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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Afrodyte" data-source="post: 1986627" data-attributes="member: 8713">I agree with this on principle, but (and this is an important but), oftentimes GM-created settings are too narrowly focused to create something that allows for that kind of diversity.  I discussed something similar <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14035" target="_blank">on another forum</a>.  Too often the "game worlds" that GMs create are aesthetically and culturally monolithic, even to the point where it contradicts the consistency they were going for.  It's one thing to say that one culture in an area or adventure locale is dominant, but quite another to say that the cultural and cosmological model for the entire world defaults to one paradigm.I agree that if the thematic and plot focus is centered around a single culture or idea, the introduction of too many outside elements can inhibit the focus.  However, I think this has less to do with the existence or non-existence of other cultures and creatures than it does with player assumptions about the role of adventurers in society.  People assume that adventurers exist outside society, that they can only impact and be affected by it if they choose to be.  As a result, they don't think very carefully about wanting to be "special," thinking nothing of having minotaurs, half-dragons, and the like as characters.  Having seen this too many times, GMs try to reverse this trend by being exclusionist as opposed to just focused, and this makes it difficult for players (like myself) who find it intriguing to roleplay with the idea of the outsider in society.Overall, I prefer games where there is thematic focus, but I think there is always room for diversity within that focus.  If you want heroic fantasy, there are many cultural ways to implement that.  Western cultures do not have the monopoly on heroism or fantasy, and an intriguing way to deal with something like this would be to provide various cultures who define heroism in different ways, and to see how they interact within the context of a single campaign.  What would happen if Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Eshu, Sun Wukong, and Krishna formed a party?  To introduce a more traditional fantasy element, take elves.  For a people who are eternally young and beautiful, for whom death is not inevitable, who may even welcome the change that death brings, what becomes the meaning of ultimate sacrifice?  What kind of lives do their heroes lead?</blockquote>

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