Wrote this up to illustrate one of the major cultural perspectives in Blazing Spear- that of the Rulaani Empire, which has rapidly expanded in the last century.
I have encountered Peltan upon the road to Strongbranch. She is employed as a traveling sorceror's guard, and was ordered to answer my questions in exchange for information on current political events to the south.
Peltan is a tall clayborn warrior-witch, with brown skin and black hair that is shaven along both sides. She seems well accustomed to the weight of her armor. Her left arm and spear bear marks of power, a strange kind of Rulaani rasayana which I am ill-equipped to study. We converse in fluent crow tongue.
"Who are you?"
My name is Peltan il-Orphan Daughter, ar-Butcher's Ward, ar-Infantry Sergeant, Sellspear. I am called Peltan the Cold-Eyed.
"You have many titles."
Peltan Sellspear is my name, not a title. A Rulaani is defined by her labors. If was to I trade my spear for a plow and join a harvest guild, then my name would become Peltan Farmer.
"Where are you from and what is that place like?"
I was raised in the dawnside markets of the great city of Rulaan. It stands amid seas of grain, in the Heartland where the Titans once ruled over our predecessors. It is a place of great bounty, which all Rulaani will lay down their lives to protect.
"In my travels, I've heard many say that your empire has armies of witches. Is this true?"
I'd never heard that word, before I left my homeland. A witch seems to be any woman who wields strange and dangerous magic, who can do terrible harm in unexpected ways. So I will say it is half true. All our soldiers have the warlocks' marks and know how to use them; but only half are women.
"So your armies are comprised of both sexes."
Yes, and also those like the Alseid, who grow from their Heratrees and bear no children. All provinces of our empire must contribute to our armies, and those born in conquered territories can join our ranks to earn full citizenship. All who dedicate their lives to Rulaan may earn the right to be Rulaani.
"What does it mean to be a woman in Rulaan?"
It is a difficult thing for a foreigner to understand. In Rulaan there is no longer a woman's place and a man's place, woman's work and men's work. There is a woman's strengths and a man's strengths, but we teach them to each other. Our men are tempered- they learn discipline and foresight. In battle they fight in formation and hold ranks as well as any woman. And in turn, we learn from their fire- it is the men who show us how to inspire the masses, to sing with passion, to love our children. We make each other strong.
"To whom do you pray?"
No one. I am a sworn to the flame, like all true Rulaani. It is our most powerful oath and cannot be undone.
"Tell me about this oath."
It is sworn in the light of a true flame, the fires in which the first Rulaani burned the gods who created them. It means I have forsaken providence; the gods will not answer my pleas, and my fate has been unwritten. If I had some grand destiny, the world has now forgotten it; perhaps I will die tomorrow. But today I am alive.
"Why would you swear such a thing?"
To be Rulaani. To be a part of something more. Words can only say so much. Whatever my life, I know that no master has chosen it for me.
"What will become of your soul after death?"
Our lives are as fuel for the flame; my existence will end with my death. All that remains is the mark I have left on the world. As for my soul, who can say? I am clayborn, the favored titanspawn, sculpted in my long-dead creator's image. Perhaps I never had such a thing to begin with.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Blazing Spear: Rulaani Clayborn Interview
Monday, February 13, 2012
Blazing Spear: Cultural exchange
THE ADVENTURES OF BOB, RULAANI TOURIST
The man with no remarkable skills whatsoever!
"Bob" is a joke character I've used in our internal discussions. His purpose is to demonstrate how an "average joe" in Blazing Spear's central culture, the Rulaani Empire, can still be someone extraordinary in the eyes of other cultures. The following is the first anecdote he appeared in, from a chat last september; ideas have progressed since then, but the cultural differences remain in effect.
4:55 PM
me: Rulaani tourist in the mountain kingdoms hears about the legendary Swooping Hawk sword style, whose incredible secrets (the source of much speculation) are taught only at a secluded dojo on a nearby mountain.
4:57 PM
So he decides to go down there on tuesday, knocks on their door and says "Hey, this the place where they teach those 'Swooshing Hawk' moves? I want to see how work."
4:58 PM
Michel: Complete with bad grammar in his non native tongue. Alright, what happens next?
5:01 PM
me: Well, imagine if some guy walks into the most important building in Apple'sheadquarters and says with a bit of an accent "Hello, is this the place where they present the new prototypes to Steve Jobs? Ok, and which room? I am here to observe."
5:02 PM
Almost certainly alot of "Um, wait, who are you?" Because it would be ridiculous to think that someone would just walk in and want to see this super-secret mysterious stuff because of idle curiosity.
Michel: I can just imagine the monocles falling off.
5:04 PM
me: In fact, let's say he actually gets to the grandmaster, and that the real reason he does is because he acts like he has a reason to be there.
5:05 PM
(And does it well, because it's not an act.)
5:06 PM
Now, bear in mind that in my head Rulaan basically has spears as the classic weapon where western culture has swords. They refer to freelance warriors (mercenaries) as "sellspears" or "spears for hire".
5:08 PM
So let's say this guy has one of those on him.
5:09 PM
Michel: brb keep typing.
wanna read this.
9 minutes
5:18 PM
me: The master, with a nervous low-ranking student helping translate, basically is all "So. . .you are a Rulaani of common birth, who has spent four years as a member of your village militia." (Camera cuts to a muddy guy in rags shivering in the cold and using a rusty sword to try and hack dead limbs off some trees. A caption at the borrom reads MOUNTAIN KINGDOM EQUIVALENT. His comrade says "Maybe you should sharpen that thing." "Oh yeah. How do you do that?" "I think you need a rock?" Cut back to the dojo.) "Yep," says the Rulaani.
5:21 PM
Michel: lol
5:23 PM
me: "And word has reached you of our great and much-feared sword school, where the secret sword techniques of Master Li Peng have been passed onto a chosen few for four generations." "Some guys in the village down the hill were talking about it."
(Translator: ". . .He says yes.")
5:27 PM
Michel: keep going
5:32 PM
me: "And you have decided to make a day trip to our dojo, where you expect we will show you these secrets only because you asked." "Oh! No no no, I'm sorry, this must have seemed so impolite, I didn't mean it like that." "Ah, that is good." "Yes, I would never ask to learn your techniques without also sharing my own martial knowledge in return."
(Awkward silence)
6 minutes
5:39 PM
Michel: Well, don't stop there.
5:40 PM
me: The master massages his temple. "Very well, tell him we will accept." Translator does a double take. "M. . .master?" "I now foresee a need to gut the Rulaani in large numbers at some point in the future. It is prudent to observe how they fight."
5:44 PM
So they go to the 2nd-years dojo room and he tells the teacher to indulge this guy by serving as his mock opponent. Guy acts out some basic spear strikes in slow motion, functional but utterly crude in their eyes (spear masters are no sword masters, but they at least have some poetry).
6 minutes
5:51 PM
me: Then his opponent asks if they can try the scenario in a brief actual spar. They face off, and the teacher contempously slaps the spear aside with his wooden sword at the right point in the attack pattern to throw his enemy off balance. The Rulaani barely dodges the follow-up sword swing, but the teacher simply continues his rotation and launches a roundhouse kick to the gut.
5:53 PM
Michel: And?
me: Rulaani is bent double, gasping, dropped his spear. The audience is cackling appreciatively. The master smiles, but his eyes frown for a second. ("Damn, that was pretty good," says the Rulaani between gasps.")
5:54 PM
"Wait, do that one more time," says the master. A similar repeat perfomance ensues.
5:56 PM
The audience is quiet now, still grinning exultantly. But the master is now completely focused. "Do that thing again, with your feet." The Rulaani got his ass handed to him, but it shouldn't have taken three moves. Not with this guy's utter lack of real skill.
6:00 PM
Over the next two hours the master grills the visitor extensively on the training drills he's recieved regarding stance, footwork and movement. Once satisfied, he nods and spends the afternoon patiently coaching the Rulaani on a few useful basic techniques that should be viable for a spear wielder.
6:02 PM
Michel: Continue?
6:03 PM
me: Over the next several years the master implements the most radical series of changes to the Swooping Hawk style since it was created by Master Li Peng almost a century ago.
6:05 PM
Master Li Peng was an absolute master prodigy of a warrior. He invented some amazing things. But he was one man working in isolation, with only very basic practices as a shared starting point- ones he did his best to unlearn, since they tended to be very flawed.
Michel: I get what you're getting at.
7 minutes
6:13 PM
me: The Rulaani was an utterly unremarkable warrior, who had baredly grasped the fundamentals of the martial techniques he was trained in- techniques and lessons based on the work of half a dozen different genius master warriors, each with decent access to their predecessor's ruminations.
6:14 PM
Michel: By extension, this principle makes Rulaan a natural source of PCs
since the kind of knowledge that is useful for making heroes
(alchemical lore, combat techniques, espionage savvy, technological expertise)
6:15 PM
would be more widely shared than in other cultures.
me: Master Li Peng never really thought much about footwork- his stances were ideal for ensuring a strong and versatile attack made from a standing position.
6:18 PM
The school had traditionally assumed that someone who is forced to move backwards in a duel has essentially lost the fight. But if this Rulaani had even a few years worth of real combat experience (and had been in better shape), he would have been able to wipe the floor with his sparring opponent.
6:21 PM
The master could see the potential of the moves enough to realize there was a whole branch of techniques that the school had previously thought to be infeasible.
Michel: Cool
6:24 PM
me: If someone had suggested to a swooping hawk student that this would come to pass, it would mean a duel to the death- someone daring to suggest that their master's knowledge would be lacking? No loyal member of the school would let such disrespect stand.
6:25 PM
Not unlike how every kid thinks their mom and dad truly know everything.
6:26 PM
Michel: ahhh
(until they're thirteen, in which case the exact opposite effect is the case)
6:27 PM
me: (Which is what the majority of masters are like- they clearly know everything. This one was a little wiser than the norm.)
6:28 PM
But to the Rulaani, this guy doesn't represent the absolute pinnacle of knowledge- just a guy who knows a bunch of stuff.
6:29 PM
Michel: I see
6:30 PM
It sounds like our setting is one where travel and exposure count for a lot
And going places and seeing things makes for powerful adventurers
because they'll grasp insights unavailable to the guy who stays in his place.
Am I on target?
6 minutes
6:37 PM
me: Could be, could be. Making a character who's been exposed to a variety of cultures might be how you make a more "multiclass" character- at least in terms of overcoming hurdles in pursuit of an optimal rounded-out build.
6:39 PM
Reeling things way on back to the original point, I expect I was also thinking of things like minimizing raw number increases for high-level characters.
6:40 PM
A level 12 character (well, his equivalent in this system) shouldn't feel "safe" when facing a group of 10 level 1s.
6:43 PM
Not until he does a display of fighting skill that scares the remaining 7 into backing down. Or navigates the fight into a narrow alley where they can't come at him with more than 2 at a time. Or otherwise avoids a "fair fight" in favor of a situation where he has the advantage.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Paratopian City (Part 2)
"Paratopian." Neither uptopia nor dystopia; something beyond the bounds of what you'd ever see in a "normal" society.
(8:15:22 PM) Dagda: Gotham's not really a representative sample anymore, but I'm still after that interesting "metanormals & normals who've adapted" dynamic.
(8:15:53 PM) Dagda: The city tends to have its own way of doing things, on every level.
(8:15:56 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Yeah, I like the idea of it
(8:16:04 PM) Dagda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGyVZRHZ2ow is another inspiration here
(8:16:44 PM) Dagda: (I have very little interest in actually playing that game, but HNNNGH that concept and aesthetic are amazing)
(8:16:53 PM) Sylvia Viridian: That is very pretty
(8:17:51 PM) Dagda: Final Fantasy, plus Kingdom Hearts, plus modern day upper-class urban society, plus the mafia? V Yes.
(8:17:58 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Oh, yes
(8:18:07 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Very, very shiny
(8:18:32 PM) Dagda: Gonna actually get into the next bit, feel free to keep watching & read later
(8:18:44 PM) Sylvia Viridian: oh, okay
(8:19:15 PM) Dagda: Basically, I'm thinking that for every protagonist/PC who's a paranormal being, there'll be 2 humans.
(8:21:21 PM) Dagda: One of whom is just skilled- skills meaning all the sorts of things we see Jason Bourne get up to. The ability to break in & infiltrate urban environments, fight with guns or martial arts, escape & evasion, taking on & subverting institutions. . .and awesome chase sequences, natch.
(8:22:28 PM) Dagda: The other one? Well, they're human, but honestly it's a stretch to call them "normal"
(8:23:53 PM) Dagda: A paranormal person can't teach a human to use magic. But some humans are. . .sensitive to a particular class of supernatural being.
(8:25:39 PM) Dagda: Sustained exposure can trigger physiological changes, giving someone one of several "conditions" based on which type of beign they're sensitive too. Their paranormal natures rub off on us, but in a more grounded sci-fi way.
(8:25:55 PM) Sylvia Viridian: I see~ Interesting
(8:26:58 PM) Dagda: An inspiration that comes in here is an anime called Canaan, which is pretty amazing for about 2-3 episodes (and then runs out of steam)
(8:27:49 PM) Dagda: It has several characters who have abnormal nervous systems, giving them a sort of savant-esque synesthesia with a side order of bullet time
(8:28:59 PM) Dagda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o06weVt9j0 <-Best example occurs at about 19 minutes in
(8:29:34 PM) Sylvia Viridian: /watches (8:31:11 PM) Sylvia Viridian: I see, cool
(8:31:39 PM) Dagda: So yeah, ripping that off
(8:33:02 PM) Dagda: Will probably have the reflexes and synesthesia perception be two separate things, but hey
(8:35:14 PM) Dagda: Other options would be someone who's empathic to a degree that's clearly ESP (i.e. they feel what someone else is feeling even though they're in another room or something), or someone who can do adrenaline-fuled, mother-lifts-minivan-off-kid feats of strength almost at will (regardless of the terrible strain it puts on their bodies).
(8:35:54 PM) Dagda: All things you can theoretically imagine as being within the realm of human potential
(8:35:59 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Yeah
(8:36:48 PM) Dagda: So yeah. There's about one other key thing I've figured out that I should mention.
(8:40:36 PM) Dagda: The Gotham Central-inspired police, the ones that "have their own way of doing things", that have their share of corruption and abuse but by & large are made up of decent, pragmatic human beings? The ones who go out and walk/drive their beats, keep the peace, know the guys on the street corner by name? There are limits to their authority.
(8:41:36 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Oh, that sounds ominous
(8:45:10 PM) Dagda: The border guard, the ones in the helicopters and gunboats- originally a PMC that was contracted in the 70s, reports directly to the federal authority? They're active in the city, too. They're the ones in black helmets who do immigration raids, break up protests & riots (& claim they were riots either way), and do their best to hunt down the players (who are either part of the underworld or deal with it enough that they could wind up in serious trouble)
(8:45:21 PM) Dagda: This is that Mirror's Edge influence coming in.
(8:45:30 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Gotcha
(8:45:55 PM) Sylvia Viridian: So the cops are decent guys, but there's also military type forces
(8:46:18 PM) Dagda: More or less.
(8:46:40 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Who are much less nice and understanding about the whole supernatural deal
(8:48:04 PM) Dagda: The peacekeepers are the equivalent of cops who'll go out and ask prostitutes if they recognize a woman who turned up dead. They know this stuff goes on and if someone's being blatant/stupid they'll do something about it, but it's the status quo.
(8:48:51 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Makes sense
(8:48:53 PM) Dagda: The enforcers, they're not exactly military- but they carry guns and will use them, no question on that.
(8:49:03 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Yeah
(8:49:30 PM) Dagda: They're "The Man", not to mention "La Migra".
(8:50:20 PM) Dagda: No engagement with the community, just a force that's not to be reckoned with. (Since if there's any reckoning going on they're the ones who're carrying it out)
(8:50:31 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Of course
(8:51:00 PM) Dagda: Now, 95% of them have no chance of matching the speed of a character with moderate parkour-type skills.
(8:51:17 PM) Dagda: (Which I'm thinking will be a significant portion of them)
(8:51:28 PM) Sylvia Viridian: It'd be a necessary survival skill
(8:51:31 PM) Sylvia Viridian: and also really really cool (8:51:53 PM) Dagda: Exactly!
(8:52:30 PM) Dagda: But they're still a serious threat, for one key reason: Coordination.
(8:52:54 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Right. Outrunning an individual doesn't mean as much when they have comms
(8:56:14 PM) Dagda: When you're being chased by enforcers, somewhere out there is a dispatcher- one of the ones with live access to every security camera in the city. And their career is going to be set back or forwards a good two years based on whether or not you get caught.
(8:56:32 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Aha.
(8:57:14 PM) Dagda: You had better believe they're going to throw everything they possibly can at you, on-duty or no.
(8:57:23 PM) Sylvia Viridian: Yes, indeed
(8:59:00 PM) Dagda: You're able to build up a good lead on your pursuers, cutting down one particular back alley and managing to get up over the edge of the rooftop right before the first of them rounds the corner.
(9:01:46 PM) Dagda: And then the maintenance doors on 3 different neighboring rooftops are kicked down simultaneously, and snipers are dashing out to take aim. The dispatcher's voice yells orders at you from the Public Announcement system, telling you you're dead if you so much as move a muscle.
(9:02:16 PM) Dagda: Looking back, that was the point where things really got interesting :P
(9:02:21 PM) Sylvia Viridian: lol
(9:02:23 PM) Sylvia Viridian: I like it!
(9:05:54 PM) Dagda: Since that delay gave the gang lord's men (the ones you'd been fighting in the first place, until the enforcers took notice) chance to catch up, and everything descended into chaos from there.
Image was done by this artist on pixiv.
Paratopian City (Part 1)
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Read allMonday, March 1, 2010
Warlock High: Society
war·lock
–noun
1. An ill-bred mage, esp. one who uses magic in a dishonorable or irresponsible way.
2. (archaic) One of a former group of black arts practitioners that attempted to assassinate the Sutran Kings.
3. (slang) A person who behaves in an aggressive and rebellious manner.
It started with the idea that alot of the faculty members were ex-military.
It completely fit the school, after all. Warlock High's supposed to be a highly dangerous environment, but I also wanted it to be a place with its own culture rather than simply being dysfunctional- to have people tell newcomers "This is Warlock High" as a way of saying Things Work Differently Here. Making the teachers ridiculously hardcore (even if they seem like pushovers at first) is right in line with that.
There could even be a good reason for it. I remembered how John McCain, during the '08 presidential debates, had proposed letting soldiers acquire teacher's licenses without having to pass many of the exams that'd normally be required. If seasoned faculty members at Warlock High became teachers through a program like that, it would imply that the country was involved in military engagements back in the mid-to-late 80s. Say, what if. . .
And just like that, I knew what kind of society the players lived in. Things would generally be the same as if they were living in America, with wizardly trappings mixed in (such as how the school has both a parking lot and a broomstick rack). But from a big-picture, geopolitical standpoint. . .they're living in a post-soviet republic. Except that instead of a communist USSR, the propaganda-happy ruling body was an elitist magocracy.
I don't have a detailed timeline in mind, nor a clear alternate history for this world as a whole. This is not a story that's going to involve any detailed exposition on the subject of geopolitics; after talking it out with the players, we'll likely just have it be so that most of the world's the same and their nation of Unspecifiedavia is located somewhere in/around eastern europe. What does matter about this Cliff's Notes background is that it mean their society isn't exactly the most stable one around.
To the players, things like cable TV and a democratic government are normal. They've been around for as long as our heroes have been alive- but not much longer than that. Older generations have known a time before these western cultural imports; one where the schools and state-controlled media warned the people about the sinister foreign capitalists whose "modern technology" would steal your soul as you labored endlessly in one of Henry Ford's assembly lines. This era ended with an upheaval that lasted for the better part of a decade; there was no open revolution or clash of armies, but the struggles and violence escalated well beyond the point that could be described as simply riots and protests.
Today, social tensions are still evident. One possible example of this that's relevant to our heroes would be the rivalry between Warlock High and the nearby Cowfreckle Academy. (If anyone's still wondering why I'd use a name like Cowfreckle, it's because the school's initial concept is/was a Captain Ersatz of a certain other prestigious magical institution) Even today, anyone who's somebody in this country's high society either went to Cowfreckle or one of several similar schools (you know, like Goatmole or Chickenpimple or okay I'll stop now). Whereas the people at Warlock High, a generation ago, would have been the filthiest of peasants- acting disrespectfully towards a cowfreckle student was unthinkable twice over, once because of social status and once because they'd be lucky to even know basic magic. But now, thanks to public education and a legal system where all citizens are supposed to be equal. . .ye olde paradigm hath shifted.
At least, that's an academic analysis of the social forces at work. If you wanted the outlooks/attitudes of the people involved. . .well, a picture's worth a thousand words.
(6:08:12 PM) Dagda: This would be a perfect example of Warlock vs Cowfreckle personified, I think.
(6:09:20 PM) Othar: >First panel
Okay I get it, casual vs. badass retro-futuristic, cool, I think I get i-
>Second panel
Oh goddamnit hahahaha
(6:09:58 PM) Dagda: Yeah, more panel 2.
(6:10:35 PM) Othar: I figured the second I got to the second panel.
(6:10:51 PM) Othar: Holy hell it's like the Sneetches met the Grinch for the first time.
In the end, the biggest reason for me to base Warlock High's setting on post-soviet republics is simple. "Is it the duty of the people to support their society, or the duty of the society to support its people?" In nations like Ukraine, there now for the first time exists a youngest generation that is more likely to agree with the latter option. The themes of the school fighting genre- as seen in their punk/delinquent/social outcast protagonists- take on a very interesting significance when they're set in a society like this. Read all
Thursday, January 28, 2010
One of those more depressing brainstorms.
Today, a team of scientists announces they have figured out a way to reincarnate yourself. The process, which costs about as much as a series of expensive surgeries, "transfers" your brain into a fetus that's still in the womb (killing your old body). Ten years later your consciousness emerges from dormancy, as the child hits puberty and its brain develops to the point where it can support you. One moment you're in a lab with wires hooked up to your head, the next thing you know it's a decade later and you're in the body of a nine-year-old. Amazing!
Of course, you just 'overwrote' the child who was using this body up until now. And no, they can't be kept in a coma their whole lives, that'd cripple their mental and physical development to the point where your consciousness would never emerge.
In other words, humanity just rendered immortality possible, and all it requires is the death of a child. What effect does this have on society? What's the world going to be like in 50 years?
This is just one of those open-ended brainstorms, where I focus on seeing where the idea naturally leads rather than trying to push it in a certain direction. Still, it's not hard to see how things would go. There'd be a lot of countries which outlawed the procedure and consigned all reincarnated individuals to a quick execution. Others would be more. . .flexible, perhaps even allowing it so long as one had obtained the mother's consent.
Regardless of their official laws on the matter, every nation would likely have a thriving illegal market for the procedure. It's a matter of human weakness. Say you find out tomorrow that you have a terminal illness- you have about a month.
Someone approaches you and discreetly offers you the reincarnation procedure. The price is simple: You will all your assets to a certain charity, i.e. to them.
They don't expect an immediate response. They'll wait. You can signal that you want to do it at any time; or you can die.
Will your convictions hold?
That's how you end up with a world that has the horror of foster parents realizing that their child is no longer their child. Where children secretly worry that their minds are time bombs, that sometime around the age of 9 they'll go to sleep one night and never wake up.
You have a world a reincarnated individual's first act being to read a letter under the pillow they were sleeping on- a letter addressed to "the new me", asking them to please take care of the child's dog and to be nice to his little sister.
If I'm tying this back to a premise for roleplaying game, the "light" option is to simply have it be one particularly bleak facet of a cyberpunk setting- the sort of thing that might be investigated by Ghost In The Shell's Section 9.
The "heavy" option. . .well, one particular scenario comes to mind. You're a part of a terrorist organization that assassinates reincarnated individuals, as well as abducting "eggs" and crippling their hormonal development so that that they never 'hatch'- the child will live to about 25 on average, but that's much better than dying at 9, right?
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Cultural Character Creation Systems
Each culture has its own system for creating your character's stats.
I'll explain via an example where the d20 system (particularly as seen in D&D 3.5) is the character creation system for Culture A, a society that favors formal education towards various roles/professions/trades via a master-apprentice relationship. Hence the use of classes; if someone from this culture knows military tactics, you may assume he is either a Soldier or a Scholar. All other cultures in this example also use the core rules d20 system, in that they make checks/attack rolls in the same manner. For simplicity's sake we'll also assume that all cultures provide characters with feats and involve the same six ability scores. The GM can still call for a climb check and have each player check their sheet for the bonus they get on that skill. What differs is the process by which they determined the size of that bonus.
Culture B, for instance, follows a rigid caste structure. The very first step for making a character is to specify your bloodline's caste; the higher your station, the higher your base bonus for all skill checks and attack rolls. After all, you're a superior being, even if your so-called 'sheltered' upbringing means your hit points and save bonuses aren't quite on the same level. Skills also have varying associated stations, with their max ranks decreasing based on how far they're above/below you. Upper castes receive extensive education and thus have more skill points, while lower classes must draw on practical experience and receive more feats instead.
Culture C is primitive and tribal, with a pragmatic focus on survival in harsh conditions. I'll bring Maelstrom back into the picture by saying that the conditions in question are the aether-filled interspace between worlds; thus, all members of this society automatically receive bonuses based on their level for various space survival matters that are on par with the maximum possible benefit someone from another culture could receive. Their key choice during character creation is how to assign their ability score points, as this largely set up all their other benefits- after all, these are tribes where your talents determine your role. The smartest ones are taught the lore and learn how to navigate, the strongest and swiftest acts as hunters and scouts, the wisest and most insightful serve to lead and nurture the tribe.
Culture D (Maelstrom's Trevata people) lives in isolated structures where all residents selflessly serve the whole. The vast majority of their people have no personal identity- no concept of a unique individual that provides the thoughts which pass through their heads. On occasion, one develops a sense of self, and thus becomes capable of good and evil. Such individuals manage this confusing shift through the use of masks, which they illustrate with designs depicting the various traits that make up their newly-forming personality These characters essentially choose whether to develop their "strength" each level (primarily increasing base statistics) or enrich their mask if they have one (meaning a sharply reduced rate of advancement but access to numerous packages of specialized skills, feats, etc.)
I can go on, of course. Culture E's nomadic, esoteric ways mean their members use a fairly pure point buy system, allowing for a striking level of flexibility regarding any given member's talents (though specialization is more difficult). Culture F highly values the concept of closely linked spiritual and physical health/growth/development, meaning that one must invest equal amounts in the "physical" and "mental" ability scores/skills/etc. The more primitive culture G does the opposite, first and foremost presenting its people with a choice between roles that emphasize strength of body and roles that emphasize strength of mind. And so on and so forth.
The main question from this point is how to handle character advancement once your characters immersed in a different culture. I suspect the answer will boil down to the option each level to give up the offered 'bundle deals' of your system (at least to some degree) in favor of points that can be spent in a more flexible fashion. But we'll see. . . Read all
Friday, January 15, 2010
Culturally Enriching Your RPG
One thing about Maelstrom is that I really, really want each race (even the different peoples among each race) to have unique worldviews, which in turn serve to enhance the quality of the game experience. This isn't just motivated by personal preference. The whole point of this project is to develop a setting that's highly original, to avoid deriving too much from other works/genres by instead pursuing the internal logic of Maelstrom's core backstory. But since the setting's one of adventure and discovery, I don't want to actually reveal this origin story- better to have it be a grand mystery!
Unique worldviews help with this matter because they're elegant way to deliver clues. The markedly different explanations they offer for a given topic (everything from the nature of a given species to the color of a planet's sky) serve to deepen your understanding of the fundamental principles the world follows. It's not just a matter of every version containing "grains of truth"- each cultural perspective is largely accurate, but only covers one side of the bigger picture. And that's just the first brainstorm this matter has given me. . .
Including mystery in a pen and paper rpg setting is difficult, because players learn about most of your world in a metagame fashion rather than doing so through their character. Eberron, for example, has some really cool secrets and intrigues that would be the stuff of stunning plot twists- but the impact is diminished because the people at the table tend to already know about them. The origins of the Blood of Vol, the truth about Karrnath's king, these are common knowledge among anyone geeky enough to have done a moderately thorough job browsing of the core rulebook. Dwelling on this a while back, I came up with one possible tactic- include each culture's account of the setting, as separate sections or even small books (available individually or accompanying the core rules as a set). Not only could this be a great method for avoiding information overload, it would be an effective way of conveying distinct flavors through each culture.
Say we have a multicultural party, and they encounter some creature for the first time while traveling between worlds. Player A's knows what this creature is- the book says it's a sacred guide whose kin led Brave Hunter Malani to many great treasures. Player B's also heard of this creature- his book identifies it as a fiercely territorial predator who picks a new home each year, leading to many attacks by them on ships that were following trade routes usually regarded as safe. Player C's book has very little info on anything space-related; all he knows is that it's one of the biggest space beasties he's ever laid eyes on.
Each 'textbook' would be written with a distinct voice- or even multiple distinct voices, each matching the source for the society's mainstream understanding of the current topic. So if you took this approach for colonial Britain, the book would adopt an educated/scholarly tone when providing information on the neighboring nations of Europe (Maelstrom's equivalent being the other worlds orbiting the same gas giant), then shift to a more 'gentleman adventurer' voice and provide a sensational account of the exotic foreign continents. To round things out (both regarding the information the text offers about the setting and the picture it paints of your own society), I'd sprinkle short anecdotes throughout the whole thing, each from a person whose station is unique to their society- a traveling judge, a tribe's champion hunter, an outcaste begging on the street corner. Returning to the example using colonial Britain, the sensational account of a foreign people's barbarous ways might come with a brief counterpoint by a missionary who spent many years among them, praising their close-knit families and willingness to dedicate themselves to God.
Maelstrom's one of the projects I write about least (and there's alot of competition for that honor, believe me). Everything described in this post, I came up with at least a year ago. Today, though, I came up with another idea in the same vein- something much more revolutionary. I'll lay it out in my next post. Read all
