I would really like to see ethnicity listed in Golarion products for all NPCs where appropriate.
Thank you.
|
This could be a bit difficult in areas with a lot of mixed bloods like all the great cities (at least Korvosa is described as having a great part of the population being part Chellish part Varisian).
As Brazilian i believe in fast mixing of ethnicity (here all the ethnicity mixed so fast that by 1600s very few people could claim pure blood from anything) and my campaigns reflect that.
Creative Director
|
This is a good idea. We've actually been doing this in some stat blocks here and there, but haven't been very consistent about it. I'll see if we can't get MORE consistent in the future.I would prefer you did not do this. Stat-blocks are already crowded and cluttered. Keep in mind the primary purpose of the stat block is to aid the GM in combat. Stats unrelated to combat should take up a limited amount of space in them. Adding the ethnicity to a stat block does not aid combat. Ethnicity is perfect for text based write ups. Please feel free to write all you want about ethnicity in the text, just not the stat block. My 2.
When we include it... it shows up in the race line and generally replaces the word "human" with "Taldan" or whatever. So it doesn't actually really add any word length to the stat block. That it DOES replace "human" with a word that not everyone can necessarily immediately recognize is the main reason we haven't been doing this from the start.
|
Creative Director
|
This could be a bit difficult in areas with a lot of mixed bloods like all the great cities (at least Korvosa is described as having a great part of the population being part Chellish part Varisian).
As Brazilian i believe in fast mixing of ethnicity (here all the ethnicity mixed so fast that by 1600s very few people could claim pure blood from anything) and my campaigns reflect that.
This is a much better argument against including ethnicity, since saying "mixed Varisian, Shoanti, Chelaxian, and Taldan blood" (which is technically what many of Varisia's people are) would get old.
In any case, we DO try to indicate ethnicity in the character's writeup; when we don't the assumption is that they're of the primary ethnicity of the region they're appearing in.
|
I concur that I would love to have the ethnicity of NPCs included, but in the write-up, not the stat-block. An individual NPC does not have a write-up? Then it is most likely only meant to be fought, not RP'd with, and its ethnicity is probably unimportant.
Then again I do fondly recall my players debating at length about where Vorvashali Voon in Sandpoint is really from, and if he was even fully human...
I think it might be better to put the information in the class line, like this (with my current PC as an example):
DORIAN DAVARIUS CR 13
XP 25,600
Male Chelaxian human monk 12 / aristocrat 2
LN Medium humanoid (human)
...
This way it doesn't take up much space and does not cover up any other information.
Half-elves and maybe half-orcs should probably have this information, too. I think a half-elf with a Mwangi human parent might look quite different from one with a Varisian human parent, for example.
|
This could create some really complex characters:
My half elf is part forsaken part mordent spire by his elf mother side and 1/3 varisian, 1/3 ulfen and 1/3 garundi by his human father side.
3rds are unusual in races with two parents ;) but your point is taken.
DORIAN DAVARIUS CR 13
XP 25,600
Male Chelaxian human monk 12 / aristocrat 2
LN Medium humanoid (human)
I like this because it doesn't assume all Chelaxians are human. I get that there is a human Chelaxian ethnicity, but there are also dwarves and other races of Chelaxian nationality. To use Cehelaxian instead of human in the line assumes that all Chelaxians are human.
It's hard in Golarion because most human ethnicities = nations. There aren't a lot of trans-national ethnicities.
This could create some really complex characters:
My half elf is part forsaken part mordent spire by his elf mother side and 1/3 varisian, 1/3 ulfen and 1/3 garundi by his human father side.
3rds are unusual in races with two parents ;) but your point is taken.
DORIAN DAVARIUS CR 13
XP 25,600
Male Chelaxian human monk 12 / aristocrat 2
LN Medium humanoid (human)I like this because it doesn't assume all Chelaxians are human. I get that there is a human Chelaxian ethnicity, but there are also dwarves and other races of Chelaxian nationality. To use Cehelaxian instead of human in the line assumes that all Chelaxians are human.
It's hard in Golarion because most human ethnicities = nations. There aren't a lot of trans-national ethnicities.
I like this method too. In the game I just recently joined, I'm playing a:
Male Varisian dhampir inquisitor 3NG Medium humanoid (dhampir)
Even though he's not "human," he looks like a human and is descended from humans, and it's nice to be able to know which type of humans he resembles, both in ethnicity and culture. (Wish he inherited the human subtype too, but that's a side issue.)
On a related note, could the faith be included with the class for divine classes? I usually end-up looking somewhere near the domains to find out who someone's patron is. And if they don't have domains, I have no idea where to look.
When we include it... it shows up in the race line and generally replaces the word "human" with "Taldan" or whatever. So it doesn't actually really add any word length to the stat block. That it DOES replace "human" with a word that not everyone can necessarily immediately recognize is the main reason we haven't been doing this from the start.This is a good idea. We've actually been doing this in some stat blocks here and there, but haven't been very consistent about it. I'll see if we can't get MORE consistent in the future.I would prefer you did not do this. Stat-blocks are already crowded and cluttered. Keep in mind the primary purpose of the stat block is to aid the GM in combat. Stats unrelated to combat should take up a limited amount of space in them. Adding the ethnicity to a stat block does not aid combat. Ethnicity is perfect for text based write ups. Please feel free to write all you want about ethnicity in the text, just not the stat block. My 2.Well again, to me, this would add unnecessary complexity as I need to be familiar with every race of human in Golarian to know if bane(human) weapons work against them.
Example:
N Medium humanoid (tengu)
N Medium humanoid (Taldan)Which one is effected by a bane(human) weapon if you don't know what a Taldan is? I know it may seem odd to some but not everyone is intimately familiar with the various types of humans.
In general I don't think replacing a term that has rule implications with a word that does not in a stat block is a good idea.
What about
LN Medium humanoid (human-Taldan)?Six more letters won't really take away revelant text, you now know it is a human.
This is a good idea. We've actually been doing this in some stat blocks here and there, but haven't been very consistent about it. I'll see if we can't get MORE consistent in the future.
Thank you!
This is a good idea. We've actually been doing this in some stat blocks here and there, but haven't been very consistent about it. I'll see if we can't get MORE consistent in the future.Thank you!
Agreed!