Posts Tagged by culture
| November 21, 2012 | Posted by Scott Martin |
Thanksgiving is upon us! It’s time to let out my belt, pick some side dishes, and prepare to cook. Tomorrow will involve turkey–one of the few times a year I dedicate a whole day to planning, preparing, chopping, cooking, and devouring a meal. Even more, it’s one of the few times that I get to stand side by side with relatives and work together on a tasty project. I enjoy baking up a chicken many nights, but that’s so much less impressive in size and…
| November 9, 2012 | Posted by Scott Martin |
Throughout history, we’ve treated people of the same age very differently. While generally the eldest have been venerated, different cultures have had different cut-offs for what counts as old, who is an adult, who can formally earn a living, and who is protected. Playing with age, borrowing historical concepts, or extrapolating current trends into the future can make for a very different feel to your world. Non-humans alter this even more. Shadowrun does a particularly good job of having Orks mature faster, while Elves never…
| October 18, 2012 | Posted by Scott Martin |
A few weeks ago, I sketched out a few historical lower/lowest classes, in part one. This week I’ll add a few more examples–but more briefly and with a little more discussion about what you can do with them. An example of transition: Louisiana Louisiana had three eras of slavery. Initially, under French rule, the Code Noir was responsible for setting the limits and customs of slavery. The original Code Noir was empire wide, but locals attempted to modify it for local conditions. [This often involved…
| September 28, 2012 | Posted by Scott Martin |
I was recently reading a fascinating book, The accidental city : improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell. It was filled with a number of fascinating facts and historical events that were new to me–or made new by the context of the book. Even more, the chapters detailing the differences between the various Louisiana implementations of slavery led me to realize just how varied the experience could be. Visiting Monticello while reading the book, combined with the excellent work on Mulberry Row presentations at the…
| February 14, 2012 | Posted by Matthew J. Neagley |
Think back to the scenery from the last public restroom you frequented. Chances are you were treated to a visual smorgasbord of human expression. In that 15 minutes or so, you were probably exposed to more poetry, art, comedy gold and political satire than you were for the rest of the week (if you’re a social recluse like me anyway). People graffiti whenever they have sufficient motivation and feel the chance of being punished is slim (or the reward is worth it). Thus, in the…
| December 8, 2011 | Posted by Scott Martin |
Recently, I’ve been reading the five Otori novels, and have really enjoyed the complex world that they’ve created. I don’t know a lot about Japanese history, so I have no idea how closely the concepts correlate to real world events, but it’s a great, complex world that I’d love to game in. But it’d only work well under unusual circumstances. Playing in her world is similar to playing with real world history–it’s attractive, but difficult. Phil’s article about Drinking the Kool Aid from last week…
| January 21, 2011 | Posted by Matthew J. Neagley |
Languages in RPGs have a lot of potential, but they often get relegated to the realm of soulless mechanics, or even hand waved completely. Looking at novels, we see that languages are used as inspiration, flavor, and to instill a sense of wonder. Languages are mysterious: If no one in the group knows a language, that language and what it holds is a mystery. This is especially true if it’s resistant to magic or skill based attempts to make it understandable. You probably shouldn’t place necessary clues in a magic…
