I like to include Romans, Vikings, Gypsies, Mongols, and Comanchee/Sioux Indians. Each has a very distinct feel compared to the others. Yes, combining them is anachronistic as hell, but they are the historical cultures I'm most interested in. I also include the Broo from Glorantha, in all their evil, disgusting glory.
In general, I favor settings where the various countries and areas are easily comparable to real world cultures. It provides a great base to build off of. It's one of the big difficulties I have with settings like Talislanta or Tekumel, which are so original or foreign that I really can't grasp what to do with them. I suspect I'm not the only person like this, due to the popularity of generic Europe settings.
3 comments:
Vikings are a must for me with Mongols (Pechenegs, actually). Rather than Romans, I prefer the Byzantine Empire, which had a medieval cultura; base while retaining Roman "flavor." I also like to have something analogous to the Normans or Crusaders.
No culture in particular beyond a starting basis of quasi-Northern European medieval flavoring. I personally don't care for realistic or historical RPG settings - or fiction, for that matter. For better or worse my gaming motivation is creation of and immersion into imaginary worlds and cultures.
Can't resist Stygia (Egypt), gotta have an ancient, mysterious culture. Done snake(yuan-ti), frogmen and even plain old human versions of Stygia. Really like anything from around the Mediterranean; Greeks, Phoenicians, Byzantine, Mesopotamia, Romans.
I'm sort of down on western medieval. If I do a "normal" campaign I put it in medieval Russia. Cold, brutal, and different enough to still be mysterious/interesting.
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