Tired of imbalance...

[Murdo]

An obvious answer would be to have the storyteller spawn more thematically appropriate pawns. Ex: raiders and "scavengers" that come in by ground should be dressed appropriately for the biome, even down to the type of animal skin, and should have a higher chance of receiving biome-appropriate perks or disabilities (cold-lover on ice sheet, etc.). Instead of golden spears we can't wait to unload, pawns drop things they would logically be carrying on a raiding or scouting party in that particular region... things the player would find more immediately useful, like wood on ice sheet, herbal medicine in jungle etc.

Pirate groups, in turn, might not be as good at regional/environmental planning as the locals, and would be more susceptible to having the map turned against them... as would anyone dropping in by pod.