Plains Indian adventures

[JustKim]

Are there any Native American adventures out there? I'm running Mystara vignettes for my game and one of the places I want to feature, the Atruaghin Clans, also happens to be one of the most undefined places in the Known World. The gazetteer describes the clans themselves and that is pretty much it. I get no inspiration at all from that.

There's also Jakandor, but the premise of that line is really just two tribal cultures stabbing each other to death on an island. Tribal conflict is okay as scenery but I have zero interest in basing an adventure around it.

There's a lot of Aztec and Mayan stuff, but I can't use those cultures because they exist elsewhere in Mystara. Atruaghin Clans are strictly Plains Indians.

It's got to have monsters. I love monsters with all of my heart. I don't know if there are any examples of Native American monsters, but even better are monsters that feel Native American. The peryton pops to mind. What feels Native American to you?

 

[weem]

Well, just brainstorming here so let's see...

The first thing I think of is spirits.

After that I think of animals, and animal spirits.

With that in mind, my thoughts turn to the movie the 13th Warrior. There were these creatures thought to be monsters - half human half bear looking things. They turn out to be humans wearing bear skins, claws, etc, but they are menacing and dangerous and don't speak a language that can be understood and so they feel like monsters.

You could have intelligent animal clans, lead by their own chiefs who are Dire versions. So for example, there could be a bear clan - essentially bears who are lead by a Dire Bear. Maybe only the Dire Bear (chief) can speak their (PC's) language. Perhaps this clan is allied with the Boar clan, etc. Maybe these clans have human followers or caretakers or both - more "indian's" who are devoted to those specific clans rather than the tribes of their own people.

I'm half asleep so I will leave it at that for now. If you are looking for other inspiration, check out my site (see sig)

 

[Herobizkit]

If you can find it (as it is out of print), there is a game setting called Northern Crown that is a re-imagining of the New World (as in, our real world Earth) with monsters. Should be all kinds of Indian-type information in there.

Also, go check out Avatar if you haven't yet. Not only will your jaw drop, you'll get some insight as to how a spritualist society works.

Also also, if you can find a 2e copy of Legends and Lore, there is a section pertaining to Indian mythos and culture with some sample deities.

Lastly, you can always seek out the original GAZ14 - The Atruaghin Clans. Good luck, though.

 

[Gilladian]

There was a plains indian-type adventure in a fairly early dungeon magazine. If you have back issues, you could hunt that down. It may even have been set in Mystara, for all I remember.

Northern Crown will most likely be handling eastern forest-dwelling tribes, not plains-indians, but I'm sure it would be superbly written... I remember being fascinated with his early web version of the campaign world.

 

[Garmorn]

Pre or post introduction of the horse? The culture changed a lot when the horse came around.

Any monster animal type might work, i.e. worgs, Weather monsters that only show up in bad weather will also fit. Uncontrolled fire could destroy whole tribes, so any fire based monster might also work.

 

[JustKim]

If you are looking for other inspiration, check out my site (see sig)

I already had it bookmarked.

Spirits and shamanism are good, and I like the intelligent animal tribes idea. I just remembered the wendigo, too, but I think that's something from pretty far north.

If you can find it (as it is out of print), there is a game setting called Northern Crown that is a re-imagining of the New World (as in, our real world Earth) with monsters. Should be all kinds of Indian-type information in there.

Sounds like a great resource, and I found a copy of the GM book on Amazon for only $4!

Lastly, you can always seek out the original GAZ14 - The Atruaghin Clans. Good luck, though.

I have it, but I'm left with a lot of blanks to fill, namely monsters and adventure ideas. Most of the gazetteers were written with only a nod to the existence of monsters. The adventure ideas tend to be civilian and, frankly, much too obvious, like protecting a wagon from bandits. It's pretty good for the cultures of the clans, though.

Pre or post introduction of the horse? The culture changed a lot when the horse came around.

One of the clans is the Children of the Horse, so definitely post-horse. This might also imply that only one clan has access to horses, I hadn't really considered that. The other clans are based around real-world Native American groups, such as the southwestern Children of the Bear and the forest-dwelling Children of the Elk.

There was a plains indian-type adventure in a fairly early dungeon magazine. If you have back issues, you could hunt that down. It may even have been set in Mystara, for all I remember.

No, I was never much of a Dungeon buyer.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Charles deLint does some creative interpretations of what the Spirit World of the First People might look like overlaid on our modern world; there may be some stuff in his stories you can steal.

I remember reading a Micmac Indian story once about a water monster that go into a river and got so fat eating all the fish that it blocked the river and a hero had to go kill it. Lots of geographic features are explained as places where a great monster or hero did something to shape the land. Monsters that alter the environment seem kind of Native American in flavor. Embodied spirits of geographic features might also work.

 

[ExploderWizard]

There was a plains indian-type adventure in a fairly early dungeon magazine. If you have back issues, you could hunt that down. It may even have been set in Mystara, for all I remember.

They were Mystara.

Tortles of the Purple Sage parts 1 & 2. They appeared in Dungeon mag #'s
6 & 7. They have a lot of grassland/ plains type stuff in them.

 

[Garmorn]

I already had it bookmarked.

Spirits and shamanism are good, and I like the intelligent animal tribes idea. I just remembered the wendigo, too, but I think that's something from pretty far north.

Sounds like a great resource, and I found a copy of the GM book on Amazon for only $4!

I have it, but I'm left with a lot of blanks to fill, namely monsters and adventure ideas. Most of the gazetteers were written with only a nod to the existence of monsters. The adventure ideas tend to be civilian and, frankly, much too obvious, like protecting a wagon from bandits. It's pretty good for the cultures of the clans, though.

One of the clans is the Children of the Horse, so definitely post-horse. This might also imply that only one clan has access to horses, I hadn't really considered that. The other clans are based around real-world Native American groups, such as the southwestern Children of the Bear and the forest-dwelling Children of the Elk.

No, I was never much of a Dungeon buyer.

If you can wait a couple of days I can pull out my Dragon Archive Program and do a search. (It would also help my next campaign)

 

[El Mahdi]

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