cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/26486013
I really like this system, please let me know if you want to see more of it!
Part 1 of 2
I'll go over these in more detail later, including things like skills and stats.
Boggarts
Boggarts are the most ubiquitous inhabitants of Eem and come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be small, medium, or big folk, and are closely related to goblins, although they don't have sharp teeth or pointy noses like goblins do.
The Mucklands - the area of the setting that is fleshed out in the rulebook - is the ancestral home of the boggarts, and the whole land is full of customs and cultural practices that originated with boggarts and have since been picked up by other folk that migrated to the area.
Land of Eem doesn't bother with languages much - the Mucklands is small enough that they all speak one language - but the 'Folk tongue' spoken in the region is most certainly derived from the language the Boggarts spoke in ancient times.
Boggles
Boggles are the smaller cousins to goblins, and share their green complexion and pointy ears and noses. They are small to tiny folk. They are often employed in risky and/or thankless jobs that require them to work in small spaces, such as in dungeons and mines. Due to this treatment, boggles have strong solidarity with one another, and will nearly always do other boggles a favor.
Bogrils
Bogrils are amphibious frog folk that hail from wetlands and marshy areas. They are medium to big folk. Bogrils are a relatively rare sight in the Mucklands, as they prefer a nomadic existence out in nature instead of the cramped city living of the Dungeon Era.
Most folk's primary association with Bogrils is from legends of the Bulwarks, knights of old who upheld justice in the Mucklands. Though the Bulwarks still exist, their numbers have dwindled and they are not the powerful presence they once were.
Bugbears
Bugbears are tall, broad-shouldered, and hairy folk who hail from the mountains. They tend to be down to earth folk who enjoy hard work, 'rassling, an' a tall glass o' cider. While their overall size, coloration and build is generally reminiscent of a bear, bugbears also sport pointy ears and sharp tusks that display their (somewhat distant) relationship to other goblinkind.
Gelatinous Goos
Gelatinous goos are amorphous folk made of slime. They have no mouth, or indeed no organs at all, but they clearly have some senses akin to hearing, sight, etc. How goos manage to perceive the world is still a mystery.
Because of this difference in anatomy, Gelatinous goos cannot speak Folk Tongue, although they understand it. Instead they speak Gelatinous Gooese, a language the other Folk cannot properly speak but can learn to understand.
Goos can be small to medium sized and come in any color, although blue seems to be the most common. Goos are extremely rare in the Mucklands - to the point that there are no sizable communities of them and no real goo culture to speak of.
Gnomes
Gnomes are both a character class and a Folk, as they are the only Folk born with magic. Gnomes are extremely long-lived and see themselves as chroniclers of history and protectors of the land.
Gnomes are small, stout folk with pointy ears and tall, pointy hats. The hats play an important part of gnomish culture that is poorly understood by other Folk - but it is known that Gnomes choose hats based on their season, which reflects their identity and role in gnomish society.
While true magic - the kind the wizards of old wielded - is only available to the wisest and most studied gnomes, gnomes are constantly touched by magic in their everyday lives. Many can speak with animals, display an uncanny amount of nimbleness and luck, warm objects they touch, or create minor illusions.
Goblins
Goblins are green-skinned, pointy-nosed, and sharp-toothed cousins to Boggarts who began to live underground long ago. They see well in the dark and are generally regarded as ambitious, industrious folk. Like Boggarts, they can be small, medium, or big, and they have become a fairly common sight in the Mucklands.
Goblins are often hailed as the primary architects of the Dungeon Age, which makes them alternately revered and reviled by many. While this may be true of the upper crust of goblin society, the average goblin is just as overworked and underpaid as any other Folk.
Humans
Humans are rare in the Mucklands, and make up only a few small remote communities of hunters and farmers. While they are often seen as boring by the other Folk - humans could pass (at a glance) as particularly drab-colored boggarts if they cover their round ears - human history is actually full of legendary knights and ancient kingdoms. Unfortunately, few humans even know those legends and most have only a dim connection to their own history.
