Idea/Scenario Specifically for Trade Caste PCs

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    • Idea/Scenario Specifically for Trade Caste PCs

      Okey Dokey Everybody! This thought just came into my head but I began noticing that a lot of the examples of adventures here both the example adventures given to us by the creators and the adventures forum members have come up with by themselves, I began noticing that all the PCs were either high or holy caste, and I mean that isn't bad...Play how you want to play but...If I may display blatant favoritism the Trade Caste is my favorite caste, I don't know...Maybe because most of the jobs are jobs actual modern day Humans can get...Most people aren't able to work in governing the country they live in, most people don't even want to work in the church. on the opposite end on the romanticized 'peasant' side of things. Not everyone can be a farmer on account of being a legitimate limit how much space a country can have for farmland

      But most anyone if they want to be can take up a trade, be a baker, brewer, masseur, florist...Heck work in some form of the entertainment industry (I mean is Classic D&D Bard is sort of an Entertainer Class but really Bard is more like a Trickster/Spellsinger, than what Bards were in actual...Reality)

      So...Yeah I currently have no one to play with...Because everyone I know just want to play Human/Elf/Dwarf Characters no one wants to play Anthro Animals with me...But thinking about a scenario Specifically for Trade Caste Members. Well Peasants to Heroes...I think that isn't fitting for the Merchant Caste who have it pretty well off...I'm thinking of characters who are perfectly content with their lot...They are makers of valuable things, or perform valued services, so they don't feel diminished, also I thought about what someone said in a thread when someone griped about the Humans in the origin story and someone proposed an idea I really liked about what if the Corporate Spaceship finally came through during Dardunah's present time? How would the Janah react to the Great Devourer finally arriving? Or...Suppose some other Humans in a different alternate universe discover the existence of Janah and begin kidnapping them subtly no one, knows what is happening.

      This is a variation of the 'Survivors of Destruction' campaign that I feel could be where Trade Caste PCs could really shine, characters who don't have as much as the Sunborn. (After all if the leader of a nation suddenly vanishes without a trace, that is obviously going to raise alarm...But if a mere Baker or Brewer vanishes, well of course it is upsetting to friends and family but of course since Janah being captured by slavers is a common enough occurrence...) But having more then imagining if a Janah was spirited away to a Universe of Humans and you know...Obvious communication problems but displaying ability to make fine and beautiful things will be solid proof that Janah are thoroughly civilized beings and maybe not something we should dissect?
    • I thoroughly agree with you that the use of Trade Caste-inspired "adventuring heroes" are not only missing from the Shard modules we've made, but also from the general offerings of high-fantasy fiction and gaming in general! I think that's why its so comforting and pleasurable to see the "little guy" (so-to-speak) and the "average citizen" cast as a hero in things like the Lord of the Rings and other such works. Being able to relate to a character plays a key part in drawing people into a setting, so drawing those kinds of parallels in Shard is really important when it comes to helping people make an investment in the world itself!

      This is why some of the games we've run during play-testing (even when the characters were primarily noble-born) have always included elements of interaction with important NPCs who were Trade Caste and lower, just to make sure the players felt "well-grounded" in the fiction of the world. Sometimes these interactions required the players to assume the roles of mere laborers, so that they could further engage in the intrigues of court. The last Shard campaign I ran had more than half of the players taking roles that were originally Trade Caste, before they were plunged into the campaign's post-apocalyptic setting.

      It was this last campaign that would become the set-up for a recent project where I'm exploring ideas for a "Future Shard" campaign where I will introduce fiction relating to the events of so long ago, when the "Great Mother and Father" fled from the mega-corporation later to be known as "The Devourer" in Shard fiction, and began the journey that would take them to Dárdünah, and herald the rise of the jánah. This future Shard material may very well eventually introduce humans into Shard's core fiction, but not necessarily in the way you might expect. Heh!

      However, just because I won't be officially introducing humans from Earth to Shard anytime soon, doesn't mean you shouldn't feel free to explore those ideas for yourself in your own campaign! I think you're right on target when you indicate that humans meeting Zoics for the first time would more easily be able to see them as "fellow people" if they saw the indications of common civilization that would be evident in the Trade Caste. I encourage you to be creative and share these cool ideas with folks on this forum, especially since it seems you're enjoying tying these concepts into the fiction as it has been presented already!

      Scottie ^^