Hello again everyone~
A little bit of background: one of my players decided he didn't like his PC and wanted to be killed off in the most spectacular fashion (He became an assassin that marked another player a few rounds ago, battle ensued and he was tossed into a lava pit). His new character is a gnome fury (yes, it is my son actually, who Matt Flinn still calls Gnomie Jr.). His background is that his village was destroyed at a young age and he was taken in by some Orcs (Gar right?).

Anyways, this Sunday is the next session and his introduction. The party will happen upon an Orc funeral festival and hopefully play nice and make friends. And now to my question about genetics.

We all know that a dwarf+human=gnome. And that a gnome+dwarf/human=gnome. The first PGtA had half goblins and half orcs as available playable races. Given the above equation, I safely assume the same: hobgoblin+human=half-hobgoblin, half-hobgoblin+hobgoblin/human=half-hobgoblin, orc+human=half-orc, and finally half-orc+orc/human=half-orc. Now here is where things get interesting, since everyone is still viable and able to produce offspring, can a half-orc mate with a half-hobgoblin or gnome? If so, how does it play out? Which genetic material is the more dominant?
My opinion is that since dwarves are cursed, and the union between humans and dwarves are produce a cursed offspring, then that genetic switch when producing is ALWAYS magically on. So a half-orc/half-hobgoblin+gnome always equals a gnome. But a union between a half-hobgoblin and a half-orc, would it be 50-50?

What do you think?

Lol. In your campaign the answer is whatever you want it to be!

But i agree with your logic that gnome + (anything viable) = gnome. (I also think that's part of Illiir's curse manifesting.) So if you allow gar (orcs, hobgoblins...) to mate with humans to produce hybrid offspring then they should also be capable of producing gnomes.

What becomes dominant in a orc/hobgoblin hybrid is ... a very corner case. I have nothing wrong with a 50% split.

In the current canon, gar are not compatible with any known race for producing offspring. The previous half-orcs were reconned following the move from 3.5 to just be humans from more barbaric tribes (not everyone lives in a city or farms. . . ).

What you do in your home campaign is up to you, but the thing that makes a gnome a gnome is Illiir's Curse. That will be passed on to whatever the offspring is, regardless of parent races beyond the dwarf/gnome.

Half-humans with "savage races" was a thing for a long time in Arcanis.

Cody is right that there are no examples of human-gar hybrids in 5E (that we know of) ... but I've always wondered if we might find out more if we got delve into the areas around Malioch. The warlord Ig (of the Many Tongues?) was mentioned in Raider of Malioch and he was supposed to be half breed ...

Again in your campaign if you are using half-orcs and half-hobgoblins you should be set.

Well, yes, it is a home campaign. However, since gnomes are very dear to me, I didn't want to home brew that aspect. It is only for a PC back story after all. I will defer to current canon. Thank you both for chiming in.

I am curious on a different subject. I know I have been out of the "living" aspect for some time. I have judged however. I have done cons and this party before they decided to get away from the modules. Do you think the majority of the players overall are living players? Is that the bread and butter?

No real way to know. The only comparison point would be the sales figures from DrivethruRPG.

For example, if there are 600 Players Guide sold and only 50 copies of the latest Hardpoint, an estimate would be 50% playing Living Arcanis (1:6 gm/player ratio)

Paradigm isn't going to release those sort of figures...

It wouldn't include local groups doing both... or podcasting a campaign...

in Portland and Oregon the small Arcanis community is close to 100% Living Campaign oriented. But that's not true nationwide. Henry and Pete and Hat (and Gnomie) are all confirmed to have been or are doing home campaigns.

My guesstimate is that a there is some kind of majority doing the Living/Legends campaigns and a some kind of minority doing home campaigns. Not at all sure what the ratio is.

You'd be surprised.

We've sold over a thousand copies of the Core 5E Campaign book and a similar number of ARG Core books.

Based upon the sales of Living Arcanis and Legends of Arcanis adventures, there are no where near that number of organized campaign players. Even assuming that only the GMs purchase the adventures and multiply each one by 6 (to account for an average table of 5 and a GM), it's not even close. But to be fair, I'd need to multiply the number of books sold by 5, as well so maybe it's a wash.

Now, on the other hand, there's no way to know how many people just buy the book to read and leave it on their shelves. I know I have dozens of rpg books that I've never and will never run.

So, is there an empirical way to know how many people run home campaigns vs just play organized campaigns?

Nope.

But by sales alone, there seems to be more home campaigns being run or at least portions of the Arcanis setting being used in home campaigns than we know.

I just think that the organized campaign players are more vocal and visible.

Yes, that is a pretty close estimate in my opinion.

In the group I run, there are 4 campaign books between the 7 of us (Gm and 6 players). However, 2 of the players are my wife and Gnomie Jr, and another two players are father and daughter. Only one of our FLGS carries the campaign book. But that's it. I have FiM, Campaign, and Blessed Lands (tomorrow the party discovers they are in the Uncleansed part of the First City). I look forward to Sseth when it becomes available in book form, and hope I am off furlough when it does.

To everyone that reads this, stay safe out there and remember to wash your hands well!!!

Hello Dustin,

Have fun in the First City. It was quite the undertaking to write and I am proud of how it turned out.



Actually, the physical book is ready right now. Here's a link to get a copy and of any other 5E books you may be missing.

https://ssethregoran-empire-5e.backerki ... _preorders

Enjoy!