Big Mac wrote:Do you have a topic for either of those adaptations? It would be interesting to see what you are up to.
Nothing definitive yet.
It will be for Labyrinth Lord, as the guys who want to play this campaign are classic 1E fans.
I am in the process of adapting the demi-human races to something more Africa-oriented; no such races exist in African legendry, so I am adapting and adopting.
Irinrin (dwarves, literally "iron men") were created by Ogun. When Ogun first went to the mortal world to teach humans metalworking, he found that he had more people to teach than he had time, so he created assistants out of iron and iron ore, brought to life through his own blood. They were large men, like himself. Over time, however, they grew prideful, and sought to build their own kingdoms with humans as their servants, so Ogun literally "cut them down in size," to the size of dwarves (though still very stout, still very strong, and now mortal, if very long lived). Iron Dwarves have iron-gray skin ranging from shiny hematite to dull iron to rusty red and all the varieties of naturally-occurring iron. Hair is usually rust red, and usually only a beard. Dwarves reproduce by creating their own son out of iron, then investing their blood (and one or more levels) into bringing him to life. Long ago the Iron Dwarves discovered they could create okutarin ("stone man") sons; the Stone Dwarfs are much better at mining, while Iron Dwarves are masters of smith-craft.
Iwinrin ("ghost people," an analogue of sorts for elves) are the spirits of the dead. In this campaign world, humans have three parts to their non-physical body: the psyche, spirit, and soul. At death, the soul joins with the Ancestors or even the Gods if worthy; if unworthy, the soul is condemned, usually eaten by a foul demon. The psyche usually fades after time; this is the part of the soul necromancers use to animate the dead, or combine with spirits or demons to create a true zombie. The spirit, on the other hand, wanders the mortal world invisibly, usually gravitating over time to the wild lands where only beasts can be found, often the forest or caverns. There it joins the masses of other spirits, usually fading into the land itself, or less often reincarnating... but sometimes more rarely remaining, if it was a "strong" soul, and eventually forming a body of; shimmering, glittering ivory white, with white eyes and hair. These ghost people fill the same niche as elves elsewhere; they sometimes remember their past life, and cares, but often become consumed with hunting an revelry and the care of the wild lands they inhabit. Sometimes they are helpful to their mortal, flesh-and-blood relations, other times inimical. Forest ghost people tend to be friendlier, cavern ghost people more inimical; the ghost people become reflective of the lands they inhabit. Sometimes ghost people go into the inhabited lands for adventure, or to seek out the mortal family and friends they once knew. They can even marry, and have children; these "ghost-born" (half-elves) have white hair and eyes, and are known for being capable of powerful magic.
Oborin ("monkey people," halflings); imagine if halflings were descended from colobus monkeys, still had most of the fur, and had one upon a time tricked Anansi so remarkably that he granted them the wish that they could use their tails like hands (old world monkeys do not have prehensile tails, but Oborin do). Rather than rustic farmers, oborin are paramount gatherers and gleaners of the forest, which they view as their grandmother; in inhabited areas, they make little more than trouble, as monkeys are wont to do (i.e., they are much like Kender, but not nearly THAT bad). They are very superstitious, as they fled their original homeland, the depths of the Kongo, where terrible Old Magic has once again awakened and brought about an inhuman realm.
Gnomes are probably going to be a "humanoid" variant of the Gambian mongoose, or some similar burrowing creature.
Still got a long way to go; I'm still building the alt-history and adding/adapting in the new fantasy elements, such as the pre-human kingdoms, Atlantis, and so forth...
