experience playing hunter-gatherers?

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

These folks literally cut people's hearts out atop blood-soaked pyramids.

Surely they're the enemy?

Surely.

Now, if they had been literally cutting orcs' hearts out atop blood-soaked pyramids, that'd be another thing altogether.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

Certainly there are cultural and technological differences; the Inuit are not the Maya. But in the end the differences aren't that big. In GURPS terms, most American Indian societies were at TL0 when the Europeans arrived. A few had some TL1 features. None of them had the full TL1 package.

You did specify "hunter-gatherers" which is not a very accurate description of many native tribes' lifestyle. They certainly hunted and gathered, but many only as an adjunct to agriculture. Even though both are TL0, there is a vast difference between the lifestyle of the paleolithic hunter-gatherer that crossed Beringia and the neolithic farmers of the Atlantic Seaboard that English settlers met, to say nothing of the Aztec and Inca Empires.

[Johan Larson]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Surely.

Now, if they had been literally cutting orcs' hearts out atop blood-soaked pyramids, that'd be another thing altogether.

Or for a really oddball campaign, the players are a reform faction among Aztec nobles. "Yes, we are all aware that if we stop cutting out hearts the sun will stop rising. But do we have to cut out so many of them? Rather than cutting out one per day, let's try one every two days for a moon. If nothing bad happens we'll know the gods are OK with it." Social engineering at its finest.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

Or for a really oddball campaign, the players are a reform faction among Aztec nobles. "Yes, we are all aware that if we stop cutting out hearts the sun will stop rising. But do we have to cut out so many of them? Rather than cutting out one per day, let's try one every two days for a moon. If nothing bad happens we'll know the gods are OK with it." Social engineering at its finest.

There's also the difficulty in knowing the subtleties in what people say they believe and what they actually believe as told from their actions.
For example, everyone says that children are our greatest most valuable resource, yet childcare and educations are some of the worst paid jobs.
We can't know just how emphatic Aztecs were in their official dogma beliefs. It's not like killing P.O.W.s and making spectacles out of killing are really that unusual of human concepts. It was the gladiatorial ring afternoon matinees, and English made parties out of public executions, after all.

Imagine a visitor trying to remain hidden but getting caught out for seeming to "real" in belief

[alexondria]

Also something to keep in mind is at the time of Cortes discovering them the Aztecs had one of the largest cities in the world. I couldn't quickly find what number it's usually listed as (I think the class I was in listed it as 5th or 6th), but I found this on wikipedia:

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519. With an estimated population between 200,000 and 300,000, many[who?] scholars believe Tenochtitlan to have been among the largest cities in the world at that time.[14] Compared to Europe, only Paris, Venice and Constantinople might have rivaled it. It was five times the size of the London of Henry VIII.[6] In a letter to the Spanish king, Cortés wrote that Tenochtitlan was as large as Seville or Córdoba. Cortes' men were in awe at the sight of the splendid city and many wondered if they were dreaming.[15]

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

We can't know just how emphatic Aztecs were in their official dogma beliefs.

I mean, I guess I believe, but to be honest I only cut out the still beating hearts of my enemies on Christmas and Easter.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by alexondria

Also something to keep in mind is at the time of Cortes discovering them the Aztecs had one of the largest cities in the world. I couldn't quickly find what number it's usually listed as (I think the class I was in listed it as 5th or 6th), but I found this on wikipedia:

Once I heard the name, I started thinking things that apparently have more to do with Teotihuacan... and this Wikipedia page actually says, "not to be confused with Teotihuacan." Ouch, preemptively corrected.
Around 200k citizens at its max capacity says just as much about the vast empire required to maintain and supply such a metropolis to me.
Up until recently 90-99% of a nation's populace were farmers leaving only a small minority as true urbanites.

[dcarson]

The majority of the hunter gatherers in N America after contact were the remains of settled cultures that crashed from disease. I think the Pacific Northwest tribes weren't farmers but were still settled just depended on the really large fishing available to feed them.

[ericthered]

From all available evidence most of north america was reasonably agricultural before plauges created the closest to a post-apoc setting history has ever seen. There were parts of north america where that isn't true, but they are just that: parts.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by alexondria

Also something to keep in mind is at the time of Cortes discovering them the Aztecs had one of the largest cities in the world. I couldn't quickly find what number it's usually listed as (I think the class I was in listed it as 5th or 6th), but I found this on wikipedia:

Originally Posted by ericthered

From all available evidence most of north america was reasonably agricultural before plauges created the closest to a post-apoc setting history has ever seen. There were parts of north america where that isn't true, but they are just that: parts.

But not all those plagues came from Westerners. A few were likely disease and ecological collapse from over-use. Dense populations create the perfect environments for the prevalence of known diseases and for new ones to evolve.
If things were only slightly different, there would have been disaster on both sides of the ocean with a trade of apocalypses.