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In my homebrew setting I'm making a handful of human races and a couple small races that will replace all races normally available in Pathfinder. This is important.
In my setting there is no Human race. Instead, there are different cultures of humans, and the races I'm making represent this (Westerlings, Reavers, Aldonians, Caernlings, Muckers). Likewise, there is a race called the Lani which has a few subraces that are chosen (Garlani, Brelani). Finally, I'm making two half-breed races (Jotunkin and an unnamed Human/Lani mixed race) and might allow a specific kind of tiefling in this game.
Anyway, onto the meat of the matter: I've finished a couple of these races and would love to have them critiqued, as well as the RP scores checked. I compared these to existing abilities from the race creation rules as best I could, or to abilities that a given race possessed that replaced another race. Hopefully I did good.
The races I'd like reviewed so far are the Westerlings and the Reavers. I'm trying to give all the races I'm designing 9-11 RP.
For curious parties, here's a link to the map. If you want to see the Google Document I'm storing this information on, click here.
The first Westerlings first crossed from the west into what would eventually become Abagon approximately four hundred years ago. At that time they were a nomadic horse-riding people, but soon they settled in the plains and hills of that territory and made it their home. Since then, their honor-driven culture has evolved into bold knightly traditions, and they are the pinnacle of chivalric ideals in the Greater Aldonian region.
Westerlings are not especially tall, but they nevertheless tend to have strong, athletic builds and handsome faces. They are typically dark skinned, ranging from a nutty brown to a coal black, but there are exceptions to this rule: some who boast a proud Westerling upbringing may possess Reaver or Caernling blood. Westerlings usually have black hair and dark brown eyes, but there are some who have golden or amber-colored eyes. They are considered very attractive.
Westerlings call Abagon, north and south, home. They also have a small population in Carisse and small populations in Beldemar and Grunmark.
Defense Racial Traits:
Lucky - Westerlings are favored by Lady Luck. They gain a +1 racial bonus to all saving throws. (2 RP)
Feat and Skill Racial Traits:
Skilled - Westerlings are fast adapters that learn new skills quickly. Westerlings gain an additional skill rank at 1st level and one additional skill rank whenever they gain a level. (4 RP)
Saddleborn - Westerlings are said to have been born in the saddle. They gain a +1 bonus to Handle Animal and Ride checks. (1 RP)
Emissary - Westerlings are well versed in courtly behavior and in the customs of foreign lands. Once per day, Westerlings can roll twice when making a Bluff or Diplomacy check and take the better roll. (1 RP)
Movement Racial Traits:
Knightly Charge - Westerling knights are known to be able to urge their steeds to furious speeds. When mounted, Westerlings grant their mounts a +10 racial bonus to their speed when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions. (1 RP)
Offense Racial Traits:
Hatred - Westerlings have fought many battles against beastmen and harbor a special hatred for them. They receive a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls against gnolls and lizardfolk. (1 RP)
Alternate Racial Traits:
Shield Expertise - Some Westerlings are experts at using their shields to deflect both weapons and magical spells. They gain Shield Focus as a bonus feat. Additionally, when wielding a shield they gain a +2 racial bonus to AC versus Rays and can deflect a single ray attack once per day as if they were using the Deflect Arrows feat. This racial trait replaces Skilled. (4 RP)
Heroic - True Westerlings hold knightly values to be true and pursue the hero’s path, but some are born with a more heroic destiny than others. Westerlings with this trait gain 2 hero points instead of 1 each time they gain a level. If they take the Blood of Heroes feat, they gain 3 hero points each level instead of 2. This racial trait replaces Skilled. (4 RP)
Eye for Talent - Westerlings have great intuition for hidden potential. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Sense Motive checks. In addition, when they acquire an animal companion, bonded mount, cohort, or familiar, that creature gains a +2 bonus to one ability score of the character’s choice. This racial trait replaces Skilled. (4 RP)
Reavers hail from the north-western continent and are the chief populace of Grunmark. They are a hardy people with a history of raiding foreign shores and sailing the seas. They once ruled a vast territory stretching up along the Northsea, but when Jotun invaded from the north they stole from the Reavers the region now known as Jotunheimr. Since then the Reavers have fought a long and bloody conflict with the Jotun to maintain a grip on their present lands.
Reavers tend to be tall and broad of shoulder. They typically pale skin, green or blue eyes, and hair colors ranging from brown to blonde to red. However, as a seafaring culture the Reavers have had contact with most of the other races in the region, and have especially had much contact with the Aldonians and Westerlings. Indeed, there are sizeable pockets of Westerlings living within their lands. As such dark skinned or black haired Reavers are not unheard of.
Reaver culture can be found in most shore settlements, but is most common in Grunmark, Northern Abagon, and New Aldonia.
Defense Racial Traits:
Fearless - Reavers are fearless warriors and gain a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws against fear effects. (1 RP)
Feat and Skill Racial Traits:
Tough - Reavers experience hardship throughout their lives. They gain Toughness as a bonus feat. (2 RP)
Movement Racial Traits:
Natural Swimmer - Reavers have a +3 racial bonus to Swim. (1 RP)
Offense Racial Traits:
Ferocity - Reavers fight to the death. If the Reaver’s hit points fall below 0 but the Reaver is not yet dead, the Reaver can continue to fight. If they do, they are staggered, and lose 1 hit point each round. The Reaver still dies when their hit points reach a negative amount equal to twice their Constitution score. (4 RP)
Senses Racial Traits:
Stormsight - Reavers are masters of combat at sea partly because of their intensive training to see in storms. Reavers halve miss chances due to concealment provided by fog, rain, sleet, mist, wind, or other weather effects that is less than total concealment, and any penalties weather applies on Perception checks are halved. (2 RP)
Alternate Racial Traits:
Mist Child - Whenever a Reaver has concealment or total concealment, the miss chance of attacks against the Reaver increases by 5%. This racial trait replaces Fearless. (1 RP)
Rimeheart - Some Reavers hail from the northernmost reaches of Grunmark, or even live on the outskirts of Jotunheimr or in the mountains near New Aldonia. They have developed a natural resistance to the cold, gaining Cold Resistance 5. They also gain +4 racial bonus to Constitution checks and Fortitude saves to avoid fatigue, exhaustion, and any other ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, thirst, and cold environments. This racial trait replaces Natural Swimmer and Stormsight. (3 RP)
A note on Reaver Ferocity: it should read 'twice their constitution score' because that's how I'm changing negative HP to work in my game. I.E. you don't die until you hit a negative HP value equal to twice your CON score.
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Good to have some free Westerling and Reavering and map stuff out there. ;)
There's no Westerling peasants or merchants who go adventuring? They're all potentially knights, with appropriate traits?
Yeah, -Con to die isn't enough in PF. My own house rule is - (Con + level or number of hit dice).
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From both a lore and mechanical perspective, they feel a little bland. A race should inspire me to want to create a character for it. I'm just not feeling it here.
I'm also not particularly crazy about the choices of racial traits. Westerling's traits suggest that every man, woman, and child is trained on horseback and in courtly etiquette. You also severely undervalue Emissary - being able to roll twice and take the higher on ANYTHING is an incredible boon. Especially for Diplomacy and Bluff checks where a social encounter can hinge on a single die roll.
I'm also not particualrly crazy about reavers getting Toughness when they already get bonus hit points from their Con bonus - minor nitpick
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There's no Westerling peasants or merchants who go adventuring? They're all potentially knights, with appropriate traits?
I'm also not particularly crazy about the choices of racial traits. Westerling's traits suggest that every man, woman, and child is trained on horseback and in courtly etiquette.
This is something I've been chewing on a lot. See, on the one hand I want them to be good at horseback combat - ergo, they should at least have one mounted trait available to them, such as Saddleborn. On the other hand, making Knightly Charge an alternate racial trait and replacing it with something else makes the given race more modular, and other races ought to be equally modular to make them equally interesting.
Basically, I want to make sure that each race has some leaning toward being good at a certain role, but in the end CAN choose to serve a different role. So maybe I ought to go ahead and make Knightly Charge an alternate racial trait.
Also, I'd like to explain that I'm actually trying to keep from having the human flexible bonus feat available to any of the races. Instead, I'm trying to have different groups of humans available.
One thing to note is that races in this setting are going to represent cultures as much as they represent races. You might notice that for Westerlings (as an example) I noted that while most are dark skinned, there are others who are not - because the Westerling racial traits are inherited by members of their culture, not by people with a certain bloodline. It's just that most Westerlings are going to be dark skinned. This is something I'm toying with for humans.
As such, there's several different cultures for humans that will be around, each with a somewhat different focus. Westerlings (a plains people with a knightly heritage), Reavers (a Viking-inspired people), Muckers (a frowned upon lot of usually lower class city folk), Caerlings (wildmen who leave near forests and on the frontiers), and Aldonians (a group small in number that once served as the ruling class of the empire the map above covers). I want them all to have roughly the same power level of base humans while being more flavorful and varied than base humans and NOT having the human bonus feat.
From both a lore and mechanical perspective, they feel a little bland. A race should inspire me to want to create a character for it. I'm just not feeling it here.
Lore-wise I'll be adding more to what I've written (this is just preliminary stuff written quickly in the dead of night). Mechanically though I'd be glad to have some help. What do you suggest?
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Made some changes to Westerlings, added to their lore, and also changed the mechanics for Reavers. I plan on adding another alternate racial trait or two to the Reavers and expanding on their lore. More critique, please.
The first Westerlings first crossed from the west into what would eventually become Abagon approximately four hundred years ago. At that time they were already masters of the horse, noble warriors who had fought a war with the beastmen and lost. They settled in the plains and hills of that territory and made it their home. Since then, their honor-driven culture has evolved into bold knightly traditions, and they are the pinnacle of chivalric ideals in the Aldaric Sea Region.
Westerlings come from a distant peninsula they call Vestania, a warm land of rolling plains and vast deserts. They are herders and horsemen, forced into a long and protracted war against the beastmen when the creatures invaded from across the sea. The resulting conflict was long and bloody, but for a time the Westerlings held their own, even retaking the majority of their land in what they call the Reclamation Wars. However, the beastmen dabbled in magical powers and with the aid of dark magic forced the Westerlings out of their homelands once and for all.
Those Westerlings who fled from Vestania brought with them traditions far unlike those to be found in the Aldaric Sea Region. They favor rather loose clothes like robes, with the nobility having richly embroidered clothes while the peasantry have plainer clothes in earthier color tones. Their footsoldiers typically wear pointed nasal helms or coifs, often with turbans wrapped around them. Others wear skull caps with anektons. Westerling knights favor visored helms with long, flowing plumes stretching out behind them, often displaying the colors of their house, and wear tunics and tabards whose colors proudly display their lineage.
Their banners and art depict fabled warriors in the midst of battle with great monsters such as manticores and hydras. These warriors are often saints in the Church of the Divine, but well versed historians know their origins actually predate the religion that the Westerlings brought with them to the Aldaric Sea Region.
Abagon, the Westerling realm, could easily be the most powerful nation in the region, but has been stuck in a vicious civil war for the last ten years. When King Asturias died without an heir, the remaining lords of the realm began fighting over who should inherit the kingdom. This bitter struggle has split the nation in two - Northern Abagon and the Kingdom of Abagon - and has even caused two of the duchies, Vestille and Mircia, to break off from their mother nation. Mircia vies for independence, and Vestille is merely waiting to see which of the two factions will gain the upper hand before dedicating its forces to the war. Even the Order of the Hydra, the knights most loyal to Asturias, have broken up and declared loyalty to different factions in this war.
The term ‘Westerling’ is derived from an insult and mispronunciation of the term ‘Vester,’ the name which Westerlings use to describe the land from which they come from. Though the name has stuck, savvy negotiators know it is more formal and polite to refer to Westerlings as ‘Vesterlings,’ or as ‘Sons of Vestania.’
Westerlings are not especially tall, but they nevertheless tend to have strong, athletic builds and handsome faces. They are typically dark skinned, ranging from a nutty brown to a coal black, but there are exceptions to this rule: some who boast a proud Westerling upbringing may possess Reaver of Caernling blood. Westerlings usually have black hair and dark brown eyes, but there are some who have golden or amber-colored eyes. They are considered very attractive.
Westerlings call Abagon, north and south, home, as well as its neighboring duchies. They also have a small population in Carisse and small populations in Beldemar and Grunmark.
Defense Racial Traits:
Lucky - Westerlings are favored by Lady Luck. They gain a +1 racial bonus to all saving throws. (2 RP)
Feat and Skill Racial Traits:
Earnest - Westerlings have a reputation for being honest and forthright, a reputation which helps even members of their society who lack scruples. Westerlings get a +2 racial bonus to Diplomacy. (1 RP)
Tactical Mind - Westerlings have seen more war than most, and as such the nobility and peasantry alike have some knowledge of warfare. They gain a +2 racial bonus to Initiative and a +1 racial bonus to all Knowledge (History) and Profession (Soldier) checks. (2 RP)
Offense Racial Traits:
Hatred - Westerlings have fought many battles against beastmen and harbor a special hatred for them. They receive a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls against gnolls and lizardfolk. (1 RP)
Other Racial Traits:
Heroic - There is a spark of heroism in all Westerlings, and even the lowborn will stand defiantly in the face of danger. Westerlings gain 2 hero points instead of 1 each time they gain a level. If they take the Blood of Heroes feat, they gain 3 hero points each level instead of 2. (4 RP)
Alternate Racial Traits:
Shield Expertise - Some Westerlings are experts at using their shields to deflect both weapons and magical spells. They gain Shield Focus as a bonus feat. Additionally, when wielding a shield they gain a +2 racial bonus to AC versus Rays and can deflect a single ray attack once per day as if they were using the Deflect Arrows feat. This racial trait replaces Heroic. (4 RP)
Eye for Talent - Westerlings have great intuition for hidden potential. Westerlings with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Sense Motive checks. In addition, when they acquire an animal companion, bonded mount, cohort, or familiar, that creature gains a +2 bonus to one ability score of the character’s choice. This racial trait replaces Heroic. (4 RP)
Equestrian - The knights of Abagon are a bold lot, Westerling nobles whose skill with the horse is second to none. Westerlings with this trait gain a +2 bonus to all Ride checks. In addition, they gain Mounted Combat as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces Hatred and Lucky. (3 RP)
Defense Racial Traits:
Fearless - Reavers are fearless warriors and gain a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws against fear effects. (1 RP)
Healthy - Reavers are a hale and hearty bunch. They gain a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves against disease and poison, including magical diseases.
Feat and Skill Racial Traits:
Sailor - Raised in a culture that values good trade as much as it values a good raid, Reavers make for talented merchant adventurers. They gain a +1 racial bonus to all Appraise, Survival, and Profession (Sailor) checks. (1 RP)
Movement Racial Traits:
Natural Swimmer - Reavers have a +3 racial bonus to Swim. (1 RP)
Offense Racial Traits:
Ferocity - Reavers fight to the death. If the Reaver’s hit points fall below 0 but the Reaver is not yet dead, the Reaver can continue to fight. If they do, they are staggered, and lose 1 hit point each round. The Reaver still dies when their hit points reach a negative amount equal to twice their Constitution score. (4 RP)
Alternate Racial Traits:
Mist Child - Whenever a Reaver has concealment or total concealment, the miss chance of attacks against the Reaver increases by 5%. This racial trait replaces Fearless. (1 RP)
Rimeheart - Some Reavers hail from the northernmost reaches of Grunmark, some even living on the outskirts of Jotunheimr or in the mountains near New Aldonia. They have developed a natural resistance to the cold, gaining Cold Resistance 5. They also gain +4 racial bonus to Constitution checks and Fortitude saves to avoid fatigue, exhaustion, and any other ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, thirst, and cold environments. This racial trait replaces Natural Swimmer and Healthy. (3 RP)
Stormsight - Reavers are masters of combat at sea, and some have developed the ability to see in storms. Reavers with this trait ignore miss chances due to concealment provided by fog, rain, sleet, mist, wind, or other weather effects that is less than total concealment, and any penalties weather applies on Perception checks are halved. This racial trait replaces Healthy. (2 RP)
Treasure Sense - Some Reavers have developed a certain sense for treasure. This ability functions as scent, except it can detect only precious metals (copper, silver, and gold) and creatures primarily made of such materials. This ability replaces Fearless and Sailor. (2 RP)
Please, please, make alternative charts for starting height & weight that reflect sub-racial differences. (I don't know why Paizo has refused to do so for Golarion, but there it is: they won't.)
There's a thread here on Homebrew about different Knowledges. (LOL -- I linked to my eventual set, but the whole thread is interesting.) We were talking about instituting a Knowledge (martial), which would be a much better fit for your race than Knowledge (history) -- that's just weird, I'm afraid. "If the Chinese weren't over-running us then, the Japanese were." End of history lesson, is how it would go for most Korean peasants, I'm thinking.
Heroic is only good if players make certain to spend their HP. I dunno; maybe they'd be more likely to if getting 2 a level. I've played for years in groups that offered HP, and every so often someone uses them to great effect. But more often than not, people hit their cap of 3 at level-up because they saved them for a rainy day. At 2 HP a level, you can hit your cap every two levels!
You may want to offer Eternal Hope as an alternate choice, or even consider it as a main Defensive Trait.
Since Westerlings can get a racial bonus to Cha, there should be at least an alternate racial trait that would help them excel as spontaneous casters. (Sorcerer & Oracle come to my mind immediately as Cha-based ones, but there may be others.) Under Magical Traits, Arcane Focus (1 RP) or Pyromaniac (3 RP) might fit the race & culture.
Unfortunately, Reavers are so very not what I was expecting (having adored Dragon Age with its dwarven Reavers) that I haven't gotten my head wrapped around your Viking-style race. No, it's not a Viking-style race. Your race is much more into watery Stealth, besides being actually able to conduct combat at sea, so the historical model in my head is interfering with your mechanics, too. Maybe it will help once you put some fluff to it.
What tech do these people have? Before serious metallurgy, there weren't any marine attacks other than ramming another ship (possibly with dire consequences to the ramming vessel, too). You could grapple the other ship, and send a boarding party on board. {Added: If you could catch them.} Maybe with magic... no, ranges are just too short. Even a 5th-level caster casting a long-range spell can't hit a target farther than 600 feet away, and that's terribly close-by when you're maneuvering a ship! So can we assume that reavers have cannon?
Bleepity bleep, I just checked out cannon in this stupid game. Range increment of 100 feet, my eye! You can't hit the broad side of a ship with these things at 1000 feet away, and that should be quite do-able. Do you really truly want marine combat?
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Are you going with the standard Human Favored Class Bonuses for all your human-type races?
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{PS: What software did you use to create your beautiful map? Is it EASY to learn? For someone who never, ever could figure out CAD-based programs? I've got a much simpler homebrew setting, but I'd love a map like yours. (I'm envious, I think you can tell! LOL.)}
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{PS: What software did you use to create your beautiful map? Is it EASY to learn? For someone who never, ever could figure out CAD-based programs? I've got a much simpler homebrew setting, but I'd love a map like yours. (I'm envious, I think you can tell! LOL.)}
You'll probably scratch your head at the answer: I used standard Paint to make the first layer of the map, then used the program called paint.net to create layers atop it for text and locations. All the icons on the map were created pixel by pixel in the Paint program that comes with all Windows computers.
Yeah, it's a boring answer.
If you want similar lines along the shore, my practice is to create a soft, non-jagged line, then to repeatedly go back over and carve it out into the shape I want several times. Then I'll create more bodies of water, carve more land, add bits where I think bits are needed, and then add islands. As I'm doing this, I'm pre-considering where I want mountains. Then I'll add the mountains with rivers, swamps, and so forth. That's how I get my base map.
I save that file. I go into Paint.Net the program, I make layers for locations, points of interest, and for text. For text, I'll write out the text, then copy it, delete it, paste it, and rotate it as I desire on the Text layer.
Hopefully that helps.
PS. All those fancy dots in the marshes? I literally just left clicked a whole bunch of times with the Pencil tool. XD
Unfortunately, Reavers are so very not what I was expecting (having adored Dragon Age with its dwarven Reavers) that I haven't gotten my head wrapped around your Viking-style race. No, it's not a Viking-style race. Your race is much more into watery Stealth, besides being actually able to conduct combat at sea, so the historical model in my head is interfering with your mechanics, too. Maybe it will help once you put some fluff to it.
Consider it like this: Reavers DO fight at sea and board other ships. However, they basically do what Vikings do: they find a coastal settlement and raid it. They prefer to do so under the cover of mist, and if they have an appropriate spellcaster they'll use fog spells or Obscuring Mist to give themselves an advantage.
What tech do these people have?
This is a standard medieval fantasy setting, no gunpowder. So the basic tactics are:
Land attack
Step 1. Get near enemy shore province. Preferably approach at night or under the cover of mist, fog, or storm.
Step 2. RAID IT!
Step 3. Get out before actual enemy reinforcements arrive.
Naval battle
Step 1. Get near enemy ship.
Step 2. Grapple or leap aboard.
Step 3. FIGHT FIGHT KILL FIGHT KILL AAAAAAAAAAAH
Yeah, it's basic stuff.
Anyway, onto Westerlings! There's a reason I didn't include any magical traits. Be prepared...
*DEEP BREATH*
This is a low magic setting where powerful magic users are EXPRESSLY THE BAD GUYS. That means that while Wizards and Clerics and Oracles DO exist, those are BAD GUYS. Players are limited to the following classes:
Barbarian, Bard (MAYBE, potentially made INT based), Bloodrager, Brawler, Cavalier, Fighter, Paladin (probably as a prestige class), Ranger, Rogue, Skald (MAYBE), Slayer, Swashbuckler. You, uh... may have noticed a certain lack of 9th level spellcasters here, and a very limited selection of 6th level casters. The only other possible addition to that list is a homebrew class called the Herbalist that would be a 6th level spellcaster mashup of the Alchemist and Druid, but I don't know if I'll do that.
The point is this: Magic racial traits? Out the window. Not allowing them except MAYBE on a Tiefling race I may or may not include. In this setting, the players are low magic people that will occasionally meet high magic enemies. It's intended to be a difficult task, but mitigated by the fact that the max level will be 8 (I.E. it'll be an E8 game).
Sorry about the rant there. ANYWAY, NOW we can talk about Westerlings.
There's a thread here on Homebrew about different Knowledges. (LOL -- I linked to my eventual set, but the whole thread is interesting.) We were talking about instituting a Knowledge (martial), which would be a much better fit for your race than Knowledge (history) -- that's just weird, I'm afraid. "If the Chinese weren't over-running us then, the Japanese were." End of history lesson, is how it would go for most Korean peasants, I'm thinking.
I'm already homebrewing enough stuff and changing enough rules as it is. Knowledge: History in Pathfinder includes knowledge of warfare and tactics. Ergo, it's the best fit for the trait alongside Profession: Soldier. It works.
You may want to offer Eternal Hope as an alternate choice, or even consider it as a main Defensive Trait.
That's a really good thought. I like the simplicity of Lucky, but Eternal Hope is a good, strong racial trait. I'll think about how I want to include it, if I do.
If I give them Eternal Hope, though, Reavers may need a different trait other than Fearless. Otherwise both of these human races are strong vs. Fear for some reason.
Heroic is only good if players make certain to spend their HP. I dunno; maybe they'd be more likely to if getting 2 a level. I've played for years in groups that offered HP, and every so often someone uses them to great effect. But more often than not, people hit their cap of 3 at level-up because they saved them for a rainy day. At 2 HP a level, you can hit your cap every two levels!
This is a big concern of mine. I feel Heroic and Lucky make for a really flavorful combination together, but at the same time Heroic requires players to be willing to actually USE their Hero Points. I mean, that's what they're there for. That's why I originally had Skilled as a Westerling racial trait and Heroic as an alternate, but it didn't feel very flavorful. Heroic does.
I'll chew on this.
As an aside: I'll be thinking about how to better tool up Reavers. I... really liked them having the potential to have both +CON and Toughness as a bonus feat, and it's not as if core Humans couldn't pick Toughness as their bonus feat. It gives Reavers the role of "super tough guy that doesn't afraid of anything," and I like that.
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On a related note, I've changed the ocean's name to the Aldaric Sea, officially naming this world the Aldaric Sea Region. It's roughly based off the Baltic Sea Region, and I like the name.
If you're curious, this is what it looks like without the cities and stuff. At least, that's an earlier draft of the map. It SHOULD be accurate.
EDIT: Oh, on favored class bonuses: Yeah, human races have Human FCBs available to them. Brelani will have Elf and Halfling FCBs available, Garlani will have Dwarf and Halfling ones, and Jotunkin will have Human and Half-Orc FCBs.
I like 'em. Looking forward to seeing the rest.
I could see what you'd done in borrowing & altering the Baltic Sea area. It was fun, though, in that you had NOT grabbed the North Sea, which is so much more common. Thanks for the production tips! (No, not what I had expected, but doable...) Except: you precisely (?) outlined the land borders in black. It looks precise at this scale, anyway! How? If I were following your instructions, I'd be nibbling away at the land with a blue paint brush. So I'd have green meeting blue, no black.
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Maybe Vikings were that cowardly, to hide in mist like that, IRL, but that's not how I think of them. Of course, you do give Reavers Mist Child only as an alternative to Fearless, so I guess that fits.
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What happened to Hunter, Magus, & Warpriest? And while I don't like the fluff of Inquisitor, I'd think you'd especially want it for this world.
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Hunter, Magus, Warpriest, Inquisitor: all 6th level casters, and all pretty heavy on themes I don't feel necessarily belong. If I were to allow 6th level casters, I'd pick 2-3, and the Bard and Skald would be among them. I COULD see allowing Inquisitors, but only after I vetted their spell list (as I may have to do with bards/skalds).
As for the Reavers... I don't see it as cowardice. I see it as simple pragmatism: the mists help create a sense of fear, and a raider's goal isn't to kill their enemies, but to rob them. If the mists roll in as longships appear in the distance, you want your enemies to abandon their homes and run to the nearest castle / church / whatever for protection, letting you plunder safely. It's about fear and intimidation. It's the same reason pirates historically wouldn't kill all their prey; if you've got a reputation for murdering everyone, then everyone will fight back when you come plundering.
Combat 101: Winning without fighting is much better than fighting to win. If you fight, you risk getting hurt or dying. Routing the enemy = safer than cutting them down to a man.
Or, if you like a more narrative approach...
"Just keep your eyes peeled for any big rocks, ya idjut!" growled back the captain, marching about on deck. "The last thing I need is three hundred pounds of silk tumbling into the watery depths. Helmsman, keep the Goose eastward bound, as you are."
Lars glanced back at the captain, then at the rest of the crew. There was an air of discomfort to be felt. He could just barely see the sweat on the captain's brow. Something wasn't right.
And that's when the first horn blew. Deep and ominous, it echoed across the water from the right.
"What was that?" someone muttered. But before they could be answered, another horn sounded from the left.
"Oh, no," Lars whispered, grabbing his sword. "Gods, no." He yanked it free of its scabbard.
"Reavers!" shouted the captain. "All hands on deck! All hands on deck! Get your bleeding weapons out already, there's Reavers coming! Starboard side, port side!"
But all those desperate cries were too late. A shadow formed in the mist, the shadow of a great ship. As it sidled up next to the Wild Goose, Lars' hands shook uselessly. He could just barely make out the forms of huge, hulking figures aboard those vessels.
They began to leap aboard.
I could see what you'd done in borrowing & altering the Baltic Sea area. It was fun, though, in that you had NOT grabbed the North Sea, which is so much more common. Thanks for the production tips! (No, not what I had expected, but doable...) Except: you precisely (?) outlined the land borders in black. It looks precise at this scale, anyway! How? If I were following your instructions, I'd be nibbling away at the land with a blue paint brush. So I'd have green meeting blue, no black.
I'll just demonstrate and show you what I mean. Read the spoiler below.
Click to see the pictures.
Image 1: I start by drawing an outline of what I want - a REALLY rough outline. Don't worry, it won't finish looking like this. This is only the beginning. I'm mostly concerned about the general shape - I want a peninsula, that much I know.
Image 2: I start adding and removing bits and pieces to the map as I go. Here I draw some of the lines I made when first deciding where to cut and add. This is the "nibbling" process.
Image 3: I finally go through and clear away the extra lines. I change some decisions, such as turning the extra boot into a string of islands. I settled on actually making a whole lot of islands because I imagine in my head "This will be a setting with some opportunity for high seas adventure."
Image 4: I slap water onto the map via paint bucket. I add red lines where I plan to add mountains later. The red lines will be removed; they exist solely because they're easy to spot. I decide that I'm going to make an unnatural landscape at the eastern part of the map, where that island covered in mountains by the shore is. Maybe a meteor struck here? A magical catastrophe?
Image 5: I add grass via splash bucket, a lighter green because I feel this setting has a warm climate. Then I start adding in mountains. I use a similar nibbling process when creating mountain lines: add a little, fudge a little, bite away a little from here and there. Eventually I get a landscape I like. I also go back and nibble at pieces of land I feel need adjustment, such as the unnatural place. That's going to be an adventure site for sure. The darker green is for hills, by the way.
Image 6: Finally, I start adding terrain features that don't involve elevation. Forests (DARK green), deserts and desert hills, rivers... This is the last stage of terrain development. Afterwards I'll take this image to the Paint.Net program and use that to create layers for cities, adventure sites, roads, and text.
Time elapsed between making the map and typing the explanation: 1 hour 20 minutes, roughly. It's pretty barebones, though, and I was focused on making a good example and not so much on making a good map. If I were to use this as a campaign setting, I'd probably focus my efforts on the peninsula itself and the India-shaped area. I'd use the desert to the east, the northern forest to the north, and the ocean as natural barriers that shouldn't be crossed. Civilization would be focused in those mountainous regions. I'd probably look at Greece and North Africa for inspirations culture-wise.
By the way, I have no intention of using that map I just drew. If you have a use for it, feel free to nab it.
Thanks for the detailed how-to! I'll go through and practice step-by-step with something more akin to my own setting. (Which is, admittedly, rather abstract in my mind at the moment: extensive hills where the game is; mountains to the north and east; coast to the west and south; some islands connecting the continent loosely to another mountainous one to the southwest; "somewhere" to the east over those barrier mountains lie more hills and ultimately a coast w/ a southeastern, highly forested, continental neighbor; far to the south of the two neighbors lies a fourth continent, with terrain much more like plains & desert. As soon as I started thinking about maps, I realized that there must be a fabulous, lost civilization on a sunken island, due center. Of course, that begs the more immediate question of what terrain features are among those mountains bordering the hills where the game is taking place currently. Highly more immediate, because the party has already accepted a second quest that will take them into the mountains to the north!
I suppose what I'm thinking is that your technique will suffice for a first map that focuses in on the hills of the current adventure, the barrier mountains around those hills, and the coastal islands, with perhaps some of the southwestern neighbor showing as well. However, I'm wondering whether it will work if I then step back and do a wider-scale map that includes the first one, or if I'd want to keep the wider-scale one in words.