erik wrote:What I liked about Races of War writeups was having outcomes if race won and if they lost..
Good idea, Erik.
Being beaten by the Halflings
So, a bunch of ships or wagons laden with supplies show up, teeming with... children?! Armed children. Fanatical armed children. Fanatical, armed, astonishingly strong children. One of them rode in on dogback and announced that the area has been selected for the founding of a village by the halflings of yonder expedition and that everyone present are invited to move past the river which marks the boundary they've chosen for said village. Once established, the halflings will welcome any and all travelers who wish to trade with them, but rival settlements will not be tolerated. Of course, the midget on the mastiff was told to piss off,... and a couple of days later things got ugly fast. Now you and the remnants of your group are being escorted out past the river with whatever the halflings didn't particularly want from your stuff... which, strangely, was most of it. Except your land. They REALLY wanted that.
From this point on, you're pretty much free to do what you want and the halflings won't care, provided it happens on your side of the river, or doesn't involve you sticking around for too long at a time. They'll gladly buy stuff from you or sell stuff to you. And that's it. The halflings won, you moved, and now they're busy raising structures and getting the some fields plowed.
Beating the Halflings
Those tiny assholes took that land from your ancestors and your army is here to see it returned. And after some decisive victories, you've got a couple of options. Want them to accept your rule? Fine, whatever. The halflings are willing to give you a sizable tribute each year based on the income from their market if you'll leave them be. You can even call yourself Lord or King or something... provided you don't actually ask them to leave or prevent them from trading. Want them to accept your god and build a temple to it in their village? Fine, whatever, so long as you don't care about it being added to the bewildering array of deities and aspects and avatars they already worship. Want them to house your troops? Fine, whatever. They'll even help build you a fort just over there on the other side of the river... though they get a bit twitchy when you mention building it any closer. Choosing to get tribute from the halflings will earn you a quiet realm and a steady income. If the tribute ever gets too large, your demands get too invasive, if you ever stop the flow of travelers, or you start stationing your people permanently in the area, then things will devolve rapidly. The halflings will sabotage your efforts and eventually revolt. They will refuse to move unless met with an overwhelming force. If they do leave, see below.
Alternatively, you can drive the halflings off. They'll swear to return sooner or later, but at least your rid of the things. Every 15 to 20 years later, the halflings return and they'll fight like maniacs. Most of the actual halfling merchants and travelers will have nothing to do with these invasions. When asked, they'll say something about it being Steader business, and therefore none of theirs. However, every couple of years there'll be a rash of sabotage and assassinations, and these are always traced back to one of those former villagers turned vigilante. If you hold out long enough for the displaced halflings to die out then the invasions will cease, as will the inflow of enemy agents. Of course, if you leave the area too undeveloped, then sooner or later you'll see an expedition full of children show up...
Being beaten by the Hobgoblins
Congratulation! You have been enslaved. Fortunately you agreed to join their khanate with a minimum of fuss so the magistrate they assign to the region promises to elevate most of you to citizens within a generation. And of that generation, only one child of each litter will be enslaved too. What's that? You don't have litters? Well, it's not their fault your biology is so deficient as to produce only one offspring at a time. Your slavery won't be too different from what it was before, except there'll be a Daimyo and some nobles who'll show up and demand things from time to time. Bowing and scraping is encouraged. Oh, and all iron tools and iron working is banned unless you enter the military. The Khanate considers much to be beneath its notice, but cross the Iron Law and the samurai will kill you, your associates, and anyone else who looks at them funny, with extreme prejudice.
Congratulation! You have been enslaved. Since you resisted the Khanate's gentle offer of annexation, you will be a slave almost certainly for life. You children will be slaves too. However, if you're good and they're good, and your owner thinks well of your service, then someday they or THEIR children will be elevated to citizenry. They'll likely be required to take their former owner as their new lord, don his livery, and only leave on his errands, but now they can own slaves and appear in court. And if they do well and work really hard then maybe, just maybe a descendant of theirs will become a lesser noble or samurai and they will thank you, their forgotten slave ancestor, for the ascent up the social ladder you started.
Beating the Hobgoblins
Congratulation! You have just acquired a fuckton of Hobgoblin subjects. By beating the old boss, you are the clear and obvious new boss, and that former guy must have been unworthy all along. They'll give you his old home and all his stuff and all his titles and then, very, very politely ask you not to change anything. And any changes you do propose will be met with very immediate agreement, wow! brilliant!, and then... very little will actually change. Likely someone will be executed to appease you and someone nearly identical will fill the now vacant position. If you want to enact meaningful reform, you've got two options. You can spend generations affecting a culture shift which redefines the hobgoblin code of honor to support what you want it to support. Or you're going to have to slash and burn the existing hierarchy, and likely deal with a bunch of revolts. Good luck!
Being beaten by the Goblinoids
There are non-hob goblinoid nations out there and some are a real force to be reckoned with. And it looks like you just learned that. The good news is that the little guys, who are generally pretty reasonable, will be the ones in charge and though they will take your stuff, they likely don't want you dead. The bad news is that the big ones, well not the really big ones, but the really mean ones... they do want you dead. A strong goblin ruler can keep the Daibos in line enough to make them only the second or third largest cause of non-goblinoid death among his subjects, depending on how bad disease and starvation have gotten these days. A weak ruler, and suddenly your being hunted for sport. Again, there are successful goblinoid nations out there and they can even be pretty nice places to live... but not for non-goblinoids.
Beating the Goblinoids
So, the really big guys have slunk off into the forest and all the pyscho middle-sized ones went down fighting. You're left with the little ones and, to be honest, they aren't all that bad. They are no more of a pain in the ass than your other subjects, and these guys are pretty much immune to famine and dysentery, which is a nice plus. Unfortunately, a generation later and every goblin neighborhood has become a literal a breeding ground for crime. The successful, hard-working goblins are siring more of those psychos, and they always leave a body count going down. And those big ones keep sneaking out at night to munch on the crops... and some of them are the kids of the farm hands. What's a ruler to do? Most keep the goblins on starvation levels so they can't breed trouble makers. Some drive the lot of them out into the wilderness; let the bandits and highwaymen deal with 'em. There may be a third way, but you aren't likely to bother looking for it...