

• Molluscans (snail)

• Veloci (raptor)

Stealth

• Gnolls (hyena)

• Arachs (insect)

• Podida (kangaroo)

Magic

• Hnoca (sea anemone)

• Tiloca(antelope)

• Naga (serpent)

The animal in brackets is what kind of race it is. The Podida are a race of Kangaroo people, the Naga are snake people. The manfolk are basically humans, but I think they have tails.

The divisions (Rounded, Combat, Stealth, Magic) are there as a general descriptions of where they should be better at. So the Manfolk should be good at everything and the Naga should make good spellcasters. That's not to say that they would make bad tanks, it's just that they won't be as tanky as a Molluscan, for example.

I'll try and convince Mitchell to write out some kind of description for each race, and I'll post them up as I get them. I'm also a bit behind on the code and such things, so I'll be mostly posting world building stuff for a while, until I get some proper mechanics going.

-Shadowfred

My RPG. Part 3

Hooo boy, it's been a while.

I currently have 8 stats that I plan to use in the game. Unfortunately I still haven't decided what some of them is going to govern. A couple of them are easy to place, but others are more difficult. So here's a list with some descriptions of what they do, or what they might do, or both.

- Strength. This was one of the easy ones, it will affect how much damage is dealt in melee, with a physical attack. I'm not sure how the inventory is going to work now, but if it involves the weight of items, then the amount you can carry will be affected too. I was initially thinking that strength would also affect the damage of ranged weapons like bows, but I soon decided against it.

- Endurance. This will affect the maximum amount of health the player has. I'm undecided as to how exactly it will affect it. I think I'll use endurance multiplied by a number as an interim maximum health, but I will look over this again later.

- Agility. This one was a bit tougher as I have three ideas for what it could be used for. As an addition to physical defence, as an increase for ranged physical damage, or as accuracy for physical weapons. I could just make it apply to all these things, but that would make increasing strength worthless. If I increase damage for ranged attacks with agility I'm making less incentive to get into close combat, so that is out for now. I'm not sure about making a stat affect accuracy either, even if it isn't agility. I can see it being a good idea and a bad idea, so I'll leave that out for now too. Which leaves physical defence, for now.

- Speed. This one is another easy one. It affects attack speed. I also had the idea that increasing speed would marginally decrease spell cooldowns. Pretty cool idea, huh?

- Soul. I decided that this will affect magical damage, no matter the range.

- Will. This stat will affect the maximum mana that a player has. Should be pretty much the same as endurance. Except with magic.

- Intelligence. My original idea for this stat was for ranged magical damage, but when I decided that agility wouldn't affect ranged physical damage, I scrapped it. But I still had the stat lying around. I'm leaving out accuracy in all forms for now, so magical accuracy is out as well. This leaves magical defence, which I guess will have to do for now.

- Psyche. This currently will affect the regeneration of health and mana. Not much else to tell.

So that's all the stats I have currently. The first 4 I'm pretty happy with, as far as names go, but I'm not completely sold on the last 4, so I might end up swapping them around, or even replacing the names of some of them. Feel free to leave some suggestions for magical stat names in the comments.

Next post should hopefully be about races, since I mentioned it last time, but then again, I might talk about levelling, or multiplayer. One of those, I hope.

-Shadowfred