Chinese vs. Japanese

[Liminal Syzygy]

Good points FireLance. While the article's analysis is quite shallow (the real world is very complicated), this could be carried into a game to make different cultures feel deeper.

What does it say about a culture that gives new names in their language to people and things.

Maybe on one hand, yes they are accepting and will welcome "foreigners" into their society... But on the other hand maybe they aren't so open to differences and once you are accepted into their society you are immediately expected to behave and operate as a full member of that society, which may not be a welcome expectation to a foriegner.

 

[tarchon]

We have used these ideas a lot in our games. A name like Vecna for instance may be taken as "Veckenar" or "Vick Noah" by different groups, and names of monsters might vary a lot. Like one of our DMs had ogre magi referred to as "yeshnu" among the learned in Western nations of Greyhawk, "mage ogres" among the Eastern nations, and various backward tribes of humans and humanoids would call them "purple trolls" or something like that. It's a very realistic way of depicting the pervasive confusion in international terminology in pre-modern cultures and, it kept the party from knowing exactly what they were going to be dealing with in a lot of cases.

 

[Lalato]

Very interesting ideas people. I think I'm going to have a field day with this stuff.

--sam