leading an american- indian campaign

[joeandsteve]

I will second the suggestion to use a variety of races... sticking with humans alone is kind of dull IMO. IMC the elves and orcs are loosely based on warring American Indian tribes. I could see a whole campaign based on Pre-Columbian North America including humans, elves, orcs, halflings, and plenty more.

 

[qstor]

There was a fantastic article in Dragon magazine somewhere around 185-205 that detailed the native american culture for 2nd Edition.

Flynn was right.

The articles were in #205 called The People.

Mike

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you're sticking to PHB races for various tribes, I'd pick halflings for any tribe focused on javelins & tomohawks as main weapons- their bonuses for thrown weapons makes them a natural.

Elves get the forests, of course, so would probably work well in the Pacific Northwest.

Dwarves and gnomes would work best for the cliff dwelling tribes.

Orcs would make an interesting choice for a culture like the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs etc.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Orcs would make an interesting choice for a culture like the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs etc.

Interesting yes, but as a result an orc's int/wis penalties that choice would be somewhat troublesome considering how advanced the meso-american societies were. How ever, making them orcs would give credulance to all those theories that the meso-american cultures only became advanced because various cultures from around the world arrived to Mexico, South America, and the yucatan hundreds of years before Columbus and taught the meso-americans everything they knew.

No matter what, many of the meso-american societies would most likely be ruled by governments with lawful evil tendencies as a result of the amount of human sacrifice that is used in their religions.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hmmmm, I've never encountered any stories about Native American changelings

Most of the shapeshifters in Native American legend I know of are either divine beings (Raven, Coyote) or some kind of shaman/sorcerer.

Re: "Orcs would make an interesting choice for a culture like the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs "

Given some of the points above, I've reconsidered, and suggest that Hobgoblins might be even more interesting.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some more thoughts:

Some of Native American magic was based on rituals, vows to powerful beings and adopting taboos.

The first kind is usually some kind of tattoo magic.

Exemplars of the second would be found in the BoED/BoVD, the Alienist (CompArc), or in a more limited form, The Oathsworn (Monte Cook's AU/AE).

Exemplars of the third would be found in the Wu Jen (OA/CompArc).

Also, since the Native American worldview is very animist, you could even use the OA Shaman- a class that uses contact with spirits to manifest some of its powers.

In each case, all you'd need to do is tweek some details.

 

[Loonook]

Establish a few tribes you want to work with, then go from there . . . to be quite honest, forcing Elves to be the forest-dwellers is kind of ridiculous . . . we think of elves as being in the forest because our worldview includes Tolkien and all of the rest of high fantasy's writers who shoved elves into the Hippies with Pointed Ears camp. While that could be... okay... I think a race which has good Dex, a low Con, skills at Listen, Search, and Spot, and low-light vision make for some really great nightstalkers. But hey, maybe I just missed something which would require the elves to sit in tree forts.

I would actually probably use the Race as Archetype concept I've brought up before; Elves make for great hunter/stalkers, Halflings are good for smaller, compact fighters who know how to use an atl-atl, dwarves would serve well as stonemasons, bowyers and arrowhead makers, etc . . . Humans could be your default, but it isn't necessary. Perhaps each tribe has a mixture of individuals (or smaller tribal units form around 'family' lines). Crow may choose the Halfling (a smart, quick little bugger who can fight at distance and has a stealthy tendency alongside their athletic ability) while a Hedgehog or Coyote figure may enjoy the Gnome, who knows what it is to be picked on by the bigger guys, and has developed into a crafty, down-to-earth sort of creature.

But to be honest, I could also see Orcs with Wolf and Elves with Fox... of course, this assumes you're using the pan-Indian diasporic animist religion which became popular after the relocations of the 19th century. Assumptions are bad, right?

Slainte,

-Loonook.