The New World Revisited

[Caewil]

Upon reading Rich Burlew's New World articles (sadly never completed), I was inspired to create my own world with realistic geography, interesting politics and so forth. It took several years to get around to actually drawing a map but I finally did it.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9162/principalityterrain.jpg

Going on to purpose and style, the features of the map strongly support naval trade and the mountains make blitzkrieg style conquests difficult on the northern part of the map - Unless teleportation magic exists. Since I dislike high magic settings, this shouldn't be a problem. I do however like psionics - they can work with some of the more troublesome powers removed.

I'd like differences to be more political, ideological and arbitrarily religious than alignment based. It means there'll be a lot more factions for players to fight. Plus, without divine guidance, players can decide right and wrong on their own without being mechanically penalised. Maybe adopt a more flexible "code of conduct" for classes with alignment restrictions.

Next up are the races. I don't want more than three main races since I'd prefer for the main differences between nations to be political rather than racial. Humans and dwarves are similar and typically work well together in other fantasy settings. For the sake of familiarity, I'll keep them in.

For the third race, I want something unique. Since psionics are in, Yuan-Ti make an interesting choice if they can be homebrewed not to have any LA. Making their serpent form ability a psionic power which costs PP with some stat adjustments sounds right. We'll come back to them later for added flavour.

Now to throw in some cities in good locations. So far, I've noted down only the largest and most influential cities with their primary species or mix of species - because it is at this stage that I want your opinions.

Key: Dwarves Humans Yuan-Ti

Politics

1. How did these cities get established?
2. What territories do they control?
3. If more than one major city is present in a state, (I originally intended for them to be the capitols of different states) why are they allied rather than rivals.
4. How are they administered? As republics, aristocracies, monarchies or a mix?

Culture & Religion

1. What makes the Yuan-Ti different from the humans and dwarves but not in a way that is stereotypically evil? I'd like for players to sympathize with them while thinking them somewhat weird.
2. Given the lack of evidence for gods, what are the major religions? Are some monotheistic like the Abrahamic religions, polytheistic like the ancient greeks and modern hindus, philosophical ideas like those of Buddhism and Taoism or some weird mix?
3. Which religions are pacifistic/aggressive?
4. Culturally important monuments and their locations/purposes. (eg. Pyramids, the Angkor Wat temple, the Parthenon)
5. Extinct cultures if any and what made them extinct.

Economics

1. Which states mint their own coins and which use other currencies for trade between each other? Is there a common monetary standard?
2. Do banks exist, willing to lend money and guarantee loans (state run or otherwise)? If so, has this progressed to the stage of exchange notes/paper money?
3. Do certain cities have preferential access to rare/valuable resources and what are they?
4. Ideas on the effects of low level psionic powers on an economy.

Technology

Since I'd like this to be a naval and intrigue heavy area, early renaissance appeals to me. From there:

1. Do gunpowder weapons or some other form of easily usable ranged weapons exist? What are their strengths and limitations?
2. Communications over long distances, limited or otherwise?
3. Effects of psionics on warfare.
4. Ships and creatively interesting propulsion systems or the traditional sails? Giant turtles? Wall of flame heating a boiler?

After I drew the map, I provisionally shaded in state boundaries. Probably not final, but just a general idea. After establishing the general form of this, which area would be the most interesting to start a campaign in?

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/944/principalitystates2.jpg

[Caewil]

reserved for reservation purposes

[KingGolem]

You know, I think it would have been better if YOU had tried to answer these questions yourself before asking us. I'm not trying to insult you or anything, but you didn't give us a whole lot to go on. At any rate, I'll give you a few of my ideas:

Politics
1. How did these cities get established?
Same as always, right? I imagine that some of them might have been situated around fertile land/rich minerals when the humans and dwarves (respectively, if you so choose; whose to say humans can't mine, or dwarves can't farm?) discovered agriculture and/or mining. There's also the trade to think of, for whenever an area is heavily trafficked some clever chap will set up a tavern there, and so will some other guy, and then a blacksmith will set up shop to re-shoe horses, and a carpenter to build more buildings, and so forth.

2. What territories do they control?
I should think that the dwarves get the mountains, the yuan-ti get swamps, forests, and out of the way places, and humans get the other stuff. But do mix it up; humans can have some mountains, dwarves can have some forests, and yuan-ti can live in some coastal trade cities on occasion.

3. If more than one major city is present in a state, (I originally intended for them to be the capitols of different states) why are they allied rather than rivals.
Trade seems to be the most logical reason. The dwarves want barley to brew their beer, and the humans want iron to make tools, so they trade. Yuan-ti probably like some alcohol and tools, also, and maybe in exchange they could trade medicine or something? Being around snakes all the time and not being immune to poison probably warrants some decent medical knowledge. They also seemed to be psionically inclined, so maybe they sell their skills as psions to send telepathic messages, predict good weather, divine underground aquifers and mineral deposits, and other neat stuff like that. Of course, there would also be a few states who like to throw their weight around, and instead of trading for goods, they just go conquer or threaten whoever has them and take them.

4. How are they administered? As republics, aristocracies, monarchies or a mix?
Well, tendencies towards different forms of government generally vary with different cultures, right? Of course, I think you should have a mix. There could be some dwarves who still follow the ancient tradition of monarchy, and some who moved on to democracy. Some states (humans, I think) could have their king/senate so full of corruption and intrigue as to render the powerful merchant families the de facto rulers. Another idea, since I tend to think of the yuan-ti as being more primitive and savage, would be to do what happened in Africa, where the primitive culture gets introduced to democracy and they royally screw it up, with the rival political factions going to all out war when their candidate loses. Otherwise, I think the yuan-ti would be some sort of theocracy or a council of elders, or something like that.

Culture & Religion
1. What makes the Yuan-Ti different from the humans and dwarves but not in a way that is stereotypically evil? I'd like for players to sympathize with them while thinking them somewhat weird.
They worship snakes, don't they? Maybe they're super obnoxious about it, always going around saying "All hail Snake-Jesus, or burn in hell!" Also, since there seem to be more than one yuan-ti state, perhaps the Church of Snake-Jesus could have some different "denominations." There could be that one that's intolerant and xenophobic, shunning all non Snake-Christians, but also one that's nicer, and more open, devoted to spreading the word of Snake-Jesus to all the "lesser races." I imagine there would be some friction between the xenophobic Snake-Christians and the tolerant Snake-Christians. Also, since the yuan-ti are not inherently immune to snake venom, perhaps they could do what some hillbilly churches do: dance around with snakes until they get bitten, and if they survive then they are favored by Snake-Jesus. You could do some other unsavory/unpopular stuff, like sacrificing animals or even prisoners of war to Snake-Jesus. They're psionic, too, so work that in somehow. Maybe they believe that trepanning "opens your mind" to Snake-Jesus, giving you nascent psychic powers. Maybe they're right!

2. Given the lack of evidence for gods, what are the major religions? Are some monotheistic like the Abrahamic religions, polytheistic like the ancient greeks and modern hindus, philosophical ideas like those of Buddhism and Taoism or some weird mix?
I figure that since humans and dwarves are so similar that they might as well be evolutionary offshoots, their religion should be kind of similar too, like Christians and Jews. Perhaps humans worship this one god, and dwarves worship him and St. Whatever, who led the dwarves underground during...during the WAR. Since humans, in our world at least, tend towards polytheism, maybe humans could have one big central deity and other places could incorporate local deities, or go all-out pagan. That could sure cause some friction between humans between polytheistic pagans and humans preaching for the One True God. I think that if you're going to have something as trippy as psionics for your plot-juice, it should get a slice of the creed pie too. Maybe there's some sort of psycho-zen meditation philosophy religion that believes that meditation and strict discipline are key for honing the mind for psychic powers. Dont' forget to give the yuan-ti a psychic god, also.

3. Which religions are pacifistic/aggressive?
Of course you have the Abrahamic monotheist people, and we all know what jerks they can be. I think the humans would be the jerks, while the dwarf monotheists, being more defense-oriented and pragmatic, would not join in on the inquisition, but would happily sell them weapons. The cult of Snake-Jesus can have a few aggressive/passive branches as well, where they resort to different means of conversion. The psycho-zen people don't all have to pacifists, despite their inspiration. Perhaps they believe (correctly or otherwise) that psionics are too dangerous to go unregulated, so to prevent rogue psychic from popping up they ride around kidnapping budding psychics and taking them away to train them. Or, on the other hand, they could be a bunch of psychic-elitists, believing they are the master race and all who are not psychic like them have to submit or die.

4. Culturally important monuments and their locations/purposes. (eg. Pyramids, the Angkor Wat temple, the Parthenon)
A few ideas: a big, fancy church and the center of the human monotheists; the first cave explored and colonized by the dwarf St. Whatever; a few fancy towers/temples for the psycho-zen people to live in (and if they're going to be based off eastern philosophy, they'd probably treat legendary psychics like saints or buddhas, worshipping trees they sat under and stuff); the yuan-ti could worship places where snakes gather to breed, and set up some kind of yuan-ti kama-sutra temple right next to it. You know, stuff like that.

5. Extinct cultures if any and what made them extinct.
With a bunch of monotheists running around, I imagine that a few pagans probably got wiped out. Also, I think that as bizzare as the yuan-ti are, they shouldn't have just evolved naturally, and instead should be freaky humans mutated by either Snake-Jesus or the curse of some kind of snake-themed Lovecraftian horror, so maybe they were humans before they turned into hideous snake monsters. I imagine that such a drastic change of physiology and creed would constitute a culture going extinct in favor of a new Snake-Jesus cult.

Economics
1. Which states mint their own coins and which use other currencies for trade between each other? Is there a common monetary standard?
I imagine that if trade is such a big deal, people will mint coins of precious metals in the same general size and value, but by the design on them you can see where they're from, and perhaps the economy of the country of origin could effect the value of the coins. You might could go somewhere out of the way, far from the trade routes (xenophobic yuan-ti cities?) that use some funky bronze coins or something. Some pagans might could not even have currency, and stick to bartering, or just use little bits of precious metals instead of coins.

2. Do banks exist, willing to lend money and guarantee loans (state run or otherwise)? If so, has this progressed to the stage of exchange notes/paper money?
Of course, with all those dwarves running around in what you said would be early Renaissance. I figure that the dwarves would have invented banking, and the humans would pick it up. Paper money doesn't suit the D&D feel very well, in my opinion, but bank notes are probably ok. You could get a bank note as payment for something, and by taking it to a participating bank you could exchange it for X amount of gold coins or goods.

3. Do certain cities have preferential access to rare/valuable resources and what are they?
I said a little while back how dwarves want barley to make beer and humans want iron to make tools, so I'm thinking humans have agricultural products and dwarves have mineral wealth. Maybe the yuan-ti are the least agricultural and urbanized, so they could export lumber from all the forests they haven't been cutting down.

4. Ideas on the effects of low level psionic powers on an economy.
I figure that psions could go around reading people's minds to find out the combination to their safe, or some juicy secret to blackmail them with. In other words, a merchant with a psion buddy would have a pretty good advantage over the other merchants. This could become a real problem in some places, with con-artists running rampant. Enter the thought police; those psycho-zen people could work with the bankers to find and stop psychic con-artists. Also, I mentioned a couple of times how psychic powers could be used honestly, such as sending messages telepathically, predicting the weather, divining mineral deposits, and stuff like that.

Technology
Since I'd like this to be a naval and intrigue heavy area, early renaissance appeals to me. From there:
1. Do gunpowder weapons or some other form of easily usable ranged weapons exist? What are their strengths and limitations?
That's up to you, really. If you want the flavor of gunpowder weapons but not the campaign destroying consequences, you could do how this one guy around here did, where the gunpowder they use leaves such a thick residue on the barrel that it must be scraped out between each shot. The benefits are two-fold: one, it lengthens the time between shots to such an extent that it becomes impractical to reload in combat, so players will shoot once and either reach for another loaded gun or their sword, and two, it prevents rifles from being invented, because only short-barreled weapons like pistols or wide-barreled weapons like cannons can be feasibly scraped out. I for one think its a very elegant solution.

2. Communications over long distances, limited or otherwise?
I figure you should stick to the messenger on a horse or the carrier pigeon most of the time, but there could be a few other methods as well. Maybe the dwarves could build some semaphores up in the mountains? The psychics could be useful, too, for they could charge to send a telepathic message either directly to who you want to talk to, or if you don't want to freak them out, they could message another psychic in the village where your recipient lives, transcribe the message, and deliver it to the recipient.

3. Effects of psionics on warfare.
It would probably be a lot like how magic works in the traditional D&D setting, where powerful psions use their power to support the other soldiers. It's also a lot more useful for espionage, since a psion could spy on YOUR BRAIN. I imagine generals would be super paranoid and always have a psion or two nearby to detect psychic spies and to protect their thoughts from intrusion.

4. Ships and creatively interesting propulsion systems or the traditional sails? Giant turtles? Wall of flame heating a boiler?
I figure that the traditional sails work pretty well for most applications. The yuan-ti and other psychic people, however, could create ships with a paddlewheel that the passengers turn with their psychic powers, like psychic oarsmen. The dwarves don't have a lot of trees up in the mountains, nor do they have many ways to get to the ocean, so they would probably be the least nautical race. They might could make up for it by inventing steam powered ships, but if its just early Renaissance technology they'd have to suck. Or, maybe the steamboats could be for river travel, bringing goods from port cities at the mouth of rivers up the river and back into dwarven lands? Sounds good to me. Another random idea; maybe the yuan-ti could breed and mind control giant sea serpents to tow their ships?



Ooh, that was a lot of typing, but I enjoyed it. Now it's your turn. Read this noisome thought-dump and get some of your own ideas.