What are some truly original cultures from gaming that have impressed you?

Truly original in this context means you can't immediately tell it was mostly inspired by a specific real world culture.

The Dwarves from Glorantha are rather an interesting take on the conventions of the race. Believe in reality as a great mechanical construction by their god, work to help the great machine along. Have gunpowder in a world where bronze axes are the norm, with which they smack down any people stupid enough to annoy them. In fact Glorantha is generally very original.

Then there are the Red Wizards of Thay from Forgotten Realms. Cool as hell, always liked them much better than their hippie-celtic enemies. Always figured them as a kind of looming Soviet-esque threat (RED wizards), other than that I've never figured out if they were really meant to be based on a specific culture.

Quote from: Battle Mad Ronin;872587Then there are the Red Wizards of Thay from Forgotten Realms. Cool as hell, always liked them much better than their hippie-celtic enemies. Always figured them as a kind of looming Soviet-esque threat (RED wizards), other than that I've never figured out if they were really meant to be based on a specific culture.

They seem vaguely Turkic or Iranian to me, but yes there's no close real world parallel.

Perhaps the lack of responses to this indicates that there are very few truly original fictional cultures in gaming.

And I thought this was supposed to be escapist fantasy.

Well in video gaming I was thinking about Paladin's Quest. It was rather alien. Even the art design was startling, in all its pastel mutant glory. There's really no easy way to describe it without looking at it yourself.

Magic required tapping your own HP to fuel certain combinations of the 8 spirits of magic. Yes, you could cast yourself to death. Its cosmology of the 8 spirits ended up making each culture rather fixed on certain attitudes. And each region or city had its almost isolated version of tech.

It's one that really stood out to me over the years. Rather grind-tastic, but intriguing. I guess I should mention it in the video game setting topic, but I'd need to collate my thoughts on it before I could pitch it in full.

Quote from: Battle Mad Ronin;872587Then there are the Red Wizards of Thay from Forgotten Realms. Cool as hell, always liked them much better than their hippie-celtic enemies. Always figured them as a kind of looming Soviet-esque threat (RED wizards), other than that I've never figured out if they were really meant to be based on a specific culture.

They're not, the general organisation can be traced to Tibet, or rather to Tibet suffering forced D&D-isation, similar to what was done to the pseudo-European-looking parts of the setting:).

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;872704Perhaps the lack of responses to this indicates that there are very few truly original fictional cultures in gaming.

And I thought this was supposed to be escapist fantasy.

I don't play for escapism, for one example;).
Also the originality of escapist materials is a lie I'd consider to be well-known among gamers.
Personally, I've read 1234567890 settings. Less than 5 of all those I've read have struck me as original.

Glorantha was mentioned already. Apart from that, some parts of Talislanta and Traveller, and Eclipse Phase. There's probably a few more that are mentioned in SF games, though the fashionable space feodalism reduces that number.
I should clarify that I'm not including the games made with a license in that, only settings created for games.

Not gaming, but I thought the Na'vi culture was very well done.

Quote from: Opaopajr;872708Well in video gaming I was thinking about Paladin's Quest. It was rather alien. Even the art design was startling, in all its pastel mutant glory. There's really no easy way to describe it without looking at it yourself.

Magic required tapping your own HP to fuel certain combinations of the 8 spirits of magic. Yes, you could cast yourself to death. Its cosmology of the 8 spirits ended up making each culture rather fixed on certain attitudes. And each region or city had its almost isolated version of tech.

It's one that really stood out to me over the years. Rather grind-tastic, but intriguing. I guess I should mention it in the video game setting topic, but I'd need to collate my thoughts on it before I could pitch it in full.

Wow, I've never heard of this game before! I must check it out. Thank you so much, the google image search alone is inspiring.

Quote from: Opaopajr;872708Magic required tapping your own HP to fuel certain combinations of the 8 spirits of magic. Yes, you could cast yourself to death.

I did that in Book of Jalan, Blood Games, OHMAS, and Outremer.

Quote from: flyingmice;872783I did that in Book of Jalan, Blood Games, OHMAS, and Outremer.

Fighting Fantasy had it as well.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;872787Fighting Fantasy had it as well.

And Shadowrun. Blood magic, used mostly by the Aztlaners



Anyway, I think the trouble is that original cultures are rare, but also because people can't relate to them and thus largely ignore them. Tekumel for instance despite all the fanboyism is about as niche as you can get.  (Though even that seems Middle Eastern/Indian inspired)

Quote from: JeremyR;872796And Shadowrun. Blood magic, used mostly by the Aztlaners



Anyway, I think the trouble is that non-pseudo-Western-European cultures are rare, but also because people can't relate to them and thus largely ignore them. Tekumel for instance despite all the fanboyism is about as niche as you can get.  (Though even that seems Middle Eastern/Indian inspired)

Fixed your typo.
Tekumel is very easy to recognize with amateur level knowledge of certain culturesituations and that's its strongest point. Things in the setting make sense from said point of view.

The thing is, excepting maybe a tiny amount of truly weird places, there's almost no culture that isn't based on something or a mix of somethings.

Quote from: RPGPundit;873093The thing is, excepting maybe a tiny amount of truly weird places, there's almost no culture that isn't based on something or a mix of somethings.

Yep. I'm not sure doing a truly "original" culture is possible.

Quote from: Arkansan;873125Yep. I'm not sure doing a truly "original" culture is possible.

Certainly not Tekumel, which is a truly weird and creative setting but borrows massively from existing earth cultures. Likewise, almost all non-human cultures in both fantasy and sci-fi RPGs that I know of borrow (usually to considerable levels) from real-world earth cultures.