>You're not supposed to make non-human civilizations

>>50111560
It's racist. You are implying that those people weren't humans.

>>50111560
>>50111562
Ignore the b8. There's nothing wrong with using real-world analogues for your in-universe civs, though you should at least try to spice it up with some original concepts and cultural practices and maybe not directly cut-and-paste names and stuff from real places. There's generally like 2 problems with using real civs for your in-universe civs: 1) it can create this weird patchwork effect where it's like you have the Cambodian Elves next to the Scottish Goblins, the Finnish Orcs, and the Indian Dwarves. You suddenly have a region where 4 entirely different cultures coexist, despite the fact that cultural interchange should have led to at least some kind of basic similarity over thousands of years. 2) it can lead to this weird effect where every nonhuman race is assigned a single monolithic culture.

Oh, and also, a lot of GMs try to pick "exotic" cultures to be "original" without doing their research. It's like a cultural version of the "MY elves are photosynthesizing tree-people w/ 4 arms who reproduce asexually!" thing that lots of newbie worldbuilders seem to go through.

>>50111560
>Why is this a thing?

It's not really. The opinion seems to be "if you just lift a culture wholesale it's lazy writing."

>Have you encountered this conviction in any of your players?

Nope.

>Why did they hold it?

They didn't because they're not /tg/-tier armchair hobbyists.

>>50111560
I don't like it just because it's less creative; when you are dealing with a race that isn't human you have a chance to make something very different.

Otherwise you have "the french but they are kobolds" shit

It's boring and unoriginal. Build their culture from the ground-up. Even if it ends up close to or mirroring a real-world analogue, and it will, it'll still end up at a more interesting place than "Lizard people but also russian".

>>50111607
>1) it can create this weird patchwork effect where it's like you have the Cambodian Elves next to the Scottish Goblins, the Finnish Orcs, and the Indian Dwarves.
And yet the Finns and the Scots have very different cultures and languages despite being only a short boat journey apart.

>>50111607
>Ignore the b8.
How the fuck is this a bait? Yeah, let's make orcs act and look like west africans, in no way it can be racist.

>>50111712
Who said orcs were West Africans?

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>>50111712
How would it be racist? Orcs acting like West Africans shouldn't be racist. Are you implying West Africans behave like orcs?

>>50111771
Are you implying orcs act like west africans?

>>50111774
Orcs don't have to be roving, marauding rapists. You can write them as civilized too.

A nation of civilized orcs based on the culture of West Africa being present in a setting wouldn't be racist.

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>>50111712
>>50111737
>>50111771
>>50111774
>>50111780

well, this comment chain is a disaster.

>>50111790
Maybe because one participant is political and the other truthful
Guess which is which

>>50111560

Because everybody on here that never actually plays games is a pretentious hipster type who has some burning need for originality, failing entirely to realize that the reason people continuously use the same trappings and themes over and over again is because it saves a lot of time and because people really actually enjoy it. The obsession with nobody being able to say about your special creation 'so it's basically like this thing' is entirely about the creator's pleasure and nobody else's.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but remember, those people don't actually play games, and you don't want them to.

>>50111814
At least he's not an Albanian

I'll never stop being entertained by this shit.

Here's a tip: pointing out the bad things that a race, nation or ethnicity has done in the past isn't racism. They actually did those things. Once you reach the point of statistical validation then negative assumptions based on race or national identity is no longer racist. If a race or nation stirs up shit for thousands of years then assuming people from that race or nation are going to stir up shit isn't racism. It's logical process.

Basing orcs on West African warlords isn't racist because that's actually how West Africa is. Reality doesn't change because it makes you uncomfortable. It's only racist when you portray them ignorantly or incorrectly based on negative stereotyping.

>this thread

It looks like we should've decided on what West African culture really is first.

>>50111607
>cultural interchange
You know, them being completely different races might just halt that.

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>>50111560
I'm not precisely against this practice myself, as I've done it many times, but I think the problem comes with the fact that it's boring.

What defines a race? What are their strengths and weaknesses, both in a physical and in a mystical sense? Where do they live, and how does this shape their economy and cultural practices? Do they intermingle with the neighboring races' towns? If so, what is their commerce venues like?

It's a lot more fun to come up with this kinda shit if you're GMing, rather than just say "oh uh these jackal-people don't wear clothes because it's hot and also they write using hieroglyphs".

>>50111560
There is literally nothing wrong with making non-humans analogous to human civs. Well, there is, but it's whatever. However, if you're a GM (or just a player), who bitches at people for playing human PCs in the setting like that- fuck you, seriously.

>>50111627
...I kinda dig the idea of French kobolds

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>>50111780
>Orcs don't have to be roving, marauding rapists.
>nation of civilized orcs based on the culture of West Africa
>civilized

>>50112136
They did have a few kingdoms and dynasties that weren't Egyptians or invaders from the east.

>>50111688

Nothing about crossing frigid stormy waters is something for a short boat ride.

>>50112073
>not posting the attack helicopter version

>>50111560
Well, good luck making a civilization in your games that isn't an extrapolation from a real one.

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>>50112073
That is racism though. Because then you say, oh these guys, they interact with humans and other species ("races") just like RL human races do, intermingle and interact... And then you feed into the idea that human races are different, which is the root of racism itself.
Far better then to let, say, orcs and kobolds be utter bastards that you can't even talk to just on account of being another species.

>>50111780
>Orcs don't have to be roving, marauding rapists
then what's the point of having orcs? You're just using the name orc while describing something that is completely different from what orcs have always been.

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>>50111560
I've never really met anyone who really pushed against it but it's just generally disrespectful unless you grew up with it or are very well educated about it.
Or even racist, as mentioned. That being said, basing a fantastical culture heavily on a real culture ISN'T inherently bad, but MOST of the time it turns out pretty bad.

All of that and, of course, the fact that quite often bog-standard Human is western european, as if that's the 'standard' civilization and everything else is exotic, barbaric, or inhumanely alien.

A good way to avoid the problem is to avoid making a 'standard' human and from stereotyping/simplifying actual cultures.

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>>50111560
hey kid
wanna /ss/

>>50111560
It's simply that there's nothing lazier in worldbuilding than to say "my elves are not!Etruscans, while my dwarves are not!Minoans".
In general the "not!(civilization)" thing is very lazy and when mixed with classic fantasy races it doesn't result in more interesting races but in more stereotipical civilizations.
A better way would be to take inspiration from various civilizations for each of your world's people, putting in some geographical determinism for ease of use (even if Jared Diamond is a hack) and stirring.

>>50111560
Because it's lazy. Don't be lazy, be creative

>>50112550
>Don't be lazy, be creative
What if you are only creative/competent in one area?
Maybe you can create beautiful surroundings and have a great grasp on the biology of all those creatures, but have at best a hazy grasp on the processes involved and can only see the fantasy races in terms of stereotypes?

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>>50112136

>doesn't know about Mansa Musa, Emperor of Mali
>literally world's richest man for a thousand years
>fucking wrecked the economies of countries he travelled through on pilgrimage because he gave too much gold away

>>50112712

Economic rapine and pillaging is still rapine and pillaging.

>>50112712
He wrecked economies by giving obscenely high tips? That's hilarious. In principle at least.

>>50111906
That's not how statistics work.

>>50111560
I mean as long as I'm not expected to imagine in the case of a setting where travel and trade are commonplace that all members of that race belong to this one culture even when they live in other nations, and that there are no non-[race] members of that culture? Go for it.

Otherwise the suspension of disbelief gonna be hard as fuck.

>>50112712
>fucking wrecked the economies of countries he travelled through on pilgrimage because he gave too much gold away
What a fucking glorious bastard.

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>>50111560
that fucking slut

>>50113105
>>50112326
Well, i guess that face was just too obvious

>>50111560
>Wooo! All the major european powers intervened and forced the Prussians to leave us alone while we beat our german minority into submission!
>Look at these glorious returning heroes!

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>>50113105
now look slightly more to the left

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>>50113231

>>50112712
Oh great, one man.

>>50113261

Do you think he mined the gold himself? Are you literally retarded?

>>50113301
It was mined by black slaves. Yeah, even in Africa, niggers were slaves.

>>50113354

>implying European serfdom isn't slavery

>>50113363
>implying modern capitalism isn't slavery

>>50111560
Because if the French had tentacles and psychic powers and couldn't stand sunlight, their culture would probably have grown in a different direction?

>>50113446
Nah lad, you have it all wrong.
If a species has tentacles and psychic powers and couldn't stand sunlight, it's culture would develop into something like French

>>50112712
>richest man
>did nothing memorable or worthwhile
>no feats of amazing feats of engineering, social structure, culture, art nor any means of documentation worth a damn

>>50113867

>"I'll just keep moving the goalposts so I can keep believing niggers are shit"
>"That'll be sure to convince everyone"

>>50113464
At least they would have called Louis XIV something different.

>>50113867
Bling is what matters

>>50112039
>You know, them being completely different races might just halt that.
Not really. Trade happens. Trade involves talking, and traders can talk about a lot when not mutually discussing business, which leads to an exchange of ideas, which are then disseminated via their social networks (of the physical kind, you dumbass), and passed on in the same manner. The fads are dropped after a while and the sensible ideas kept, and that wonderful game of telephone begins a new tradition that is related but different.

>>50114047
>stating obvious facts
>moving goalpost
Sub-saharans have been left behind by evolution.

>>50115651

>muh evolution
>muh environmental determinism
>muh scientific racism

Why do you need so much pseudoscience just to feel good about yourself, anon? You're worthy of love without all that, you don't need to make other people feel bad to make yourself feel good.

>>50111560
It's pointless

FFS Tolkien's Dwarves weren't even 1 for 1 Jew knockoffs, and his elves were vaguely northern european based on Celtic & Norse mythology

>>50113867
>>no feats of amazing feats of engineering, social structure, culture, art nor any means of documentation worth a damn
"I have never read anything about Mali ever" the post.

>>50115651
You need to go back.

>>50111560
Wait does this mean fishman Napoleon isn't allowed?

>>50118008
How can you exile him to a remote island where he can just swim back?

>>50113412
>t.Marx

>>50118179
A remote lake?

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I don't have a problem with it unless it's universal.

Like, your elves are Russian. That's cool, but why are the ones on a different continent who have never had contact with each other also Russian?

It also doesn't make sense that these races would live in close proximity and possess cultures completely alien to one another. That rarely happens unless one party is an invading force.

It's annoying when only humans have any sort of diversity in their race.

How do you build an original culture from scratch?

>>50118335
A desert oasis.

>>50118008
>not frogman

>>50111560
Because fantasy races aren't humans, and will probably have very different cultures and sensibilities to human cultures.

>>50118388
That's something worthy of a thread

>>50118388
Step by step. But usually you would ask how much detail you need and only fill out the relevant bits.

>>50118429
Done. >>50118451
Sorry for the pic, I'm not at my PC.

>>50114097
>reminder that Louisigon the All-Prober did nothing wrong

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>>50111562

>>50118380
>Russian elves

Do you know how much I want this to happen?

>>50118580
You know what?

I want it too. I feel kinda ashamed I haven't thought of it before.

>>50118610
It could even work out really well. Keep the elvish arrogance, but back it up with the fact that they have to live in one of the worst places on the planet instead of having everything fucking handed to them by treegods.

>>50113867
But like a lot of malt liquor and chicken though. Like a lot a lot.

>>50111562
Came here to post this, but now I don't have to.

Also, ya'll niggas racist.

>>50111607
>"MY elves are photosynthesizing tree-people w/ 4 arms who reproduce asexually!" thing that lots of newbie worldbuilders seem to go through.
Kinda like this idea personally.
Like long limbed willowy tree-people. Maybe give them odd numbers of fingers on each hand so their basic structure is more tree-like.

Maybe not fully immortal, but they just continue to grow for centuries, until they're so old and wizened they look more like trees then people.

>>50118388
>How do does their biology affect thier society
>what's the basic social structure
>how do those structures come together to form a coherent society.

>>50118638
So, Dunmer?

>>50118856
N'wah, please.

>>50115729
>muh environmental determinism
This one doesn't seem to fit in with the others. Environment must have a profound effect on the development of civilizations, or am I completely wrong?

>>50118987

Environmental determinism is the belief that environment is the sole factor in a civilisation's progress. African cultures are inferior because of their tropical and desert environments, whereas European culture is superior because of their temperate climates. There's no social, cultural or historical components, just temperate = good, desert = shit. The way you figure out it's bullshit is that, curiously, every proponent of environmental determinism comes to the conclusion that the climate in their homeland is the best one.

>>50119237
>Environmental determinism is the belief that environment is the sole factor in a civilisation's progress.
Then it's clearly not a nazi thought, don't these people believe genetics factor in civilisation's growth too?

>>50119482
Some people get butthurt when told that certain racial groups are simply better than others reagardless of their enviroments. So it is used as an insult.

>>50119237
Nevermind also how all the oldest civilizations popped up in the near east

>>50119482

It's not clear whether you're agreeing with or criticising me, so since this is 4chan I'm going to assume you're being antagonistic. Once again;

>muh genetic determinism

If you believe genetics are a significant factor in the development of civilisations, you've clearly never learnt anything about genetics beyond "blue eyes are recessive, brown eyes are dominant". Genetic determinism is like claiming that someone became a mathematician because of his genetics, not because of the inspiring high school maths teacher he had.

>>50119528
One again, scientific racism. Cite some sources if you want me to do anything other than insult you.

>>50119569
Or aforementioned Mali or Ethiopia had quite comfy civilizations.
Also the fact that, on the other hand, American natives lived in temperate climate and didn't exactly build cities or develop strong civilizations.

>>50119944
Genetics account for .3 to .5 of personality, not to mention IQ.

Both are important beyond the personal level; even environmental changes such as church policies banning incest (see e.g. the Hajnal line) result in significant genetic and hence personality effects given half a millennium.

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>>50111560
>Making the majority of civilizations racially homogeneous in a setting with multiple sapient races

Welp, we've found the problem.
Though in all seriousness, if you ARE going to make civilizations racially homogeneous, there's no good reason not to use inspiration from real world civilizations.

>Have you encountered this conviction in any of your players?

Nope.

>>50119963
I get that you're disagreeing with the idea that temperate climate = ubermensch, but it's entirely possible that native Americans in North America did have strong, urbanised societies. But we'll never know for sure, because they were decimated by diseases introduced to the continent by European explorers, and by the time Europeans got into the heartlands of North America, all that were left were post-apocalyptic tribal remnants of the original native civilizations.

>>50120152
Cities leave ruins.

>>50119963
>>50120333

They did build cities, look up Cahokia and the Mississippian culture. For some reason, they stopped doing it. Modern Native Americans claim it was a failed experiment in urbanisation that was abandoned when it went to shit. I'd normally discount their claims since they're based on oral histories, but several claims from Native American oral histories have turned out to be true, notably including the timeline of human settlement of the Americas and trade links of the east coast Powhatan tribes with the Mayans.

Yet another rebuttal is the Mesoamerican civilisations. They lived in a jungle but made a floating city and aqueducts that made the Romans look like amateurs, along with philosophy and poetry to rival the Greeks. Tenochtitlan was the fourth most populous city in the world in the 1500s, and was by far the cleanest. The Mayans also invented writing independently; everyone in Europe, including the Greeks and Romans, stole their letters from the Ancient Egyptians. The Mesoamericans get unfairly dismissed as uncivilised barbarians because of human sacrifice.

>>50119986

>significant genetic and hence personality effects given half a millennium

Do you know how long 500 years is?

>>50120433
Very interesting. Timeline looks a little off to be because of European disease, though, unless it was the Vikings.

>>50120433
I know about North American cities, but they were so scarce they don't exactly count. Also they were located in the southern USA which isn't temperate. People living around modern New York or New England almost certainly didn't have cities.
Which is so odd, considering subsaharan and equatorial Africa had a fair share of them.

>>50120588

Prevailing theory is flood. Evidence of two massive floods at the site have been found, though they're separated by a few centuries and the exact time of Cahokia's abandonment isn't known.

>>50120624

Part of the problem is equating cities to advanced civilisation. The Mongols are a good example of this - they were a nomadic people with no permanent settlements until they settled in cities they conquered. Yet they ruled over the largest empire in history..

>>50111840

Wrong, /tg/ is more anti-originality then they are against old trappings. /tg/ is full of hipster faggots that want 'humans only' or 'anything but muh tolkien fantasy is hipster shit'. I avoid worldbuilding threads for this reason.

>>50111560
A lot of the time the worldbuilder actually knows very little about the culture they are trying to use.
I remember some guy on here wanted to make his pig orcs Hungarian but had no idea what a Magyar was.

>>50118388

Easy as fuck.

It's honestly harder to try and justify how to squeeze a generic fantasy race into a not!culture then it is to just make something new. But hey, people on /tg/ don't really like being original.

Aztek elves master race

>>50111560
>Why is this a thing?
It really isn't, most people don't care. That being said it is lazy. Instead of thinking of how another race or species might form a culture or society based on their own ways of life you just stick in bits from human civilizations because they seem cool.

>>50113867
The same could be said of the Irish and Scandinavians. Just because a society didn't conquer vast swathes of land or build massive monuments doesn't mean that their culture isn't interesting or worthy of notice. Mali is an interesting culture because they lived in a fucking desert yet were swimming in wealth.

They lived at the absolute edge of civilization. The Persians had the Indians to their east, the Indians had Siamese city states, north of those was the Chinese Empire, east of that was Japan. South of the Saharan kingdoms was the Congo jungle, sure people lived there but they didn't have cities or agriculture, south of them were the Bushmen who also lacked any real civilization.

>>50121774
No,it's majorly rationalism,simply because all your "how another race or species might form a culture or society based on their own ways of life" will go down the drain when you'll realise that your players will either majorly stay in the wilderness or make you skip any sort of descriptions

>>50121888
>stonehenge

>>50121982

>Irish and Scandinavians
>Stonehenge

Are Americans really this dumb

>>50122035
>Implying Irish are not a part of celt group

>>50122051

>can't tell the difference between Brythonic and Goidelic Celts

>>50121982
Holy shit you are retarded.
1. Irish and Scandinavians didn't build Stonehenge
2. Stonehenge is some stacked rocks, it sure as hell isn't any better than the mosques of Timbuktu even if they are made out of mud
3. The makers of Stonehenge weren't civilized, they didn't have cities, and they sure as hell didn't form any sort of empire
But yes, keep looking down on one of the wealthiest empires of its time because distant cousins of the Irish were able to stack rocks.

>>50121953
Why do your players spend all of their time in the wilderness? Also why do you think anyone is sitting here describing a culture as though they are reading a wikipedia page? It is just stuff that comes up sometimes.
>What people wear
>What role men, women, and children have in society and the family
>The interaction between social classes
It isn't hard for this stuff to come up organically.

>>50111658

Culture is also a matter of circumstance. A lot of it just shows up out of nowhere, but a good deal of it is circumstance.

Languages evolve in order to convey the concepts that are important to communicate. Traditions evolve in much the same way. Mysticism surrounds the practice of medicine and wisdom that is passed down so people don't keep fucking the same things up over and over. It also evolves in practicality. Fucking every holiday in the Christian calendar corresponds to dates of pagan significance to help them assimilate.

Whether a people are conquered effects civilizations, whether they were conquerors or merchants or tribesmen or scholars, whether they had access or could trade for certain resources and whether they were in touch with those who held the knowledge to exploit and fashion those resources. They're shaped by rivalry and significant figures and dominant philosophies and disasters.

But when it comes down to it, sometimes these influences manifest in the same kinds of traditions and reactions and philosophies and artifice. Mathematics seems to function in base 10 universally for humans, and most cultures have some form of the Golden Rule, establishing a link to common humanity, if not common to sentience. We paint the animals we hunt and the animals we don't hunt. We tame animals and use similar kinds of tools for similar tasks, and adapt similar methods to approach similar problems with the same resources.

If we're to look at things from a much more basic angle: communal living amidst intelligent creatures will generally produce similar reactions to stimuli. Sharing or resources would be seen as good, while hoarding to the detriment of others bad. Hurting others within the communal group bad, while helping and strengthening the bonds good.

What I'm saying is that what makes a culture depends on a massive number of influences but also a massive number of ingrained commonalities to humanity and sentience.

>>50122051
Yeah, and q is just a backwards p

>>50122035
>>50122051
>>50122096

>Implying the fucking Celts built Stonehenge

Sure is barbaric up in here.

>>50122325

So who did, anon?

>>50122325
Naw lad, it can't have been the Ancient Reptilian Empire, else Stonehenge would be a bigass Ziggurat.
The Celts were just aping the architecture of the proto-Finnic empire, using their vastly inferior autism to create a sub-standard monument.

>>50111771
I really, really like this pic.

Can I save it?

>>50112373
I agree with a lot of things you're saying, but generally speaking, when I say Not!X, or Not!Y, I'm being largely unspecific about a lot of details because I just want my players to understand the general context of the nation without having to give them 10 pages of notes and pictures to sift through.

For example
>Nation of humans who live on a peninsula the size of Oahu
>Out in front of them are a bunch of tiny atolls and islands covered in forests of light hardwoods such as Koa and Ironwood
>They use large, two-hulled canoes/longboats to dominate the seas around them, and ever since their discovery by larger, metal-working civilizations, they've always been hired out as expert seaman and navigators, as well as privateers for hire and safe passage
>Their military is almost entirely PMC-based
>A mixed hodge-podge of metal helmets, wooden breastplates, traditional boar-skin vests, cheap axes, sharp sticks, etc.

Now I could explain all that over the course of 5 minutes and slow down the game considerably. But I could also just say:

>Caucasian-looking Not!Vikings mixed with Not!Polynesians that hire themselves out as pirates and navigators
>Basically Not!Greyjoys from Game of Thrones, but the only metal they can find comes from their dead enemies or through a fair bit of exchanging of gold

OP, if you're still here, and you were being legit, this entire thread is why you don't make fantasy races analogous with real-world cultures.

Because no matter what you do, who you play with, or how you do it, it WILL turn into a discussion about history and/or racism, and you just plain don't want that.

>>50122157
The Stonehenge is impressive because it is so damn old. Cities or no, the builders of Stonehenge moved massive monoliths long distances, beat the monoliths with stones until they were the right shape to fit together and finally assembled them into a coherent whole. You have to have had impressive social organization to wrangle the people needed for all that hard work.

Whether one should be proud of something so ancient is another thing, of course. One would hope you did not have to go back four millenia to find something to be proud of.

>>50118380
>App_Data_INTERNETEXPLORER

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>>50123139

>>50111560
Fuck "no cultural appropriation". There was a time when America fucking depended upon it, and was called a melting pot.

The reason its such a big deal is that it gives the government an excuse to write in new laws designed to fuck over any impolitc group they want.

>>50121982
>>50122157
>>50126735
Vikings were a whole lot less civilized than the "niggers" some people love to complain about.

All they did was rape, plunder and rape some more. If any culture's dick they should be sucking it's mediterranean's.

>>50126735
>moai

>>50127188

>mediterraneans
>Greco-Romans

Rome was kinda shit. It was an empire that couldn't go ten years without a military coup, had to change its religion to justify why it kept losing battles and chopping and changing leaders, and collapsed because their economy was so weak it depended on constant expansion and slave-taking just to feed its people. Rome was basically a banana republic.

>>50127398
You can't name a better "white" civilization from the past.

>>50127404
How about Western Civ of the last 300 years? You know the one that brought us 90% of humanities scientific achievements?

>>50120752
impying ability to kill large quantities of people equates to advanced civilisation

>>50130497

The Mongols had one of the most advanced administrations before the modern era. Maintaining a huge empire isn't a matter of killing people, declaring yourself ruler, then leaving. How do extract tribute? Prevent insurrection and rebellion? Ensure taxes are paid? Protect the people? The Mongols were masters of co-opting local administrative infrastructures, sourcing experts and advisers from their subject peoples and using cultural sensitivity to ensure loyalty and peace within their empire.

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>>50127404

I personally don't care about this and my players don't either.

In my original campaign setting (which I've used for a couple campaigns now) has plenty of non-Human cultures which are reminiscent of real world ones.

Each of the Human nations is based on a real world counterpart (obviously)

Orcs = Arabian-esque in the south, but are more like classic Orcs in the north

Elves = latin-esque

Halflings = English-esque

Dwarves = classic dwarves but with Scottish flavours

Gnomes = jews

>>50130597
Firstly, these things are the achievements of post-city-mongols.
Secondly, is co-opting existing structures in the region your conquering really the same thing as having an "advanced civilisation" to begin with?

Genghis was not God.

>>50123316
>Now I could explain all that over the course of 5 minutes and slow down the game considerably. But I could also just say:
Or you could explain it organically.
>The warriors are wearing wooden and hide armour with metal helmets, they are using very basic and rugged weapons
>The only military forces ever mentioned are mercenaries, the only military officers you ever speak to are mercenary captains
If you want a female dominated society you shouldn't just say "oh yeah this society is female dominated, all of the leaders and soldiers are women just like the Amazons or Swedes." Just have everyone of importance they meet be a woman, they should either notice that it is a matriarchal society themselves or ask someone what's up at which point you can have an NPC laugh at the idea of a male dominated society or whatever.

If the players never seem to notice or care about something in your setting just move on, no need to make a big deal about the political structure of the country or women being married off at older ages than men.

>>50111560
I've got know OP, what race did you base on Danes during the Schlwswigian war and the height of pan-scandinavian idoelogy/self-delusion?

>>50130854

>Secondly, is co-opting existing structures in the region your conquering really the same thing as having an "advanced civilisation" to begin with?

Yes. Leveraging existing networks and infrastructure is the most efficient way to conquer a region. It requires a lot of skill and finesse to do so correctly.

>>50112302
Orc is more about physical traits than cultural ones.

>>50131107
I find that a lot of times, players are either unwilling to figure things out for themselves, or just want to ask you straight up "so what's the deal with these guys again?" (Usually because they forgot to take notes or because they're too lazy to try and remember who the Garrions of Garrial were after 2 hours of mindless slaughter).

That's why when DM's have to go through the whole "Fuck, I gotta explain all this shit to them again" point, a lot of them tend to just throw up their hands and say "Alright. They're Not!Romans with guns. Remember those assholes?"

Also, before the session even begins, I usually just lob the whole setting at them the week before in the form of a giant packet of paper or a Google Doc or something; which allows them to do a little studying beforehand.

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>>50112249
this one?

>>50111560
Making any civilization in a fantasy setting analogous to a real world civilization is boring and uncreative as fuck.

>>50111560
No, because I don't associate with people that stupid.

>>50112073
>>50112272
>>50112272
>>50133142

My niece loves these posters, whether they're legitimate or parodied. She wants me to get her a shirt of one of these things for Christmas, and she's also getting pretty into tabletop gaming. I just want to say, to whoever's dumping all these pics, you just gave me an early morning epiphany, and for that, I thank you.

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>>50133840
this one would probably be more appropriate

>>50111560
You should understand the implication, at least.

Like I bet some polacks would get all antsy if someone went and made a faux-europe setting with orcish romans and elven ottomans or what have you.

That's not to say you SHOULDN'T do such things, but it's like, come on, be aware of what you're doing.

>>50111688
What is wrong with you.

>>50115883
His dwarves were explicitly copying the parts he admired about jewish culture.

His everything else was explicitly a potential origin mythology for the British Isles, and therefore inherently ethnic.

>>50118403
Only if you make him a tiger-man though.

>>50122345
Neolithic fuckwits with too much time on their hands.

Anyway Mali had shit way more impressive than Stonehenge.