Pellatarrum: Crunchy Bits for PC Races

I've been running a Pathfinder game set in a modified* Pellatarrum since the summer, and over the course of it I've realized that some mechanical changes need to be made to PC races to fit them into my setting.

* Modified because the players didn't completely grok the whole "Church of Light/ Cult of Dark" thing, so I just ruled that the old gods were killed but the heroes of the four Elder Races became the new gods as a result of creating Pellatarrum. I lose some flavor this way, but it means I don't have to re-write a lot of stuff and there's a lot to be said for ease of implementation.

Note: the following rules apply to standard examples of their race. Player characters or notable NPCs may deviate from these standards.


Dwarves

• Replace Defensive Training with Deep Warrior. 

While I am sorely tempted to give dwarves Damage Reduction 5/Piercing to reflect their elemental origins, I fear that this is just me being a dwarf fangirl. If I did do such a thing, it would replace both Defensive Training and Hatred.

Elves

• In addition to the regular Pathfinder modifications to ability scores, Pellatarran elves receive a +2 to Charisma and a -2 to Strength.

Elves are graceful and smart and beautiful. Elves are not strong, nor are they tough. There is a reason why their racial weapon proficiencies are based around weapons which use dexterity. If they need strong, tough warriors, that's what humans and half-elves are for.

Gnomes

• Replace Keen Senses with Blended View. 
• Replace Defensive Training and Hatred with whatever you like.

Gnomes were created by elves to be an ambassador race to the dwarves, so having both low-light and darkvision is reasonable. They also don't hate kobolds like traditional gnomes or go to war with giants; most Pellatarran gnomes live with or near human settlements, so pick something that replaces defensive training and hatred to make your gnome more interesting. 

Halflings

• Replace Halfling Weapon Familiarity with Hatred: Goblins.  Please note that this is just goblins and not goblinoids, meaning there is to bonus to attacking bugbears, hobgoblins or others. Since this reduces the usefulness of the trait, the bonus is increased to +2. 
• Replace Lucky with Lifebound. 
• Replace one of the skill bonuses (Acrobatics, Climb, or Perception) with Detect Life 1/day and Detect Undead 1/day. 

I actually wanted to do so much more with these guys, but I didn't want to turn them into a race of Mary Sues.

Half-Elves

• No changes at this time, although players should consider the traits Elf-Raised, Human-Raised, and Kindred-Raised to develop their characters.

Half-Orcs

• Replace Orc Ferocity and Orcish Weapon Familiarity with Human-Raised
• -- OR-- 
• Replace +2 to one ability score, Intimidating, Orc Blood and Orc Ferocity with Orc Atavism.

This is essentially "Choose which culture in which you grew up." Half-orcs raised by orcs ought to be very different from half-orcs raised by humans.

Humans

• No changes at this time.

Orcs

• Replace Light Sensitivity with Dayrunner.

Pellatarran orcs are creatures of fire, and as such suffer no ill effects from bright light.

Kobolds

• Pellatarran kobolds must pick a scale coloration. 
• In place of a feat they may become Dragonbreath Kobolds.

Kobold PCs are weaker than PCs of other races. Giving them +1 natural armor and a 1d8 breath weapon that takes 1d4 rounds to recharge in exchange for a feat goes a long way towards making them playable.

EDIT:  I had forgotten that all kobolds had +1 natural armor anyway. So 1 feat to allow them a 1d8 cone or line elemental attack every 2-5 rounds seems incredibly fair to me, given how they have -4 Str, -2 Con and +2 Dex. There needs to be some reason to play a race like this, and for me that reason is for people who are fascinated with dragons and want to play one.

Memento Mori Corolla Cari

Well, it finally, more-or-less, kinda-sorta happened.

The little red deathtrap I'd previously written about has just about bit the dust. Kicked the bucket. Bought the proverbial farm. It is pining for the fjords, shuffling off of that mortal coil, running down the curtain and joining the choir invisible.

In short, the Corolla's had it. It likely wasn't even the stress of actually driving it the meager 14 miles a day, 5 days a week to the new job. Not a week before my interview, it refused to start. I called one of the only people in Albuquerque that I know and got a jump-start. It died again halfway to the Firestone a mile away, at which point we jumped it again. $500 and 2 days later, I had a new battery and starter, and it felt fine again. A month later, and here we are again.

I was leaving work about 10 days ago, and it was a normal evening. The temperature was a hair under 70, which feels quite nice here in Albuquerque, and the setting sun was painting the sky with smears of all manner of reds and purples. Heading east and uphill, I noticed the lights on the dashboard didn't look right. The brake and battery warning lights were both on.

Breaking all etiquette of the road, I pulled out my phone and googled "brake and battery light on" and was dismayed that the likely culprit was a failing alternator, especially as Firestone had tested the alternator when I brought in the car a month prior. I called them back, and ended up dropping off the car for them to look at first thing in the morning.

Turns out, the alternator might not have been the culprit, but to even test it properly, it would have to be replaced. A fuse had blown in the small fuse box attached to the positive battery terminal and melted the entire assembly. Which they don't sell and can't seem to find anywhere.

Frankly, the Corolla just isn't worth repairing anymore. There's too much wrong with it. But it did come along when I needed it most (just after my divorce, and getting back on my feet), saw me through a few relationships (especially interesting was the sex fiend who loved the way the car vibrated when idling) and evacuated me from at least two hurricanes. It's time to put it to rest.

Ladies, gentlemen, and multiforms, with all that said I present you my new ride:

Free Candy!

Yep. That's a 99 Ford Econoline. It started life as a Budweiser delivery truck. As I'm told, Budweiser took the van to a mechanic one day, said "Fix everything" and the mechanic said "OK, done, here's the bill." Budweiser didn't want to pay the bill, so he kept it. No rims, tinted windows in the front, no windows in the back. There's a cage behind the front seats. It's packing a Triton V8 and sits higher than a short bus. It's also entirely anonymous, as nearly everywhere you go, you'll see one just like it. It was originally intended as a stop-gap between the Corolla dying and whatever new car I can finance with the new job, but it's really started to grow on me over the past week.

I think I'm going to keep Free Candy, the Great Beast of Black Mesa for now.

I'm not sure Erin has convinced me to actually paint the words "FREE CANDY" on the side yet, though.

Editor's Note: Actually, I want him to paint it to look like this:

https://imgur.com/gallery/I3k9faY

Musings on Mobility

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" 
-adage dating back to WWII, originating from the New England area

Maybe it's my upbringing in an Army family. Maybe it's my love of Doctor Who with his raggedy, outdated, always-breaking-down ship-in-a-box. Maybe it's that I don't have that great of a day job, and can't afford better.

I have a 25 year old Toyota Corolla that vexes me. Say hello, Corolla.

Hello, Corolla.

I realize that may seem contrarian to complain about a thing that I like, but that's me. A car is a necessary thing, and while I am perturbed to no end with my own, it's a bit vital considering that I don't live in a coastal city with a bustling mass-transit system and (outside of some time spent in Boston) I never have. But I have lived in flyover country for most of my life, and in the majority of that flyover country things are pretty spaced out and mass transit just isn't a thing that exists.

Having this car is both a blessing and a curse. After I was divorced I had no car and no home, and I was basically homeless while I couch-surfed for a few months. I managed to cling onto my job, and by the new year I had an apartment and, a week later, this car because a friend from work was selling it for $600 to pay the insurance premium on his new car.

I'm not the most responsible car owner, so I can't say that it's in exactly the same condition as when I received it, but it's still running. I got it at about 130,000 miles, and it's now just over 160,000. In Toyota years, that's apparently not even middle-aged, but it spent the first decades of its life in a swamp, which took its toll.

The laundry list of things wrong with my car includes, but is not limited to:

• The right turn signal only works in the front. And that's after changing the bulb. 
• The shock absorbers are completely gone. I'm not just talking potholes; if I run over a manhole cover or even a seam in the concrete, I feel it. It's basically a horse-drawn cart at this point. 
• There's a crack in the windshield that grew quite a bit, but thankfully hasn't grown in a year or two now. 
• One of the tires needs replacing. Badly. 
• Opening the hood requires either a counterweight or a second person, with one lifting while the other hits the hood release inside the car. 
• The windshield wiper fluid reservoir snapped and fell on the fan belt at one point, which sawed a giant hole in it, requiring removal of the reservoir and replacement of the belt. 
• The passenger side arm rest has fallen off. 
• The rolly crank thing (no idea what it's called) has fallen off the window crank on the driver's side. 
• There was a popping noise when turning to the right. I had this diagnosed at a mechanic, and they said the wheel bearings and front axles had more rust on them than they'd ever seen. I ended up paying more to replace these parts than the car cost. 
• After this repair work, the car pulls to the right when accelerating. 
• If you can call that accelerating. 
• When I got the car, the AC only worked on settings 2 and 4. Settings 2 and 4 have since stopped working. 
• There is no radio. It was stolen when I was living in Texas, and I can't figure out how to hook up the factory radio, and even if I could 3 of the 4 speakers no longer function. 
• Due to fading and peeling, the car is roughly 5 different shades of red. 
• There are various dents, dings, and bent panels. Only one of which I contributed to, when a Ford F350 ran over the car when backing out of a parking space. 

Smile for the camera!

Despite all this, my car refuses to roll over and die completely, which is a source of frustration for me. Affording a new car would be difficult, but is completely unjustified when this one still technically works. Were I either more financially well off, or more mechanically inclined, this wouldn't be an issue as I'd either just buy a new car or fix what's wrong with this one myself. I mean, I've got a fan right now that's making weird noises in my computer, and I know all I have to do is go to Best Buy, spend seven dollars, rip the old one out, plug in the new one, and that problem's fixed.

But this. This frustrates me.