Small Changes with Great flavor

[BourbonFromHeaven]

I'm in the middle of some world designing and as always, on the look out for some honest theft of ideas. I'm trying to stay as close as possible to the core rules without to much redesigning, but at the same time, trying to give the area a very unquie feel. Not just different to be different, but a culture that the players are not immedtialy familiar with (European). So, I'm all about making small minute rule changes that give big flavor to my campaign. Some changes are not even mechanics, just the way I name things.

That being said, Worldbuilders out there, what small things do you do/add to your world that really change the feel and flavour of the game? Here are some of the things I have done...

Since my campaign is based in a Cold Enviroment ( Frost n Fur/Frostburn ) I'm basing a few cultures off real historcal ones. Mainly, Slavic and Norse ( loosely I might add). So I decided to rename some of the base classes to reflect that culture, here are some examples;

-Clerics are known as Volkhovy in the Slavic realm and Godi in the Norse one.

-Bards are known as Sokmorah in the Slavic realm and Skalds in the Norse realm

-Wizards are known to both as the mysterious "Vedma" ( Old Slavic for "Knowers")

- The Ranger class will only be available to the Slavic Realm and will be known as Cossacks

In addition to the change of names, I'm going to change some of the abilities given to the core classes to better reflect their role on the world, for example;

-Wizards(Vedma) will replace their spell list with the Druid one , to give them a more earthly feel. Also be given some Item Creation feats, such as Create Medallion.

-Rangers(Cossacks) will have a Feat Advancement that follows Mounted Archery and combat. I'm thinking adding on the Paladin's special mount ability and dropping the spells.

To make the cultures and people seem more alive or vivid, I'm building them a vocabulary of everyday words that will be unique to the realm. Here is a short list;

Trollsap- Evil Magic

Silver Coin - Ruble

Div- Demon

Oka- Unit of weight measure ( 1pound )

 

[Desdichado]

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=14455

 

[BourbonFromHeaven]

oh my!

thanks Josh!

 

[Psion]

Ah... mmadsen's old thread. Blast from the past.

Since my campaign is based in a Cold Enviroment ( Frost n Fur/Frostburn ) I'm basing a few cultures off real historcal ones. Mainly, Slavic and Norse ( loosely I might add). So I decided to rename some of the base classes to reflect that culture, here are some examples;

Oriental Adventures/Mahasarpa, Nyambe, and Hamunaptra do this, but the latter two are a bit better off, since there are slight tweaks and you can't get by just calling it a "cleric" or whatever.

 

[DaveStebbins]

My standard answer for small changes with big flavor is to eliminate evocation spells. Wizards and Sorcerers all become specialists for free (essentially they all have evocation as their only required opposition school). It requires going through all the evocations and making some substitutions (mostly in clerical spell lists) and a few changes. I kept some clerical evocations, like spiritual weapon, by making them "sacred" spells, and changed some spells a bit (shatter was kept, but became a touch-range transmutation, while wall of fire became a conjuration tapping the elemental plane of fire), but made sure to get rid of all the direct damage spells. Without these direct-damage spells, the game doesn't feel so D&Dish, and it's easier to introduce a more traditional (Howard, Leiber, etc.) feel to mages. It feels like a big change, but is fairly simple and balanced, using the existing specialization mechanic, and making other changes as necessary.

-Dave

 

[Bront]

Are you keeping druids? If you are, replacing Wizard spell list with the druid's makes a Wizard an underpowered druid (Their spells are by far some of the least powerful of any of the full casters, sans perhaps bard). A few spells might be a good subsitutions, like summons natures Ally for Summon Monster, entangle fits in fairly well in the wizard repitoir as well.

Renaming things doesn't add flavor, but mild changes do. For example, I like to promote more risk taking, so in my Eberron game I allow for a positive CHA bonus to increase the number of action points you get.

Creating a few unique domains for your gods instead of using some of the stock ones could be a flavor issue. Don't forget to think about the favored weapon.

Tweeking the races a bit (Different cultural weapons, perhaps in a few cases different skill bonuses (Perhaps your dwarves are sailors and get bonuses on the sea, for they are certaintly built sturdy enough for sea travel, or perhaps your orcs are actualy the naval power, and not the dumb brutes that are normaly setup (So, +2 Dex or Con, -2 Wis or Int would be good for them and a few seafairing bonuses like bonuses to balance, free ranks in prof:sailor, things like that).

I've always enjoyed the background feat as a tweek. A bonus 1st level feat, but something that you must explain in your background. Forces people to develope backgrounds a bit which adds to the character. And just about any feat can work for a background feat, but some are easier to explain than others.

Hope these help

 

[mmadsen]

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=14455

I knew the thread topic sounded familiar...