Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: A Cultural Upbringing

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 1999
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    1,448

    A Cultural Upbringing

    While we know that Earth's many diverse cultures survived into the 24th century, the Human template for character creation is too sterile for my taste...it presupposes that all humans have more or less the same upbringing and the 5 points you get for background doesn't seem sufficient to vary the template to reflect cultural upbringings. I was wondering has anyone come up with variant templates to reflect humanity's diverse cultures. I'm working on one or two and I'll post them when I get the chance...
    Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!
    Fell deed awake: fire and slaughter!
    Spear shall be shaken, shields be splintered,
    a sword-day, a red-day, ere the sun rises!
    Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

    Theoden King: The Return of the King

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Ottawa, Ontario
    Posts
    761
    I usually allow people to trade in the Athletics and Sciences skills depending on their background. I found it rather funny that they've decided every human on Earth has at least one sport or activity of athletics they persue to such a degree that they know that sport at a 2 (3) level. If I was very kind to myself, I might grant me an Athletics (Skydiving) 1 (2), but jeez, I know *nothing* about sports in general. Grey Cup... That's hockey? Man, when someone asks me about sports in the bookstore, I cringe.

    Ditto the science, though in the Federation as we've seen it, it makes a little more sense (remember Harry-the-kid on TNG's "When the bough breaks..." saying, "I don't want to study Calculus!"?)

    Basically, I allow the players to mess with those three skills as they see fit, and leave the rest be. Someone who played a piano more than he went out and ran around deserves an artisitic Expression skill, not Athletics...

    The Doc
    So you think, 'Might as well,
    Dance a Tango to Hell,
    at least I'll have Tangoed at all.'
    -- "Rent," Jonathan Larson

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 1999
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia. Winner of the First Trek Survivor Trivia Show, and Bearer of the Steve Long Pink Elephant Stamp of Learning. :)
    Posts
    526
    Also, if you do the math, you'll find that the Human template does not add up to 50DP (which the templates generally do add up to) - although this depends on how many DP Courage points are (seeing as they are not available to be purchased during character generation - there's no point value assigned to them).

    We've asked the question before (as to how many DP Courage points cost), but I don't remember what the answer is. Thus, your GM (or yourself, if you are the GM) might allow the human character an extra 3 DP to bridge the gap, so to speak...
    The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train. - Murphy's Law variant

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Location
    Albuquerque, NM, USA
    Posts
    2,990
    I allow a naive language a 1 as a freebie if players ask: i.e. 'i' from Greece, I want to speak Greek.' No prob. I also allow a freebie in their particular culture, i.e. Greek culture or history, Boraevist culuture or history, etc... This represents the people who haven't quite bought into the homogeneous 'Federation' Terran culture.

    I allow the players to adjust their skills according to background, so Athletics or Science is often traded out, as someone else said earlier.
    "War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

    John Stuart Mill

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •