Lizardfolk typically suffer from a reputation as primitive and simplistic brutes doing little more than thumping about the swamps and jungles of a territory hissing aggressively while brandishing primitive weapons. They take the worst cliche from any pulp film and add scales.
No society could last for any significant length of time without some form of sophistication. Even the most primitive societies in our own world lasted for centuries through cunning, adaptation and actively keeping with specific rules about the dangers of the world around them. They were not mere thugs brandishing weapons and lumbering about without learning.
Lizardfolk, in spite of the cliche, should know better. If they didn’t, they would be extinct in a world filled with aggressive orcs, martial hobgoblins, hungry ogres and every other sort of creature looking to feed upon the ill equipped. Lizardfolk would be better suited to their settings if they were either fully bestial or far more advanced. Yet, somehow, they have allegedly been stuck in this proto-societal stage for millennia.
However, there is one example wherein there is some hope, albeit its own cliche. Should the rise of a powerful individual occur, lizardfolk society advances. What if these lizardfolk rulers were not prone to evil, but were god-touched as they claim?
What if these higher lizardfolk worshipped some form of the Old Ones, primordials, elemental entities or other form of ancient faith no longer in common practice?
Lizardfolk would then be a doorway into an ancient world where the current races could look back to what once was, for good or bad. These rugged lizardfolk may have endured rituals that would strike pale the softer, pinker races of the non-scaled folk. Some practices performed in daily life by other races may have spawned from these ancient people.
All that would remain would be to find out. This is the stuff of the greater tales from pulp novels of high adventure — ancient cultures, lost temples, hidden treasures and vast power of forgotten gods. Not blathering lumps of reptilian flesh hurling pointed sticks at vastly superior foes.
Encounter Type: Combat
Map: Trail map
Lighting: None (flat battle map.)
System: 5E
Length: One shot
Installation Type: Addon
License: Roll20 End User License Agreement
(Personal Use Only, Do Not Distribute)