Some of you may have noticed the new game image to the
right. This is the game we are currently
playing. My wife’s Dragon Age game got
put on hold for various personal reasons, and one of the guys in our group has
been working on Turtle Island for a long time.
So, we just decided to jump in.
Basically, it’s 14th century “North America” (as
in before it was known as such). We’re
all members of the Penobscot tribe (plenty of M*A*S*H jokes to be had every
time the name is mentioned), living in what is currently the state of Maine.
It’s a fun take on D&D for many reasons. Mainly, Native Americans (or Indigenous
Peoples). That right there makes it a
cool idea. And all that goes with it
makes it a very unique play setting.
Things like no armor to speak of, no “uber” spells (like Fireball or Lightning
Bolt), different kinds of classes, and unique takes on existing classes.
All of this is handled well by the DM who wrote a lot of new
rules and variations to cover these ideas.
I’m pushing him to put it all into a publishable format. I think this would do gangbusters at RPGNow.
Our group is kind of large, but with a wide variety of
characters and character-types. So far
we’ve fought some bears, a giant snake, a giant lobster (this is Maine, after
all), and a witch. We’re still dealing
with the witch, though. She did a number
on an NPC, and we are inclined to help her, and the village in general, out of
this mess.
And once again, I have pigeon-holed myself into the role of
hulking warrior. So, to counter that, I’ve
decided that my excessively large Brave (Fighter), who spent time among the
Bear Spirits in the Spirit Realm, is very self-conscious about his freakish size
and strength. I imagine him being like
if Andre the Giant had been an Indigenous.
His name is Sitting Bear, mainly because he has taken on a lot of the
mannerisms of a bear, including just sitting when he is not active.
Already had some interesting RP moments with him. He has an affinity with bears, so he doesn’t eat bear meat, and has a
preference for eating a lot of fish.
This affinity came into play when he stopped his companions from killing a mama
bear who was defending her cub by imitating a bear and turning on his party to “scare
them off.” And it worked! The mama and her cub escaped into the woods
unharmed (papa bear had already been killed, which upset Sitting Bear somewhat).
He also started an odd romantic involvement of sorts with an
NPC who is physically deformed, which he identifies with. It’s a long, complicated story, but it’s fun.
Probably won’t get to play again until after the new year,
but I’m looking forward to seeing where this is going.
