Hoping to continue the thread about an user's childhood idea for an imaginary RTS, transformed by Veeky Forums into an idea for a tabletop wargame.
The theme: really fucking huge monsters stomping tiny people.
Posting the unit list from the end of last thread for reference.
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Thrym, microunits:
1. Dwarfs: depicted as scrawny, dishonorable and malicious, but highly intelligent. They are not good fighters, but can protect themselves with knives, hammers and axes if need be. An upgrade allows them to pick up bows at their burrows as a final line of base defense.
2. Raiders and Raider Archers: at the bottom of the Thrym's microunit totem pole are the Raider units, a rabble of Nordic looking humans with shields and weapons. They had an interesting mechanic by which they spawn automatically at a certain rate based on the intensity of fighting around the map, but this seems irrelevant to a miniature game.
3. Werewolves: Wild looking humans with large weapons. Can turn into big wolves for faster travel around the map and to stealthily move through forests.
4. Huscarls: a more advanced infantry type unit, they have better armor and weapons than the Raiders and specialize in defensive fighting.
5. Warjarls: mounted warriors with heavier armor and swords.
6. Alf Warriors: Stealthy, stealth detecting elves who can move through the woods and switch between bows and swords. Special abilities allow them to put enemies to sleep and place duplicates of themselves in wooded areas to confuse the enemy.
7. Wild Hunt: Mounted elves with long spears who can teleport through clouds of mist. Killing enemy microunits will cause Elfhounds to spawn next to them, adding to their attack power - but will dissipate over time, requiring that the Hunt go on to retain their edge. A special ability, The Horn of the Wild Hunt, can instantly summon elfhounds and strike terror in nearby enemies, but can only be used sparingly and so must be used with care.
(cont.)
8. Valkyries: Warrior women mounted on giant ravens, with spears. Their special abilities allow them to return dead Raiders, Huscarls, or Werewolves or Warjarls to life, but there's a catch: a battalion who hasn't killed a certain number of enemies (the number being based on the value of the battalion itself – warjarls have to kill more than raiders to be considered) will be returned to life as a relatively weak battalion of draugr. A unit who HAS killed enough enemies will be returned as a very powerful battalion of einherjar.
9. Trebuchet: a siege engine built and operated by dwarfs. Useful for taking out enemy fortifications without having to bring in macroscale units.
10. Witches: a flight of wild looking women on brooms, dressed in black. They possess several abilities which impose debuffs on the enemy, including some low-level macrounits. Their basic attack involves flinging blue fire from their magic lanterns. At higher levels, they become invisible while flying and can detect stealthed units.
11. Huldras: the nice equivalent of the witches, forest women with animal features trained from the same building. They can heal and buff friendly units, but are weak in combat.
(cont.)
Thrym, macrounits:
1. Wurum: very unusual, the wurum is a giant, venom spitting snake whom a DWARF, of all things, can learn to transform into if it collects enough treasure. Dwarfs rarely collect this much treasure.
2. Troll: the bread and butter of the Thrym macrounit roster. Big, hairy, with cow tails and huge noses. They are versatile and simple to use: they can pick up enemy units to throw around, throw boulders, uproot trees to use as clubs, stomp people to death, etc. They can also hide themselves by becoming supernaturally still and looking like mossy rocks, and with upgrades, cast a few spells which hamper enemy units.
3. Kveldrida: another odd one in the Thrym roster – a macrounit which isn't meant for fighting. The kveldrida is a gigantic trollwife, covered in moss and vegetation which take the shape of a ragged, hooded cloak. They carry a massive cauldron into battle which they use to cast spells. Not many at first – but they can get more spells by grabbing enemy microscale units and throwing them into the boiling cauldron. Different unit types make different spells. They can use their cauldrons to smash enemy troops, but this is a waste of their talents.
4. Mountain Bruiser: The guys who make trolls look like trolls make regular people look. Not quite "feature of the battlefield" scale, but getting there. Their clubs smash through walls, buildings, and entire microscale battalions.
5. Mountain Builder: Same size, and indeed, same tribe as the Mountain Bruisers, but given to more cerebral pursuits. They wear metal armor and wield hammers. They can build fortifications quickly and are armored to the teeth, but far slower and wouldn't do as well in a fight.
6. Woodwose: a mischievous giant covered in leaves, with large antlers on its head. It can masquerade as a tree, bring trees to life, use birds to spy on or harass enemies and call packs of wolves to eat them.
(cont.)
7. Frost Giants: Bigger than the previous types, with ice armor an ice axes, and ice spears they can form and throw. Their breath freezes microunits solid or the body parts of macrounits. Several of them, working in tandem, can erect temporary ice-fortresses around the battlefield, which units can garrison. They are large enough to throw not just enemy troopers, but also the ruins of some buildings, and some small buildings themselves.
8. Fire Giants: The same size as the frost giants, but fiery. They are all about causing damage. Their fiery auras damage enemies just by their presence, and their breath sets battalions on fire. They can throw explosive fireballs and drive units into a burning rage. A side effect of being burning means that they cannot be climbed or bound (the ropes burn off).
9. Galeskald: A storm giant with a penchant for the arts. Among the largest units in the game, it can throw spears as large as trees (in fact, using a certain special ability, the spears which stick to the ground BECOME trees), sing to buff nearby units, or draw massive runes on the battlefield to create constant effects. Large enough to pluck dragons out of the sky.
10. Storm Thane: The largest units in the Thrym arsenal and the largest in the game in terms of height, Storm Thanes destroy entire enemy battalions by walking over them. They carry hammers and horns and are dressed in the finest of warrior-king type jewelry. Besides smashing the ground so hard battalions of troops are flung into the air on the other side of the battlefield, they can shoot lightning, summon lightning storms, blow hard enough to send microscale units flying or knock macroscale units down, and leap across the battlefield with a sound of thunder. Large enough to pluck dragons out of the sky.
(cont.)
Vritra, microunits:
1. Vanara: Mystical, jungle-dwelling monkey men enslaved by the dragon-lords. Serve as builders and resource gatherers (like the Thrym dwarfs), but also make useful scouts due to their unparalleled woodland mobility: by climbing and leaping between the trees, they actually move FASTER and stealthily through forest areas.
2. Clan Swordsmen and Clan Archers: basic footmen in the armies of the dragonlords, carrying geographically inaccurate but impressive looking banners. Come in large groups and have few advantages besides coming in large groups. The Dragonforged Armor upgrade, later in the game, gives them marginally more use by covering them in metal.
3. Clan Charioteers: Riding in gold chariots inspired by Thai depictions of Ravanna, pulled by tigers. Each chariot carries both lancers are archers.
4. Ascetics: Warrior monks with wide-brimmed hats and quarterstaffs, running across the battlefield like mystical ninjas. Their ability to make crazy wushu leaps gives them great verticality and makes them dangerous to macroscale units (which they can climb very fast), and they get a number of useful special abilities: The Empty Self turns them invisible, while Weightlessness Siddhi allows them to fly for short periods of time.
5. Lotus Archers: Looking like traditional Thai depictions of Rama, they are slow but long ranged archer units which can, in large masses, bring down even dragons. They possess a special ability which causes a field of magical lotus flowers to bloom where their arrows fall. These put many units who pass nearby them to sleep – but also heal them over time. Can be used offensively or defensively as a result. An upgrade causes a similar lotus field to sprout where members of these battalions die.
6. Dakini: winged, fabulous female spirits. Possess buffing and debuffing abilities in equal measure but will get slaughtered by anything with a ranged attack.
7. Cuoi: Buffalo headed spirits who worship the moon. Can heal microscale units and fight using a pair of axes, which they either throw or swing.
8. Kaliya Knights: Serpent people in service to the dragonlords. Silent and deadly, armed with both bows and sabers. They can crush enemy microscale units between their coils after being upgraded once, spit venom after being upgraded twice, and throw poison bombs after being upgraded three times.
9. Rakshasas: Multiheaded, many-handed demons carrying more blades than a Victorinox. They can possess microscale units and even some weaker macroscale ones, allowing them to control the unit and leave unharmed when it is destroyed. Since they can also leave whenever they want, this ability can even be used for transportation, due to its considerable range.
10. Devil-Watchers: members of a race of wise, elephant-headed spirits, they carry bowls of sacred milk and staves covered in bells to fight off demons. Possess healing and buffing abilities, and can cast off their consciousness by meditating on the atma.
11. Windriders: Very, very, very courageous men, riding magical kites. They are armed with crossbows and can be upgraded to throw firebombs from the sky.
12. Cloud Shepherds: Minor gods, mounted on mythical animals known as "ky lan" (the Vietnamese name for the Chinese "qilin"…). They are flying, mounted archers with an interesting mechanic: their "battalion" is not made up of more of them, but rather, of the "cloud flock", heavenly sheep and rams. Each shepherds flock grows over time up to a certain size, and each cloud sheep in it increases the shepherds survivability by being able to take hits for it. Furthermore: Cloud Shepherds possess special abilities which can be "fueled" by sacrificing a certain number of cloud sheep, making for somewhat of a resource management issue. By sacrificing members of their flocks, Cloud Shepherds can fire off lightning strikes, stun battalions with thunder, or heal with rain. They can also sacrifice the entire flock at once for a Tempest Charge, teleporting across the battlefield causing heavy damage and stunning everyone around them. The more sheep are in the Cloud Flock at the time, the greater the range and the damage.
13. War Turtles: Technically macroscale units, since they have targetable body parts (they are considered microscale because they come in groups), these are elephant sized turtles with jeweled shells, who can crawl on land or swim surprisingly fast through water. On their backs are howdahs with lancers and archers. Each Great Turtle can be individually upgraded to also carry, in addition, an automatic crossbow (great against groups of microscale units), a cannon (turning it into a siege weapon), or a bowl of healing water to buff units around it.
14. Hungry Ghosts: produced from dead battalions of human units through certain dragon spells. Weak and slow, but resilient and can come in large masses.
Vritra, macroscale:
1. Ascendant: Kaliyas who have achieved enlightenment, growing in size and gaining the powers of flight and magic. They breath poisonous vapors and can call massive, writing masses of serpents to appear to slow down, trip, kill and devour enemy units. They also have the ability to revive dead microscale units as hungry ghosts.
2. Nagini: The Vritra's only macroscale unit who doesn't fly makes up for it in versatility. Naginis are beautiful, enormous snake-women with innumerable arms, four of which are targetable and have game effects: the arm wielding a trident gives the nagini a powerful siege attack, the arm wielding a massive sword gives it a sweeping melee attack that can carve through microscale battalions, the arm wielding a flower allows it heal nearby friendly units, and the arm wielding a mirror vastly increases its line-of-sight and reveals stealthy enemies so long as it hasn't been harmed. Naginis, like many of the dragons, can crush certain types of fortifications by coiling around them and applying pressure.
3. Garuda: Not dragons at all, but rather, gigantic predatory birds. They can flap their wings to create winds that blow back enemy units and descend very quickly upon enemies, carrying them off into the sky and throwing them about. It does not have a ranged attack, and is quite vulnerable if it gets tied up on the ground.
4. Makara: The Makara is a crocodilian river dragon from Cambodian mythology, here presented as also having (feathered, colorful) wings and being capable of flight. As in Cambodian mythology, the Makara possess backs strong enough to carry the gods – and indeed, each Makara juggernaut carries a golden temple-fortress upon its back, which rains arrows on the enemy as the Makara breaths fire at them.
5. Guardians: Dragons with the body of a lion and a leonine face, also from Cambodian folklore, known for their loyalty and courage. The Tao Guardian is a slow, flying tank and a support unit, being capable of several types of defensive spellcasting. Its signature ability allows it to absorb all damage directed at another dragon/battalion of microunits (or even several, if the Tao Guardian is feeling brave), ultimately increasing their survivability.
6. Dragon Magistrate: a beautiful, many colored dragon, entrusted by his lord with meting out justice in a province. On a larger scale than the previous units. Essentially the "backbone" dragon unit, magistrates do not have many special abilities, but are solid, all-around useful firebreathing fliers. They can crush buildings between their coils.
7. Dragon Knight: An armored, warrior dragon, with a lot of HP and access to potent offensive spells. The dragon knight can freely change shape, assuming the form of a gold-armored human warrior with a massive sword for when being huge and flying can be a hindrance. In this form, it is capable of making enormous wushu leaps and flinging microscale units into the air with its sword swings. In draconic form, they can crush buildings between their coils.
8. Sage: An old, old dragon with a beardlike mane and impressive antlers, the heavenly sage is almost a pure spellcasting macrounit, offering buffs to nearby friendlies. Sages can change shape into an old man in monastic robes to unleash deadly martial arts attacks. They are larger and longer than the magistrates and the dragon knights, being comparable in size to frost and fire giants.
9. Immaculate: Huge, many headed, enlightened dragons, their bodies adorned with gold. Each of their heads possesses a different ability: one strengthens friendly units with its fragrant breath, one breaths fire, one pushes back enemy units with a torrent of water, one poisons enemies in a large cone, one freezes microscale units in place with its hypnotic eyes, and one can regenerate other heads which have been severed so long as it is still alive. All heads can also attack in melee, should the Immaculate decide to land. They can take the shape of beautiful divine concubines, armed with a golden polearm.
10. Heavenly Master: A dragon so long with wings so massive that it can effectively wrestle a Storm Thane, or for that matter, pick up castle towers between its hindclaws and rip them off to throw somewhere else on the battlefield. Their most distinctive trait is the sacred crystal balls held in their foreclaws – the source of their power. Their crystal balls grant them access to immensely powerful offensive and defensive spells, including the ability to make geysers of molten metal burst out of the ground and the abilities to conjure out of nothingness a Garden of Delights (a structure which heals and empowers all friendly units around it), a Divine Fortress (which attacks and slows down enemy units around it), or call several battalions of Hungry Ghosts from the underworld. Even without their crystal balls, they are still among the most formidable warriors on the battlefield. They can take the shape of glowing, buddha-like figures, retaining all of their spells.
Anu, microunits:
1. Slaves: The Anu's worker units are weak, fragile, and work very, very slowly. They are also so cheap that a player can mass dozens of them by the first minutes of the game without even trying – which is good, because liches have special abilities which allow them to regain MP or gain temporary buffs by sacrificing these poor souls in masses.
2. Grave Servants: favored slaves who were once entombed alongside their necromantic masters, now tirelessly laboring for the Anu like hyperactive (read: actually useful) versions of the slaves. Have no combat value and no place in a tabletop game. Unlike their living counterparts, they are no good to sacrifice.
3. House Guards and House Archers: human soldiers recruited from among the living in the lands of the Anu. House Guards carry spears and shields, and die in droves unless massed in ridiculous amounts. House Warriors carry bows and curved swords, and aren't all that much better.
4. Bladedrivers: bladed chariots, carried by boring old regular horses and not nearly as impressive as the stuff the Vritra can field. Can carry either archers or spearmen – they aren't large enough for both at the same time.
5. Elephants: the strongest Anu units which aren't somehow created by magic, they are ridden and "crewed" by dark skinned mercenaries from lands further outside Anu's. Archers on back, smash buildings with their tusks. Since the Anu don't otherwise have siege engines in the classical sense, they're gonna have to make do.
6. Grave Wretches: slow, rotting zombies which are very weak, but can be "recruited" very cheaply from a building or simply produced by liches by sacrificing their even cheaper Slaves on a 1 for 1 basis. Ridiculous amounts of these make a nice backbone for an army.
7. Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Archers: can be recruited for resources or, more cheaply, "recruited" on the battlefield from unfortunate House units.
8. Utukku: Treacherous, jackal-headed demons summoned by the Anu. Can either move slowly and stealthily or quickly and noisily, and rip enemies to shreds with their claws.
9. Bonemights: crafted from several skeletons, these hulking bone horrors offer the Anu a much needed microscale assault option.
10. Asaggu: plague-bringing ghosts, torturously torn from the corpses of the diseased. They are stealthy and while their normal attack is piss poor, simply being around them causes damage to enemy units. Make for good harassment.
11. Edimmu: Edimmu (or edims) are flying, screaming ghosts with a weak melee attack but very high speed.
12. Vampires: powerful, undead troopers that can use bows from afar or swords at melee – replenishing their own HP by doing the latter. They can take to the air in the form of black birds (not bats, interestingly), but cannot attack in this shape. Two separate upgrades allow their bird form to be stealthed and for them to detect stealthed units in either form.
13. Lamashtu: Female demons, looking like the classical depiction of harpies, except beautiful instead of hideous. Can become or render other units invisible, and drain enemy HP from afar. They can also cast debuffs on enemy microscale units, the most powerful of which is the Seed of Evil. Units who have been implanted with demonic seed with be significantly weakened for a large period of time, and should they die within that time, immediately give birth to an Utukku from their corpse.
14. Lumasi: a bizarre, but loyal type of demon, with the hindlegs of a bull, the forelegs of a lion, the head of a man and the wings of an eagle. Lumasi can breathe fire, heal and buff friendly units, but their most useful trait is that they can be ridden by liches, giving them a physical edge most do not otherwise have.
Anu, liches:
1. Court Astrologer: a lich specializing in celestial magic. They can observe faraway areas of the map and, using a special ability, see what orders the enemy player is giving their units and buildings (down to the specific locations he's sending them), mark an enemy unit with an invisible (to the enemy) star that reveals their position, create mobile, controllable "Guiding Stars" which greatly increase the speed and line of sight of friendly units around them, and otherwise gather information for their controlling player. Far from being pushovers in battle, Court Astrologers can also perform such feats as driving entire enemy battalions insane by exposing them to visions of space, reducing their line of sight to near nothing with an eclipse, and, most spectacularly, calling down meteorite showers. Like all liches, it can mount a lumasu and can revive dead Slaves as Grave Wretches and dead House units as Skeletons. With an upgrade, it can also turn an entire House battalion into a Bonemight. With another upgrade, they can do the same to enemy human units.
2. Court Alchemist: A lich specializing in material magic. They can change the shape of the battlefield by raising mountains out of the sand or causing entire regions to crumble into a sinkhole. It can render large areas of the battlefield temporarily unpassable with walls of burning ice, which it can shatter on command for massive damage. To harm enemies, they can summon clouds of toxic gas and pools of liquid fire which spreads across armies, or debuff them by causing weapons and armor to rust. Like all liches, it can mount a lumasu and can revive dead Slaves as Grave Wretches and dead House units as Skeletons. With an upgrade, it can also turn an entire House battalion into a Bonemight. With another upgrade, they can do the same to enemy human units.
3. Court Conjurer: A lich specializing in mental magic. They can create illusory armies or large amounts of illusory duplicates of themselves, or influence the battlefield by creating illusory mountains to block line of sight or illusory fortresses to force the enemy into changing their tactics. They can take over entire battalions of microscale units permanently and put even macroscale units temporarily to sleep. They can cause enemies to rout in terror or buff allies with massive attack bonuses at the cost of defense penalties by numbing them to horror with visions of paradise. They can cause themselves to look like any friendly or enemy microscale unit. It has all usual lich abilities.
4. Court Librarian: A lich specializing in the preservation of scrolls and artifacts, and by extension, preservation in general. Possessing the most powerful defensive buffs in the game, as well as the ability to heal entire armies of undead very quickly for almost no MP and continuously re-revive them when they fall. Court Librarians can also freeze friendly or enemy units and structures in time, protecting them but taking them out of the battle temporarily, or alternatively, cause buildings and macroscale units massive damage by bombarding them with entropy until they crumble to dust. As a last resort, Court Librarians can temporarily remove themselves or large amounts (entire armies) of friendly or enemy units from the timeline, essentially causing them to disappear from the map entirely before reappearing some time later. It has all usual lich abilities.
5. Court Champion: A lich specializing in battle magic. The closest liches come to being good fighters, the Court Champion can engulf itself in ghostly armor and summon a whirlwind of burning swords to either defend it or attack enemies. It can teleport entire armies, fly on wings of flame and bombard enemies down below with torrents of explosive fireballs, and summon raging vortices of fire and lightning to ravage through the enemy side of the battlefield. It can also fight defensively, raising fortifications from the dirt which friendly units can garrison, or which it can cause to blow up spectacularly to cause damage to everything around them. It has all usual lich abilities.
Anu, macrounits:
1. Golem: the most basic of the Anu's macrounits is a troll sized, living statue. It has no particular special abilities and isn't very fast, but it's cheap and its real purpose it to soak damage for the liches behind it.
2. Colossus: Larger, smarter, and all around better than the golem, the bronze colossus can also breathe fire at enemy units or channel it into sacred flames around it, healing nearby friendlies.
3. Bonestrider: a gigantic scorpion made from the bones of innumerable skeletons. It has no special abilities beyond being massive and destructive, and being able to offer a threat to the smaller giants with its sting.
4. Tainted Flesh: the fortunate byproduct of some unspeakable necromantic experiment, Tainted Flesh is a massive blob of sentient gore with no bones or skin. It can slowly roll over enemy units to absorb them into its mass, growing larger and more powerful as it does. With enough flesh, it can sprout tentacles or hurl pieces of itself at enemies, or leave in its wake dangerous, toxic residue. After absorbing an enormous amount of enemy units (including potentially macroscale ones), it can even split into two smaller versions of itself.
6. War Barge: a magical, versatile flying ship the size of a frost giant, mounting innumerable archers. Each War Barge may receive up to three individualized upgrades from a list of several: a cannon which shoots streams of liquid fire at units below, the ability to go invisible, the ability to teleport short distances, a deck full of catapults, or a protective shell of stormclouds that increases its HP and causes lightning to surge at units passing beneth it.
7. Abominable Ark: An enormous (Storm Thane scale), floating, excruciatingly slow cube adorned with jewels and gold. This magical puzzle box is the prison of a terrible demon. Even contained within it, its influence is felt. By changing its configuration (which takes some time, but can be done on the move), the Abominable Ark can affect the battlefield in several ways: teleporting all units around it a large distance, turning all friendly units in a large radius around it invisible, revealing enormous portions of the map and all enemy units on them, buffing and healing all friendly units in a large radius, or just obliterating enemy units by briefly opening portions of itself and drawing them into the demon's prison. Lastly, the Abominable Ark can be sacrificed: by "unlocking" the puzzle box, the demon contained within can be released. The flying demon is enormously powerful and large enough to wrestle with Storm Thanes or Heavenly Masters, and its presence burns units in a large radius to ash. Unfortunately, it is also completely uncontrollable, taking out its anger at being imprisoned at everything unfortunate enough to be in the area. After a short time, it will disappear in a gigantic blast of fire.
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I like it.
Resembles the old good Heroes of might and Magic 3.
So you have Scandinavia, India and Undead.
What do you want now? More factions or refining something about the already existing ones?
>What do you want now? More factions or refining something about the already existing ones?
I'm not the one who made all things in the first place. Honestly, I was hoping to re-attract the guy from the last thread who said he could make tokens for all of those things so we could start working on wargame rules. I don't know how to do any of that myself.
Also, I was under the impression (OP from last thread said so) that Vritra was more Southeast Asia than India. That said, my understanding is that most Southeast Asian mythology is basically just Hindu mythology with slightly changed names, so it matters all shit.
As for other factions, in the previous thread there were some pretty cool ideas for a Native American based one, but I don't know any Native American mythology.
This is pretty cool, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who does imaginary wargames (quite a lot of stuff in my homebrew setting, especially the forces of the BBEG, are designed from a wargaming perspective).
This guy is clearly Egyptian, not Babylonian.
This idea is cool, got anymore about it?
Potential rules? setting? Is it doen? anyhting to add?
Any drawfags yet? Im an aspiring drawfag myself tho i dont know how much i can contribute.
I can see this game working with Paper cutouts, top down for the micro units and stand up for macro units
>Any drawfags yet? Im an aspiring drawfag myself tho i dont know how much i can contribute.
Not the same guy, but I think every bit of drawfaggotry would help give a project like this some life. How about trying to draw some of the macroscale units? I'm particularly interested in how Vritra dragons might look, since I know so little about Southeast Asian depictions of them. Thai and Cambodian mythology are mentioned, so maybe the aesthetics of those cultures could be a good start?
Something like that but with talon-like legs and big, feathered wings would be absolutely perfect. If colored, make sure to have the wings be vibrant colors of red, green and gold.
I wouldn't care for a depiction of an Anu lich (should we use the term lich? It's fairly Germanic. I feel like the Anu would just refer to them as "Immortals", or something like that). There are so many undead pharaohs on Google, but nothing Sumerian, Akkadian or otherwise Mesopotamian. You know, with all this gold jewelry everywhere and bitching wing decorations on the back. Those crazy hats.
I dont realy have an awfull lot of time right now which is why im asking if anyone is active.
Maybe i can try some but i wont promise anything. and again im just beginning with drawfaggotry
Nevermind i got bored and attempted to draw Turned out a bit gay
Didnt realy feel like doing it on a tablet, i might still try to colour it digitally
Meh, it turned out too human for my ow taste, i guess im not used to drawing monsters and from the description i got a humanoid dragon vibe simmilar to Bolas in mtg, but it doesnt fit the rest of the aesthetic. whatever, dones done now
It does look a bit humanoid, but fuck me, the head and wings are amazing. Maybe changing the shape and positioning of the talons (or adding taloned hindlegs) may change this, but speaking as someone who's worked with illustrators in the past, I know this may mean drawfag would have to redo everything all over again, so I won't do that to him. Good job!
thanks, the wings were actually pretty easy to do funnly enaugh.
Changing the torso, well adding a second pair of legs would be annoying, as for the humanoid bits, drawing a snake body is far easier so id just erase all the muscle stuff and have it be snakelike which gets rid of the weird humanoid nature of it.
The arms would be annoying to redo mostly because im not very good at drawing animal arms, mostly drawing humanoid characters.
i guess for the most part i stuck with the idea of bolas since its supposed to be a wizard dragon
This is plenty awesome!
What other ideas for civs/factions can we come up with?
Not!Austria Hungary: They marry into the noble families of monster races and thus have a bunch of weird soldiers and halfbreed warbeasts
You know, if you remove the werewolves from the Thrym roster, I could maybe dig a nation ruled by werewolves.
However:
1. They'd need to have a unique, unusual cultural background. Austria-Hungary feels kind of generic European, and the Thrym are basically that anyway.
2. They'd need ideas for many different types of units - including, and this is the hard part - macroscale ones. And they can't just use the most obvious, "Gothic Horror" theme since the Anu have pretty much got that one covered.
Austria-Hungary in the 18th or early 19th century, maybe with a few more steampunk elements, would be enough of a unique culture, in my opinion. Maybe their macroscale units could be steam tanks and zeppelins? And Frankenstein's Monster style electro-corpses/automatons for units?
So basically the worgen from WoW combined with the Vinci from RoL, with German names?
I made the example token and posted about possible mechanics in previous thread. Though I don't know what more I have to add.
Said post was >I've been toying with the idea of a hex based wargamef or awhile where a units abilities, attack and defense and stuff is per-hexside, to give an immediate sort of positioning mechanic. Thinking it's something that could be applied here. Pick related.
Mind, I don't know what the numbers do just yet. I figure a unit is 'reduced' and flipped to its weaker back side before it's actually removed from play. unless it really sucks to begin with.
This could also make some of those special abilities a little easier. (illusionary alf warriors are the same but have a 'spoof' backside when they're attacked. Count the number of tokens discarded in a turn to roll for more raiders appearing. Stack a units kills beneath it to count later for Einherjar raising, etc)
I'd pointed out later the high unit count may make it worth splitting into subfactions or making additional ones, depending on how complex each unit is. In my head, this would work better as a simpler fast-moving ruleset rather than a dice-bucket slog or more mainstream-ish miniatures game, but open to thoughts on the matter.
>I'd pointed out later the high unit count may make it worth splitting into subfactions or making additional ones, depending on how complex each unit is. In my head, this would work better as a simpler fast-moving ruleset rather than a dice-bucket slog or more mainstream-ish miniatures game, but open to thoughts on the matter.
How would you split the factions?
With a company of heroes style approach. Only allow one tree of specialized units at a time. (Though this was, admittedly, more in relation to the above's list of thigns for an RTS, where so many units with active abilities would lead to micro overload.)
I suppose that may also depend on if you can create new units midgame in our theoretical TTG adaptation.
i wouldnt go with gothic horror, thats just the time period.
I would say austria hungary could have a nice mix of Almost dieselpunk tech with monsterous infantry aswell as cavalry, i could probably come up with a couple of units and large units too
If you have the ideas, try writing them down the same format OP did!
I think dieselpunk is kind of pushing the aesthetic boundaries of the setting. There's only so much before it no longer feels like itself.
Secondarily, if the faction isn't led or controlled by either the macro unit race or something of equivalent power, it kinda defeats the point of the setting.
^that.
It's not about being controlled by monsters in general, it's about being controlled by monsters in a way that makes for interesting gameplay. Anu are a deliberate subversion, and their gameplay revolves around (their macros are there to protect the liches). It'd be redundant for this to be the case with another faction.
How about that Native American faction?
Maybe the nobility are made up mad scientists a la Frankenstein.
I really like the idea of Pickelhaube-clad Frankenstein's monsters inside steam tanks
*made up of
How much lore is there for this?
I can't into Crunch but I can write
Basically nothing from what I understand. OP of last thread described it as mostly an RTS game idea her thought we might be interested in. There were a few little summary snippets I think have been missed here, but it wasn't much. If O-OP is around, maybe he can elaborate more?
>Basically nothing
Fuck yes. I love me some writefagging.
Yeah if OGOP could show and lay down the basics I would love to help fill in the blanks
i can help too
Do you think he'd mind if we writefag our own stuff into his setting?
I mean, at this point? Might as well. We've no idea if he's coming back or not. The absolute worst thing that happens is he comes back and goes, "Hey guys, could you not?"
Noice. Will do tomorrow if the thread is still alive
No thanks Satan, you'll try and corrupt the setting
Nope do your best, i was drawing your ideas afterall.
Some other Faction Ideas:
>Sentient Dinosaurs
Worshipped as the Gods of Hunger.
Has anyone here played primal rage?
Imagine huge sentient dinosaurs that feed on their fanatical worshippers.
Units could be Tribal Humans on the lower caste and Tyrannical LIzarmen priests riding smaller diinosaurs
>Arachnic Centaurs
Driders, Scorpion Folk, you name it, lord over by degenerate cave dwellers, dark elves and whatever else you can come up with
Nevermind misread, i just woke up.
I dont know mang, its not my setting but i think at this point this is a community project
Two good ideas made on the previous thread (which OOP approved of, mind you) were a Native American based civ whose macrounits were massive animal spirits, and a Lovecraftian/Cosmic Horror based civ whose macrounits were tentacle monsters.
Well the most important question we need to ask ourselves is what do we want the overall setting to be like?
Grimdark? Tongue in cheek? High Fantasy? Weird World War? Magitek? Steampunk? Stone Age Fantasy? Sword and Sandals?
Once we decide on an overall tone and theme we can move on pretty easily from there
From the little that was said in the previous thread and from the unit list, high fantasy seems to be definitely implied. From what I've gathered, what the old OP did say was that this is a fantasy setting in which humans (and elves, and vanara, and what have you) have always been ruled by greater beings, and that the different factions (Thrym, Vritra and Anu) have been intermittently openly fighting or simply hostile towards each other throughout most of history, as well as among themselves. Thrym live somewhere cold and Nordic and have a High King, but the various tribes fight and raid among themselves as well. Vritra occupies a large jungle/marsh region and is in a state of "Warring Kingdoms", which would imply that they once had a centralized leadership which has somehow crumbled. The Dragonlords (their unit list makes reference to Clans with its basic soldiers) are thus not unified. Finally, he made reference to the Anu making up something called the "Immortal Court", which is full of backstabbery due to its nominal ruler being an impotent idiot.
Oh, and he also mentioned Anu live in a desert/Mediterranean region and have African-esque mercenaries in their ranks. Overall, fairly stereotypical.
There was also talk of the idea that Anu were originally controlled by some other type of being (demons) and that their magicians turned to undeath as a means of standing up for the little guys. A thousand years later, they've gone completely drunk with power and are now all about the sacrifices and the worship themselves.
Yeah, let's please, please, PLEASE avoid turning this idea into yet another trite old HFY fapfest about humans defeating all the dragons and giants through the power of their endurance hunting or something.
Huge?
P.S. How do I remove the name from the reply function?
I think having one HFY faction would be a good idea, their macrounits essentially slaves, machines, or just giant humans (magic or someshit)
We could swing them as villians and that might be refreshing
If machines, I'm all for the previous idea of steampunk werewolves.
Alternatively, someone in the last thread suggested a faction inspired by occult lore: flying saucers, gray alien like beings, chupacabras, mothmen, etc. Macros being Lovecraftian style entities.
That's certainly not something you normally see in a fantasy RTS.
Question, does the Ark still open if it's destroyed by the enemy, or does need to be specifically unlocked in a certain way by the player?
I didn't write it, but you know, it could actually be an interesting gameplay mechanic if that was the case. To balance it out, make the storm demon inside even more powerful. Since Anu can't control it either, you could seriously mess up their tactics by blowing the Abominable Ark up from afar while it's in the middle of THEIR forces.
>Steampunk werewolves
Oh sweet jesus yes. Yeah so the HFY faction can be more like HUMANITY Ah Fuck. They deposed their greater beings and then fell prey to curses and diseases. Vampirism, Lycanthropy, and undeath spread like wildfire, arcane machinery the only thing holding their society and even bodies together
The "eldritch faction" could be Old Testament angels that are Lawful Good, not Lawful nice
Question, is this meant to be Table top or videuh?
The problem with an undeath based faction, though, is that it kinda steps on the Anu's thematic toes, doesn't it? I mean, if we rearranged the whole unit roster - remove werewolves from Thrym, maybe Hungry Ghosts from Vritra... But then, we'd have to remove like half of Anu's stuff.
Gonna take more thinking to give this new faction a truly unique flavor of its own. I like the dichotomy of (as Penny Arcade put it) "Dapper Werewolves", especially if it turns out they're mechanically inclined, gentlemanly and erudite, but it's gonna take more to give it a true atmosphere like the three existing factions have.
Nonono, these guys would be totally different, thematically.
Anu are Tomb Kings with the serial numbers filled off. Thrym are a mashup of Lord of The Rings and the Nords of Skyrim. Vritra are stereotypical Aztec jungle people.
These guys would be Victorian Grineer (from warframe), or Innistraad mad scientists. They are literally failing apart, like they have soul Aids
>stereotypical Aztec jungle people
Err, Vritra seem to be inspired by a hell of a lot of different cultures, but none of those are remotely Aztec. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, a little bit of China... no Aztecs.
>
>native american faction
Has there been anything solid written for this yet? I could write down a few ideas if not. I'm 1/64 Cherokee, so I'm an expert on this sort of stuff.
Back when this was talked about as an idea for a theoretical RTS, there was a seriously interesting gameplay mechanic revolving around one of their core macrounits, The Mother Spirit (which automatically spawned other units based on the terrain she was placed on). They were supposed to be a highly mobile, hit-and-run faction. Mentioned microunits included braves, skinwalkers, obsidian giants and a bunch of creatures with names I couldn't remember and certainly not pronounce. Macrounits would have been huge spirits: Grandmother Spider, Great Wendigo, Uktena, Thunderbird, etc.
I don't think they got too much of a treatment, so feel free to give it a try if you like.
Not sure how balanced that would be, relying on the Mother Spirits for reliable and quick unit production. Reading the other thread, I could suggest another idea: the villages from earlier can build basic units, plus specialist units depending on the terrain they're placed on/near. The Mother Spirits stay, but they focus instead on macrounit production. Like the villages, they can produce basic macrounits anywhere, and specialist macrounits depending on the terrain.
I'll have more later.
I didn't really read into them. That works fine.
How's about instead of zeroing in on our favorite factions let's establish the setting in broader terms?
Righto. Got a doc set up.
docs.google.com
While we're pitching new factions, I'd be suitably entertained by an immortal faerie court and their dickery. Though their mechanics might step on the native-american faction's toes.
So, rules wise what are our thoughts about unit production mid game? I think it's something that can be handled if we're using the suggested hextoken system. With minimal book keeping, it wouldn't be a huge issue. A lot of the factions unique aspects seem to center around unit production as well, and that's something I'd certainly want to see preserved.
Don't Thrym have the fairy court covered, between their elves, Wild Hunt, witches, trolls, witch trolls and whatnot?
Didn't notice the wild hunt, though alfs are a fair point. I assumed he meant, when he said trolls I figured he meant more the tolkien cave-troll sort. So yeah, I guess they do for the most part. Might make a good place to explore that subfaction idea though.
Especially if, as someone above said, the factions aren't really homogeneous but prone to intrigue and infighting, having some really distinct subfactions aside from a more 'baseline' expression of each could be neat.
>Big, hairy, with cow tails and huge noses. They are versatile and simple to use: they can pick up enemy units to throw around, throw boulders, uproot trees to use as clubs, stomp people to death, etc. They can also hide themselves by becoming supernaturally still and looking like mossy rocks, and with upgrades, cast a few spells which hamper enemy units.
If anything, the Thrym trolls appear to be less inspired by Tolkien and more by pictures like
Huh. I utterly misread that. S'what I get for only showing up just before falling asleep and just after waking up.
I don't know much about SE Asia, but I think we should embrace the weirder elements of each culture that we base our factions off of, like Mandan manhood rituals for the Native American faction, the absolutely bizzare and degenerate stuff that the Nords bought into, like Odin giving dead dudes blowies for their "magic essence"
I'd be more convinced that your intentions weren't to turn this into your magical realm if all your examples of "weirder elements" you'd like to see didn't have to do with cocks.
Unless I'm mistaken Mandan manhood rituals involved putting bone hooks in your fucking chest then hanging by a ceiling until the pain sends you on a vision quest. A lot of Indian tribes where some metal motherfuckers.
The odin thing was a "bad" example but its stuff like that made the ancient world so weird.
Aren't Mandan the ones who tie their cocks up with cord so they'd be forever erect?
I have no clue.
Probably, the ancient world was obsessed with dicks. But besides the fixation with bollocks, what wierd ancient tradition could we translate into the factions?
Forgot to mention, to keep with the "mobile" shtick, the villages can be packed up and moved as the situation requires.
I mentioned it before, and might as well again: I know that we aren't real sticklers for historical accuracy, and I'm totally not doing this out of some misguided offense I think we've done the poor Amerindians, but, you know - do we want to give any proper geographical focus to that faction, or are we really just going for a grab bag of literally every folktale from the continent that we seem to like? I mean, nobody ever does Native American mythology correctly, and there are so many interesting stories from all over it will be a shame to have to give some up just because that particularly obscure cultural tidbit is Mohawk rather than Huron, but it can get ridiculous if out of control. Southwest tribes aren't even anything remotely like Northeastern ones. Imagine the sheer difference between a tribe like the Navajo on one end of the map, and the Aleut on other!
So where are we focusing our efforts?
Eastern + Plains
They're the ones most people think about when they about redskins
Okay. What do we know about their folklore?
They feature both Raven and Coyote? Like the folklore of basically every Native American people?
I think we should take the elements of mythology and culture that we like the most and that fot the overall theme of the faction.
Personally? I would like to have the Injun faction be some of the hardest motherfuckers who are deeply spiritual. The most metal group in the setting. So we'd cherry pick the parts of tribes that support balls to the wall savagery and deep religous beliefs
Headhunters? Men who sought out the heads of enemies because they were spiritually powerful, and could help make up for any spiritual imbalance in their village. Or at least, that's what I remember from the brief class I had back in uni.
Or how some tribes captured people and adopted them so they would take the place of a deceased person in a village. Part of the adoption process involved torture, if I remember correctly.
Or that one tribe that a ceremony where young men would hang themselves on hooks and swing around a pole.
What about an old testament, Abrahamic religion faction? Their macro-units would be angels, though not how modern Christians depict them, or even Medieval Christians. I'm talking the biblical descriptions, where one type of angel is, say, an enormous chariot wheel covered with eyes and constantly wreathed in flame. Or another is a four winged humanoid with the faces of a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle. Special attacks could be along the lines of turning micro-units into pillars of salt, searing them with fire, or unleashing horrible plagues upon them.
This is a faction in which being good is defined as following religious laws and being part of the tribe. And being evil is about anything else... the old testament is super okay with genocide as long as it is being done to those who deny God. Micro-units have a primitive, middle-eastern feel -- slingers, spearmen, charioteers. Perhaps some of the weakest micro-units on their own, but fighting in proximity to their macro-units fills them with holy zeal to beat the odds (think David taking down Goliath).
At in some Islamic Djinns and Jewish Golems and you've got a stew going.
>Or that one tribe that a ceremony where young men would hang themselves on hooks and swing around a pole.
That's what I meant here. >like Mandan manhood rituals for the Native American faction,
And not necessarily headhunting since that is more associated with SE Assia and the Amazon but scalping for sure.
>What about an old testament, Abrahamic religion faction? Their macro-units would be angels, though not how modern Christians depict them, or even Medieval Christians. I'm talking the biblical descriptions, where one type of angel is, say, an enormous chariot wheel covered with eyes and constantly wreathed in flame. Or another is a four winged humanoid with the faces of a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle. Special attacks could be along the lines of turning micro-units into pillars of salt, searing them with fire, or unleashing horrible plagues upon them.
And that's what I meant here
>The "eldritch faction" could be Old Testament angels that are Lawful Good, not Lawful nice
The Anu are like the Skorge from Warmahordes. The emphasis is them being sand and tissue paper assholes. These guys are Doctor Jekyl sympathetic villians. They are a faction of freaks becsuse they had fallen due to their own hubris
Thus far, your Abrahamic faction sounds far too similar to the Anu. That's the problem with using the Old Testament for inspiration: the imagery just all comes from Mesopotamian mythology. They literally already HAVE golems, and their "demons" look like biblical "angels".
Old OP covered A LOT of ground with his 3 factions. We gotta have to get real creative to come up with something completely new.