LetsBuild5e:Questions

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History and Mythology

Which of the following propositions do you support or oppose?

1: All gods have flexible genders, depending on context.
2: The gods have many names - several for each culture in which they're worshipped.
3: The humans and orcs of the Old Imperial culture and its successors in the magocracies mostly depict the gods as heroic orcs and humans, except that the Trickster is usually shown as a dark elf or other non-orc, non-human.
4: The steppe tribes avoid direct depictions of the gods, and instead depict their regalia or other inanimate attributes.
5: Traditional dwarvish culture holds that a god may be depicted in any form, but it is the written or carved name of the deity that makes it a meaningful depiction.
6: Traditional gnomish culture favours ostenatious and complex depictions of the gods, often using heroic statues completely covered with names, praise-names and hymns to the relevant deity.
7: The halflings use a system, developed by the steppe halflings, where each god is represented almost exclusively by a simple pictogram derived from the steppe tribes' symbolism for the gods.
8: The predominant elven culture is iconophobic: direct depictions of the gods are forbidden - even their names are only written in specific contexts - but songs and recitations are used widely to refer to and praise the gods.
9: It is unknown to non-dragonborn whether the dragonborn even worship the same gods as the warm-blooded species.
10: The insect-people have a lifestyle that is mysterious to outsiders: it appears highly ritualised, but no conventional religious observance has ever been noted.

Geography

Which of the following propositions for filling out the map do you support or oppose?

1: The starting city is in the triangle at the southwest corner of the map, between the mountains, the hills, and the edge of the steppe.
2: The starting city is in the centre of the map, between the two large river forks.
3: The starting city is by the smaller river fork in the north of the map, close to the mountains.
4: The elven trade capital is at the most northerly of the river mouths in the northeast corner.
5: The elves have a separate administrative capital where the second river down passes from the hill country to the coastal plain.
6: An independent nation has its capital at the river fork at the extreme right centre of the map.
7: The nation of Wáyéhì speakers where (some of) the central bard colleges are is about two map-widths east of the northeast corner of the map.
8: The mountain orc kingdom is the triangle in the southwest corner, and has its current capital on the river, halfway from the foothills to the falls.
9: There are small dwarf-majority nations (with dragonborn enclaves) along almost every river as it passes through the foothills on the eastern side of the great mountains.
10: The cloud-ringed peak in the northwest is believed by the locals to be the world's highest mountain, and is revered as an axis mundi.
11: Beyond the mountains to the west is an extensive basin-and-range system with many salt lakes and pocket deserts; it's not widely known how far beyond it the next ocean is.
12: The steppes are about one map-height wide; in the far south they turn to tundra and taiga, beyond which is a high ice sheet.

Politics and Society

How prevalent are the various PC classes?

Players have 19 points each to assign to the 12 classes in the Player's Handbook.

Miscellaneous

Which of the following propositions do you agree with?

1: Barbarian totem warriors revere fey nature spirits who manifest as animals.
2: Barbarian totem warriors revere semi-divine ancestors who embodied specific virtues.
3: All monastic orders are philosophical in nature; none of them specifically reveres a spirit or deity.
4: The Four Elements monks were outlawed by the magocracy along with the bards.
5: The Four Elements monks were covertly backed by the magocracy to provide spies and street-fighters.
6: Druids worship nature as an abstract force.
7: Druids are the leading clergy of one or more minor nature deities.
8: A lot of Moon Druids are elves, especially wood elves trying to promote natural forest growth.
9: A lot of Land Druids are halflings, trying to make the land more fruitful.
10: The Paladin Oath of the Ancients is usually administered by the druid circles.
11: The Oath of Righteousness is usually made to one or several gods.
12: The Oath of Vengeance isn't really fully understood by anyone - it's on a par with oracles for 'mysterious spiritual stuff'.
13: The Bardic College of Valor stems from the Old Empire, and is heavily dominated by orcs and half-orcs.
14: The Bardic College of Lore is an ancient organization, claiming descent from before the last flip, and has very stringent requirements in order for a member to be declared a "master".
15: The Barbarian Path of the Berserker is whispered to be a curse from the Elder Dragon God on the unruly children of the younger gods, twisted into a blessing by the barbarians. If they did not go mad from time to time, it is said, all humanoids would be slightly more prone to anger and violence, which might be enough to push civilization over the edge.
16: Fighters with the Champion Archetype usually hark back to the great martial masters of the Old Empire, who devoted their lives to becoming superlative masters of one form of fighting.
17: The Mage Guilds created the Eldritch Knight Fighter Archetype, training the most intelligence of their mercenary leaders with some magic as well.
18: The Way of the Open Palm monk order is originally an elven tradition, teaching its adherents to achieve enlightenment by eschewing all unnecessary material possessions, which includes teaching them to use their body alone as the greatest weapon. The drow took the teachings to the steppes with them, however, and now many small monasteries on the steppes teach this art as a means of furthering self-reliance.
19: The Arcane Trickster rogue archetype is very new, having developed in the years leading up to the rebellion as dissidents tried to learn arcane magic to defend against the wizards.
20: Wild Magic origin sorcerers are extremely new and rare (as opposed to draconic bloodline sorcerers, who are common as dirt). The Wild Magic origin sorcerers just started showing up within the last year, after the rebellion. Most people think of them as just something new and weird, but some elves claim they're an omen of bad things coming, linking them to elven legends about the fall of their empire on the other side.
21: The Oath of Vengeance is generally understood to be a twisted blessing from the Trickster on those who swear revenge with sufficient passion.

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Open for discussion

History and Mythology

Which monsters are culturally signficant?

Geography

Are there volcanoes and earthquakes in this setting?

Politics and Society

What do people think about "adventurers"?

(Question from Kelly Pedersen and Metal Fatigue)

1: It's not only considered deeply, deeply weird to make a job out of getting in trouble, people actively dislike adventurers because they only show up when there's trouble, or else to screw up the local economy by dumping a hoard of old coins and other valuables onto the market.
2: People have adventurers, but people think it's deeply, deeply weird to make it your job. Almost no one does.
3: It's recognized that you can make something of a living as a wandering problem-solver and tomb-raider, but it's pretty uncommon. People may look at you suspiciously.
4: It's a reasonably common profession, at least in relation to its risk. No one's very surprised when you tell them you're an adventurer, though they might mention they'd never do it themselves.
5: It's such a common occupation that it's at least somewhat formalized - there are adventurers' associations who help their membership, shops that cater specifically or even exclusively to adventurers, and other elements of society designed around them.
6: It's a full-blown cultural institution. There's a Guild of Adventurers, the leaders of nation have Official Questors, and you can go to Adventurer's School to learn to be the best adventurer you can be.

Miscellaneous

What features and facilities does the starting city have?

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Geography

How many other nations immediately border the starting nation?

Politics and Society

How do thieves' guilds fit into the setting?

(Question from Metal Fatigue)

1: Every city has one; they enforce a monopoly on crime by means of violence.
2: Some cities have organized thieves' guilds, while others do not.
3: "Guild" is a misnomer—they're more like criminal gangs, competing for territory.
4: Most crime is unorganized, with gangs or "guilds" covering only specific rackets (such as protection).

Miscellaneous

What rumours are current?

(I've italicised the element of each rumour that would need to be true; the rest could be true or false.)

• According to street gossip just before the revolution, the mages were planning to raid the city's cemeteries to turn the bodies into undead labourers.
• According to the popular interpretation of a recent gnomish apocalypse, the sides of the world change places when the gods are sickened by mortal civilisation, and let chief-fiend wreak chaos.
• According to popular superstition, bodies that are not properly buried in hallowed, marked graves can rise as mindless undead; when the flip approaches, this happens everywhere at once.
• According to the elvish irredentists, the flip is brought about by cultural weakness, which is why it is so urgent to re-establish the elven empire without the flaws it possessed before.
• According to someone in the tavern there are several villas in the city which have not been opened since the mages who owned them died in the revolution; they could be full of treasure, or just magical traps.
• The steppe nomads will not accept silver coinage; according to rumours in countries further north, that's because many of them are lycanthropes.
• According to a half-elven sage, the world flips sides because the gods cannot control it; their pact with chief-fiend prevents them stabilising it properly.
• According to gossip among former mage students, the world flipped because someone spoke its true name in the Divine Language; be careful with your Old Mystic in case you do the same thing by accident.
• According to a bard who left town last week, the half-orc woman who calls herself the heir of the conqueror is only missing one piece of the imperial regalia; she'll pay handsomely if anyone can get it for her.
• According to a drunken elf who had to be prevented from jumping off the wall, the dwarves have already begun abandoning their holdings in order to begin the journey to the far side.
• According to a ragged preacher who wanders the slums, the insect-people have betrayed the warm-blooded races; the earthworks will not stand.

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