If you liked Nyambe...

[Dannyalcatraz]

I love the totem barbarians (is that what they're called?) in Unearthed Arcana, but what I did for Northern Crown was include "Animal Ancestry Feats" that give you certain traits of your totem animal.

Were I to run Northern Crown tomorrow, taking an animal ancestry feat would be a "prerequisite" of taking a totemic class. That is, a PC taking one of those classes would either have to take one of those feats with its initial allocation, or if game balance demanded it, it would be a 1st level Bonus Feat for the class.

Unfortunately, my current game group (gaming every 2 weeks) is composed of me and a bunch of mud with 7 sticks in it. Thus, the tomorrows of my near future will not include Northern Crown. Nobody is interested in anything that isn't plain vanilla D&D (Core + the softcover class-oriented books from WOTC). One guy (a buddy of mine going back about 20 years) said he'd leave the group if we weren't playing D&D- we can't even get him to try 3.5Ed or D20 Modern. Forget 3rd party publishers, other game systems, other settings...*sigh*

(Damn shame, too- I have a HUMENDOUS RPG collection. I believe in supporting the best exemplars of the hobby by buying them, even if I never get to use the material.)

OTOH, another buddy going back almost as far is moving back to town, and may be interested in exploring other role-playing avenues...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I love the totem barbarians (is that what they're called?) in Unearthed Arcana, but what I did for Northern Crown was include "Animal Ancestry Feats" that give you certain traits of your totem animal.

The ones in Arcana Unearthed are VERY similar to the ones in Unearthed Arcana. (And no, for the record, I'm not accusing anyone of anything.)

Were I to run Northern Crown tomorrow, taking an animal ancestry feat would be a "prerequisite" of taking a totemic class. That is, a PC taking one of those classes would either have to take one of those feats with its initial allocation, or if game balance demanded it, it would be a 1st level Bonus Feat for the class.

Unfortunately, my current game group (gaming every 2 weeks) is composed of me and a bunch of mud with 7 sticks in it. Thus, the tomorrows of my near future will not include Northern Crown. Nobody is interested in anything that isn't plain vanilla D&D (Core + the softcover class-oriented books from WOTC). One guy (a buddy of mine going back about 20 years) said he'd leave the group if we weren't playing D&D- we can't even get him to try 3.5Ed or D20 Modern. Forget 3rd party publishers, other game systems, other settings...*sigh* I guess that also answers the question about Chisca. I'm still going to download it, just in case.

(Damn shame, too- I have a HUMENDOUS RPG collection. I believe in supporting the best exemplars of the hobby by buying them, even if I never get to use the material.)

OTOH, another buddy going back almost as far is moving back to town, and may be interested in exploring other role-playing avenues...

I'm not familiar with the Kalamar shaman. Shamanistic practice is a phenomenon of the Asian arctic and actually quite alien to the woodland Indian cultures that inspired the First Ones of Northern Crown.

True, true. But Shamanism could do pretty well representing the ones from the Plains, the Northwest, and Canada.

The Kalamar Shaman (KoKG p45-48) is another quasi-totemic class, combining elements of druids and rangers. Wild shape, fetishes, and a full divine spellcasting progression.

Monte Cook's Greenbond class from Arcana Unearthed would also work- none of the powers of the class are setting specific. All you'd have to do is exchange the spell selection/style to a standard druidic/shamanistic/clerical chart. If you go clerical, you could give them access to any of Air, Fire, Plant, or Water domains.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I noticed one thing that COULD affect game balance:

The Psionic "Knack" Feats give PSPs and abilities based on levels...and they are just feats, not classes. I didn't see anything that limited you to taking just one Psionic Knack Feat (PKF), and they don't have prerequisites, so concievably, you could take as many of these knacks as possible. What I haven't figured out is if the power granted by a PKF is equivalent to or more powerful than a metamagic feat or the like (I suspect they are more powerful, at least at low levels).

Hmmm...some kind of warrior who takes martial feats with his bonuses, and PKFs with his level based feats could become...nasty.

Also, in a completely different issue- people looking at First One's equipment lists will notice the absence of the longbow. I suspect this is probably because the bow was primarily a weapon of the plains tribes, not the peoples of the East and South.

 

[dougmander]

Longbow is listed on page 137 of New World Adventures along with other First Ones weapons.

The longbow was definitely used by woodland peoples. I've examined one of the only surviving examples, at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA. It's a massive thing, painted in yellow and black stripes, IIRC.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hmm...guess I missed it. Time for remedial reading courses!