Player's Guide.pdf

Know, brave wanderers, that we live in the dawn of a terrible new age. Our great-

grandfathers speak of an age undreamed of, a shining time of plenty, when the

wilderness was not so wild to us and the earth was our mother who provided all things.

That was before drought and famine set each tribe at the throats of its rivals. Before the

sorcerer-slavers came across the salt-foamed sea from Atlantis and stole a generation of

our people, or the Sea Wolves turned the coast into a red tide of blood and slaughter.

Before the Shenites and Skadians came with their new gods and strange ways, and

before we knew the fear of Ruskar war parties. More ominous still are the dark storm

clouds gathering on spiritual horizons. The spirits were once our guides and allies, but

now, with the coming of the mists, terrible beasts that have no place in a sane world

stalk through the otherworldly vapors. Our future is pregnant with dangers unimagined.

Stay awhile and sit by the warmth of the ire, for it is a wise youth who will listen to

what an aging warrior has lived to know.

- Unknown Elder

TOTEMS OF THE DEAD PlAyErS GuiDE

AuTHOr’S DEDicATiOn

ThiS BOOK iS DeDicATeD TO The MAny fRienDS, fAnS AnD plAyTeSTeRS WhO helpeD ThiS DReAM

BecOMe ReAliTy, AnD TO ReBeccA, My lOving Wife AnD RuThleSS BARBARiAn queen.

Setting Created by: Matthew E. Kaiser

Written By: Matthew E. Kaiser, with additional writing by David Viars and Steve Ellis

Edited By: Piotr Korys, Donna Burke, and Michael Gosack

Project Manager: David Jarvis

Art Direction: David Jarvis

Cartography: Keith Curtis

Cover Art: Nick Greenwood

Graphic Design: Aaron Acevedo

Interior Art: Tomek Tworek, Jason Walton, Bradley K. Mcdevitt, Joseph Wigield, Storn Cook

Layout: David Jarvis

Play testers and Feed back: David Viars, Jackie Matalavage, Shawn Watts, Shane Wheeler, Nick

Riley, Mike Tousignant Andrea "Lord Lance" Parducci, Nick Nundahl, Greg Miller, Molly Creigh-

ton, Maria Greenwood, Eric Baker, Nicolai Sthyr-Nielsen, Peter Emanuelsen, Rasmus Strandridder,

Henrik Nielsen, André Schmidt, Marcus Burggraf, Jon Ginsberg, Allison Giordano, Andrew Show-

ers, Darek Rauch, Jeremy Kelly, Jon Jankowski, Jack Berberette, Shawn Maynard, Curtis Lyon,

Sarah Lyon, Heidi Levin, Zach Cameron, and the mysterious Steve(!), M. Scott Welker (GM), Chuck

DeHoag, Sam Doolittle, Will Koella, Mike Reglein

SPECIAL THANKS to Jon Ginsberg for all of your feedback and advice! This book

wouldn’t be what it is without your help.

Legal Information

This game references the Savage Worlds Deluxe game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group

at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds Deluxe and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle

Entertainment Group. Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality,

viability, or suitability for purposes of this product.

Some game mechanics material from Solomon Kane is copyright Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc. and is

used with permission.

This edition is printed and distributed, under license, by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Limited of Riverside House,

Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES, UK. For further information about other Cubicle 7 Entertainment games please

check out our website and forums at http://www.cubicle7.co.uk.

Games. Unless otherwise stated, all interior artwork, graphics, character names, and iction are Product Iden-

tity of Gun Metal Games.

cOnTEnTS

contents

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 4

CHAPTER TWO: HEROES 11

Creating a Character 13

1) Race 13

2) Traits 13

3) Edges & Hindrances 14

4) Starting Rank 15

5) Gear 15

6) Background Details 16

CHAPTER THREE: GEAR 46

Selected Gear Notes 47

Armor Notes 47

Weapon Notes 48

Misc. Gear Notes 49

CHAPTER FOUR: MAGIC AND SORCERY 57

True Magic vs. Sorcery 58

Corruption 59

Arcane Backgrounds 59

Arcane Background (Alchemy) 59

Arcane Background (Blood Magic) 61

Arcane Background (Rune Casting) 63

Arcane Background (Sangoma) 65

Arcane Background (Seidr) 66

Arcane Background (Shamanism) 67

Powers 68

Magic Items 77

CHAPTER FIVE: GODS 80

Cosmology 80

The Physical World 80

The Spirit World (Midewae) 80

Gods and Spirits 81

Atlantean Deities 81

Native Deities and Major Spirits 83

Lesser Spirits 88

Maztlani Gods & Spirits 88

Lesser Gods 92

Shenese Gods 92

Skadian Deities 93

CHAPTER SIX: SETTING RULES 97

Alternate Tricks & Tests of Will 97

Bravery & Despair 97

Combat Openings

CHAPTER SEVEN: GAZETTEER 107

World Overview 108

REGIONAL BREAKDOWN 108

Atlantis 108

The Skadian Settlements 110

Rimeland 112

Jotunland 112

The Frozen North 112

The Northeastern Woodlands 115

The Iniwek Confederation 116

League of Three Fires 117

League of the Long House 118

The Southeastern Woodlands 120

The Shemayene Confederacy 121

The Tenatza Alliance 121

Nunne Confederacy 122

Overhill Yunwi 123

The Buffalo Plains 125

The Spirit Plateau 129

Ahabi Desert Basin 129

The Eagle Coast 132

The Grandfather Mountains 134

The City-State of Shen 135

Anazi Badlands 137

The Anchaka 137

The Kohoko 137

The Masuwu 139

Maztlani Empire 141

Yaurcoan Empire 147

The Amizani River Basin 148

Fallen Empire of the Zipaca 150

ORGANIZATIONS & SECRET SOCIETIES 151

Brotherhood of the Wolf 151

Buffalo Calling Society 151

Circle of the Black Star 151

Cult of Fenrir 151

False Face Society 151

Mankani Society 151

Ma-Wan-Da Society 151

Midewin Grand Medicine Society 151

Mishugamua Society

152

Order of the Arrow

152

Order of the Axe

152

Order of the Red Tear

152

Combined Attack Maneuver

Pact of the Endless Vortex

152

Counting Coup

Priests of the Bow

152

Dancing

Quill Society

153

Herbalism

100

Rattlesnake Society

153

No Spell Points

102

Zibwing Historical Society

153

Parry Penalty

102

THE LANDS ACROSS THE SEA

153

Powwows & Carousing

103

Borea: the Dark Continent

153

Push/Throw Maneuver

103

Eurashi

153

Singing and Chanting

103

Chen-Hai

153

Sports

104

Hyperborea

153

Violence Beyond Rank

105

Lemuria

153

Buying off Hindrances

105

Middangeard

153

Vision Quests

106

Ruskland

153

War Paint

106

INDEX

154

inTrODucTiOn

cHAPTEr OnE: inTrODucTiOn TO THE

unTAMED lAnDS

“There is no literary work, to me, half as zestful as rewriting history in the guise of iction.”

- Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft

Welcome to Totems of the Dead , a sword and sor-

cery fantasy setting loosely based on pre-Columbian

Native American legends and history, including the

attempted settlement of the Norse colonists in the

Americas. While the world of Totems of the Dead bears

some resemblance to the history and mythology of

our own world, it is a distinct place with its own

history, inhabitants and geography. Similar to the

Norsemen of our own history, the Skadians of Totems

of the Dead journeyed to a new world across the sea

and attempted to colonize it. In Totems of the Dead ,

this colonization effort was largely successful, and a

small Skadian nation now lives and grows along with

its neighboring native chiefdoms amidst the untamed

lands of this beautiful, yet dangerous, new world.

Now a new wave of invasions has arisen, from the

bloodthirsty Ruskar from the icy northwest to the

Atlanteans invading the eastern shores.

How to use This Book

This book presents a sword and sorcery setting in-

spired by Native American history and mythologies,

just as Eurasian history and mythologies have in-

formed and inspired countless fantasy settings such

as Robert E. Howard’s world of Hyboria. The con-

tinent presented here may be used on its own, as a

self-contained setting, or be added alongside your

own favorite Eurasian-inspired fantasy continent as

a sort of “new world” for your characters to explore

alongside the fantasy version of the “old world.”

Totems of the Dead is presented here as a setting for

the Savage Worlds rules system, so you will need a

copy of the Savage Worlds core rules to play. Specii-

cally, this book assumes you are using this setting

with either the Savage Worlds explorer’s edition or the

Savage Worlds Deluxe edition .

Player introduction

So you want to be a hero? Then there are some

things you are going to need to know about the

untamed lands and what has shaped them over the

years. Once, this land enjoyed an unpar-

alleled age of peace and prosper-

ity, but now the days grow dark.

The great civilizations, under inter-

nal and external pressures, threaten

to devolve into barbarism or worse.

Raiding, war and death grow ever

more common, allowing the crows and

vultures to grow fat on the wound-

feast.

THE cOMinG OF

THE SEA WOlvES

The irst contact that the natives of the

untamed lands had with the Skadians

was not with settlers. The irst Ska-

dians came not to stay, but to burn and

pillage. Silver, copper, gold and precious

stones were not the only prizes sought

by Skadian raiders as they looted any-

thing of value and burned what they could

not carry away. They painted village after vil-

lage red with blood up and down the coast and

made off with womenfolk, precious metals,

turquoise, jade and shell alike.

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