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Old 02-04-2017, 05:03 PM   #1
Otaku
 
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Default [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptability

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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
  • How have Cultural Familiarities been used in your games?
  • Has anyone ever taken Cultural Adaptability or Xeno-Adaptability? If so, how did it work out?
  • Anything you like about these traits?
  • Anything you don't like about them?
  • Anything you might change or, conversely, think is just right as is?
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Last edited by Otaku; 02-14-2017 at 04:55 PM.
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Old 02-04-2017, 05:09 PM   #2
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Default 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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Old 02-04-2017, 05:20 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refplace View Post
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.
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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Old 02-04-2017, 05:23 PM   #4
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Default 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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Old 02-04-2017, 07:55 PM   #5
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Default 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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Old 02-04-2017, 08:22 PM   #6
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Default 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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Old 02-05-2017, 02:09 AM   #7
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Default 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:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
We have never published such a list, but behind the scenes, we use this one:
  1. Latin American (Mexico and parts south)
  2. Anglo (the U.K. and its English-speaking former colonies, including the U.S.A.)
  3. Western European ( "the Continent")
  4. Eastern European (the former Soviet Bloc)
  5. North African (from the Mediterranean coast south to the Sahel)
  6. Sub-Saharan (specifically as contrasted with North African)
  7. West Asian (from the Mediterranean east to Iran)
  8. Central Asian (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and so on)
  9. South Asian (dominated by India)
  10. East Asian (China, Japan, Korea, etc.)
Of those, I'd say you could afford to break up Latin American and South Asian further, and Sub-Saharan a lot further, if the campaign requires it. But if you want an even 10 to hit Cultural Adaptability on the head, this list works well enough.

You would almost certainly find "Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously" (Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II) and "Speaking in Tongues" (Pyramid #3/54: Social Engineering) to be of value, then.
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Old 02-05-2017, 08:54 AM   #8
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Default 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:
Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
Aboriginal: The native hunter-gatherer cultures of Africa, Yucatan peninsula, South America, and Australia, among others.
Bantu African: The culture of the village-dwelling people in the bulk of Sub-Saharan Africa. (The Zulu are the most notable of these people, I believe.)
Berber African: The nomadic peoples of the Sahara, distinct from the Arabian/Muslim-influenced Middle Eastern culture.
Central Asian: Covers much of the peoples of central Asia, including the Mongols, Turcomans, Turks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Uighurs, and Afghans.
East African: The culture of the Indian Ocean coastline of Africa, including Madagascar, south of the Horn of Africa.
East Asian: Most of Eastern Asia, including eastern China, Japan, Korea, and the Indochinese peninsula.
Eastern European: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and most of the former Soviet Bloc.
Ethiopian: The dominant culture of the Horn of Africa.
Indian Subcontinent: As the name says, the Indian sub-continent, including the island of Sri Lanka.
Latin American: Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
Malaysian: The dominant culture of the islands located between the Indochinese peninsula and Australia.
Middle Eastern: Turkey, Israel/Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya, and other parts of Saharan Africa with heavy Arab influences.
Polynesian: Samoa, Easter Island, and any of the native peoples of the South Pacific.
Siberian: The culture of those living east of the Urals in what is commonly known as Siberia, removed from the cultural influence of Russia and Eastern Europe.
West African: The people of western Africa, including the Guinean, Mande, and Bantoid (who are distinct from the Bantu) peoples, mainly inhabiting Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal, Guinea, Togo, Benin, Burkina, and Sierra Leone.
Western: Western Europe, and most of North America. Also includes Australia, New Zealand, and other places (such as coastal Western Africa) where European Colonialism displaced the native peoples.

[snip]

I'm not quite sure yet whether Tibet would be Indian Subcontinent or Central Asian; it's certainly distinct enough from East Asian to not fall there.

For Africa, I've mainly been digging through Wikipedia articles, trying to make sense of it. The differences between Bantu and West Africa came from this demographics image of the continent (almost 20 years old, though). It seems as though the areas I designated as West Africa are distinct enough from the Bantu who originated in Cameroon (roughly where the Atlantic coastline of Africa shifts from east-west to north-south) and migrated southwards; the "West Africa" CF covers much of the east-west Atlantic coastline.
I believe Ashtagon made a map of this one, too. Can't find the link, though.

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:
  1. Aboriginal: The native hunter-gatherer cultures of Africa, Yucatan peninsula, South America, and Australia, among others. (Not exactly realistic to put such disparate cultures together under one familiarity, but for cinematic games such as those in a comic book world it works.)
  2. Central Asian: Covers much of the peoples of central Asia, including the Mongols, Turcomans, Turks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Uighurs, and Afghans.
  3. East Asian: Most of Eastern Asia, including eastern China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippenes, and the Indochinese peninsula.
  4. Eastern European: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and most of the former Soviet Bloc.
  5. Indian: The Indian sub-continent, including the island of Sri Lanka.
  6. Latin American: Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
  7. Middle Eastern: Turkey, Israel/Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya, and other parts of Saharan Africa with heavy Arab influences.
  8. Polynesian: Samoa, Easter Island, and any of the native peoples of the South Pacific.
  9. Siberian: The culture of those living east of the Urals in what is commonly known as Siberia, removed from the cultural influence of Russia and Eastern Europe.
  10. Sub-Saharan African: Includes the native cultures south of the Sahara Desert of Africa. In more detailed games can possibly be split into West African, Central African, Southern African, and Ethiopian. Wakanda is a member of this group.
  11. Western: Western Europe, and most of North America. Also includes Australia, New Zealand, and other places (such as coastal Western Africa) where European Colonialism displaced the native peoples.

    Unique to the Marvel Universe:

  12. Asgardian: Asgard, Vanaheim, Muspelheim, Jotunheim, and other realms of the Asgardian Nine Worlds (not including Midgard/Earth). Greatly resembles ancient Norse/Viking culture.
  13. Atlantis: The sub-oceanic culture of the water-breathing Atlanteans. Includes Lemuria as well.
  14. Attilan: The culture of the Inhumans in their abode on the moon.
  15. Dark Dimension: The culture of the magic-dominated extradimensional realm of the same name. 2 points.
  16. Hell: The culture of any number of demon dimensions going by that name. 2 points.
  17. K'ai: The culture of the sword-and-sorcery world of the same name in the Microverse.
  18. Kree Empire: The interstellar empire dominated by the Kree race. Controls the majority of the Greater Magellanic Cloud and parts of the Milky Way rimward of Earth.
  19. Microverse: The most advanced culture of the dimension known as the Microverse.
  20. Mount Olympus: The realm of Mount Olympus, as well as the realm of Hades. Highly resembles classical Greece in architecture and dress.
  21. Negative Zone: The antimatter universe called the Negative Zone, home of Annihilus and Blastaar. 2 points.
  22. Rigellian Annex: The interstellar empire colonized and dominated by the Rigellians. Controls a portion of the Milky Way coreward from Earth.
  23. Savage Land: The Stone Age culture, both hunter-gatherer and agrarian, of the Savage Land, a hidden land nestled in the mountains of Antarctica.
  24. Shi'ar Empire: The interstellar empire dominated by the Shi'ar race. Controls a sizable portion of the Milky Way spinward of Earth.
  25. Skrull Empire: The interstellar empire dominated by the shapechanging Skrull race. Controls a sizable portion of the Milky Way trailing behind Earth (antispinward).

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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Last edited by Phantasm; 02-05-2017 at 09:04 AM.
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Old 02-05-2017, 10:52 AM   #9
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Default 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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Old 02-05-2017, 11:20 AM   #10
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
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.
That's a rather 3e way of doing it. Notably, how about cultures of your own species which nobody from your home culture has ever encountered? That's quite unusual today, but far more possible in the past. If you have Anthropology-12, you never suffer cultural unfamiliarity penalties for such cultures.
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