D&D 5E Help me design Fantasy Americas D&D (+)

[John R Davis]

Or did they?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I spend my lunch hour making a small photo dump:

Spoiler: Photos

Hill Folx aka halfling (3 families: Thorn-Back, River-Feet, Proud-Burrow)

Musket-knight

I'll be back with more late.

 

[Stormonu]

Now we need some Pueblo sorcerers and native warlocks. Maybe a wandslinger (old west gunfighter, but with wands instead) and duelists (Zorro-likes, with a more 3-musketeers look, including a Native American-style version).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Isn't the "large territories to explore" in itself part of the new world trope?

Ah indeed, Large Tracts of Land...

I spend my lunch hour making a small photo dump:

Spoiler: Photos

Hill Folx aka halfling (3 families: Thorn-Back, River-Feet, Proud-Burrow)
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Musket-knight

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I'll be back with more late.

I do like a) common animals of the Americas as "sentient" creatures that are also roughly between Halfling and Goliath size (depending on animal) and b) Moose as mounts.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Moose as mounts.

This should be the real focus of the setting.

Moose as mounts.

I think most people dont really know how big is a moose in real-life. Sadly the pictures here make them mostly horse-sized, but they are much bigger than riding horses.

They are really impressing, beautiful creatures. Sorry for the tangent!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This should be the real focus of the setting.

Moose as mounts.

I think most people dont really know how big is a moose in real-life. Sadly the pictures here make them mostly horse-sized, but they are much bigger than riding horses.

They are really impressing, beautiful creatures. Sorry for the tangent!

Møøse are huge! So are elk and bison. I’ve been up close to all three.

Nothing makes you move slowly and speak in nice, soothing tones like a hornéd (or antlered) beast the size of a truck.

Well...

MOST people.

 

[Undrave]

I think most people dont really know how big is a moose in real-life. Sadly the pictures here make them mostly horse-sized, but they are much bigger than riding horses.

Møøse are huge! So are elk and bison. I’ve been up close to all three.

Nothing makes you move slowly and speak in nice, soothing tones like a hornéd (or antlered) beast the size of a truck.

Well...

MOST people.

Moose are basically surviving megafauna.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also, don’t forget about how orcas are among moose predators...

This Comic Strip Only Looks Funny Until You Learn This Could Actually Happen

Moose are probably the last species you’d expect to be diving for a snack. Turns out, they're actually excellent swimmers. When Pixie and Brutus comics creator Ben Hed found out about this, he decided to do with it what he does best. Imagine it through illustration.

www.boredpanda.com

 

[Eltab]

A big chunk of Longfellow's Hiawatha can be adapted to be a mythic re-telling of the discovery / invention of early agriculture.

 

[Undrave]

Found this channel recently, he's got some videos that might help you out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFTX4ZTagwVT8wLopbk-eiw

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Townsends is a website with all kinds of archaic Americana, and they have a YouTube channel where they actually cook recipes from American history.

Townsends

 

[Ixal]

Townsends is a website with all kinds of archaic Americana, and they have a YouTube channel where they actually cook recipes from American history.

Townsends

18th century is a bit too late for what the OP described.

Is there a list which plants were native to the Americas and which did not exist there (for food and other agriculture)?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

18th century is a bit too late for what the OP described.

Is there a list which plants were native to the Americas and which did not exist there (for food and other agriculture)?

Some of their stuff goes back a little further, but not much. Still, tech didn’t change that quickly back then, so it at least gives you an inkling.

As for new world plants, here’s one list of foods originating in the America:

18 Food Crops Developed in the Americas

Read this Encyclopedia Britannica History list to learn about crops domesticated in the Americas.

www.britannica.com

(Since it isn’t edible, tobacco isn’t on that list.)

The wiki is surprisingly broad:

New World crops - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A food historian quoted in that article points out about pre-1492 Old World cuisine:

If we deconstruct that these foods were inherently native, then that means that the Italians didn't have the tomato, the Irish didn't have the potato, half the British National Dish—Fish and Chips—didn't exist. The Russians didn't have the potato, nor did they have vodka from the potato. There were no chiles in any Asian cuisine anywhere in the world, nor were there any chiles in any East Indian cuisine dishes, including curries. And the French had no confection using either vanilla or chocolate. So the Old World was a completely different place.

 

[Sithlord]

The mothman

 

[Eltab]

Source to mine for ideas: Killing Crazy Horse by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. A few possibilities:

• The Comanche warrior culture that thinks other peoples do work so we can take what we want from them.
• IRL Comanche were light cavalry raiders. What would a heavy infantry oriented warrior culture become?
• Evil spirit(s) haunts the area near Wounded Knee, driving people who normally have discipline and self-control into frenzies of barbaric deeds.
• Cochise, a tactical genius who raids multiple foes but never gets ganged up on by them.
• The extermination of the buffalo, as re-told in myth and legend for several generations, becomes something above the mundane - a time when the world moved from one Age into another Age.

 

[Northern Phoenix]

If you want "America" as in "The United States Of", rather than pre-colonial america, Monsters of Murka Campaign Setting has got you covered!

Monsters of Murka Campaign Setting (5e) - Action Fiction | DriveThruRPG.com

Monsters of Murka Campaign Setting (5e) - Monsters of Murka's first full-scale expansion, Restaurants and Retail, is LIVE now on Kickstarter intil October 9th!

www.drivethrurpg.com

This delightfully satirical yet at times also charmingly earnest DnDification of the mythologized America of folklore takes you for a wild ride indeed across 214-pages of fun for both players and DMs

 

[Ixal]

Source to mine for ideas: Killing Crazy Horse by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. A few possibilities:

• The Comanche warrior culture that thinks other peoples do work so we can take what we want from them.
• IRL Comanche were light cavalry raiders. What would a heavy infantry oriented warrior culture become?
• Evil spirit(s) haunts the area near Wounded Knee, driving people who normally have discipline and self-control into frenzies of barbaric deeds.
• Cochise, a tactical genius who raids multiple foes but never gets ganged up on by them.
• The extermination of the buffalo, as re-told in myth and legend for several generations, becomes something above the mundane - a time when the world moved from one Age into another Age.

Raiding cultures needs a way to strike fast and carry the loot. For the Comanche they used horses and Vikings used ships. So a "heavy infantry warrior culture" would either need a mode of transportation or drop the raiding part and become more like the Romans with their legions.