Chapter 11: Designing Dwarf Campaigns

This chapter is for DMs who want to design the background of a dwarf campaign. We have looked at the creation myths of the dwarves, how they and the world were formed, how dwarves have developed, their history, why subraces of dwarves exist, and how dwarves interact with other races. We shall now explore the kinds of campaigns that can be run using dwarves as the main characters.

Creating a History

The creation text of Marak is one of many possible backgrounds for a dwarf campaign. It revealed how a stronghold of dwarves might view the world and their place in it. You could use this as part of your campaign background or develop your own myth cycle. The myths may be accepted by all dwarves, or may only be held by one stronghold or subrace. The creation myth may be believed as truth by all dwarves, but with dissension among elements of related history, such as the names of the heroes or the precise role of the gods.

In the first creation myth all dwarves began life together and later migrated to new strongholds. They could trace their lineage back to the First Dwarves, their common ancestors. Since all of them came from common stock, subrace variations had to be explained.

As an alternative, after they were created, they could have been placed by the gods in caverns around the world. This would permit them to live in any place or situation, without having to make up stories about how they spread across the world. They could live beneath tropical islands, under ice caps, or steamy jungles, as well as the more temperate hilly and mountain country. They may have been isolated from others and their developments and subsequent histories may have diverged in countless ways. In such cases, you will need to decide how these dwarves would differ from the more traditional hill dwarves of the Player's Handbook and Monstrous Compendium Appendix. Do they constitute definitive subraces of dwarves, with marked differences in appearance and outlook, or are they just hill dwarves living in unusual places?

Choices of Subraces

As DM you have full control over which dwarf subraces to include in your campaign world, either as player or nonplayer characters. You may decide that some of these subraces do not exist in your campaign world at all. In Chapter 4, six different subraces are available for player characters. You do not have to use all of them. You may wish instead to restrict players to hill and mountain dwarves.

If dwarves are an underground race, with little surface contact, why are hill and mountain dwarves different? The distinctions may have arisen from an encounter with other races such as elves or humans, or because the mountains are also inhabited by evil monsters, and the hills are less prone to monster incursions.

Mountain dwarves have far less contact with humans and elves, who only expand into the mountains in search of mineral wealth or when population pressures or warring enemies force them into new areas.

If, in your campaign world, the gods created the different subraces of dwarves, then there is no reason to come up with any other rationale why there are several kinds of dwarves in the world. The creation myth explains the differences. If not, you need to include the separation of the subraces as part of your history of the dwarves.

If you have already worked up the mythic history of your world, using the suggestions in The Complete Priest's Handbook, all you need to decide is how dwarves fit into that history.

Alternatively, you may create your own myths for your world. There is no reason why dwarves and humans should agree how the world was created. They could share common beliefs, but with more emphasis being given to the gods of each race and their role in the mythic history of the world.

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