Dungeons and Dragons headcanon thread

[CT_Phipps]

Pretty much what the title says. From all of Dungeons and Dragons history, settings, novels, spin-offs, and more, you share what is your headcanon to make sense of it all or have fun with it.

Movie(s) included.

 

[CT_Phipps]

Generic D&D

* Kobolds are scaled canines, hardly the weirdest thing out there, and absolutely no relation to dragons whatsoever. Their worship of Tiamat is tolerated by the Five Headed Dragon because, I dunno, why the hell not?

* Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Bugbears are all actually variants of the same race.

+ Humans, giants, and ogres are the same but strangely NOT dwarves, gnomes, elves, or halflings.

+ Humans are actually the halfling variant of the giantkin.

* There was a human racial God but Asmodeus killed him. It wasn't the one you're thinking.

+ Bahamut provides the spells for Medieval Christian themed universes. What these means is anyone's guess.

+ The Abyss is actually the body of Tharizdun, Overpower of Chaos and Evil. The reason is it's infinite is that it's moving through his nightmares.

+ The infinite number of Demons is due to Tharizdun's injuries and blood producing them.

+ The Blood War is basically to keep Tharizdun bleeding and injured until they can figure up a more permanent solution, which they haven't in five billion years.

+ Asmodeus is not the ruler of the Nine Hells but the servant/mouthpiece for the Serpent. The Serpent is the manifestation of the Nine Hells.

+ Indeed, all Planes have an Overpower.

+ The Lady of Pain eventually let the Factions back in but with EIGHTEEN rather than 15 to fit the Rule of Three.

+ Vecna escaping Ravenloft was part of an elaborate plan involving the Serpent, the Dark Powers of Ravenloft, and other beings who let it run wild.

+ Ravenloft was designed as a prison for Tharizdun's followers. They have fully escaped due to Vecna's actions and that's why it has become the Shadowfell. This is actually canon according to Monte Cook and was hinted at in Masque of the Dead Death.

 

[TJS]

Dwarves evolved on an alien planet with high gravity - that's why they're short and stocky.

They created their mining complex because they needed Uranium to power their spaceship to leave the planet. They didn't delve too deep; they had a reactor meltdown which forced them to abandon their home under the mountains. The monsters that now infest their mines are eldritch horrors from other dimensions attracted to all the radiation.

Also all dwarves are clones of the same 47 descendants of the original crashed spaceship. They stopped having children due to radiation induced sterility and the danger of any further inbreeding.

 

[Fritz]

I started playing before there was much lore but I had a few ideas to make sense of a few things.

We had four "planes". The Material, The Immaterial (astral), a liminal space in between (Ethereal) and the Void outside (Abyss).​

Eons ago two factions of powerful godlike entities were at war. One from the Material (mostly Lovecraftian critters) and one from the Immaterial. In a desperate moment the Immaterials commissioned one of their number (Tharizdun) to create the Forge of the Abyss to make demons to fight their little cosmic war. The Immaterial won (mostly). The gods of the material are dead but dreaming, the gods of the Immaterial, in shame and horror at what they created, imprisoned Tharizdun and his demons in the Void and then promptly disappeared.​

That's what I remember for the moment.

 

[CT_Phipps]

RACISM!

Yeah, that got your attention, didn't it? There's actually a consistent treatment of species relationships in the Dungeons and Dragons universes like Oerth and Toril. In the 1st Edition and 2nd Edition periods, humanoids were treated like vermin. Elves, dwarves, humans, and halflings got along but half-elves were treated like crap. Third Edition had a bunch of cosmic upheavels with Vecna and the Time of Troubles and Spellplagues.

Fourth Edition and Fifth Edition have had a reevaluation of this kind of attitudes with the drow becoming more prominent in societies (due to many refugees escaping to the surface as well as the breaking of the "curse" on the drow that made them stuck below) as well as orcs receiving less "kill on sight" treatment among other humanoids.

Now you can see orc mercenaries in bars and living semi-peacefully among other humanoids. For long lived species like elves and dwarves, this can be vefy disconcerting.

It's also why elves are increasingly getting the assumption they're racist snobs (and because they are).

 

[Akrasia]

I pretty much ignore anything related to the World of Greyhawk that is post-Gygax (1983 gold box version, plus modules up to his departure from TSR).

I've come up with my own "lore" about certain aspects of the setting (e.g., the Mage of the Vale and the Valley Elves).

More generally, I typically don't use dragonborn, tieflings, warlocks, sorcerers, or "new" things like that in my games.

 

[CT_Phipps]

I pretty much ignore anything related to the World of Greyhawk that is post-Gygax (1983 gold box version, plus modules up to his departure from TSR).

I've come up with my own "lore" about certain aspects of the setting (e.g., the Mage of the Vale and the Valley Elves).

More generally, I typically don't use dragonborn, tieflings, warlocks, sorcerers, or "new" things like that in my games.

To be fair, Tieflings are 2nd Edition.

I also feel like Dragonborn are just Draconians.

 

[Akrasia]

To be fair, Tieflings are 2nd Edition.

I also feel like Dragonborn are just Draconians.

2nd edition? Still too recent for my tastes!

(Actually, I'm fine with them in Planescape. I just don't think they belong in the World of Greyhawk, at least not as a "standard" option.)

 

[Silverlion]

My setting (and head cannon):


Orcs are corrupted humans, yes they're evil because they did something horrific near fetid magic pools and are cursed--they don't age, they don't reproduce, and they do form a society of sorts, but it's not a healthy one. Goblins, Orcs, hobgoblins, and ogres are all orc sub-variants, bugbears are another name for hobgoblins (and sometimes ogres)


Dwarves are essentially alchemical/rune robots--sure they're flesh and blood because of alchemy but they're made with magic and of iron (mixed with other metals), they survive because they CAN duplicate themselves but it's not fast and so there are never immense numbers.

The first elves are humans modified in the womb by their magical ancestor to fit those people's idea of a superior species--problem is that civilization is long gone, elves don't know this but they reproduce mostly with one another because other species don't get their fluid relationships, partially because of their enhanced beauty and the fact they were created to avoid "petty" issues like jealousy. (It's not like they haven't learned, but it's less common.)

Trolls are a fungal lifeform--Shambling mounds are a variant 'brood' parent and they all have mushroom-like textures to their flesh (but because magic did it they're inedible by all life.)

 

[VisionStorm]

Some stuff that comes to mind includes:

• Kobolds don't exist.
• Dragonborn don't exist.
• Tieflings are plannar creatures or found only in worlds where demonic forces are prevalent.
• Alignment don't matter. Stuff like "Protection from Evil" protects against Demons or inherently evil creatures. Other alignment related stuff simply doesn't exist.
• Fiends/Demonic creatures are just "Demons". There's no fine distinction between Demons vs Devils.
• All Elves are full-blown fey. I know this has slowly become the case over the editions, but for me it was always the case before it became official.
• Dark Elves have brown skin. Some Drow had brown skin in early art and my main dark elf character from back in the day was brown skinned cuz I found it sexier, so they've always had brown skin (maybe black/charcoal, never blue) in my game, despite any controversies about it.

 

[Vile Traveller]

• Dwarves, gnomes, giants, kobolds, trolls, and ogres are subspecies of giant. Kobolds are evil little dwarves with tails.
  
  
• There are no halflings. There were, but they were so small and weak and annoying they were wiped out aeons ago. They're just a legend now, but it's a stupid and pointless legend so mostly it just shows up as a kids' story.
  
  
• Generally, every human becomes some sort of undead after they die. That's why cities are overrun with the buggers at night. Still, it means the catacombs don't have to keep expanding - lots of vacant slots.
  
  
• Most dungeons were originally purple worm tunnels. As we all know, "these huge and hungry monsters lurk nearly everywhere beneath the surface of the earth". They're not like earthworms, they don't leave wormcast. Who knows what happens to the rock and soil and adventurers they eat, but they leave behind nice, smooth, 10-foot diameter tunnels wherever they go. Eventually they'll eat the whole planet. Like Gatchan, only more slimy.
  
  
• Troglodytes are the degenerate descendants of the snake people who built the lower levels of the Underworld. If you go deep enough you'll regret running into them. They think your idea of civilisation in in very bad taste.
  
  
• Of course, if you go really deep, you head into mythos territory. All bets are off.

Tieflings, by the way, are awesome, even if TSR stole the idea from my head. I had an idea for a character with some demonic ancestry far back, and I pestered my referee until he let me play him in his game (early 80s). No mechanical effect, but if the light caught him just right you could see the tiny scales he had in lieu of skin. Didn't last long, but in B/X who did?

 

[Telok]

* Aboleth are the adult form of mind flayers. The mind flayers don't know this. The tadpoles don't require implantation to become mind flayers, that just makes it faster. Mind flayers have a massive cultural taboo about eating each other's brains subtly implanted by the aboleth, because that's what triggers the final transformation.

* During that transformation another aboleth can import a genetic command/requirement that the new aboleth will be totally subserviant to it. The aboleth are therefore a giant genetic slavery pyramid scheme.

* Without the influence of the aboleth the mind flayers are just annoying geniuses with psychic powers and a mildly inconvenient nutritional requirement for nervous tissue. Isolated settlements just turn into semi-hippie communes/quasi-buddhist monastaries that eat lots of animal brain sushi and contemplate the mysteries of the universe.

* The elder brains are just bio-machines that function as psychic radar/switchboards. The mind flayers don't really defend them or anything. They make great targets for wandering murder hobos because they're supposedly "scary" and "important". When the elder brain goes down all nearby mind flayers know to bug out.

* Outsiders, the non-trivial not-a-mook ones, are really just normal people playing a highly advanced MMORPG. The universal telepathy is the chat function. They don't care about death because they respawn. Their planes are 'infinite' because new instances of areas get created at need. Their weird behaviors are because if they're out of 'base' then they're doing a 'quest'. Maybe they've got a "kill 10 liches" or "corrupt 50 humans" mission.

* Every so often PCs get weirded out when major angels & demons show up but don't fight. They just hang out thinking telepathy at each other and commanding minions. It's a non-pvp server. The whole "blood war" is just a big non-penalties fight arena zone to go play and practice in.

* Naturally, the mods are the gods, and PCs are just little bits of code.

Edit: almost forgot. Kobolds really are vermin. Really they're just mutated hairless rats. Anywhere the start to breed true they begin just overpopulating and utterly destroying the ecosystem with a rapid breeding cycle of under 2 years.

 

[CT_Phipps]

There are no halflings. There were, but they were so small and weak and annoying they were wiped out aeons ago. They're just a legend now, but it's a stupid and pointless legend so mostly it just shows up as a kids' story.

Pfft. That's just what the halflings want the humans to think. Better to pick your pockets and squat in your house.

 

[Silverlion]

Halflings are animal persons--they're 'half' people, (both in size and nature) as others see them. They're more animal than Japanese Cat-girls, but less so than most full-blown furry art furries. They are descended from the familiars of the big-bad sorcerers responsible for dwarves, elves, and such, though more through crazy magic that happened after those ancients died. Kobolds are just reptilian halflings and aren't really easy, just lazy by nature except for food.

Demons/Devils are different but the same. Devils are just those old nasty sorcerers condemned to live in hell/whatever horrid place for their evil that let to bad magic cataclysm--because yes they were evil, so evil they can't exist here anymore except for brief moments. Devils manage to keep their mostly human forms, Demon are those who said eff it and embraced the horrors of their new existence.

Elves/Humans/Dwarves/Halflings have a bunch of different nationalities that have formed.

Since orcs don't reproduce, half-orcs (which have another name) are really just orcs who have turned to pursue redemption.

The first Dragons were the sapient atomic weapons of the ancient sorcerers, the fact they can and did reproduce created the lineages you know today. (Originally there was just THE Earth Dragon, The Fire Dragon, and so on.) Tiamat is a mythological construct created by people trying to understand where dragon's colors came from.


Basically, my major setting is a Post-Apocalyptic result of the last nigh-Transhuman magic war. (None of this is true for my other settings either )

 

[Fritz]

Pfft. That's just what the halflings want the humans to think. Better to pick your pockets and squat in your house.

Wasn't there a setting where halflings are all secret cannibals or did I dream that?

 

[CT_Phipps]

Wasn't there a setting where halflings are all secret cannibals or did I dream that?

Dark Sun.

And they're not secret cannibals, they're overtly tribal cannibals.

A lot of settings felt that gnomes and halflings were redundant so they added their own spins on them.

World of Warcraft's steampunk gnomes come from Dragonlance.

 

[Rogerdee]

Method 1
The gods do not have any kind of overplane (like in DC), rather they exist on their world of origin.

The beings that exist on a sort of Overplane are cosmic beings.

Then all the individual planes, are small like in Magic the Gathering, usually solar system sized.

Method 2
I would steal from M&M & Modern Age: Threefold - in that there is a universe coupled with parallels, other spaces - but also some side dimensions which might run on magic (Magic Worlds), or Mythic Worlds (the gods live there and are all positively corporeal), and maybe some Hell dimensions.

Then each and every different version of DnD would be its own parallel universe.

 

[AsenRG]

All PC-race humanoids are just human ethnicities with prevalent traits (and yes, nobody gets darkvision).
Elves and dwarves have been genetically modified to be better adapted to certain work, as entertainment and security, respectively. If they revert, you get humans.

Halflings explicitly don't exist, because I find them distasteful. Same for gnomes.

Tieflings are subject to a kill-on-sight policy except among certain sects. Growing up among those sect is a sure-fire way to guarantee that most tieflings' actions are completely in line with their reputation.


OTOH, I like TJS radioactive dwarves!

 

[Simlasa]

I've never engaged much with D&D lore or settings... BUT, I do collect miniatures and one of the first ones I ever got as a kid was a minifigs representation of Iuz, from Greyhawk. But the type on the package was wonky and I read it as 'Juz'. He became a major villain in a lot of my early worldbuilding and continues to show up in games I run... though I've only recently read up on the canon lore about Ius. My guy Juz is purely mortal, but corrupt and focused on becoming some sort of posthuman archmage.

 

[Fritz]

I've never engaged much with D&D lore or settings... BUT, I do collect miniatures and one of the first ones I ever got as a kid was a minifigs representation of Iuz, from Greyhawk. But the type on the package was wonky and I read it as 'Juz'. He became a major villain in a lot of my early worldbuilding and continues to show up in games I run... though I've only recently read up on the canon lore about Ius. My guy Juz is purely mortal, but corrupt and focused on becoming some sort of posthuman archmage.

In my Greyhawk Iuz is more of a Rumpelstiltskin or early medieval devil than the Sauron-esque he latter became. Hanging out at crossroads doing inscrutable dark deals and other evil stuff. I also seem to remember he was quite the incompetent villain in the Gord the Rogue novels.

 

[CT_Phipps]

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves

* Edgin has a "Quiet Casting" ability and is constantly casting Feather Fall, Suggestion, Friends, Charm Person, and other things without somatic or verbal components.

* Doric has a Ring of Wild Shape which doubles the number she can do per day.

* Sofina is a Lich and has to deal with her master's ire when she returned her soul jar.

* Xenk was a DMPC.

* The cast of D&D: The Cartoon traveled from their homeworld to a Dungeons and Dragons world then through a portal to the Realms. It is very confusing.

* Holga's weird thing of showing up at Edgin's house, living there, and raising his child with her is because they were adventurers together before his marriage. That was even more of a digression before. Also, she'd just broken up with her boyfriend and needed a place to stay.

(Not the halfling one - no, this one was a gnome)

* Edgin had a father-son relationship with Forge Fitzwilliam. Mostly because Forge may be his father. He's not sure, though.

* The Harpers actually pulled for Edgin to be pardoned.

* There's a certain dramatic irony that he probably could have just asked for the Tablet of Resurrection.

 

[CT_Phipps]

The Cartoon

* Venger was the canonical first Tiefling in Dungeons and Dragons.

* It's set in the Realms during the Time of Troubles.

* Tiamat's avatar is less than pleased to constantly get beaten up by a bunch of kids.

* The kids' parents all became caught up in the Dungeons and Dragons Panic of the Eighties.

* The kids never get home and break ranks with the Dungeon Master due to the fact the latter knew a way home from the very beginning.

Ravenloft

* Fifth Edition Ravenloft is canon but there's no retcons, it's just changed due to events within the Demiplane of Dread.

* Viktra Modenheim is Mordenheim's adopted daughter, brought back from the dead and who overthrew him.

* Falknovia's overthrow by the living dead was brought about by one of Vlad Drakov's daughters overthrowing him.

Forgotten Realms

* Bane is actually permanently dead and he's being impersonated by his son, Xvim.

* Xvim is actually becoming so distinctly Bane-like that it doesn't really matter, though.

* Myrkul is also being impersonated by Velsharoon as the God of Undeath.

* The same results with Bane, Velsharoon has become indistinguishable from Myrkul.

* Bhaal is dead-dead but his name has been added to Cyric's titles.

* The Bhaalspawn remains a god of good and nobility.

* Mystra let the Spellplague happen as part of a larger move that destroyed the Shadow Weave and weakened Shar dramatically.

* Mystra gained so much power from the century of darkness (due to people being afraid as well as reverant of magic) that she resurrected all the gods slain in it.

* The Zhentarim drove out Fzoul Chembryl and Manshoon due to their constant scheming idiocy. This resulted in the new leader of the Zhentarim, Ashemmi and Semmenon, introducing a new policy, "We work for money, not world domination." Ironically, they're now richer and more powerful than they ever were seeking the latter.

* By contrast, the reason that Szass Tam rebelled against the Zulkirs and destroyed most of Thay by turning into a necrocracy? It was because he was offended by them gaining so much power via merchantalism.

Why?

Basically because Szass Tam is this guy.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19895361/IMG_3015.jpg

 

[AsenRG]

Just as a note, this thread is making me think that setting exposition might gain from providing bullet points summaries...

 

[JAMUMU]

GENERAL HEAD-MUSINGS

• Kyuss is the coolest evil god
• Vecna & Kas are locked in a love/hate BDSM relationship that sometimes threatens the Prime Material
• There is no Blood War, tis silly and I reject it categorically
• Half-Orcs were always just orcs: "Yeah, no no don't worry, I'm one of those *half-orcs* that speaks common and likes beer!"
• Halflings were the only optional race, Gnomes are hard-coded
• The Assassin class always already existed in 2nd Edition, as did the Illusionist
• The Forgotten Realms is a theme park/sports arena for ascended-entity gambling cartels

DARK SUN

• The Water Cycle still happens on Athas, just no one mentions it
• Half-Giants can have animal heads
• Some of the Sorcerer-Kings lean a lot more Oz The Great And Powerful than anyone wants to admit
• Gladiators. Are. Just. Fighters. With. Fans.
• PC Templars are fine

SPELLJAMMER

• Athas is a really popular destination for bespoke "Adventure Tours" offered by elite jammers to their elite customers
• There's an elite para-society that exists where level 20/20/20/20 folks hang out with dragon psionicists and divinities and "play at" D&D; the main factions in this society are the Gamists, the Narrativists, and the Simulationists
• The cyclical, repetitive nature of most settings is a programmed feature that allows a complex ecology of betting and side-betting to exist
• Push out far enough, and you'll find most any setting that exists

THE CARTOON

• It's a fucking cartoon and Venger's shadow demon was the coolest thing about it

 

[CT_Phipps]

Gladiators. Are. Just. Fighters. With. Fans.

Depends if they're bards. Some gladiators are all about killing. Others are about working the crowds ala Professional Wrestlers.

Just as a note, this thread is making me think that setting exposition might gain from providing bullet points summaries...

I always do when I switch to a new edition.

 

[JAMUMU]

Depends if they're bards. Some gladiators are all about killing. Others are about working the crowds ala Professional Wrestlers.

As far as I remember, the Dark Sun Gladiator was pretty much just a fighter with the Unarmed Specialisation and whatever the Armour Optimisation was.

 

[VisionStorm]

As far as I remember, the Dark Sun Gladiator was pretty much just a fighter with the Unarmed Specialisation and whatever the Armour Optimisation was.

They also had proficiency in all weapons and could use weapon proficiency slots to specialize in more weapons. I was about to yell at you for your comment about them originally, but thinking back about it, Gladiators were pretty much Fighters on steroids. Only thing Dark Sun fighters were better at was attracting followers, which Gladiators did as well, but Fighters got more, IIRC. So you were mostly correct.

If I was gonna make a Gladiator in a skill-based/freeform system, they're be identical to how I'd build Fighters, only with more points sunk into them.

 

[JAMUMU]

They also had proficiency in all weapons and could use weapon proficiency slots to specialize in more weapons. I was about to yell at you for your comment about them originally, but thinking back about it, Gladiators were pretty much Fighters on steroids. Only thing Dark Sun fighters were better at was attracting followers, which Gladiators did as well, but Fighters got more, IIRC. So you were mostly correct.

If I was gonna make a Gladiator in a skill-based/freeform system, they're be identical to how I'd build Fighters, only with more points sunk into them.

Yeah but didn't fighters also have proficiency with all weapons and could specialise? That was the 2e fighter's thing, specialising. Not trying to nit-pick, I just found the Gladiator the most underwhelming of the new Dark Sun classes. It was a fighter with nary a change. Totally underwhelming. It could have gone down the road that CT_Phipps hints at, which one of the unofficial 5e conversions took. No selling one damaging strike a fight, using performance as a combat ability etc. But no. Underdone.

 

[VisionStorm]

Yeah but didn't fighters also have proficiency with all weapons and could specialise? That was the 2e fighter's thing, specialising. Not trying to nit-pick, I just found the Gladiator the most underwhelming of the new Dark Sun classes. It was a fighter with nary a change. Totally underwhelming. It could have gone down the road that CT_Phipps hints at, which one of the unofficial 5e conversions took. No selling one damaging strike a fight, using performance as a combat ability etc. But no. Underdone.

Yeah, but no. Fighters in 2e had to spend WP slots to get gain proficiency in weapons, then spend extra slots to specialize. Fighters didn't automatically get proficiency in all weapons till 3e, where all warriors gained WP in all weapons automatically. But 2e required you to track which weapons you didn't get a penalty to hit with. Gladiators were the only 2e class that got WP in all weapons automatically. In current editions, they'd be super hard to differentiate.

I actually used to feel the opposite about Gladiators because they were so powerful compared to Fighters, and there was so much cool art surrounding them. But looking back at it, from a game design point of view they were just overpowered versions of Fighters who could do everything a fighter could do, only better.

 

[AsenRG]

Gladiators (...) were just overpowered versions of Fighters who could do everything a fighter could do, only better.

Well, admittedly, this part had some basis in fact!

 

[JAMUMU]

One of my fave gladiator factoids is that between fights they'd do advertisements. Like "Do you wish you had a trident like mine? Check out Chuck's Tridents down on Caesar Street!" or "Sick of faulty pauldrons? Get a right tight fight over at Rex's Discount Armour Optimisation! You'll wish you did!"

Ridley Scott wanted to use it in Gladiator but thought modern audiences would think it was some sort of postmodern meta-commentary.

What has this to do with AD&D? Well, I'd let gladiators use Charisma to sell stuff to their opponents, nixing the need for a fight after a few rounds. "Wish I'd missed? You need the balance of Dave's Balancing Stones! Tell them Grodmax sent you and get a 10% discount!"

 

[CT_Phipps]

General

* All of the changes to various editions actually have in-universe ones that don't always make sense but are still there.

* Dwarves used to be incredibly taboo about magic and had banned its practice via the decree of Moradin's Temple throughout their races. However, Moradin had his life saved by a human god of magic (probably Mystra or Wee Jass) and overturned that practice.

* Halflings and other nonhumans were once banned from being trained as paladins by what amounts to just racist practices by the various knightly orders. The Gods of Good intervened when some races showed they had the heart for it (and more precisely, desire).

* Level limits were once divinely imposed on races to prevent them from destroying the world with magic like humans (who had no gods to do so). The realization that humans were going to keep doing it anyway meant those limits were removed.

* The way bards are trained was fundamentally changed between generations as a Renaissance of magical instruction was instituted. A de-emphasis on thievery and fighting for a focus more on spellwork has aided them greatly in becoming considered, "fighters or thieves who sing."

(Edgin is a 2nd Edition Bard and thus finds the whole thing silly)

* Drow became more prevalent on the surface due to the fact that Lolth's particular insanity inspired more to seek it out. This resulted in a somewhat softening of racial stances to them. Drow are still, by and large, evil but most of them are no more evil than your "typical" evils of the surface.

* Tieflings, Dragonborn, and Goliaths becoming incredibly common is due to Asmodeus rising to power, mass migration of wyrmkin, and the slow disappearance of giants to intermingling with humans.

 

[TJS]

They also had proficiency in all weapons and could use weapon proficiency slots to specialize in more weapons. I was about to yell at you for your comment about them originally, but thinking back about it, Gladiators were pretty much Fighters on steroids. Only thing Dark Sun fighters were better at was attracting followers, which Gladiators did as well, but Fighters got more, IIRC. So you were mostly correct.

If I was gonna make a Gladiator in a skill-based/freeform system, they're be identical to how I'd build Fighters, only with more points sunk into them.

From what I remember they had less and different followers at higher levels.

 

[Armchair Gamer]

I have two Dragonlance headcanons. One of them is an elaborate construction that the 'gods' are mostly ancient dragons who came to Krynn near the dawn of its history and seduced the inhabitants into worshipping them, and most of what's known about Krynn's history since then is a mix of lies and half-truths until the dawn of the (alternate) War of Souls. The other is a Tolkienizing approach you can find in the appendix to hardcover editions of Dragons of a Vanished Moon.

My Ravenloft headcanon has been in a state of flux over the years, as I grow more uncomfortable with some of the metaphysical assumptions of the setting. I'd be inclined nowadays to steer away from the Demiplane and treat it as a largely 'normal' world where pockets of darkness or strangeness can be stumbled into at times, a la The Twilight Zone.

 

[JAMUMU]

I have two Dragonlance headcanons. One of them is an elaborate construction that the 'gods' are mostly ancient dragons who came to Krynn near the dawn of its history and seduced the inhabitants into worshipping them, and most of what's known about Krynn's history since then is a mix of lies and half-truths until the dawn of the (alternate) War of Souls. The other is a Tolkienizing approach you can find in the appendix to hardcover editions of Dragons of a Vanished Moon.

My Ravenloft headcanon has been in a state of flux over the years, as I grow more uncomfortable with some of the metaphysical assumptions of the setting. I'd be inclined nowadays to steer away from the Demiplane and treat it as a largely 'normal' world where pockets of darkness or strangeness can be stumbled into at times, a la The Twilight Zone.

I was never a Dragonlance guy. Not for ideological reasons, it was a setting that no one in our extended play group bought into.

My Ravenloft headcanon is similarly slippery. These days I see it like the opening chapters of Dracula. The peasants that keep to themselves, observe the right ways, pray often, and know the folklore? Pretty safe. Adventurers wandering off the beaten tracks and ignoring the right ways of doing things? Dimensions of horror.

 

[Armchair Gamer]

My Ravenloft headcanon is similarly slippery. These days I see it like the opening chapters of Dracula. The peasants that keep to themselves, observe the right ways, pray often, and know the folklore? Pretty safe. Adventurers wandering off the beaten tracks and ignoring the right ways of doing things? Dimensions of horror.

That was pretty much canon as of late 2nd and 3rd edition.

 

[JAMUMU]

That was pretty much canon as of late 2nd and 3rd edition.

2nd edition is my touchstone. I know 5e introduced, like, the people aren't real people yadda yadda, but I always saw Ravenloft as a real place, just slightly canted away from the Prime Material. Even when I flicked through Domains of Dread, I could see how ordinary people could live in each of the domains "normally", without coming into contact with the fuckery of the Dark Lords. I imagine that the Dark Lords kept their powder dry for PC incursions, the dirty, invasive, armour-plated bastards.

 

[VisionStorm]

My Ravenloft headcanon has been in a state of flux over the years, as I grow more uncomfortable with some of the metaphysical assumptions of the setting. I'd be inclined nowadays to steer away from the Demiplane and treat it as a largely 'normal' world where pockets of darkness or strangeness can be stumbled into at times, a la The Twilight Zone.

Yeah, I've often considered this over the years. Rather than have the Dark Powers be these thieving entities that randomly steal patches of land (along with their populations) from established settings and whisk them away into some distant patchwork demiplane, I've thought why not just let them be this "darkness" that takes over a land and infuses it with sinister power that draws all manner of evil creatures and occurrences towards it instead? I started brainstorming some ideas for a setting alone that route a while back, but I sorta ended up putting it in the back burner. But you could probably use a basic idea like that for any setting. Just have it be this sinister force that hangs in the land till a group of heroes kills the Dark Lord and resolves whatever it's drawing it there.

 

[Armchair Gamer]

2nd edition is my touchstone. I know 5e introduced, like, the people aren't real people yadda yadda,

That was one of my major gripes with Curse of Strahd, and an outgrowth of the fanon idea that the Dark Powers could create inhabitants. (I always figured inhabitants for new domains were abductees from the Prime, refugees from other domains, etc.) The irony is that Hickman consulted on that project, and Hickman has often decried the setting's hopelessness and misery.

 

[JAMUMU]

That was one of my major gripes with Curse of Strahd, and an outgrowth of the fanon idea that the Dark Powers could create inhabitants. (I always figured inhabitants for new domains were abductees from the Prime, refugees from other domains, etc.) The irony is that Hickman consulted on that project, and Hickman has often decried the setting's hopelessness and misery.

Adventurer: So, uhhh, don't the werewolves eat all your sheep?
Farmer: Some of 'em, sure.
Adventurer: And doesn't that bother you?
Farmer: A little, sure.
Adventurer: And don't the werewolves eat up all your people?
Farmer: Sure, if you don't let 'em have a few of the sheep.
Adventurer: I will go forth, and avenge your sheep!
Farmer: Sure, just don't go dragging us into it.