Shadowgate

xnithi · Joined: 25 Oct 2017 Posts: 57 Location: Texas, y'all

I'm bad at naming posts, so let me explain. Right now, a lot of ethnicities are meaningless flavoring. I mean, not always. A druegar and a gold dwarf won't be fine, for example. But a Maalish person and a senzokuan might chat as if nothing is wrong. I'm not talking smack about people whose friendships go beyond race, in game. After all, Liz has found herself fond of at least two Senzokuans. But, she is rather aware, at the same time, and will make jokes about their "unfortunate heritage", or praise them for being better than she expected. She also tends to give people a chance more often than other people... to do otherwise would make her a hypocrisy, given the huge chip on her shoulder about people treating her badly because of her heritage.

Anyways, I am a chronic rambler, so please bear with my. I'm working on an image of her right now, since I can apparently make better art with a week of photomanipulation than with decades of drawing. I'm working on her piercings and tattoos, her proud symbols of her maalish and orcish heritage. And I realized - these mean nothing. A lot of characters will have symbols of their heritage, and it means nothing.

So, my idea is, what if there was additional information people can tell from looking at people, based off of ethnicity, culture, etc.?

Maalish characters could tell that Liz is unmarried, tell her clan, tribe and family, or at least the region of the wildlands her clan is from, that she is magical, and so on. Orcs and half-orcs could tell that she's of the Tanarukk (though, the horns help with that), that she's the daughter of a shaman, that she's of a tribe but left it, and which tribe. Senzokuans might be able to tell what region she's from, and her maalish tribe, given that they're prominent enough to be recognized by enemies (though not the detailed information a Maalish person would know).

I think it could bring more meaning and depth to cultures in SG. Help give it more life, make it more immersive. Even better if this code works on NPCs and can be applied to followers in the same manner as describe or title. It could even change interpersonal relationships with characters and NPCs, as well. As it is, Sadhara prefers to eat at the Crown and Castle cafe, and is very fond of Hessa. Giving a larger reason for characters to form these kind of relationships could help reduce the gap between PCs and NPCs, and give cities more flavor.

For example, despite Hessa's cafe and the northern clothing store, many people don't know of Tabor's tie with the Empire. I don't even remember how I learned it (probably the wiki. Which, by the way, Still exists!). Not to mention, how Shadow was once a part of the Empire. The people tell a region's history, and NPCs are people!

I want to look into how to code this myself, so this is partly one big reminder post. But, I'm a newb and not an immortal, and hope someone better suited likes this idea enough to implement it. Obviously, I'd be happy to help, if this becomes a thing! Like, crayoning NPCs, or crayoning for RNG in the case of randomly generated NPCs. I welcome people's thoughts on it, as well, of course.
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"[Aiden poses clinging to the ceiling like a gecko].
With a slight shimmer, Aiden is revealed to view.
Night screeches
Aiden drops down and lands on his feet lightly.
Night speaks softly: Why!?
Aiden smiles at Night."