Polynesian/Hawai-like rpg settings

Malo, Taloha Ni!

I see my name has been invoked three times and thus I must respond:P

I'm not familiar with True20 (other than the free downloads) so am unale to comment on its suitability, but as always I am here an able to assist with any questions on the cultures and traditions you may have.
 

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Tonguez said:
I'm not familiar with True20 (other than the free downloads) so am unable to comment on its suitability
Well True20 presents three generic classes (Adept, Expert, Warrior) that get one feat (or also magical powers for adepts) each level, to be chosen by the player from the relevant list. Hence the characters are highly customizable, and do not come with a pre-conceived flavor. Of course, the existing D&D classes could be tweaked at leisure to fit a fantasy Polynesian setting, but personnally I think they don't fit very well, plus this requires a lot of work (that itself requires good design knowledge and playtesting, etc.). With True20, it's easy to provide a few "archetypes" (sorts of templates to help define certain characters appropriate to the setting), and maybe add in some new feats. But then, no more work on crunch is required, and you can devote all your efforts on the setting.

For setting, I had some idea, but just an idea right now, no truly intent to make it come true soon. The idea: Polynesian archipelago, but with an island where is located Freeport. So some pirate games can be played as well as purely native seafarers. Then, I thought of adding a pantheon of Cthulhu like gods, along more protective spirits, plus parallel places, ghost islands, etc. and of course dinosaurs...
 
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Turanil said:
Then, I thought of adding a pantheon of Cthulhu like gods, along more protective spirits, plus parallel places, ghost islands, etc. and of course dinosaurs...
Make sure Kong is there too :D Man, PJ's King Kong was amazing :D
 

Turanil said:
For setting, I had some idea, but just an idea right now, no truly intent to make it come true soon. The idea: Polynesian archipelago, but with an island where is located Freeport. So some pirate games can be played as well as purely native seafarers. Then, I thought of adding a pantheon of Cthulhu like gods, along more protective spirits, plus parallel places, ghost islands, etc. and of course dinosaurs...

You know I've always wanted to do a game set during the 1800's with Whalers, escaped convicts, Merchants and Missionaries living in the 'Hellhole of the Pacific' (Kororareka in New Zealand)

No settlement in New Zealand can claim a past as colourful and chequered as that of Kororareka in the Bay of Islands, later to become Russell. In the 1830s it was such a wild place that it earned the name ‘hell-hole of the Pacific’. Whalers, sealers, escaped convicts, seamen and adventurers descended on the little Maori village. Drunkenness, debauchery, grog shops and the oldest profession proliferated. At one stage the town was said to be harbouring ‘a greater number of rogues than any other spot of equal size in the universe’. New Zealand’s first duel with pistols was fought on the beach, and our first police force was established there. Punishment such as tarring and feathering was meted out to wrongdoers. The missionaries were shocked. Charles Darwin visited the town in the Beagle and hated the place.

The Beach alongside Kororareka was known as Blackguards Beach and Devil's Playground - great names to add to Freeport!
 

It sounds more like you are talking about a pre-American fantasy setting, but the first thing that came to my mind when reading this thread title was how very easy it would be to just get some maps and play something like Magnum P.I. through Spycraft or any number of other systems. :D
 


I've played some Polynesian characters in the D20 fantasy campaigns around my area. I experimented with 2 approaches:

1) A Paradigm class of sorts. 1 level in this class establishes a range of Polynesian-specific features (weapons and armor restrictions skill sets geared to islander abilities, access to culture-specific feats like Haka, etc.), and a character can advance for up to 5 levels in teh calss if the lpayer wishes, I'm no expert by any means, so I just managed to get the flavor of the area. One feature that I put into the latest version was gender specific differences in this base class. Women get more skill points (geared more towards healing and crafts, etc.) and lower hit dice, men get more combatty abilities and fewer skills. I wanted to capture the notion of a society with a gendered division of labor, and I wanted to do it without making an iron-clad rule or trying to match the historical reality behind it. This is just enough to suggest that there are substantive differences in the initial abilities of the characters of different genders. I'm doing the same thing for Native American and African, etc. though other rule systems have already been more established for those areas.

2) A modifier simply applied to base classes changing the weapons and skills, etc. I am les happy with this approach and I haven't tried it for awhile. It's messier in some ways though it enables people to skip the need for a single level of Paradigm class.

But of course the pay-off to setting up a character like this would be access to special options specific to the region. So, I have been tinkering with Prestige classes. We have a Hula Dancer class and a Fire Sword Dancer. Of course Lua Specialist is a possibility, as is Navigator, perhaps a spotter (the guys that would look for the fish on the front of the bow of a ship or high point on land - should be able to come up with at least 5 levels of spin-off abilities from that concept), might create a variant of Bard.

I haven't started into the monsters yet, but the characters are potentially interesting. I'm particularly fascinated by all the odd weapons, sharked tooth clubs, rope clubs, haldees, etc.
 

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