D&D 5E OA-style Culture Books for 5e
Dungeonosophy
Legend
Mercule
Adventurer
There's some possibility, here. It would have to be handled right, though, to ensure it didn't turn into a mockery or be done in an overly specific way.
The game is already vaguely pseudo-Medieval, with obvious influences from romanticized images of both feudal knights and Greco-Roman high culture. Because of that, I don't think having a book devoted to either Carolingian or Hellenic setting would be a good plan. There just isn't enough to separate it from the core. What little there is would make for an extraordinary Dragon article or series.
Oriental Adventures didn't try to make it so you could play the game in mythic China or mythic Japan. It blended a bunch of cool concepts from Asian myth into something that was nearly as pseudo-Asian as the core D&D was pseudo-European. Ditto for what I know of al-Quadim. There wasn't a very high effort made towards cultural realism, just fun settings. You could easily do the same thing with African lore -- keeping in mind that you're going to end up with a "what if" where Ethiopian technology kept pace with the Mediterranean for an extra couple centuries, while keeping the animistic "Dark Continent" magic from pulp adventures.
Personally, I think I hit on my preference, early on: make better use of Dragon. At what point did Dragon become the players' magazine and Dungeon the DM magazine? I thought Dungeon was all about adventures, maps, and dungeons. In the heyday of the 1980s, we got Dragon articles about "The Ecology of the Remorhaz", "Introducing the Half-Ogre", the Duelist class, critical hits tables, mechanics for pain, and "Be Aware, Take Care". There were many articles delving into the mentality of the elves, dwarves, and other races without presenting any new stats (though, they sometimes explained the psychology/physiology behind the stats that were there). Sure, there were new spells, magic items, and other mechanics (and new feats would have felt right at home) but there was a ton of meat that didn't have numbers directly associated with it. That would make a much better outlet for some of these ideas than a new book.
In truth, I think Dragon would make a much better outlet for a lot of classes and races than a PHB2 or PHB3 would. I don't want to see the developers feel obligated to include myconids or shardpeople as "core" just because it's time to put out the annual PHB.
The game is already vaguely pseudo-Medieval, with obvious influences from romanticized images of both feudal knights and Greco-Roman high culture. Because of that, I don't think having a book devoted to either Carolingian or Hellenic setting would be a good plan. There just isn't enough to separate it from the core. What little there is would make for an extraordinary Dragon article or series.
Oriental Adventures didn't try to make it so you could play the game in mythic China or mythic Japan. It blended a bunch of cool concepts from Asian myth into something that was nearly as pseudo-Asian as the core D&D was pseudo-European. Ditto for what I know of al-Quadim. There wasn't a very high effort made towards cultural realism, just fun settings. You could easily do the same thing with African lore -- keeping in mind that you're going to end up with a "what if" where Ethiopian technology kept pace with the Mediterranean for an extra couple centuries, while keeping the animistic "Dark Continent" magic from pulp adventures.
Personally, I think I hit on my preference, early on: make better use of Dragon. At what point did Dragon become the players' magazine and Dungeon the DM magazine? I thought Dungeon was all about adventures, maps, and dungeons. In the heyday of the 1980s, we got Dragon articles about "The Ecology of the Remorhaz", "Introducing the Half-Ogre", the Duelist class, critical hits tables, mechanics for pain, and "Be Aware, Take Care". There were many articles delving into the mentality of the elves, dwarves, and other races without presenting any new stats (though, they sometimes explained the psychology/physiology behind the stats that were there). Sure, there were new spells, magic items, and other mechanics (and new feats would have felt right at home) but there was a ton of meat that didn't have numbers directly associated with it. That would make a much better outlet for some of these ideas than a new book.
In truth, I think Dragon would make a much better outlet for a lot of classes and races than a PHB2 or PHB3 would. I don't want to see the developers feel obligated to include myconids or shardpeople as "core" just because it's time to put out the annual PHB.
Stormonu
Legend
Italian/Venice
- Minrothad Guild of Mystara
- Sea Princes of Greyhawk
- Dragon Coast in FR
Spanish
- Sea Barons of Greyhawk
- Tethyr in Forgotten Realms
Meximerica (Guachos & such)
- Savage Baronies of Mystara
Russian
- Damara of FR
- Ratik of Greyhawk
Tallifer
Hero
This sounds like a very good project for a third party publisher. More reason for the Fifth Edition to have a more open game license.
Dungeonosophy
Legend
I added a bunch more examples to the OP, including:
- Oceanic Adventures (Polynesian/Pacific Islands)
- "culturocentric" campaign models, where even the world map is shaped how that culture traditionally viewed the world.
- links to James Wyatt's Slavic and Roman homebrew campaigns (I had to pull them from the Wayback Machine)
- cleaned up the presentation by making a "Campaign Model" section for each book
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Dungeonosophy
Legend
Thanks Stormonu. For medieval and renaissance Western and Central European cultures (British, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, German), I'm suggesting they all be included in two books: Medieval Adventures and Renaissance Adventures. The exceptions would be Arthurian Adventures since it's its own genre (and perhaps Carolingian Adventures, though it would harder to justify not including this one with Medieval Adventures). I'll aim to add Medieval Adventures and Renaissance Adventures to the OP.
For Mexican and other Colonial American cultures, I suggest a Colonial Adventures book. I'm working on another post for that. The draft is available here.
My internet research hasn't yet confirmed whether the published materials indicate that Damara and Ratik are certainly Russian in flavor (whether in part or whole). I thought that Rashemen filled that role in the Realms. I'm open to adding them if you or anyone can find evidence of Russian flavor (such as Russian names) in the books, or in message board comments from TSR/WotC writers. Anyway, thanks for offering these, and I'll continue to keep my eye out for more proof.
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Dungeonosophy
Legend
I added Medieval Adventures and Renaissance Adventures to the OP. These cover post-tribal, pre-industrial Western Europe. They would feature Campaign Models set in D&D Earth, along with sample countries from other settings which are mostly based on those Real World cultures, such as Amn (quasi-Spain) in Toril or Caurenze (quasi-Italy) in Mystara.
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Dungeonosophy
Legend
Added Vaasa as perhaps partly Finnish-inspired Forgotten Realms country.
Moved New World/Colonial book from Genre Books to Culture Books.
Moved New World/Colonial book from Genre Books to Culture Books.
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