We have been covering the adaptation of Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy Rules Tome to The Primal World of Thaia, my upcoming setting/zine of weird stone & sorcery adventure in a mythical stone age that never was!
In the first post we covered some general principles, and the Shaman (former Cleric) and the Molekin (former dwarf), and on the second the Ancient One (Elf) and the Warrior (Fighter). Today we get to see the last 3 starting classes!
Halfling (Pekik)
The Pekik people are stalwart protectors of the Deep Green Jungle, and have lived there for thousands of years before humanity showed up. These furry and shorty humanoids with deep dark eyes are adept at the spear, and can hide in their natural environments to the point of becoming invisible. Their alliance with the People of the Vale is a recent but firm one.
Halfings are the Pekik of Thaia, and in terms of rules they funciona exactly like Halflings do. They benefit from a short stature, are adept with missile weapons, can hide very well in forested areas, are quick at their feat and have keen hearing.
Languages: Alignment, Human, Pekik
Magic-User
Individuals who learned how to tap into the chaotic energies that have washed over Thaia in the last hundred of years. They are not sure where they come from, but they’ve discovered that if they can channel them, they can create amazing effects that can change the very reality of the world
There’s little change needed in terms of rules for playing a Magic-User in The Primal World of Thaia, beyond adapting the class to a reality of illiteracy.
Languages: Alignment, Human
Spell casting: Spell books in Thaia take the form of animal skin stretched like a sheet and marked with strange symbols and drawings. The characters interpret the symbols instead of reading them.
Thief (Survivalist)
These individuals know their way in the wild. They can climb mountains with barely any help. They can set traps to catch animals, and even larger creatures, as well as avoid traps set by others. And they seem to be followed by luck, as they manage to operate strange artifacts and relics with an incredible rate of success.
A Thief is a Survivalist in this setting, and they work mechanically very similarly to the Thief class in the core rules. However, since the world is a primal setting with a lot less urban environments than normal fantasy settings, some of the Thief’s original abilities need some reinterpretation.
Languages: Alignment, Human
Read Languages: In an illiterate world such as Thaia, this ability actually allows the Survivalist to decipher hieroglyphs, weird cave paintings, and other pictorial marks left by other people.
Find and remove treasure traps: This ability is now named a Avoid Hazards, and works not just against traps (which (which normally aren’t as common and as elaborate in Thaia), but against natural hazards too, such as which berries are safe to eat, if this or that herb is poisonous or edible, and such things.
Open locks: Survivalists won’t have much experience with actual locks and similar mechanisms, but they are extremely lucky, and sometimes they survive exactly because of that. So this ability allows Survivalists to open locks and operate mechanisms way beyond their comprehension.
In the next post we will be back with our play report of our Primal Quest campaign in The Primal World of Thaia, an upcoming zine for Old-School Essentials and Primal Quest!
I must say I was curious about how you were going to address neolithic spells and of course you figured that out, I like what you’ve done!