#AgeofExploration

[whencyclopedia]

The Iberian Conquest of the Americas

European explorers began to probe the Western Hemisphere in the early 1500s, and they found to their utter amazement not only a huge landmass but also a world filled with several diverse and populous indigenous cultures. Among their most important conquests were those of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean (1492-1502); Hernán Cortés in Aztec Mexico (1519-1521), Francisco Pizzaro and Diego de Almagro in Inca Peru (1528-1532), and Juan de Grijalva (1518) and Hernán Cortés (1519; 1524-1525) in Mayan Yucatán and Guatemala.

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

The Aztec civilization was located in the Gulf Coast Plains of central America and the high reaches of the Sierras. Their empire was a confederation of three huge city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, the capital located on an island near the western shore of Lake Texcoco in central Mexico, Texcoco in the central Mexican plateau, and Tlacopan in the Valley of Mexico on the western shore of Lake Texcoco.

The Incas were found in the Andes and coastal regions of South America. Their empire arose in the early 13th century and was the largest kingdom in pre-Columbian America, with its capital at Cuzco, in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization controlled a large portion of western South America through conquest and the collection of tributes from client states.

The Maya civilization had once ranged across southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. When the Spanish arrived, the Maya civilization was well past its golden age (250-900 CE) but still had a significant presence in the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands of Guatemala.

The Taínos and Caribs were widely distributed across the Greater and Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. These societies did not have a centralized government but were ruled by a myriad of regional hereditary chiefs and noble classes. At the time of Columbus' arrival in 1492, there were five chiefdoms of the Taíno civilization in Hispaniola, each led by a principal cacique (chief) to whom tribute was paid.

The Tupi-Guarani inhabited the Amazon rainforest and most of Brazil's coast. Like the Taíno, the Tupi-Guarani had no central government but were divided into thousands of tribes, each numbering from 300 to 2,000 people. In 1500, the Tupi numbered about 1 million people, nearly equal to the population of Portugal.

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[shawshaw47]

What is Sextant?

In the past, people would hold a sextant in their hands to determine the angle that the horizon formed with respect to the sun, moon, or stars. Prior to the development of contemporary navigation systems such as GPS, it was a crucial instrument for ships to determine their latitude and chart their voyage over the seas.

An eyepiece, horizon glass, and a moveable arm make up the sextant. The user would use the movable arm to align the image of the celestial object with the horizon after sighting it through the horizon glass. The instrument's scale may then be used to read the object's angle with respect to the horizon.

With this angle measured and the time in hand, navigators could use celestial navigation methods and tables provided in books to determine their latitude. Even in the middle of the enormous oceans, before satellite navigation became accessible, sextants allowed sailors to precisely map their position and route by measuring the ship's speed and direction.

Although sextants are no longer used for marine navigation, they are still employed for some specialized tasks such as surveying, astronomy, and training in celestial navigation. During the Age of Sail and Discovery, they allowed for precise transoceanic sailing and exploration, which is a significant historical accomplishment.

[n5701-inc]

Magellan's Monumental Moment: Navigating the Pacific

In the annals of exploration, certain dates stand out as pivotal moments that reshaped the course of history. November 28, 1520, marks one such day—the day when Ferdinand Magellan and his intrepid crew sailed through the treacherous waters of the Strait of Magellan and into the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. This monumental event not only altered the understanding of world geography but also…

[sandyhookhistory]

“The Death of John Colman”

414 Years Ago, Today - (Sunday) September 6th, 1609, Sandy Hook Bay & New York Harbor:

Famed and intrepid explorer Henry Hudson arrived with his ship, the “Half Moon,” arrived off what is now New York several days earlier. Several of his men are out in one of the ship’s boats, exploring the deep waters that we now know as Sandy Hook Bay and the Lower Harbor.

For reasons that will never be known, two canoes full of Lenape Indians arrive, and unleash a hail of arrows upon the sailors. One of them finds its mark, going through the throat of the Half Moon’s 2nd Mate, a man named John Colman. He falls dead into the bottom of the boat as the men furiously row back to the safety of the Half Moon.

The place of his burial – “on the beach” has been lost to history, and there are several candidates as to the location. However, the most plausible location was a spit of sand that was jutting out into these deep waters, adjacent to the Half Moon’s anchorage. It was thus named “Colman’s Point” in his honor. In turn, as the Dutch continued to expand their influence in the area, that spit would come to be known as “Sant Hoek.” We know it today… as Sandy Hook.

Today, we remember John Colman, and warmly reflect on the fact that our beloved Sandy Hook has been intertwined with our nation’s history, literally, since Day One.

And that's pretty awesome.

🇺🇲🇺🇲 ** Please Like & Follow "Sandy Hook History" on Facebook & Instagram for more amazing maritime and military histories of the Garden State and New York Harbor as well as a review of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle Of The Atlantic and World War 2** 🇺🇲🇺🇲

#newjerseybuzz #thejournalnj #locallivingnj #journeythroughjersey #centraljerseyexists #discovernj #yesnj #newjerseyhistory #newjerseyforyou #sandyhookbeach #sandyhooknj #sandyhookhistory #forthancockhistory #forthancock #johncolman #henryhudson #ageofexploration #ageofsail #lenape #santhoek #colmanspoint #monmouthcountynj #monmouthcountyhistory #newjerseyhistory #njhistory #thisreallyhappened #jerseyshorehistory #newyorkhistory #newyorkharbor

[exploringalterra]

How do I do skill checks?

One of the most common questions I get from D&D veterans is, “How do I do skill checks?”  The TLDR is: you don’t.

Age of Exploration is designed to be more collaborative storytelling than many other systems. The AD&D I cut my teeth on was at its best when the DM acted as an impartial arbitor of the rules, neither working against the players, nor going easy on them when they struggle.

The storyteller in AoE doesn’t have to remain impartial. The players and storyteller are making up a story together and everyone wants it to succeed. You might be already playing other RPGs like this without realizing it. Consider the following example: Several humans, a couple hobbits, an elf and a dwarf are leaping across a river of lava. If one of them were to fail their athletics check, would the DM say they fell in the lava and died? More likely a DM would say, “Well, you don’t quite make the jump, and the party has to grab you by the beard and pull you up. You take d4 beard damage, and suffer -3  penalty to all rolls for ‘beardlyness’ until your next full rest”

In Age of Exploration, we don’t need to fake the possibility that they might fall in the lava and persish. If the gap is too wide, simply tell the players that they cannot make the jump, they don’t get to roll for it.  (They’ll have to be tossed.)  If it’s just barely close enough say instead, “You can make the jump, but everything might not go as planned.” (This lets the players know that they can do the action, but there might be consequesnces)  Anytime you decide to have players roll for something like this it should always be because failure would be more interesting than a simple success. If failures are boring,strongly consider skipping the roll. (This should eliminate 50-90% of skill checks) Have the player Roll a d20. (If they have advantage for some reason roll 2d20 and use the better result) The following table describes the results of the roll: 20: Better outcome than expected 10-19: Success.  1-9:  They achive what they tried to do, but there is a consequence. Returning to the river of lava example, we can see that the simple AoE system makes sense and provides an interesting situation for the players. If a player rolled a 7, I might say, “As you stumble on the ledge, your allys pull you up, but the goblins catch up a bit, and 2 of them make bow attacks against you. Roll to dodge them”

Should I do Opposed Rolls: You don’t need to do them unless it’s Player Vs Player. That’s becasue AoE is actually based mathematically on the idea that EVERYTHING is essentially an opposed roll. (Including attack rolls and dodge rolls) Let’s look at a very simple example from D&D again, where A player wants to sneak past a guard: In D&D: Player’s Dex bonus(+3) and Proficiency bonus (+2) to their roll. The enemy sentry is trained in perception so it gets +2 and is actually pretty good at their job so they get +2 for their wisdom bonus. If the enemy rolls an average roll of 10.5 on a d20, and adds +4 for a total of 14.5 what number will a player need to roll to beat them?  They need to get a modified 15, so with the +5 bonus they have to stealth checks they’ll need to roll a 10 or higher. Exactly like AoE. This saves us a ton of math, but with the downside that players don’t have specializations due to ability scores. It’s still possible that a player can gain advantage to stealth checks, for example, if they had an invisibility cloak. This design is inspired by the Powered by the Apocalypse system, and  Dungeon World in particular. In my experience I have found it to be more satisfying to simply be able to tell players Yes or no, than to set impossibly high DC or to fake the result when they roll too low.  I’ll give some more examples of rolling for consequences instead of doing skill checks in another post. I hope this answers some questions, and if it just brings up more, I’d be happy to answer them

[evolutionofagentleman]

New Balance 1400s from yesterday. Made in the USA. One of my favorites. #sneakernews #heatonmyfeet #newbalance #newbalance998 #newbalance997 #newbalance1400 #newbalance574 #newbalancemadeinusa #madeintheUSA #ageofexploration #sneakerpolitics #kickstagram #kicksonfire #kicksontheweekend #kicks #kicks #reseller #burlingtonfinds #wiwt https://www.instagram.com/p/BvZOCsIFNWh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=hdfrj42f35su

[ryangreenart]

Heard Edward Larson talk about his new book, To the Edges of the Earth. Doodled this while waiting for the lecture to start. #edwardlarson #totheedgesoftheearth #thehuntington #pasadena #explorer #mountainclimber #ageofexploration (at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens)

[gwuscrc]

A fitting #finis for this #Friday:

John Selden, Mare Clausum (London: William Stansby for  Richard Meighen, 1636).

[fritzpablo]

Culture Collide • • • • • • • #art #illustration #drawing #linedrawing #galleon #corsair #newworld #ageofexploration #nautical #oceanvoyage #fritzpablo

[whencyclopedia]

The World According to Columbus c. 1490

A map illustrating Christopher Columbus’s image of the world before his first voyage in 1492. It was based on a map by Toscanelli, depicting the planet about 25% smaller than it actually was, and ignored the (correct) measurements of Eratosthenes from some 1700 years earlier, compounded by his own wishful thinking and wrong mathematical assumptions. By Columbus' estimate, Asia was about 2,500 miles west of Spain. He was mistaken by roughly 8,000 miles.

Image by Simeon Netchev

[historysisco]

On This Day in History June 7, 1494: The countries of Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas at the city of Setúbal, Portugal. The agreement between the Iberian neighbors aimed to divide the New World along a meridian line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa.

This would entail a Spanish claim to all lands to the west, and Portugal to the east, including the coast of Africa and later the coast of Brazil. Not surprisingly, the other European nations refused to accept and abide by the treaty.

#TreatyofTordesillas #AgeofExploration #ColonialAge #SpanishHistory #PortugueseHistory #EuropeanColonialHistory #WorldHistory #History #Historia #História #Histoire #Geschichte #HistorySisco

https://www.instagram.com/p/CegkI8WuDOU/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[stoneageproductions]

New DJI Mavic Mini Unboxing 2020 I have been wanting to get a drone for a while now. After buying a second-hand drone and returning it due to it not working properly. I decided then to just splash out and get a brand new DJI Mavic Mini Drone. So in this video, we do a Mavic mini unboxing and look at what the standard drone kit comes with straight of the box. Join us next week as we will be out flying the drone.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1-x6inDZo8 #AdventureTravel #OutdoorChannel #Vlogging #FilmMaker #memories #outdoormoments #outdoorvideos #outdoorpusuits #outdooractivities #vlog #travel #stoneage #subscribe #outdoors #climbing #hiking #camping #videos #mountainbiking #skatingboarding #adventure #exploration #hillwalking #thegreatoutdoors #trekking #outdoorchannels #youtube #followme #nosmallcreator #stoneageproductions #stoneage #ageofexploration #wild #outdoors #climbing #hiking #bushcraft #camping #subscribe #onehundred #subs #shoutout #thankyou #stone #video #woods #nature #explore #adventure #camera #mountains #hillwalking #mountainbiking #rockclimbing #bouldering #shelter #exploring #thegreatoutdoors #outdoorsman #climberguy #rope #subscribers #subs #follow #trekking #wilderness #facebook #instagram #twitter #vlog #campingtrip #getoutside #walking #keepitwild #drone #mavicmini

[omniatlas]

NEW MAP: North America 1508: Colonization of Puerto Rico (08 Aug 1508) https://buff.ly/31J8LDY In 1508 the Spanish explorer Ponce de León led an expedition from Santo Domingo to colonize the adjacent island of San Juan Bautista (Puerto Rico). Defeating indigenous resistance, the Spanish secured control over the island during the 1510s. Spain’s longest-lasting New World colony, Puerto Rico would remain under Spanish rule until the US occupied it in 1898. #16thcentury #1508 #americanhistory #august #august8 #bermuda #carta #cartografia #cartography #spanishempire #cuba #hispaniola #historia #historias #historical #historybuff #honduras #instahistory #maps #mexico #nicaragua #northamerica #puertorico #spain #taino #unitedstates #venezuela #ageofexploration #yucatan #newmap (at Villa Caparra, Puerto Rico) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8atj7nA-wk/?igshid=bbledvl76at4

[exploringalterra]

I haven’t updated this Tumblr in a while- but the game isn’t dead. I’ve been working hard on the backend and trying not to get too distracted.  I’ve finished a LOT of new things this year though, so hopefully I’ll be sharing them here and on the Facebook group and also on the new website We released a new version of the game in May 2020 (We usually release new versions in May, because it’s my birthday) And it had MANY new features including an armor shop, 6 new cantrip spells, and 6 new magic items. It also bumped the card count from 54 to 72.  If there is a 2021 update, it will probably be VERY minor, and only things like changes to shop prices in the armory and updating the title Logo on the box. So, if you’re hoping to play by winter break, you should order now, and your cards will arrive in a few weeks- https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/259143/Age-of-Exploration-Print-and-Play So let’s talk about some of the changes- New Cantrips-

New Cantrips-

In Age of Exploration, cantrips are designed to be your out of combat spells that players can use to express creativity, and solve puzzles in unusual ways without worrying that they’re expending a spell slot. 

Remember that storytelling is free-flowing and most importantly collaborative in AoE, and players are encouraged to ask things like “Can I concentrate to extend the duration of charm and have the guard lead us directly to the wizard’s sanctum?”

Storyteller: Yes, you can, but as soon as you run into another guard they’re going to question where you’re going and why you’ve charmed their co-worker.

Player 2: “Can the 3 of us combine the effects of waterspout, airstream and frostify to make a blizzard that kills all the guards?”

Storyteller: No, you can’t use it to deal damage, but with all 3 of you working together it will be pretty powerful, and big enough to obscure vision around the entire tower.

Player 3: “Can I cast telepathy, then concentrate to maintain that link while I sneak around the back?”

Storyteller: Yes, but you can’t cast any other spells while you do, or you’ll break the link.

As you can see from these examples- Cantrips are very versatile, but storytellers can always impose limits to keep the game interesting

Cantrips In Combat-

In Combat there is a now a fixed set of potential effects that all cantrips can have. They are very minor and generally worse than making a basic weapon attack. The upside: they all have some amount of range and can be cast even when you’re Exhausted at 0 hit points. 

Here’s the list of what they can potentially do:

Give advantage to a player's next attack or dodge roll

Move a player or enemy 1 space

Knock an enemy down

Deal 1 or 2 magical damage (flip a coin)

Root a target (5 movement to break)

Heal a player or yourself +1 HP (but not above 10)

+3 Elemental damage to a player's next weapon attack

End ongoing effects on one target

Block the next damage source this turn to a target

Create, Summon, or charm, something that makes an attack which deals 3 damage on a hit

Players should describe how they imagine the spell, and the storyteller will arbitrate the effect it has on the target. For example, if a player says “I cast ‘web’ at their feet, covering their boots in sticky spiderwebs, tethered to the ground.” That’s a great description! The storyteller has a choice about how it plays out- They could be rooted in place, tripped and knocked down, or give a player advantage on their next attack because they’re unable to dodge. 

Magic Weapons We’ve playtested many many magic weapons over the course of AoE history, and these are the 8 favorites. They are definitely powerful, and represent a step up from the basic weapons. Some are more powerful than others and that’s intended. One thing I love about these 8 is that each one represents one of the elements of Alterra. Our Artist, Aikurisu (nsfw) puts a stone of elemental amber into each of these weapons. You can probably Match the elements yourself- so just a reminder the 10 elements are: Earth Fire Air Water Ice Wood Lightning Metal Wood and Shadow (2 of them are not represented by magic weapons yet, but I’ll work on that.)  This is getting really long, so I’ll talk about the Armory in its own post.

[evolutionofagentleman]

Daddy daughter kicks: Limited edition 30th anniversary New Balance 990’s made in the USA on me and modern New Balance 990’s on Kennedy. My baby rocks dad kicks better than most dudes out here 😂😂😂 #sneakernews #heatonmyfeet #newbalance #newbalance990 #newbalance997 #newbalance998 #limitededition #30thanniversary #newbalancemadeinusa #madeintheUSA #ageofexploration #sneakerpolitics #kickstagram #kicksonfire #kicksontheweekend #kicks #kicks #reseller #burlingtonfinds #wiwt #daddydaughterkicks

[ageofexploration-blog1]

Tiramisù...tira-must-do @ O'vino, Rome, Italy

📷: @ageofexploration