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Old 02-05-2017, 01:54 PM   #21
whswhs
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

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Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
I feel obliged to offer one of my own CF listings which is distinct from Kromm's in several areas:
My one big objection to this is the Aboriginal category, which unites people from at least four different continents (and Inuit and Siberian probably ought to be included as well, making it six). That's not in any meaningful sense a culture; it's a heap of small cultures that have essentially nothing in common. It's kind of like the way Carolus Linnaeus, the inventor of modern taxonomy, put segmented worms, parasitic worms, shellfish, and soft-bodied marine animals together as "Vermes"—animals that now make up maybe a couple of dozen phyla, the majority of all animal phyla. Knowing Inuit customs would tell you nothing useful about Australian or Amazonian customs. I think each culture area should have its own CF.

What all these cultures have in common is that they're a major focus of Anthropology skill. I think that Anthropology ought to let you roll to avoid cultural penalties, at least under certain circumstances. With a big, well-known culture, you might learn its customs directly; but for tiny, obscure cultures, few people would do so, and learning Anthropology would be more efficient.
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Old 02-05-2017, 01:56 PM   #22
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

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Originally Posted by Refplace View Post
The talent seems fine, though I would go with Sociology rather than Anthroplogy. I think Sociology could be used as a Complimentary skill to offset CF penalties when encountered.
Sociology tends to be more about big organizations, and cultures that have big organizations, and the class or caste stratification that such cultures often develop. Anthropology is more focused on small societies or small groups in bigger societies. Of course there's some overlap, but the characteristic methods differ.
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Old 02-05-2017, 02:14 PM   #23
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Sociology tends to be more about big organizations, and cultures that have big organizations, and the class or caste stratification that such cultures often develop. Anthropology is more focused on small societies or small groups in bigger societies. Of course there's some overlap, but the characteristic methods differ.
Ah thank you. I had thought of Anthropology as the study of ancient cultures but on checking it appears that is only a part of it.
So after reading definitions for both sciences what I think would be useful would be to use either one as a complimentary roll to offset CF penalties, so you could have Cultural Familiarity for no penalty or the appropriate science for figuring out and adjusting for the penalties but requiring a roll.
Anthropology for most social skills, Sociology for organizational or highly structured groups and thus probably applying to Savior-faire.
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Old 02-05-2017, 02:24 PM   #24
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
My one big objection to this is the Aboriginal category, which unites people from at least four different continents (and Inuit and Siberian probably ought to be included as well, making it six). That's not in any meaningful sense a culture; it's a heap of small cultures that have essentially nothing in common. It's kind of like the way Carolus Linnaeus, the inventor of modern taxonomy, put segmented worms, parasitic worms, shellfish, and soft-bodied marine animals together as "Vermes"—animals that now make up maybe a couple of dozen phyla, the majority of all animal phyla. Knowing Inuit customs would tell you nothing useful about Australian or Amazonian customs. I think each culture area should have its own CF.

What all these cultures have in common is that they're a major focus of Anthropology skill. I think that Anthropology ought to let you roll to avoid cultural penalties, at least under certain circumstances. With a big, well-known culture, you might learn its customs directly; but for tiny, obscure cultures, few people would do so, and learning Anthropology would be more efficient.
You're probably right; you'll note that in the second layout for the Reboot project I even say that it's likely not realistic. It depends mostly on a) how often said cultures come up in play, and b) just how granular you want to be with "broad, sweeping" CFs. In most of my games, the resident culture expert (ala Indiana Jones) would have Cultural Adaptability and Anthropology anyway, making the really granular CFs moot; others might have "Amazonian" or "Yucatan Mayan" as CFs, if the game happened to take place near those regions.
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Old 02-05-2017, 02:55 PM   #25
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

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Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
I believe Ashtagon made a map of this one, too. Can't find the link, though.
Here you are...

http://ashtagon.deviantart.com/art/C...1031-499959469

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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.
  1. I could possibly make one for this set too, if you like (my main mapping priority right now though is to make a high quality basemap; there is known errors in the basemap I've used previously)

    Quote:
    Unique to the Marvel Universe:

  2. Asgardian: Asgard, Vanaheim, Muspelheim, Jotunheim, and other realms of the Asgardian Nine Worlds (not including Midgard/Earth). Greatly resembles ancient Norse/Viking culture.
  3. Atlantis: The sub-oceanic culture of the water-breathing Atlanteans. Includes Lemuria as well.
  4. Attilan: The culture of the Inhumans in their abode on the moon.
  5. Dark Dimension: The culture of the magic-dominated extradimensional realm of the same name. 2 points.
  6. Hell: The culture of any number of demon dimensions going by that name. 2 points.
  7. K'ai: The culture of the sword-and-sorcery world of the same name in the Microverse.
  8. 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.
  9. Microverse: The most advanced culture of the dimension known as the Microverse.
  10. Mount Olympus: The realm of Mount Olympus, as well as the realm of Hades. Highly resembles classical Greece in architecture and dress.
  11. Negative Zone: The antimatter universe called the Negative Zone, home of Annihilus and Blastaar. 2 points.
  12. Rigellian Annex: The interstellar empire colonized and dominated by the Rigellians. Controls a portion of the Milky Way coreward from Earth.
  13. Savage Land: The Stone Age culture, both hunter-gatherer and agrarian, of the Savage Land, a hidden land nestled in the mountains of Antarctica.
  14. Shi'ar Empire: The interstellar empire dominated by the Shi'ar race. Controls a sizable portion of the Milky Way spinward of Earth.
  15. Skrull Empire: The interstellar empire dominated by the shapechanging Skrull race. Controls a sizable portion of the Milky Way trailing behind Earth (antispinward).
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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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Old 02-05-2017, 10:51 PM   #26
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

I'd lump Savage Land into Aboriginal. It has the same similarity as the others. Not very similar to each other but they do all have the common feature of living with little way to accumulate a surplus and pass it down so tending to be conservative to change since there isn't a lot of room for failures.
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Old 02-12-2017, 06:08 PM   #27
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#31): Cultural Familiarity, Cultural/Xeno-Adaptabi

Just a heads up; I am running behind with the next [Basic] Advantage of the Week. It may not be up until Tuesday.
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