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I’ve built my campaign setting from the inside out, focusing on areas I wanted run games in and building outward from there. As it stands, for the last few years most of my adventures have taken place in region that is more or less an analogue of feudal Russia and Mongolia. Over the last several months I’ve developed many ideas for campaigns run in a completely different locale, however; one resembling historical Mexico, a desire that has only deepened as I learn more about the Mexican history and culture (primarily through my fiance who is studying Spanish language and Mexican culture at the university). For a long time I’ve wanted a decent Mexican analogue to game in, but while most established campaign settings have areas which mirror various European or Asian regions (or even African ones), Mexico seems to be consistently neglected, which seems odd to me since Mexico has such a rich and exciting culture (Día de los Muertos comes to mind).
I’ve also been searching for a good place to introduce basic firearms into my campaign setting as well (several of the adventure ideas I briefly mentioned above would exercise firearm use nicely, actually).
Finally, dwarves have been unfortunately neglected in my recent games. No one has opted to play one for a while and I can’t recall the last dwarven NPC I’ve included in games that take place in the setting (though I have only focused on a narrow bit of it). Dwarves just haven’t yet found their societal niche yet.
It struck me that I could combine the above and introduce a country a bit away from where the PCs normally explore inhabited primarily by dwarves with a culture reminiscent of historical Mexican society with enough technological advancement to have primitive firearms. It seemed to fit well enough: Both dwarves in established campaign settings and real-world Mexico have cultures that are strongly steeped in tradition and religion, and dwarves are typically seen as fine craftsmen so they seem like they would be a fine race to have invented guns.
But then I worried that gun-toting, Mexican dwarves might come off as a bit silly to my players. Mexican artwork is typically very colorful, and not what one might expect of dwarves when used to more standard campaign settings, for example, so it might be a bit jarring.
Any advice on how to mesh Mexico, firearms, and dwarves in a serious, believable (for lack of a better word) way would be greatly appreciated. I guest I don’t have anything more specific than that, as for what I’m looking for. Also feel free to voice if you’d like the Mexican analogue including dwarves (or would at least find it interesting) or if the whole thing would be off-putting to you as a player (either because you would have no interest or because it would seem silly or an awkward fit for you).
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Dwarves like boldness and Mexican art is bold and bright from what I've seen of it. The themes that I've seen (limited experience here) have been themes that dwarves would traditionally approve of as well, so I think it would work just fine.
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I'd recommend "dwarvenizing" (for lack of a better term) the culture you are seeking to emulate. How close is the dwarves' religious beliefs to Roman Catholicism - and if so, at what "point" in Roman Catholocism do the dwarves' theologians hold? How closely does it eschew to Mexican culture? How does early Mexican culture compare to modern/recent Mexican culture? How closely are the cuisines and fashions followed?
Some things won't be at the distance of across the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean to the Vatican unless I miss my guess. "Vatican City" is alive and well, probably establishing your dwarves as a theocratic state of some sort with "Vatican City" at the heart of the dwarven empire. Recommends include the various orders and secretive/restricted nature of the accumulated collections of knowledge.
The biggest conflict is between surface dwelling Mexicans and dwarves.
I'd go less Mexica and go Azteca. Have these giant stone monliths they've built in worship to thier gods, just like the Aztecs did.
Give their armor anamalistic embossings/engravings/motiffs. They can still be gruff and curt weaponsmiths, armorsmiths, stonemasons and miners, and the rigid clan structure lends well to the culture.
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I'd recommend "dwarvenizing" (for lack of a better term) the culture you are seeking to emulate. How close is the dwarves' religious beliefs to Roman Catholicism - and if so, at what "point" in Roman Catholocism do the dwarves' theologians hold? How closely does it eschew to Mexican culture? How does early Mexican culture compare to modern/recent Mexican culture? How closely are the cuisines and fashions followed?
Some things won't be at the distance of across the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean to the Vatican unless I miss my guess. "Vatican City" is alive and well, probably establishing your dwarves as a theocratic state of some sort with "Vatican City" at the heart of the dwarven empire. Recommends include the various orders and secretive/restricted nature of the accumulated collections of knowledge.
The biggest conflict is between surface dwelling Mexicans and dwarves.
Excellent idea of "dwarvenizing" the culture and of using Mexico's historical religious ties. It does raise a lot of questions that need to be answered to flesh out the region, but at the same times sets my mind racing with all sorts of ideas. I do like the idea of having a theocratic state and heavily binding dwarves to religion, and now may toy with the thought dwarves being mostly isolated and perhaps even monotheistic, rejecting the idea of the existance of other deities mostly due to lack of experience with other peoples.
All I really knew for sure was that I wanted to keep to a very Mexican "feel" in regards to the food, culture, holidays, and artwork. My ultimate goal is for my players to instantly link dwarves and Mexican culture in their imaginations when playing in the setting. The dwarves will likely be surface dwelling, but perhaps noctural to keep their darkvision making some sense.
EDIT: I'm also trying to figure out which direction would be best to go in regards to a naming scheme. Would anyone be able to get past the oddness of meeting dwarves named Oscar, Eduardo, Ramon, Ernesto, Isabella, Camila, etc. after a while?
Cliff-dwelling works well and makes sense for why swarthy dwarves don't have problems with light sensitivities while retaining many cultural, culinary and aesthetic elements. The saints et al would go a long way to fleshing out the "pantheon". Dwarven women would decidedly not have beards in this case.
Another element to throw in is machismo. A third is how they relate to non-dwarves. If memory serves, Mexico was expansionistically inclined at one point...
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Cliff-dwellings would also compliment firearms nicely; giving dwarves a good view of the surrounding area with plenty of time to load and fire on attackers climbing up to them, so that is definitely something I'll keep in mind. I like using saints to fill out an otherwise monotheistic pantheon as well.
As luck would have it, many of the gamers I know are proficient in Spanish. If I learn it too then people won't have to say when their character switches to "Dwarven" from "Common" when speaking in game, they could just switch real languages. That would be cool.
Perhaps some local spices are so potent they require Fortitude saves to avoid being sickened while ingesting them? Dwarves gain a bonus on Con and if I allowed them to apply their bonus against poison as well most NPC dwarves could easily eat their dishes without problems that non-dwarven visitors may not be prepared for.
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You mean like this?
Seriously??? Had to laugh.
Sombreros of Protection!
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It's all fun and games until you run into the Dwarf With No Name. ;)
Dotting this thread. Some really good stuff here!
Dotting this as well. It helps that I have a friend from Mexico.
I like it!
Spanish names for dwarves aren’t strange-- dwarflike creatures show up all over European mythologies.
Maybe the ‘Spanish’ dwarves migrated (or came as conquerors) from another region, and have built their nation atop the ruins of an older civilization—one complete with strange idols, buried caches of gold, step pyramids, and ancient bloody rituals?
Hernan Cortes was quite an adventurer! Are/were there any dwarf-conquistadors in your setting?
Do the dwarves rule over non-dwarves (0or over a less advanced culture of dwarves)? Is there anything like the castas system that developed in New Spain? Is there a hierarchy of cultural groups?
Is silver mining a big deal?
How similar to Catholicism is the dwarf religion?
Will you make use of monsters like the ahuizotl or those Aztec vampires who turn into turkeys or balls of fire?
Maybe the ‘Spanish’ dwarves migrated (or came as conquerors) from another region, and have built their nation atop the ruins of an older civilization—one complete with strange idols, buried caches of gold, step pyramids, and ancient bloody rituals?
Hernan Cortes was quite an adventurer! Are/were there any dwarf-conquistadors in your setting?
I was actually discussing this with my fiance this morning. When I told him that I was planning on modeling dwarven religion after Catholocism while still putting them in a Mexican-ish setting he insisted that they should have come to the land as conquistadors long ago and made it their own. I acutally like that as a basis for them; if they had the technology to develop firearms conquoring someplace that didn't shouldn't be too difficult. It would also allow for me to have a divide between "Vatican City" dwarves (as it was put above) and those that live in cave dwellings and maybe worship the previous Gods whom are viewed as evil idols, perhaps.
It is still in the creative stages obviously, and ultimately I haven't decided which way to go.
How similar to Catholicism is the dwarf religion?
Fairly similar at this point. My basic model is to have one major deity that they all worship with a strict church hierarchy of religious officials, while having numerous lesser deities ("saints") with their own portfolios (maybe bearing strong resemblence to the old gods of the land to encourage the natives to convert).
Sounds cool to me, Ringtail.
I use monotheism and a host of saints in my Thunder Rift game.
(That's the Lawful religion for the humans. The Neutral tradition is a druidic faith with some 'wandering friars' and Moorcockian elemental/beast gods elements. The Chaotics are witches, renegade demonologists, and Gnostic heretics).
Just for fun, I'd include a wizard with a coatimundi or an armadillo as a familiar. Wheee!
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Actually I can totally see the "rootin'est tootin'est gunfighter" around...
He's a Dwarf, he is a Pistolero, he has red hair and long red moustachios, he wears spurs, and he looks like THIS.
You might Google paintings of Dwarfs by Velazquez and other Spanish Early Modern painters. The images are not Mexican, but similar fashions would of course have been worn in New Spain by the Spaniards (native-born or peninsular) there.
Thanks ewan; that's actually pretty cool!
Thanks ewan; that's actually pretty cool!
Sure thing.
Good luck with this bit of world-building. I really like it a lot.
If the dwarves are Conquistadors, it might be cool to have the local wood elf tribes be the equivalent of the remnants of the Maya. And the Aztec peoples' analogues might have been something nastier...
I did a high-level step-pyramid dungeon once that housed ethergaunt liches, who came from the stars with their Aztec "god" masters to rule over the area in prehistory, and who hadn't left the pyramid since those gods all vanished.
The OPs idea seems a bit racist to me.
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The OPs idea seems a bit racist to me.
Any more than dwarves being Scottish? :)
I don't detect any malice here. When you create fantasy worlds and borrow human cultures for the non-human races, inevitably some cultures get a fantasy race assigned to them that some find unflattering. (Also know as "Hey, how come all the halflings are French?")
As long as you don't slip into a caricature of Mexicans, I don't think anybody will mind.
If the dwarves are Conquistadors, it might be cool to have the local wood elf tribes be the equivalent of the remnants of the Maya. And the Aztec peoples' analogues might have been something nastier...
I like that idea. I'll more than likely end up using it.
I did a high-level step-pyramid dungeon once that housed ethergaunt liches, who came from the stars with their Aztec "god" masters to rule over the area in prehistory, and who hadn't left the pyramid since those gods all vanished.
Sounds cool; if you have the dungeon saved on a computer and don't mind sharing I'd be interested in reading through it.
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Dwarven Machete
Exotic weapon for everyone else, martial weapon for dwarves.
1d6 damage Crit 20x3
+2 to attack and damage animated sugar cane plants.
You might have read a poor translation. I found The True History of the Conquest of New Spain to be a wonderful book. Or perhaps our literary tastes vary. In any case, I second your recommendation, Bill.
Good call!
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this sounds like a fun campaign . hopefully itll get farther than my wild west style campaign.