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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1984755" data-attributes="member: 7240">I find your terminology a little curious but I sort of see where you are going. I think "traditionalist" might actually be the wrong term for the faction I am part of because it falsely implies that we are somehow closer to original D&D. I would argue that the opposing style of play might actually be closer to traditional D&D. So, if it were up to me to retitle things, I would call my faction Cultural and the other Cosmopolitan.Ironically, I think both playing styles arise from concerns about believability and suspension of disbelief. And I think both play styles are successful attempts to solve these problems. People like me who enjoy Cultural RPGs tend to assume that if people exist in a different, place or time; if they exist in a different culture or have different material conditions than we do, they will think differently. Not only will their values, goals and beliefs be different; their very thought processes will be different than ours. Even such universal things as love, marriage and politics will be exhibit sharp culturally-defined differences.People who enjoy Cosmopolitan RPGs tend to assume that, minor details aside, people are always people. In the most recent argument about this on the magic shop thread, the Cosmopolitan faction has invoked a phrase I find common in a lot of their arguments: "basic human nature." Thus, although culture helps to add a little flavour to these campaigns, it is not very important because the characters will think and act much as we do today.Late last fall, there was a big meltdown in the D&D campaign in which I play on Monday nights over this very issue. Two Cosmopolitan players left the group because they found the other characters' values and behaviour absurd because they deviated so sharply from "basic human nature." Similarly, I have been frustrated in campaigns where all the people of good alignment share modern liberal democratic values and just wander around in medieval drag. What is worth noting, however, is that in both cases, it is all about credibility and suspension of disbelief. The only difference is whether one has a worldview that emphasizes universal and transhistorical qualities in human thought and behaviour or whether one has a worldview that emphasizes cultural uniqueness and specificity.</blockquote>

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