This week's preview is on the Oruskans: goblins, kobolds, orcs and trolls. Check them out.

Hullo, Jamie,



The preview on the Oruskan races is quite nice, and gives some insight into these races from the North.

One question I have, pertaining to the Kobolds: Given their seeming vulnerability to heat, exactly how far south are they likely to be encountered these days?

A nice preview, but Desolation seems to have fallen into the common D&D legacy-issue trap of not knowing how much things actually weigh. For example, the 12ft. tall troll has a heavy muscular build, yet only weighs nearly 700 lbs? That'd be on the light side for an adult male Grizzly bear that stood only 8ft. tall, let alone a hulking muscular 12ft.-tall humanoid, so unless the troll's bones are hollow and fragile, 700lbs. is unbelievably low.

Remember, if the height/length of a creature is doubled (say from 6ft. to 12ft.), its weight is actually multiplied by 8 (because increases in size are in all 3-dimensions). So, assuming a 6ft., 250lb. humanoid as a base (which would fit the kind of build the troll has), a 12ft. troll would actually weigh around 2000lbs.

If a creature's length/height is quadrupled, its weight is multiplied by a factor of 64. And so on.

cheers!
Colin

During the Long Winter, they could have moved quite far south -- even to the southern reaches of the former Empire. During and after the Thaw some will find themselves in the uncomfortable position of being surrounded by a warming climate. This could motivate them to migrate north or even to find a way to survive in the warmer climates.

Hi Colin,

I'll not attempt to debate your weight calculations. You're the expert there. I will say that trolls can come in many shapes and sizes -- from long and lanky to short and fat. As long as they're in the broad Ubiquity guidelines of Size 1 creatures (7-15 ft. and 500 lbs. to 1 ton), mechanics won't be affected.

Hullo, Jamie,



That implies a lot of things about the Long Winter, on which I hope more can be found in the history section of the game rulebook. I take it the Long Winter was pretty much a world-wide event, and that it wasn't just in areas that had winters Before?

That said, I'm not exactly sure on how the Kobolds would survive the warmer climate if their physical systems are not adapted to it, but I'll wait to see more in the game rulebook and all.

Yes, it even snowed in the Saikin Wastes. I think we covered that pretty well in the book -- both in the background and the storytelling tips.




Hello John,

They could certainly survive, just as an Inuit could survive in Hawaii, if he had to. It will be up to the GMs to see how the kobolds handle it in their campaigns. I can imagine them capturing Primalists and forcing them to control the weather to cool things off, or forcing Rune casters to turn water into ice, or just finding shelter in cool caves (which might already be inhabited by survivors). Lots of room for plot hooks and drama.

Hullo, Jamie,



I'm happy to hear that will be addressed in the book, as I am somewhat unclear about elements of the Long Winter and all. Snow in the Sailkin Wastes? Man, that was a *brutal* winter, wasn't it?



The solutions you suggest were ones that I had come up with after thinking about this for a bit, but I guess I wasn't clear about whether the implication was that the heat was lethal to the Kobolds. It's obviously not the case though, so the question is really as you say, one of how the individual GM will handle this in their campaign. Other options likely present themselves as well, I expect.

Don't worry, I didn't assume the mechanics would be impacted. To be fair, it's a common issue for many rpgs, and is one of those things few folks would know to be aware of unless it'd been brought to their attention before or unless they'd studied anything in which realistic weights were a strong element. If anything it's certainly far less of an issue in Ubiquity than many others because of the system's broad granularity.

If anyone is interested, the actual mathematics and physics behind calculating such things is basic primary/elementary school level, based on the old Length x Width x Depth used to calculate the volume, etc. of 3-dimensional objects. All you have to do is remember that in scaling a 3D object up or down, you are scaling it in all three dimensions.

So if you scale something up so it is twice as long, it also becomes twice as wide and twice as deep. That actually means that the final item is really eight times larger:

2 x 2 x 2 = x8

Once you know that, scaling up (or down) anything becomes quick and easy.
Take a 200lb., 6ft. tall human, and make them 18ft. tall (Length x 3)? Easy:

3 x 3 x 3 = x27, so they'd weigh 5400lbs.

Want to scale down that human to only 3ft. tall (Length x 0.5)? Easy:

0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 = x0.125, so they'd weigh 25lbs.

Bizarrely, my personal preference is that unless it's actually important for weights and encumbrances to be calculated in a given rpg, said rpg is often better off ditching encumbrance and weights altogether. I know I see little benefit in calculating and recalculating encumbrance in any rpg I run, relying instead on visualisation and common sense, but I do believe that if weights are present, they should be accurate.

cheers!
Colin

One thing I will say regarding the Oruskans, however: I can't wait to see them treated as playable races, as they all (with the exception of the Trolls, perhaps) seem to offer plenty of roleplaying opportunities. The goblins, in particular, would seem to be capable of fitting in with a normal group of characters given their varied personality, ability to trade, and nomadic skills.

cheers!
Colin

I ran a game a couple of weeks ago with a Kobold Polar Bear Shaman being played by a long-time fantasy RPG fan. She very much enjoyed it!

So, is there a rough ETA for when the rules for playing Oruskan PCs will be posted?

cheers!
Colin

The races are basically playable out of the book from day one, as far as I'm concerned. Generating the Kobold PC only required applying the information from the Bestiary as I generated a standard character.

Something more "formal" around playable Oruskan PCs is possible as a web supplement, but there's no ETA around it at the moment.

Hullo, Stephen,



I'm very glad to hear that playing a member of the Oruskan races is a possibility in the game. Any chance of getting the lady to post the character up here, in the appropriate forum section, for all to read?



This was something that you and I (and iirc, Jamie) discussed during the playtests (and it might even be in the Playtesters section of the forums), and I hinted that the Oruskan races would be one of the races that players might want to play.

I think the web supplement is a good idea for something like this.

Fortunately, I am a patient fellow!

Yeah, I should post her character up here somewhere. Any thoughts about format?