A Brave New World #2: Lore Of The Land

Fur and scales? Why not!

Making the familiar fresh again was a topic that I hit upon in my last post and, since then I have a little more time to think about the idea. In particular, to think about my concept of "Hell Hounds" and, how they play into the world that I want to create.

In order to do this, I took a look at the lore surrounding Hell Hounds, in order to map out the defining characteristics that make said hound, hellish. A re-occurring theme is fire. They breathe fire, are immune to fire and the associations with hell and fire no doubt has more than a small part to play in their name sake.

My game worlds all about balance though, so the Hell Hounds aren't getting what is often described as an immunity to fire without an extreme penalty when it comes to water. So, I have decided that even the smallest of splashes are like acid to them and highly toxic, with some misguided priest along the ways thinking the reaction to his holy water came from their hellish nature and, not simply the water itself.. Yup, misinformation is the thing that legends are made of.

So, if they're allergic to water, what do they drink?

That was a tricky one! In the end I came up with two possible answers, one of which was blood. Which was all well and good but, I actually prefer the idea of lava. Yeah, lava!

These pups have a quite literal immunity to fire, so with all the minerals flowing through the molten magma, lava is like gruel to these doggies! Also, if a passing adventurer happened to spy one spitting it's lunch up, it would certainly seem like it was spewing fire (which mine don't by nature, they're just BIG dogs with an immunity to flames that happen to live deep in the bowels of the earth).

With the main points covered, I'd say that's mission accomplished! The hell hounds will seem familiar enough to any group that they will identify them on the spot but, the actual lore has been altered significantly. They're just over-sized canines that live deep in the earth and have adapted to do so.. They sure sound like hell hounds though don't they?

A Brave New World #1: The Three.

When devising my own Tunnels and Trolls setting, I have decided to tie as closely with the rule of three as possible. But what is the rule of three?

For me it's the core of the original game. You have Warriors, Wizards and, Rogues. Warriors are purely physical, whilst Wizards are cerebral. Two sides of the same coin, with Rogues, at least earlier edition rogues being a balanced blend of the two. The same could be said of how I perceive some of the original kindreds. On the one hand, you have the Dwarves who are all about STR and, on the other you have the Elves, who focus on DEX, with Humans being the baseline between the two. So is it any wonder that we see a lot of Dwarven Warriors or, Elven Wizards? It's just the nature of the game as laid out by what I call the rule of three.

So, how is this applicable?

Well, the first thing I did when putting together a new setting was gut the old one, leaving only the humans intact. It seems bizarre that we can't seem to create a fantasy world without investing the most mundane of kindreds in it, but, hey as I said, they are the baseline against which most things are measured. Now I just needed to perch an "angel" and a "devil" on each and every one of those human shoulders to give me the symmetry required by by the rule of three.

For the task at hand, I have chosen Elves. Not live in the woods, firing a bow Elves but full on Fae folk. Incorporable, seemingly immortal creatures of pure magic, living in harmony with the world and restoring balance. Well, that's one side of the coin but, what of the other?

Well, Elves are far from perfect and some, more than a few, have picked up certain "bad habits" from humankind. Seeking power and, with more than a big enough bag of tricks to achieve it. They bend natural order and create un-natural things. If there's a "monster" walking the land, the chances are that they are behind it. Not that such crimes go unpunished amongst their kin, creating an effective state of war between the two kindreds. For every "monster" these tainted Elves create, their brothers and sisters must create an "antidote" to balance the scales. All this, with humanity stuck bang in the middle.

The tainted created the Orcs of Hellhounds, so the Elves created the Half-elves, imbuing their own spirit into Human children still in the womb.. And that's only the start. Every time the tainted bend natural order, the Elves step in. With humanity stuck smack bang in the middle.