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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Thought experiment: human and variant stats as expressions of culture
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<blockquote data-quote="Immortal Sun" data-source="post: 7547776"><p>*shrug* How does this reflect in the citizenry? Is CivA made up of ONLY well-rounded citizens? Is CivB made up of ONLY specialized citizens? What sort of social climate exists to promote this? Are there overt genetic statements? Are there subtle social implications ala (at least conceptually) Divergent? How do we know if Mr WellRounded of CivA is <em>truly</em> well-rounded? Are you going to stat out each and every citizen by the book as though they were all at least 1st-level characters?</p><p></p><p>These are interesting thought experiments, but fundamentally poorly expressed through game mathematics and tedious to do on the scale of a civilization. If people from CivA are <em>generally</em> more well-rounded, that's something that can be presented via story far better than math by having people who "wear many hats" during their daily lives. If people from CivB are more specialized, that can be presented again, by story-telling about people who are highly specialized and may guffaw at the idea of performing a task outside their training. Because fundamentally you're painting a broad picture of these civilizations and their people, and only statting up a handful of them.</p><p></p><p>I tend to err on the side of "let the players play what they want" and have them come up with interesting reasons as to why they may or may not fit the usual mold. Maybe they're a social pariah, maybe they're struggling to keep their skill-diversity on the down-low, maybe they're hiding a secret desire to specialize in one single thing ever. Maybe they're actively promoting that things need to change. </p><p></p><p>But ultimately, unless your game is going to revolve around the politics of these societies, the party will probably never hear about it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Immortal Sun, post: 7547776"] *shrug* How does this reflect in the citizenry? Is CivA made up of ONLY well-rounded citizens? Is CivB made up of ONLY specialized citizens? What sort of social climate exists to promote this? Are there overt genetic statements? Are there subtle social implications ala (at least conceptually) Divergent? How do we know if Mr WellRounded of CivA is [I]truly[/I] well-rounded? Are you going to stat out each and every citizen by the book as though they were all at least 1st-level characters? These are interesting thought experiments, but fundamentally poorly expressed through game mathematics and tedious to do on the scale of a civilization. If people from CivA are [I]generally[/I] more well-rounded, that's something that can be presented via story far better than math by having people who "wear many hats" during their daily lives. If people from CivB are more specialized, that can be presented again, by story-telling about people who are highly specialized and may guffaw at the idea of performing a task outside their training. Because fundamentally you're painting a broad picture of these civilizations and their people, and only statting up a handful of them. I tend to err on the side of "let the players play what they want" and have them come up with interesting reasons as to why they may or may not fit the usual mold. Maybe they're a social pariah, maybe they're struggling to keep their skill-diversity on the down-low, maybe they're hiding a secret desire to specialize in one single thing ever. Maybe they're actively promoting that things need to change. But ultimately, unless your game is going to revolve around the politics of these societies, the party will probably never hear about it. [/QUOTE]
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Thought experiment: human and variant stats as expressions of culture
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