Has anyone tried to remove the aztec feeling from the Olmans? Specifically the gods, but other things as well.
I was thinking more about their gods. Their tech level is fine. Quetzalcoatl is an Aztec god, and so I think they're more aztec. What sort of gods can I replace them with?
I also believe that their original adventure had them with their pyramids and people from faerun came in and conquered them for their gold like the Conquistadors.
I was thinking more about their gods. Their tech level is fine. Quetzalcoatl is an Aztec god, and so I think they're more aztec. What sort of gods can I replace them with?
I also believe that their original adventure had them with their pyramids and people from faerun came in and conquered them for their gold like the Conquistadors.
What campaign setting are you running the adventure in?
Generic
Fearun
Eberron
Homebrew
all these could affect how and what you change the gods too!
I've been running the campaign in Eberron, and have altered the Olman's to be a offhsoot of the Seren barbarians and as such, they worship dragons/draconic totems.
Nope... I actually love the Aztec nature of the Olmans... just go with it :)
I turned mine into Lizardmen worshipping nature spirits. So the bat-god guy - Zsomething - is just a nature spirit. Each of the villages has their own spirit.
The only dissatisfaction I have is the use of real world gods like Quetzal-whosit that puts too strong a tie on the Olmen being Aztec-y. For the same reason I don't like using Latin names for dinosaurs on the Isle o' Dread, I don't want to use names that break away from the fantasy world and into Earth intellectual properties (to put an inadequate term to what I'm trying to say).
My Olmen are allowed to have that Meso-American feel, but I just scrambled the names a bit. Exchange the syllibles around and you get the properly evocative name without the players going "We're in Mexico!" Quetzapocla and Tetsicoatl and such-like.
Incidentally, Olmec-Olman? I never found them particularly "Aztec".
The Olmecs were contemporary with the Aztecs; They supplied the highland people with rubber, which is why everyone called them Olmecs - literally, the rubber-people.
Gonna agree with the other folks here, the easiest way to de-Aztec the Olmans is just to change the names of stuff (and as long as you're doing that, change them to something you can pronounce :-) ).
Creative Director
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Yes, changing the names is the easiest way to handle it. Although if you're playing the game in Greyhawk, there's actually in-world continuity that explains why the Olmans worship gods from real-world myth.
Personally, I think that it's best to leave the names unchanged. D&D's always had gods and monsters that were taken from real-world myth (such as St. Cuthbert in Greyhawk or Tyr and Loviatar from the Forgotten Realms, or such as monsters like griffons, gorgons, and dragons)... I guess my question is, where do you draw the line? If it's too distracting to have Aztec gods in your game, why isn't it too distraction to have a monster in your game with a latin name like Tyrannosaurus or a Greek name like Demogorgon or an Aztec name like Couatl?
Has anyone tried to remove the aztec feeling from the Olmans? Specifically the gods, but other things as well.
They seem analogous to Pacific Islanders to me from all the artwork given.
Warmage 101
I guess my question is, where do you draw the line? If it's too distracting to have Aztec gods in your game, why isn't it too distraction to have a monster in your game with a latin name like Tyrannosaurus or a Greek name like Demogorgon or an Aztec name like Couatl?
I draw the line at my own ignorance. I didn't know Cuthbert and Demogorgon had real-world origins. Otherwise, I just avoid anything that moves past "evocative of a real world culture" and into "lifted whole from a real world culture."
For example, if Greyhawk had a country that grew in wealth, arts and sciences because it was smack in the middle of the trade route between two other cultures, I'd be okay with that. If you called it "Italia," I'd be changing the name before I finished the sentence. Griffins, coatls, and oriental dragons are all evocative of cultures without being lifted from them.
Tiamat, of course, gets a pass because she's just awesome.
I'm replacing the olman on the isle of Dread with maori (Polynesian). It fits my home brew campaign better. I am keeping the Olman's Aztec feeling along the continent, especially Tomachoan. (I remember playing the Lost City of Tomachoan back during 1edition days). I have to change the map as the Isle of Dread lies in the Great Western Ocean in my campaign.