(II) The Redwall inspired campaign

[Admin Pete]

The following dates back to November of 2013. My inspiration for this was nothing to do with the “furry” stuff, but instead the Redwall children’s books by the author Brian Jacques. There are 22 books in the series and there are a variety of animals in the books, both noble (good) and common vermin (evil) and these hold true with very few exceptions. The purpose of this was to take the players out of the comfort zone of playing humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits, etc and give every player something completely different to play and play-test the ideas:

As some of you know I have been running an my current OD&D campaigns since July of 2009 with a wide variety of player ages, background and experience.

I sent the players the following info as a starting place and invited them to provide feedback. Everything was subject to tweaking up until the campaign started. I gave them this little starting scenario as a wild alternate to the various ways that PCs usually meet.

You all awaken to find that you have been (you assume) robbed, beaten, arrested, dressed in rags and chained up in a large dungeon cell. You awaken with no memories of who you are or what happened, you do not know if you do or should know each other or not. You have no possessions, except for your rags and you are very hungry and thirsty. You have no knowledge of what abilities or talents you may have or possess. Until you learn otherwise, assume that you are all fighting men/women. You will learn once you see your captors that survival very likely will depend on a speedy escape...

I continued to give the players additional snippets leading up to the new campaign and invite their feedback, input and suggestions.

I am planning on having no elves, dwarves, hobbits or halflings as player characters (yes, gentle readers hobbits and halflings are two completely different creatures). The players will not know until they get their character sheets and until they look around the dungeon cell whether or not their character is human or something else. I am designing some new player character races and the campaign will not be humancentric. Magic will be Different and Magic-Users/Clerics, well wait and see. Hopefully it will be fun.

I eliminated humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits or halflings, etc. completely from this part of the world before we started playing, but the players did not know that up front.

Another snippet:

Once you (each of you) are fully awake, groggy, with a splitting headache, but awake, you look around at the others chained alongside you and realize that you don’t recognize anyone and you do not even know what these creatures are. Looking down at yourself you realize you are not sure what you are for that matter. A door opens and some guards walk into the space in front of your cell. Large muscular looking creatures with a harness holding their weapons and insignia over a fur covered body, both feet and hands are clawed. You take note that the claws look very sharp as do the fangs that show when they "smile". They point at you and seem to be insulting you, but you cannot understand their language. This goes on for a while, then something from outside the cell that sounds like a command, results in all of them leaving. The minimal light in the cell dwindles to nothing. You are very, very hungry, but your thirst is impossible to ignore, your lips are dry and cracked. You realize that those guards are not going to be bringing you anything and that no matter how you ended up here, you seem to have no value to your captors/jailors.

This was the lead up to the game and the players did not even have character sheets at the beginning of the game, but only received those with minimal information as they started to discover things about themselves.

[Admin Pete]

OK, the first game of this experiment took place on a Saturday evening in January 2014 and the weather only took out two players, but I still had five players present that evening.


There are a large number of sentient races in this part of the world which they call Meraelynyan; here are a few of them:


The most aggressive of the lot are the Ferozian who "once" viewed everyone else as food and in “rare” cases have been known to violate treaties and the newer laws that were born out of a series of Wars between the Ferozians, their allies and many, but not all, of the other races. The average male Ferozian stands about 6’4” and weighs in around 240 lbs. The Ferozians share many traits with wolves and other predators being very territorial and braver in packs. They are gray of fur, with rare variations. Ferozians are not fond of the water and are not great swimmers. These creatures are one of the most tradition bound and only the fiercest can rise to leadership and the Great Leaders will is law among them. Ferozians are one of the races that possess magic although it is quite rare among them with only one in a thousand bearing the Gift. The current Great Leader is searching all of them out and putting them to use to conquer their neighbors, striking without warning and gaining the upper hand in the early going. They have also been kidnapping as many as possible trying to discern those with the potential for magic, but as they found they could not recognize the trait in others they have been letting them starve to death and in some "isolated" cases even eating them and have turned to capturing and then killing.

[Admin Pete]

The Zaqoyan are the one of the larger of the lot being much like sentient bears and most commonly of light red-brown fur. They are very strong and usually of mild temperament, but they fight with great ferocity when they are roused to war. When their trust is abused, their drive for vengeance is legendary. Of all the furred races, they alone of the furry races are nearly bereft of magic, with only one in ten thousand bearing the Gift. The average male Zaqoyan stands about 7’6” and weighs in around 380 lbs. They love the water and are powerful swimmers.

[Admin Pete]

The Nagaretan are just marginally shorter than the Ferozians and are much like sentient badgers. They can be touchy and easily offended, but they are also pragmatic and were instrumental in binding the Ferozians to treaty and law at the end of the Wars. The average male Nagaretan stands about 6’ 2” and weighs in around 250 lbs. They are not fond of water either and are known for the rich dark brown color of their fur. Among the Nagaretan magic is quite rare and about one in a thousand bears the Gift.

[Admin Pete]

The Zavaletan are one of the smaller of the furred races and are of wiry musculature and known for being very quick. They are much like sentient foxes. They are usually of light yellowish fur and the average male stands around 5’4” and weighs around 135 lbs. They have the most antipathy for the Ferozians and the feeling is mutual. The Zavaletan are good swimmers and about one in two hundred and fifty bear the Gift the most of any race.

[Admin Pete]

The reptilian races of the Savean are covered with sand-colored scales and are great swimmers and contrary to looks some are also great climbers. They can go up sheer walls like they are stuck to them. While being a single race their abilities vary depending on where they are hatched, those hatched in the swamps are the great swimmers, likewise those hatched in deserts blend into that environment and are almost invisible and those hatched among the cliffs are amazing climbers and so on. The average male stands about 6’6” and weighs about 260 lbs. Only about one Savean in fifty thousand possesses the Gift, but in those that do it is especially strong.

[Admin Pete]

The insectoid race of the Siddiq have a hard gray shell, an exoskeleton, and stand about 5’8” tall and appear to weigh about 150 lbs. but are a lot lighter. They do not swim but instead “skitter” about on top of the water, and they also can climb a wall no matter how sheer or slick and can hang upside down on the underside of a surface for hours. They can move rapidly on the eight long slender legs or rear upright and function on four legs with four arms. The Siddiq are naturally armed with a retractable razor sharp blade that extends through the palm of their “hands”. They use no other weapons and as they grow in power their natural blades accumulate a magic "charge". Similar to the Zaqoyan, about one in ten thousand bears the Gift itself although as noted they all accumulate a magic "charge" on the natural blades they wield.

[Admin Pete]

These are the races we started with and more were added as we went on.

The Ferozians very rarely speak any language but their own, for they feel it is beneath them to do so. The Zaqoyan, Nagaretan, and the Zavaletan over a long period of strong alliance have come to speak dialects of the same combined language and can roughly understand each other and some older ones speak additional languages. The Savean only speaks their own language as a rule and so do the Siddiq. The only major exception to this is that most creatures know at least some of the trade language.


All of the sentient races see in low level light extremely well and can operate in daylight or nocturnally with nearly equal ease, though they prefer daylight. There are many races besides these, though only some are aware of it.

[Admin Pete]

Magic known as The Gift, is an innate ability that you are born with and cannot be developed later, it is an individual Genetic Trait. The Gift comes in two flavors, Intelligence based and Wisdom based. First you have to meet a minimum level of Intelligence or Wisdom and then be found to have the trait for The Gift. The Elders among the Ferozians, Savean and Siddiq can identify The Gift in their young, but among the Zaqoyan, Nagaretan, and the Zavaletan, The Gift is only identified when it first manifests itself which could be as early as five years old or as late as extreme old age and some with The Gift never manifest. Alone of all the sentient races the Savean can develop The Gift on its own, but all the rest must find a teacher to develop and grow in The Gift.


Extremely rare is the one who possesses both versions of The Gift, usually only occurring once in many generations. When such a one appears they are held in great honor by all, but at the same time held to an extremely high standard by all. Legend tells of The Great Ones of Old and Legend also tells of two Great Evil Ones of Old who sought to use their Gift for evil and of the great battles that brought their downfall.

[Robert the Black]

This is cool beans! Are there anymore? How is it working out?

[Admin Pete]

Apr 8, 2015 14:16:23 GMT -5 Robert the Black said:

This is cool beans! Are there anymore? How is it working out?

Thank you! I think it has worked pretty well. I made some tweaks as we went and there is more to post.