The First Tribes

Game Master shrodingerscat

Oh! Oh! Can we start posting tribe ideas now? That'd be fun!

Anthony- i just added that on the fly. Seemed appropriate, but would not be surprised if it has been done before. I was thinking of tooth fairies and limited but durable skeleton bits. Teeth are harder to destroy, can be used as tools (and weapons for larger predatory teeth), etc. Humans have 2 sets they grow, so everyone has at least the wealth of their baby teeth. Some even gain the luxury of wisdom teeth. Etc

Cool, more power to ya :)

That said I just gotta paste the bit im refering to, just cuz its funny.

Currency

Orks use their teeth as currency. This is quite a natural solution to inflation and income support, as Orks go through teeth in a similar manner to sharks, replacing them quite frequently, and Ork teeth do degrade over time, so it is impossible to hoard them. This keeps prices constant, ensures all Orks have at least some access to money, and allows constant values to be placed on commodities. A toof will buy a good Squig pie and a tankard of fungus beer, while a bag of teef will buy a cheap buggy. A big flashy battlewagon could cost a warboss hundreds of teef. This system also supports aggression, as all an Ork needs to make more money is to knock teef out of another Ork's head and then collect them for himself.

Man I love Orks.

Would love to do the Owl people from the Inner sea beastiary, or tengu. Think the Owl People be a race of burgeoning sorcerers and oracles, eventually developing an empire of magical might. As for the Tengu I see them as sea farers? may be establish them selves as merchant swordsmen and masters of deception?

I would like to do Driders as a race that adheres to the more primal side of nature. In the beginning, I see many of them as being druids (especially feral, if allowed), witches, rangers, and fighters (with maybe a few anti-paladins). Familiars and animal companions are often vermin, and alchemy is a common profession, while scholarly pursuits (at least at first) are a bit harder to come by.

Their society will be very 'look out for everyone,' in a way, similar to social spiders. I see them as building their houses from up to down in outcroppings (overhead or otherwise), along waterfalls, or in trees and caves.

Their leadership is a combination of strength and legacy, with anyone able to try to be a leader, but the leaders are usually people considered higher up in society. Leadership would be for life, or until you ticked enough people off that they all revolted and ripped off your head and consumed your body (the only proper way to deal with someone who has betrayed you, obviously). Leadership is generally an unspoken agreement of the colony or quickly decided in mass gatherings, but may come down to challenges that often result in someone dying.

I have some ideas for how they choose the acquisition of territory and diplomatic relationships, but don't really want to go into that, as for all I know I may actually make the sign-ups in time.

I could see them following a few possible deity ideas, such as a deity of poison and medicine. Probably a spider god somewhere in there, but that may not be their main deity.

Sea Faring Dwarves - "Tonn Sealgaire" - Based around an island chain. They are a reaver / trader culture, not dissimilar to the Vikings, but with a more Celtic feel to their background, beliefs and naming structure.

Male Names - Bruan (Brew-awn), Culic (Kul-uck), Fion (Fee-un), Garon (Gar-own).

Female Names - Aobhin (A-veen), Doirean (Deer-in), Eilish (Isle-ish), Sibh (Sigh-v).

The most usual player classes found amongst the "Tonn Laochra", or the adventuring part of the tribe, are Barbarians, Aquatic Druids and Bard. Amongst the island based part of the tribe, or the "Tonn Teaghlaigh", these classes stretch to include Rangers, Summoners and Witches.

Recruitment will officially begin on Tuesday night around 5pm Pacific time. I will be looking at potential players for that whole week.

Also on tuesday, I'll put up the rules for leader and tribe creation and an outline of how turns will proceed. I'll also go over what I'm looking for more specifically in terms of players.

This thread is in no way closed, so feel to express interest if you haven't already.

I look forward to hearing from all of you again soon.

Neat. Looking forward to it. :)

For preparations sake, should we have tribe concepts fleshed out or a specific character statted out?

I would like to know as well, as I won't be home for another 30 minutes to an hour after the specified start time.

You may want to have a tribe idea and leader, but I'd wait to see the requirements first before you get into too much detail.

Super interested.

Anthony-that is a bit more comically brutal than i envisioned but oretty great. What are the orks from? Other currencies would probably exist too, like shells traded with other tribes, ingots of precious metals, iron tools/weapons from other tribes, glassware, etc.

About how much liberty will you allow us with the various 'tribes'? For instance, would a normally 'all evil' race be allowed in your brand-new world as mostly neutral with some evil?

About how much liberty will you allow us with the various 'tribes'? For instance, would a normally 'all evil' race be allowed in your brand-new world as mostly neutral with some evil?

Good question! My views are that the only creatures that are innately of a particular alignment are the planars. Since we're not really delving into that, I'm going to assume that just like any group of individuals, there's going to be mostly neutrals with a speckling of the other alignments. How the culture develops will be what dictates "racial alignment", ie whether they move towards decadence or utopia.

...and of course they're probably going to lean towards the alignment of their leader...probably.

That's good. Because I've been doing a lot of research (if Driders are on the table, and yes I understand they are a 35rp race and am fine with being level adjusted 2 levels from 1-5 and 1 level from 6-10, as per how page 220 (ARG) seems to imply) and am putting together a 'how these people might survive' for such a tribe. However, I do admit I'm having a hard time putting together a culture, and therefore a general alignment.

So will a lot of that be expected to develop over the course of the game?

Shame you said you had a soft spot for fetchlings. I was thinking of them before I decided to go halfling to show the core races some love.

@Dreamingdragon- if you go fetchling and we both get picked, i can change my trube's climate band to subtropical and we could collaborate on interactions. My tribe reveres spirits so would likely either be on friendly trade terms with yours or else keep them at spear's length, cinsidering them dark, trickster spirits inhabiting men's bodies.

Giants or a Race of my own creation called Tetons.

If I can create my own race Tetons—think of an evolutionary cousin to humans and dwarves. Big. Craftsman. Terrible at and resistant to magic.

@ W Canepa
Good on you for using Cahokia. My fetchlings could do as well in a temperate forest, as long as it was coniferous. Not so many shadows when all the leaves fall. There seems to be a wondrous ability in more ancient mindsets to sustain superstitious dread/awe with complete practicality. I suppose when you think the whole world is full of spirits and magic, you just kind of go ahead with things.
Maybe it's a bit of both. Dark trickster spirits would suit the fetchling flavor perfectly, and they would probably be happiest as spear's length from your guys anyway, but they could have a silent trade going. Your guys leave an offering for the spirits in the afternoon and then return to the village, my guys come and leave something in trade at night. In the morning, you either take our stuff (accepting the offer) or take back some of your stuff to make a counter-offer. We never have to actually lay eyes on each other to have a vibrant trade.

Or, it could be a thing where the tribes meet and trade every full moon. Little do the fetchlings know that the humans think they are spirits of the moon. Little do the humans know that the fetchlings think the humans (with all their death worship) are actually the spirits of the ancestors.

Haven't read the 2nd page over-thoroughly here, may well not be in on this just because I'm busy enough - but Wayangs haven't been claimed yet, have they?

Couple things I'm seeing:

- No or next to no Clerics, Druids, Rangers, or Paladins, but they do have healers - a preponderance of Oracles and Bards.

- Arcane magic will start as a relative strong suit and get stronger - they particularly favor necromancy, illusion, and extradimensional travel, with strong support from their special Shadow Puppeteers.

- They'll be relatively good with Rogues/Ninja/espionage/cloak-and-dagger stuff, too.

- Warriors will be a weaker suit, but their favored approach to that craft will be in the form of Samurai.

- They'll be good sailors - maybe not the best, but good.

- They may well favor guerrilla tactics - such Rangers as they have will tend to also have Rogue levels.

- Even as technology gets better, they'll still favor magic - they won't have too much truck with guns. They may even stay fundamentally hunter-gatherer.

- They're kind of reclusive, but not xenophobic. Their first line of defense is just to mess with people, maybe try very cautiously to find out what they're about. Other races may view them rather the way American urban legends view aliens, especially if there's any evidence of their extraplanar origins.

- They don't view territory and property the way some races might - they may happily let another race wander around their area, only to start wandering around in that other race's area! Their communist-leaning view of property could give some other races fits - especially if those races' lower- and middle-classes start getting ideas....

Note: That last bit doesn't make them Kender - bear in mind that "communism" doesn't actually mean hordes of strangers barging into others' homes and taking their 'stuff'.

@Dreamingdragon- I like both those ideas. Perhaps a blending? We leave each other offerings-food, luxury items, etc. You think we are spirits of the dead and we think you are spirits of the moon (shadows at night). Over time our leaders will get more savvy and we could open up actual communication.

The Tribes of Oru (meaning rebirth) produce early agricultural fare, fish the local rivers and streams, hunt game, forage for berries, mushrooms, nuts, etc., and create crafted items primarily from wood (weapons, art, bowls, wickerware, etc.), bone, flint, as well as early forays into semiprecious stones, claywares, and fabric. And skeletons and zombies. We make those too. :)

I really like the idea of viewing your race as spirits. Sort if like kacjinas, faeries, or the like. Trickster spirits of the moon seem apropos, as it would have to be something we'd revere and be wary of upsetting. I love the idea of meeting 1/month on the full moon.

Anthony-that is a bit more comically brutal than i envisioned but oretty great. What are the orks from?

Warhammer 40000, its a miniatures war game.

@ W Canepa
In keeping with their spirit nature, the fetchlings would likely deal in luxuries and exotic items. Silks and dyes (obviously black) maybe? Darkvision giving them an edge underground, I'm also thinking silver and precious stones.

If they're able to work silver into weapons, then perhaps they evolved in hiding from a tribe of lycanthropes. They eventually learned the secrets of making silver and overthrew their enemies, but their tradition of visiting neighbors during the full moon lives on.

Wayangs and Fetchlings would be natural allies - or rivals. The primary issue is your Fetchlings are talking about living in temperate coniferous forests, whereas I was figuring Wayangs would be based in tropical archipelagos (you know, like Indonesia) - but maybe we don't know each other from the Material Plane. Maybe we use the Plane of Shadow to bypass mundane geography.

The Tribes of Oru actually sound like they could get along well with the Wayangs too.

@dreamingdragon- fighting werewolves is in keeping with the lunar theme too! I wonder if in this world we'll have "cloaks of khayal/fetchlingkind"? :) Also, black and dark earthtone materials, as well as plentiful onyx would be needed by my tribe. I would assume we have *some* onyx veins, but if they are plentiful baubles to you, we could be in very goid business. We would then see our necromantic practices as blessed by the moon spirits! My tribe would have no love for lycanthropes either, being not only a disease but a mockery of druid wildshaping.

@i'm hiding- this tribe would fit as easily in a tropical/subtropical environ as it would a temperate. Temperate was just my initial assumption.

Also, your tribe sounds like they dabble in a lot of cool stuff but what is their cire concept? Sounds like a tribal proto mage/assassin guild.

@shrodingerscat- looking at the blight druid- the archetype does not seem to allow control of undead...if you do not feel like modifying (maybe getting rid of miasma or something for a limited channel only for undead control?), and clerics are nonexistent at game's start, i'll resort to using sorcerers as priests. The priests would focus on necromancy & divination, and be handlers of the warriors (bloody skeletons), farmers/porters (zombies), & general laborers/servants (regular skeletons). Druids would still be defacto leaders, reincarnating through generations.

@ I'm Hiding: In my first post on the fetchlings, I had them in the tropics, and the coniferous forest was simply to say that they could adapt to different geography. I was envisioning a culture something like the Mayan culture for them when they advanced, but SE Asia's temple complexes (Ankgor Wat, Prambanan, etc) could fit the bill nicely. I think bossman is trying to keep things on the material plane for now, but we'd certainly know of each other, unless we were continents apart, since we occupy such similar niches.

@ W Canepa: glad we can help :) and of course, we are ever so grateful for the ancestor warriors you are able to call on to aid us against the lycanthropes. Though you might think of them as skeletons.

I was envisioning a culture something like the Mayan culture for them when they advanced, but SE Asia's temple complexes (Ankgor Wat, Prambanan, etc) could fit the bill nicely.

Hmm...we may need to do a little knife-fight for who gets to be the Angkor Wat people. ^_-

I've always liked the more spectacular Russian architecture, and I've always kind of wanted to combine Russian with Mesoamerican. I daresay whoever can do that will be the first to develop space flight...!

@dreamingdragon-We consider our undead as ancestor spirits for sure. We also animate fallen enemies as laborers and warriors.

To nobody particular-if i go with sorcerers-as-spirit-priests, they will be mummified with honors upon death, to remove them from the rebirth cycle, in the hope of achieving immortality through death (over time the rituals to turn them into mummies is a goal for me).

Considering my tribe are mound builders-we will eventually advance to stone pyramids in an asian/central american feel. We should all be in the same subcontinent for sure.

Maybe my early lead into agriculture and pyramid building influences the course of your tribes a bit? Maybe the wayang's naval power inspires my tribe to build better than just piraguas and canoes? Shallow longboats could follow with all our timber.

If we're all interconnected, there's no particular reason we wouldn't have similar architecture. If W Canepa's mound builders are involved, we would probably develop in a more mesoamerican direction (with or without onion domes) though there's no reason we can't have both. If the wayang are coastal seafaring sorts, there's no conflict with the fetchlings, who live deep in the interior, in the hills.

I still want the wheel and eventual metallurgy beyond jewelry and crafts. :)

@i'm hiding-we'd probably see your people as shadow spirits too. Perhaps the veil between the material plane and plane of shadow are thinner in this region.

I like the flavor-tropical island chain of the coast of tropical/suptropucal subcontinent +likely bordered inland by mountains and lakes), with a human death cult culture, 2 shadowy races, and dangerous lycanthropes.

Other nocturnal/moon-themed creatures would be apropriate, as would fey creatures (with a jungley slant), nagas, undead, etc.

Sorry for posting so much-just had an idea! As humans obsessed with ancestor spirits and longevity through undeath, and led by druids that tend to reincarnate...perhaps we have a smattering of samsarans (or create the first if no one else claims the race) as a result?

Realized my initial concept was centered more around where they would end up being and not where they would start.

Im thinking the dragons have been a part of their culture from the very beginning. As a race they were content to live in the forest like your classic elf, not even giving much thought to arcane magic like they usually do.

An especially clever blue dragon (changed the dragon type since Reds are chaotic evil and dont usually have the self control for what im thinking of) saw their potential and decided she would take them for her own, the opportunity to truly build a nation as see saw fit too much of a temptation.

She would do this from behind the scenes, pushing them towards magical and technological advancement. With their natural intelligence this would come easy to them.

At some point she introduces her children into the mix, starting the tradition of emperors taking her daughters for their wife. Naturally behind it all, these daughters are the true rulers, and she rules through them.

Draconic influence, even if covert at first, fosters an arrogance beyond even that of classic elves. They think themselves superior in every way, viewing their neighbours as being beneath them to the point where they will not have any relations with them. Only their hidden queen can make them deal with outsiders, usually because they have something she wants.

Expansionism will only become a part of their culture later, although if their neighbours prove weak they will not hessitate to take their lands for their own, their people for slaves.

So...Lawful Evil Elves. Anyone on board to lead Chaotic Good Drow?

If the wayang are coastal seafaring sorts, there's no conflict with the fetchlings, who live deep in the interior, in the hills.

Not so much "coastal" as "islanders" - perhaps even a Polynesian element. "Coastal" sort of implies you have a choice of living inland. Fetchlings could live on the mainland, Wayangs among the archipelago, mound-builders in-between.

Hypothetically, imagine: unknown lands=> mountains=> forests with rivers and lakes=> wooded river valley with my mound city => more subtropical forests=> tropical forests with fetchlings => tropical swamps & coast=> ocean/archipelego with wayangs. Not necessarily a linear progression, but I imagine my lands to be landlocked except for rivers and lakes.

Running behind on some other stuff, folks. My apologies, but I'm going to have to push back recruitment till tomorrow.

I'm really psyched about all your interest though, so keep it coming.

I think Anthony Krast has the right idea.
Think about where you'd like to go, but don't get too tied down to it. You may find in the midst there is another way. You want to have goals to work towards, and that is part of the fun of developing the culture in a more literary/storytelling way.

A few things to think about...
only the leader will have an adventuring class (at least to start)
and will be chosen from:
Fighter
Ranger
Barbarian
Oracle
Druid
Sorcerer
Rogue
Bard

Also, for the most part, I think everyone should be starting in hunter/gatherer stage...although there will be more on that later.

Thank you all for your patience.

Is it a first come, first serve basis, or will you be picking from those that sign up based on their idea?

It will by no means be first come first serve. I'll be selecting.

Oh, Thank you. It sounded like that was the kind of GM you were and where you were going with it, but I wanted to confirm, since I know there'd be no way I'd make it home in time otherwise.

I'm very glad I didn't miss the deadline on this! It looks like a lot of fun. I'm imagining a Samsaran nation that lends itself to diplomacy with an Oracle leader. A leader for 850 years, who in that time could possibly become a level 20 Oracle of Time, so he stops aging sounds like it might be interesting to see if he gets stuck in his ways, or can develop along with his people ;)

Can our starting leaders be Archetypes thereof? Mine would probably be a Shadow Puppeteer/Dirge Bard.

Is the Ifrit nation an option? If you don't like the idea of Ifrits being degenerate efreeti, we can always have the old "drunk genie visits the mortal plane and finds women, the result the rise of the Ifrit."

@Viluki - there could potentially be an ifrit nation...however, at the initial and early stages, for all "we" know, there are no other planes.

@I'mHiding - there would be no connection to the shadow, as it may or may not exist (yet?)

Idea for the Ifrit nation's rise. Originally the Ifrits empire is a human one that has a "concurence" with the plane of fire. The result planar influenced children, and this is not just isolated births either half of all births are Ifrits, as the "concurrence" is practically a gate to the elemental plain of fire, resulting in strange weather conditions like "fire tornados".

Actually, I'm thinking about sorta 'merging' the Dwarves and the Oreads. Like, instead of Oreads being humanoids with Earth elemental blood in them, they'd just be people made of stone and rock. But I'd be likely to stick to stats for Dwarves, and just use some of the Oread fluff.

Like, they'd have sprung to life as the protectors of some kind of sacred mountain, tasked only with defending it from encroaching enemies (goblinoids, giants or orcs, maybe? I could possibly do dragons, instead, but that would put me at odds with the dragon-based races, which seem to be not entirely uncommon) and eventually grew into a full race in their own right. They still protect their mountainhomes (on the mountains, instead of beneath them) but they have other goals now, too.

I have some ideas for the leader, too, but those will stay under lock and key for now. ;)

@I'mHiding - there would be no connection to the shadow, as it may or may not exist (yet?)

That doesn't shut down shadow magic, does it? Wayangs aren't much without that....

Few questions:
Is there a format we should follow for tribe entries?
What is largest population/geographic spread allowed?
What level is our leader? Point buy and starting wealth?
What is the tech level cap (stone age, iron age)?
Is nomadism required, or are tribes with plentiful food resources able to be settled?
How far into agrarian experimentation?
Any restrictions on existing spells, feats, etc.?
Any major/notable house rules?
Currency?
The known world?
Etc.

@ schrodinger: Take your time. This is a brilliant idea and I'd like to see you get it done.