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

[Tales and Chronicles]

You mention "colonialism" as a time period frame, which makes me ask the question: are they actually going to be colonies? Is there an Old World power these folks still must answer to? What is the relationship between the two? Mutually beneficial? Extractive? Contentious?

I'm not sure.

I love the idea from Symbaroum, where whole kingdoms moved to the new world (across the maintains in that specific case). So maybe 1 or 2 kingdoms from an ancient world who fell beneath the waves?

I have in mind of having ''colonies'' but no colonial powers, so no big empires try to steal stuff from our continent.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Why? What is the reason for them to stay as nomads instead of settling down? Especially when you have dwarves who did just that so it is not a unknown concept.

Following the herds. There will be small freeholds along the coast, making a like with fishing, but I have in mind moving villages that follows the herds of X beasts and avoid too permanent settlements to avoid getting the attention of mega-predators such as dinosaurs and such.

 

[Stormonu]

Don't forget that you've got all of Lovecraft country to throw into the Easternlands here, as well as Viking Raiders (ala Erik the Red) along the eastern seaboard, and Carribean pirates in the south.

For the west, you've got Spanish mission-forts to keep the undead hordes at bay and the French voodoo lords in the southern bayous to contend with.

 

[Undrave]

The low population density is a result of the diseases which killed large parts of the inhabitants and of the Europeans driving the rest away or straight up killing them. But when playing at the beginning of the the colonialization phase the country was far less empty than whats commonly believed. This empty country with lots of wilderness is a "new world trope" which I thought should be avoided?

There is still large swath of deserts, harsh mountains, grasslands that belong to the buffalos, the Great Lakes larger than certain Seas in the old world and lake-dotted tundra.

Modern day USA has a population density of 36 per km2, Mexico at 64,91 and Canada at a meager 4 per km2.

Modern day France has a density of 122.34 per km2, the UK at 281, Germany at 232, and Poland at 124.

There were more people pre-plague, but I doubt the population was spread out enough that large empty spaces weren't a thing. You'd have bigger cities and settlement for sure, but they would still be far from each other.

 

[Thunder Brother]

If you're not familiar with it already, there's a interesting blog that goes through various creatures from mythology and folklore, including the Americas. It should be a good ideas generator. The Inuit ones are particularly weird.

 

[Gradine]

I'm not sure.

I love the idea from Symbaroum, where whole kingdoms moved to the new world (across the maintains in that specific case). So maybe 1 or 2 kingdoms from an ancient world who fell beneath the waves?

I have in mind of having ''colonies'' but no colonial powers, so no big empires try to steal stuff from our continent.

Well, the very nature of a "colony" is that its people came from somewhere else. Refugees from a lost kingdom definitely works, though that's a far different thing from "colonization" as a real-world historical concept. The relationships you'll have between your refugees and the indigenous peoples are going to be quite a bit different.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Well, the very nature of a "colony" is that its people came from somewhere else. Refugees from a lost kingdom definitely works, though that's a far different thing from "colonization" as a real-world historical concept. The relationships you'll have between your refugees and the indigenous peoples are going to be quite a bit different.

Yep, that's indeed what I'm looking for: migrant settlement without colonialism. Its a little hard to imagine because of our own history, I agree. That's one of the reason I'm not sure to even have ''colonies''.

I mostly wonder what would ''Medieval Fantasy Americas'' would look like, given that the Americas did not have the same medieval trope as used in the usual European D&D worlds.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Harry Turtledove’s Darkness novels are a fantasy version of WWII.

The Darkness Series - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

How is this relevant? Well, Turtledove is a historian by training, and he creates fantasy analogues of virtually EVERYTHING you know about that war, including esoteric stuff. The methodology of his “how” & “why” might help you figure out how to shape your campaign.

 

[John R Davis]

I always fancied a game set just after " fantasy Vikings" land in " fantasy North America". Meeting up of cultures has gone very well as their gods are almost identical in outlook, passions, etc. Main threat is from the western coast where all the monsters and peril seem to arise

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I always fancied a game set just after " fantasy Vikings" land in " fantasy North America". Meeting up of cultures has gone very well as their gods are almost identical in outlook, passions, etc. Main threat is from the western coast where all the monsters and peril seem to arise

...when the kaiju take a wrong turn, no doubt.