D&D 5E Campaign in the Far North?

[Zardnaar]

Putting together a new campaign perhaps set on Midgard. I was planning on running Ghosts of Saltmarsh but Keoland is more of a Mediterranean climate.

From the look of it I might have a Bearfolk and Scandinavian type halfling riding a cat.

I could have the as travelers but I'm not wedded to running Saltmarsh I can switch to a different adventure.

So any ideas if running Saltmarsh in the North or otherwise running in cold lands or travelers from the cold lands. By cold I mean Scandinavia/Novgorod not the arctic.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Although canonically set in Keoland Saltmarsh-as-originally-written was based on a Cornish town (England). Moving it somewhere colder than Keoland shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Zardnaar]

Cold luzardmen wasvmy thing. I can buy into cold water sahuagin but the lizard man thing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You get lizards in Cornwall.

I can think of plenty of times lizardfolk are encountered in coolish climates. They crop up in NWN2 for example, in the Sword Coast north (which is roughly based on Canada).

Xanathar's has them as a player character race, and they don't get any penalties for cold conditions.

 

[Zardnaar]

You get lizards in Cornwall.

I can think of plenty of times lizardfolk are encountered in coolish climates. They crop up in NWN2 for example, in the Sword Coast north (which is roughly based on Canada).

Xanathar's has them as a player character race, and they don't get any penalties for cold conditions.

It's more fluff from previous editions I suppose.

Sure you get lizards in colder climes but large ones are tropical, Komodo dragons, large snakes.

I don't expect strict realism in D&D but some sort of internal logic. No red dragons in Arctic climate for example unless it's volcanic or something similar.

My new players might not go with Midgard, session 0 is in two weeks. I've given them 3 options to pick from (Midgard, FR,Greyhawk) and to suggest a theme if they want to.

I can put Saltmarsh elsewhere as well, I was thinking somewhere near the 7 cities.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Color me interested in this thread.

 

[Oofta]

I've questioned this too because I like lizardmen lizardfolk from a story perspective. But my campaigns tend to be northernish. So I decided they were really descended from warm-blooded dinosaurs, not reptiles. Still haven't decided if the young are covered with down like chicks; could make a fun reference to someone young or inexperienced not having gone through the molt yet.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The SCAG also puts a whole Yuan-Ti kingdom in the Sword Coast region. I think we have to assume that neither lizardfolk nor snake people are subject to the cold climate sluggishness one would normally associate with reptiles.

 

[Istbor]

I think you could certainly play in a more Northern region with Lizardfolk.
They would be far more active in the Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons, and hibernate during the winter mostly.
I could imaging a deep and complex burrow as a village/city for them, to escape the harshness of winter and the colder weather. Indeed, if you put yourself far enough North, this could be shelter for several clans of Lizardfolk, and that could open up other forms of adventure and you negotiate your way through these underground halls.

This is of course assuming Lizardfolk are cold-blooded. And I am not certain they are restricted by that.
shrug but I feel if you are willing to accept bear and lizard people in the first place, you should be able to stretch it to allow for Norse Lizardfolk.

I'm thinking like... you could make that breed of Lizardfolk children or something, of Jormungandr. So their reason for being there can easily fit the fiction. I might even give them like a poisonous spit attack. Or perhaps only those 'chosen' or especially powerful received this gift from their progenitor.

 

[Zardnaar]

There goes that plan, Nuria Natal is going to be the plan