Urban Fantasy: On Vampires, Part 3

If one know the Vampire, they can kill the Vampire. This isn't exactly easily done but it can and has been done before.

Fighting Vampires

Soul Reaver's Melchiah by Jakub Bazyluk

Generally speaking, Vampires tend to shun open battles. This come as a direct contradiction, since they have been established to be monstrously powerful by themselves but this ties into their mentality. Vampires grow weary with age and they tend to draw a line between a 'hunt' and a 'battle'. A vampire will hunt alone, relying on stealth and manipulation until it can get close to its victim and consume it. On the other hand, an open and direct battle can be bad news for a vampire especially if it is faced with foes that might actually be able to harm it. Most vampires are just plain bastards and would simply rather use their minions to dispose of their enemies, only fighting when they have the upper hand. There is also the fact minions might not share the vampire's weaknesses.

A bloodthirsty or battle-hungry vampire is a monster to face, however. It revel in its raw physical power and will exert its immense strength to brutalize foes, ripping them apart with their bare hands or swallowing smaller foes whole. Others have had centuries to learn hand to hand combat and can unleash strikes which would shatter bones. All Vampires have the following abilities:

• Hardy Nemesis: A Nemesis Vampire has +3 HP by default and receive +1 additional HP every 3 other HD.
• Blood Drain: Any time a Vampire damage a living being in melee (be it with natural weapons or an held weapon) they regain 1 HP.
• Weakened by Sunlight: The light of the sun (and in some cases, a magical equivalent) is the bane of Vampires. Each round of exposure they must make a Saving Throw or become weakened. In this state. they lose half their AC, attack bonus and movement speed. In addition they cannot regain HP in any form. Once weakened in such a fashion they must spend 6 hours in darkness to fully regain their full power.
• Weak to Fire: Vampires always suffer at least 1 point of damage against fire and heat.
• Store Effort: Vampires can exceed their base Effort through the draining of living beings, storing excess energy. Consuming their HD worth of life force grant +1 Effort. Sucking someone and not killing them count as half their HD value.

Name	HD	HP	AC	Atk	Dmg	Move	ML	Ski.	Svs	Effort
Vampire	5	19	16	+5 x2	1d12	20m	9	+2	13+	5 (Base)
Master Vampire	7	32	18	+7 x2	1d12	20m	8	+3	12+	7 (Base)

Each Vampire should be treated as a unique NPC, a major antagonist (or even ally, in some odd cases!) with a name and fully fleshed out personality. Each is a unique monster which has spent centuries refining their powers, developing unique and terrifying techniques which manipulate the stolen life energies of living beings.

Vampiric Abilities

These are but a sample of the dark powers available to True Vampires:

• Rebuke The Light (Constant): As long as the Vampire isn't in combat, it doesn't need to make Saving Throws for sunlight expose. As soon as it begin to exert itself, it must immediately make a Saving Throw or become weakened.
• True Regeneration (On Turn): The Vampire sacrifice 1 Effort and regain 2d12 HP. Should the Vampire use its own 'base' Effort for this ability, it become Weakened.
• Blood Servant (On Turn): The Vampire Commit Effort, creating a 4 HD worth of servants as long as it remain committed. These can be split into any number of servants. These creatures aren't truly alive and mindlessly loyal to the Vampire.
• Charming Gaze (Constant): The Vampire has mild hypnotic abilities. Anyone it interact with (who isn't a Worthy Foe) is immediately friendly with the Vampire. In addition, the Vampire can sacrifice 1 Effort to force someone to take a single, one sentence command. Worthy Foes get a Saving Throw and cannot be affected by this ability more than once per 24 hours.

Urban Fantasy: On Vampires, Part 2

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Urban Fantasy: On Vampires, Part 1

Forget White Wolf or Underworld. Forget Blade, even if Blade 2 is an amazing movie. The modern Vampire is a neutered creature, one which has completely lost its ability to inspire dread. At its core, vampire myths represent sickness, predation, carnal consumption and desires. It combine many primal fears, such as fear of darkness, fear of the unknown and fear of sickness.

(True) Vampires

Vampyre Girl by Benjamin Giletti

They aren't exactly common, which is a good thing: if more of them existed across the multiverse then humanity's myriad incarnations would stand no chance against the night, at least on paper. In reality, Vampires would never truly win or lose: day and night are opposite sides of the same coin, as are life ans death. Vampires cannot exist without human to feed upon and thus the fears of a massive vampire uprising and destruction of humanity are unfounded.

True Vampires are a form of Undead: like other revenants they combine the undying and transformed existence of a deceased human with its mind and will shackled to a near indestructible body which defies entropy. However, True Vampires are more than mere revenants as each of them carries a small sliver of primordial power, passed down from the progenitors of their misbegotten kind. Vampires are not a 'race' but a condition, a state of being and in some ways a mantle. Some Vampires are, of course, as the stories say created by another Vampire following an act of feeding but this is not the only way they are created. As a form of highly evolved and potent undead, it has been known that lesser vampiric creatures can ascend to become a True Vampire, either through being elevated by their master or from stealing/acquiring the primordial essence of a True Vampire. Permanent destruction of a Vampire's essence is difficult and its metaphysical lifeblood, so to speak, can seep into other dimensions, in places or even other beings. Such power is generally left to slowly wither and vanish (over the span of centuries) but cunning undead or even mages of some stripe can acquire this power and undergo a metamorphosis into a True Vampire. To do so requires one to already have a vampiric nature, meaning either a real need to feed on the life force of others (as many Revenants do) or being a truly foul individual whose life has been built on parasitism, exploiting and ultimately sucking dry the life or life fruits of others.

On their Progenitors

The progenitors of the vampiric 'race' are long lost to history and presumed to be destroyed or defeated. This isn't exactly true but it help those dwelling on supernatural matters to sleep more soundly. Their progenitors were spirit-like but not entirely pure spirits. They were creatures of the Primordial Night, embodying things which Primordial Man feared: the dark, the unknown and the predators lurking in the dark places where they could not see. When primordial humans (both in the mythical and historical sense, even if those are in contradiction) gathered around the campfire they told stories of monsters lurking in the darkness. These were no mere myths or tall tale of primitives: these were truths.

Did these myths create vampires or did the vampire create the myths? Nobody knows for certain but it would certainly help explain the Vampiric weakness to fire. Vampires hate the heat, flames and bright light because these embodies both the glow of the sun and the power of fire, which Primordial Man wielded against the dark. The darkness of the vampire is not simply the absence of light, but rather this eerie darkness which brings about fear and isolation. It is less about the darkness itself and more about what we fear lurks inside it.

Vampire Mentality

The vampires aren't the same kind of monster as demons: they don't exist purely to torment. They are capable of kindness and mercy, for one thing but we have to understand that on a metaphysical level, vampires are to human what we are to what we call cattle. It is in their fundamental nature to be predators, even if that predatory urge can be tempered by what remain of their humanity.

Fortunately they are lazy creatures. As they age and lose more and more of their humanity, they slink away into torpor and prefer to rely on their minions as they grow disconnected from the world. There is a great sense of boredom and confusion in the vampire's mind, which is fortunate. They simply do not 'get' our world anymore, a world which has become so disconnected from this fear of predation and darkness. A world where light can be commanded to appear with the flick of a finger. However should a vampire not feel so disconnected from our world...then this is where they become a threat to humanity again. A select few of their kind adapt: dark forests and cave become dark alleys and sewer. The animal form of the predator is replaced with inconspicuous urban vermin.

However one must remember that these are not the erotic, foppish vampires of modern pop culture: while they might be able to fake it, underneath all this is an alien intellect and a primordial hunger. These creatures, these modern predators, are extremely cunning and utterly ruthless: if they manage to grasp human society, the modern mentality and how everything 'tick' then they become expert manipulators. They become like spiders at the center of a very, very complex web and at any time that spider can slowly walk up to the fly and gobble it up...

Vampire Cults

Titan Flesh Cult by
Antoine Lataille

It is not uncommon for these vampires to form cults, although they wouldn't really be recognized as such as not all of them are religious in nature, at least not on the surface. However, functionally these are very much 'cults' for purpose of an urban fantasy and/or horror story. The people there live to serve the vampire as their master, their god sometimes: they just don't call it a 'God' but its all the same. They gather in secret, speak in codes and surrender themselves body and soul to the need and the agenda of their vampiric master. Some are debauched sex cults (granted, this is rare: most vampires lack any kind of sexual drive) while others center around drugs, with a vampire controlling a part of a city's drug market and using the money it can make purely to cover its tracks, as they generally have little need for anything money can buy.

Some Vampire Cults are more directly dangerous: as Vampires are 'free agents' (beyond their own alien needs, anyway) those with a desire for power can accrue a wealth of supernatural favors and trinkets, trading them with spirits, demons or stranger creatures yet. Such a fully formed vampire cult become more of a witch coven than anything else.

Five Monsters Setting (D&D 5e Creature Codex edition!)

Maybe Ten Monsters is too much. That is what Luther Gutekunst thought when he made a Five Monsters setting. Time to jump the bandwagon again! This time, its for D&D 5e and it use the Third Party book Creature Codex.

Semi Intelligent: Ugly, misshapen brutes from an age even more barbaric than the current one. They are the descendant of old gods of yore, of primordial times and animal savagery tempered by a foul mixture of human blood. These creatures are Troll-Kin.

Undead: Those damned fools who attempt to use magic are cursed and become creatures called Elophar, controlled by many spirits. Their bodies twist and grow as the many spirits bloat its corporeal form.

Mythology: Just as magic is considered a 'crime' among the barbaric lands of the world, so is cannibalism. Murder, theft and other brutalities can be excused but not the consumption of flesh. Such an act has been done before on the Giants of old and it twisted men into monsters. In turn, so does eating the flesh of other men turn one into a Wendigo.

Giant/Ogre/Troll: Hunted down to near-extinction, their bloodlines all but extinct safe for the Troll-Kins, the remaining giants are the ancient and decrepit guardians of their once primal holy sites. Their flesh is withered (yet they are neither dead nor undead) yet their blood vessels pulse, boil and glow with the unbridled power of dead titans. Beware the Blood Giants.

Extraplanar: The only Outsiders come from beyond the world and are known as Living Stars. Each star in the sky is a supernatural being with its own unknowable goals and purpose. Each time one has descended it gave birth to a new religion...

I'd run this with extremely low magic as horribly brutal 'tribal fantasy', a subset of sort to Sword & Sorcery.

Game Concept: Monster Slayers(?)

Oh look, its yet another Amateur Dungeoneer post where Bob Something outline a pretty cool concept for a game and odds are end up never running it. That's my life people: too many unbaked ideas and even those that I do end up baking there is a good chance I'll never run them. Especially what with being (as of writing this) busy with both urban fantasy and my attempts at learning to run modern D&D just for the sake of it. Granted once I'm happy with that one and got a good-sized group that mean the JRPG game will start so...wish me luck?

I'm a guy with too many ideas for games and not enough time. Some people claim they got groups running weekly or twice a week and have been running and playing in multiple games for years on end. Me? I ain't so lucky because I can't align my schedule with anybody and it fucking sucks. Anyway enough ranting into the void of the internet.

Monster-Slaying Videogame/Anime

The God Eater 3 cover.

There's a certain genre that's been present in videogame and anime which I find is quite gameable as a concept. This is the genre found in the likes of God Eater, Attack on Titan, Kabaneri, Terraformars or even the likes of Persona 3, Symphogear or even X-COM (for a non-Japanese partial example). These are the 'monster slaying organizations' and its very much a genre when it come to anime and videogame. The key elements of the genre are:

• Humanity is under siege from some force, which is (usually) monsters of some kind.
• This battle is near hopeless, with humanity constantly losing ground or achieving at best some kind of stalemate to fight another day. The overall tone is either bleak or one of defiance. "Rage, rage against the dying of the light...."
• There is an established organization which hunt and destroy these beings. This organization is a useful plot device to justify why humanity has access to gears and the infrastructure to even put up a fight.
• In Japanese media, the characters are teenagers because that's just what anime does. Usually there's some in-setting justification. Which brings up the next point.
• Often the characters are enhanced in some form, possibly at the cost of their humanity and/or lifespan. There is often a risk of some form of corruption.

Its both a very specific genre but also one which has quite a bit of breathing space within the concept to allow for some interesting elements. What we have is a pre-existing, built-in reason to fight monsters and risk one's life. There is also a built-in method to allow characters to join together and even have something akin to hirelings (in this case, rookie squad members) and an easy way in for replacement characters when someone dies. Now in anime, usually the protagonist has impossibly thick plot armor but in tabletop this doesn't apply and make things more interesting.

The concept itself is quite interesting while at the same time very much drawing from similar roots to the many games I've ran before, ranging from Dungeons & Dragons (hunt and fight monsters, get loot) to Dark Heresy (investigation, horror, madness and dying to keep the light alive) to Adeptus Evangelion (same thing but with more anime and giant robots!) and of course that mecha game I ran last year. In many ways it is the non-mecha successor to that game, refining on what did and did not work there.

Game Concept

Playing God Eater Resurrection and XCOM2 has really given me ideas on what I'd want to do with such a game and how it might work and play out. The above points are more or less unchanged, with the following additions:

• The character's weapons are somewhat ridiculous, making use of the admittedly insane imagery found in the likes of God Eater, Monster Hunter or even RWBY (even if that show is garbage and has some of the dumbest shit ever). These are big, stupid impractical weapons driven purely by a juvenile sense of 'cool' and that is okay. Its the point.
• The initial batch of weapons are semi mass-produced and while they function off the same absurd principles which the monsters (and the player character) abilities use, the initial batch of weapons are relatively basic mechanical contraptions which can be produced in enough quantities to allow a squad to be armed and for any new character to get his or her starting weapon.
• More powerful and/or unique weapons fill a role similar to magic items and are created from the remain of monsters, intertwining their flesh and/or essence with technology to create a more powerful weapon. These weapons could end up 'locked' to a player character but I'm not sure yet.
• Weapons make use of the mode-switching found in God Eater and the likes. By default, this could be ranged and melee but I could see other options such as a mix of melee or ranged with a shield mode or maybe even a mode that become a static weapon emplacement.
• Basic abilities (granted what count as these is still up for debate) are simply part of the characters while more advanced abilities and even gear require resources harvested off monsters. Presumably this would mean adding a small 'tithe' to a squad's action as some of it is donated to their organization both for a mixture of research, fueling as well as making a small stockpile so other squads (or even the same squad) can use it later.

Character classes (or their equivalent) would probably be built more around fighting style rather than something closer to Fighter/Mage/Thief even if there might be an option or two more geared toward skills, I suppose. In general, each character should be at least able to do the basic stuff and hold their own against the weakest enemies when separated from the group.

Monster Design

One clear deviancy from the more bare bone, basic statblock of (most) OSR games is that I'd take more cues from the more abstracted or crunch-heavy statblock of monsters found in games like D&D 4e or 5e, with abilities less geared toward being basic and more being about what that technique does within the limited confine of a battle. This wouldn't be for every monster of course, but anything big enough to be a decent challenge to a squad is going to have more going for it than just an attack bonus and some damage.

Yoon-Suin: Additional Monsters

Goatman's Goblet posted an expanded list of traditional monsters for Yoon-Suin. This is my own addition to a list I wholeheartedly agree, with monsters taken from a variety of other games and given a reskin of some kind, in the vein of this texgolem post. The truth is, just about any monster works in almost any setting with some quick re-skinning.

Gudul Lurker by Christopher Burdett

General Fantasy Monsters

These are creatures found in most fantasy RPG based off the original. Their stats are expected in just about every bestiary if they are 'open game' or, if not, there is probably a suitably copyright-compliant version in there which is suspiciously similar to the version which is copyrighted by a certain company. The Basic Fantasy and Labyrinth Lord monsters were the main pool which inspiration was drawn from.

• Ghost-Kin of Lahag (Bugbear): Some say they are the souls of the lost reborn in a twisted body. Others say they were the people of Lahag, before the jungle swallowed it forever. Others yet say they are children which ventured into the wilderness and were adopted by ghosts. Bent, twisted, feral humanoids with pale skin and shaggy discolored fur. They wear feral masks and no one know what's behind it. Often found as worshipers of some spirit of some kind.
• Vikarâ (Caveman): Found around the Oligarchies and slopes of the moutains are all manner of tribes, some of human some of older, pre-human beings. They are an isolated lot, primitive and distrusted. Some have shaggy fur, others have horns and other still are covered in scales. They never speak and some believe they are from an older world. The truth may never be known.
• Moon Apes (Girallon, Option A): The Girallon of the Purple Land are found upon the slopes of the Mountains of the Moon and look like huge, four-armed macaque with russet fur. The adult males have deep red fur and oversized fangs. They mate during specific lunar events, which occur every few decades. In the months before the event, the males with grow in size and aggressiveness. Some believe they are intelligent.
• Jungle Beast (Girallon, Option B): These are four-armed bipeds, something they share with their stat block. And that would be just about it, as the jungle beast is a creature living in Lahag and is best described as a toad and a locust in the rough shape of a four-armed biped. It is unknown if this creature is a unique specimen or if it is a whole species.
• Giant Beastmen (Stone Giant): Called many things which only roughly translate to 'giant beast-men', these are creatures found around the Oligarchies and Lower Druk Yul. They have skin akin to that of an elephant or rhinoceros, three-fingered hands and feet and rows of spikes growing along their spine and shoulders. Males have very long tusks, which they decorate.

Red Tide 5e: Classes for Human

I realized that last post was too focused on class restriction for races other than human without really giving a clear indication of where I wanted to take the option for human. While it would be very easy to just shrug and say 'sure, they can do everything' this isn't as interesting.

Human Classes (by Nation)

By default, the human have the most option in classes. That's just how it is because generally speaking in fantasy we tend to treat human as the baseline and the every man. Less specialized around a certain theme which define their inhuman nature and more what skills they can pick up. However, this is still a bit boring so I've decided to narrow it down a tiny bit more to make some of the various human nations in Red Tide stand out a bit more.

• Humans can be Fighters, Rogues, Monks, Wizards and Clerics (with generally some restrictions on what God they worship and thus on their domain). They have access to the options found in the Player's Handbook. However, if one intend to keep the Elves a bit more unique then it could be worth it to remove those Fighter and Rogue sub-class who learn spells.
• Eirengarder add to their options the Paladin class. These are the holy, anointed knights of various religious and military orders dedicated to The Maker. Their Paladins generally take either the Oath of Devotion or the Oath of Redemption.
• Kueh add the option of the Samurai Martial Archetype. In addition, those who serve the Hell Kings are known to become Paladin of the Oath of Conquest.
• Skandr add the option of the Barbarian and Bard, the latter of which are much more common among their kind than 'regular' arcane spell casters.
• The Eshkanti, Gadaal, Imperials and others don't particularly have any strong thematic leanings and as such could be open to a variety of Wizard sub-classes to represent more unique spell casting traditions (Gadaal, for example, are very fond of Divination). Various options found in Xanathar's Guide or even third party and/or homebrew can work too.

Cleric Domains

One key thing in the Red Tide setting is that human have a connection with the divine which other races lack. This is obviously a byproduct of Labyrinth Lord and the fact the Cleric class isn't available to other races because they don't have classes. Their race is their class but obviously this is rambling about shit everybody knows. As such, Divine Magic is entirely the purview of the human (and the Shou but that is for another time).

The Nine Immortals

The Nine Immortals are the 'main' deities of the Red Tide setting but they are a little more complicated than simply being just nine deities. In many ways, they remind of the Sovereign Host of Eberron (down to their number!) crossed with the realities of how the myths and beliefs of the Indian world, China, Japan and neighboring countries have mixed and matched through syncretism and the fusion of various religion and philosophies. They exist, having Clerics who do cast spells, but my understanding of them is that they are not quite singular entities and more that each is a portfolio of key ideas and concepts created from absorbing other myths.

• Kusha the Red Goddess: War and Protection
• Fa Chia the Yellow God: Order
• Mimasa the Blue Goddess: Knowledge and Arcana
• Sankhya the Gray God: Peace
• Shinrai the White God: Grave
• Kega the Green Goddess: Travel
• Tendai the Black God: Trickery and Entropy
• Hesika the Vermillion Goddess: Love and Madness
• Inren the Purple God: He seemingly has no Clerics outside of Cleric who worship the entire Pantheon, being the God of 'blank spaces within schema'.

Currently there are no Domains which fit enough of the portfolio of each of the Nine Immortals so that leave them in this current state.

The Skandr Gods

The Gods of the Skandr are noticeably more simplistic than the complex history and theology of the Nine Immortals. My 'headcanon' of sort, for the Skandr Gods, call upon the idea of the Aesir-Asura correspondence, making this pantheon uniquely composed of Asura, which is what I've renamed what Red Tide call the negative emanation of a deity a 'Devil'. In this case, the Skandr Gods aren't evil as much as they are wilder, following a path of passion rather than restraint.

• Sifr: Tempest and Travel
• Anghad: Life and Forge
• Hjal: War and Strength

The Maker

Unique among the people of the Sunset Isles, the Eirengarder are monotheistic. While it would be easy to just shrug and say a Cleric of the Maker has access to everything I've instead chosen to focus on their imagery as hardened warriors and battle-priests as well as the more classically OD&D image of a Cleric as some kind of templar or crusader figure in both the more positive aspects as a stalwart protector of the weak as well as the negative aspects of zealotry.

• The Maker's domains consist of Life, Solidarity and Zeal.

Red Tide 5e: Race Conversions

Continuing off my 'mood' of D&D 5e and branching away from OSR, I've brought back from the grave a scrapped post written in 2018. These are my notes for converting Red Tide to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

Races (and Race-Based Class Restrictions)

The 'core' races of D&D are all already represented in Red Tide given that it was written to work with Labyrinth Lord. The ever-iconic setup of humans, elves, dwarves and halflings are all represented in a form which is both extremely familiar and iconic yet still unique to the setting. With the exception of the Drow (who lack any equivalent in Red Ride), the subraces of the elves/dwarves/halflings could seamlessly exist as variations without much need for a retcon: the elven subraces of High and Wood elves are simply different Elven Creed while the dwarven and halfling subraces could very much exist within the setting as distinct cultural groups who may or may not be noticeable to outsiders. Alternatively these may simply be abstractions of the rules representing variant racial traits and not distinct sub races much like in the case of the elves.

Red Tide-Accurate Class Restrictions

As an option to make the races a bit more accurate to what is presented in Red Tide, the following class restrictions would apply:

• Elves can only be Rangers or Wizards as well as Fighters and Rogues but only in those sub-classes which learn spells, such as Eldritch Knight, Arcane Archer or Arcane Trickster.
• Dwarves may only be Barbarian, Fighters or Rogues and cannot use a sub-class which learn spells, such as Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster. They can, however, channel the primal power of Barbarians through their connection to their ancestors.
• Hafllings can only be Fighters or Rogues and cannot use a sub-class which learn spells, such as Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster.  One possible option, to allow Halflings to do a bit more, would be to allow them to be Monks of some form. Certainly, Halfling ninjas are a scary thought.

Of course while this works just fine for OSR systems like Labyrinth Lord or Basic Fantasy, nowadays people tend to expect a lot more option for their characters.

Alternate Spellcasting Options

Under this system, the restrictions are similar to those outlined above but they open up each race to a few unique origins for the Sorcerer, allowing each race to channel the unique origins and powers of their kind in ways ordinary Human and Shou Wizards cannot replicate.

• Elves function as above, but add to their option the Sorcerer with the origin of Ultimate Magus origin, representing an Elf with the peak potential for the arcane they have acquired, combining innate magic with several lifetime of wisdom and intellect.
• Dwarves, under this option, do have their own form of Wizardry which is unique to them: the Ring Warden from the Deep Magic: Ring Magic third party supplement from Kobold Press. These Dwarves have learned to cast magic through the forging of mystical rings of gold. Meanwhile, Dwarven Sorcerers can call upon the powers of the deep Earth through some of the options found in the homebrew called Yorviing's Sorcerous Grimoire: Children of the Earth. The origin called Deep Earth works well for such a connection.
• Halflings are a little harder to pin down, which might just be a fitting trait. That and their luck, which brings me Yorviing's Sorcerous Grimoire: Children of the Strange has an origin called Lucky One.
• Warlock Class: Here is an interesting one which both change the Red Tide setting while also fitting in very well. If magic is an internal process, born of a mixture of one's own soul and geomantic energies which demi-human races struggle with (except those damn smug elves...), even assuming the addition of their rare in-setting spellcaster class options, then what about the Warlock? Much like Clerics they derive their magic from an outside source. As it happen, it is said the Demi-Human of Red Tide shunned the Gods in some form or another but...what about other patrons, hmmm? Food for thought...

Contentious Races

Not everything is as easily translated to fitting in Red Tide as the core races of D&D. These are either races which exist within the lore and fluff of Red Tide but with some unique twist/traits which don't line up with core D&D 5e (such as Half Elves and Half Orcs) or races which don't exist but are now part of the D&D core races (the Tieflings).

Half Elves

In the Red Tide setting, Half Elves are not a naturally-occurring crossbreed but rather what happen when an elven soul is born to lowly mortal flesh: physically (mostly) human but spiritually elven. Now due to the race-as-class mechanics of Labyrinth Lord, the Half Elves of Red Tide are by default a bit...weirder...than your ordinary Half Elves. As a result there are a few loose ways to imagine them for 5e:

• Option A is the most boring which is to simply use the Half-Elf stat line and say that it represent these strange half men/half elven beings. They would have restrictions similar to Elves. However this is boring.
• Option B is to represent them with the Sorcerer class, more specifically the Wild Magic option which would be uniquely available to them. They could use the racial stats of human, elves or half-elves depending on what seem most appropriate. The Half-Elves are an odd case of a race more associated with their class when converted to 5e.

Tiefling

The default presentation of Tieflings as humans-damned-and-twisted-by-infernal-powers requires very little tweaking to fit into Red Tide as they would be the descendants of humans whose ancestors made dark deals with the Hell Kings. While there could be some enclaves of pre-existing Tieflings (some of which who may in fact be Shou-Tieflings!), a new generation of Tieflings could have been born in the Kueh lands as those who worship the Hell Kings sought their blessings such as the birth of mighty demonic champions. Yet these creatures would still be gifted with human souls and as such could very well turn against the very forces which created them. Kueh Tieflings could be called Majin or Akuma if one feel like being a weaboo draw from the Japanese influence found in the Kueh.

Tellus: Assembling the World, Piece by Piece

So I've got (some) races, an implied status quo of sort of their relationship and finally hints of a general metaphysics of the setting. So clearly this would imply me method here is to make a more fleshed out and realistic universe for characters to inhabit, right?

Well, not really. At least not completely.

While I'm all in favor of solid, consistent and in-depth worlds (when its usable game material anyway) some sacrifices must be made when taking into account the worlds which JRPG tend to be set in. In general, while there has to be internal consistency (or else you get a clusterfuck of a story) the world is always somewhat second to the 'rule of cool' and a story which is generally around PG-13. Yes, many games do handle very mature themes but most of their story is spent generally around the level of allegorical and in service to a fun adventure rather than getting bogged down into extremely complex geopolitics, history and society. As previously outlined, JRPG took many cues from the likes of Star Wars and more specifically the original trilogy (aka 'the one people like') which was far more focused on telling an interesting and enjoyable hero's journey than being bogged down in the complexity and volume of the massive and sprawling universe these movies told us exist but that we only briefly see.

In addition I'm taking cues from this, even if I expect my work to be not even a tenth of that quality.

The Goal and Structure

Running a tabletop campaign inspired by the likes of JRPG, especially those of past generations such as pre-XI Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest. Chrono Trigger and others in that style.

• The JRPG elements are the stylistic choice. I'm well aware that running a tabletop game which is 'like a JRPG' would in actuality be very boring, railroady and filled with insane amount of grindy combat. However there are stylistic elements to this genre which are very recognizable to those who played them.
• The Disc One system. Basically, I suck at sandbox games, I really do. However there's a lot of good to be found in sandbox style. The 'Disc One' system refer to the first portion of the game's 'story': mixing a bit from sandbox, pointcrawl and other styles this is the part of the game where the players go around with their much more 'down to Earth'. They could be part of some resistance faction, mercenaries, airship pirates or whatever. This period is a bit more freeform and akin to more ordinary tabletop fare.
• Disc Two is when things shift into a different gear. By that point, the setting, NPC, characters and other matters should have been suitably well established. This is when the mandatory big JRPG final boss begin being hinted at and how his (or her) actions begin to affect the world as they start their quest/master plan which will culminate in some 'save the world' plot.
• Much like what Hmm Marquis outlined, each location should be as unique as possible. Yes there would be thematic and aesthetic similarities in all Ulma or Zhulen cities but I like to think I've made each race unique and interesting enough to allow for such a wide variety. For example, Ulma city tend to be either small towns with an 'early game JRPG' feel or fortified cities. How each city is built, fortified and ruled varies. Meanwhile the Zhulen city are open, crowded but also high on low-level magic...but also likely to erupt into violence, ranging from hooligans to bar brawls. Sky-Folks cities are all isolated and aerial but beyond that could vary immensely in culture beyond their 'cloistered hidden elf village' shtick. In addition this is very much in line with JRPG who love their weird locales and set pieces.
• Each location should have some unique challenges and/or enemies. When it come to enemies this is a no-brainer, as JRPG almost means to expect wide enemy variety. As such it is perfectly fitting within the style of the genre to ensure each locale has a crop of enemies. Not only can the environments affect which monsters appear but there is ample room for enemies themed around certain monster categories like 'fey' or 'undead' and have this tied to the location.

The reason for this structure is obvious: on one hand I need that type of plot for the JRPG feel. On the other hand, committing to a massive world-shaking plot right from the get go has some issues. For one thing it lead to too much railroading. Second there is a strong possibility that whichever character I set up to be the long-last villain might not work or be enjoyed by the group.

Thus, the 'Disc One' phase is dual purpose: on one hand it absolutely is part of the campaign and should live up to the same standards as everything else but on the other hand it is not a rail road. It give time to introduce various elements and test them out. If this was a videogame it would be the series of shenanigans which tend to populate a JRPG's first few acts before the sheer immensity of the world-saving plot occur. Of course in a JRPG a player doesn't have the freedom as these are very linear games but at the same time the characters within the story do have a choice in theory even if the game plot doesn't let them have one. So, there you go, simple explanation: if this was a game the player would not be able to deviate from this plot but its not a videogame. Thus whatever options the players at my table DON'T take would be, if we look at it in a 'meta' way those options the player holding the controller lack.