Mesoamerica in D&D


3.5/d20/OGL


Are there any good adventures/settings for this besides:

1. Maztica (not thrilled with it unless someone has some good ideas)

2. Tamoachan (got it)

3. Savage Tide (got it--a little too specific though fun in its own context)


2E Greyhawk supplement "The Scarlet Brotherhood" by Sean K Reynolds

I love it; loads of info on pseudo-Meso-American cultures in the Flanaess.

Liberty's Edge

This
book by Pagan Publishing, though NOT d20, is one of the best things I've ever seen.


Hey, Heathy, didn't you have a thread about this in the past? I only bring it up because I'd hate for people to miss any of my brilliant suggestions...

Liberty's Edge

I think so; I don't know where it went though.


The following should work pretty much As Written:

Spoiler:

Hollow World Boxed Set - Atlas of the Hollow World and encyclopedia of the cultures that reside therein. Created by ancient gods, the Hollow World is the refuge of dying cultures ... a museum where civilizations are forever preserved from change by powerful magics.

From Dragon Magazine:

070 - Mechica - Cross mountains to investigate a new culture wherein were-jaguar priests wage war to capture prisoners to sacrifice to their deity.

From Dungeon Magazine:

084 - Halls of Huhueteotl, The: Lord of Fire - Temple complex built into underground fire-cave. Could become part of a city. Also well suited to dwarven cultures.

084 - Map of Mystery: Unnamed Peninsula - Large Peninsula geographic map without any named locations. Includes a dense mountain range in the north, with plains and lakes in the south. Connected to continent off-map to the east, but could become an island. Small outlying islands to the west.

145 - Exag: City of Clay - Ancient city created by the “Crafters” out of almost invincible materials. They disappeared or went extinct, and now local primitives live there on the fringes of the known world.

148 - Webbird - Update of the classic monster

D&D "Known World" Gazetteer:

GAZ 14 - Atruaghin Clans, The - Overview of the clans and cultures of the Atruaghin Plateau (Amer-indian). Includes the Elk (Atlantic/Iroquois), Bear (Southwest/Hopi), Turtle (Pacific NW), Horse (Plains/Sioux), and Tiger (Central American/Aztec) clans.

Hollow World Gazetteer:

HWR1 - Sons of Azca - Overview of the peoples and places of the Azcan Empire.

HWR1 - Sons of Azca: An Unwelcome Visitor - An ankylosaurus has wandered into several local villages and caused great damage. It must be tracked down and eliminated or relocated.

HWR1 - Sons of Azca: Assassination - A shadowy contact offers considerable payment for the assassination of the High Priest of Atzanteotl in the city of Huitlaktima. Several factions could be the employers, from merchants to the Prince to the priest’s own family. Or perhaps it is a trap.

HWR1 - Sons of Azca: Lost Temple, The - A vision urges travel to the lost city of Axateotl, where proto-Azcan tribes still worship Kalaktatla, the Lizard God. Though xenophobic, the good-aligned tribes may prove allies to the New Way and their discovery may be another sign pointing to the return of Quetzalcoatl.

HWR1 - Sons of Azca: Mines of Madness - Miners have disappeared, and adventurers are needed to investigate. As one layer after another is peeled back, degenerate cannibalistic Beastmen lead to a psychic sorcerer and finally to one of the ancient Burrowers.

HWR1 - Sons of Azca: Wager, The - A feast to honor your exploits becomes a wager from the Prince to recover a Miquiztli “Death Ring” from the court of the Faerie Queen within a month, or be sacrificed to Atzanteotl. Failure brings death, while success brings another feast and great rewards ... and knowledge of why it is called a “Death Ring”.

Hollow World Module:

HWA-1 - Nightwail - Introduction to the Hollow World for Surface Characters. Pursue raiders of a merchant caravan into the Broken Lands and thence 1,000 miles underground into an Aztec-like culture in the Hollow World where agents of an entropy Immortal scheme to wreak havoc upon the world.

The following should fit well into a Meso-American setting with Some Modification:

Spoiler:

From Dungeon Magazine:

036 - Troll Bridge - A Troll has recently taken residence beneath a small bridge, demanding that tolls be paid by any who would cross. But how vicious is that “troll” ... and did I really catch a glimpse of a gnome hiding nearby?

037 - Their Master's Voice - Camping for the night, you hear the cries of a lost child. Searching for the young one, you are led further from your campsite, into the awaiting ambush of the sorcerous “master” of a pair of leucrotta pups.

041 - Hopeful Dawn - A prophesy speaks of the night when demons will visit the earth and fill the streets with Terror. As the city’s populace hides in fear tonight demons will indeed run wild in the streets, and also in the homes of the citizenry as a masquerading thieves guild seeks to commit the perfect crime.

043 - Mayhem at Midnight - Shimmerweed sure does look pretty in the moonlight. A little distracting, though, particularly if located close to the lair of a hungry monster.

046 - Floating Rock - The Floating Rock tribe of bugbears are vicious raiders who live on an island that seems to move about the seas, and one never knows where they will be encountered next.

054 - Fiends of Tethyr - A strange new type of “Fiend” is plaguing Tethyr. Take on the four “demons” who have taken residence in a dwarven mine, but be ready for the unexpected.

056 - Land of Men With Tails, The - From a fortified outpost on the Dark Continent, a headstrong young nobleman has gone missing. A member of his company has recently been discovered, fevered and babbling of the “Men with Tails” and “Golden Muhalu”. Head deep into the jungles and find the missing party.

057 - Carcass Fracas! - In the road before you lies the body of a hobgoblin, face down in the road. From the number of arrows sticking out of its back it is obviously dead ...

062 - Grimjaws - Save a civilized lizardman scholar from attacks by a giant, undead crocodile.

074 - First People - Searching for a rumored pass through the mountains, stumble upon a hidden vale inhabited by an Amer-Indian people and guarded by a (currently sleeping) mist dragon. Save the natives from predatory Peryton serving a dark master, and uncover a scandal that endangers the tribe.

078 - Trial of the Frog - Help a grippli recover precious stones from a sacred grippli cavern, now claimed by a duergar priest as his shrine.

082 - Playing with Fire - A crystal key unlocks the door sealing the dungeon temple-lair of a Bandit Lord and minions who worshipped a Flame God. Investigate the ruins, but beware of the minions of the Flame Lord who still remain. Some just want to go home, while others want a fresh supper.

084 - Armistice - Peace has been reached between two rival clans, but their long embattled forces remain in a hidden valley. As neutral ambassadors of both chieftains, locate their forces lost in the valley and bring them news of the armistice. But though the depleted armies no longer fight each other, a new threat stalks them.

086 - Rana Mor - Accompany a wealthy merchant/sage into the jungles which have swallowed the ancient Rangka Empire and help her recover a fabled artifact from a curse temple complex.

087 - Shalm’s Dark Song, The - A once popular shrine has fallen into obscurity, and now the few pilgrims who visit it fail to return.

087 - Valley of the Snails - Jazzad the Ranger has failed to show up for his annual visit with his friend Ryan of Hulvin. Journey into the Dim Forest and to the hidden Valley of the Snails to find the missing ranger, and help his return to both his friend and his sanity while avoiding ambushes from the valley dwellers who caused his madness.

089 - Rage - A troll priestess has stolen the Rage of the barbarian peacekeeper who killed her son. Raid her lair and destroy the artifact which holds his Rage.

089 - Rivers of Blood - A powerful chieftain has been assassinated, and now a rival clan threatens to destroy his people. Help the chieftain’s strong wife bring her people through a haunted swamp to safety and allies in a larger town, but be wary of traitors in addition to marauders and monsters.

090 - Prey for Tyrinth - “The Kingdom’s Greatest Treasure” is said to lie at the bottom of a well, but none have returned from investigating the caves therein. Too bad they didn’t know they were entering the lair of a naga, and a few other things.

091 - Bogged Down - A pounding storm floods Bearden’s Hollow with corpses from the old cemetery in the nearby swamp, but also brings an alleged attack by lizardmen who once lived there and the swamp witch who lairs there now. Journey into the ruins of the old town to recover records to identify the bodies and settle the matter of the mysterious attacks, while putting to rest an old injustice.

091 - Gnarlcrown - A 6th Level, Ghost Treant Druid who is angered at the humans who betrayed and murdered it. Several hooks are included.

093 - Swamp Stomp - The farming community of Orchard Meadows is under assault by the once peaceful Broken Axe Tribe of lizardfolk. Put an end to the attacks by the savage beasts, whether by slaying them all, or else discovering the plot behind the strange lowering of the water levels in the swamp in recent months.

094 - Last Hunt, The - A massive bear is terrorizing a minor wood and a once-renowned but aging nobleman/hunter is heading out to dispatch the threat. Unfortunately, the wood lies in the lands of a different nobleman, who is tired of his neighbor’s “poaching” habits. Accompany and “baby-sit” the old fellow, avert a feud between the noblemen, and remove the goblin druidess and tribe provoking the bear’s attacks.

096 - Hollow Threats - A vicious dragon turtle is raiding up and down the coast, attack small villages at dawn with everyone fleeing in panic before it, much to the thanks of the marauding orc clan inside the boat made from a dragon turtle shell and their halfling ally.

100 - Master Thest - Ambushes victims and swallows the bodies ...

104 - Dragon Hunters - The jungle encampment of a banished prince and his surviving followers is besieged by a “dragon”. Put an end to the beastly tyrannosaur’s rampages while deciding how to handle a prince who enslaved the wild elves who helped him survive and ambushed centaurs allied to the elves, a centaur demagogue who has driven out his druid mother and demands the slaughter of all humans and slew a baby tyrannosaur to enrage the mother, and the druid who seeks only to set everything right.

120 - Lost Temple of Demogorgon - Rumors of “armored demonic ogres” in the mountains turn out to be patrols of dire apes, awakened by a troglodyte cult of Demogorgon. The priests seek to restore their cult, powering their Dread Forge with the essence of a death knight. The undead lord himself brought the lizards out of their hidden slumber, searching out a temple of Demogorgon, hoping not to restore the cult, but rather to end his own cursed unlife and restore his mortality. As such he cares little for their well-being.

123 - Crypt of Crimson Stars - Shards of Eberron, pt.1: A powerful dragonshard, perhaps the largest know, is suspected to be located in the tomb of a mummy. A tribe of halflings guard what they believe to be a holy site.

124 - Temple of the Scorpion God - Shards of Eberron pt.2: Journey to the lost continent of Xen’drik and travel via airship deep into a jungle to locate a lost temple and recover a powerful dragonshard. Built by ancient giants, the temple is now home to a cult of surface drow.

126 - Girddrez: Savage Duelist - Half-orc daughter of the chieftain, a dancer who killed a lieutenant who insulted her and now serves her father as a war commander.

129 - Twisted Run, The - A Chosen of Malar gathers a force of “blacktooth” lycanthropes, insane and poison-infected were-creatures capable of almost instantaneously passing along their affliction, and overtaken a dwarven outpost. Destroy the pack before their attacks spread to more populated regions and unleash an epidemic of lycanthropy.

130 - Spire of Long Shadows, The - Age of Worms pt. 7 - Journey into the southern jungles on the trail of a missing mage and into the ancient city where Kyuss sought to achieve divinity. Defeat the remaining minions in his temple and learn more of his rise to power.

131 - Hateful Legacy, The - Centuries ago a band of humanoids fled their losing war with their treasure to seek safety in a hidden vale. But the undead druid who insanely guards the vale saw to their demise by releasing clouds of poison gas from the vale’s lakes. Nearly a century ago a human lord attempted to find the lost treasure, but his first foray ended in disaster and the second never returned at all. Enter the vale once more, defeat its guardians and claim the ancient treasure.

132 - Caverns of the Ooze Lord - A cult of Juiblex the Slime Lord has arisen in a thorpe and begun transforming the residents into slime-people.

137 - Siege of the Spider Eaters - A pirate village has been assaulted by monstrous spiders and half of the population are missing. However the assault is merely a response to the unprovoked attack of the spiders’ lair and the missing villagers are disguised aranea returning to help defend their ancestral lair. Journey to the spider lair and choose sides.

144 - Muster of Morach Tor - A human community has allies with local lizardfolk against attacks by trolls and giants, not realizing the lizardfolk mean to betray them to the trolls. A human agent who observed their meeting was captured, so the party is sent out to look for him and stubble into evidence of the betrayal themselves.

145 - Distraction, The - Badlands gnolls who once protected the borderlands overrun the remote provinces since the Lord demanded fealty and tribute. Refugees stream to Fort Chance but the gnoll army masses across the river and the spring floods will recede before the cavalry arrives to save the fort from certain destruction. Sneak across the river and behind gnoll lines to cause a distraction that slows them long enough for help to arrive.

148 - Automatic Hound, The - After an adventurer returns home with the body of his dead companion, the village finds itself stalked by a nocturnal horror. Little do they know that the pair of adventurers inadvertently initiated a ritual of human sacrifice as an ancient shrine, and now a spirit of that shrine simply seeks to return the corpse of the dead adventurer (whose death triggered the ritual) to the altar to complete it. Unfortunately, the spirit cannot enter the consecrated church where the body is held, and so stalks the village.

HTH,

Rez

Liberty's Edge

With that earlier recommendation for that book. Looks like it's using the BRP system. How hard is it to convert that to d20 and all?

Liberty's Edge

It's....the adventures are kinda modern day; I think that usually one would end up using the book to glean for inspiration and all. The adventures don't always convert to D&D really 100% well.


I kind of feel the same way about the CoC material--it's tempting because I love that stuff but won't it require some modification?

Thanks Rezdave for the very comprehensive list, that's very helpful. What are your thoughts on the Hollow World stuff? Like, is the HW aspect distracting if I didn't want to run Hollow World, or could I just fudge that part out easily?


MrFish wrote:
What are your thoughts on the Hollow World stuff? Like, is the HW aspect distracting if I didn't want to run Hollow World, or could I just fudge that part out easily?

It's no problem, really, to remove.

Concept of the Hollow World

Spoiler:

The concept of the "Hollow World" is that a truly ancient dinosaur deity noticed that his worshipper base was going extinct, so he hollowed out the world and planted a sun in the middle (pricked a minute whole into the Plane of Positive Energy or Fire or something).The Hollow World can be accessed from massive openings at the planet's poles, or via deep tunnels and cave networks (ships get sucked in through whirlpools, occasionally, too).

He then cast several uber-epic spells. One basically allowed gravity to pull towards the planet's crust and hold you "down" whether you were inside or out. The most important one, however, is a Spell of Preservation that causes any creature born in or culture transplanted into the Hollow World to continue to exist in a state of preserved status quo. Individuals live and die but species and cultures do not evolve or go extinct. Cultures may go to war with one another, but always stop short of genocide.

Note that the spell does not affect PCs who enter from the outside, and individuals are not really subject to its effects, only cultures or species or whatever.

Then great-uber-dino-deity transplants his worshippers inside so they can continue forever. Over time, other deities find out about it and as their cultures are dying out they select a token city or whatever to transplant inside and preserve for posterity.

In that respect, it really is a "living museum".

There's no reason you couldn't reverse the maps to wrap around rather than within a globe, and the hex-terrain style is pretty useful. The information on the Azcan culture is pretty generic world-wise, and not specifically tied to the hollow nature of the world (for reasons apparent from above).

The only issue with the maps is that the world is intentionally subdivided by difficult mountains and deserts to separate and somewhat isolate the cultures within. If you can life with this design aspect, they're fine. Or just take the culture notes and adventure hooks and run with them on a different map.

A Few Azcan-specific Notes

Spoiler:

The Azcans are obviously inspired by the Aztecs, and are presented as one of the "evil" cultures of the world. They are sun-worshippers in a land of eternal day, and present blood-sacrifices to keep that sun burning.

Of course, the conceit of the Hollow World plays in as well. Supposedly the blood-sacrificing religion overthrew a peaceful religion centuries before in the Azcan culture, but it was not totally eliminated. Cells of this peaceful religion were also transported and are now preserved, making it permanent as well. Potentially the peaceful religion could overtake the culture and reduce, but because of the spell not eliminate, the more savage one.

There is a second Meso-American culture also in the Hollow World. These guys were supposedly transported here first to save them from the Azcans, and the blood-god learned of the Hollow World and later sent some of his own in.

There's noting to prevent you from changing minor physical details, like an interior "asteroid belt" of rock islands circling the interior sun, since none of these inherently play into major aspects of the culture ... or you could keep them.

Also, you can keep or change any of the HW-specific enemies or allies of the Azcans as you see fit.

The best info for your purposes is probably the Gazetteer, and that is pretty generic, but no reason not to grab the boxed-set if you can find it at a price you like (or on-line ... unfortunately the Azcans are not downloadable from the Wizards old TSR archive).

HTH,

Rez


Thanks Rezdave. I ask because the game store in town has a whole bunch of out of print stuff, and some of it is Hollow World, but I've usually just had enough time to get in, buy something and leave. (got two little boys.)

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