DS boxed set has been on my shelves for many years : I always feel it was a great context and ideas to enhance it flowed easily in my mind.
At last, a few monthes ago, I launched a campaign with some friends (6 players); beginning in Tyr, obviously.
I changed many elements from the original books but the one of which Im the proudest is a new race I added. Considering that races on Athas are perverted versions of "classical" heroic fantasy (elves=liars, halflings=cannibals...) I brought my version of one of the most common race : orcs.
Orx -as I named them-are red skin humanoids with four arms, they are non violent, vegetarian, reject any use of metal and technology, live in tribal structure and are the desert "guardians". They have a tradition of Nature "lovers" and nomadic culture.
Each Orx holds a purse of seeds around his neck, waiting for the good place and moment to put a little bit of life in the desert.
One obvious class choice for Orx is Druid, one of my players built his character this way and it proves to be an interesting campaign thus far.
I always felt the Dark Sun setting was about the fragility of life and in some way about environmental concern too. With an Orx Druid in my party I can underline these elements with something different from the defiler/preserver opposition. A non violent character is quite fun and original to play too.
So guys what do you think about that ?
first accept my apologies for my bad english (Im french, nobody's perfect)
DS boxed set has been on my shelves for many years : I always feel it was a great context and ideas to enhance it flowed easily in my mind.
At last, a few monthes ago, I launched a campaign with some friends (6 players); beginning in Tyr, obviously.
I changed many elements from the original books but the one of which Im the proudest is a new race I added. Considering that races on Athas are perverted versions of "classical" heroic fantasy (elves=liars, halflings=cannibals...) I brought my version of one of the most common race : orcs.
Orx -as I named them-are red skin humanoids with four arms, they are non violent, vegetarian, reject any use of metal and technology, live in tribal structure and are the desert "guardians". They have a tradition of Nature "lovers" and nomadic culture.
Each Orx holds a purse of seeds around his neck, waiting for the good place and moment to put a little bit of life in the desert.
One obvious class choice for Orx is Druid, one of my players built his character this way and it proves to be an interesting campaign thus far.
I always felt the Dark Sun setting was about the fragility of life and in some way about environmental concern too. With an Orx Druid in my party I can underline these elements with something different from the defiler/preserver opposition. A non violent character is quite fun and original to play too.
So guys what do you think about that ?
It is an interesting idea, though it likely would have been better to name them something else, as Dark sun used to have actual orcs.... they were all slain by the humans in the Cleansing Wars, several thousand years prior to standard campaigns. (before the Cleansing Wars Dark Sun was similiar to most other D&D worlds, save with psionics.... it became a desert after/due to the wars.... which were led by powerful human defilers)
And a non violent race would normally not live very long in Athas, as it is a Very very very harsh enviroment and even the plants are carnivorous. A non violent race would normally become prey for the other races pretty quick
And a non violent race would normally not live very long in Athas, as it is a Very very very harsh enviroment and even the plants are carnivorous. A non violent race would normally become prey for the other races pretty quick
Yup. if You wanna to mantain nonviolence your Orx have better to breed like rabbits and to hide even faster.
if You wanna to mantain nonviolence your Orx have better to breed like rabbits and to hide even faster.
thats the idea
their moral code allows them to defend themselves when attacked though
they dont use bludgeoning weapons and cant attack to kill : they grapple (I considered their 4 arms give them Improved Grapple as a racial feat) and use Stun attacks too
they also have a special bond to the Desert granting them with special abilities with Plants, Mushrooms, Silt Algae (I know, I invented this one)
It is an interesting idea, though it likely would have been better to name them something else, as Dark sun used to have actual orcs.... they were all slain by the humans in the Cleansing Wars
An alternative is to have them be orcish survivors of the Cleansing War. That would make the Orxs' background even more similar to the other "perverted versions of 'classical' heroic fantasy" - elves and dwarves.
No need to be totally consistent with canon, since it's a homebrew race.
An alternative is to have them be orcish survivors of the Cleansing War. That would make the Orxs' background even more similar to the other "perverted versions of 'classical' heroic fantasy" - elves and dwarves.
No need to be totally consistent with canon, since it's a homebrew race.
Let's see...(the Orx Shaman stares at the campfire wile telling the ancient saga)
Once upon a time the Orcs were a fierce, warlike people, when the land was green their fortress of marble and iron dotted the great plains like flies over a rotting carcass.
Humans and elfs alike bowed at the Great Army of the Orkisch Nation but then it come Uyness of Waverly, leading a crusade against them, for nearly nine centuries she plagued the orcs.
The details of the war are lost to the mists of history, but in the end our ancestors fleed in the wastes and pleged the spirits of the Deasert for protection.
"The fate of the Orc is sealed!" responded the Voices from the Void "But we can save the one who will give up to us hia rage and his boodlust"
The ones who refused shortly after meet their death at the hands of the Champion, the ones Who accepted grown another set of arms to embrace peace and, no longer Orcs, escaped theyr doom.
well, wath if now the Orx are Abberrations? what if they breed growing from spores (the way wharhammer 40000 orks do)?
hope it helps
the ones Who accepted grown another set of arms to embrace peace
i like that
not so sure about the Abberration and spores ideas though