[Raven Lands] Conceptual Idea

[Ferrix]

Now don't go associating this with bird's or nothing, raven, as in he had a raven look. ;-) Okay on to the actual thread.

This has been mulling in my head for oh well, a hell of a long time. A savage world, lower magic, huge cataclysm reshaped the world into tropical climate, a lot of islands, ruins from before the cataclysm in some spots. Some ideas I have for it:

Metal is scarce - I'll need to work out rules for wooden armor, bone armor, and other equipment.

Heat is a problem - heavy armor is rough to be wearing, i'm thinking perhaps integrating a Defense bonus, and maybe even going the route of the wp/vp.

No paladins, clerics, wizards or monks.

Shamans replace clerics - more primal elements to their magic.

Magus replace wizards - sort of hedge-wizards

Sorcerors exist normally but will have to have a defining theme for their magic.

Probably gonna change rangers a tad.

Barbarians are probably gonna be called berserkers. It's a barbaric world after all.

Magus and bards are the only ones who would start with literacy as it is intensely rare.

Race ideas: Humans, Laus (fox-like humanoids), Skits (lemur-like people), Hys (stocky reptilian folk)

Any ideas for other changes that might need to take place? I'll go into more detail about the races, etc. in other posts...

~Ferrix

 

[SylverFlame]

I don't mean to insult you Ferrix, but this sounds a bit like Dark Sun, just predominently jungle not predominently wasteland.

As for ideas, i would basically redetermine all the alignments. A lawful character in this setting would be HIGHLY different from a lawful character in any other setting.

Also, I would have the husks of the old gods walking around. Basically the gods that existed pre-cataclysm that have been forced into mortal status and squished into a single form. Think of it as a way that they avoided being killed by the cataclysm and it would let them eventually rise again. Gives that "primal power" feel.

Any pockets of old civilization left? A place where the ways of the "old world" still live but the rest of the world fell into barbarism. (Cliche, but I like the social commentary you can make and the culture clash that ensues)

 

[Ferrix]

Never played Dark Sun, all I know about it is it was desert wasteland. And what's the problem if it sounds like another world, they're bound to be vastly different.

Why would a lawful character be so entirely different in this setting? He follows his own ethical code, whether that be determined by the tribe, the spirits or what not.

I was thinking of potentially having some remnants of civilized society remaining, but it would in a degraded form. Perhaps societies that have buried themselves within tribes as orders of various sorts. I'm not going to draft up the entire world, just like a continental area that would be under play for now so there might still be actual areas of concrete "old world" civilization.

~Ferrix

 

[MarauderX]

Mad Max comes to mind for me whenever Dark Sun is brought up. I like the idea of a jungle-like world, with no urban society to speak of. I like what you have so far, and it inspired me to write since now I may do something similiar, only all based on 3E instead of revising the mechanics of the game.

For jungle settings or adventures in my campaigns I like to use fear of the unknown as a major motivator to scare characters. Your setting would lend to some great original thinking if you let it go to fruition, and players would second guess the abilities of anything they run into. For me, it put a hold on the meta-game thinking of "The DM won't have me encounter anything that we couldn't handle."

Just to add on to what you had, I was thinking that the societies that formed would be only as big as tribes, either nomadic (Mongols without horses?) or in very defensible terrain. Perhaps the people move with the food source, or perhaps the races ARE the food source for something more hideous, but something usually has to drive the nomadic hunter-gathers.
Using something like this lets the lone wolf players find an occassional respite from the vast outside, plus each encounter could be with different NPCs, where characters that share information that could be helpful or harmful to another race (i.e. don't follow the river to the south unless you want to be eaten by dinosaurs.) It could also be a goal for the characters to be the first to set up a new organized realm by leading some tribes to an unspoiled land... and so on.

Some questions I would ask were I a PC might be:
How many people are there in a tribe, how far is it to the nearest village/tribe?
What do the people do for food? Shelter? Transportation?
How does trade work?
Is there a common language for most human/other tribes?
Will everyone need to max out their wilderness lore?

 

[Ferrix]

Humans
Humans from the Raven Lands are divided up into seven tribes throughout the lands. Much of their culture was lost during the cataclysm that shredded the world and they have plunged into barbaric survival.

The tribes are divided by the spirit they follow. The Serpent, The Lizard, The Panther, The Boar, The Wind, The Ghost, and The Guardian.

The Serpent tribe holds a multitude of small islands on the eastern coastline, they Serpent Spirit is a wise and slow entity and the tribe follow along the same guidelines taking time to react and weigh situations.

The Lizard tribe holds a series of tropical jungles near the center of the continental mass. The Lizard Spirit is swift and judgemental and the people of the tribe are often rash and aggressive.

The Panther tribe holds a series of plains interspersed with jungle bordering the land of the Lizard tribe and the islands of the Serpent Tribe. The Panther Spirit is powerful and primal. The tribe echoes this, being closely tied to the natural order of all things they often protect their lands fiercely.

The Boar tribe holds the southern coastline, the Panther and Lizard tribes situated above them. The Boar Spirit is virile and independant. The people of this tribe have a deeply enriched culture and tradition, they also possess high levels of technology and commonly work metal and create stonework structures.

The Wind tribe lives along the nothern reaches of the continent, seperated some ways from other tribes. The Wind Spirit is fickle and self-righteous. The people of this tribe are highly xenophobic, regarding those of other races as blights and even regarding those of other tribes as potential enemies.

The Ghost tribe lives amongst the volcanic mountainous jungles that cloister between the Lizard tribe and the Guardian tribe. The Ghost Spirit is ancient, and may well be the embodied dead spirit of a God from before the cataclysm, he is wise and intelligent. The people of this tribe live within stonework villages along the mountains, they possess incredible metallurgical skills and practice the arts of magic in higher frequency than any of their brethren.

The Guardian tribe lives along the western coast amongst the open beaches and scattered islands. The Guardian Spirit is benevolent and just. The people of this tribe have formed the a deep social governing system and progress along social lines to a more involved civilization.

I'll actually probably go more in depth on each tribe but they each have their own staked territory that they move about in. Some, the Ghost tribe, Guardian tribe, and the Boar tribe would most likely be the only ones that have anything beyond the size of a small village that is permanent and even then I wouldn't go so far as to say city but more of like a larger town. Most of the clans would be nomadic within their staked territories. All humans speak the same language, however they all have slightly different inflections/accents and meanings to some words.

Tribes are generalizations of a type of people. I would say most likely two to ten thousand in a tribe, but that tribe would be spread over a massive area usually and there would be basic sub-cultures within each tribe. It would depend upon the area you were in to figure the nearest village, with the Guardian or Ghost probably a couple days walking distance, otherwise it might be a week or so. Small villages I figure would often be not as seperated as large cities. Plus I'm thinking a few shacks in a circle as a village.

Most of those who live on the coast or on islands would fish, harvest the area, and hunt smaller wildlife. Those who live farther inland, primarily the two tribes with more technology would potentially have irrigation systems for farming.

Most people would travel on foot, giant lizards may be used as mounts and maybe even giant insects in some areas.

Shelter is pretty commonly dependant upon the tribe, there those few who would live in stonework built into mountains (Ghost tribe), others may well live under lean-to's (Panther tribe), and so on.

No, everyone will not need to max out Wilderness Lore, though it'd probably be advised. I would figure most people having grown up in that sort of environment would be able to scavenge for food if they needed to without knowing a great deal about the wilderness beyond colloqial knowledge.

There is not much trade at all, the trade that would go on would be primarily between the Ghost and Guardian tribes. A good deal of suspicion goes on between tribes, so trade between tribes would be rare. Within a tribe however it would be more of a barter system when trade is involved, there would be no actual monetary unit, but still items of value (jewelry, etc) would still be regarded with some value.

~Ferrix - More to come

 

[SylverFlame]

Hey ferrix, I wasn't saying anything bad about it being like Dark Sun. If you want to make your setting the way you want, that's entirely cool.

My own setting has similarities to FF and PlanceScape. I was just pointing out that it was similar so if you wanted to see how it was set up then you might get inspired from some existing material. That's all. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

As for the lawful example, the characters in your world would have a different lawful bent in the scale of things. In an entirely civilized world lawful people think on a huge scale, as lawful alignment implies. If your characters are only concerned with their tribes survival, what's happening on the other side of the mountains won't heavily weigh on them because the people on the other side of the mountain are only concerned with their side of the mountain. It's just a scale thing.

 

[starwolf]

Hey Ferrix,
One word

NYAMBE

IMO a great source book for just such a campaign world, and if you could find them.....I believe that at least one has just been released on ESD.......Jakandor may also have some interesting bits to Yoink....

 

[Ferrix]

No standard races except human; the other races are the Serval, Hys, Skits and Laus.

All characters are illiterate unless stated in class description.

Barbarian - might replace trap sense with something more appropriate as traps are almost nonexistant

Bard - no current modifications - literate

Cleric - might replace with a slightly modified shaman from OA (not unarmed combat focused), any suggestions for modification of the shaman accepted - literate

Druid - no current modifications

Fighter - no current modifications

Monk - don't know if i'll include the monk

Paladin - no current modifications

Ranger - no current modifications

Rogue - might replace the trap sense/finding with something else

Sorceror - d6 hd, no familiar?

Wizard - literate, no change that i can think of

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Look at the totem barbarians from UA; they're available for free on the Wizard's site. You should STRONGLY consider using the Arcana Unearthed magic-user classes. In a tribal/spirit focused world, the idea of true names and ceremony would fit right in. The totem warriors would be good too. Akashics could tap into the memories from before the cataclysm, they wquld probably be common among the Ghost and Guardian clans.