Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

[BRC]

The original idea behind the Cahokian League was that it was a loose confederation of largely independent groups, with the Cahokians only intervening when they needed a group's help with something, or if there was some crisis that risked the group becoming useless to the Mound Lords (like a war between two Client Tribes that could have led to Cahokia losing some of the proxy armies they count on to hold off Aztec aggression).

However, on the maps it led to a giant green blob labeled "Cahokian League".

That said, it is simpler than cluttering the map with a large collection of tribes and nations.

I could see us splitting the heartland up a bit. In east, the woodlands around the Mississippi, you have the Cahokian League, a land dotted with Mound Forts and ruled by the lesser branches of the great families of Cahokia.
To the West, along the great plains proper, you have, lets call it, the Council of Ten Fires, a loose confederation of independent tribes that make war with each other, but suspend all hostilities in the face of crisis, and regularly gather in a great meeting where the leaders of the various nations can discuss important matters. The Cahokians show up to these meetings to hand out gifts and give Advice. There is a standing agreement among the Council nations that Cahokian traders are not to be attacked or harassed. While the Cahokians have no official influence over the Council nations, the Council Nations are very open to bribery from the Cahokians.
If the Cahokians need a proxy army, it's understood that a few fast riders carrying promises of gifts from the Mound Lords can get the Council Nations to put aside their animosities.

[Admiral Squish]

Alright, as of last night, the players are officially (though not all of their character) are officially aware that Prince Caddogah is a werewolf. They haven't entered combat yet, but rolling initiative will be the first order of business next session.

One of the players is a Huli Jing rogue, and he feels that rogues may have limited appeal in a primarily ranged-combat setting. Since his character is not primarily a ranged fighter (why bother when the gunslinger is so much better at it?), he's basically limited to using the Cloak of Illusion to hide for most of every battle. He personally is OK with this, but he's not sure that most players will be willing to sacrifice most of their coolest rogue abilities just so they can be mediocre (at best) in ranged combat. While they would still be able to backstab with ranged weapons, why bother if you've got to be within ten feet of yojr target anyway, and your gun will inevitably give away your position, as well as the element of surprise?

Important question: Are the Huli Jing able to see through each other's Cloak of Illusion? Because if they can't, then we're basically dealing with a race who can almost flawlessly impersonate every other member of their race at will. I talked with KungFuLobster about this, and he said that making them able to see through each other's Cloak of Illusion would actually make the Huli Jing MORE valuable, because then everybody wants one on their team so they can see through other Huil Jings' Cloaks of Illusion. I vote that we make this canon.

It also doesn't make sense to me (or this player) that they're restricted to one static human form, when they can already impersonate members for completely different species.

Speaking of the Cloak of Illusion, if it's a supernatual ability, then it can be dispelled by a sufficiently powerful caster, can't if it's an illusion effect, then what's the DC to disbelieve it?

Okay, there's some confusion here, I think...

Ranged combat may be the preferred form of warfare, yes, but that's pretty much been true ever since humans figured out how to throw things. Guns are better at killing people than bows and arrows, but at the moment, they're still much slower, and more expensive to make, maintain, and operate. They also are actually less accurate than traditional weapons at longer ranges and don't have the special penetration ability. This is an age where bayonets were still a valid part of large-scale warfare, which seems to clearly illustrate that the presence of black powder does not immediately invalidate all other forms of combat. And outside of civilized warfare, every animal and the vast majority of monsters all still operate in the melee range.

You can sneak attack with a ranged weapon as long as you're within 30 feet, not 10. There are plenty of ranged weapons that can be fired, thrown, or otherwise used without creating a huge noise. A crossbow would make a great assassin's weapon, and it's got some nifty penetration thanks to those rules I drew up. Not as nice as a gun, but still pretty good. I believe most combats take place within 30 feet, so there shouldn't be much of a problem there. But really, it's exceptionally easy to close to short range or even melee range in combat, so I don't think there would be much of a problem on either count.

Okay, I had to look up the stats for huli jing again because I was so very confused by your statements about them.
First, you can't use the cloak of illusion to hide without the camouflage cloak feat, and your players aren't of the level where they would be able to access that option.
Huli jing cannot see through the illusion, but anything with scent would be able to recognize that the smells don't match up with the image.
The cloak of illusion isn't a single static form, it's any medium sized humanoid or monstrous humanoid, each time you use it.
It's a supernatural ability, so it cannot be dispelled, but any creature that sees through the disguise check is permitted a save to recognize it as an illusion, which is indicated in the racial abilities.
Also, a character with the huli jing culture would not be very helpful in revealing other huli jing, as they have a cultural taboo against publicly spoiling a lie or deception, though they may let their allies know subtly.

[Palanan]

On the topic of ranged fighting, and firearms in particular, do you folks have any particular rules about enchantments on firearms?

I've never used the firearms rules from either the DMG or Pathfinder, just wondered what the situation is with Crossroads guns.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

SuperDave, not that it holds any bearing on your current setting, but I once tried out the house rule that invisibility was just shifting to the "invisible realm", and that anyone who is invisible would be able to see other things within the invisible realm (so if the whole party was invisible, they could still see themselves and how they effect the world as normal, but people couldn't visibly perceive them, and could see each other during it too!). I hated the name, but the idea was cool. See invisibility actually made your eyes go invisible, which looked horrific, but allowed you to see into the invisible realm. It just struck me as similar to what you're suggesting, and it would nerf invisibility to some degree, but it was a fun concept to play with.

[Admiral Squish]

Sloths
This is a pretty reasonable option, actually, as real sloths are known to play host to some varieties of moth. However, it's worth noting they're not parasites, they eat parasites in the sloth fur and the cyanobacteria. Considering how much 'real estate' a full-on ground sloth could have, they might be able to support entire miniature ecosystems.
Looking it up, though, the sloth fur is the home of the adult stages, the larvae live in sloth dung. I suppose we could change that, though.

I think it's a pretty cool image, honestly, to image a huge, slow-moving ground sloth constantly surrounded by an aura of butterflies. They would look almost supernatural, honestly.

Trinidad/Tobago
Sounds marvelous to me!

Blackbeard's Island (Could probably use a real name)
Interesting fact: Manatee comes from a taino word meaning 'breast'.

Sargasso sea:
Problem with the sargasso sea thing is that as far as I can tell, the only thing that actually eats sargasso is baby sea turtles. Which seems weird. But the point is, manatees would be poorly-designed for eating things on the surface. And if the island is kept on the surface, then it wouldn't be able to dive for food.

Hibernation
Hibernation could work, but the reef would have to develop during the time they were awake, since coral polyp larvae can't leave the water.

Control
I don't know about putting the brains of pirate into an empty brain. What if the hibernating manatee is just sort of led around in it's sleep? Maybe they're manipulating it's dreams, or maybe they just take advantage of it's lack of mental defenses while sleeping to control it's brain without waking it?

Hang on, see the mermaid thing below.

Mermaids
Technically, sirens were bird-ladies, not fish-ladies, but it is true that the classical definition of a mermaid is an attractive female. (actually looked it up, some mermaids were reported to be massive, up to 2000 feet long). It's possible that european mermaids would be thinner and more attractive, as columbus mentioned in his logs that he saw three mermaids which rose out of the water, but were not as beautiful as they are represented.
I would say we could work it so old world mermaids are more supernatural in nature, probably even fey, and the new world mermaids are non-magical in nature, and are all... fluffy.

If the mermaids do have a connection to the manatees, maybe they could tend to the blackbeard island? Like, they want the pirates to leave their sacred creature alone, but the pirates are too powerful, so instead they just tend to it's needs, providing it with food, and perhaps subtly trying to help it wake up and shake off its human infestation.

As for spear, throwing, yes, but I was thinking thrusting.

Nations
Hmm... We could keep the same format for things if we just broke it up into five directions.
East: Columbia and southeastern native cultures. Anything east of the Appalachians.
South: Mesoamerica and the Carribean.
West: fusang, californian culture, NW coast
North: tuniitaq, mammutaq, vinland, innutaq, Cree, Dene, WWDNH and Russia.
Heartland: Ganonsyoni, Cahokia, Plains

Not sure if the west/heartland border should be at the rockies, or at the sierra nevada, which would detemine the placement of the plateau, great basin, and hisatsinom.

Columbia
I think the northern coast of south america could be included in the 'south' category. Maybe I should call it 'gulf' or something, though, since there's still the whole of south america to deal with.

The North
I would imagine so, yes.

The Heartland
I sorta assumed that were were keeping the whole mound-builder Mississippian culture alive, rather than just Cahokia, honestly.

On the plains...
I could see a greek sort of arrangement, but the plains tribes were largely nomadic, so we wouldn't actually have cities or rigid territories, they'd all just mix and move around.
Actually... a greek-v-persian situation would be a great opportunity for unity to emerge. Something big happens, probably not a war, since the largest military forces around would have no reason to pick a fight, but maybe it's a supernatural threat or something. The tribes band together and the warriors ride on the threat. Big, bloody battle, and when the army returns, they're unified by the experience, and they swear never to war on one another, a tradition passed down among all warriors on the plains. But they gotta keep the skills sharp, and there's always conflict, so battle changes from lethal to non-lethal, emphasizing counting coup and honor victories like stealing horses.

I do think it should be relatively easy for cahokia the get hold of a mercenary army of horsemen.

Also, it's tornado alley, and I think that's more east-south than would be relevant here.

[Admiral Squish]

Hey folks, just thought I'd post a link to the remodeled sasquatches!

Sasquatches

The new version includes updated racial abilities and not one, but TWO new cultures, and a complete rewrite of the sasu qua'che culture. I'm using these cultures to demonstrate the new culture/subculture setup, where subcultures that have traits in common with the main culture don't need to have full entries restating the same things a bunch o' times.

[Steckie]

Sloths

I like the image of a sloth with a butterfly aura as well. I looked it up as well and apparently three-toed sloths can carry up to 120 moths in their fur, the whole group feeding on everything within. And if we consider that a ground sloth is about 10 times bigger than current sloths we're looking at roughly 1200 moths. Or let's say roughly 1000 butterflies since they're a little bigger.
That's quite an aura, it's enough for a full out swarm attack.

The larvae living in the dung of sloths can still work. The butterflies live off the sloth's fur, they lay their eggs in the dung of the beast, the larvae become butterflies and attach themselves to the first sloth they can find. The butterflies respond very aggressively to any threat to their buffet and the sloth is very protective of his groomers, without them his fur would become infested with all kinds of weird things very quickly.
The butterflies themselves are quite valuable in alchemical creations. Maybe they're used to make healing potions? Or maybe in poisons?
People have discovered that they can capture roughly half of a sloth's swarm and it will 'grow' back within two years. Taking more than that will increase the time to 4 years, lowering the yields. Capturing butterflies is extremely dangerous: you can't kill the sloth or you risk destroying a valuable asset and the sloth will react very violently to any attack on him or his swarm.
It's a slow walking plot hook!

Mermaids & Blackbeard's Island

Massive 2000ft long mermaids? Interesting.....

Alright let's board the crazy idea train here: Mermaids are like bees. They have one massive 2000ft long queen. That queen gives birth to all of the mermaids and mermen that serve her. If the queen dies, the rest of them dies within a couple of months.
The mermen are the mindless workers, they provide the food for the queen and the mermaids. And they mate with the queen.
The mermaids are the warriors, warlocks, craftswomen,.... Basically every other job apart from providing food and mating.

As for Blackbeard's Island: Blackbeard either 'captured' the queen and is holding her hostage with some sort of weapon aimed at her brain or whatever.
Or he somehow gained her loyalty/friendship/servitude/.... in a peacfull way. He now controls the queen and her whole 'beehive'.
Maybe the queen 'wears' the city like some sort of item of clothing, it's not attached to her skin.

Nations

Heartland
I agree with keeping the mound builder culture alive. I just assumed it was going to be dominated by Cahokia, they're already such an imporant faction in the setting. And they control Nouveau Orléans, it would be very unrealistic for them to control two cities so far apart and nothing in between.
Oh, and i wouldn't want to see the Cahokian Gunboats disappear.

Plains
What if they united over something from the north, from the subarctic region for wich we don't have anything yet?
An outbreak of Lycanthropy among the wild Tuniit that live there? An invasion of a massive wave of undead creatures coming from Alaska? (might be too similar to Warcraft 3)

[Mith]

Perhaps for the butterflies, there is a rough percentage for which ones make panaceas and which ones make poisons. It would make things interesting for harvesting a swarm if you roll a percentile, and find out you need to do the whole song and dance again .

[Admiral Squish]

Sloths
Hmm... I'm not quite sold on the giant butterflies yet. If they have a wingspan of 8-12 inches or so, then a moth would be at least 4 inches long when the wings were folded, and a butterfly wouldn't close it's wings at all, making it all but impossible to move through all that fur... The sheer size indicates they wouldn't be able to fit all that many of them.

Okay, I went into research on sloth-moth mutualism. Here's how the system works. The moths lay eggs in sloth poo, then the new moths move into the sloth's fur while they mate and mostly feed off either the algae or the oily skin-secretions of the sloth. Then they die, and the fungus on the fur breaks them down, releasing their nitrogen to nourish the algae. The sloth then nibbles on the algae to supplement it's diet.
This poses some problems for our purposes. For one the moths wouldn't be fluttering around, as that would negate their benefit from living in sloth fur, namely, protection from predators. Secondly, it would require very small moths, so they could hide deep in the fur. Also, the big sloth probably wouldn't be able to nibble at all it's fur, since it's so big, which reduces the benefit of having all the algae in the first place.

My thought is to have big butterflies that lay their eggs in the fur, so the caterpillars can eat the algae, and have the sloth eat some of the caterpillars when it wants protein. But that seems like it would drive the caterpillars smaller and encourage developing some way to avoid the sloth's periodic snacking. But then, I suppose it's possible it's just considered an 'acceptable risk' on the evolutionary scale and they just compensate with more kids.

Mermaids+Blackbeard's Island
I dunno about all that, honestly. That's a little bit of a wide departure from the myths. If these giant mermaids were common enough that all the mermaids were attached to one, how come they've only showed up in the one place in my research? And hives are really not very common underwater. I don't think I know of a single example of a similar caste-oriented species that lives underwater. Also, hives don't generally show up among mammalian creatures, either. It just feels like a lot of really unusual things happening all at once.
I think the island would function best as a sacred animal that's been captured/controlled by the pirates, rather than a sentient creature.

Oh, here's an idea: maybe it's supposed to have woken up by now. It was due to wake up within a few years of the pirates landing on it, but as time wore on, the merfolk realized that the pirates were actually keeping it asleep so they could keep control over it. This causes some panic, because if it stays alseep for too much longer it's going to run out of fat reserves and either starve or freeze, which would be an unbearable loss to the merpeeps.

Nations

Heartland
I figured cahokia was the powerhouse, yeah, but I wasn't sure if they would be unquestionably in charge of all of the Mississippian culture. I was thinking independent city-states bound into a semi-cohesive whole through trade agreements and various sorts of economic dealings. Either option's possible, I suppose.

Plains
Hmm... that could work. I'm not sure what could provoke that kind of response, though. I mean, the subarctic tribes aren't especially violent to my knowledge. I don't think lycanthropy would work since that's from Europeans, and would most likely still be over in ganonsyoni/cahokia territory.

What about a nonhuman threat? Say, the warrior-folk Burst forth from the Pryor mountains after some egregious offense and start a bloody campaign against the plains tribes. Or some supernatural event opens a portal to the spirit world and some army of evil spirits marches forth. Or a mad druid mind-controls a super-herd of buffalo and uses them to trample over his enemies. Or fossilized beasts rise from the earth and move with angry purpose. The possibilities are endless. Basically anything that seems like the sort of consequences a DM would level upon the world if the adventurers fail would be fair game.

[Pokonic]

Hey folks, just thought I'd post a link to the remodeled sasquatches!

Sasquatches

The new version includes updated racial abilities and not one, but TWO new cultures, and a complete rewrite of the sasu qua'che culture. I'm using these cultures to demonstrate the new culture/subculture setup, where subcultures that have traits in common with the main culture don't need to have full entries restating the same things a bunch o' times.

Perhaps, we should clarify in a sidebar or somesuch that the Yetis are another, more isolated cultural group of Sasquaches, and that there is a smattering of them in various parts of the world, especially in Africa and Australia, with most of the Europeans ones having been assumed to be another breed of giants and treated accordingly.

[Admiral Squish]

Perhaps, we should clarify in a sidebar or somesuch that the Yetis are another, more isolated cultural group of Sasquaches, and that there is a smattering of them in various parts of the world, especially in Africa and Australia, with most of the Europeans ones having been assumed to be another breed of giants and treated accordingly.

You know, I went to go edit that in and realized that the possibility of sasquatches on other continents was hinted at under 'sasquatch lands' already.

[Pokonic]

You know, I went to go edit that in and realized that the possibility of sasquatches on other continents was hinted at under 'sasquatch lands' already.

I was really thinking specifically about the possibility that Chinese-Ha'ah'oO initial relations could have been smoothed over by the Chinese immediately accepting that the giant ape men they were looking at were related to or possibly were relatives of the Yeren, and interacted with them with the general knowledge that they were peaceful.

[Admiral Squish]

I was really thinking specifically about the possibility that Chinese-Ha'ah'oO initial relations could have been smoothed over by the Chinese immediately accepting that the giant ape men they were looking at were related to or possibly were relatives of the Yeren, and interacted with them with the general knowledge that they were peaceful.

Oooh, that would be a good detail to mention in the founding. I could throw in a mention of Chinese having previous contact with Yeren somewhere, though I'd have to consider where would be the best place for it.

[Steckie]

Good news: i'm done with the Caribbean!

And with done i mean that i've gone through all the historic stuff, there's still room for plenty of fantasy stuff.
And i also barely have any notable inhabitants.
And i've ignored Trinidad & Tobago for now, i'll deal with those islands later because they're mostly of the fantasy kind.


Now obviously i want to show this to all of you so we can start removing mistakes and unneeded sentences and stuff like that.
I'm looking at roughly 8500 words in my rough draft, might be a bit more or less in the final draft. Should i post it here in the thread or just make a seperate thread for it?

[Mith]

What about a Google Docs? It keeps it easy access, but not filling up the thread so much.

[Admiral Squish]

I'd say either options has its merits, honestly. I find people are oddly reluctant to go through any sort of link, though. You could post it here with some fancy spoiler-taggin'... But a separate thread would attract more eyes... Really, it's a judgement call, I'll be eager to check it out wherever it ends up!

[Palanan]

I'd vote for a separate Caribbean Draft thread, and against any kind of Google-Dockery, since there are a lot of folks who don't like going into Google Docs. A new thread dedicated to the Caribbean would definitely draw much more attention.

[Admiral Squish]

Hmm... where WOULD one put such a thread? Worldbuilding, I suppose?

[Steckie]

Hmm... where WOULD one put such a thread? Worldbuilding, I suppose?

According to the forum rules it is indeed the Worldbuilding forum. If i could choose i'd love to put it in Homebrew Design, that place gets a lot more 'traffic'. But there's no crunch or rules or whatever in what i wrote, so if i put it there i think i would break the rules.

If my youngest kid decides to finally stop crying i might be able to finish everything today. If there's more crying it might take me a few more days, it's impossible to type something while holding your kid, i've tried....

[Steckie]

I've posted the thread about the Caribbean. Please go check it out and let me know what you think. Don't be afraid to tell me that it all sucks just because it's my little baby that i've worked on for several weeks
But seriously, i prefer lots of critisism over a crappy write-up.

The Caribbean

[Pokonic]

Mermaids:

Given that we've been mostly on top of keeping a 'all myths are true' feel, I'd suggest that the wide variance on merfolk sizes is due to the merfolk having torsos of different creatures, and that they're upper body is in proportioned to their lower one. So, there's swarms of little fryling merfolk, human-sized merfolk with the lower bodies of seals and dolphins and sharks, and then there's giant ones, but overall they're all moderately uncommon and few are exceptionally friendly with humans, in general. Hypothetically, all the different merfolk and tritons and sea-peoples are just as diverse as, say, the fey, but given that humans have a pretty high chance of getting eaten by the majority of them, it would be best to just put down some ideas about how they probably work and leave them be. Blackbeard might have some interactions with them, but those probably start and end at 'My men won't bother you if you don't bother us'.

[Admiral Squish]

Mermaids:

Given that we've been mostly on top of keeping a 'all myths are true' feel, I'd suggest that the wide variance on merfolk sizes is due to the merfolk having torsos of different creatures, and that they're upper body is in proportioned to their lower one. So, there's swarms of little fryling merfolk, human-sized merfolk with the lower bodies of seals and dolphins and sharks, and then there's giant ones, but overall they're all moderately uncommon and few are exceptionally friendly with humans, in general. Hypothetically, all the different merfolk and tritons and sea-peoples are just as diverse as, say, the fey, but given that humans have a pretty high chance of getting eaten by the majority of them, it would be best to just put down some ideas about how they probably work and leave them be. Blackbeard might have some interactions with them, but those probably start and end at 'My men won't bother you if you don't bother us'.

That's a pretty good point. In the vast majority of sea-people myths, the sea-person in question is reasonably likely to eat you/drown you/kidnap you. We may be just putting way too much thought into all of it.
I could probably build some sort of mer-base with some customization, with a semi-vague note about there being lots of different kinds in mysterious stretches of ocean, and how most of them will murder you.

[Pokonic]

That's a pretty good point. In the vast majority of sea-people myths, the sea-person in question is reasonably likely to eat you/drown you/kidnap you. We may be just putting way too much thought into all of it.
I could probably build some sort of mer-base with some customization, with a semi-vague note about there being lots of different kinds in mysterious stretches of ocean, and how most of them will murder you.

With that said, there's enough aquatic semi-human entities, some with shapeshifting abilities, for there to be a note about them or somesuch. Perhaps something along the lines of "Most mermaid-like creatures are part of the same basic species, but due to their exceptional qualities and magical abilities there might be a lot of different names for the same creature or there might be a lot of confliction regarding many different types of sea-peoples as being under the broad category of 'merfolk'. The greek Tritones may simply be of a different cultural group than that of the Merrows of the English isles, or the two are simply extensions of two different deities associated with water and that they are the same in the same way that a humans are sasquatch's, because they have four limbs and live on land.

Some merfolk may have more in common with Aberrations, and worship strange and unknowable gods under the sea; others might save human sailors when they fall overboard, to heal and eventually leave back on a safe shore. Others may save human sailors to use them to create half-human fish folk to populate large parts of New England's coastline. It's a big world."

[Admiral Squish]

With that said, there's enough aquatic semi-human entities, some with shapeshifting abilities, for there to be a note about them or somesuch. Perhaps something along the lines of "Most mermaid-like creatures are part of the same basic species, but due to their exceptional qualities and magical abilities there might be a lot of different names for the same creature or there might be a lot of confliction regarding many different types of sea-peoples as being under the broad category of 'merfolk'. The greek Tritones may simply be of a different cultural group than that of the Merrows of the English isles, or the two are simply extensions of two different deities associated with water and that they are the same in the same way that a humans are sasquatch's, because they have four limbs and live on land.

Some merfolk may have more in common with Aberrations, and worship strange and unknowable gods under the sea; others might save human sailors when they fall overboard, to heal and eventually leave back on a safe shore. Others may save human sailors to use them to create half-human fish folk to populate large parts of New England's coastline. It's a big world."

I could certainly imagining putting a note like that in the write-up somewhere.

But I was thinking about this a bit more, and I was wondering if perhaps I should approach it from the opposite direction. Rather than taking a human-with-fish-tail base and then creating a comprehensive list of all possible traits a mermaid could develop, maybe it would be smarter to make a template that takes an aquatic creature and gives it a humanoid upper body.
Of course, both options have their appeal. A base mermaid with enhancements would allow greater control, and allow creating mermaids that don't have an animal parallel. The other direction would probably make it easier to create for a DM wanting to make a new sort of mermaid, since most of the work would already be done.

Cultures:
So, I don't remember if I ever posted this anywhere, but I can't find anything along the lines of it, so I'll just doodle it really quick. Basically, this was looking to be the general breakdown of cultures and subcultures in the crossroads setting, utilizing the new breakdown of having big, broad-strokes cultures with subcultures underneath.

Spoiler

Show

Arctic

• Inuit
• Tuniit
• Vinlandr

Subarctic

• Cree
• Dene
• Mammutchadinne

Northwest Coast

• Haida
• ?
• ?

Plateau

• ?
• ?
• ?

Great Plains

• ?
• ?
• ?

Californian

• ?
• ?
• ?

Northeast Woodlands

• Ganonsyoni
• ?
• ?

Great Basin

• ?
• ?
• ?

Southwest

• Hisatsinom
• ?
• ?

Southeast Woodlands

• Missisippian
• ?
• ?

Mesovespuccia

• Mexica
• Maya
• ?

Caribbean

• ?
• ?
• ?

European

• English
• French
• Spanish

Asian

• Ming
• ?
• ?

Sasquatch

• Ha'ah'oO
• Oo'wa'Oo
• (Everglades?)

Kukulkani (Feathered Serpents)

• Emerald
• Ruby
• Sapphire

Jing

• Huli Jing
• (Monkey-people?)
• ?

There are a lot of questions still to answer on the issue of cultures.
Which groups should be the representative subcultures for each? Do we want to use examples that are similar to the general culture, or do they only warrant a subculture entry if they significantly depart from the norm? Should the subcultures always be a specific group, or should there be category ones, such as fully- and semi-nomadic tribes under great plains? Should we base the decision to give a subculture writeup to a group on the size/influence of the group, or on how different they are from the culture?
Should cultures with only one noted subculture even warrant a culture writeup and a subculture writeup, or should there just be one writeup?
Should Mississippian be its own culture, or would it be better to place it under Southeast Woodlands?
Should there be a write-up for the Qing, or would they have too little a presence to warrant inclusion? Would any other Asian cultures have a notable presence?
Slaves are always a touchy issue. Would there be a slave subculture under European that would be used to represent those who are forced to conform to the mold of slave, regardless of racial identity? Would there be an African culture, which would be mostly used for those slaves captured in Africa and transported over, with a subculture for those who were born and raised in European slavery?
I like the idea of a kukulkani culture, and I have plenty of ideas for them and the coatl subcultures, but I'm not certain if they, and the coatls, would be relevant enough in the setting to warrant a culture write-up, considering they are largely limited to that one area.

[Pokonic]

I could certainly imagining putting a note like that in the write-up somewhere.

But I was thinking about this a bit more, and I was wondering if perhaps I should approach it from the opposite direction. Rather than taking a human-with-fish-tail base and then creating a comprehensive list of all possible traits a mermaid could develop, maybe it would be smarter to make a template that takes an aquatic creature and gives it a humanoid upper body.
Of course, both options have their appeal. A base mermaid with enhancements would allow greater control, and allow creating mermaids that don't have an animal parallel. The other direction would probably make it easier to create for a DM wanting to make a new sort of mermaid, since most of the work would already be done.

Given that both would have their use, why not have both?

Cultures:
So, I don't remember if I ever posted this anywhere, but I can't find anything along the lines of it, so I'll just doodle it really quick. Basically, this was looking to be the general breakdown of cultures and subcultures in the crossroads setting, utilizing the new breakdown of having big, broad-strokes cultures with subcultures underneath.

Spoiler

Show

Arctic

• Inuit
• Tuniit
• Vinlandr

Subarctic

• Cree
• Dene
• Mammutchadinne

Northwest Coast

• Haida
• ?
• ?

Plateau

• ?
• ?
• ?

Great Plains

• ?
• ?
• ?

Californian

• ?
• ?
• ?

Northeast Woodlands

• Ganonsyoni
• ?
• ?

Great Basin

• ?
• ?
• ?

Southwest

• Hisatsinom
• ?
• ?

Southeast Woodlands

• Missisippian
• ?
• ?

Mesovespuccia

• Mexica
• Maya
• ?

Caribbean

• ?
• ?
• ?

European

• English
• French
• Spanish

Asian

• Ming
• ?
• ?

Sasquatch

• Ha'ah'oO
• Oo'wa'Oo
• (Everglades?)

Kukulkani (Feathered Serpents)

• Emerald
• Ruby
• Sapphire

Jing

• Huli Jing
• (Monkey-people?)
• ?

Should there be a write-up for the Qing, or would they have too little a presence to warrant inclusion? Would any other Asian cultures have a notable presence?

The Qing probably warrant's a cultural write-up, as if they were left out, I would imagine that there could be some difficulties with trying to play the people mostly defined as being the ones kicked out by the Qing.

Slaves are always a touchy issue. Would there be a slave subculture under European that would be used to represent those who are forced to conform to the mold of slave, regardless of racial identity? Would there be an African culture, which would be mostly used for those slaves captured in Africa and transported over, with a subculture for those who were born and raised in European slavery?

I would suggest Western African and Northern African subcultures, as there's enough differences between the two groups to each warren different write-ups (Religion is a big one, to say nothing of the cultural practices). That said, it could be suggested that slaves born in the Americas may have adopted cultural aspects of the local native Americans, or that of the Europeans.

That said, I would suggest putting down a Continental European culture, because membership within the various knightly groups is likely to be highly dutch-german in nature, and there are the Russians up north.

I like the idea of a kukulkani culture, and I have plenty of ideas for them and the coatl subcultures, but I'm not certain if they, and the coatls, would be relevant enough in the setting to warrant a culture write-up, considering they are largely limited to that one area.

I say, if we're going to have Aztec snake people, we should do it right. That said, the Inuit and the English and the Huli Jing tend to be pretty concentrated in one area, too.

[Admiral Squish]

Mer-things
Hmm. It's an option. It's bit more work than expected, though... Maybe if they were to fit different niches, that would make it feel less like twice the work for the same effect.
The build-a-mermaid thing could be used to describe the fey/magical kind of mer-things, with a focus on magical abilities and supernatural powers.
The template would just be used to build monstrous humanoids, with less magical muscle (though there might be a handful of SLAs depending on HD)

Cultures

Qing
I wouldn't define them as being kicked out by another group, they have a strong cultural identity of their own and hundreds of years of strong traditions to center around. Still, you have a point, it would probably be a good idea to have them just because they'd be a pretty obvious enemy force for fusang to tangle with.

African
Kinda answers the other question about whether subcultures should always be specific groups, or if categories are acceptable, too.
I suppose this would work.

European
I think various continental European groups could just be represented with the 'European' culture, no specification necessary.

Kukulkani
I mean, that's not quite the same thing (well, it kinda is the same thing with the huli jing, actually, but not quite). The reason I'm concerned is that the coatl aren't poised to become a significant political/economic force, they're just sorta out there, living around the humans of the mesoamerican region, and, at the moment, keeping to themselves.

Though... if we wanted to change that, there's certainly potential, there. A dragon empire... It's a tempting prospect.

[Admiral Squish]

Quickly, while I'm thinking about it:

SKYPE
We missed this month's skype-conference due to NaNoWriMo consuming my life, but we can get December's planned out.
As usual, the default plan is Saturday, the 6th, at 2 or 3 PM, Eastern time. If that doesn't work for anyone, let me know.
If you'd like to join in and participate, or just chat with me outside the thread, send me a PM with your skype info and I'll add you to the list!

[Aux-Ash]

Kukulkani
I mean, that's not quite the same thing (well, it kinda is the same thing with the huli jing, actually, but not quite). The reason I'm concerned is that the coatl aren't poised to become a significant political/economic force, they're just sorta out there, living around the humans of the mesoamerican region, and, at the moment, keeping to themselves.

Though... if we wanted to change that, there's certainly potential, there. A dragon empire... It's a tempting prospect.

Mind that if we do, we have to redo the entire mesoamerican region. A dragon empire cannot happen in a vacuum.

[Admiral Squish]

This is certainly true. It's a question of how much effort it's worth, in the end.
Really, I was just putting the possibility out there. If it's not a popular idea, we won't do it.

[Mith]

How about the coatl had a brief state which they were a minor power in the region that slowly faded over time, and part of the reverence given to the cotal by the people of the area is due to the traditions developed under coatl rule? That could work with minimal change.

Personally I am not a big fan of the dragon empire. I would prefer it if the coatl were just a neutral state that held some influence with the states of the region, and possibly served as mediators. So they are not a crushing economic or military power, but you still wouldn't want to take them on. Perhaps they hold a lot of information on various nations. Or better yet, the Library that was being planned out earlier (I cannot remember if it was scrapped or not) is actually a coatl institution. This is useful, since they have a Speak with Dead ability to gain more knowledge, and a lot quicker as well. Combine that with the mediator role, and you have a fairly influential nation.