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Cultures and Languages 12 posts Tags: Various worldbuilding topics
Posted by ElLoboGordo on Monday March 15 2010, @07:12PM
Let's break out cultural studies and the languages associated with them.

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Issara Posted on Monday March 15 2010, @07:28PM
Reckon we may as well start closest to the Hearth. :)

Issara is home to the Hothai and the Chimai. Obviously, they both get their language:

Language: Hothai

Language: Chimai

I wonder if there should be some kind of "High Hothai" language-a ceremonial/ruling/scholarly language in addition to a "common" form of Hothai. Chimai easily stands on its own.

Culturally, Part of me wants to avoid "Hothai lands" as a cultural study, since that's like 3/4 of the world. Could this be a good place to throw it to the community? As part of creating a Hothai character, you need to discuss the tyrant-state this particular Hothai is from? Add a paragraph or two to the worldbook to justify your character's Native Culture Study? That feels like a fair deal to me.

The Chimai have an easy cultural study: "Chimai Confederation", which represents the nascent Chimai nation independent of the Hothai. After that, I'm thinking of "Issaran Wilds" or something, indicative of Chimai (or even Hothai) who live in the deep primordial jungle. That could also cover Gorgons (when and if they show up) and other such deep Issaran denizens.

Ra'niah Posted on Monday March 15 2010, @07:48PM
Ra'niah gives us the bog-standard "Common" language, which makes it nice and easy for everybody to communicate. It's not especially realistic, but it sure makes things simpler.

There's also a "High Telman" language, which is a nice latin analogue that old texts and scientific works can be written in.

And while we're breaking languages out, the assorted Guild-States can have an "old" language they spoke before the Telmans introduced Common to their lands. Old Vevonne, Old Conant, Old Veromani, Old Rytacht.

Kroenig and Tansho are problematic. I'm not sure what to do with them.

The Jade Isles would speak "Lhao", and the Lirrish speak "Lirric". The Galen speak "Galen", which might also be called "Giant" colloquially. And the Falo of course speak "Falo".

The Tritons speak "The Sea Tongue", and the Sahuagin do too, though the Sahuagin are also influenced by the Aboleth, who use a crazy lovecraftian unpronounceable language that no sane creature can learn.

Cultural Studies can exist for every land mass, I imagine. Should people be able to take something super broad, like "Guild States"?

Re: Ra'niah Posted on Tuesday March 16 2010, @11:41AM
>Should people be able to take something super broad, like "Guild States"?

Given the extremely limited number of "interests", I don't see why not. It already has precedent in areas like the Spycraft Cultures, where wide regions (South America, Eastern Europe inc. Russa, Oceania + Australia, etc.) are fair game. Its applicability ("sure you know the Guild States, but are you aware of detail X to weave into an Impress check?") is still up the the GM in any case.

Re: Ra'niah Posted on Wednesday March 17 2010, @04:31PM
I guess lumping all the Guild States together is a world-building question. Would someone from Vevonne be able to navigate Veromani culture easily? If so, then give them one culture. If there is enough difference, break them up.

I'm definitely against one culture for all of Ra'niah, but how many distinct cultures does Loren see?

Re: Ra'niah Posted on Thursday March 18 2010, @06:04AM
In living games, I find it's best to keep languages and cultures simpler. It's no fun if you have to go to a place and no one in your group can interact with the people there because no one took "insert-obscure-culture-here".

In home-play games, this isn't a problem because players can either plan ahead or have a fun few sessions building up the knowledge needed to take that language. But in organized play, players are generally thrust into a culture with no fore-knowledge and usually only one play session to complete the objective. This makes too many Cultural Studies worrisome to me.

Interacting with people Posted on Thursday March 18 2010, @04:13PM
It should be noted that cultural studies in FC aren't what they were in SC. With languages broken out as separate interests, I'm more worried that a group of PCs could land in some obscure corner of Issara and realize that nobody speaks the language, than I am about nobody understanding the culture (though having a culture study without the language could bring on some bizarrely fun roleplaying).

Still, the notion of keeping things a little broad has merit, especially since (as James has mentioned) bonuses gained from specific studies *are* a matter of lobbying the GM. So somebody studying Ra'niah could take "The Guild States", and a GM could rightfully say that's a little too broad a study to be worth bonus info on the finer points of Veromani burial customs.

Re: Interacting with people Posted on Friday March 19 2010, @06:44AM
That's kinda my point actually.
Re: Interacting with people Posted on Friday March 19 2010, @11:21AM
Then clearly we're on the same page. :)
Re: Ra'niah Posted on Saturday May 8 2010, @11:53AM
I support broad cultural studies, fewer languages (whenever possible) and simplifying the mechanic whenever possible. Having a lower number of those items means a player is more likely to feel cool because they got to use something on the sheet. I think the danger of "oh no, nobody at the table has the relevant language/culture/interest" is running higher and higher, and can bottleneck a game, thus removing fun.

Can we get closer to defining a list of languages that we suggest for new PCs? A lot of folks take a look at the game and have no idea what to do for Interests. Having some suggestions (Here are popular languages / here are popular cultures / etc) would be great, and help us writers too!

Re: Ra'niah Posted on Monday May 10 2010, @08:06PM
Because this canvass is so big, the general plan was to focus new players on Ra'niah. That way a nod can be given to the rest of the stuff, but the common fantasy elements are all right there on Ra'niah for somebody who is feeling a bit overwhelmed.

As for the actual list of focuses (focii?) we had a list on the old character sheet, but it disappeared in the rewrite and was never transferred anywhere else. I went ahead and retooled it and put it up at:

Interests Apochrypha

Languages Posted on Monday May 10 2010, @09:35PM
And languages are there now, too. Feel free to comment--the Interest list is certainly a work in progress.
Re: Languages Posted on Monday May 10 2010, @11:24PM
Looks good on first glance.

For non-cultural interests, It'd be good to note:

Highsailing & etheric navigation, as a subset

A couple related questions: Should knowing how to sail a Highsailing ship fall under Air Vehicles, or it's own focus? Would "Highsailing ships" be an appropriate focus for Crafting, or would "ships" be as appropriate, since it's the rare and unreplicatable Wyrmstone, which gives them the ability of flight?

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