Xiluh

[SDragon]

'Nother bump, with a new section, and even more added to the timeline. That's right, dwarves are starting to get some special attention!

[SDragon]

Still no new reviews?

Well, there's more in the second age, now. Feel free to comment :)

[Xeviat]

Sdragon, I said I'd come and review, but I'm not sure what is new since the last time I read. What in specific would you like assistance or opinions on?

[SDragon]

Sdragon, I said I'd come and review, but I'm not sure what is new since the last time I read. What in specific would you like assistance or opinions on?

There's quite a bit that's new since your last review. Most recently, I've added a lot to the time line, specifically in the Second Age, and the addition of a calender. Also, there's a small section on Xiluh linguistics, which includes the pronunciations of various words (new words to be added to pronunciation guide soon).

Lastly, Ive started a section for adventure hooks, so any ideas are very welcome.

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=SD1984]Originally, this was intended as a D20-specific world, as the only other system I knew had a built-in setting. Since learning new systems, I've wanted to adapt it to more of a system-neutral setting, but not with much luck.[/blockquote]
I don't know, I think you are taking this somewhere.  I think it has started to take on it;s own, 'non-d20' flavor.
you have learned how to spell calendar!  (you gain a level in the language skill of your choice!)  
 x.
Your first and last adventure hooks look good.

[blockquote=righteous SD1984]Sorcerors and Wizards are viewed sorts of 'unofficial' shamans. This leads to mixed views, as their power is undeniable, but by some it is also unacceptable. Generally, sorcerors are tried to be turned into clerics, whereas wizards are strongly discouraged in all regions but the towns too small to warrant a cleric.[/blockquote]  ok, i am having trouble seeing how these folks learn their trade.  PLease help me.

dwarfs in timelines are not making sense.  we grow, we split, we rebel, people execute us, believe us gone, oops, later in the third age we're back!

Calaneder rings very, very true.  Any racial differences?

and did you ever answer my other pack of queries?

[SDragon]

[blockquote=SD1984]Originally, this was intended as a D20-specific world, as the only other system I knew had a built-in setting. Since learning new systems, I've wanted to adapt it to more of a system-neutral setting, but not with much luck.[/blockquote]
I don't know, I think you are taking this somewhere.  I think it has started to take on it;s own, 'non-d20' flavor.
you have learned how to spell calendar!  (you gain a level in the language skill of your choice!)  

kongrajulashuns tu mi! Ei gt moor skil raynks!

Your first and last adventure hooks look good.

Thank you. I'm open for any suggestions for more adventure hooks.

[blockquote=righteous SD1984]Sorcerors and Wizards are viewed sorts of 'unofficial' shamans. This leads to mixed views, as their power is undeniable, but by some it is also unacceptable. Generally, sorcerors are tried to be turned into clerics, whereas wizards are strongly discouraged in all regions but the towns too small to warrant a cleric.

ok, i am having trouble seeing how these folks learn their trade.  PLease help me.[/blockquote]

Wizards tend to learn more through underground studying, trying to force a semi-logical view of magic, while sorcerors just seem to have an inexplicable, natural knowledge, akin to a prodigy.

dwarfs in timelines are not making sense.  we grow, we split, we rebel, people execute us, believe us gone, oops, later in the third age we're back!

Notice only one dwarf clan rebelled after the split, while the other escaped. The Saag clan is intended to be much more militant in their ideals, whereas the Saan clan is much more pacifistic. Also, it's the more aggressive Saag clan that gets executed, while the Saan clan lives out beyond the reach of the Empire (and was later discovered). I hope to be able to reinforce this a bit more with further developments.

Calaneder rings very, very true.  Any racial differences?

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, here...

and did you ever answer my other pack of queries?

I could have sworn I did, but it seems that I haven't. Hopefully this will do for now, but I'll try my best to get to the rest when I can.

[the_taken]

Yeah... I'm just gonna go ahead and skip the whole thread and review the information in the first post.

Racial Arrogance: Technically (I believe) that Arrogance is Pride without respect for others, but semantics aside, I don't think this affects anything at all. You can still have racist diplomancers convince people to kill all non-elves they come across. That's usualy the story anyway.

Traditionally, immortals like dwarves and elves don't like each other for stupid reasons.
Birds will poop on dwarves, birds live in trees, elves live in trees.
Worms are gross, worms live under rocks, dwarves live under bigger rocks.

Or a more sensible explanation, dwarves and elves live in very different areas from each other and seldom interact. When they do, it's awkward and unfamiliar 'cause they don't immediately notice common interests (one likes rocks and metal, the other music and wood) so they part with bad feelings and share them with the people back home. (WTF's wrong with that hippie?)

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Replacing orcs with a slave race of strong but stupid people is weird, but not particularly bad. The problem with orcs is that they're arrogant, so they'd never submit to being the muscle bound house builder for the crafty merchant, and will instead try to use they're best trait to gain advantages (muscles and fighting). This unfortunately leads to a spiraling decline in Orkdom as the orcs loose wars, being not smart enough to win, and then get marginalized to wastelands, leading to population issues, famine, disease and boredom unless they WAAAGH! on a regular basis.
You've taken the muscle bound retards, took them out of the bad spot, and put them into civilization doing some good. Neat idea, and is actualy a solution I wanted a PC I was going to play try to implement in some game next time I'm a player.

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Gnomes have no place within Xiluh.

So who's going to make my cookies? Or fix my shoes? Or make POTS?
The gardens! Think of the gardens![/joking]

Did you remove kobolds too? Cause those two races are intertwined in a racial feud.
If you removed gnomes, why did you keep hobbits?

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Economics
Assuming that regular D&D has the same money system that we have, or even a similar one that the profession and crafting rules try to tell you exist is complete bullshit.

The people at the bottom of the social ladder are on a system of pure barter for stuff that they need. They'll never ever trade with stuff they can't use, like gold or gems or magic items, and they'll actually refuse to accept money under any condition.

The second level of the world is a more complicated barter system, where gems and precious metals and other valuables are bartered for something that can't be used simply because the population density and the market system is in place so that you will eventually find somebody that wants GP for his turnips and you won't stave to death with a pocket full of money. It's closer to our economic system, except nobody is telling how much a bar of silver is actually worth, and spices are not just used for cooking.

The third level of the economic system is the most ignored system because it creates a whole level of weird and evil that most DMs and campaign setting writers think is stupid and actively say doesn't work. This level is called the Wish Economy, where gems can be created in piles on a whim, souls are traded back and forth to power rituals or be released into their respective afterlife, and kings carry favor with celestials by getting sexed up by them. Essentially, everyone operating at this level is trading power and promises (which is a form of power you might not actually have). PCs enter the wish economy when they acquire planar travel and figure out economy destroying magic like Fabricate.

Having a detailing description of worth of precious items is silly. It may be interesting, even creative and/or logical, but still silly.

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Linguistics may be fun to you, but I barely find it interesting. If I wanted to have fun with languages, I'd take some language courses.
I play D&D to pretend to perform heroic actions, make the laws of physics lick my boots, and create social interactions that simply don't exist for me in real life. I DM to give other people those experiences.

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Although the time line doesn't catch my interest any particular, I found the story of the Sun and Moon adorable.

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As long as we can play games within the setting, performing heroic acts of staking vampire queens or dragon slaying, then the purpose of a campaign setting has been fulfilled.

You're on your way. Keep at it.

[SDragon]

The_Taken, I would comment on your review, but to be honest, I'm not entirely sure I understand what you're trying to say in it. If I do understand parts of it correctly, I'm not even entirely sure how it's relevant to Xiluh... for example, where does it say kobolds and gnomes are "intertwined in a racial feud"?

Anyways, Xiluh has received a much needed spell check. It's still not perfect, but it should be much more readable now.

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=SD1984][blockquote=LV]'¦Calendar rings very, very true. Any racial differences?[/blockquote]


I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, here...[/blockquote]

Well, we did well on the other questions.
I was commenting on the fact that I liked the Calendar system, in that is seemed very solid and real.  I was also asking if there racial differences in how the calendar has used or percieved.

[Ghost]

I'm liking this setting quite a bit, especially the timeline and the creation tale.

However, I have a few questions, stemming from the content provided in the original post:

What is the general size of each race? I'd be guessing not very big, given the level of technology and the fact that they all live on one continent, but it sounds like there are a lot less of the Dwarves than any other race. It sounds like all the Dwarves (at least, all of them on this continent) live in a single mountain.

I'd also want to find out more about how the different races interact with each other. You said that there is little racial arrogance; but how much does it swing the other way? Are there any Human-Elven, Human-Halfling, or Halfling-Dwarf villages, or do the races keep to themselves in their own homelands?

To add to the usefulness of this post, there are a few things I can suggest to add to your setting:
-the placement of a few volcanoes, at least extinct or dormant ones, on your map. That obsidian needs to come from somewhere. Active volcanoes could make fitting sacrificial grounds to the god Sun.
-If you ever go into detail about the weaponry, you could make something similar to the macahuitl, if you haven't already, or if it isn't already covered in a book I haven't read (i haven't really read any RPGs based on mesoamerican culture).

Keep up the good work!

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=SD1984][blockquote=LV]'¦Calendar rings very, very true. Any racial differences?[/blockquote]


I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, here...[/blockquote]

Well, we did well on the other questions.
I was commenting on the fact that I liked the Calendar system, in that is seemed very solid and real.  I was also asking if there racial differences in how the calendar has used or percieved.

still waiting on the racial question about calendars...

also, in case you though I was answering your thread about introdicing an item into a barter economy without perspective...

[blockquote=SD1984]The people at the bottom of the social ladder are on a system of pure barter for stuff that they need. They'll never ever trade with stuff they can't use, like gold or gems or magic items, and they'll actually refuse to accept money under any condition.

The second level of the world is a more complicated barter system, where gems and precious metals and other valuables are bartered for something that can't be used simply because the population density and the market system is in place so that you will eventually find somebody that wants GP for his turnips and you won't stave to death with a pocket full of money. It's closer to our economic system, except nobody is telling how much a bar of silver is actually worth, and spices are not just used for cooking.[/blockquote]

SO as I sted earlier, the inclusion of a single valuable item will do nothing unless it's inclsion creates more transactions, whether by people moving dozens of items to buy it or by bringing more people into the market, or a combination.
But it sounds like this second level is at a place where precious metal coinds are worth their metal worth (which was the truth for hundreds of years in our world) .  Is this correct?

[SDragon]

[blockquote=SD1984][blockquote=LV]'¦Calendar rings very, very true. Any racial differences?[/blockquote]


I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, here...[/blockquote]

Well, we did well on the other questions.
I was commenting on the fact that I liked the Calendar system, in that is seemed very solid and real.  I was also asking if there racial differences in how the calendar has used or percieved.

still waiting on the racial question about calendars...

Actually, I'm still trying to think on how to properly answer that. Every time I think on it and come close to a somewhat decent answer, I get distracted by something, and usually have a hard time returning to that question until quite a bit of my thought process was lost :(

also, in case you though I was answering your thread about introdicing an item into a barter economy without perspective...

[blockquote=SD1984]The people at the bottom of the social ladder are on a system of pure barter for stuff that they need. They'll never ever trade with stuff they can't use, like gold or gems or magic items, and they'll actually refuse to accept money under any condition.

The second level of the world is a more complicated barter system, where gems and precious metals and other valuables are bartered for something that can't be used simply because the population density and the market system is in place so that you will eventually find somebody that wants GP for his turnips and you won't stave to death with a pocket full of money. It's closer to our economic system, except nobody is telling how much a bar of silver is actually worth, and spices are not just used for cooking.

SO as I sted earlier, the inclusion of a single valuable item will do nothing unless it's inclsion creates more transactions, whether by people moving dozens of items to buy it or by bringing more people into the market, or a combination.
But it sounds like this second level is at a place where precious metal coinds are worth their metal worth (which was the truth for hundreds of years in our world) .  Is this correct?[/blockquote]

Uh, that isn't technically Xiluh material, as it wasn't me that said that ;)

But I can post the relevant information in the thread you mentioned, if you'd like. I still have time to work on that campaign, as one of my players is (unfortunately) moving at the end of the month, and that changes more then just a few things in the game for everybody.

[Alexius Carthwall]

First off, I love the fact that Xiluh is set in a Central America kind of setting.  I've always been interested in the cultures in that area and love seeing them taking an morphed into a game play setting.

Sacrifice:
I noticed that sacrifice was an aspect of at least one of the society's in the campaign setting. In Central American cultures sacrifice was used as a way to appease the gods, whether it be to bring good weather, have a good harvest, or just bless the ruler of the city/land.

 

Elves have orange hued bones, suggesting a connection to Sun. This caused a religious significance about the bones, and the bones of ritually sacrificed elves are used as currency.

So my question is, how often do these sacrifices occur? The Mayans generally only sacrificed for Special events, or in dire times (The number sacrifices picked up as their society began to fall apart), however the Aztecs under certain rulers seemed to have sacrifices for just about everything, at times sacrificing people just to appease a crowd of onlookers.

Depending on the amount of sacrifice present in your culture, this could have a major effect on the daily life of people as well as you adventurers. Are Sacrifices chosen by a lottery for all people above a certain age are suppose to be entered into? Are only certain respected people sacrificed? What about criminals, is sacrifice a holy thing in which only worthy people may die by it?  

Another thing to think about is how the other cultures (dwarves, jaguar people, etc) perceive this sacrifice. Is it despicable in their eyes? do they hold sacrifices as well? Do they accept it as a norm of life?

Civilization:
Seeing this is a Central Americanesque based setting, I am gonna go out on a limb and assume that the buildings and progress level (not taking magic into account) is about the same? If so, do all the races have large cities, with massive stone structures and temples? or are some of the races less advanced/prefer another way to live other than cities?



Well thats just a few things I saw/had ideas on ^_^ Hopefully they help give you some ideas, let me know what you think!

[Hibou]

The South America thing is great - you're one of, if not the, flagship setting for the CBG with that kind of backdrop. The feel is very much what I expect for a setting of this type considering my limited knowledge of the cultures.

The only thing I can really bring up that bothers me right now is the lack of things that players seem to be able to do and get involved in. I'd like to see more extensive adventure hooks, monsters, organizations (if any), important locales, etc.

[SDragon]

The South America thing is great - you're one of, if not the, flagship setting for the CBG with that kind of backdrop. The feel is very much what I expect for a setting of this type considering my limited knowledge of the cultures.

Wow! That's a huge compliment, no matter who it comes from! Thanks!

The only thing I can really bring up that bothers me right now is the lack of things that players seem to be able to do and get involved in. I'd like to see more extensive adventure hooks, monsters, organizations (if any), important locales, etc.

I'll try to work on these as soon as I can. At least I know what to do next.

By the way, what about the colors, man? :p