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To make it easy on myself, I'm going to assume that a culture's stats have to total up to 10 - that's a nice, round number, and it cuts down on a lot of the silly, boring results (who cares about a culture rated at 1/0/0/0, after all?). | To make it easy on myself, I'm going to assume that a culture's stats have to total up to 10 - that's a nice, round number, and it cuts down on a lot of the silly, boring results (who cares about a culture rated at 1/0/0/0, after all?). | ||
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Revision as of 09:05, 3 May 2008
This is currently just a brain-dump based on this thread:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=382030
Major-cleanup is probably required.
Summary
You know how planet-hopping science fiction settings are frequently criticised for having bunches of alien species that are so monocultural, all members of that species are basically the same except for the colour of their clothes, or whatnot? I had a notion to run with that. Picture a game with a handful of broadly defined stats, such that every possible permutation of stats represents a different alien species. Depending on how big the range of those stats are, we should be able to get by with as few as 30-40 species. We'll be nice and allow individuals to be differentiated via a skill system, but all members of a given species have exactly the same stats. There could also be a method of randomly generating your stats, with an associated lookup table to determine what species you are based on the stats you generated; since every permutation of stats is uniquely assigned to a different species, this should yield an unambiguous species assignment.
Mechanical Stuff
To expand upon the above idea, I'm thinking that a set of four "Cultural Stats". Each stat ranges from 0-5 (roll 1d6-1 if you're into random character generation), with a 0 representing a total lack of the associated traits in the alien culture in question, while a 5 represents a hugely dominant influence.
Belligerence: Represents competitiveness and the capacity for violence. A rating of 3 or higher probably represents a warrior culture of some type.
Opportunism: Represents materialism and the capacity for manipulation and deception. A rating of 3 or higher could indicate a mercantile culture, a society of space pirates, or even an expansionist empire, depending on other traits.
Reason: Represents intellectual curiosity and the capacity for technological development. A rating of 3 or higher is typically found among high-tech societies with a strong scientific establishment.
Spirituality: Represents all that crazy space hippie stuff you see in sci-fi television. A rating of 3 or higher indicates a monastic culture, and possibly the presence of weird psychic powers. EDIT: It occurs to me that this one may be stated too positively. A hellish theocracy might also have a high Spirituality trait, I suppose.
None of these traits are mutually exclusive. For example, it's entirely possible to have an alien culture with high ratings in both Reason and Spirituality, or even Belligerence and Spirituality (you'd probably get a ritualistic culture of honourable space samurai or something in the latter case).
In keeping with the source material, perhaps there could also be some mechanism whereby you take advantage of that enlightened cultural understanding stuff to temporarily borrow the traits of your allies. The phrase "Multiculturalism Points" keeps floating around in my head, but darned if I know how I'd implement that.
Incidentally, according to this system, I'd peg humanity - as typically portrayed in sci-fi television - at Belligerence 3, Opportunism 2, Reason 3, Spirituality 2. Drop Spirituality by a point and kick Opportunism up to 3 if humans are supposed to be the bad guys.
Trait Values
Maybe the traits would work something like this:
0: Utterly lacking in the trait in question, and incapable of any actions that would roll against it. For example, a culture with Belligerence 0 would consist of shy, retiring pacifists who can't commit violence even to save their own lives (they probably have a hidden homeworld and/or the patronage of a less peaceful species to explain why nobody has wiped them out yet).
1: Capable of the trait in question, but not very good at it and tending to find it actively distasteful. For example, a culture with Reason 1 would probably have a largely mystical/superstitious understanding of the cosmos, and an inherent distrust for science and technology, though they can use it if the have to.
2: The "average" score. Typical of most human societies that don't place any particular emphasis on the trait in question.
3: A significant cultural influence. The culture may have social institutions and popular pastimes that revolve around activities associated with the trait. A culture where public philosophical debates are a spectator sport might be an example of Spirituality 3.
4: A dominating cultural influence. Most of the culture's activities revolve around the trait in question. The stereotypical "corporate overlords" of near-future sci-fi are a good example of Opportunism 4.
5: A monomaniacal focus. Every aspect of the culture serves the trait in some fashion. Warhammer 40 000 orks are a good example of Belligerence 5.
Randomly Generated Traits
suggested by Blacksheep
Shuffle up five hearts, five spades, five clubs and five diamonds. Draw ten of them, and add up the scores.
Hearts are spirituality, spades are belligerence, diamonds are opportunism, clubs are reason. These are based on the original meanings of the suits; you might find it easier to remember by using a tarot deck with cups, swords, coins and staves.
Cultures
To make it easy on myself, I'm going to assume that a culture's stats have to total up to 10 - that's a nice, round number, and it cuts down on a lot of the silly, boring results (who cares about a culture rated at 1/0/0/0, after all?).
Currently 116 unused, 30 used.
| Bel | Opp | Rea | Spi | Culture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | unused |
| 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | unused |
| 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | unused |
| 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | unused |
| 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | unused |
| 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | unused |
| 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | unused |
| 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | unused |
| 0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | unused |
| 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | unused |
| 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | unused |
| 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | unused |
| 0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | unused |
| 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | Ruun Caravanserai |
| 0 | 4 | 5 | 1 | unused |
| 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | unused |
| 0 | 5 | 1 | 4 | unused |
| 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 | unused |
| 0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | unused |
| 0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | unused |
| 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | Aphrosian |
| 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | unused |
| 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | Theoditic Nano-Swarm Atman |
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | unused |
| 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | unused |
| 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | Kramith |
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | unused |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | unused |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | unused |
| 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | unused |
| 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | unused |
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | unused |
| 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | unused |
| 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | unused |
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | unused |
| 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | unused |
| 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | unused |
| 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Ka'bunl |
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Quunsados |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | unused |
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | unused |
| 1 | 5 | 0 | 4 | unused |
| 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Nimbus |
| 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | unused |
| 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | unused |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | 0 | unused |
| 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | unused |
| 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | unused |
| 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | unused |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | unused |
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | unused |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | unused |
| 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | Yntar Machines |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | unused |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | The State of Grace |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | unused |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | unused |
| 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | unused |
| 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 | Bashik |
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | unused |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | unused |
| 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Filah Hive |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | Scumble |
| 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | unused |
| 2 | 4 | 0 | 4 | unused |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Irrekith |
| 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | unused |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | unused |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | Yren |
| 2 | 5 | 0 | 3 | unused |
| 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Naren |
| 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | unused |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | unused |
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | Sanctified Empire of Jikein |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 | unused |
| 3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | unused |
| 3 | 0 | 5 | 2 | unused |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | unused |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | unused |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | unused |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | unused |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | unused |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | unused |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | HU:1 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | unused |
| 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | unused |
| 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | unused |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | unused |
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | unused |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Culul Otak |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Humanity |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | Homo Sapiens Regalis |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | unused |
| 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | unused |
| 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | unused |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | unused |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 | unused |
| 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | unused |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | unused |
| 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | unused |
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | unused |
| 4 | 0 | 2 | 4 | unused |
| 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 | unused |
| 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | unused |
| 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | unused |
| 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | Stormers |
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | unused |
| 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Akram |
| 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | unused |
| 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | unused |
| 4 | 1 | 5 | 0 | Sentyr |
| 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 | unused |
| 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | unused |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | unused |
| 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | unused |
| 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | unused |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 3 | Heaven-Blessed JihadCorp |
| 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | unused |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | unused |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | Species of Space Pirates |
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | unused |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | unused |
| 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | unused |
| 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | unused |
| 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | unused |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | unused |
| 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | unused |
| 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | unused |
| 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | unused |
| 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | Radon Survivors |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | Exploritor Extragalactic Fleet |
| 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | unused |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | unused |
| 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | unused |
| 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | Tripp |
| 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | unused |
| 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | unused |
| 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | unused |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | unused |
| 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | unused |
| 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | unused |
| 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | unused |
| 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Nivras |
| 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | unused |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | unused |
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Yinky Pirate-Slavers |
