Re: Re: (TFT) progress report

[Maou.Tsaou@gmail.com]

On , Joey Beutel wrote:
> To me it sounds like you should probably just leave everyone as human...
> At the very least, a goblin/viking match up doesn't make sense. Goblins  
> are small and weak. Vikings are basically your quintessential human.


Well sure but half-Goblins and one eight-Goblins and so on need not be so  
small and weak.
Also if you want to get all technical about it the term Viking is a verb  
meaning a voyage of exploration or raiding, one who participated in such a  
voyage was a Vikingr.
Ask a Swede if there's a ton of love for a Norwegian in their country for  
example, and don't bring Denmark into it...
I get your point about the "bad visuals" in that the common perception of  
Viking and Goblin don't seem to mix so well but the Norse were a pretty  
cosmopolitan culture for a pretty long time...
Also, I'm not so much interested in the "classic" view of the races but  
rather I'm more interested in defining races by the culture I've plopped  
the players into.
In this case "human" is the native Rapi Nui.
A race that becomes opposed to the islanders is gonna take on some kind  
of "Orc" status in the same way that the "Vikings" call any  
aborigines "Skraelings".
...
 From a game pov this is a device for tension.
If I've got a group of classic gamers' then I'll just stick with  
the "classic" old-school mental pictures of these races and just make the  
islanders and all of Polyneisa caucasoid.
Often these days I've got folks that aren't quite as set in their mental  
pictures, they still know that's it's assumed to be a good thing to kill an  
Orc or Goblin... or maybe at least not such a rotten thing.
Killing Goblins is pretty much a given in RPG's.
So to be lazy I let actual history give me the broad strokes of the  
background so I have a basic idea of the "bigger picture" if a clever  
player ever want's to try and break through my "frame" while still  
communicating pretty clearly just whom it's okay to kill.
Why not call the Chinese "Elves" if they ever show up in the region?
They can look like whatever I choose to describe them as looking like, and  
if they can copulate and make a "half-breed" then they can't be TOO far  
apart in actual abitities...
I choose to use fantasy terms because if I choose to use actual modern  
racial slurs I might be even more misunderstood.
...
The principal of "The Dark Lord" in my gameworld is to diametrically oppose  
the players.
If you've got a bunch of knights in shining white armor then the Dark Lord  
is a black knight.
If you've got a bunch of cut-throats that are always ripping each other off  
and always looking out for themselves then the Dark Lord is the epitome of  
law and order, just like a Earp.
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