Northern Crown - Fantasy Adventuring in Europe's Colonization of North America

[qstor]

Yeah, I'm going to pick this up at GenCon. It looks very cool. I remember Doug's stuff back in the late 2e days so its good to see it finally in print!

Is there any stuff from the Atlas alternative d20 Magic book included in Northern Crown?

Mike

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The sooner you guys can come up with any previews of any sort, the better. I haven't been this excited about a setting in a long, long time.

 

[Tinner]

This is a game for people who love American history, lore, and legend. We wanted NC to make early America come alive as a mythic place the same way Ars Magica reimagines Europe's past. It really helps to visualize the sorts of adventures possible if you've read Card's Alvin Maker series, J. Gregory Keyes' Age of Unreason, or REH's Solomon Kane stories. And tales of Daniel Boone, Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, Blackbeard, Jonny Appleseed...

You got me. If the Alvin Maker stories were inspiration for this setting, then I am all in! Add in Paul Bunyan, Daniel Boone and Solomon Kane and I'm very excited about this setting!
Are there "Knack" feats featured? Any Dowsers or Doodlebugs?

 

[warlord]

So in this book will I finally find out what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke, why the Salem Witch trials happened and what what was up with Virginia Woolf(I think that was her name) the first kid born in America is she a demon now?

 

[dougmander]

You got me. If the Alvin Maker stories were inspiration for this setting, then I am all in! Add in Paul Bunyan, Daniel Boone and Solomon Kane and I'm very excited about this setting!
Are there "Knack" feats featured? Any Dowsers or Doodlebugs?

Yes, knacks in NC are actually limited psionic abilities. You can buy, say, Evil Eye, Second Sight, or Firebug as a feat and gain access to a small list of psionic powers.

 

[scourger]

I just wanted to pipe up and say that independently I would like to release a free Northern Crown module in PDF form concurrently with the release of the books. I know that whenever I purchase a campaign setting, I also like to have at least one module to try out the game. I have campaign settings sitting on my bookshelf that I never did anything with, because I didn't have any modules to play with.

I should also say that the NC Gazetteer does include many adventure seeds, even if they aren't in module form. I like John's idea of adapting other d20 modules to Northern Crown -- I did this recently in my own NC campaign, using Bloody Jack's Gold from Goodman Game's Dungeon Crawl Classics series of modules. Worked great!

A free adventure never hurts. I bought Skull & Bones after downloading the free adventure & other stuff form Green Ronin's site--after I ran the adventure.

 

[WmRAllen67]

So in this book will I finally find out what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke, why the Salem Witch trials happened and what what was up with Virginia Woolf(I think that was her name) the first kid born in America is she a demon now?

IIRC from the old Septentrionalis info, dougmander said (via email ages ago) that descendants of the Roanoke colony were still haunting the forests and swamps of the Carolinas, but didn't say what had happened...

If Naumkeag (the Witches' city) is the NC analogue to Salem, the "Witch trials" either haven't happened yet, or won't, or may be an internal matter between the different covens and power structures of that society.

Virginia Woolf drowned herself in 1941, and I'm not afraid to say it! She's only a demon if you're afraid of feminism!

Virginia Dare, an the other hand, disappeared aloong with the other Roanoke colonists sometime between 1586 and 1595 or so. Current real-world historical thinking has it that the English colonists had moved inland from Roanoke island and were living alongside the natives, but were slaughtered when the sails of an English expedition were spotted approaching the Carolina coast. If she had survived her early childhood, then this was probably her fate. (A good resource for the English attempts at colonization in the sicteenth century [with lots of yoinkable ideas] is Big Chief Elizabeth by Giles Milton.)

Bill (waiting with bated breath for this release)

 

[dougmander]

Wow, hey, that's pretty cool! I've long been interested in fantasy something or other like this, but set earlier; Vikings in the New World. It looks like all that New World info, at least, would still be applicable. I may have to check this out.

Northern Crown does have Vikings, actually. In my alternate history, the Vinland colony survived and the Vinland raiders are the terror of the east coast, having plundered as far south as Boston. "Vinlander" is one of the culture backgrounds available for PCs.
Oh yes, and they have guns.

 

[Desdichado]

D'oh! Even better! When's the putative release date for this baby again?

 

[dougmander]

D'oh! Even better! When's the putative release date for this baby again?

At GenCon, so I guess August of this year.