D&D General Building a New Mystara

[Tonguez]

I think being transplanted to a New New World would initially make them cling together much more closely for security. There's no Britain or France that they can naturally ally with if they run into trouble. Even the other human nations are likely to be from different eras in history and they'll have little in common with them.

Likewise, I think the former Floridians, for instance, wanting to head south to a New Florida (with a real Fountain of Youth this time) would be a lot more interesting if there were capable civilizations standing in the way of that, human or otherwise.

You also have the situation where the American Colonist came in distinct waves from different origins points to different destinations - they didnt have the same culture nor an automatic sense of community.

Puritans came out of East Anglia and settled New England as a tight, dour religious community 1629 - 40, the Royalist Cavaliers came out of Southern England to settled Virginia 1642 - 75 and the Scots Royalist to Maryland,
Quakers came with Midlands Farmers to settled Pennsylvania/Delaware 1675 - 1725 and
Northern Borderlands and Scots-Irish settled Appalachia and the Carolinas after 1717 - 1775
Not to mention the Dutch, Germans and French around the place

By the time of Benjamin Franklin the colonist were operating as distinct nations and could easily have drifted apart, One of the reasons why Franklin is so historically important is that he largely led the creation of the American identity. It would be fascinating to see what would happen if Franklin hadnt developed the modern postal service, published Poor Richard’s Almanack and supported the Enlightenment in the Americas ...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You also have the situation where the American Colonist came in distinct waves from different origins points to different destinations - they didnt have the same culture nor an automatic sense of community.

Yep, that's why I picked the point in time that I did. Honestly, Puritans are overdone and are, frankly, bummers to have in games. (They probably were no treat in real life, either.)

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

@Tonguez @Whizbang Dustyboots if I started on maps for your respective regions, what geographical features would you see? I know Tonguez mentioned highlands and deep river valleys as well as forests, and I was wondering if you were thinking of something close to what's seen somewhere on Earth or not. I'd also be needing the coastal regions (which way is the nearest sea/ocean) and where you see the other sapient species in relation to the nations?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

@Tonguez @Whizbang Dustyboots if I started on maps for your respective regions, what geographical features would you see? I know Tonguez mentioned highlands and deep river valleys as well as forests, and I was wondering if you were thinking of something close to what's seen somewhere on Earth or not. I'd also be needing the coastal regions (which way is the nearest sea/ocean) and where you see the other sapient species in relation to the nations?

I would say we'd need a dense northern forest comparable to Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont, a mountain range border that runs the length of one side of the new nation, and a warm swampy region opposite the dark forests. But nothing says this all has to be arranged like it is in our world.

It might be more interesting to have the new nation stretched out like Chile is, where the mountain range is higher and more impassible than what the colonies had in the colonial days and on the far side is conceivably any other civilization people suggest, but the mountains make regular contact difficult (at least until airships are developed or someone builds tunnels through the mountains).

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

I would say we'd need a dense northern forest comparable to Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont, a mountain range border that runs the length of one side of the new nation, and a warm swampy region opposite the dark forests. But nothing says this all has to be arranged like it is in our world.

It might be more interesting to have the new nation stretched out like Chile is, where the mountain range is higher and more impassible than what the colonies had in the colonial days and on the far side is conceivably any other civilization people suggest, but the mountains make regular contact difficult (at least until airships are developed or someone builds tunnels through the mountains).

I attached something below, working with the existing east coast of the US altered somewhat for this. The reddish circle is where the tectonic plate is. It is crashing into the continent much like India is crashing into Asia. The mountains, therefore, are much more like the Himalayas, though this can be altered (the Appalachian Mountains were much taller once). The area south, if you wish could have steep cliffs of some due to a mighty earthquake long ago causing the coast to collapse. If you want some very elevated coast, the cliffs could be some 13,000 ft. (3962 m) basically as far as has been explored.

Areas in grey are, effectively, Fog of War and can be extended to be closer to the mountains if desired.*

The climate would be similar but reversed to what they had on Earth due to the continent being in the southern hemisphere, so the northern areas have the more humid/subtropical weather while the southern ones have the more temperate ones.

I can flip things with minimal fuss and would be willing to alter to suit (the colors would be hardest only in that there tend to be fiddly bits that hang out).

Thoughts?
*added a map with the Fog of War closer to the mountains.

 

[Stormonu]

2) Much like Mystara, a region should be based on a real-world culture but changed to fit a fantasy world. For purposes of this, actual humans and their cultures were transposed onto this world. This resulted in a duplication, so the folks both stayed on Earth and existed here. Most of the time it didn't take too long for them to realize something was off.

What are your thoughts on creating non-human countries, akin to the Elves of Alfheim, Dwarves of Rockhome and such? Do they have to still be based on some real-world analog fantasied up and is their origin still from off-world?

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

What are your thoughts on creating non-human countries, akin to the Elves of Alfheim, Dwarves of Rockhome and such? Do they have to still be based on some real-world analog fantasied up and is their origin still from off-world?

They don't have to be. I was using Mystara's template mostly because we can look at RL cultures and try to figure out how to fit them into a fantasy world, but I think even Mystara used some mixing and matching to come up with some unique things (the Shadow Elves come to mind). So if you want a unique Elven culture unrelated to any on Earth and also native to the world, that's fine. If you want to import a clone of some society from another setting and adjust it for here, that's fine too, so long as it doesn't break the world.

Just as a reminder, something akin to the Feywild (First World/Alpha Test) exists, after all, and is 'attached' to the world, so things coming from there eventually would adapt to the Prime to become beings like Elves or Genasi or such. I've also got an idea for a Second World (Beta Test) that has Giants and Dragons where basically everything is minimally four times the size of what it would be on the Prime (Small becomes Large, Medium becomes Huge, etc.). I mention that here because I didn't think of it in my initial post and, sooner or later, someone is going to ask about Giants and Dragons.