RTJ information
Here's what you need to know:
- Characters start at level 1. All standard (i.e. PHB) races and classes are on the table. No classes or races from other sourcebooks are allowed at the start of the game. The default race of the Inca Empire is human, but their conquered neighbours include all the demihuman races. However, the Inca regard them not so much as 'demihuman', but rather 'extremely subhuman', so be prepared to get walked on if you choose to play a non-human. The half-caste races (half-elf and half-orc) are available but not recommended - under Inca rule these despicable mongrels suffer substantially greater persecution than they would in a normal 3.5 game.
- Feat choices from other 3.5 source materials are allowed - but nothing from 3rd-party sources will be permitted.
- Your available choices for weapons and armour are heavily restricted in this setting, and the material from which weapons and armour are made will be a large part of the game, for the Inca had little or no ability to forge goods from iron. There will, of course, be some ahistoricity on this front, because magic, is why. There are 10 tiers of material, split into base (1-5) and spellforged (6-10). Starting gold will be rolled normally, but you will only have access to armour and weapons made of the lower-tier (i.e. base) materials to begin with. Such materials will be an important point of advancement for some of you, as the range of better-quality equipment will have a fairly similar in-game function in the early levels as magical arms and armour would at the same stage in a game where iron is prolific. The following starting armours are available:
- Padded
- Light hide (same as leather)
- Hide
- Breastplate (copper or bronze)
- Splint mail (wood, bone, copper or bronze)
- Light and heavy wooden shields (walkana)
Starting weaponry will be restricted to the following typical Inca wargear:
- Suchuk ch'iq'i: spears (bone, copper or bronze)
- Sawli: longswords and greatswords (wooden, with serrated edges)
- Champi: clubs
- Chaska ch'iq'i: by extension, maces/morningstars (clubs with stone/spiked metal heads)
- Kuncha chukuna: axes (stone, copper or bronze)
- Waraka: slings (normally made of wool)
- Ayllos: bolas (wood or stone)
- T'iwka: shortbows; arrows may be merely sharpened wood, or carry heads of any material
- The different materials modify armour and weapon statistics, depending on a number of criteria. The base materials that you can access at the start of the game, in ascending order of usefulness, are as follows:
Wood < Stone < Bone < Copper < Bronze
Not every item can be made of every material. For example, there are no wooden handaxes, nor are there bone greatswords. A morningstar must be made of metal, in order to have a spiked head and function as a morningstar should. A morningstar with a bone or stone head is a mace, while something made entirely of bone or stone is a club. As a rule of thumb, the prices in the PHB are the cost of copper items. Bronze goods cost 4 times the listed purchase price. Stone or bone items cost half the price shown, while wooden variants can be obtained for 30% or the normal cost. The lower quality material you use, the less your armour will protect you, and the smaller a damage die your weapon will use. For example, bone-reinforced splint mail only grants an AC bonus of +4, while a shortspear with nothing but a fire-hardened tip (i.e. made only of wood) does only d3 damage. There are other effects from materials that may apply also - see the accompanying weapon/armour materials table for details.
- THERE ARE NO HORSES OR WHEELS. The horse was only brought to South America by the Europeans, substantially after the time in which this game is set, and none of the pre-Columbian Amerindian cultures ever invented the wheel. The main mode of transportation - in fact practically the only mode in the Incas' lofty mountain fastnesses - is walking. Fortunately, much like the Romans, the Inca built very good stone roads - some of which can still be seen today - throughout the high valleys of the Andes to speed military foot traffic along and ensure that the empire could be administered efficiently from its centrally-located capital. Oh, and if you're after a pack animal to carry all that treasure you're planning to find, don't waste your time looking around for a sturdy mule. It's llamas or nothing.
If you have any other questions, let me know. Otherwise feel free to send me a brief character concept, or even a mostly-complete character, and we can talk through everything else from there. Thanks!