Economy in the Land of the Ten Clans

One of the things I find fascinating about Chinese history is that it was a copper based economy and were very early adopters of paper money. I am not going to delve into the complications that a paper money economy would bring to a fantasy world, so I am going to stick to that unappreciated and much maligned copper piece. Gold was never minted and never widely used as a currency (except for the upper echelons of society) and silver normally showed up in ingots, not coins.

While hardly accurate, here is my attempt at translating the normal D&D coinage system into something like an ancient Chinese copper-based economy:

1 cp = 1 copper coin
1 sp = 1 “ring” of 10 copper coins
1 gp = 1 “string” of 100 copper coins
1 pp = 1 silver ingot

What follows is a very basic breakdown of the primary trade goods that are present in Land of the Ten Clans, broken down by region:

Beongae (Lightning)

Livestock: Pig/Boar
Grain: Rice
Crop: Cucumbers
Raw Material: Wood
Premium Finished Good: Music Instruments/Bells
Inferior Finished Good: Textiles

Doku (Poison)

Livestock: Poltry
Grain: Green Millet
Crop: Oranges
Raw Material: Clay
Premium Finished Good: Bone China
Inferior Finished Good: Tea (Green)/Rice Wine (Green)

Huo (Fire)

Livestock: Dog
Grain: Wheat
Crop: Pomelos
Raw Material: Cotton
Premium Finished Good: Tea (Red)/Rice Wine (Red)
Inferior Finished Good: Armor & Weapons

Korudo (Cold)

Livestock: Crab
Grain: Sorghum
Crop: Chesnuts
Raw Material: Feldspar & Quartz
Premium Finished Good: Armor & Weapons
Inferior Finished Good: Musical Instruments/Bells

Suan (Acid)

Livestock: Fish
Grain: Black Millet
Crop: Dates
Raw Material: Ore
Premium Finished Good: Silk
Inferior Finished Good: Porcelain

Note: a Premium Finished Good refers to the highest quality version of that product in the land whereas Inferior Finished Good refers to the most common and affordable version of the product.

A Map of The Land of the Ten Clans

Any resemblance to the Real World is purely intentional

Races of the Land of the Ten Clans

I not only want the Land of the Ten Clans to be Asian-flavored fantasy, but I also want it to be human-centric. Therefore, there will none of the standard D&D non-human flavors of demi-humans such as elves, dwarves or halflings. I do, however, want there to be distinct differences between the various human factions. Therefore, rather than using the standard human racial traits, I propose the following:

Humans in the Land of the Ten Clans

• +1 on two Ability Scores of your choice
• Proficiency in one Skill of your choice
• Subrace

Human Subraces in the Land of the Ten Clans

Beongae (Lightning)

• +1 Str
• Advantage on Athletic checks when swimming; auto succeed on DC10 or less
• Double Con when determining how long you can hold your breath
• Languages: Common and Beongaego

Doku (Poison)

• +1 Int
• Ability to write in a Cipher that requires magic or a DC of (your Int + Proficiency Bonus) to read. It is possible to teach allies to read your cipher without a check.
• Languages: Common, Dokugo plus 3 additional Languages of your choice

Gweilo (Outsider)

• Gain 3 proficiencies in any combination of skills or tools of your choice
• Languages: Common and Gweilogo

Huo (Fire)

• +1 Con
• Base Move is 35 feet
• Advantage on Con Saves vs. Exhaustion
• Languages: Common and Huogo

Korudo (Cold)

• +1 to an Ability of Choice
• Gain Saving Throw Proficiency with that Ability
• Languages: Common and Korudogo

Suan (Acid)

• +1 Wis
• You can read lips. As long as you can see a person's lips, you can get a good idea of what that person is saying (though not exact without actually hearing the person) 
• +5 on passive Wisdom (Perception) and passive Int (Investigation) scores
• Languages: Common and Suango

This set-up also allows me to change what are considered to be Standard Languages in the Land of the Ten Clans. Here is the list, where the Script from more traditional D&D languages is indicated in parenthesis:

Common (Draconic)
Beongaego (Elvish)
Dokugo (Draconic)
Hengeyokai (Elvish)
Gweilogo (Celestial)
Huogo (Draconic)
Korudogo (Dwarvish)
Oni (Infernal)
Suango (Draconic)

Note: I do plan to allow PCs to be Hengeyokai, but rather than a separate race, they will be represented by a Background.

Veil of St. Iwe

So, because I have been meditating on an asian-themed campaign world, I was obliged to draw a picture of a temple guard armed with a testubo (because that is a fundamental image for me and all things asian-fantasy). As any artist can tell you, there are times when art just demands things of the artist that the artist wasn't really planning on. This is one of those times and things went a little weird:

Temple Guard of the Order of St. Iwe

Evidently, members of the Order of St. Iwe wear a veil emblazoned with an open eye surrounded by  divine light. Given that, as temple guards, these guys need to see, I decided a new minor magic item was called for:

The Veil of St. Iwe

This simple cloth emblazoned with a open eye surrounded by divine light must be worn over the face in order for this item to work. While wearing the veil, the user gains advantage on all visual perception checks; however, any attempt to hide, disguise or otherwise conceal the use of the veil will automatically fail. Every creature encountered will treat the user as a member of the Order of St. Iwe (whether the user is an actual member or not) with all of the discrimination and persecution that comes with it.