Modern-Day Cultural Familiarities

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

It does, to a point, and yet it does not. What we're looking at in Kromm's list is essentially a House Rule for his campaign, to fit how he thinks it works, as opposed to any real definitive list.

Sure, I'm just finding the RAW to be way too inclusive in this regard and it's interesting to see that the Line Editor apparently agrees. I'm making sure that I'm not missing something here.

House rules are allowed to contradict "canon" examples, particularly when the "canonical" examples are for an ISWAT game and his is (presumably) not.

I'm fairly sure that except for the IW chapter and the Iconic Characters nothing in the Basic Set is meant to be setting specific for IW.
Specifically nothing about:

Originally Posted by B p23

To prevent point-cost inflation, the GM should use broad definitions of culture: East Asian, Muslim, Western, etc.

Seems specific to the IW setting.

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

And particularly when the house rules are created, and documented thoroughly, before the players begin creating their characters.

People ought to be able to change their minds sometimes. Most people aren't perfect. Fixing your mistakes and improving your execution isn't insanity or incompetence. Refusing to do so because you'll only except perfection probably is.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Sure, I'm just finding the RAW to be way too inclusive in this regard and it's interesting to see that the Line Editor apparently agrees. I'm making sure that I'm not missing something here.

It'd also vary from campaign to campaign, as well. I suspect that in some cases "point inflation" is desirable. I know it varies from campaign to campaign when I'm running the campaigns, so ... (and I never worry about point inflation, given that I prefer higher point values to start with!)

[Phantasm]

Minor thread necro because I've run into a recent issue with one of the possible overlap areas in my previous list.

In essence, I've got a character from Puerto Rico. I don't know enough about the culture on the island to tell if it's Western or Latin American.

Since it is an overlap area, I'll probably end up giving him both anyway; just not sure which is the "native" one.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Minor thread necro because I've run into a recent issue with one of the possible overlap areas in my previous list.

In essence, I've got a character from Puerto Rico. I don't know enough about the culture on the island to tell if it's Western or Latin American.

Since it is an overlap area, I'll probably end up giving him both anyway; just not sure which is the "native" one.

Puerto Rico is kind of a special case, certainly. Just about everybody, there, speaks English, the politics they discuss is U.S. politics, the economy they're a part of is the U.S. economy, they're U.S. citizens allowed to travel freely anywhere in the nation and, if they don't live in PR, they even vote for president.

At the same time, Spanish is the main native language, and they share a lot of cultural traits with Latin America.

I'd say the character should pick either Western Culture or Latin American Culture as "Native", but must take the one not taken as "Native" and put enough points into it so it lies only a point or two below "Native." This reflects the family background (the wealthier people of PR are definitely more "Western") and the island's unique status as a U.S. territory in close proximity to the mainland.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I'd say the character should pick either Western Culture or Latin American Culture as "Native", but must take the one not taken as "Native" and put enough points into it so it lies only a point or two below "Native." This reflects the family background (the wealthier people of PR are definitely more "Western") and the island's unique status as a U.S. territory in close proximity to the mainland.

Considering CFs are one-point traits, unless they're "totally alien" cultures, there's not much call for putting more than a single point in other cultures.

Good insights, though. Thanks.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Considering CFs are one-point traits, unless they're "totally alien" cultures, there's not much call for putting more than a single point in other cultures.

Good insights, though. Thanks.

Eh, okay. That's what I get for not looking up rules before I post in the GURPS board. :)

Anyway, you're welcome. I'm a bit hard-pressed to think of any U.S. territory similar to Puerto Rico. Even the USVI, where I vacationed the week before last, is very much a U.S. culture (albeit with great seafood, lots of chickens, and steel drums).

[Flyndaran]

Is it mainly full Spanish there or Spanglish? Many native Spanglish speakers aren't really fluent in Spanish, from what I gather.
My grandmother's spoken mixed so much with her friends and family over the decades that she speaks each language with the accent from the other.

But that level of detail probably suits Gurp: Linguistics rather than any game posters here would play.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Is it mainly full Spanish there or Spanglish? Many native Spanglish speakers aren't really fluent in Spanish, from what I gather.
My grandmother's spoken mixed so much with her friends and family over the decades that she speaks each language with the accent from the other.

But that level of detail probably suits Gurp: Linguistics rather than any game posters here would play.

For languages, I'd probably list "Spanglish" as the native language, with defaults to both English and Spanish, though as I'm unfamiliar with Spanish outside the 7th grade classroom where I learned it and wholly unfamiliar with Spanglish in any form, I couldn't say for certain how generous the defaults are.