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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thyrwyn" data-source="post: 7547896" data-attributes="member: 12354">Answers:1) maybe, but it sounds more like conformity vs individuality. I’ll add more on this later...2) I lean towards RP first, so the choice would depend on the description of the cultures, but with no other information, I’d lean towards the variant human. 3) yes, though I may be biased (see below). I did something similar in my 4e campaign, where I had a broad range of human ethnicities and several PHB races which were not present. So for one totemic ethnicity, I allowed players to use human stats OR Shifter stats; for another that had a history of demonic interaction, I allowed human OR Tiefling stats; and so on...They all looked like the appropriate human, ethnic norm - only the mechanics changed. This allowed me to include more options without doing a lot of redesign to force them in. Getting back to your proposal: I’d allow either mechanical choice from either culture. As a DM my goal is always to get the culture into play, that’s why it’s there. But no culture is homogeneous, and there are always outliers.  For the same reasons, I don’t get too upset if a PC doesn’t RP according to cultural norms - there are always rebels - but that does affect how their cultural peers interact with them, and strangers will still treat them according to the cultural stereotype (which may work for or against the PC, depending).</blockquote>