Lords of Chaco
Adventures in the Ancient Southwest
A D20 System Expansion By Tori Bergquist
1st Draft 1/06/04 released from https://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/ancientworlds

In the mists of unrecorded history lie the untold tales of the original settlers of southwest America, the native americans who comprised the greater cultural complex referred to as the Pueblo cultures. The Zuni, Hopi, Tewa, and Tonoho’Odoham are modern descendants of the much older peoples to colonize and dwell in the four corners region and throughout New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and even Nevada. The Anasazi, Mogollon, Kayenta, Mesa Verde, and Cinagua Indians were all prominent cultures in the southwest, living lives with an egalitarian structure, building pueblos, kivas, ball courts, and other complex structures for their time, and building complex religious practices based on oral tradition and costumed dance. Warfare, exploration, trade and commerce was a presence in the lives of these people, and judging by the oral traditions handed down to the present, a sense of morality, inquisitiveness, and adventure was also important.
The Lords of Chaco sourcebook is going to provide a breakdown on how to run a campaign of primitive adventure, a sort of fantasy brought to its roots, using the Southwestern puebloan cultures as the root for this material. I will try to be as authentic as possible in details without bogging it down in any unnecessary complexity. The idea is that you should be able to use this material to run a campaign in the spirit of the ancient Anasazi and others, but that it should be flexible enough to provide a sort of mytho-historical basis for your game. If you want to conspire to create your own fantastical worlds and realms, you can do it with this material. If you want to be as close as possible to the “real world” view on the ancient southwest, then you should be able to do it here as well. Unlike my Roman Republic campaign, “The Ancient Realms,” I am not going to pin this particular campaign down to a specific period in time. Instead, I’ll provide you with an accessible (non-academic) overview of a several hundred year period in history, and allow you to either derive from that your campaign’s period in time, or extrapolate from that same outline a variety of intermixed cultures in your own mytho-historical campaign. A third possibility is the “Southwest as it Should Be” option, in which you presume all myths are true, and the world of the Lords of Chaco is a timeless realm, one with no risk of European contact down the road, great droughts causing massive social and geographical upheaval, and so forth.
Anyway you take it, enjoy using this material! I will provide an expansion down the road for running games set in the period of European contact, as well, so you can intermix this information with more traditional “modern” D&D elements as well. Enjoy!

Campaign Styles
As mentioned above, you might want to think about what sort of campaign style you would like to start a Lords of Chaco game with. Some suggestions:
Historical
Historical adventures should pick a time period on the Historical Chart below, and from that you should provide the PCs with a basic understanding of what they would know about that period of time. An effort to keep regional names and cultures straight should be made, and you can use actual sites and locations in the Southwest for adventures. Some liberty with the myths and characters of the land may be taken, but the material will for practical purposes be derived from what we know of the cultures recorded after European contact. Supernatural elements and characters may not exist in this campaign style.
Fantasy Historical
In this environment, you can take some unexpected liberties with how the cultures of the southwest worked, can compress lengthy events over time in to abrupt, catastrophic events for PCs to deal with, make things a little bigger than life, and be more liberal with the supernatural elements and their origins.
Mytho-Historical
In the Mytho-historical setting, you can be more prosaic in the nature of the southwestern peoples and their lives, read up on the mythic figures and tales of the southwestern indians and integrate such material in to the daily events of the campaign. In such a campaign, PCs are as likely to bargain with Coyote himself as they are a rival village elder.
The Way It Should Be
This is the Southwest as only epic fantasy merged with the tall tales of myths could tell it. Here you could be a trickster figure yourself, the gods are active and busily working to put the finishing touches on Creation, Ogre Kachinas are as big a threat to your community as the neighboring cannibals, and somewhere in your Atl-Atl wielding Kayenta Warrior is a dollop of Hyperborean heritage compliments of Robert E. Howard. This is the most flexible, wild, and over-the-top approach to a Southwest Campaign.

Languages
Characters may choose from a list of appropriate languages (see the section on appropriate languages). In the Americas, there were two major migrations of broad language groups, the Uto-Aztecan (of which most Southwest Puebloan cultures were a part), and the Athapascan (a later migration, from which Apache, Navajo, and most Canadian groups were part). The Lords of Chaco assumes most human cultures come from the same broad language group (Uto-Aztecan), and so may attempt to communicate with other groups of different local dialect by making a DC 12+ check on Intelligence to get a basic understanding across. If the conversation is complex or specific, the DM should increase the DC appropriately.
Literacy did not exist as such in the Southwest. All characters are illiterate. There is a special form of skill that can be bought as a language: Glyphic Script. A character with Glyphic Script can read and write the symbology of his culture in the form of pictographs (painted symbols) and petroglyphs (stone carved symbols) on stone walls in caves, canyons, cliffs, etc. Such symbols are used for recording events, notating astronomical and seasonal details, and supernatural information. It is not a common means of communication, at least not as modern language is used. A character with Glyphic Script may buy ranks in Decipher Script and use that skill to divine the esoteric meaning of petroglyphs and pictographs.
Some suggested Languages: Chacoan, Kayenta, Cinagua, Mogollon, Hohokam, Tradespeak, Chichimec, Western (Californian), Plains (Eastern). This is a simplified way of handling languages.
The following are optional Fantasy Languages: Crow, Coyote, Raven, Snake, Spirit (Sky), Spirit (Underworld), Rabbit, Insect.
Optional Languages of Later Athapascan Cultures: Apache, Navajo, Yaqui. A Unique Language: Zuni (use if you put a Zuni archetype/equivalent somewhere in the campaign).
Modern Language groups would include Hopi, Zuni, Ute, Tiwa-Tewa, Tonoho’Odoham (Papago), Yaqui, Apache, Navajo, Commanche, and others. These are all languages that would show up after 1400.
Fictional Languages
You could choose to run a larger than life game set in a southwest of your own devising. The archetypal languages of such a realm should include one or more of the following: A language for each major pueblo culture, a language for the invading pastoral culture(s), one or more languages for other nomadic cultures, usually new to the area, and some foreign languages for those “other people out over the mountains.”

Character Races
Characters in The Lords of Chaco may belong to one of the following races: Humans, Shapeshifters, Anthropomorphs, and Spiritfolk. Among these races, Humans are the only historical race available; the rest may be available in other campaign formats at the DM’s discretion.
Humans
Humans function much like they do in the Core Rules, and receive all listed benefits there to reflect the natural heritage of ingenuity, invention, and predilection for survival that one finds in the species at large. Humans may start with their native language, and additional languages chosen from the Language section appropriate to the game, at the DM’s discretion. Humans should also choose a cultural background appropriate to the campaign style.

Shapeshifters
Some humans in the myths of the southwest are capable of changing form. This is usually a sign of witchcraft, but many instances of shapeshifters appear in myth, individuals who can change form to that of an animal, and perhaps have an affinity for that particular species. If you choose this racial template, it is assumed you are the latter (animal shifting form) and you must consciously choose to be a witch (described as a two-heart or skin walker).
Shapeshifters who are animal kin will receive benefits of the animal they are able to change in to. These characters may polymorph at will in to the form of said animal, and should look for stats on the animal that are appropriate in the Monster Manual. Their animal form will have all stats as per the animal type, but Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Hit Points, and skill values will be based on the human form of the character. A Shapeshifter in animal form gains access to all attacks, feats, and special abilities of that form, and when achieving a new level, may choose to advance the level of that form instead of in a class (in other words, a level of class in that animal form, instead of in a standard class. Use the MM rules for advancement).

• Shapeshifters receive the aforementioned benefits of the animal kin affinity.
  
• Shapeshifters start with a language skill of their native tribe and their animal form.
  
• Shapeshifters may transform to their animal shape as a standard action, with no limitations on number of times per day.
  
• A Shapeshifter may choose to be a Skin Walker. If so, then the Skin Walker receives a modifier to their ability: they must remove their human skin (slough it off) to expose their animal form. While unattended, damage to their human skin (equal to 1/2 the PC’s Hit Points) will prevent them from ever transforming back. The perk is that A Skin Walker may choose one first level Arcane or Divine spell that they can perform as an innate ability once per day.
  
• A Shapeshifter gets a +1 bonus to it’s human attribute that would be highest for it’s animal form, and a -1 modifier to it’s lowest equivalent animal attribute on it’s human form.
  
• A Shapeshifter gets a natural +1 bonus on it’s Spot, Listen and Wilderness Lore skills to reflect their animal natures.
  
• A Shapeshifter may be an anthropomorph. Anthropomorphs are special shapeshifters with a third form, that of a humanoid beast. Such individuals proliferate the stories of the Pueblo myths, and it is often that a character like Coyote will seem to be an animal in one story, humanoid in another, and so forth. Such anthropomorphs are similar to spirit folk, usually, and their humanoid form wil have the physical attributes of their human side and the sensory, special abilities, and attacks of their animal side.
  
  

• Spiritfolk are immortal, and never experience any effects from aging. They are not immune from death by violence, disease, or other non-age related forms of death, however.
  
• Spiritfolk are magical beings, and may take the Sorcerer or Shaman as favored classes. They never receive any experience penalties due to multiclassing with these classes.
  
• Spiritfolk have fairly unique characteristics which mark their unusual heritage. A spiritfolk character may choose from one of the following spell like abilities, and he may adopt that ability and use it once per day per three levels of experience: Change Self, Invisibility, Speak with Animals, Comprehend Languages, Cure Light Wounds, Magic Weapon, Spider Climb, or any other 1st level spell that the DM approves of. At 5th level, the Spiritfolk character may choose a 2nd level spell as a spell like ability, which may be used once per day (with an additional use per day once per three levels). At 10th level, the Spiritfolk character may choose a third spell like ability which may be chosen among the 1st-3rd level abilities, and which advances at the same previously described rate.
  
• Spiritfolk must choose a unique distinguishing characteristic. It may be based on appearance or behavior. If a behavior is chosen, then the Spiritfolk is supernaturally bound to it, and must make a Will save at DC 30 to ever resist following through on the behavior, or act contrary. For example: Coyote is a spiritfolk known as a trickster throughout the land. He cannot resist an attempt at trickery when presented. If he resists an opportunity which is evident, then he must make his will check to avoid it.
  
• All spiritfolk are subject to a special limitation: the rule of 4. Questions, actions, and sequences of “4” are of special significance to the world of the spirits, and as such, when the issue of 4 is invoked, another Will roll at DC 30 must be made to resist a causal effect from the sequence. For example, a person asks Coyote four times why he is traveling east, and he refuses the first three times. The fourth time, he must make a Will save at DC 30 or blurt out the correct answer. If the result of a rule of 4 would be detrimental to the health of the Spiritfolk, the DC drops to 15, but must still be made; again, for example: Coyote is asked four times to participate in a race with Jaguar, who insists that the loser be eaten. Coyote can make a DC 15 to resist since he doesn’t want to be eaten. Exception: GM controlled spiritfolk do not get a modified DC for risky business except under special circumstances; this is a special perk for player character spiritfolk only.
  

Character Classes:

There are a variety of existing classes and some new core classes available in the Lords of Chaco setting. Some of the core rule classes are inappropriate, except under special campaign conditions.
Barbarian
Barbarians are a class which fits a European theme, and to be a barbarian, one should have a civilization for point of comparison. Nonetheless, the raw fury and primal focus of the barbarian class can be acceptable in a Lords of Chaco campaign. Such characters would be drawn from northern athapascan tribes, Plains dwellers, and other foreign cultural groups to the established societies in the Southwest.
Bard
The classic bard is inappropriate for Lords of Chaco. The Storyteller Exper class is it’s effective replacement; Simply use the Expert class with Perform as the primary ability. Such Experts likely cross class with Shaman, however, to gain mystical insights to their tales.
Cleric
Clerics are decidedly Old World, and would be appropriate to represent a Columbian period contact campaign, if Spaniards are allowed. Such clerics would be catholic missionaries and monks, often quite eccentric, to have come to the New World to explore and convert.
Druid
Druids are decidedly European and would not be permissible in a Lords of Chaco campaign. However, some of the Druid spells are now available to sorcerers.
Fighter
The concept of the professional warrior is undeveloped in the Mythic Southwest, but nonetheless, warfare and battle are common. Fighters are a regular class, and are usually tribal warriors, lone wanderers skilled in protecting themselves, or aggressive leaders and protectors.
Modification: Fighters are proficient with all weaponry and armor available in the southwest (see the list) but do not begin with proficiency in more modern arms and armor until exposed to such for one full level. If a fighter in a post-columbian game, for example, finds a suit of plate mail from a conquistador, he can wear it, but must doe so at penalty until he advances a level. After that, he is considered proficient as a fighter with that object.
Fighters do not get to pick any mounted combat feats unless you are running a post-columbian campaign in which horses have been introduced.
Paladin
A paladin does not fit in to a Lords of Chaco campaign, although a high fantasy campaign featuring Post-Columbian contact with Spaniards or another fantasy realm of similar nature might allow for holy conquistadors of god. Such paladins might have some unusual notions of right and wrong, when dealing with the natives of the Mythic Southwest.
Ranger (Scouts and Hunters)
The ranger is a rare but permissible class, a variant of the fighter who is obsessed with monster hunting. The ranger’s wilderness focus is diminished in Lords of Chaco, as all PCs are prone to developing a rapport with nature out of necessity, but the ranger could be the one who takes it just a few steps farther. Optional, but not entirely inappropriate if you’re running monster-heavy high fantasy games.
Rangers also reflect the scouts and hunters who are common professions amongst the communities of the land. If you wish to run a character with such skills, the ranger is appropriate.
Modifications: Rangers may choose not to learn magic, and instead take Weapon Specialization at 4th level and then on as a Fighter instead. Such rangers may gain an extra proficiency slot at 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level instead of spell use. If they take this option, they may never become spell casters.
Rogue (Trader, Furrier, Trickster, Explorer)
The rogue is the other principle character class next to fighter. A rogue’s ability to be a jack of all trades becomes important in the Mythic Southwest, and a nimble adventurer, explorer, and trickster is considered a necessary component of society. Rogues are found as traveling traders moving from community to community offering trade goods, furriers who bring in skins from the hunt, and even opportunists who move to a community and stay there until they wear out their welcome.
Modifications: Lock Pick does not exist (no locks to pick). Clown Dancing (Dex), Bargaining (Cha), and Perform: Storytelling (Cha) are new class skills.
Sorcerer (Witch, Two-Heart, Sorcerer)
Sorcerers are feared and respected. Often regarded as witches, sorcerers are mortals who have been touched by the spirits, either through dark bargains, accident of birth, or more sinister means. Sorcerers are standard spell casters in the Lords of Chaco, as the use of magic written in a book does not presently exist.
Modifications: Sorcerers have a stigma when using their magic amongst those unfamiliar with their nature. They experience a -2 to -4 circumstance penalty when dealing with those who are fearful of magic or suspect that they are either witches or monsters.
Sorcerers in the Mythic Southwest may choose from more than the usual list of spells in the Player’s Handbook. Sorcerers get to pick from the Druid and Sorcerer spell lists, and in fact Druid spells are considered especially appropriate. Some spells may not be specifically appropriate in the Mythic Southwest, and require some modification. Any spell which involves a metal implement or creature not native to the land will instead require the culturally/regionally appropriate equivalent, or supply the caster with something that meets such requirements. For example, Monster Summoning will summon only appropriate monsters (dire wolves, bears, boars, and so forth are okay) but not others (demons or devils, for example).
The Magic section provides a complete list of appropriate and inappropriate spells for Chacoan Sorcerers.
Wizard
The wizard has not appeared is the Mythic Southwest yet, although a post-columbian campaign might allow for mystic scholars seeking lost knowledge in the New World.
NPC Classes:
The Commoner is a permissible class to reflect the average man or woman in a community. Likewise, Experts, though not so common, could be found among artisans who specialize in pottery making, wood working, adobe construction, agriculture, animals (turkeys or parrots in the south), trade and jewelry. Aristocrats are not permitted except in a post-columbian campaign or among Mesoamerican cultures, if elements are introduced. Warriors would represent the average defenders of a community and Acolytes could exist as secretive witches.

New Classes of the Mythic Southwest

Pueblo Shaman
The Pueblo Shaman(or just shaman) is a common and respected religious figure among the southwestern cultures. Shamans are astute religious men who are well versed in the language and dealings of the spirit world, and who are both civic leaders and ceremonial organizers. Considered valuable advisors to community chieftains and average men alike, shamans have a lot of social clout in their communities.
Shamans are made, not born, and a shaman will take on a student in his time, a youth of the community who has a particularly potent vision quest, in which fasting and other means are taken to have a direct mystical encounter with the spirit world. Such a shaman in training goes through a profound change, and will come away from the experience with knowledge of the spirit real, divine magic, and his totem spirit animal.
Adventures: Shamans can be tethered to a community which they defend and aid, or they can be called to wander by the spirits they seek to work with or control. Shamans are mysterious, beholding to no one save their mysterious pursuits.
Characteristics: Shamans are divine practitioners of magic, and either receive or steal their magic from the spiritual world which overlaps the real world around them. Shamans gain this connection through their totem spirit, a spirit animal which travels with them in the spiritual realm and grants them a special tether to the real of things unknowable.
Alignment: Shamans are capable of reflecting many different needs and personalities according to the dictates of their tether to the spirit world. A civic leader and religious organizer would be lawful, while a Shaman who becomes corrupted could be evil, as he falls in to the way of the Two-Hearts and revels in his power. Most shamans seek a harmonic balance between the real and spiritual worlds, and are neutrally aligned.
Religion: The shaman is not a follower of any one god or pantheon, though he is a man who most certainly respects the spirit world and the gods who walk within it. Shamans seek to appease, trick, or coddle the spirits in to doing good for mankind, not revere or worship such beings. Nonetheless, the shaman must, out of necessity, maintain a reverence for the realm of nature and the spirits at large, recognizing that all beings are equal and important in nature.
Background: Shamans almost always have a community from which they herald, and a master who raised them in to full adulthood. Shamans have a loose society amongst themselves, and this mostly consists of the different kachina cults which advocate the spirits who are revered in dance and ritual costumes. Some shamans are isolated, dwelling in solitude, and ust be sought out for knowledge or services in different remote mountains.
Races: Humans, spiritfolk, and shapeshifters may all be shamans. Even those touched by the spirit world or belonging it can revere their element.
Other Classes: Shamans know that fighters and rogues are important to the community, indeed comprise it. Likewise, they might respect any rangers or barbarians for their versatility in the wilds. Shamans naturally mistrust foreigners, knowing they are a blight on the natural balance between the real and spiritual world. They do not trust sorcerers, knowing they follow paths that lead to witchcraft and worse.

Game Rule Information:
Shamans have the following game statistics:
Abilities: Wisdom is used to determine spell level permitted (Wisdom must equal 10 plus the spell level to cast that level of spell), bonus spell slots, and bonus spells. The difficulty class of a Shaman’s saving throws for spells are equal to 10 + the spell’s level + Wisdom modifier.
Alignment: Any alignment is permissible.
Hit Die: D8

Class Skills:
The Shaman’s class skills are Animal Empathy (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge: Religion (Int), Knowledge: Arcana (Int), Knowledge: Nature (Int), Knowledge: Spirits (Int), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival Lore (Wis).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (3+Int modifier)x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 3+ Int modifier.

Class Features:
All of the following are class features of the Shaman:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Shamans are proficient in all simple weapons and light armor native to the culture.
Totem Animal Spirit: At first level, the Shaman acquires his totem spirit. This is a spiritual presence, an animal of the spirit world, that moves with him and helps to defend him from danger as best it can. This ability has the following characteristics:
Summon Totem Spirit: The spirit may be physically summoned once per week, and will take on the characteristics of an animal of that type with the Spirit Template (see monster section) attached. The spirit in physical form will remain for 3 rounds + the Wisdom modifier of the shaman, or until dispelled or killed. If killed, it returns to the spirit realm and cannot be summoned for one month. The shaman must make a DC 10+level of the shaman Will Save to retain a connection to the slain spirit, or it is lost and another one must be found. During this time, the shaman suffers an incurable -4 modifier to Constitution, and must spend 2d6 weeks on a vision quest for a new spirit. All magic he attempts will be as if her were one half his normal level.
Enhance Spell: Once per week, the shaman may call upon his totem spirit to enhance a spell he casts. He may pick any one of the metamagic feats to be simulated by this ability, and use it as if he owned the feat. The effect takes place as the spell is cast, and no penalties or spell slot requirements are necessary or incurred to complete the process. This ability is only used at the time of the actual casting.
Guidance: Finally, the shaman can call upon the Totem Spirit for guidance in actions to be taken. He receives a +5 insight bonus to his next skill check when using Guidance, and may call upon this ability once per week per level he has achieved as a shaman.
Divination: As a shaman becomes more powerful, he can call upon powerful spirits for guidance. At 2nd level, he may use guidance as if casting Augury a number of times per week equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).
Greater Divination: At 7th level, a shaman may perform Divination as per the spell a number of times per week equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).
Master of Spirits: Eventually, by 11th level the shaman becomes so in tune with the spirit world that he can call upon the Legend Lore spell once per week per Charisma modifier.
Turn/Rebuke Spirits and Undead: Any being with the spirit identifier, as well as any undead, may be turned or rebuked by a shaman. Evil shamans may in fact control such beings. The Shaman receives this power at 3rd level.
Bonus Feats: At levels 6, 12, 15, 18 and 20 a shaman may take an Item Creation feat or a Metamagic feat.
Spell Casting: Shamans cast spells in the manner of Clerics, and may choose spells from the Cleric list of divine magic. All normal divine magic rules apply.