>>So my way of dealing with the "smaller focus" is to make layers of
>>keywords
>>that sort of act as filters, rather than try to moosh everything into one.
>
> Interesting, and that makes sense. Still doesn't tell me what to do with
> that Farming ability, but...
Actually, farming makes sense even for "urban" Heortlings - even in the middle of the 18th Century London had dairies, farms, etc. in the middle of town (okay, not in "the City" but real close to it). it's only, really, with the advent of the internal combustion engine that famrs and such were able to move away from population centers (Speed of transit is what allowed it, and refrigeration). Don't expect Boldhome to be like the middle of London as it is nowadays, or L.A., New York, Seattle, [insert local city here]. It's a lot of open land with some buildings in it, not a lot of buildings with some open space (parks).
The great Dara Happan and Kralorelan cities (Maybe teshnos...) would be the only ones which I'd assign a seperate "Urban" keyword to. Even in Seshnela or
Even the most "urban" Heortling in the middle of Boldhome will have knowledge of farming, and will probably have a vegetable garden and some animals (a sheep or cow, chickens, etc). If sent out into the countryside, he might have to spend a little time getting back "into shape", but he'd be able to survive. Take a dara Happan city dweller out to the fields, however, and he *wouldn't*.
> OK, using your system, to get back to my point that I've been trying to
> make, let's say you now have your Heortling/Lismelder/Spearstand/IceSpirit
> cultural combo. When looking at the occupation keyword for hunter, do you
> make that hunter specific to the overall keyword of Heortling? Or do you
> tailor it to be what this specific character should have, given the
> cultural
> specificity? That is, if we know that the IceSpirit folks all hunt with an
> odd device called a wabbitcatcha, and not with bows or spears, we'd want
> to
> specify that in the keyword, right? Or not right?
If they all do, then yes, we want to specify it. If only your hero does, then no.
And you can use one keyword to delete abilities from another (use the "Flaw" section if you want to catagorize it) - IceSpirit hunters don't use Bows or spears, so the IceSpirit keyword would specify that they don't get them (at their keyword rating, at least - they'd still have a 6 in it, as it's something anyone can do). See the Bison Rider "Flaw" section - Swimming is deleted (not that any occupation includes it...), and foot-bound activities get -10.)
RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad
R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
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