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  1. - Top - End - #451
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Cultures
    Hmm... Can you clarify what you mean by modular?
    I mean, I understand the term, but I'm not certain how we would be able to reduce the culture system thus, without just going entirely freeform.
    I think we might be able to get away with a much more trimmed list, but not the ones listed there. Probably more like, Europe, Asia, Africa, Arctic/Subarctic, Northeast/Southeast Woodlands, Great Plains, Northwest Coast/California, Hisatsinom/Great Basin/Plateau, Mesoamerica. That would put us down to 9. I still think 14 would probably be better in the long run, since some of those that get snowballed together here aren't all that related...

    Named Beasts/Jing
    I don't think Named Beasts and Jing should be related. They are similar concepts, but originate in different directions. The Jing are physical beings, animals that achieve power through age and experience. Named Beasts are fully spiritual beings, who arose from the concepts of animals in the minds of the people. The two might interact, but they would not be inherently related. I could see a Zodiac interaction, though.

    Map
    That is a pretty awesome map!
    But what catches my attention more is the reminder that that forum exists. I suspect they focus much more heavily on real-world alternate history, but I wonder if we could put in requests for help on detailing some of the more mundane aspects of the setting.

    Skype
    Okay, the monthly Skype call is coming in two hours. This is the last chance to get your contact info to me before it.
    This month's topics:
    Cultures: How many should we have, and where can we reduce?
    Powerful Organizations: Who, where, and how much influence will they have?
    Religions: General discussion. This part will not be reposted here, due to rules.
    Independent Groups: Further discussion and development.
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  2. - Top - End - #452
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Cultures

    Why would you lump together all cultures not from Vespuccia into a continental one and not give Vespuccia that same treatment?
    I really don't see the problem with a bigger list of cultures, it's not often that people complain about having too much options. The feat lists never get trimmed because there's too much options, in fact every single new book adds more and more feats.
    I actually think the old system didn't have enough cultures. For example there was British and Continental European culture and that's it. No Spanish. No Dutch. No Russian. No French. People that build a character from a certain nation should have the option to see that represented on their sheets without just mentioning it in the background of their character.

    My suggestion: make 5 large continental groups that share a lot of the traits, background feats, background skills and taboos. Then make subdivisions under those continental groups detailing each seperate culture in detail and give each culture a bit more feats, skills, taboos,... appropriate for them. I'd say about 5 or 6 cultures per continent, wich gives you 30-36 cultures to work with.
    Then add a template from wich people can build their own continental culture. Wich should be easy because with the continental groups sharing a lot of traits you just need to choose a continent and more than half of you culture has already been filled out. Afterwards you just fill in some more things that seem reasonable and you've got your own culture.

  3. - Top - End - #453
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Cultures
    Mostly, because those cultures would lump together more easily. Continental Europe (including eastern Europe and Britain, but not Russia) has land mass roughly equivalent to the current united states, and the cultures we would be focusing on are really just three or four nations, England, France, Spain, and a bit of Italy and Netherlands. The 'asian' culture would really be mostly aimed at China, since they're the only one who would have a very active role in the setting as it stands. And Africa could be condensed since the whole 'slavery' thing tends to shrink the effects of their original culture. By those size standards, North america would still be 3, but I think the massive stretches of similar terrain that are sharply defined against other types would lend themselves well to overall cultural divisions. You've got cold forests/coast, temperate forests, plains, desertish stuff between the sierra nevada and the rockies, the west coast, and the tropic/subtropic jungles in the south. Plus, making a mechanical separation would help reinforce one of the big points of the setting, that not all native americans are part of the same culture.
    I'm not saying we wouldn't go into the details of the subcultures of each region, though we might want to take some stuff out of the culture writeups if we're gonna need 25+ specific ones.Maybe they would be more like the national write-ups from the ebberron book. from

    So, the current proposals are 5-6, 9, 14, and 21, as it currently stands. I think they all have their pros and cons. It will be discussed during the call and I'll make a big post about the discussion's results afterward.
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  4. - Top - End - #454
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Crossroads Campaign
    So we've finally got all the characters more or less done, now I've just got to figure out what comes next.
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    I guess my biggest concern is: how do I throw in enough side-quests and threatened villages to keep things interesting, but still keep them feeling like they're hot on the trail of the medicine-man? How long should it take before they start figuring out that they're not headed for the trade-talks, and what happens when Prince Cadogah gets panicky about what he's gonna do when the next full moon hits and he's not cured?
    I've accepted that I don't know much about the geography of Cahokia, but it probably (hopefully?) doesn't matter, since they won't spend too much time there anyway. My goal is to basically get them out of the city with as little incidence as possible, probably by sending them somewhere near the shores of Lake Superior or Lake Huron via a Link.
    From there, they'll start making their way towards Iroquois territory by lake and by river, and I'll give them some encounters appropriate for their level (which is 3rd right now). However, it's an unusually large part (seven players!) so how will that affect how I balance their encounters? I feel like any sensible mound lord would send a few of his own soldiers and bodyguards to escort the boy, but there are already so many characters on the battle-mat that I'm worried about my ability to handle all that information at once. Maybe the bodyguards get lost in the Link, or get eaten by an Underwater Panther or something?

    I haven't decided where the medicine-man is yet, but I've got a few NPCs ready:
    • Prince Cadogah, a young lycanthrope seeking a cure, Aristocrat 3
    • Lord Many-Earrings, his Mound Lord father, Aristocrat 5
    • Cahokian footsoldier, Warrior 2 (crossbow and musket)
    • N'okomiss ("Grandmother"), NG human Adept 6
    • Mishe-naubae ("Big Man"), her giant-kin grandson, Brute 3
    • She-Stalks-In-The-Night, an infatuated lycanthrope, Hunter 3

    I don't really have time to type up all their stats for posting here (at least, not right now), but I'll do it as soon as I can. Right now, I need to focus on getting the campaign ready for play.

    Reindeer
    While domesticated riding-caribou might sound really awesome, Russians are a very practical people: why would they tame caribou when they could just use dogsleds? Historically, dogsleds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...-Dogsled-Rules) were (and in some places, remain) the preferred method of transportation in Alaska.

    Alignment
    I think that regardless of whatever we do here, in practice, most tables will lean doing whatever they were already doing with the alignment system. It's pretty intrinsic to D&D: even the magic system is based on the idea of good, evil, law, and chaos being tangible energies within the cosmos.
    Personal alignment is a nice idea, but I think it's ultimately confusing, both for players and DMs. Alignment is meant to be a form of ethical shorthand, forcing DMs to reexamine their ethics every time someone casts detect evil will only bog down play.
    We could always just say that alignment is "more subjective" in this setting than normal, and decide that spells which depend upon it sometimes fizzle out for mysterious reasons.

    Cultures
    I support having more cultures, generally. The difficult thing is that there are SO MANY of them to represent. But I agree, we should probably break down "Continental" into Spanish, French, and Dutch.
    Maybe for Native societies, we could go by terrain type (Cold, Forest, Plains, Desert, etc) instead? That would simplify the list substantially, though it might raise the question why Europeans get cultures and Natives get geography...

    Languages
    I've been toying with the idea of making fluency in a language require three ranks instead of five. While this is less realistic, it would also simplify matters greatly, since our setting has WAY more languages than traditional D&D settings, and require more investment for characters to learn to speak them.

    Named Beasts
    Is there any reason why the the Mighty, Mythic Animal, or Totem Animal templates wouldn't work here? Couldn't we just use one of them to represent possession by a Named Animal?
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  5. - Top - End - #455
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Sorry it's taken me so long to get this post ready. Feels like I'm on a treadmill, running flat-out and getting nowhere...

    Skype Call
    So, here's some of the stuff we talked about over the skype call and various decisions that may have been made along the way.

    Cultures
    Overall, we seem to have come to the idea that we would hybridize the two proposed extremes. We'd trim the list down to fourteen main cultures, which would describe in broad strokes large areas of human habitation. These main cultures would be playable as they are with a list of native and bonus languages, skills, and feats. Then we would add in sub-cultures, shorter, more specific write-ups detailing one particular population group. These would supplement the larger culture with details about daily life and such, and would have a few extra feat/skill options and a narrower list of native/bonus languages.

    So, to play a Mexica character, you would select Native (Mesoamerican) as the main culture, then you would choose the Mexica subculture. If you want to play a Ganonsyoni character, you's select Native (Northeast) and then the Ganonsyoni subculture. This would also allow us to cover as many or as few subcultures per region as we would like (Though for the sake of my sanity, we should limit it to 2 or maybe 3).

    Powerful Organizations
    We talked about various examples of organizations in the crossroads world, and we decided that, ultimately, we don't have the kind of room in the book required to cover all of them. So here's the rule of thumb to determine if an organization is large enough to be covered in the main book: It must interact with at least three of the five empires.
    Some examples of organizations we came up with:
    The Knights of New Malta
    The Freemasons
    The False Face Society
    The Haiyuanren Traders (Or maybe the trading family that runs *San Diego.)
    The spy network of Her Radiant Majesty
    The Merlinic Order

    I figure three or four per empire would give us a pretty solid base to work off of. Some religious organizations may be covered, too. We also decided organizations should not require levels in PrCs to be officially a member.

    Hisatsinom
    We discussed these guys a bit in the call. I brought up the idea that we could refocus the region a bit. After all, we already have a trade empire in the form of the Cahokian League. My suggestions was to focus the are on religion, citing the prevalence of magic that would be required to control the spiders enough to create the spider-silk bridges and textiles. We could make them more theocratic in nature, with the leadership and priesthood being one and the same. I even suggested that they could be proselytizing, trying to convert other natives in the area, but it was pointed out that a lot of the existing southwest cultures are very secretive about their cultural religion, and very reluctant to share any amount of detail with outsiders. I think this fits well with the ideas of cliff-side fortresses, and makes a lot of sense, but I still think a secretive, theocratic nation of cliff-side fortresses and spider silk would be pretty awesome.

    Great Basin
    We talked about these guys a bit, but not a whole lot. There's not a lot of overarching information to be found that covers all the Great Basin. We did discuss that the regions of the great basin cultures and the Hisatsinom overlapped a good bit, and that in all likelihood, they would continue to do so, with the Hisatsinom centered in their cities and fortresses and the great basin tribes filling in the areas between them. Later, we came to the idea of them being horse-tribes much like the great plains, but while the great plains tribes would be roaming hunters that lived off the buffalo, the great basin tribes would be roaming raiders who would attack the Hisatsinom farms and any traders crossing the web below for food and trade goods. I think that might be a bit insensitive, on second thought.

    Plateau
    Talked about these guys, too, since we don't have anything else for them at the moment. We did put forth the idea of the plateau being the place that all the displaced Californian tribes would be sent, in a sort of reservation deal, but the numbers would exceed the carrying capacity of the land and we'd have a whole region of starving refugees. But I think it would definitely need more than that to make the area a really interesting place to set a game.

    California
    We've completely neglected discussing these guys. Which seems silly, now that I've actually glanced at them. As with a lot of regions, there's not a lot of unifying information out there. However, what is there seems to indicate nearly 1/3 of all native americans lived in california pre-contact. While they would be one of the areas hardest-hit by the foreign diseases, that massive initial population would somewhat soften the overall impact, and if they were starting to regrow their numbers and getting angry about mistreatment by the Fusangren, then, well, things could get pretty ugly.
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  6. - Top - End - #456
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Great Basin

    Insensitive? I think it's a nice change from what we have so far. I don't think we have a lot of natives trying to aggressively expand at the cost of other natives. Maybe Aztatlan, but that's mostly into 'unalligned' territory that we haven't really built.
    I quite like them raiding the Hisatsinom. Maybe they even know a few secret safe routes across the Rockies and do raids into Fusang?

    Oh wait, how about a religious conflict with the Hisatsinom? If the Hisatsinom are a theocracy, they probably have their very own strict set of rules and dogma's. That might create conflict with the Great Basin people who have the same religion with a different set of rules and dogma's.
    Or maybe just a conflict between a LN and a CN approach to religion.
    They raid Fusang over the secret passes for supplies wich they use to wage a war on the Hisatsinom.
    Maybe they raid into Cahkian territory as well? No wait, that would pit them against horse users similar to them. An equal fight is not a fight you want.
    Hmm, perhaps it's better if they're sponsored by Cahokia?

    Plateau

    When i proposed the reservation-thing i didn't mean an actual reservation.
    I see it more as bands of hundred to thousands of Californians being pushed into the area with the little belongings they can carry with them. The natives already living there are swamped by the huge amount of people suddenly appearing. Perhaps they're even outnumbered?
    But the Plateau people know where to find food and water, so they still have some power left.
    The area is a scattering of Plateau people desperatly hanging on to their identity, Californians doing the same while trying to adapt to the new situation and people of both groups trying to live together (both peacefully and by one group enslaving the other).
    It's pure chaos out there. The perfect place for a Kingmaker campaign. Chiefs rise and fall within a few monts or years. Some stable territories exist, but most are in a constant state of flux.

    Question: what about the people of mixed Fusangese-Californian descent? Are they being relocated as well or are they still in Fusang but perhaps discriminated against?

  7. - Top - End - #457
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Great Basin
    I dunno, I just noticed a bit of discomfort while writing up the explanation. It wasn't about them being aggressive or warlike, that happens all over the place, it was mostly about them raiding their neighbors for food and supplies rather than growing or crafting their own. I dunno, it was just a little twinge.

    I could imagine raids into Fusang territory, but the ranges the could reasonably reach would be mostly frontier, or still held by Californian cultures. Probably wouldn't have that much affect on Fusang itself, and probably not all that much access to Fusang's supplies, either. Most of their shipping would be on the ocean between ports, or up the rivers in smaller ships, which would be hard to raid from horseback.

    I don't know if a religious conflict would work. I'd have to see if they actually held similar religious beliefs, or if there was potential for them to transfer somewhere in our alternate history. I think they would probably have pretty different belief systems, considering their wholly different ways of life, but I'll check it out.

    I don't think Cahokia would be that involved, the plains are probably just about as far as one could expect their political reach to travel. Crossing the mountains would be a great expense if they had to do it with regularity.

    Plateau
    Oh, certainly not, I wasn't thinking it would be in any way official, it would just be a place where a lot of the Californian cultures would end up as they fled.

    The existing natives being outnumbered is certainly a possibility. It's a much smaller region and much less densely populated than the Californian one, so the numbers would probably be on the Californian's side. But then, they would be refugees, weakened and demoralized by sickness and violence, and as mentioned, the plateau peoples would have the home-field advantage.

    I think there would be a lot of back-and forth, conflict and exploitation flowing both ways in turns and in different measures. I could definitely see it being the place for a kingmaker sort of deal going on.

    Mixed Californian/Fusangren descent... I don't know. I do think there would be some division on the issue within fusang, probably along the gold/azure faction lines. Gold would say they're diluting the han bloodline and tying the Fusangren down to the land, and should be cast out. Azure would say they're as much a part of Fusang as anyone, and they should be treated as any other citizen of the empire, their presence allowing them to strengthen the fusangren's bond to the native people.
    At best, treated as citizens and getting some odd looks. At worst, shunned and chased from the cities. Kind of a crap deal, wherever the truth falls on that spectrum.
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  8. - Top - End - #458
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Plateau

    One thing that occured to me: would the Californians or native Plateau inhabitants get pushed further north as well into Tuniitaq?
    If i look at the map that means they'd have to cross a bit of Cahokian territory but we could add that territory to the Plateau region, it's a border region where borders are probably not very defined.
    Could be interesting to see some move (or raid?) into Tuniitaq, might give us some more conflict to work with.

    The Plateau needs a better name as well, just like the Great Basin.

    Caribbean

    A few questions so that i can keep working on this region:

    - The way i've been building Knights territory at the moment they are going to end up with all of the Virgin islands apart from the British Virgin Islands. Meaning they buy or colonise the islands that historically were held by the Dutch and Danish. This gives them 3-5 islands the size of Saint Croix or smaller and a couple hundred of little islands, cays, rocks in the water,....
    The British hold on to their part of the Virgin Islands. And the Spanish keep the two islands next to Puerto Rico that they own.
    Is everybody alright with this?

    - The Spanish, English and French. We've given most cultures and nations in Crossroads a theme around wich we've built a large amount of fluff. Trade for Cahokia, Military for Aztatlan, Spiders and religion for Hisatsinom, Machiavellism for Haudenosaunee,....
    I don't think we have this for any of the European powers, probably because they're very well known. Can we add some small historical themes to these nations? For example:
    English: Naval focused nation that has a decentralised way of ruling it's colonies.
    French: Land based nation that has trouble maintaining naval power and has a centralised way of ruling it's colonies.
    Spanish: Empire on the decline desperatly holding on to what they still have. (Declining power in Europe, did not conquer Aztatlan, is being pushed back by Tawantinsuyu)

    - The Golden Age of Piracy, it ended in the late 1720's. But i think most of us agree that we want pirates in this setting. But between the historical end of the Golden Age and the Knights that we've added to the place it's unlikely they survive to 1750.
    Maybe we should add a way for the pirates to remain a problem?
    For example we could make it so that the Mayan cities support piracy and open up various harbors for them to resupply, repair and buy and sell items. Aztatlan could do the same. For both it is an attempt to keep the Europeans away from their coasts. And while they support the pirates they can learn about ships and how to build them so they can eventually compete with the Europeans.

  9. - Top - End - #459
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Quote Originally Posted by Steckie View Post
    A few questions so that i can keep working on this region:

    - The way i've been building Knights territory at the moment they are going to end up with all of the Virgin islands apart from the British Virgin Islands. Meaning they buy or colonise the islands that historically were held by the Dutch and Danish. This gives them 3-5 islands the size of Saint Croix or smaller and a couple hundred of little islands, cays, rocks in the water,....
    The British hold on to their part of the Virgin Islands. And the Spanish keep the two islands next to Puerto Rico that they own.
    Is everybody alright with this?
    Seems allright to me, it's not so major a change that it affects much. They seemed to have been settled late anyways.

    Question... do they still have Malta? Or did the ottomans take the island?

    - The Spanish, English and French. We've given most cultures and nations in Crossroads a theme around wich we've built a large amount of fluff. Trade for Cahokia, Military for Aztatlan, Spiders and religion for Hisatsinom, Machiavellism for Haudenosaunee,....
    I don't think we have this for any of the European powers, probably because they're very well known. Can we add some small historical themes to these nations? For example:
    English: Naval focused nation that has a decentralised way of ruling it's colonies.
    French: Land based nation that has trouble maintaining naval power and has a centralised way of ruling it's colonies.
    Spanish: Empire on the decline desperatly holding on to what they still have. (Declining power in Europe, did not conquer Aztatlan, is being pushed back by Tawantinsuyu)
    Hmm... not sure about this.

    The english we do not need to change much, of the three great colonizers they were the last to arrive. You aptly, if simply, describe their policy in the new world however. The only thing we need to really look at is if the presence of a denser native population affects their colonies. But I think the english colonies between Massachusetts and North Carolina will probably spring up as historically, if possibly staying closer to the waterways.
    Each colony is an individual enterprise. Autonomous and self sufficient.

    The french has changed a lot. New Orleans is held mutually with the Mound Lords, a fragile but lasting alliance of sorts. They control some of the surrounding bayou, but their influence here is limited. St. Louis is much of a consulate that has been allowed than a city that has been settled proper. Quebec is little more than the banks of the St Lawrence river and Montreal, cut off from the rest of of New France.
    Quite frankly... they can't have a centralized controlled colony.
    Instead it looks as if France in this new world plays the part of the foreign advisor/diplomat. More like the role the portuguese played in Japan. They find the biggest players on the block and trade with them, ally with them and get invited to their courts. I imagine the french is one of the new world's most reliable supplier of firearms.
    Their carribean holdings are more straight conquests though.

    The spanish. I spent a rather long time trying to figure out what the loss of Mexico and Peru would mean to the spanish empire (and by extent what impact this would have of Aztatlan). Basically: everything. Without the silvermines behind them, spain changes.

    They won't have the money for the armada, which means that spain is not nearly as deforested. The wars in europe will be dramatically different, with Spain much less dependant on germans and much more on spaniards. Which in turn has an effect on Spain proper and it's colonization. The dutch revolt still happened, but now without that crucial flow of money crossing the ocean. And without the silver and gold flooding the spanish markets, they won't suffer the same crippling inflation that in the end killed the empire. No spanish armada. Maybe a loss in Lepanto? Ottomans in Italy? Leading to an exodus of italians to Spain and France (and by extension, their colonies)?

    Quite frankly... Spain isn't a declining superpower. It never climbed that far. Instead it found a much more stable and reliable level. Furthermore, without Mexico and Peru there's really only one thing of interest in the New World: The trade. Specifically the Fusang trade. The gem of Nuevo España is not Havana, it's Panama. It's most important institution is not the viceroyalty, but the Bank of Castilla del Oro. It's entire colonial policy is monopolizing that trade. Using vast hosts of native mercenaries.

    So with that explanation out of the way. My suggestion for themes is:

    English: Enterprises backed by the royal navy.
    France: Foreign advisors operating from fortified colonies.
    Spain: A centralized power run by The Bank, jealously guarding their trade routes.

    - The Golden Age of Piracy, it ended in the late 1720's. But i think most of us agree that we want pirates in this setting. But between the historical end of the Golden Age and the Knights that we've added to the place it's unlikely they survive to 1750.
    Maybe we should add a way for the pirates to remain a problem?
    For example we could make it so that the Mayan cities support piracy and open up various harbors for them to resupply, repair and buy and sell items. Aztatlan could do the same. For both it is an attempt to keep the Europeans away from their coasts. And while they support the pirates they can learn about ships and how to build them so they can eventually compete with the Europeans.
    I was thinking the same. I even created two maya kingdoms for this purpose:
    The Pirate kingdom of B'alam (Yucatan) and the region Belix (Belize) in the kingdom Nojpeten-Itzá (Guatemalan lowlands). In these two regions, pirates have more or less safe harbours. In the former they simply retreat inland if threatened and in the latter the local population along the coast have accepted mayan overlordship in return for protection.

    Furthermore, Aztatlan absolutely backs pirates that give the spanish a bloody nose and shares some of the loot with them (with them more being interested in things like cannon, guns and gunpowder. Since it's higher quality than their own stuff).

    Oh, and adding the Knights is likely to prolong the thing rather than lesses it. Between the pirate Republic in Nassau, Tortuga in French Hispaniola, Kam'pich and Cozumel in B'alam, Belix, Port Royal in Jamaica and the Knights' holdings we got all we need to keep the pirate age well and alive. Noone is really strong enough to completely root out the pirates completely yet, there's so many places to hide in and so many merchants to rob.

  10. - Top - End - #460
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Quote Originally Posted by Aux-Ash View Post
    The english we do not need to change much, of the three great colonizers they were the last to arrive. You aptly, if simply, describe their policy in the new world however. The only thing we need to really look at is if the presence of a denser native population affects their colonies. But I think the english colonies between Massachusetts and North Carolina will probably spring up as historically, if possibly staying closer to the waterways.
    Each colony is an individual enterprise. Autonomous and self sufficient.

    English: Enterprises backed by the royal navy.
    Seems good.

    Quote Originally Posted by Aux-Ash View Post
    The french has changed a lot. New Orleans is held mutually with the Mound Lords, a fragile but lasting alliance of sorts. They control some of the surrounding bayou, but their influence here is limited. St. Louis is much of a consulate that has been allowed than a city that has been settled proper. Quebec is little more than the banks of the St Lawrence river and Montreal, cut off from the rest of of New France.
    Quite frankly... they can't have a centralized controlled colony.
    Instead it looks as if France in this new world plays the part of the foreign advisor/diplomat. More like the role the portuguese played in Japan. They find the biggest players on the block and trade with them, ally with them and get invited to their courts. I imagine the french is one of the new world's most reliable supplier of firearms.
    Their carribean holdings are more straight conquests though.

    France: Foreign advisors operating from fortified colonies.
    Oh, i didn't mean a centralised colony. I meant centralised as in that they don't allow their colonies the same freedoms as the English. And that all colonies are considered part of the Kindom of France and not semi-autonomous.
    And by land based power i meant in Europe where they are quite dominant without being able to rule the seas.

    But i do quite like the idea of them being the diplomatic colonisers. It fits with what we already have for them in Nouveau Orléans. And it fits with them trying to outbreed the Tuniit in and around Québec. It actually fits decently with the Caribbean as well because apart from them conquering the islands from the Natives they don't really do much aggressive expanding. They just take the (huge) profits from their plantations.
    From what i've read the French have a history of supporting pirates that raid foreign ships. They could do just that in Crossroads as well, they are very big clients in the Mayan cities. Importing manufactured goods and trading them for shiploads of valuable raw materials.


    Quote Originally Posted by Aux-Ash View Post
    The spanish. I spent a rather long time trying to figure out what the loss of Mexico and Peru would mean to the spanish empire (and by extent what impact this would have of Aztatlan). Basically: everything. Without the silvermines behind them, spain changes.

    They won't have the money for the armada, which means that spain is not nearly as deforested. The wars in europe will be dramatically different, with Spain much less dependant on germans and much more on spaniards. Which in turn has an effect on Spain proper and it's colonization. The dutch revolt still happened, but now without that crucial flow of money crossing the ocean. And without the silver and gold flooding the spanish markets, they won't suffer the same crippling inflation that in the end killed the empire. No spanish armada. Maybe a loss in Lepanto? Ottomans in Italy? Leading to an exodus of italians to Spain and France (and by extension, their colonies)?

    Quite frankly... Spain isn't a declining superpower. It never climbed that far. Instead it found a much more stable and reliable level. Furthermore, without Mexico and Peru there's really only one thing of interest in the New World: The trade. Specifically the Fusang trade. The gem of Nuevo España is not Havana, it's Panama. It's most important institution is not the viceroyalty, but the Bank of Castilla del Oro. It's entire colonial policy is monopolizing that trade. Using vast hosts of native mercenaries.

    Spain: A centralized power run by The Bank, jealously guarding their trade routes.
    Sounds reasonable as well. I suggest we don't let the Ottomans into Italy, that would really shift the balance of power in Europe. And it would make some of our colonizing nations shift their attention from the New World to the Mediterranean. And that would be bad for the setting. So i don't much like a loss at Lepanto.
    We could have the Spanish sell or lose the kingdom of Naples to the Papal States. They would still keep the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Sardinia. That would give the pope a bit more power, weaken the Spanish a bit and keep the Ottomans stay out of Italy.

    I do like them using Panama as the source of their wealth. And if the French are trying to bypass that trade by going to the Mayan city states for trade and piracy, that would be a nice source of conflict between them. Tawantinsuyu creeping closer and closer to Panama might just become a much larger problem than we originally thought it would be.
    It would also make them trying to build the Panama canal a few decades early much more realistic.

    Quote Originally Posted by Aux-Ash View Post
    Seems allright to me, it's not so major a change that it affects much. They seemed to have been settled late anyways.

    Question... do they still have Malta? Or did the ottomans take the island?
    With the Knights moving to the Caribbean i suggested earlier that they could have lost Malta. Or that the Pope took it over. But people seemed to be against that idea. I prefer the pope taking over Malta, especially if he took Malta as well. Legally the Knights rented Malta from the King of Naples (wich was the Spanish king) for 1 Maltese falcon per year, so if the Pope took Naples, he would legally own Malta as well.
    Besides, if the capital of the Knights is in the Caribbean, Malta would lose a lot of it's importance.

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    Sorry I haven't been able to respond with any kind of detail to your post, gents. I've been really trying my damnedest to get something mechanical actually finished, since it seems like it's been ages since I was actually able to be done with something. I'm finally done with the mechanical aspect of the Touched, though, all 14 possible sources have a full list of options and traits that seem balanced to my brain. Now, all I have to do is add three paragraphs of fluff to each source and rewrite the main fluff part to jive with the stuff I come up with in the process.

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    I'm really liking the clarification that's been done on the three major Colonial powers so far. Well done, gentlemen. Very well done!

    The Caribbean and Castillo Del Oro feel much more... complete now. I really appreciate the extra thought which has been devoted to them; they're more fleshed-out in my head as a result.

    On a related note, I've been having trouble visualizing what Native villages will look like in this timeline, because their populations will be so much larger. For example, the Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes believed that all people were essentially equal, and seem to have detested slavery, and even indentured servitude: how could this attitude persist in a world where they live in large, palisaded villages with a pronounced division of labor and a professional military? Would they keep their egalitarian worldview, or would it give way to the pressures and necessities of urban life?

    I've been thinking along similar lines with regard to the Tuniit, as well. We're talking about a society of magic using giants who have had access to iron working technology for 600 years, and (through trade) domesticated mammoths for a century or two. Yet no mention has really been made yet of how their newly-heirarchical society looks like, or how they got organized enough to conquer most of the northlands. I don't think that just breeding their way to supremacy will cut it, because that still limits them to expanding only as quickly as their food supply can support. As unpleasant as it sounds, I think the Tuniit would readily adopt the practice of thralldom, and use their newly acquired and extremely superior weapons and armor to capture human slaves for their mines, to fuel their wars with the Vinlandrs and each other (since humans would require smaller tunnels than a Tuniit would). I think that the Tuniit would readily adopt swords, axes, and shields, and once they were incorporated into their repertory, they would be a serious threat. Particularly if combined with the Arctic agriculture methods described in "The Land of Ice and Mice". Once they get mammoths, then they'll become pretty much unstoppable.

    So yeah, those are my thoughts on the Tuniit. Sorry to distract from the conversation at hand, but I wasn't sure when we'd get back to Tuniitaq. Feel free to continue discussing the Caribbean; I just wanted to speak my piece on the Tuniit while it was fresh in my mind.

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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    On a related note, I've been having trouble visualizing what Native villages will look like in this timeline, because their populations will be so much larger. For example, the Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes believed that all people were essentially equal, and seem to have detested slavery, and even indentured servitude: how could this attitude persist in a world where they live in large, palisaded villages with a pronounced division of labor and a professional military? Would they keep their egalitarian worldview, or would it give way to the pressures and necessities of urban life?
    I would think they could keep most of their beliefs; naturally, the military would be almost entirely volunteers, with it being considered to be a great honor to serve in the ranks of village guardians and such. Escaped slaves would likely find refuge in their villages, but those with more contact with the French might not see it as their duty to actively fight against the English south of their main territories.

    Quote Originally Posted by SuperDave View Post
    I've been thinking along similar lines with regard to the Tuniit, as well. We're talking about a society of magic using giants who have had access to iron working technology for 600 years, and (through trade) domesticated mammoths for a century or two. Yet no mention has really been made yet of how their newly-heirarchical society looks like, or how they got organized enough to conquer most of the northlands. I don't think that just breeding their way to supremacy will cut it, because that still limits them to expanding only as quickly as their food supply can support. As unpleasant as it sounds, I think the Tuniit would readily adopt the practice of thralldom, and use their newly acquired and extremely superior weapons and armor to capture human slaves for their mines, to fuel their wars with the Vinlandrs and each other (since humans would require smaller tunnels than a Tuniit would). I think that the Tuniit would readily adopt swords, axes, and shields, and once they were incorporated into their repertory, they would be a serious threat. Particularly if combined with the Arctic agriculture methods described in "The Land of Ice and Mice". Once they get mammoths, then they'll become pretty much unstoppable.
    I approve of this idea immensely; as of now, the Tuniit are defined mostly by their size and being giant-kin, without much of a really dynamic culture to go along with them.

    Also, vikings fighting giants go well in any setting.
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    Caribbean

    I've started work on the Spanish islands. The Knights are done, but i can't seem to find any historical inhabitants of the Virgin Islands. Or members of the Knights during the 18th century. So i will either need to start making people up or i'll have to find a list of Knights in that era. I've tried to find a list like that but i'm not having any luck. I did just find an online catalogue of the library of the Knights, i might take a look at that and see what comes up.
    If all else fails i could perhaps contact the history department of the Order of Malta, but i'm afraid they wont want to help if it's for a fictionalised version of their history.


    Anyway, the Spanish.
    I like Aux-Ash's idea of the Bank of Castillo del Oro being the most important institution of the Spanish colonies and i would like to expand on it a bit.
    First of all, the viceroyalty is obviously still around but a lot less powerfull. The Bank basically runs the Spanish colonies.
    The Viceroyalty of Peru and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata don't exist. And i think we can safely fold the Viceroyalties of New Granada and New Spain together because New Spain would be limited to the Caribbean. And let's just stick to the name New Spain and forget about New Granada.
    This means the Spanish are limited to one Viceroyalty, ruled over by one viceroy appointed by the Spanish crown. And while he has some administrative power, he is mostly a puppet to the economic power of the Bankers in Panama. Coincidentally i wouldn't place the capital of the viceroyalty in Panama as well, but not in Bogota like it was in history, that's too far away from the Vespuccia action. Maybe we should place it on the north Cabralian coast? How about Caracas?
    But that's not all of it, there's also the inquisition. Earlier i posted about the inquistitors dominating the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Langues of the Knights. So what if the inquisition is the dominant power on the Spanish Caribbean islands? That's how they dominate the Spanish Langue of the Knights, they have a huge presence on the islands. The inquisition owns the Sugar and Tobacco plantations and they trade in valuable spices. And they join the ranks of the Knights, who can't really refuse a fellow Christian joining their Order, while still remaining loyal to the Knights.

    So let's sum up:
    In Panama we have the Bank of Castillo del Oro ruling the city and using their money to get power.
    In La Habana we have the Spanish Inquisition, using the money from their plantations and spices for the same purpose. They have less money than the Bank but they have religion on their side.
    In Caracas we have the Spanish Viceroy, who is appointed by the Spanish king but is basically powerless. The Bank and the Inquisition are constantly fighting for control over the Viceroy. Both the Bank and the Inquisition have an 'advisor' present in Caracas. Oh, and the Knights have a diplomat in Caracas trying to find a way to remove inquisition control over the Viceroy so they can get the Spanish Langue away from inquisition control.

    Tuniit

    I'm not a fan of thralldom for the Tuniit. It's just slavery under a different name.
    In fact, i quite like the whole outbreeding thing we had for them. However, you do have a point that it's not a very clear political structure and that we should expand it a bit.

    How about the Tuniit have a legendary ancestor to their race, a woman that according to them gave birth to the first Tuniit as a distinct species. And your position in Tuniit society is based on how far or how many times you've spread the blood of the ancestor and how close you are to the ancestor generation-wise. Basically, the more children you have, the higher up the rank you are and the less generations between you and the ancestor the higher up the rank as well.
    Tuniit women see it as their duty to do snu-snu with human men (Death by snu-snu!) and spread the blood. Tuniit men are unable to breed with human women, because that kind of snu-snu is very dangerous for the woman and a human women cannot carry a Tuniit child for the full pregnancy.

    Ooh wait, let's take it into full blown polyandry! Tuniit women take one Tuniit man and one human man as their husbands. The Tuniit man does the hunting and heavy lifting, the human man does the housework and cooking and the Tuniit woman rules the Household and arranges the finances and is the voice of the family in politics. The Tuniit are a matriarchal society.
    While human men and women still marry because there are less Tuniit than humans, this would mean that there is also a large group of human woman who are unable to find a man. They are seen as higher than human and Tuniit men because they are still women, but they hold no power because they don't have the blood of the ancestor. These unmarried women have united themselves in groups trying to force themselves into political power.
    These groups of women are starting to get a bit more power in recent years because they've started to make trade deals and marriages with the French settlers. The French are jumping at the opportunity to outbreed the Tuniit, especially since most settlers are men.

    Just throwing ideas out there.

  15. - Top - End - #465
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Hey people! So, I had hoped to have the touched finished today, I had planned to have time to finish them Saturday, but unfortunately, circumstances conspired to strand me away from the net. But on the plus side, the intense boredom got me a-writing for many hours wherein I brainstormed the draft of the rocky mountain sasquatch culture, and a rough take on the new coatls. I took a little time to flesh the coatl ideas out a bit and before I knew it, I was done! So, I just posted 'em over in the main homebrew section, go check 'em out and make comments!

    Coatl

    I'll be back sometime today to get into catching up on all the discussion I've been too distracted to get into (sorry!).
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  16. - Top - End - #466
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Now, on to catching up on back business:

    Plateau
    Well, they could just get pushed a bit north and over into the subarctic culture area, which would be part of the whole Tuniitaq confederacy dealie, but then, I'll have to get into the state of that further down in the post. There is a little are where it would technically be under either Fusang or Cahokian control, but then that's pretty much the extreme reaches of their respective empires, I doubt they have that firm of a grasp on the area.
    It's a possibility, but we'll have to do a lot more research.

    Caribbean
    Knights
    I like this arrangement. It gets the dutch and danish out of the mix a bit, and gives us plenty of 'gray space' areas, places with a defined theme but no detail, so DMs have a bit of freedom, but still a bit of guidance as to what goes where.


    I definitely like the idea of focusing in on different themes for the European nations.
    English
    The plan seems to be pretty solid as it stands. So, if I understand it right, we've got a bunch of small, largely independent and self-sufficient colonies. Individually they'd be no huge threat. But thanks to the royal navy, a separate entity from the colonies, but one that supports them, they get the support they need to keep the colonies out of the hands of the competition. The success of a colony is determined by the money it makes.

    French
    So, ambassadors and traders operating out of relatively scattered trading posts in the mainland. They wouldn't have huge areas of land, or massive military forces. In the end, they would rely on having friendly relations with their neighbors to remain secure. In the caribbean, the colonies are more traditionally conquered and held.

    Spanish
    Aux-ash raises a good point here, I don't think they would have risen all that high. However, I think we may be discounting the gains they would have gotten out of the conquest of the northern portions of the inca empire. They were very, very fond of gold, and there would have been quite a bit for the Spanish to take there. Plus, IIRC, the bulk of the Spanish wealth in silver came from abusing the milpa system to take advantage of inca manpower. They would have risen much less high in this world than the real one, but they certainly wouldn't be without money entirely.

    I do agree with the point that they would probably be making their money at the moment through the trade with fusang and possibly into hisatsinom. And they would most certainly be EXTREMELY protective of their trade routes. If they held panama, they likely wouldn't have much competition, though. Sea-to-sea routes elsewhere would be far too long, and overland would likely be too long and much too slow.

    Pirates
    I think we could probably have a number of pirate-supporting people along the coast in aztatlan and mayatolli, but I think we don't want to go too far down that road. I think we could mention it in a few places, but we don't want to focus on it too much, leave that theme to the freeman state in the south.

    Tuniitaq
    Well, now, this has potential.

    Conquerors
    Hmm...
    On the pros side, it is a pretty cool idea. A race of conquering northern giants sounds pretty awesome. Gaining bows and arrows, then iron weapons and written language, then mammut, and soon a supply of gunpowder and weaponry... If managed well, that would provide a lot of military momentum for an expanding empire of giantkin. It would also create a credible threat in the north, which kinda-sorta seems a little too laid back at the moment. As interesting as the outbreeding idea is on a societal level, I can't help but think it lacks drama for players.

    On the cons side, my concern is supplies. While thralldom would provide the manpower necessary for a mining operation of sufficient size, where would they get the food to feed those slaves? The kind of agriculture necessary would be largely impossible at the altitudes found in tuniitaq. The Land of Ice and Mice suggested a slow, incremental up-shift in the availability of food for gathering, they didn't do agriculture in a scale capable of supporting armies of slaves.
    Also, mammut are smaller than mammoths. Tuniit are too large to ride them. They would be useful on a societal level though, good for hauling loads, plowing and fertilizing fields, and providing wool and milk.

    Materocracy
    This is an interesting take too. I can't remember if inuit societies were patrilineal or matrilineal, but we could make the tuniit matrilineal. A matrilineal society seems like it could well develop along the lines you indicate there. Though, it seems like joining the mentioned group of unwed human females would have some serious social stigma attached.

    I would like to say (very carefully) that if one assumes tuniit are proportionally identical to humans, merely twice the size, then it would not be impossible for an average male tuniit to procreate with a human female. There may be some discomfort, and it may be impractical for some, but it would not be impossible.
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Not really related to the current discussion but I found this today: Tlahuelpuchi. Nahuatl vampire. Is this already on our monster list?
    Quote Originally Posted by lt_murgen View Post
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  18. - Top - End - #468
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    I'm seeing the Bank and the Knights as close allies here. They share a common enemy in the Inquisition (The Bank sees the inquisition as a rival for control over the colonies, the Knights are the Inquisition's ideological enemies), and they are both strongly opposed to Pirates. The support of the Bank is probably one of the ways that the Knights are able to fund their fleets and armies.

    Which introduces another wrinkle with the Knights. The Knights already escort ships carrying the Bank's gold, and collect bounties the Bank places on pirates. It's a short jump to some Knights going full on mercenary, changing out of their uniforms and doing the Bank's dirty work.


    That said, there is something interesting at play.


    The Bank's Merchants get Fusangese goods in Panama. It's very profitable to take these goods to New Orleans where they can be taken up the river to Cahokia, where they are either sold, or stored in warehouses (The Bank has formed strategic alliances with at least one powerful Mound Lord family) until the Cahokian Link opens up to Spain, Italy, or somewhere else where the Bank feels comfortable dropping off a large number of goods.

    Idea: Cahokia's link site is valuable not only because it's especially active, but because the city itself has infrastructure and personnel set up to quickly take advantage of Link openings. Expert mages from multiple traditions are paid handsomely by the Mound Lords to work together to predict Link activity, and to create larger, and more stable Link connections than can be created elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Link site itself is situated in a large plaza, and Cahokian handlers have mastered the art of moving vast quantities of people and cargo in and out of the Link before it closes. For this reason, it can be profitable to simply store non-perishable goods in Cahokia and wait for a link to go where you want, rather than risk a trans-Atlantic voyage. It's not just a matter of the Link, the Cahokians also possess the infrastructure to capitalize on their Link site and make the best use of it.

    But back to the Bank. The route from Panama to New Orleans requires travel through waters under the protection of the Spanish Lange, who are controlled by the Inquisition, and therefore may be somewhat lax about hunting down Pirates raiding Bank ships. Obviously not so much that the Knight's leadership back on St. Croix can do anything about it, but enough to encourage the Bank to take additional precautions.


    Hrmmm...I'm now imagining Bank assets being protected by hired Fusangese Rocketeers.
    Last edited by BRC; 2014-09-23 at 10:12 AM.
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Sorry for Double Posting, but a thought I had.

    Trade Spheres

    We've kind of set up several, sometimes overlapping, Trade Spheres for different groups. Lets formalize them

    The Bank of Castillo Del Oro
    Dominates Trade in the Carribean, deals primarily in Sugar, Silver, and Fusangese Finished Goods. Moderate presence in New Orleans, Fusang, and the Columbian Colonies.

    The Cahokian League Dominates trade in the Great Plains, considerable presence in New Orleans, Tunittaq, and Columbia, minor presence in Fusang. Deals primarily in Furs, Finished Goods of all sort (Either manufactured in Cahokia from purchased raw materials or gained through Trade), and Magical Goods.

    Company of One Hundred Associates French Company. Went out of business pretty quickly in the real world, but could have persisted in our timeline as France becomes more trade focused and less Conquest-based. Dominates trade in Tuniitaq, moderate presence in Columbia, The Great Plains, and New Orleans. Deals primarily in Furs, Weapons, and Finished Goods.

    Anglo-Dutch West India Company IIRC, in the Crossroads timeline the Dutch were allowed to maintain control of New Amsterdam. Perhaps part of the deal was the fusion of the English and Dutch West India Companies into a single entity, thus allowing the British to keep extracting profit from the New Amsterdam trade (Also, allowing us to simplify things a little). Dominates trade in Columbia, with a moderate presence in the Carribean, Tuniitaq, and a minor presence in the Great Plains. Deals primarily in Tobacco, Cotton, Finished Goods, and Weapons.

    Feat: Company Agent
    Prerequisites: Must be French (Company of One Hundred Associates), English/Dutch (Anglo-Dutch), Cahokian (Cahokian League), or Spanish (Bank of Castillo Del Oro).
    Diplomacy 3 Ranks.
    You are an Agent of a powerful merchant company, this comes with many benefits.

    You may receive free passage for yourself and the party on company Vessels and in company Caravans.

    Other benefits I can't think of right now.
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  20. - Top - End - #470
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    Quote Originally Posted by SuperDave View Post
    On a related note, I've been having trouble visualizing what Native villages will look like in this timeline, because their populations will be so much larger. For example, the Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes believed that all people were essentially equal, and seem to have detested slavery, and even indentured servitude: how could this attitude persist in a world where they live in large, palisaded villages with a pronounced division of labor and a professional military? Would they keep their egalitarian worldview, or would it give way to the pressures and necessities of urban life?
    I think it'd depend on where you are. Cahokia and Hitsinanom and their immediate surroundings are considerably more urban (with all that entails) than people on the cahokian-league/tuniit border would be for instance.

    But in general, you wouldn't see larger villages but you would see them denser together and more close knit regionally. Structures of power are more formalized, some chiefs will rule multiple villages and some even call themselves kings. Lots of small petty kingdoms. Property will be more of a thing, and many more natives will have have semi-permanent or permanent settlements.

    Quote Originally Posted by Steckie View Post
    Anyway, the Spanish.
    I like Aux-Ash's idea of the Bank of Castillo del Oro being the most important institution of the Spanish colonies and i would like to expand on it a bit.
    First of all, the viceroyalty is obviously still around but a lot less powerfull. The Bank basically runs the Spanish colonies.
    The Viceroyalty of Peru and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata don't exist. And i think we can safely fold the Viceroyalties of New Granada and New Spain together because New Spain would be limited to the Caribbean. And let's just stick to the name New Spain and forget about New Granada.
    This means the Spanish are limited to one Viceroyalty, ruled over by one viceroy appointed by the Spanish crown. And while he has some administrative power, he is mostly a puppet to the economic power of the Bankers in Panama. Coincidentally i wouldn't place the capital of the viceroyalty in Panama as well, but not in Bogota like it was in history, that's too far away from the Vespuccia action. Maybe we should place it on the north Cabralian coast? How about Caracas?
    But that's not all of it, there's also the inquisition. Earlier i posted about the inquistitors dominating the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Langues of the Knights. So what if the inquisition is the dominant power on the Spanish Caribbean islands? That's how they dominate the Spanish Langue of the Knights, they have a huge presence on the islands. The inquisition owns the Sugar and Tobacco plantations and they trade in valuable spices. And they join the ranks of the Knights, who can't really refuse a fellow Christian joining their Order, while still remaining loyal to the Knights.

    So let's sum up:
    In Panama we have the Bank of Castillo del Oro ruling the city and using their money to get power.
    In La Habana we have the Spanish Inquisition, using the money from their plantations and spices for the same purpose. They have less money than the Bank but they have religion on their side.
    In Caracas we have the Spanish Viceroy, who is appointed by the Spanish king but is basically powerless. The Bank and the Inquisition are constantly fighting for control over the Viceroy. Both the Bank and the Inquisition have an 'advisor' present in Caracas. Oh, and the Knights have a diplomat in Caracas trying to find a way to remove inquisition control over the Viceroy so they can get the Spanish Langue away from inquisition control.
    I like it. I had originally envisioned Colombia being essentially allied kingdoms that provided what essentially was native auxilia/mercs for the Bank. But this is better. Many more plot hooks to be had in the competition between the Bank and the viceroyalty.

    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Squish View Post
    Caribbean
    Knights
    I like this arrangement. It gets the dutch and danish out of the mix a bit, and gives us plenty of 'gray space' areas, places with a defined theme but no detail, so DMs have a bit of freedom, but still a bit of guidance as to what goes where.


    I definitely like the idea of focusing in on different themes for the European nations.
    English
    The plan seems to be pretty solid as it stands. So, if I understand it right, we've got a bunch of small, largely independent and self-sufficient colonies. Individually they'd be no huge threat. But thanks to the royal navy, a separate entity from the colonies, but one that supports them, they get the support they need to keep the colonies out of the hands of the competition. The success of a colony is determined by the money it makes.
    Basically yes. Prosperous colonies gets more colonists and the royal navy responds to their calls for aid swifter. It's by no means strictly neccessary for them to be prosperous, but in London's eyes it's the amount of money they make for the crown that determine how much attention they get. Which naturally means that the English colonial holdings have vastly more influence than the considerably larger north american ones, since their goods is more valuable. Something the 13 (or however many they are) resents.

    French
    So, ambassadors and traders operating out of relatively scattered trading posts in the mainland. They wouldn't have huge areas of land, or massive military forces. In the end, they would rely on having friendly relations with their neighbors to remain secure. In the caribbean, the colonies are more traditionally conquered and held.
    Conquered from the Spanish, yes.

    Spanish
    Aux-ash raises a good point here, I don't think they would have risen all that high. However, I think we may be discounting the gains they would have gotten out of the conquest of the northern portions of the inca empire. They were very, very fond of gold, and there would have been quite a bit for the Spanish to take there. Plus, IIRC, the bulk of the Spanish wealth in silver came from abusing the milpa system to take advantage of inca manpower. They would have risen much less high in this world than the real one, but they certainly wouldn't be without money entirely.
    Oh, I had based that assumption on them not having any part of the Inca lands at all. I suppose that changes some things. Still, I don't think they'll have the silver mines since those are in the Inca heartlands (which is where the real money lies) so it doesn't radically toss that plan aside. Mind you, as I said... this probably have lead to the Iberian peninsula to be better off. So while the 17th century spain was poorer, 18th century spain is still very much a power to be respected. IRL Spain was in decline, this Spain is not.

    I do agree with the point that they would probably be making their money at the moment through the trade with fusang and possibly into hisatsinom. And they would most certainly be EXTREMELY protective of their trade routes. If they held panama, they likely wouldn't have much competition, though. Sea-to-sea routes elsewhere would be far too long, and overland would likely be too long and much too slow.
    Panama is also a malaria-ridden swamp and they more or less have to drag their hauls across those. Furthermore, that while Spain has by far the quickest trade route, that trip still takes months. So it's not like it's pointless to use other routes. Spain has a large marketshare, but not the only marketshare.

    Pirates
    I think we could probably have a number of pirate-supporting people along the coast in aztatlan and mayatolli, but I think we don't want to go too far down that road. I think we could mention it in a few places, but we don't want to focus on it too much, leave that theme to the freeman state in the south.
    One native pirate state (B'alam), one freeman pirate state and one carribean pirate state (Pirate republic in Nassau, led by Blackbeard himself... yes... that was a thing ), perhaps?

    Quote Originally Posted by BRC View Post
    I'm seeing the Bank and the Knights as close allies here. They share a common enemy in the Inquisition (The Bank sees the inquisition as a rival for control over the colonies, the Knights are the Inquisition's ideological enemies), and they are both strongly opposed to Pirates. The support of the Bank is probably one of the ways that the Knights are able to fund their fleets and armies.

    Which introduces another wrinkle with the Knights. The Knights already escort ships carrying the Bank's gold, and collect bounties the Bank places on pirates. It's a short jump to some Knights going full on mercenary, changing out of their uniforms and doing the Bank's dirty work.


    That said, there is something interesting at play.


    The Bank's Merchants get Fusangese goods in Panama. It's very profitable to take these goods to New Orleans where they can be taken up the river to Cahokia, where they are either sold, or stored in warehouses (The Bank has formed strategic alliances with at least one powerful Mound Lord family) until the Cahokian Link opens up to Spain, Italy, or somewhere else where the Bank feels comfortable dropping off a large number of goods.

    Idea: Cahokia's link site is valuable not only because it's especially active, but because the city itself has infrastructure and personnel set up to quickly take advantage of Link openings. Expert mages from multiple traditions are paid handsomely by the Mound Lords to work together to predict Link activity, and to create larger, and more stable Link connections than can be created elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Link site itself is situated in a large plaza, and Cahokian handlers have mastered the art of moving vast quantities of people and cargo in and out of the Link before it closes. For this reason, it can be profitable to simply store non-perishable goods in Cahokia and wait for a link to go where you want, rather than risk a trans-Atlantic voyage. It's not just a matter of the Link, the Cahokians also possess the infrastructure to capitalize on their Link site and make the best use of it.

    But back to the Bank. The route from Panama to New Orleans requires travel through waters under the protection of the Spanish Lange, who are controlled by the Inquisition, and therefore may be somewhat lax about hunting down Pirates raiding Bank ships. Obviously not so much that the Knight's leadership back on St. Croix can do anything about it, but enough to encourage the Bank to take additional precautions.


    Hrmmm...I'm now imagining Bank assets being protected by hired Fusangese Rocketeers.
    I like it. This works out nicely and fits with the themes.

    Quote Originally Posted by BRC View Post
    Sorry for Double Posting, but a thought I had.

    Trade Spheres

    We've kind of set up several, sometimes overlapping, Trade Spheres for different groups. Lets formalize them

    The Bank of Castillo Del Oro
    Dominates Trade in the Carribean, deals primarily in Sugar, Silver, and Fusangese Finished Goods. Moderate presence in New Orleans, Fusang, and the Columbian Colonies.

    The Cahokian League Dominates trade in the Great Plains, considerable presence in New Orleans, Tunittaq, and Columbia, minor presence in Fusang. Deals primarily in Furs, Finished Goods of all sort (Either manufactured in Cahokia from purchased raw materials or gained through Trade), and Magical Goods.

    Company of One Hundred Associates French Company. Went out of business pretty quickly in the real world, but could have persisted in our timeline as France becomes more trade focused and less Conquest-based. Dominates trade in Tuniitaq, moderate presence in Columbia, The Great Plains, and New Orleans. Deals primarily in Furs, Weapons, and Finished Goods.

    Anglo-Dutch West India Company IIRC, in the Crossroads timeline the Dutch were allowed to maintain control of New Amsterdam. Perhaps part of the deal was the fusion of the English and Dutch West India Companies into a single entity, thus allowing the British to keep extracting profit from the New Amsterdam trade (Also, allowing us to simplify things a little). Dominates trade in Columbia, with a moderate presence in the Carribean, Tuniitaq, and a minor presence in the Great Plains. Deals primarily in Tobacco, Cotton, Finished Goods, and Weapons.

    Feat: Company Agent
    Prerequisites: Must be French (Company of One Hundred Associates), English/Dutch (Anglo-Dutch), Cahokian (Cahokian League), or Spanish (Bank of Castillo Del Oro).
    Diplomacy 3 Ranks.
    You are an Agent of a powerful merchant company, this comes with many benefits.

    You may receive free passage for yourself and the party on company Vessels and in company Caravans.

    Other benefits I can't think of right now.
    And the Haiyuanren clans (based in "San Diego" and Golden Gate). They ought to be one of those trade spheres as well.

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    I would also think that Spain would pay very well for anyone who furthered the development of Panama. Would it be reasonable for Spain to be looking for the development of the Panama Canal?
    Last edited by Mith; 2014-09-23 at 01:16 PM.

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    Caribbean

    Pirates
    Wait, by 1750 the British had sent a governor and taken over full control over Nassau so there is no more pirate republic there. Blackbeard died in 1718 and most other famous pirates died around that time as well. The two ones that maybe survived are Anne Bonny and Mary Read because they were pregnant at the time they got captured. They 'pleaded their bellies' and didn't get hanged. Mary Read died in prison and Anne Bonny was never heard of again. All the others got killed historically. On the various other islands of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos islands there are still many hideouts, but no more true pirate republic.
    Historically that is, we're dealing with alternate history so we could change some things. Either we move the pirate republic somewhere else or we remove the takeover by the British government. And we could keep several famous pirates alive, if the Golden Age of Piracy is extended, many of them could have survived.

    Oh and another relatively safe place for pirates is the neutral Island of the Native converted Christians. They're neutral and allow everybody to enter, do business and leave. At the moment it's Tobago, but i'm contemplating moving them to the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao). The Knights already purchased many of the Dutch islands (wich you'll read all about once i finally finish my work on the Caribbean), so they could have bought those and donated them to the converted Natives.
    It would give the converted Natives 3 islands, wich makes it easier for plot hooks and spreading of Voudou.

    Bank/Inquisitors/Knights
    The Bank and Knights being allies makes a lot of sense, i like it a lot.
    Historically the Knights did do mercenary work. Hell, by the time they were in desperate need of money they started to do legal piracy on Muslim ships. And even later they abused their right to enter all ships and search for signs of Muslims to do some semi-illigal piracy on Christian ships.
    None of that in the Caribbean though, they're not short on cash here so they can just keep to some mercenary work as long as it doesn't conflict with their vows.

    As to the reason why the Knights can fund their fleets and armies i do have another thought than just the Bank: The Right Hand of the Forerunner.
    It is one of their holy relics, the right hand of John the Baptist, the hand that baptised Jesus. According to legend the hand is brought out once a year and if the fingers are open it will be a bountifull harvest. If they're closed it will be a poor harvest.
    So let's make this relic into a real item in Crossroads. The Knights use it to predict what tradegoods will get the best harvest and when best to sow and stuff like that. They also know when a poor harvest is coming so they can hoard that tradegood and sell it when the price is at it's highest.
    That way they make huge profits every year and are able to support a large fleet.
    Plus it allows for a lot of plot hooks.

    Oh, and one more thought i had: with the Knights and Inquisitors both having a lot of influence in the church, the pope will never be elected from one of these groups. The other group is probably powerfull enough to stop that from happening. So every pope that gets elected is a 'neutral' pope elected from other Catholic groups like the Jesuits or Fransiscans or whatever.

    Tuniitaq

    I've been thinking about this some more and i think we could combine the conquerors and materocracy into something more interesting. And here's what i have in mind: Jannisaries!
    For those that don't know about them you should look them up because they're awesome. In short they're Christian slaves raised by the Ottomans into an elite fighting force. In later years they obtained a lot of political power but lost some of their fighting prowess.

    The social structure stays roughly how i described it earlier.
    Tuniit are all descendants of a legendary ancestor, the woman are in charge. They marry a human man and a Tuniit man with the human man doing the housework and the Tuniit man doing the heavy lifting and hunting. Since there are more Tuniit than humans, there are many unmarried human men that are tasked with public works like building houses, maintaining farms, building monuments,.... These men are allowed to live with a human woman but they can never marry her. If that man gets chosen by a Tuniit woman he must immediatly leave that human and marry the Tuniit. Human men married to a Tuniit are in a higher social position.

    Then there are the human women, they can have any relationship with a human man they want apart from marriage.
    Since these women aren't allowed governmental positions or a marriage with human men they are not very usefull in society. But they are very usefull as combatants. Starting at an early age girls are taken to a special school where they are thought reading, writing and magic if they have an aptitude for that. The ones without magical aptitude are trained in combat. All forms of combat with all kinds of weapons. And they are thought how to fight while riding Mammut.
    The women Janissaries are put in a military structure and are given merit based promotions. The ones high enough on the military ladder are considered to be higher than Tuniit men and are allowed to command them on the battlefield. Tuniit men are not used in organised combat but in scouting, hit and run strikes, naval assaults,... The human women do the organised fighting and are feared more than the Tuniit are feared.
    The human women are technically slaves owned by Tuniit women but they do have considerable power. More than Tuniit men.
    But now the French are starting to marry themselves into these Tuniit janissaries. They are valuable trading partners to the Tuniit so they are allowed to keep their own children.

    That's right, Amazons in the North!

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    So within the military, human women are seen as roughly equals to Tunnit men, since they (the women) only command the Tunnit men when they have reached a certain rank? I would also figure that once the military gains a certain level of power from the expansionist policies, the human women will have a more equal footing in society.

    The only thing that is a problem with this is that unless the women are really good at fighting, humans are really going to be a minority due to them being the child-bearers. Perhaps instead of a conscription in terms of years, the culture is split with the young women communally raising both boys and girls, who are split into the men going into service (perhaps crafting and trades as well? They wouldn't be as valued as Tunnit craftmen, but they would have an easier time at making human sized weapons.). Girls are raised as warriors. Service is either shorter to allow time for childbearing, or some arrangement is met for the women to have children.

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    Coatls!
    Just reminding everyone these guys are still done and I'd love to get some more feedback.

    Oh, and Tlahuelpuchi are on the list in call to brew, I checked. They do sound like an interesting monster.

    Currently working on: Sasquatch cultures. Partially because I wrote up a bunch of cool details while away from the computer, and partially because I'm building them as a prototype for the new culture/subculture arrangement, so we'll be able to see how well it works before we get into all the research.

    Skype
    Once again, it's that time of the month, wherein we prepare for the skype call!
    If you'd like to get involved, please send me your skype info.
    At the moment, the plan is the usual, Saturday, 3 PM EST. If that doesn't work for anyone, let me know and we'll puzzle out a new time.

    Trade
    Bank
    I'm just trying to figure out how the bank itself has all this control. I understand they're a trading group and all that, that's fine, but the bank usually just makes money passively off of traders, they don't usually actively control them. Merchants put money into the bank, the bank invests it and makes more money. They would be rich, particularity in a place such as panama, but I don't see the mechanism for control. I suppose they could be financing expeditions and trips, but at best that's a veto power for various missions, not really puppeteering. A mercantile organization could operate its own bank, but they wouldn't really take on the bank's name.

    But regardless of who's at the center of it, let me see if I've got the basic idea down. This group of Spanish merchants jealously guards the overland route through panama and many of the harbors on the west coast that Haiyuanren traders operate in. They make most of their money by trading valuable resources from the Spanish-controlled Andes and finished goods from Fusang and Hisatsinom. They also have a measure of influence in the Spanish islands of the Caribbean, trading their agricultural products for finished goods. One of the most profitable routes is through Noveau Orleans, up the river to Cahokia, where they can use the link to trade in various places all through the world. They use mercenaries to protect their vessels from pirates, hired from Fusang ports or from the Knights. Also working on the construction of a trans-panama canal.

    Cahokia
    I do like this take on how their trade system works. It makes it more artistic than a calculated risk assessment. They can vaguely predict when and usually where a link will lead to. When one opens, they can use their infrastructure to mobilize large amounts of many different kinds of goods through the portal in a very short time, different kinds of goods for different destinations. I would say the Cahokians would keep the whole operation very exclusive. Other groups can't trade through the links, but the Cahokians will gladly buy your goods and store them until they have an opportunity to sell them. They would likely do a passenger service sort of thing, though.

    Though, now that I think about it, link trading poses some unique challenges. Since they're usually one-way, you'd have to stay wherever you landed and make your own way back to the city. We were going to have a 'probe link' spell, but you wouldn't be able to interact with the other side, just see where you would come out...
    You know, discussion of what one can and cannot do through a link is a bit problematic without an actual solid idea of what the links can and cannot do. I'm gonna have to get to work on that. A big all-things-spiral post, with all the spells and what can and cannot be done with them.

    Trade Spheres
    As was mentioned, the Haiyuanren should definitely be on there, but otherwise, solid work.
    That feat gives me an idea. What if organizations had a set of in-game perks they offered players? They wouldn't be huge, but you could drop a feat to join up and gain them. Maybe they would only be for respected members or something, you still should be able to join an organization without needing feats or levels.

    Caribbean
    English
    This makes a lot of sense. It certainly wouldn't be anything official (you didn't make any money last quarter, so you'll have to deal with those pirates yourself), but I would imagine the more wealthy regions would be able to swing the influence to get more protection from the navy.

    Spanish
    The idea was they took the northern half of the Andes (or so), but have been pushed back in recent years by rebellions and a resurgence of native forces, leaving them with about a quarter. I do think this doesn't have way too much influence though, the gains from the conquest would be muted by the costs of the conquest which would be much more difficult in this version, and further drained by the decades of border conflict and pacification required since.

    You know, this may be a bit too radical of a change, but what if the monarchy learned from their mistakes? All their attempts at the conquest of the natives have been repelled or utterly destroyed. They have had some success, profitable success, even, in the northern regions of South Vespuccia, but in exchange they got more than 200 years of near-constant fighting with native empires and made a lot of enemies.

    Pirates
    I think a handful of different pirate communities of each area would likely exist, but we can just focus in on and pay attention to one or maybe two of each type. Maybe we can get more detailed in a sequel.

    Hmm... A difficult decision. Where exactly does one draw the line of separation. I do think most of the pirates of the golden age would likely be dead or replaced, if only because of the passage of time and the fact that piracy is a pretty dang dangerous profession. I mean, it's been like 30-40 years.

    I would LOVE to see Blackbeard as an NPC. Thing is, he would be 70 at setting time...
    Ooh, here's an idea! If piracy remained strong, it's possible the English could have failed to gain control over Nassau. Blackbeard retired from piracy and moved to full-time governance of the pirate city, which has since grown into a force to be reckoned with. Keeping order in a pirate city is no simple task, and to live to 70 doing it would be all but impossible for anyone but him.
    Think Retired Adventurer (BEWARE: TVTROPES) to the extreme. He's a grizzled, ruthless, and pitiless old man, beard all gray now. He mostly relies on presence and reputation more than force these days, but all those supernatural powers he was rumored to have could well be real... or they could just be smoke and mirrors. Needless to say, you don't want to be the one who finds out.

    Hand of the Forerunner
    I definitely like the idea of the right hand of the forerunner being an actual artifact. I'm not sure how the hand would communicate what sort of resource it would refer to, though, or how the knights would ask it.
    I imagine that the basic purpose, telling if it will be a good harvest or a poor harvest, would be quite valuable, particularly if you could rely on that answer. You could plant less necessity crops and more luxury crops, because you would be able to know all the necessity crops would come in well and then sell the luxury crops for huge profits.
    Maybe it's like a large-scale augury? Like, the normal spell will tell you if a certain specific, small action, will end well or poorly. Perhaps once a month or once a year the knights could bring forth the hand and propose a course of action for the knights as a whole, and the hand could accurately tell them if it will go well or poorly.

    Tuniitaq
    Now this is getting interesting.

    Family Structure
    I think one female with no defined role other than 'breeder' is problematic, as, for one, it would lead to lots of children, possibly more than the single male hunter could support. For another, the children are invariably more likely to be the human male's, since he'd be staying home all the time. And for a third, if the female isn't actually contributing to the household, it's very possible the 'authority' she possesses could be eroded away until the wife is below her husbands.

    Traditionally, the standard practice in arctic cultures is to arrange a marriage between two children, to ensure that both would have a partner waiting for them when they came of age and the family group that was integral to survival would remain unbroken. I propose we keep this arrangement, but add to it.
    For one, only Tuniit are allowed to be actually married. Second, the pair can choose humans to join the family as part of a... I suppose the best term I can think of is 'harem', but it's not quite accurate.
    The humans can be male or female, and serve their respective gender roles in support of the Tuniit couple. They're lower in position than the Tuniit of their gender. The Tuniit pair have to agree to both take in a human, and agree on the specific human, since one partner unilaterally choosing would likely lead to problems down the line (a male choosing females would be forcing his wife to spend all her time with them, and a female choosing males might select terrible hunters who are of no use in the wilds). These humans would only be allowed to mate with the Tuniit, since the couple's status would be related to how much they spread the ancient blood around, how many Tuniit children they have. A human child in a Tuniit home would be a disgrace, and would more likely than not be cast out to die in the cold.

    Status
    Let's get into who can do what.

    Let's say Tuniit are class 1 citizens, and humans are class 2 citizens (decimals show up later, lower is better). Humans are not allowed to officially marry, though they can have children and live together and basically be married in all but name. Females are slightly more important than males. They do not have to obey every Tuniit they encounter, but they generally are expected to defer to them in most cases, and they must show respect. They often end up working the crappiest jobs, such as mining.
    There are some ways to move up, status-wise. One is to join a Tuniit family, which moves them up to ~1.5. Another is to join the military. Service in the military bumps an average human up to ~1.75, and the merit-based promotions can take them up to ~.5 in the highest ranks. However, the average Tuniit in the military starts at ~.75 and goes up from there, so chances are, they'll still be taking orders from a Tuniit.


    I had more thoughts, but I figured I should hold off until we see if this idea's popular.
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    For one, only Tuniit are allowed to be actually married. Second, the pair can choose humans to join the family as part of a... I suppose the best term I can think of is 'harem', but it's not quite accurate.
    A better term might be "good-sibling". So a Tuniit woman would call a human woman taken into the family "good-sister", while the man would call any human male "good-brother". It could also be a way of showing affection to those who are not close blood relatives.

    Do we want to do the idea of "No orphans among the Tuniit." where orphaned children are adopted into any family that can take them in? It doesn't fit well with the infanticide of human children, but it's always a fun cultural thing in my opinion.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mith View Post
    A better term might be "good-sibling". So a Tuniit woman would call a human woman taken into the family "good-sister", while the man would call any human male "good-brother". It could also be a way of showing affection to those who are not close blood relatives.

    Do we want to do the idea of "No orphans among the Tuniit." where orphaned children are adopted into any family that can take them in? It doesn't fit well with the infanticide of human children, but it's always a fun cultural thing in my opinion.
    I dunno, there would be way more fooling around than with siblings. I been pondering this one a bit, and I'm starting to think it would probably require a whole separate set of terms. You'd need terms for the male tuniit to refer to the female humans, for the human females to refer to the male tuniit, for the female humans to refer to the female tuniit, for the female tuniit to refer to the female humans, for the male humans to refer to the male tuniit, for the male tuniit to refer to the male humans, for the male humans to refer to the female tuniit, for the female tuniit to refer to the male humans, and then you'd need words for the humans to refer to each other, within the gender and to the other gender.

    I imagine orphaned tuniit children could be adopted, as all tuniit share the distant ancestor and so there's a bond there. Maybe human children among tuniit families could be subtly given away to be cared for by human neighbors? I dunno, it's possible.

    One important thing to consider is how urbanized are we going to be able to make the tuniit? I mean, they obviously need some centralization if we want them to be a major force in the world, and there would have to be specialization if we want them to have iron, schools, and scribes...
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    Caribbean

    Pirates
    Stopping the British from taking over Nassau shouldn't be too hard. Historically the British appointed a captain named Woodes Rogers as governor of Nassau in 1718 and he cleaned the place up. Rogers issued an offer for official pardon for piracy. Stede Bonnet, an associate of Blackbeard, accepted a pardon from the governor of North Carolina. Blackbeard betrayed Bonnet and some of his other men, sailed north and accepted a pardon in North Carolina. Bonnet started privateering but was later captured by a ship hunting for pirates sanctioned by the South Carolina governor.
    Blackbeard, after receiving his pardon met with several other notorious pirates, the governor of Virginia became nervous and he was hunted down and killed.

    So what if Blackbeard, Bonnet and various other famous pirates all accept the pardon by Woodes Rogers? They stay and live in Nassau and start privateering for the British crown. Woodes Rogers used his private money to finance building fortifications in Nassau and the rest of New Providence Island but after the War of the Quadruple Alliance ended the British didn't back him financially and he left for England in 1721 where he was imprisoned and a new governor for the Bahamas was appointed (this is historical, only he came back for a second term).
    Let's have the man that becomes the next governor (historical: George Phenney) be a total pushover. The pirates use their money to constantly undermine him until he allows them to form an 'advisoral parliament', basically reinstating the Pirate's Republic under British rule. When George Phenney's term ends (left or died, can't find any information) the British send a new governor who finds a hollowed out seat of authority without real power. Eventually the British just give up and appoint the leader of the 'advisoral parliament' to be the new governor. At that time it is Blackbeard.
    After that we can do whatever we want.
    Remember though that this is going to be a fully democratic government composed of pirate captains. Those captains are elected by their crews, even africans can become captains.

    If the pirates from the golden age are dead or old we are going to need some new famous pirates. Maybe children from famous pirates? Or we can make up some fun and badass people.

    Right hand of the Forerunner
    The way it works according to legend is pretty simple: if the fingers are open it's going to be a good harvest, closed means a bad harvest. Augury is a good fit for this. Maybe the person using the Hand would need to read the fingers as well?
    A curved index finger might mean that it's going to be a good year but a hurricane will destroy the fields. Things like that, it's an augury spell but because this is an acient holy artifact a skilled user can use the hand to get more information.

    Oh, and the Knights also have two other artifacts, the Icon of Our Lady of Philermos and a Splinter of the True Cross.
    I have an idea for the Icon: it's the source of the light spell on the sails and tunics of the Knights. They use the Icon in the weavery where they weave cotton into sails. Historically cotton wasn't used for sails in 1750 yet, but the Knigths use it because of the fact that cotton grown in Vespuccia is able to produce a better magical effect than the linen sails used by all other shipbuilders.
    That's why they're the only ones using cotton sails and that's why they alone have the Maltese Cross light.
    Can't think of anything for the Splinter yet.

    Tuniitaq

    Family structure
    I didn't mean for the female Tuniit's only function to be breeder. They are the politicians and the priests, the leaders of the Tuniit, the scientists and leading arcanists, probably the Merchants as well. Maybe they are the blacksmiths that control the iron?
    The male Tuniit's only function is to provide food, all the other things are being arranged by the women.
    This would change the pre-emancipation sentence of 'stay in the kitchen and leave the thinking to me' into something like 'Just go hunting, i'll do the thinking.'
    We could also give Tuniit women an easier pregnancy than Human women. They barely notice it, don't get much rounder and give birth rather easily. Especially if the father is a human.

    The more i think about it, the more i like what i previously posted.
    Tuniit females in control of the whole political, religious, magical and economical structure of the north.
    Just below them high ranking human females (army captains, arcanists, valuable craftswomen)
    Below them Tuniit males, they should just hunt and shut up but in the end they still have the blood of the ancestor and each Tuniit male marries a Tuniit woman.
    Below them the lower ranking human females: common soldiers, low ranking arcanists,...
    And at the bottom there's the human males, they marry a Tuniit female and do the housework there. They also need to help the Tuniit woman spread the blood of the ancestor.

    The Tuniit want the humans to breed among themselves and if a Tuniit gives birth to a full human they just hand over the child to be raised by humans. While the Tuniit are the ones in control, the humans are actually a large part of the reason they dominate the north. Their female Janissaries are warriors feared all over the continent, especially when assisted by Tuniit hunters. Human farmers provide the bulk of the food supply.
    Tuniit females gather in a large council in wich high ranking human females are allowed as well.

    That gives us a very distinct and different form of society than anything else we already have. Plus it's different from societies you often see in campaign settings. It's a nice contrast to the male dominated european societies. I also think that polyandry is a much more interesting take than just a double marriage or even a human harem.
    And it gives us my precious female janissaries

  28. - Top - End - #478
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    I am still curious how we can justify a large female army with the fact that there is still a need for women to have children.

    Maybe the problem is more that I am picturing a recruitment where the women serve in the military from a young age continuously, which limits the number of women that are having children. That's not a problem in modern times since we frankly have too many people, but back then, that would be a problem.

  29. - Top - End - #479
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mith View Post
    I am still curious how we can justify a large female army with the fact that there is still a need for women to have children.

    Maybe the problem is more that I am picturing a recruitment where the women serve in the military from a young age continuously, which limits the number of women that are having children. That's not a problem in modern times since we frankly have too many people, but back then, that would be a problem.
    If every single human woman is recruited into a military group at a young age, that means there's more than enough of them for pregnancies to happen in between the fighting. And i think they would have a large following of human males to do the cooking and other stuff for the female army, so there's plenty of time to get pregnant as well.

  30. - Top - End - #480
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

    Pirates

    Timeline
    Hmm... Well, I must say I definitely like all the research you've done, very helpful, and I'm glad you shared.
    On one hand, this proposal is very solid, it seems straightforward and historically plausible.
    But on the other, I can't help but think that it would be a bit cooler if the island were to just be entirely independent. No veneer of civility, no undermined officials that lend legitimacy, nothin'. Just a straight-up pirate cove, held free of imperial control.

    The only problem is how would that happen in a plausible way?

    Leadership
    No matter which version we settle on, I don't know about this council thing. I can't help but think we have a lot of places where leadership consists of a council of relatively equal leaders. I think we should have a pirate king, namely Blackbeard. If only because he's got the best name recognition, and had a very large crew at the time.

    Nassau
    Looked into this a bit. Apparently the island itself is and was called New Providence, Nassau is the name of the city. Which might be changed in this timeline.

    In the lawless idea, I'm thinking that rather than accept a pardon, Blackbeard returns to New Providence with his his flotilla. It's a little hard to keep track of numbers, but I think at this point we're looking at Revenge, Queen Anne's Revenge, Adventure, a 'small turtler', and I believe it was six sloops in total. The last crew count I can find is for Revenge and a sloop, with 350 men between them. If the numbers follow that pattern, the full crew of a flotilla of this size is ~1400.
    Anyways, he convinces his crew that accepting the pardon isn't an option, perhaps by lying to them and saying that the offer of immunity doesn't extend far enough back to save them from the gallows. It starts with just saying they're gonna lay low for a bit, take a few months to relax on the island. Even if my crew estimate is waaaaaay too high, it's still a massive influx of pirates into the local, very small, permanent population, which creates serious strain on the existing infrastructure. So Blackbeard has his crew build it up as they go (No point in laying low if we're all gonna starve before it's over). Perhaps one or more of the ships are crippled, and the captain lets them run it aground and disassemble it to provide materials (Not doing much good anyways). Then once the momentum gets going, he starts building it up further and further, perhaps setting up some guard towers (in case the fleet comes lookin' for them). Other pirates are now coming in to take advantage of the hideaway. Soon the hideaway is a bustling little outlaw port, with it's own miniature navy (Blackbeard's remaining flotilla), defensive structures, taverns, shops, traders... It's a no-questions-asked kinda place, so they could get shady traders from all across the Caribbean. Blackbeard eventually transitions from a pirate that rarely sails to a governor that leaves occasionally.

    New Pirates
    I don't want new pirates to just be the last generation's kids. It's possible that one or two of those might exist, but for the most part, I would like the big names to be all new. Which will be all kinds of fun, building new NPCs.

    Knights

    Right Hand of the Forerunner
    Hmm... Perhaps you can propose a specific plan of action and the positions of the various fingers will give very accurate, but limited, information about the result.
    Extended is a positive, curled is a negative, and halfway is mixed.
    The thumb relates to thought and willpower. A positive response indicates the knights are smart enough and have the willpower to complete the plan.
    The index relates to guidance and leadership. A positive response indicates the leadership of the knights is capable enough to handle it.
    The middle finger relates to obedience. A positive result indicates the knights themselves can follow through and remain unified.
    The ring finger relates to love. A positive result indicates the knight's plan will gain new allies or fortify old relationships.
    The pinky relates to promises and communication. A positive result indicates the knights can obey and

    Other artifacts
    I will definitely have to research these, but I can't see a reason the icon would be involved in the weaving of cotton with my initial research.

    Tuniitaq
    Gah, this such a decision! They're both awesome! Either one would be able to make tuniitaq into a really, really interesting and distinct area, totally unique from other regions.

    Sasquatches
    So. Been workin' on these guys lately, I have the base culture and a hand-written version of the mountain culture done, and I'm planning to edit the sasu qua'che a bit into the new culture format. However, looking at the race... I realized a bit of a problem in the last ability. For one, the specialization toward one terrain shouldn't be a racial thing, no one kind of sasquatch is physically or mentally different, if they did have a specialization toward one terrain or another, it would have to be cultural.
    So I've been thinking about possible changes to the race, and I'm sort of wish-washing between the various combinations of options, so I thought I would get some input from the thread.
    Spoiler: Sasquatch trait ideas
    Show

    BASE TRAITS (12 RP)
    • +4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence Sasquatches are extremely strong and tough, but they simply aren’t as clever as the average human.
    • Monstrous Humanoid Sasquatches are Monstrous Humanoids.
    • Medium Size Sasquatches are medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties based on size.
    • Darkvision Sasquatches can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
    • Natural Armor Sasquatches have a +1 natural armor bonus to armor class, due to their tough skin and dense fur.
    • Bite Sasquatches have a natural bite attack that deals 1d6 points of damage. This bite is a secondary attack.


    POSSIBLE TRAITS
    Dense Fur (Net 2 RP, replacing natural armor) Sasquaches have dense fur that protects them against both attacks and the environment. They gain a +2 natural armor bonus to armor class, and a +4 racial bonus to fortitude saves and constitution checks to resist the effects of harsh weather.

    Musk (2 RP?) Sasquatches have a powerful musk they can release in dangerous situations. As a swift action a number of times per day equal to their constitution modifier, they can release musk into their fur. All creatures within 15 feet must make a fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ the sasquatch’s hit die + their constitution modifier) or be sickened for 5 rounds. Any creature that hits the sasquatch with a bite attack is nauseated for one round with no saving throw. Creatures that successfully save against this effect cannot be sickened by the sasquatch’s musk for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell or similar effect removes the effect from the sickened creature. This is a poison effect. The musk lingers for up to one hour after use, but this duration can be ended early by spending one minute washing.

    Climb (2 RP) Sasquatches are adept climbers. They gain a climb speed of 20 feet, which grants a +8 racial bonus to climb checks.

    Healthy (2 RP) Sasquatches are naturally resistant to diseases and poisons. They gain a +4 racial bonus to fortitude saves against disease and poison effects.

    Wild-Walker (2? RP) Sasquatches can stride though wild places with ease. Sasquatches can move at their normal speed over natural difficult terrain.

    Stealthy (2 RP) Sasquatches are naturally talented at avoiding notice. They gain a +2 racial bonus to stealth checks.

    Mighty (4 RP) Strength bonus bumped up to +6

    GOAL:
    <20 RP
    My Homebrew
    Five-time champion of the GITP monster competition!

    Current Projects:
    Crossroads: the New World: A pathfinder campaign setting about an alternate history of North America, where five empire collide in a magical land full of potential. On the road to publication!

    Epic Avatar and Sigitar by AlterForm
    Spoiler
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