I do go beyond mashing a culture with a race, I try to think of what the homebrew's society would be like, what most citizens see merit in, how they'd treat outsiders, what their clothes look like from the local wildlife. In the case of the Zulu wood elves I start off with that to give a quick visualization to the player and then build in from that as they play.
And the conflicts I like to include involve culture clashing, the main characters liking to defy tradition.
Would it be presenting it the way I do that raises eyebrows before the games even start?
Chase Hall
>Would it be presenting it the way I do that raises eyebrows before the games even start? Probably what is driving people away is the multiculturalism fad in the media. Comic books, movies, and other niche hobbies are being reworked by these out-of-touch executives and heavily politicized. If you're throwing in asian and african themes into what people expect to be a western european setting, then it'll come across as something similar. It may be entirely unintentional, but that is probably how it comes across.
Nicholas King
i h8 drk elfs cuz they blk as shit sun. fuk dem niggas
Lucas Butler
>and other niche hobbies are being reworked by these That does make a lot of sense, I don't keep up with a lot of multimedia and start my research with older books and novels.
My plan was next to use 5e as a template for an Iron Age China campaign. The weaponry, clothing and geography will be a lot like China, and the enemies are like the Classic Chinese, while the players will come from a more barbarian culture. What suggestions do you have for the presentation?
Jonathan Long
That's true. All the politically correct nonsense out there today promoting multiculturalism really makes me a lot more sensitive to being annoyed by it. So I can see how it might spur on a bit of a dis-likable feeling from certain players. With cultural conflict so high in the real world right now, some players don't want more of that in their game.
Noah Jenkins
shut up you racist prick.
Jaxson Hernandez
>"cultures other than pure white european ones?! Not in my fantasy setting!"
Whatever /pol/ we get it you hate everyone
Owen Bennett
>My plan was next to use 5e as a template for an Iron Age China campaign. The weaponry, clothing and geography will be a lot like China, and the enemies are like the Classic Chinese, while the players will come from a more barbarian culture. What suggestions do you have for the presentation? It seems like if it's a Chinese themed setting, then it will be fine as long as it's well-researched and well-based in Chinese culture. Bleeding, say, European influences into it will make it seem schizophrenic and disjointed.
I'm not a big expert on Chinese history, but I know that each region of China had a different culture, and many times the empire collapsed into separate states, yet there was always the prevailing notion that China was at heart a single empire, destined to be reunited, and fulfill a divine right to rule over all other countries (which were always considered "barbarians" no matter how civilized they were). The barbarian groups the players come from could easily be the Manchu or the Mongols, but perhaps also the Siamese, or Japanese or Islanders.
Chase Cooper
>I'm not a big expert on Chinese history, but I know that each region of China had a different culture In fact, as is common with many early civilizations, you could even say that every village had a unique culture.
For instance, in one particular village by the river, the men would row their boats downstream, and the women who wanted to woo them would stand out by the river and sing to them, and the men would sing back if they wanted to marry.
Nicholas Murphy
Not that user, but what he said was
>If you're throwing in asian and african themes into what people expect to be a western european setting...
Using interesting locales or drawing on foreign folklore often makes for great gameplay. Shattering all sense of immersion by dropping "Ok these elves are basically polynesians" between not!France and not!Germany and expecting to use 'Its fantasy!' as the final handwave does not.
Once a world stops following its internal logic immersion and believability burn.
