Saw a few posts go by about how we have the same Tolkien races in all fantasy so I wanna namecheck Jeff Vogel’s Exile/Avernum!

A united Empire takes over the known world, pushes the limits of portal magic and discovers a bold new world of underworld caves and magic crystals and… tosses misfits down there like magic Australia.

Major races are humans, polearm tank lizardmen, and nimble catpeople; also crystal-magic grey aliens, dragons, shades, and giant intelligent friendly talking spiders

Originally 3 games and a scenario editor for Mac and he (already instituted as a shareware pioneer) was like “k that’s done not gonna remake the Mages’ Tower again”

Then he remade the trilogy as “Avernum” and another trilogy of it besides so. Among some other stuff in the genre, his classic “Nethergate” asymmetric Roman/British Celt campaigns were dope

He also used to be a big forum guy thundering about piracy but mellowed when he outlasted his peers on the piracy-boosted strength and longevity of his brand