Saeviomagy
Adventurer
We were discussing this on the thread about forgotten realms cloakers, and it got me thinking.
The fact that a race, or type of creature, or whatever has an "alien mindset" and this somehow explains away all the inconsistencies the race has is a fairly common thing to find in fantasy games. However rarely is the way that this "alien mindset" functions explained. Which, frankly, leads to some really crappy roleplaying - it's basically impossible for a GM to roleplay out an "alien mindset".
On the other hand, a radically different mindset can be the scene of some really memorable interactions.
So - what I want from this thread is suggestions for alien mindsets. Either take a race which is supposed to have an alien mindset, and fabricate a radically different mindset for them which explains the features of the races culture, or just make up a new alien mindset and list out the consequences.
Included below are a couple of examples extracted from the forgotten realms cloaker thread:
The fact that a race, or type of creature, or whatever has an "alien mindset" and this somehow explains away all the inconsistencies the race has is a fairly common thing to find in fantasy games. However rarely is the way that this "alien mindset" functions explained. Which, frankly, leads to some really crappy roleplaying - it's basically impossible for a GM to roleplay out an "alien mindset".
On the other hand, a radically different mindset can be the scene of some really memorable interactions.
So - what I want from this thread is suggestions for alien mindsets. Either take a race which is supposed to have an alien mindset, and fabricate a radically different mindset for them which explains the features of the races culture, or just make up a new alien mindset and list out the consequences.
Included below are a couple of examples extracted from the forgotten realms cloaker thread:
me on another thread said:Personally I'd say "cloakers are unable to conceive of things beyond their own personal experience" or "they've got no imagination". Which would explain why they can't do magic, and don't often do the things that people do - because they don't often come into contact with people, and they cannot think them up independantly. It also explains why they don't go exploring (they can't think of anywhere other than 'here' and 'over there').
Sejs on the same thread said:Cloakers have a very hard time understanding individuality. To a cloaker there is no real difference between "me" and "we". Cloaker A is a cloaker, Cloaker B is a cloaker - that's the end of it. Human Adventurer A is not a cloaker, Drow Merchant B is not a cloaker - and as far as the cloakers are concerned, they both belong to the same group: Not Us. They just assume that those humanoids, no matter how diverse they are, are all part of the same collective whole, and they don't understand why or how the various sub-groups interrellate. It's just alien to them.
They don't learn wizardy because not being able to differentiate between who the magic is affecting is crippling to them. A Range-personal spell should affect this cloaker; but those cloakers and this cloaker are the same, so this cloaker's spell should be affecting them as well. So it tries to spread a range-personal spell's effect over the entire group and the spell just fails. It would try to have a ray spell affect all its foes equally, and fail. It would try to have an area spell only affect its foes and not include its allies or non-enemy objects, and fail. They don't go and try to conquer the surface because well... there's a whole lot more Not Us, than there are Us. The Not Us would win, easily. So it's best not to try.