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02-04-2017, 05:03 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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[Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptability
Last Week: Contact Group, Contacts
Next Week: Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane One of the things I contemplated while I was on hiatus was if I should strictly adhere to the alphabetical order found in the Advantages Trait List (p. B297-298), and as you can tell by today's entry not covering Courtesy Rank, I decided to allow the defining trait (the one that will be among the tags for search purposes) to be the main determinant of order. This also pushes Rank bad to be closer to things like Reputation and Status. So with this note out of the way, we'll move onto our actual subjects: Cultural Adaptability, Cultural Familiarity, and Xeno-Adaptability. Basic We begin with Cultral Familiarity (p. B23), a Mundane, Social Advantage presented in the Social Background (p. B22-25) section of Characters, and costs 1 or 2 CP per culture. I was a bit surprised: even though Cultural Familiarities has its own section on the character sheet shown there, Cultural Familiarity is not explained in GURPS Lite. As the name suggests, this trait reflects your knowledge and understanding of a particular culture, including many aspects of communication and etiquette. All characters start with their Native Cultural Familiarity for free, but others must be purchased. Mechanically, if a character unfamiliar with the relevant culture attempts to use a Skill with a significant cultural component, that character will suffer a -3 penalty to those Skill rolls. The text provides us with a long (but not exhaustive) list of affected Skills: Carousing, Connoisseur, Criminology, Dancing, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Games, Gesture, Heraldry, Intimidation, Leadership, Merchant, Poetry, Politics, Psychology, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, Sociology, Streetwise, and Teaching. GURPS uses pretty broad definitions of culture; real-world examples given in the text are East Asian, Muslim, and Western. This is further emphasized by the cost; the 1 CP version is for Cultural Familiarities belonging to your own race (or a similar one), such as all I just listed. The 2 CP cost is for cultures that are truly alien. Still, this can add up in your typical fantasy campaign, which brings us to our next trait: Cultural Adaptibility (p. B46) costs 10 CP. It is still a Mundane trait, though it is cinematic and as such unlikely to be available in a realistic game. It also counts as a Mental trait rather than a Social one; all cultures of your race are familiar to you. Xeno-Adaptibility (p. B46) costs 20 CP and takes it one step further; your character is familiar with all cultures in your game world, even those of other races! These traits can be essential for particular, archetypal characters and even in a setting where they don't save any CP, still save you tedious record keeping. Other Supplements GURPS Powers does a little with these traits, explaining what kinds of powers suits them, and using them in an ability or two. GURPS Power-Ups 2: Perks brings up something from GURPS Martial Arts called Style Familiarity. It is a Combat Perk that functions as an Unusual Background and has several benefits, making me wonder if I am reading it wrong as it seems to exceed what you normally get for a Perk. If I do understand correctly, it includes some niche aspects of Cultural Familiarity (namely those pertaining to the martial arts style in question). In Power-Ups 3: Talents, Cultural Adaptability is presented as a potential prerequisite trait for the Cultural Chameleon Talent, while Xeno-Adaptability serves the same purpose for Alien Friend Talent. Other than Xeno-Adaptability, the other two also come up in Social Engineering, though not as much as I expected. I am not complaining, but worry I missed them in the text (I am still not very familiar with it). Other Supplements that reference Cultural Adaptability, Cultural Familiarity, and/or Xeno-Adaptability will be added as they are brought up in the discussion, but these are what I could quickly find before posting. Useful Links Cultural Familiarities - I am pressed for time and have not finished the thread, but it contains a very useful Kromm quote here. Questions
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My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :) Last edited by Otaku; 02-14-2017 at 04:55 PM. |
02-04-2017, 05:09 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
One thing you might do is add a thread to the Resource board for these. Like the one johndallman did for his skill of the week.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
02-04-2017, 05:20 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
I know this sounds lame but, it is pending. XD Short version is I've had a bit less free time and a lot more distractions lately, and have not risen to the occasion. >.> I thought I might catch up tonight, but was tapped for last minute babysitting duties. Now I get to wait for between one and four of my nephews to arrive, with the timeframe being "Sometime after six..." (it is 6:20 PM local time). XD
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My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :) |
02-04-2017, 05:23 PM | #4 |
formerly known as 'Kenneth Latrans'
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Wyoming, Michigan
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
In my world, all the PCs would be expected to come from the main culture. As there are only a small handful of other cultures in existence they could potentially interact with, Cultural Adaptability and Xeno-Adaptability are far more expensive than would make them worth putting on templates.
A character brought in from another world would be better statted up with a Quirk: No Cultural Familiarity because of the vanishingly tiny chance of running into another outworlder from the same cultural region of the same world. He would be expected to buy this Quirk off in play as his character became familiar with the world.
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02-04-2017, 07:55 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
CF is fairly important in my current fantasy campaign, Tapestry. I have seven sapient races (all humanoid), each with multiple large culture areas, three at a minimum. The PCs come from four races and five culture areas.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
02-04-2017, 08:22 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
I dont recall ever using Cultural Adaptability or seeing it in a campaign I ran.
CF gets a little use, mostly as background but most people playing a social type would rather absorb the penalties than buy anything more.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
02-05-2017, 02:09 AM | #7 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
Hmm, your OP seems not to point to the list of modern CFs.
Here it is: Quote:
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02-05-2017, 08:54 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
I feel obliged to offer one of my own CF listings which is distinct from Kromm's in several areas:
Quote:
Where it differs significantly from Kromm's is in breaking up Africa into several cultures instead of one homogenous "Sub-Saharan Africa", and merging his "Anglo" and "Western European" into a single "Western". If anything, I'd make the split continental - with the US and Canada being distinct from Great Britain and Ireland; the isles have more in common with the rest of Western Europe than with those of us on the western side of the Atlantic at times. Also, I feel obliged to offer the CF listings I'm using in my Marvel Reboot project. Common to any Modern-Day Game:
The reason most of the extrastellar and extradimensional cultures aren't priced as "alien" is because for the most part they're similar to cultures in our own popular culture, and not utterly incomprehensible.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting Last edited by Phantasm; 02-05-2017 at 09:04 AM. |
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02-05-2017, 10:52 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
I've been thinking about combining Anthropology and Cultural Familiarity into one package. A character would have +10 for most rolls involving their own culture (and the GM should waive this most of the time), +0 for other cultures from the same species and no roll for cultures from other species. If a character has an effective skill of less than 10 for the culture in question, they suffer cultural familiarity penalties as if they didn't have Cultural Familiarity.
Cultural Adaptability becomes a 5-point Talent that gives a bonus to Anthropology and some other skills (I haven't decided which ones yet). Another possibility is to make Cultural Adaptability into a talent-like ability (like Jack of Many Trades), which costs 5 points per level and gives +1 to rolls against culture-sensitive skills the character doesn't have Cultural Familiarity with (limited to three levels). What do you think?
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
02-05-2017, 11:20 AM | #10 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi
Quote:
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
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advantage of the week, cultural adaptability, cultural familiarity, week, xeno-adaptability, [basic] |
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