A complete N00bz first try at world-building...

[Eldest]

There are a bunch of paralells.
Now then, what I've been promising, in at least part.

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So, in the Georgia/Florida area, there were five big clans of Native Americans, called (suprise) The Five Tribes. They all had cool names, but of the five, two of them are the most important, so I'll only say the name of those two. The Cherokee and the Chicksaws. When those new-fangled Brits showed up and became colonists, the Five Tribes reacted in all sorts of different ways. Some, mostly, the Chicksaws in Florida (which was Spanish controled at the time) fought the colonists and retained their own culture. In fact, the Chicksaw were famous for providing a safe haven to escaped slaves and addopting the slaves as members of the tribe. They retreated back into the swamps and held their own for a time, then got squashed when the US (way later) moved in and took Florida from Spain. The Cherokee, on the other hand, adopted many of the colonist's traits, such that they actually created a alphabet for their previously verbal-only languge, and created plaintations with slaves on them instead of their traditional methods of feeding themselves. The Cherokees sat with their land, as given to them by the US and the colonial goverment before them. Then the Georgians dicided they didn't like having all that land being wasted by the natives when they could do so much better. Here my recolections get a bit cloudy as to what exactly happened, but about the time Jackson was a general in the Tennessee militia, a war started with the natives. The natives got booted from their land, leading to the infamous trail of tears.

all of that is from pure memory, and so some or all of it may be wrong. I lived in Georgia for most of my life, so that's what came easiest to memory. And this is a giant. Pain. In. The. Butt. To write up, so any more things you need just ask and I'll answer or reasurch a bit.

[Wyntonian]

That's a big help, thanks. I suppose some large chunks of it are fairly applicable. However, in this parallel world, or bizzaro "Native Americans" are long since gone (think like 600-800 years ago), and few were alive to leave. Only some mostly-rabid tree-bastards, short bald dudes who could care less, some badass guys with horns who like to mess yo **** up, and a couple gnomes in handcuffs in a rich guys basement. In fact, I'm leaning towards gnomes being native to another land, and perhaps dwarves as well, and having them be immigrants that just came a while before humans. Not exactly like American history. I do appreciate the parallels, and due to how historical and social themes repeat themselves, it's mostly unavoidable. However, I'm pretty sure someone's done an american west/Native american/cowboys and indians D&D campaign setting already, and probably better than I could, because that's simply not what I'm going for in this setting.

To be honest, I expect about 95% of the campaign times to be spent in one of the four human nations, with very limited contact with other humanoid races aside from killing Urgal raiders or Tassali hunting bands. In fact, most PC's won't even know there's such a thing as a Tasloi that didn't want to kill and eat them. Most of this stuff is DM's notes, and is probably just for flavor, honestly. Say a DM wants to run a game in which the people are taken in, Ewok-style, by a Tasloi community and decide to help them fight the Tassali? Go ahead. But the next PC over doesn't know the green dudes can even talk.

[Eldest]

Yup, I bet you'd have to be pretty tough to reach Hawaii, or even the other side of the Mississippi. And that stuff was just a bunch of facts I remembered. For some reason I'm thinking of this as a "America, but this happened instead of that, which changes all that stuff" instead of homebrew. Any questions about this stuff, just ask, I have a good memory for tidbits of info and my brother is studying to become a history teacher.

[Wyntonian]

The thing is, this isn't America. In fact, I plan to change the geography pretty substantially, just to avoid that confusion. My original thought was to grab Western North America, then shake it really hard so every living thing fell off, including some laws of physics, then put whatever I wanted back on. Because that didn't work out quite like I planned, I'll soon get a reworked map done. A lot of things will be similar, but some won't be the same.


Oh, and that bit about Hawaii was supposed to be just some background for the Caribbean. I was going to rework the people there to have a vaguely Hawaiian political structure, as well as weaponry and such.

[Eldest]

Ok, that makes it a lot less intutive for me, then, which is good. Less intuitive means less metagaming by players.
Did you still have one of the colors of magic that you were still working on, or did you fix it?

[Wyntonian]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I do have spell lists done for each color through level 8, although I haven't done level 9 spells. What I'm lacking is a bonus to give the player who choose the Blue color/school of magic, like martial weapon proficiency for blacks, fire resistance for reds and a druid-style animal companion for greens.

[Eldest]

yup, I was asking about the perk. Are they in any way related to mastery over magic itself?

[Wyntonian]

no, not per se. It's supposed to be more of a connection to their chosen element. Black is the physical world, with spells involving the earth and physical combat, so they get martial weapons. Greens are connected to life, plants and animals, so they get an animal companion. That sort of thing.

[Eldest]

Custom metamagic that let's them freeze targets of their spells? Maybe a mobility bonus (for some reason I thought of the words "icy wind").

[Wyntonian]

ooohhhh.... the metamagic sounds a little OP. maybe a 10-foot bonus to movement speed? or ignoring the effects of negative weather or travel for themselves and up to their character level other party members?

[Eldest]

Both, I'd guess, unless the weather is going to be a really big deal in your game, it really seems more fluff in that.

[Wyntonian]

sounds good, then. Also, I feel like people would leave the "starting area" at around level 3-4, or by the time a blue mage can essentially ignore any adverse weather-related effects related to travel and apply them to the rest of the party. In a setting with settled lands spread out somewhat, this would be a decent bonus.

[Eldest]

Yeah, it'd be friggin' awesome for the charactors, but I'd bet nine times out of ten the only difference it makes for the players is instead of the DM saying "you slog through mud and endless rain for 5 days, uninturrupted in your misery exept by those bandits" it would be "you walk for 4 days, the rain failing to affect your pace or your spirits. Those bandits never stood a chance".
So the players aren't seeing that much concrete benifits out of it, so keep it in but a)add in a combat bonus like the fast movement, and b) maybe add something like that to the other Mage types. Like green mages have a way easier time foraging for food. Something to add flavor but not much combat bonus.

[Wyntonian]

Well, assuming they were doing something time-sensitive..... anyway. I like the one about the greens, and I could let reds use flint and steel or other lighting things as a swift action. I think I'll give blues their 10-foot bonus and call it good. Blacks, though?

[Eldest]

I'm not sure. My first impuse is to do something with crops but that really wouldn't work. Maybe they are better at making weapons/magic items, and take less time (a small amount less and they still need to pay the money and xp to make them, it just goes faster). And you might want to say that the red mages can create a spark at will, instead of keeping them to Flint/tinder. If you want something to catch on fire from a spark you need to work really hard at it, so it's still mostly fluff, like the weather movement, but it adds some flavor and they can do it wherever, so I'm sure people could think of ways to creatively use it.

[SamBurke]

Spark is a cantrip, learned (technically) before first level.

Which brings up a point: did we drop cantrips?

[Wyntonian]

I am not sure which book spark is in, so I don't know if i'll include it. and if it randomly turns out that I didn't put any cantrips in, I'll be sure to do those lists tonight. Would casting spark at will be a game-breaker?

[Eldest]

Would making a spark at will be a gamebreaker...
[laughs uncontrollably for five minutes]
no.

At least, I can't think of why not.

[Wyntonian]

This should help you understand, somewhat.

On the other hand, it's fairly minor. I'll risk it.

To recap:

Green mages get: green + universal spells, bonus to survival checks to forage for food equal to class levels, and an animal companion like a druid of their class levels.

Red mages get: Red+universal spells, fire resistance 2+red mage level, ability to cast Spark at-will. (what book is it in?)

Blue mages get: Blue + Universal spells, cold resistance 2+blue mage level, ability to ignore negative effects from adverse weather for self and their class level of others traveling together.

Blacks get: Black + Universal spells, martial weapon proficiency, and either Craft Magic Weps/Armor as a bonus feat at some appropriate level, or the ability to reduce the xp cost by about half. Powerful magic weapons are a little rarer in this setting that most, but very slightly magical weapons are about as common as expected.

[SamBurke]

Pretty sure Spark is core. Only used it from PF, though.

[Wyntonian]

Yeah, it's not in the SRD. can you give me a quick rundown? I've never played pathfinder/read the books. I assume you just make a spark that lights a little fire? about like the effect of a tindertwig or flint and steel?

[SamBurke]

It automatically ignites anything that is flammable. A bit hard to overuse, but ya know....

[Wyntonian]

Good enough for me. It's in. Anything else before I make this into a single awesome post? Artwork and maps to start off with....

[Eldest]

Give the black Mages the craft feats instead of the 1/2 xp costs. The xp costs sound insanely good, compared with spark at will.

[Wyntonian]

I think that giving them the creation feat at first level might be a bit much. what level should it be at?

[Eldest]

Oh right, level one perks... whoops.
Now that I think about it, though, the proficiancy with all those weapons seems a bit weak compared to the animal companion. I mean, these are CASTERS. They should very rarely use their weapons.

[Wyntonian]

yeah, but a lot of their spells focus on buffing melee people, including themselves. I can see these guys being effective combatants in their own right, with armored mage (medium) at fifth level, and access to a bunch of decent weapons.

[Eldest]

Touché. I'm not sure then, exept maybe the idea I had about taking half the time normal people take to craft a weapon or armor.

[Wyntonian]

That sounds about right. Or maybe something about crafting regular old weapons and armor at a reduced cost/time?

[Eldest]

Yup, that works too.