CYBER-PULP FANTASY CORE-Humanoid Radicals

CYBER-PULP FANTASY CORE

© Jerry Harris 2013

Published here as Open Game Content.

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The cause of Humanoid Liberation is widespread across the globe, though it takes many forms.  Some want government redress and reparations for past abuses.  Some enter politics for the purposes of redistributing wealth to the generally impoverished Humanoid community by taxation.  Some are virtually legal terrorists, suing and enforcing punitive regulations upon Corporations for profit and even pure spite.  Some Humanoid dominated nations highly repress or completely force out any other race by law.

Litigation and politics aren’t extreme enough measures for some Humanoids wanting revenge on the rest of Humanity.  (And thank goodness, because that would make for a lousy game setting otherwise.)  The Humanoid Radicals seek to destroy non-Humanoid civilization via terrorism and asymmetrical insurgency.  The average Humanoid living in the “civilized” world and Humanoid nations all officially denounce this movement, but the reality of it is that they either quietly applaud it or directly support it clandestinely.  The legal/political movement may abhor the Radicals’ tactics, but they essentially have the same goal.

The power, wealth, and influence of the Humans, Dwarves, and Elves has kept the Radicals from rallying all Humanoids to the cause.  One of the few things that will bring the rest of Humanity together is mass terrorism, albeit for only a short while.  While no one believes Humanoids were the brains behind the Gnomish Extermination event, they were the ones who carried it out.  This has resulted in some lasting cooperation between most civilized nations.  Even then, the arguments on how to combat the Radicals are a dividing point.  Complicating matters are the Drow and Human Humanoid sympathizers.  Some of these individuals are highly placed in governments and major corporations, overtly or covertly shielding and helping the Radicals. 

Note that Elves and Dwarves have allied with Humanoids for common causes in the past, but there’s no chance of any of them ever throwing in with the Humanoid cause.  Their feud is ancient to the point of shared mythology.  Further, they never took orders from Humanoid leaders, even when on the same side.  Only Half-Orcs, Drow, and Humans, and certainly not all of them, will follow Humanoid rule.  It goes the other way in the Radical arm of the Movement.  Humanoids won’t even allow non-Humanoids in as fighters, only as support.

As ever though, the Humanoids are their own worst enemy.  There are continual fratricidal conflicts among the various “breeds” (or “Communities” as they refer to themselves).  The Hobgoblins, perhaps the most powerful group of Humanoids, refuses to join with any general Humanoid cause, and actively fights any terrorism directed at them.  There is also societal tension between the few legitimate, wealthy Humanoid benefactors of the Radicals and the poor and completely expendable troops in the cause.      

Here are some typical types of Radical troops.  Cell leaders will be more formidable and may have Implants.  They should be like Brains, but of no more than 4 HD.  There are leaders behind the scenes, perhaps not even really in Radical arm of the Movement, of higher HD.