| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think the reason villages "have to be made up uniformly of xenophobic racist a&@*#!!s" is because they're inhabited by villagers. Living in a (aspiring) post-racist, mass-communication age, you and I are entirely aware that people who live far away dress strangely, use different languages, and have customs that seem odd to us; and we're strongly encouraged to regard those differences as neither threatening nor alarming.
Now imagine you have lived all your life in a village with 75 other people. Aside from a couple of dozen wandering priests and tradesmen, and that time you drove the wagon to another village full of strangers who looked at you funny, these are the only people (or species) you have ever met in your life. Further, within a day's march of your village you know that Things live; evil, pillaging, torturing Things; and while you've seen or have descriptions of a few of the most common Things, you're well aware that there are thousands of others that you know nothing about, except that they don't look like you or any of the other villagers.
Then, one day, a strike force of heavily armed, totally unfamiliar creatures arrives in town, acting (as PCs do) with all the courtesy and grace of a busload of frat boys on Spring Break.
Given these facts, would you say A) "Welcome, winged dog-man! Please enjoy the hospitality of my village! Let me introduce you to my twin sixteen-year-old daughters!" or B) "Somebody with detect evil can deal with these people - I'm hiding in the basement until they go away!"
I grew up in a town of 6,000 surrounded by towns with populations in the hundreds so I don't have to imagine too hard what a village would be like. True we have mass communication today, but even in our own history we had town criers to give the news.
So why do you think that 100% of villagers have no idea about anything outside their town? Ok so a bird-man (Tengu) walks into a village and they haven't seen a picture of one on the internet, they've still probably heard of them, and have maybe even seen an illustration of one somewhere.
And you're not going to tell me that they've never heard of adventurers. We have all sorts of legends of completely mundane people in our own world. Are you telling me that the people of Golarion aren't going to have stories they pass back and forth of famous adventurers? One of the core classes is the Bard!
So based on my experiences growing up in a small town and visiting tiny towns I imagine this is what happens when a heavily armed Tengu walks into town:
1) Curiosity
"Hank, is that one of those, oh what do you call 'em?"
"Tengu is it?"
"Yeah I think that might be a Tengu"
"Huh. Thought they'd be taller."
Or a kid saying "Wow look an adventurer! Do you think he's like Cayden Cailean?"
Or "I've never met one of you bird-men before. Where are you from? What's it like?"
2) Suspicion
"I've heard of you adventuring types, and I don't want to hear of you causing any trouble around here."
3) Relief
"You've got to be an adventurer! Are you here to solve our X problem?"
4) And yes, a bit of ignorance (like anywhere else)
"I hear they eat carrion. I don't want him around here."
But no, villages are full of hateful idiotic lynch mobs, right? Let's just write them all off.