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Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

So, while considering Pathfinder vs. 4.5e, I stumbled upon a book that piqued my interest, mainly because of the parallels drawn to real life cultures...

Asia in a nutshell.

And then I found this :

Tien (Common)

This complex language is spoken by the Tian people from regions of the once great Imperial Lung Wa; its use is so prevalent, that it is often referred to as Common in that part of the world. It contains nearly 24,000 pictographs and is a tonal language with thousands of homophones.[6][37] Even though Lung Wa has long been gone, Tien remains the official tongue of most of mainland Tian Xia.[3] A pidgin Tien is spoken in the Valashmai Jungle.[44]

They had VIETNAMESE IN HERE?!  HOLY SHIT!

Thousands of homophones?  Tonal language?

Contour Diacritic Vowels with diacritic
Ngang or B?ng mid level, ? unmarked A/a, A/a, Â/â, E/e, Ê/ê, I/i, O/o, Ô/ô, O/o, U/u, U/u, Y/y
Huy?n low falling, ?? grave accent À/à, ?/?, ?/?, È/è, ?/?, Ì/ì, Ò/ò, ?/?, ?/?, Ù/ù, ?/?, ?/?
H?i mid falling, ?? (Northern); dipping, ??? (Southern) hook above ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?
Ngã glottalized rising, ??? (Northern); dipping, ???(Southern) tilde Ã/ã, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, ?/?, I/i, Õ/õ, ?/?, ?/?, U/u, ?/?, ?/?
S?c high rising, ?? acute accent Á/á, ?/?, ?/?, É/é, ?/?, Í/í, Ó/ó, ?/?, ?/?, Ú/ú, ?/?, Ý/ý
N?ng glottalized falling, ??? (Northern); low rising, ??(Southern)

So yeah, probably gonna go for Pathfinder considering they include a variety of ethnicities, but have any of you guys found any somewhat accurate depictions of real life in something as abstract as tabletop?

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

*watches topic rocket over the heads of CYS freeformers and explode like a 4th of July firework...   XD

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

It's a book, but, it's almost as though it has some kind of, almost like, structure-- or, or, *rules* or something???!!! 

Rules???!! for RP?  But that's crazy!  

How could I possibly enjoy myself playing a game where I couldn't just do anything I wanted all the time? While complaining about how nothing is a challenge for me? 

This whole "rules" thing is never going to catch on. 

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

Anyway, I was gonna make a joke about FATAL, but . . . 

You're surprised that a fantasy RP book had a tonal language?

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

I'm just surprised the people at Pathfinder went to go as far as mirroring Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Phillipines, etc. in a fantasy equivalent with rulers from their respective legends (Vietnam's legend was that it had a dragon king, and guess who rules the Vietnam equivalent?  A freaking dragon).  When I hear of any parallels to Asia in an RPG, 90% of the time it's Japan or China.

Makes me super-giddy to play, to say the least.  I wonder if it's possible to recreate the Cold War in this continent...

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

Eew

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

I always thought most of the CYS users fell in the same group as me - people who don't have a gaming group.

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago
Wait, you're supposed to have a group? No wonder I always find every secret door...

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

I would try to get into PNP but I know no one who would have the interests to play with me :/

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

Interesting this was brought up, because I recently started reading a little bit about the Pathfinder world, since I keep seeing the big boxed card game (along with several expansions) being sold in bookstores and hobby shops and people saying it's one of the greatest games ever.

So far the most interesting thing to me about the world is Numeria, but I guess that's one of the areas people like least about the world due to the scifi element.

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

I'm too drunk to read this (though apparently not drunk enough to type properly), but it looks interesting from all the symbols and shit.

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

Nice! Though there's a disappointing quantity of red in the links... I wanted to know more about the Gossamer Mountains. :/

Personally, I was very pleased by several aspects of D&D 5e:

"You don't need to be confined to binary notions of sex and gender. The elf god Corellon Larethian is often seen as androgynous or hermaphroditic, for example, and some elves in the multiverse are made in Corellon's image. You could also play a female character who presents herself as a man, a man who feels trapped in a female body, or a bearded female dwarf who hates being mistaken for a male. Likewise, your character's sexual orientation is for you to decide."

And the representative character for the human race:

<3

I mean, I like how 5e plays, too, or I wouldn't have bought the books regardless. But the inclusivity -- and depictions of sensibly armored women -- make for a nice bonus. ^_^

Tabletop Parallels

8 years ago

Pretty sure there's 3rd party PF content that has some amalgamation of Aztec/Mayan as its "Truenaming" Language.