Small games for small people

 

In a funk. Peeling all the onion layers back and discarding things that complicate my life. Taking a step back from OSR and d&d in general.

Lately I've been sort of working on two video games. Both of them take heavy cues from the original Legend of Zelda.

The first one is a first person dungeon crawler made in RPG maker. You make a party of 4 characters (two classes: fighter and mage). Open world. Explore around, talk to people, trade treasure for EXP. There's no "point" to the game, no storyline. Considering adding some basic win condition like "find princess Ophelia and ask her to come back home".

The second game is a first person walking simulator made in Unity where you sometimes fight creatures. Again, no point, no story. It's more like King's Field for the PS1 but more open ended and less fighting.

Basically I'm tired of things needing to be polished, needing to eat up your time, demanding money and attention. I feel like the OSR does a lot of that stuff. I'm more interested in searching out meaningless liminal freeware crap.

I want a game that feels like being a tiny beetle with a sword checking out stuff in a garden world, like an old log surrounded with wildflowers but zoomed in microscopically. Maybe you fight a centipede or a sparrow, but the game is really just "cool a flower" "here's a piece of paper with a poem" "sweet, a blueberry +1 hp"

When I was a kid I liked to lift up rocks and gaze with wonder at the sub-world I found there. A toad, a termite and an ant nest that share a few tunnels, rolly-polies, a few sprays of purslanes.

There's magic in smallness, modesty, and quiet wonder. No need to save dragons, fight kingdoms, or rescue wizards. When you get a magic sword +1 that's the best sword in the game. Max level is 5. Your hero is adventuring not because they're a social outcast but because they're curious.

As for tabletop RPGs I'm not playing anything at the moment, but I re-read the rules for Knave and I'm enthralled all over with the idea of a game that takes 1 minute to set up a character, is so pared down that next to zero explanation is required, and still has mechanics for getting better at stuff, and has no classes. Get the boring stuff out of the way so we can crawl around in holes and sometimes get a +1 thing.

Oh yeah, I'm fine with non-descript +1 swords and gaining a level means nothing more than a few more HP and +1 stat increase. 

Instead of d100 spells what if you had like d20 spells and in order to cast them you had to collect WHISPERS. What is a whisper? It's just a bit of lore or an interesting experience. You spend a whisper to cast a spell.

You learn a new spell/knack by being taught it by someone magical (a wizard, gnome, fox, midwife)

1. Heal d6+2 HP, or heal illness.

2. Cause.d6+2 damage.

3. Create an illusion.

4. Make somebody fall asleep.

5. Hide in shadows.

6. Foil a lock.

7. Find your way.

8. Make somebody else get lost.

9. Produce a day's worth of food.

10. Talk to an animal.

11. Mend something broken.

12. Calm fear or anger.

13. Change the weather.

14. Assume a terrifying aspect.

15. Be invulnerable for a few minutes.

16. Float.

17. Breathe underwater.

18. Create a wall of stone.

19. Generate a bright light.

20. Make an enemy into a friend.

NPC generator

I made this NPC generator that produces crazed lunatics to drop into your game. They've got flaws, drives, and personalities. Works for rival adventuring parties, quest givers, local flavor, or any other type of fantasy bum whose sole purpose is to complicate your PC's lives. Stick 'em in some encounter tables and let your players do the rest.

Dungeon as a living entity

Santiago Caruso

The Dungeon isn't a really place built by people, though parts may be added on by mortal hands, or something made by mortals may become a Dungeon. It is something that grows from the world itself. The Dungeon is the inevitable decay of Law towards an entropic state, it emerges when things begin to break down. The Dungeon has its own mind, its own plans, its own desires & processes. It moves and changes by subtly bending smaller-scale living things to its will. The Dungeon is patient and plotting.

This is why traps reset themselves, why the architecture makes no logical sense, why doors open for monsters but are stuck for players, why everything is trying to kill you. The Dungeon is itself a living ur-trap, with bait to lure and teeth to gnash.

The Dungeon's desires: to Lure, to Harvest, to Grow

 How dungeons grow
Dungeons start out as a sharp rock in a wasteland, or a forest about to catch on fire, or a sinkhole. It catches some prey, feels and tastes its blood and screams, and wants more. It harvests their suffering and uses the magical energy to establish itself. It changes the landscape bit by bit via evolution, adding a vine here or a cave there. The more and smarter things it kills and eats the more it grows. Eventually it finds a way to attract manflesh, then the game is really one. The older and deeper a dungeon the craftier it gets.

Each body caught in a pit, strangled, slashed, burned, beaten, within its walls issues a life force which is consumed by the Dungeon.

Kris Kuksi

Corridors emerges and stretch and shift, taking the shape of something of a sympathetic nature to the surrounding area. Damp cold stone crawling with roots and insects. Hand-cut marble and brass trim. Tile mosaics depicting dolphins and men having sex. Highly detailed carved soapstone tentacles wreathing and tangling together. The Dungeon is a touch artistic and inventive in its architectures, it wants to inspire curiosity.

For this reason too Dungeons bury themselves in the ground, hiding spooky entrances, with rusted gates and skulls. Foreboding but speaking to an inner lust of curiosity and tale it knows all sapient races have.

dungeon as the in-between
Not all dungeons grow from a dangerous piece of the landscape. The most dangerous and horrible ones grow out of loneliness. A tomb constructed to house a king, stuffed with his magic spoon and mythrile sword and precious wives, and left to rot. The stinking vapor of his failed career and laments of the trinkets desiring a new master coalesce and take shape.

A family lives in an old house for generations. They store their most treasured belongings in the attic. Grandpa's gun, great-grandma's love letters, a locket containing the umbilical cord of a stillborn child, a box of weird shit belonging to some forgotten uncle collected during the war and never spoke about but he hid it and secretly looked through it and reminisced, forgotten under a floorboard.

The family died out, the house passed through various hands, most of the stuff cleared out, but some of it was left. The attic wasn't used as much and the stuff sat there and grew lonely, it missed being reminisced over. Eventually that part of town gets blighted, falls into ruin, the house is left standing, delapidated.

All horror movies are about dungeons. You were attracted by something, now you can't escape, and there's a thing that wants to give you a fate worse than death for its own confusing and malignant satisfactions.

Places that were known, used, then forgotten can grow into dungeons. The creepy stairs leading to your cellar is an embryo. The pile of stones that look like a house in the woods is mimicking something. Dungeons grow where things are lost or forgotten, unlooked at by human eyes. They collect in the dust and rot and grow like bacterial colonies where the fresh air doesn't reach to clear it out.

If you don't do spring cleaning, open up and air out your house the rot might set in. You'll start having bad luck, have to move out, then the house will be vacant and the poison can grow.

Dungeons don't exist in physical reality. Dungeons can be measured from the outside but not the inside. A torn apart ancient monastery with a creepy staircase that made up its own lies about a sacrificial cult, twisting the echos of the good natured old monks into something it can use. Behind the door is a different reality created by the dungeon.

treasure as lure
dungeons get their treasures by luring in idiots, eating them, and keeping their stuff to use to lure more idiots. sometimes it does this by spreading rumors on the wind like pollen to attract adventurers. sometimes it does this by being on a layline or having some resource to attracts wizards and dwarfs to embiggen it and manufacture fancy trinkets, before constructing their doom.

that's why we laugh at wizards and dwarfs. there's inherent folly built into their cravings. They build and search and hunt and experiment while what they make is actually the fertile soil for a dungeon to grow. Wizards and Dwarfs are the worms that turn mountains and caves and metal and gold into dungeons.

Wolfgang Grasse

monsters as symbiotic parasites
Monsters are like gut flora, or part of a root microbiome for dungeons. The Dungeon gives them a place to live away from the light and infest and be horrible, and in return they help it kill things and keep them from leaving.

Goblins move in. Kobolds infest. Hobgoblins form a stronghold. Ogres seek shelter. Oozes seep out. Every dungeon needs an ecosystem of lesser creatures to aid in digestions.

looting dungeons
It doesn't want to be looted, its loot is its stored nutrience, but to give the impression that it is lootable. It can't just snap its jaws on every person that walks in or people would stop going in. If you take magic stuff out of it some of the mystery that keeps it going is lost.

The Dungeon doesn't want you to leave, but as you do, loaded with sacks of cold, it smiles coldly to itself, for others will be coming soon.



A universe dies when it becomes one enormous dungeon, sprawling for infinite, before collapsing on itself back into singularity.

squandered world

Smile of Hiroshima, Santiago Caruso

Throne of Chaos, Santiago Caruso

crumbling ashes of a mummified planet, forgotten about itself. drifting mounds of hills which curl and crash as waves on rocky strewn shoulders of dead titans, maws open teeth stench gurgling up from dank pits of their stomachs, from which infernal parasites creep. smoldering campfires left behind mimicking in tiny form the blackened ruins of villages, and if the weary gaze too long tiny memories of faded souls whimper from within.

nothing grows but black brambles and stunted weeds. place to place each drifts lazily into the sky, rubbish of tables and stone and broken bodies floating freely in paths sucked into the near white orb. no true humanity beneath the searching eyes of stars, only withered half-mutant camps clustered in dung hiding in shadows, half shelters, just roofs really, slapped together of tarps and rotten wood and scraps of rust-pocked metal, lonely among the constant dust storms,  there is no day, no night, only the faint drab light which trickles through inky dark.

strange technology and relics are sometimes dug up in the ashes, offering some faint senile help or hateful curse to those hopeless enough to tinker with it. hoarders with rotten teeth offer scraps of silk, dried meat, and embers nurtured to life in clay pots in return for cold obsidian necklaces etched with queer runes and knives which turn blood to fertile soil.

the last clutches of humanity fear to leave their tiny sanctuaries of tenuous life, for just beyond sight of home creep whispered rumors of child faces in the sand, worm puking skin blisters, hands in the night which stroke and soothe, insectile skittering, cannibal tendencies spreading like disease..

but some do, a few who can't stay and watch the pitiful last remains of human ilk fester. they wander, suicidally throwing themselves against the forces which dance. hunters who hope without to recapture some idea of what has happened, or to lash out in frustration against the wall of infinite unknowing.

ATTRIBUTES:
3d6 each, record score and mod
3:         -2
4-6:      -1
7-14:     0
15-17: +1
18:      +2

STR- violence, overpowering, hatred
CON- enduring, body, health
DEX- cleverness, agility, flexibility
WIS- awareness, connection, hope, pity

HP: hit dice add CON modifier, first level only.

FILTH: measure of incorporeal cosmic sin & degradation. constantly in flux. gained for a variety of things which stain the mind/body/soul. removed by purification. high amounts of filth cause mutations and strange effects. diabolists use filth as currency for their spells, others gain it as a result of dabbling in esoterica.
filth is mostly bad, but some good things can result from it. filth modifiers work according to this chart:
0-2: +/-0
3-5: +/-1
6-8: +/-2
9-11: +/-3
12-14: +/-4
15-17: +/-5
18: +/-6

when characters are told to gain filth roll 2d6: 6- +3 filth, 7-9 +2 filth, 10-11 +1 filth, 12 no filth
filth starts at zero unless otherwise stated.

ARMOR CLASS: 9+DEX modifier+armor bonus

LEVEL UP:
buy a level by spending 12*lvl XP. (2nd costs 24XP, 3rd costs 36XP, 4th costs 48XP etc). Levels may not be skipped and only one level may be gained per session.

XP is gained by repaying favors, learning secrets, or extracting true names of things, which often come in the shape of strange trinkets buried deep in the catacombs which fill the soil, though sometimes they may be locked within the heads of people, or encoded in lost tales. The players search for these scraps of meaning which increases their connection to the dying world and feeds a growing hunger for more secrets.

Every hidden object, learned secret, repaid favor, or discovered true name has a die value (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20) which is rolled with the thing is shared.

when leveling up:
-roll hit die and add value. CON mod is only added at the first level.
-roll d20 for each attribute, if it goes over score get +1 to that score.
-Choose: reduce filth to max of next lowest value, raise filth to lowest of next highest value.

CLASSES

Labyrinth Maker, Santiago Caruso

NOBLE- possibly the far flung descendants of elves, whose blood has mixed nearly out of existence, but in whom some faint glimmer of magick remains. Their bodies are bony and grey, spiderwebbed by pale blue veins, hair like spidersilk, teeth flat, eyes black. Their faces carry a shred of pride locked within a mask of emptiness.
They are waiters, whisperers, and watchers. The moon and sun have abandoned the earth but they name the dimly winking stars as the growing list of dead. Nobles have no shared culture or language, but stride from this land to that in search of a shadow which follows them. Nobles hide secret names and emblems to identify themselves. They know what comes next.

Gain: four minor knowledges of far away places, a crest symbolizing your purity.
If this symbol is lost corruption begins to spread through the blood and. Gain filth each day. Do not reduce. The day 18 filth is reached transform into horror absolute. The Noble is lost.


damage dice: d6
hit dice: d6

roll 3 dice on starting equipment. Select that item or an item to either side for each roll.

abilities:
-PURITY: So long as they have their crest any time a noble rolls gains filth, reduce filth by 1. when a noble sleeps subtract 1 filth from total.

-PSIONICS: all nobles develop some kind of psionic ability, for which they are feared and given consideration. all psionic abilities can be used once per day, per level, minus FILTH modifier (so a level 4 noble with 11 filth can only use their ability once, instead of 4 times)

roll 2d8

2. time well- (instant) psychically generates up to a man-sized depression in time-space anywhere within sight, increasing or decreasing the relative speed of things within it. Spend more casts to affect more/bigger things. The time well can be made to stick to a target or stay in one spot. Lasts d4*10+wis minutes
-hasted targets gains an extra attack, +1 ac, and +1 to dex rolls, and x2 movement speed.
-slowed targets can only move OR attack each turn, but not both, have -1 ac, -1 on dex rolls, and move at half their normal rates.

Can also be used to slow or speed up falling or moving things/peoples. A falling person can be made to float safely to the ground, a flying arrow's speed can be supercharged by passing through the time well, increasing its damage die size by one.

3-4. psychokinesis- (instant, range: 25') user can manipulate up to 10ibs*level of material with their mind, slowly pushing/pulling it, carrying it around, or hurling it with force. A platter carrying objects could be made to follow user. A hurled sling or arrow could be caught in midair and launched back. A knife could be flung from a table across the room. Fine-tuned movements require considerable concentration and time. It's much easier to drag something heavy or fling something light than say fit a key into a lock. If concentration is disrupted the power ends.

5. restore- (round) by meditating deeply the user can send tendrils of their life energy into the target via touch and sew wounds closed. Incredibly chilling and sickening feeling on part of recipient. remove 1 wound, lower a mangle 1 in severity. Poison or disease can be encapsulated in a polyp which is passed through the recipient's digestive tract.

Each 10 minutes of contact heals 1 point of damage up to user's level.
Removing poison or disease depends on extent of malignancy, from 30 minutes for a weak poison to several days for a life-threatening cancer.

6-7. quickstep- (instant) the geometries of space bend, all attacks have 50% chance to miss, 1 use point per turn this ability is maintained. user can also spend a point to instantly step up to half their movement speed in any direction (can go over any gaps between, even up onto ledges, but not through solid walls).

8-9. command- (action) in a booming voice with a character and pride unfamiliar to this world the user makes a single command of one capable of language. The hearer makes a saving throw (the type is dependent on their disposition to the user) or is forced to complete the action to the best of their ability, even against their own will.

10-11. psychic invasion- (round, range 30') user inserts a section of their consciousness into a target's mind, from this position they can shut down their target's senses and attempt to take over their body. target. (the target gets a saving throw to resist). during this time neither user nor target may take no other actions. roll d6 to determine effect. add +1 to roll for each consecutive turn spent inside target's mind.

if target dies some way other than by the effect of the user's psychic invasion user must make saving throw vs death or have their own mind split in two, rendering them in a coma until their mind is restored.

1-3. bind. both target and user may take no other actions as their minds wrestle for control.
4-5. shut down sense. target loses one random sense for d6 turns.
6-8. psychic torture. inflict d6 psychic damage to WIS
9. coma. target drops unconscious for d6 turns.

12. erase memory; (instant) the noble's eyes pierce the target's veil, scorching away all memories from the current day. Target falls unconscious for ten minutes as their mind attempts to restart.

13. sever motor function, (instant) target's motor function is severely inhibited and must make a saving throw at -2 to perform any action including walking and talking. A failed throw means the target collapses in a heap of flailing limbs and gibberish.

14. seed of the wretch, after a lengthy spiraling convoluted conversation which hints at secrets shared between user and target, a noble may leave a fragment inside target's mind. target gains 1 filth each day until death occurs or seed is removed.

15. take control, user gains control of target's mind for d6+target HD hours and can control their body, mind, and memories the way they control their own. the user's consciousness is effectively duplicated in the target's body. each hour the target is allowed to make another attempt to regain control of their body. after the allotted time, if the target has not regained control, their mind is erased and permanently replaced with a copy of user's.
this clone of the user is able to form their own memories from this point on, and their personality, filth score, and experiences may diverge as necessary. during the first year of life the player may control the copy exactly as they control their original character.
after the first year the copy rolls a loyalty score like a normal henchman.
after that the copy makes loyalty checks like a normal henchman, and may eventually desert or betray the original.
both minds do not share thoughts, but are capable of detecting the presence and direction of their 'other' if they are within ten miles of each other.

16. sever life, target saves vs. death or dies.

HERMIT-

wandering wasteland ascetics whose perpetual self-harm brings them closer to the muttering madness of a lost god. Hermits seek enlightenment through union with a personal crawling void. In wonderings they seek the dissolution of frailty, in obsequence the restoration of life. They dwell quietly in the virtue of pity and make piteous all things around them, so to bring forth joy. The total abandon of hope may yet awaken a strength beyond loss.

maintaining a deep connection with the gibbering of their god(s) is of utmost importance to a hermit. they are compelled to enact all demands whether real or false which they glean from the understanding of this gibbering. for this reason many consider hermits to be both sources of all knowledge and truth, and deluded, dangerous heretics.

damage dice: d4
hit dice: d6

roll 2 dice on starting equipment

abilities:
-FLAGELLANT: once/day, hermits may spend a number of health through lashing, burning, cutting, strangling, or other self-destructive methods, to remove that many filth from anybody (including themselves). hermits may spend 5hp to remove curses, afflictions (poison, blindness..), 1 point of attribute loss, or other effects as curse diseases.

-REPENTANT: through an act of deep prayer and meditation a hermit may beseech their god(s) to bestow healing life-force upon any wounded. spend 1-for-1 filth to increase anybody's hp. spend 4 filth to reduce a mangling by 1 severity level, or to erase 1 wound.

-COMMUNION: once/day a hermit can enter a state of deep meditation for d6 hours, in which they become completely numb to all outside stimuli and have a natural ac of 13. during this time the hermit may listen to the gibbering voice of their god(s) for any helpful information. ask what you want to know.
(GMs should ask questions as the god to understand the meaning and context of the query but give only one answer of vague images, shapes, and sensual impressions)

-PIETY: whilst a hermit maintains a STARVING condition they gain a number of tokens equal to the days they have been STARVING. these tokens can be spent to heal d6hp on any target (including themselves). casting this healing takes only minutes. upon eating any nourishment a hermit loses all unspent tokens. Tokens may also be spent to prevent incoming damage on self or ally within sight.

EMBITTERED
Guilt-ridden brooding cyclopses and maneaters torn between a thirst for flesh and a need for solitude and peace. The Embittered seek low dark lonely places to gaze deeply at the question of suffering, but their dwellings are often foiled by the intrusions of others. The Embittered use their bulk to lash out violently against perceived threats. They feel no pain of the flesh. They explore the tunnels in the earth searching for reprise and thus know some of its shallower secrets.

In their search for respite and freedom the Embittered sometimes happen upon a band of wanderers and follow them for weeks, observing them from afar to learn the ways of other folk. In time the Embittered may join the group as a bodyguard or watcher. They never seem to sleep, only gaze.


damage die: d8
hit dice: d12

roll 1 die on Starting Equipment.

abilities:
-STRANGLING GRIP: If wounded either physically or emotionally by a smaller creature the Embittered may enter a rage once per day. During this rage the Embittered may scoop up their victim and begin strangling the life from it. The victim must pass a CON save each round or have their windpipe crushed. During this rage the victim is at the helpless mercy of the Embittered. the Embittered may not move or react to any other stimuli, only crush, but has +2 armor. The rage may end prematurely if the Embittered suffers damage equal to half its max HP. After such an episode the Embittered falls into a dark depression in which they may not speak. This depression may be ended with a Deep Gaze.

-WILD BLOWS: In combat, upon successfully killing a smaller foe in a single hit the Embittered must immediately make an additional attack upon another target at d12 damage. If that target is killed the Embittered must make another attack until a target is not instantly killed. If another target, either friend or foe, cannot be found the Embittered falls into a dark depression in which they may not speak. This depression may be ended with a Deep Gaze.


-DEEP GAZE: the Embittered may deeply gaze for an hour at anything thing, or upon any subject, inner or outer. At the end of this gaze the Embittered receives a single word which contains the meaning, purpose, nature, value, or property of the thing gazed upon. After this the Embittered is considered to know the subject and in the future the subject may whisper further sympathies.

If the subject of the Deep Gaze is a small harmless animal that animal may become a companion to the Embittered. This companion is psychically linked to the Embittered and they share each other's pain. The companion may act on the Embittered's behalf, transmit thoughts to them, and nurture each other. If the companion is killed the Embittered loses one HD max HP and falls into a dark depression in which they may not speak. This depression may be ended with a Deep Gaze but the HP is lost forever.

-SILENT EMPATHY: If the Embittered sits and calmly strokes a dying creature as they pass from this realm they gain one empathy token. This empathy token may later be spent to lower a Mangling by one severity level, to prematurely halt a Wild Blows, or to calm an enraged person or creature. The Embittered may only have one empathy token at a time.

HARMONY

STARTING EQUIPMENT
The world is blasted and pock-marked by endless falling meteors. The vast oceans are lank and black and lifeless. All industry and creation has been abandoned. Nothing new is being made, except scrap halfheartedly mashed together to meet an immediate need. There is no concept such as money or bartering. Everyone has a thing they crave or yearn for and valuable objects are traded for favors and secrets.

accessory:
1. softly glowing shard, necklace
2. vial, weak acid
3. condensed, metal
4. vegetable/dessicated
5. frayed shirt
6. skullcap of dried fungus
7. tasteless sprout grit
8. two flint arrows
9. obsidian knife
10. tallow candle
11. small pouch, 3 pewter coins, different currencies
12. a chipped cup
13. a clay doll
14. tumor growth
15. one ruined eye
16. rotting teeth

WORLDEATER: races

i wrote this on my phone when i was working in a warehouse, because while loading trucks my brain had nothing to do while by body was active, so i occupied the chittering monkey with daydreaming about games that don't exist, but might one day. this is all straight off my phone with no real editing.

Dwarves (Thororim)
kinda like paladins they get special earth/holy powers when they act in line with their clans morals. if they betray the clan they can be cast out or forced to pay penance.
near dwarven settlements can call cha*100 dwarves together to accomplish a goal if theyre in good standing w clan

oldest race consider themselves watchers of the earth live in mountains high above tree line in deep fortresses. skin greyblue with hard rocky outcroppings/crystal shards/nodules slate or white hair eyes icy stoney look. neither gender ever cut their hair, men grow long beards. thick heavy sturdy strong. enormous arms 5ft 300ibs no necks round bodies flat noses. dour cheerless but not mean, dont speak much, stoic practice a religion of deep personal connection to allfather, follow strict code of conduct diet, emotion, very conservative, spartan, almost ascetic, overly ostentatious displays of wealth are frowned upon as is crime and drug use. very strict society. every member maintains their own weapons and armor made of orichalcum a special metal that only dwarves known how to mine alloy smith if done improperly it is weak and shatters. using equipment made/maintained by another is weakness which is embarassing. ruled by king. members can recite hours of tales and songs of their forefathers this isnt that fun and is mostly deep dirges full of names.
traditional dwarves are extremely against lying cheating underhandedness they are straightforward and steadfast a little pushy, tend to view others with a paternal severity. halfling saying; "to make a dwarf laugh". very solitary but open up in thr company of other dwarves, will gleefully talk about who their related to and always seem to have somrone in common no matter how far spart theyre from.
dwarves born outside of dwarven society are considered "not really dwarves" because their familial relations are such an integral part of their society. if you have no family youre nothing.
such dwarves will often develop surrogate familys with other races, or else live in complete solitude.
dwarves never die from old age, but when theyve had enough of life they march into the lava pits, or build a pyre to throw themselves on, or throw their lives away in combat, all other deaths are dishonorable.
dwarves are amazing smiths, and while they keep orichalcum for themselves (it degrades rapidly without maintainance) they smith other metals for sale.
their allfather is Numranthúl
traveling dwarves bring microforges with them which can burn twigs hot enough to maintain equipment, during downtime a dwarf can repair damaged equipment, if he has access to metal of the same type, at a rate of 1 point per 3 hours.
dwarf food is famously strong & filling. meat cheese bread thick black beer pickles (pretty much everything is pickled)
dwarvish meals can last for hours with lots of food tales songs not being able to keep up is considered either hilariously wimpy or rude depending on temperment.
dwarves routinely explore the world but rarely toleratr outsiders without credentials or an invitation. even kings, they respect no authority outside their own. a dwarf will sooner face execution than bow to someone who doesnt deserve it. they live forever, who are these children?

abilities
dungeon sense
rockspeak

Elves (star-touched)
strange planeswalkers stranded on planet thousands of years ago. live in enclaves in harsh landscapes,
elves are ethereal dreamy space elemental. they dont sleep but trance out absorbing rays from star sky, can be sustained on darkness alone indefinately, but they cant `dreamwalk` without the sky
have darkvision 60ft. when activated their eyes use light collected from other sources to fill the pupil, it gives off a slight reflective green light.
can see in larger color spectrum than humans
first gendermolt around 20. 50 is prime age. 87-125 is middle age. most live to 200 easily. some get to 300, 400 is rare. Bal`skarr the Starcrosser (the warchief during the Scourge) made it to over 800. ancient legends speak of elves over 4000 years old, say they dont live that long because they miss the light from their homeworld.

olive to black skin, hair white black sky blue dark blue or purple, eyes red (common) blue (uncommon) or golden (rare/treated with suspicion), practice complex ritualized tattooing w ink made from different insect shells that shows up against their skin, continue to slowly tattoo themselves throughout life using bone or wood needles. skin carries secrets. old elves tattooed head to foot in arabesque designs geometric patterns also practice piercing, neck stretching, tongue splitting, scarrification implanting symbiotic moss fungus parasites that give them powers. eat fish snakes spiders frogs eggs birds rodents and gross slimey arthropods that grow in colonies in swamp mud, thus disparaging name mudrakers. practice ancestor worship "all return to the swamp" display ancestors bones in shrines managed by mediums whove had their eyes removed. their magic revolves around necromancy divination tapping into spirits and pulling in/manipulating things from spirit realm & planewalking.
natural psionics: all elves develop at least some psychic ability.
have a related mysterious ethnic minority of nomads that live in noxious miasma filled radioactive shithole treated with scorn by brethren. they wear masks and special suits that allow them to survive and have special boats they live in, follow sludge porpoise migrations.
live 200-250 years change genders a few times over their lives usually 1-4x, pretty androgynous but when female thet grow breasts, have both sets of genitals but they change shape (retract/open) depending on uncontrollable hormonal fluctuations. society has no gender roles. lay eggs in mud which sprout into pods on stalks. nursery cared for by wet nurses who eat nothing but the sap that comes from stalks which cause them to produce milk. sometimes mothers become nurses while their stalks grow but not that common. children considered their own property cared for by nurses until reaching maturity when they molt into first gender. live on stilt houses or boats
in the spirit realm their honorable diefied ancestors become crystalline aspects of perfection "high elves" which grant their magicks power depending on how theyve been honored.
half elves happen when hatchlings mysteriously die, mothers go crazy and sneak out to kidnap a human child. sometimes they leave a changeling in its place (psychic parasite that feeds on maternal fears) and implant the embryo in the eggstalk.
also elf babies are sometimes given/stolen by humans. without the mothermilk of elves they become humanesque (domesticated, like animals raised in captivity)

dead elves can be contacted in the spirit realm once theyve been properly dealt with & the soul has moved on. high elves are usually of a totally alien consciousness and godlike and hate nonelves. elves whos remains arent laid to rest or arent honored with the proper ceremonies become spiteful wights driven mad by their inability to move on.

it takes 2d6+4 weeks before an elf soul 'moves on' once this happens revivification without divine intervention is generally considered repulsive and dangerous.

abilities:
mystic elves can mindflay 1d6+1hp 1 per day per 3 lvls


Halflings
childlike cheerful curious tinkering full of wonder 3 to 4 feet females taller live in forest treehouse colonies, wild/free, practice cannabalism to honor dead, anarchic/communal, no gods dont comprehend religion or work but love to tinker and build things of great complexity, like to take things apart (but not necessarily put it back together). always learning, moving, gathering great with slings bows darts knives. great bushcrafters live in harmony with nature love song and dance. "whos your friend? a dwarf! have you made her laugh yet? keep trying!"


Humans
boring mostly brown or black skin some say a trickster god made them using bits from all the other races. loads and loads of different ethnic groups and languages. make up the culture your character came from or dont, run it by the GM. clash a bunch of disparate real world cultures together or just let GM ask questions, or they/other players ask you questions or everybody just spitball shit and it all gets written down and lots are drawn or make some random tables.

theres a big godking empire of lawful assholes that worship sun god appollyon like egyptian plus christian plus babyllonian whatevers lots of marble and bronze and gold priests wield fire/domination magicks spend long hours staring at the sun til they go blind. leaders wanna rule everything with iron fist. godking is demigod son of appollyon 7 feet tall black skin tough dude with silver eagle helmet and burning eyes
favored weapons are spears. they pray one day the sun will explode and engulf creation and all will return to appollyon. all that isnt appollyon is sin and must burn before him.
most common religion. doesnt like other religions or magicks like christianity they wanna replace evrrything with their monoculture inspiration white cards mtg

orks
came from the underground. -1 in daylight. big flabby froggy hairy apeish dudes with mouths full of teeth big bulbous nose large luminous eyes and horns. worship ancient heathen piggy god zathuggua mortal enemy of appollyon (so says followers of app a relative newcomer)and ride enormous boars. totally carnivorous. love sentient flesh. never stop growing as long as they live always getting bigger and bigger but only live like 40 yrs usually. their society loves tests of strength and combat
a few hundred years ago orks nearly took over everything banding together and torching shit like genghis khan
lots of ork tribes. most dont get along unless theyre in a federation and even then they fight. some less violent friendly orks worship goddess of moon and water shabshab-ur the glittering skywhale.
orks are scattered thru human society but are considered stupid filthy only good for backbreaking labor.
some elves also worship zathuggua and mate with orks to create something horrible.
sometimes humans mate with orks to make half-orks. ork blood is really mutagenic and makes all kinds of defects. half-orks cant breed. they usually end up bandits sorcerers freakshows slaves mercenaries pawnbrokers wanderers but sometimes bankers lawyers and alchemists.
ork welplings open their eyes and learn to scamper within a couple weeks and grow really fast, reaching human size in 7 years.
ork packs are organized by toughness and guile with the leaders at the top.
more beastial orks live nomadically following their boar heards but return to ancient spawning grounds every so often, cyclopian fortresses deep in the mountains or underground.
they like armor and weapons made from metal of the rust belt, crudely welded together jagged bits and spikes wounds from orkish weapons cause nasty infections if not treated immediately.

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dwarves are tangible focused and earth elemental. planetary sentinals, all answer to a central authority, all within a unified, democratic whole a la star trek. unique but for a common matteroffactness and a general lack of humor. apparently have no gender. reproduce by budding: 4 dwarves unite to plan, design, and construct another dwarf by carving a perfectly sculpted one from living stone. once finished it springs to life with a full personality and purpose, embued with a piece of each maker's personality. this is done out of necessity.
immune to first 3 points of all ice & fire damage
+2 CON, stonesense, repair 3, rebuke undead

humans are neutral and can be both/either, mixture of all elements. their race=loud conflict unnowness
halflings are fun joy laughter here-ness buddhist zen metaphor pre-humans
orks are inhumanness. dog instincts turn sentient. pack/domination mentality. what dumb mordern humans think "human nature" is

WORLDEATER: primer

I'm gonna post a swath of jumbled ideas I've had for a setting. MY DWARVES ARE DIFFERENT! the idea is that the races are more than just humans with pointy ears, that they're weird and different and alien. dwarves are earth elementals that breed by a bunch of a dwarves getting together and building a new dwarf and imbuing it/he/them with a portion of their own memories. elves are hermaphroditic natural psychokinetics that turn into extradimensional crystalline machine-beings when they die and breed like jellyfish.

it's low magic but not quite low fantasy, though Fantastique/dark/weird fantasy inspired. dwarves and elves are extremely rare, shunned, and mostly keep to their own villages. most humans keep to their villages, never leaving more than a few miles from home.

but there are those who do, who are called by the wilds, by life on the road. maybe something calls them, maybe they were born 'touched' by mystery, and through no will of their own find their life fraught with death, pushed onto the road by chance. outcasts, wanderers, swords-for-hire, mercenaries, burglars, bandits. these are the adventurers. weird things happen to adventurers, their journeys transform them. coming close to dark magics and mystery warps their bodies and minds over time, separating them even further from a normal existence. the only place the adventurer can exist is on the fringe of society.

on the fringe of that society, on the edges of primordial forests, in places where human society has crumbled or never existed, in the darklands, the borderlands, the places unmapped, forgotten, unmarked by fences, a dramatic change occurs. mystery and magick is born here, reality breaks down, different worlds warp and meld together. tunnels and dungeons spread and grow from the unknown like a mold.


the earth is hollow, with vast tunnel complexes spilling up from hidden places into the surface world, belching forth fiends, spirits, demons, monsters which convert Lawfulness into chaos the way bacteria and funguses and earthworms convert the dead into living soil.

these mystery places exist outside of reason. there's no explaining or understanding the dungeons. science is what the dungeon is not; science is what the dungeon eats. the dungeon feeds by absorbing law. it spawns treasures of its own devising or steals lost things that have fallen into chaos and places them around in its dank secrets.

adventurers go in and bring these things back to earn coin, or they fail and die horribly, their blood feeding the dungeon, and their souls being twisted to power its own machinations. maybe some of these treasures are like fruiting bodies and carry spores of the dungeon with them. imagine the horror of a wealthy merchant when he opens his vault to find that all those magical swords you sold him have transformed into a gaping hole in the ground infested with dream larva.

the dungeon isn't evil--there is no evil or good. there is only chaos and law. law seeks to force reality to fit into a mold, law wants to turn the entire universe to crystalize into one perfect state, unchanging and perfect. chaos seeks to transform the universe into a mass of transforming undulating nothingeverythingness, bubbling and twisting anti-reality dreaming of itself and all possibility.

the balance of the universe is allowed to exist where chaos and law meet and conflict. chaos and law are forces, neither winning out over the other. entropy and negentropy conflicting eternally. life, obviously, cannot exist in a state of pure chaos or pure law, but within that conflict.