Is it bad worldbuilding to have blond people come from one kingdom and dark haired people come from another? Seems like a good way to differentiate different ethnicities. I like the idea of a world with different races among humans, as the actual races, and have cultural modifiers like starting skills, instead of racial modifiers.
>>98070639No, it's fine. It probably shouldn't be all blondes, but like a supermajority would be fine. If you're maintaining real-world genetics though, then it should be a cultural thing that blondes from that country only marry other blondes, or at least those who have blond parents.
Have you considered Greyhawk?
>>98070639yes
>>98070672yeah this is the sort of thing I want, although I want to try really hard to avoid similarities to real world ethnicities. I mean there I can see chinese, africans, whites, native americans, gyspies, and albino asians. All cool concepts. I just have been on a big medieval history phase the last few years and so the differences in regional cultures have been more compelling to me than piling on freakshit races to add variety to the campaign world.
I think Glorantha does that, at least with the Sun Dome people. They're connected to a sun god so they're all blonde, even if sometimes they're drawn swarthy I think it should still be fantastical. Like in Avatar the water tribes are Inuit but they have blue eyes, because water or something.And it makes sense for a medieval european setting where someone having different hair is noticeable and indicates they might be from another village
>>98070639Khajit Krusader’s Klub…..
>>98070639Ask the worldbuilding general retard.
>>98077313>NOOOO EVERYTHING MUST BE COMPARTMENTALIZEDUnironically the mindset that dealt a mortal wound to this board.Anyways OP, no it's not bad worldbuilding by default. Like previous Anons said, it can actually a good jumping-off point for further worldbuilding. Turn a minor detail into a cool point of lore.Even better if you can make something gameable out of it. Like the people are blond because they have a connection to the sun god, but lately no children have been born blond. Has the divine connection been severed? Is the sun god angry with the people? Is he dead or something? It's up to our brave heroes to travel to the [ancient sun god temple or other adventure location] and [do adventure thing]!
>>98070639>Is it bad worldbuilding to have blond people come from one kingdom and dark haired people come from another?Yes. Incredibly.Hair color is one of those things that's somewhat tied to ethnicity but isn't hard locked to ethnicity. More over, it'll tend to be the thing found somewhat regionally. Let's take for example something like red hair. Red hair is generally found in Northwestern Europeans and tends to typically show up in areas with more celtic ancestry. You're going to find pockets of it elsewhere but that's where it's most common. But they're not concentrated in a single ethnicity, let alone a single political entity.So you're going to more likely find certain traits among general ethnic groupings. But you're about to start making another mistake - you think that medieval kingdoms were ethnically homogeneous. They weren't. Hell, sometimes they were barely linguistically homogeneous. Kingdoms weren't really states in the way you even conceptualize them now - the state really is a post-Westphalian concept. They were a series of property claims, logistical networks, and obligations. The concept of a state is largely alien to this method of organization. Let alone the concept of ethno-state like you seem to be envisioning when you picture a kingdom of entirely blonde people.The idea of a trait being endemic to a kingdom is already straining credulity. Endemic to a region, perhaps, but even then that's pretty unlikely. The idea that the kingdom is made up entirely of people with this trait? Unrealistic nonsense.
>>98070639It seems to me that certain ethnicities would probably come from multiple kingdoms. Not saying that all these kingdoms should be cultural melting pots, but people will find enough differences from each other to break off even when they are culturally and ethnically similar, producing multiple lands with ethnic homogeneity.
>>98077508I guess that makes sense.>>98077554>Let's take for example something like red hair. Red hair is generally found in Northwestern Europeans and tends to typically show up in areas with more celtic ancestry. You're going to find pockets of it elsewhere but that's where it's most common. But they're not concentrated in a single ethnicity, let alone a single political entity.Yeah and I've heard of red-headed Iranians and such. But a lot of ethnicities are of course not the original ethnicities of that location.So I guess unless I want to go full haploautist on my campaign world, I should not bother?
>>98077614The thing is even if you went full haploautist you'd still come out with "this shows up regionally and in pockets in other places but isn't tied to one ethnic group let alone one kingdom"You basically can only really do it if you just embrace the fact that your worldbuilding doesn't actually matter. Which is fine, a lot of stories don't actually have great worldbuilding. I will say that "the kingdom of all blonde people" and "the kingdom of all black haired people" is some garbage hacky writing but fuck it man it's for your home tabletop game who genuinely gives a shit if your friends are having fun.
>>98077508Why so much coping, nogames? Didn't you want gatekeeping?
>>98070670Aren't some countries like Estonia like 95% or something?
>>98070842Yeah, if kingdoms strongly correlate to people groups it makes a lot of sense to me.
who cares
>>98070639I read a shitty YA fantasy series once where it was used as a clumsy analogy for classism in the first book and never mentioned again. Give each ethnicity more defining traits and throw in some cultural differences too.>>98070807It's best to think of them as a blend of real world cultures (apart from the Rhennee and Olmans)Baklunish are a mix of middle-eastern and steppes people.Flan are a mix of Celtic and Injun.Oeridians are a mix of Mediterranean cultures and the French.Suel are a race of Elrics of Melniboné, only with less angst.Rhenne are literally just river gypsies whose ancestors came from another world and the Olmans are a 1:1 copy of the Olmecs. All of these races are from the Flannaess region except the Olmans, who are from further south.
>>98070639No, there are many franchises that do that.
>>98078019I don't think it hits THAT high, but yeah, some countries it is super high.Also, remember there is also an IRL african tribe with blonde hair and it is its own genetic marker, no mixing with North Europeans to get the hair.
>>98080619>Dark-skinned girls with blonde hair are naturally occurringGod bless this beautiful world of ours.
>>98070807I have no problem with "freakshit". But I do prefer all human settings, with tiny things to spice things up. Like irl people can have blue or red hair, like Amazonians. It's black hair but with higher/less pigmentation
>>98081863>blue hair,AmazonianCringe
>>98078017Assuming this absolute nonsequitur isn't a botpost, what makes you think I'm nogaems? I gave OP pretty actionable advise on how to turn "bad worldbuilding" into something usable in a game, which is far more than what the post I replied to did. I also have no idea what is supposed to be meant by "wanting more gatekeeping."So will you contribute anything to this board and the playing of traditional games, or continue being a useless faggot?
Why don't you ask your players? they're the only ones who are actually practically affected by this.
>>98081974If you're thinking of anime or the fashion sense of a college aged barista, sure. If you've never noticed it in real life, then that's your problem, not mine.
>>98080619Most North Europeans tend to have higher Neanderthal genetics as well, don't they? Africa is closest to/entirely pure Homo Sapiens, elsewhere all blended to some degree with Neanderthal groups (something like 2-2.5% for Europeans and Asians)? Does that influence genetic markers for hair as well or was hair more or less the same for Neanderthals and humans?
>>98070639That works, they don't have to be all blonds in one kingdom, and gingers in another. However have a area where they native to and are the majority works. Just don't do the gay liberal art college BS where it trying to be diverse and shit. You can have major trade hubs where you might have a handful on other cultures living there to. However, if you go to a small village out of the way and the villagers look like a modern day McDonald's commercial by checking every box. You're doing it wrong. I mean you can have that one outsider or people he stayed but if every village is like that. You have a problem
>>98082665Yeah when I make small villages they tend to be very homogenous. You only see freakshit races in large cities (or in their homeland)
