Campaign Design Notes 3: Pylean Trolls and Humans

I'm not sure that players should get to decide their heritage if they are humans coming from Pylea. Obviously, if they are not from Pylea, they are there as slaves. Perhaps a random chart would do good for character creation, and those who are slaves receive the Disadvantage(s) associated with that.

1 Slave
2-3 Rebel
4-6 Freeman

Pylean Human
4-pt. Quality

Natural Toughness (AV 4) +2
Nerves of Steel +3
Mild Cruelty -1
Humorless -1
Minority -1
Getting Medieval 2

Pylea is a beautiful world whose horror only becomes apparent when things like the Drokken (Encyclopedia Demonica, p.67) are near; otherwise, it is very much like Earth. There is a very good chance that I will use Talislanta for Pylea. I am definitely using The Arcanum for a lot of system conversion and mixing-and-matching (although I am also using the SRD5.1_CC).

I haven't made-up my mind on the other races and species available to PCs, but I'm thinking the Bast is a good one (WitchCraft). There is also an Archetype for a Troll Hunter in one of the main books and Trolls are a 6-pt. Quality detailed on pp.138-139 of Monster Smackdown. 

In fact, Trolls should closely mirror their society of that of the Gathwok and Deathwok Clans, using their Trollhounds the way the 'wok Clans use their Hellbeasts (Encyclopedia Demonica, p.13). Now that the Gathwok Clan has lost most of its power - make no mistake, they are still in charge for now - Trolls and their society will gradually shift and morph into whatever they make of it. Despite their obviously non-human appearance, they too have been enslaved for many years without having realized it, and may find more in common with other races than they ever had with the demon Gathwok Clan.

Catching and taming Trollhounds, to the extent that they can even be tamed, is a noble profession amongst Trolls and one of the most likely ins to a Trollkin character and Trollkin society. Even without the influence of the Gathwok Clan, this will remain a staple of Trollkin society for some time to come, as they cling to few "traditional values" to create a tapestry of culture from whole cloth.

Hopefully, eating humans is a tradition they can let go of quickly; they do not need to feast on human flesh to survive the way a vampire or some demons do, it is just a bad habit they picked-up (as a species) along the way. Few Trolls are born with the impulse to eat humans, although the somewhat justifiable rumors persist.

Trolls, as a rule, have little interest in reading although they do produce shamen (Witch Doctors). Their stunted Intellect, as a race, precludes serious high-level study, although it does not preclude a superhuman Intelligence; Troll magi and CEOs are rare. From a meta-perspective, Trolls work best as tanks and heavies, although nothing strictly limits them to these roles.

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