I've gotten some traction with the current rough of my players guide for my setting, so that level of detail for races seems like a reasonable amount.

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser on December 07, 2020, 10:28:47 AM

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on December 07, 2020, 10:10:41 AMIf the race is as much an archetype as the class is, then you've got to embed some culture in that race for simplicity.  ...However, if the game is not wedded to that model, then I think it is very much useful to break race and culture out into different elements.

I agree, as much as possible, although I am also always interested to see, to coin a word, the biopolitics (cf. geopolitics) of a given nonhuman culture as well. The physical differences of a race are going to make a tangible difference to its culture as well, and often in ways outsiders won't immediately think about.

To grab the cat-people example from earlier, if you assume that they are, like nonsapient cats, obligatory biological carnivores, all of their variant subcultures will be shaped by their attitude towards not only getting hold of enough meat, but (if their psychology is oriented around hunting) how they can get hold of it in ways that will provide social contentment and fulfillment.  Even the most cosmopolitan and widely travelled of their kind will probably see agrarian cultures, or urban cultures where food is something you buy in a store rather than hunt for yourself, with amused condescension at best and outright repugnance at worst; calling one of them a "grazer" or "herder" might be a deadly insult.

I like both, and see no conflict between the two. I keep racial mechanics limited to physiological aspects of the race, and also detail cultural aspects separately. This also provides an easy way to visualize, for example, the ol' "dwarf raised by elves" character.

Quote from: deathknight4044 on December 08, 2020, 06:09:30 AM

Quote from: Mishihari on December 08, 2020, 05:51:02 AM


I'm tempted to use anthropomorphic animals for all of the races, but I see an issue.  All of the literature I'm familiar with that has anthropomorphic animals (except the original TMNT) is for kids, and my kids want to feel grown up, so I think they'll be less interested in this approach.

Its probably not the answer you're looking for, but if the above is the case I'd argue you should have everyone be human and focus on their cultural distinctions. Game of thrones would have been a lot less serious with warforged and wolf people running around common place.

That was actually my preferred approach.  Both for the reason you stated, and because one of my big goals is to keep the game as simple as possible while still doing the things I want to do. However, my son _really_ wants other races, so in they go.

Quote from: HappyDaze on December 08, 2020, 06:11:05 AM
I think the most important thing to consider is whether you have a "baseline" race/species or not. This is usually the choice with the most neutral/flexible ability modifiers and skill adjustments mechanically, and the most common/widespread inhabitant of the setting. Most games and game settings default to humans filling this role, but it doesn't have to be this way, and some settings may not even have humans in them. This can dramatically change expectations, and playing in a setting with no baseline species can be fun. Note that, oddly enough, humans in D&D 5e are both the baseline and also oddly above the norm in everything (+1 to all ability scores) by default. Consider a D&D world where a race other than humans were the most common/widespread inhabitants and humans were either non-existent or only appeared in very small roles (perhaps they are the dying race in the setting).

Baseline is definitely human.  It's a human centered world, and most of the people they meet will be humans.  The other races will be just common enough to be unremarkable, so the kids don't get punished for playing the race they want.

Quote from: Mishihari on December 08, 2020, 02:07:28 PM

Quote from: deathknight4044 on December 08, 2020, 06:09:30 AM

Quote from: Mishihari on December 08, 2020, 05:51:02 AM


I'm tempted to use anthropomorphic animals for all of the races, but I see an issue.  All of the literature I'm familiar with that has anthropomorphic animals (except the original TMNT) is for kids, and my kids want to feel grown up, so I think they'll be less interested in this approach.

Its probably not the answer you're looking for, but if the above is the case I'd argue you should have everyone be human and focus on their cultural distinctions. Game of thrones would have been a lot less serious with warforged and wolf people running around common place.

That was actually my preferred approach.  Both for the reason you stated, and because one of my big goals is to keep the game as simple as possible while still doing the things I want to do. However, my son _really_ wants other races, so in they go.

Have you spitballed a few concepts with him? Talk about anthropomorphic animal races, elemental races, mechanical races, insect races, brutish savage races, decadent races in decline, changeling babies, werewolves, vampires, little people, big people, divine races, monstrous races, whatever, and see what he bites. You're doing this to fulfill a specific expressed interest, but you don't think he can come up concepts on his own. So why not see what he's really interested in, and then design based on that.

Quote from: VisionStorm on December 08, 2020, 08:24:26 AM
But this also brings up another question for me: what if there really are other inhabitants in remote regions of this continent? Maybe there are large tribes of Beastmen at the other extreme end of the continent and the human colonists are in for a rude surprise when the Beastmen become upset with the invaders. Maybe some of the Beastmen tribes are open to trade and those could be potential PCs, but others are hostiles to invaders to their territory.

You also hint to some type of cataclysmic event that destroyed some old civilization here, and there's still treasure from that older age behind. How advanced was this earlier civilization? Advanced enough to leave golem guardians behind? Maybe there's a Warforged-like race of ancient guardians waiting to be discovered in some of these ruins. And what if the precursors of this old civilization are still around, but just went underground? Maybe there's an advanced alien-like race living in underground cities waiting to be discovered. Maybe they're elves adapted to life underground and have become albino or such. That could be where elves from your world come from--unless you want elves to come from the other continent along with the human colonists, or maybe there are two subraces of elves: forest elves that came with the human colonists, and underground albino elves native to this land.

Those are good ideas.  The far reaches, separated from the coastal settlement by the continent's spinal mountain range, are only vaguely defined at this point.  A lot of things could be out there.  My general plan at this point is Shadow of the Colossus meets Jurassic Park as done by Miyazaki, with a bit of the scary part of Celtic folklore thrown in.  None of that is incompatible with your suggestions, and I plan on filling much of it in as we go.  Right now I'm planning on having all of the player races and NPC races come from the old world, so that they're familiar to each other.  There could certainly be some additions as the player explore new regions though.

Quote from: Pat on December 08, 2020, 02:14:00 PM

Quote from: Mishihari on December 08, 2020, 02:07:28 PM

Quote from: deathknight4044 on December 08, 2020, 06:09:30 AM

Quote from: Mishihari on December 08, 2020, 05:51:02 AM


I'm tempted to use anthropomorphic animals for all of the races, but I see an issue.  All of the literature I'm familiar with that has anthropomorphic animals (except the original TMNT) is for kids, and my kids want to feel grown up, so I think they'll be less interested in this approach.

Its probably not the answer you're looking for, but if the above is the case I'd argue you should have everyone be human and focus on their cultural distinctions. Game of thrones would have been a lot less serious with warforged and wolf people running around common place.

That was actually my preferred approach.  Both for the reason you stated, and because one of my big goals is to keep the game as simple as possible while still doing the things I want to do. However, my son _really_ wants other races, so in they go.

Have you spitballed a few concepts with him? Talk about anthropomorphic animal races, elemental races, mechanical races, insect races, brutish savage races, decadent races in decline, changeling babies, werewolves, vampires, little people, big people, divine races, monstrous races, whatever, and see what he bites. You're doing this to fulfill a specific expressed interest, but you don't think he can come up concepts on his own. So why not see what he's really interested in, and then design based on that.

Yep.  The seafaring, pirate avians were his idea, and he's also the one that really wants elves.  He's my co-creator on this and is providing a lot of ideas for the setting and the bestiary.  Fortunately, he's also a really talented artist, so our bestiary will be illustrated from the start.

Several posters here had lists of types of cultures for RPG races.  Does anyone have a reference for such a thing?  I'd love to have a fairly comprehensive list to work from, but have not found one online.

Quote from: Mishihari on December 10, 2020, 09:07:07 AM
Several posters here had lists of types of cultures for RPG races.  Does anyone have a reference for such a thing?  I'd love to have a fairly comprehensive list to work from, but have not found one online.

I never even looked for such a list when doing my cultures.  Not that mine are rigorous as setting elements in any way.  I made my initial list of cultures by looking at the races and deciding what kind of different cultures the races might have.

I started with the distinctions that I wanted to make, ascribed game elements to them, then named them something close enough to get the point across.  For example, my "herders" is broad enough to also include fishing villages, even though pastoral sheep herders, nomadic cattle clans, and a fishing village could be very different.  The way I envisioned the (default) setting, such groups would have similar equipment, money, and a lot of overlap in typical abilities.  Their differences are express elsewhere in the mechanics. Likewise, the RQ "nomad" culture has a fault line running through it for my purposes, where I wanted to distinguish gypsy and other itinerant types as I expect them to be far more common than they were in a typical medieval culture.   In a more normal setting, such peoples would not occur frequently enough to justify their own game mechanical culture.

I also have a lesser mechanical element of Terrain ability that factors into this.  "Wild Sea Elves" prompts a different image than "Itinerant Mountain Cat-folk".  You put a Class and "Path" (think a cross between sub class and profession) on that, and I've got a 5-word hook into the character archetype.

I compiled the various thoughts in this thread and some of my own ideas into a kind of race design checklist.  Credits to everyone in this thread.  It seems like it would be helpful in designing races that are a little deeper than re-skinned humans, which is what I'm after.  I probably won't fill in every point on the culture checklist, and there are a few that I thought might be helpful but left off because they sounded like too much work, like humor.

I'll run through it with an example race I'm thinking about and report back with what I came up with and whether this list helped

Comments and criticisms are welcome.


Race design methodology notes
Pick a race to mean something in the setting
Start players with a few obvious traits, let them learn the rest on the fly.
Design checklist (work in order)
•   What is their role in the word, i.e. why are they important in the game?
•   Physical
   o   What do they look like?
   o   Physiological characteristics,
•   Where do they live?
•   Psychology -
   o   Biopolitics, i.e. how race's biology shapes its psychology and culture. 
      X   E.g. cat-people are obligatory biological carnivores, so all of their variant subcultures will be shaped by their attitude towards not only getting hold of enough meat, but how they can get hold of it in ways that will provide social contentment and fulfillment. 
   o   2-3 prime motivations (e.g. humans: safety, esteem, freedom). Contradictions add depth
   o   attitudes, temperament
   o   in what ways they think humans are weird and different from them. `
   o   what they're like around each other when humans aren't around, and
   o   "Playable attitude" notes. E.g.:
      x   Elves are genuinely put off and irritated by the rush, bustle and impatience of most human towns.
      x   Dwarves are genuinely angered by the frequent human attitude of "good enough"
      x   Food in halfling communities isn't just a refueling exercise, it's a genuine social commitment.
•   Mechanical
   o   strengths/weaknesses
   o   Special abilities
•   Strength/weakness in professions and specialties
•   History
•   Relation with other races
•   How they affect the environment
•   How can they cause interesting situations, e.g. the elves are the only people with the lore to read that old map, but you have to perform some weird task for them first.
•   Culture
   o   Type (from list)
   o   Social organizations
   o   Language
   o   Dwellings
   o   Technology
   o   Economics
   o   Values
   o   Customs
   o   Religion
   o   Art
   o   Clothing
   o   Food
   o   Recreation
Reference
•   Common race types
   o   Mundane (Human).
   o   Tough (Dwarf).
   o   Graceful (Elf).
   o   Aggressive (Orc).
   o   Small (Halfling).
•   Culture type list
   o   Agrarian,
   o   Barbarian,
   o   Civilized
   o   Decadent
   o   Enlightened
   o   Frontier,
   o   Herders,
   o   Itinerant,
   o   Nomadic
   o   Primitive
   o   Savage
   o   Urban
   o   Wild
•   Playability
   o   Not over or under powered,
   o   Fits in normal rooms,
   o   Roughly as mobile as humans,
   o   Manipulative digits,
   o   Intelligent
   o   Large degree of independence,
   o   Socially tolerable in the main campaign areas
   o   Speak the common language

I ran through that checklist with a test case and came up with a race description I'm fairly pleased with.  A fair amount of the information generated may not be useful for players, but I like having it in there for when I roleplay NPCs.  I pasted in the description below, and I'll apologize in advance for both the length and first-draft quality writing.  For anyone who wants to slog through it, I'd appreciate any feedback, specifically,

1)  Did I miss any important elements in the description?
2)  Would you be willing to play this race, and if not, why?
3)  Would this make an interesting addition to a campaign world?
4)  Any suggestions?

Chaktak, aka "Artisans"

Precis for players

Chaktak are slightly anthropomorphic crustaceans with a passing resemblance to a praying mantis.  While many humans find their appearance disturbing, they tend to be friendly, cooperative, and socially non-confrontational.  They value safety and try to plan for any threat.  Chaktak are useful in a naval environment, since they can breathe in air and seawater, and are strong swimmers.  They are the master craftsmen and artists of the new world.  Mechanically, chaktaks are gifted in sense skills.

Role

They produce much of the fine hand made goods and arts, tapestries, woodcarving, and mechanical clocks.  They are welcoming, hospitable, and fiercely independent.  They make a good group to rescue and a safe haven in hostile territory.

Physical

Overall appearance is reminiscent of a crab, exoskeleton in overall design, but with a 3 segmented body, all oval in shape, forming a kind of "Z" shape when viewed from the side.  The lowest oval is about 3' long by 2' wide, and 8" thick, close to horizontal with the back about 2' off the ground and the front about 3' off, supported by 4 powerful legs ending in points.  The middle segment is about 2' long by 1.5' wide, leaning back a bit, with a pair of powerful claw arms and hands on the lower portion and a pair of fine arms on hands on the upper part, suited for delicate work.  The top oval is horizontal and forward, serving as the head.  The faces are similar to the arctic snow crab, but with slightly more protruding eyes, and protruding mandibles capable of very fine manipulation.  Color varies but is mostly uniform on each chaktak with some mottling, those in the tropics tend toward bright colors and while those in temperate zones tend towards earth tones. 

The lower and mid ovals each have swim fins similar to wings attached to their back.  They blend in unnoticeably when not in use, but when extended they appear to be made of stained glass in abstract patterns.  They pivot and swing from the outer upper portion of each segment, allowing the chaktak to swim very well, even though they are heavier than water.  Chaktak can breathe both in air and in saltwater. 

The exoskeletons appear at a distance to be one solid piece, but on close examination that can be seen to be composed of individual plates.  The plates grow over their lifespan, allowing the chaktak to grow,  Individual damaged plates can heal or be discarded and regrown if injured.  They take longer to heal if seriously injured than humans. 

Chaktaks live to an age of about 130 years, and are fully functional until the last year.

Dwellings

The chaktaks live in settlements along saltwwater coasts, always half in and half out of the water.  The sizes range from villages of 20 to towns of a thousand or so.  The old world holds chaktak cities with populations in the tens of thousands, but none of that size exist in the new world.  The towns are made of stone and cement, and always have a protective wall.  Larger towns will have clusters of buildings several stories tall, but all settlements will have several layers of basement with connecting tunnels.

Psychology

Biopsychology - As a species at one time preyed upon by large aquatic carnivores, chaktaks are defensive minded, and always have a plan in mind to deal with potential danger.  Their settlements are fortresses, and have hidden bolt-holes leading out on both the water and land sides.  They prefer to flee and hide rather than fight in dangerous situations, but are fierce if cornered.  They are slightly agorophobic.  They tend to be cautious in most matters.

Prime motivations:  security, social tranquility, artistic fulfillment

Additional attitudes, temperament:  Chaktak have a drive to create beauty.  Anything they make most be both functional and elegant.  The tend toward beauty in simplicity rather than ornateness.  Chataks have a stronger drive to cooperate than humans, and humans find them to have warm, helpful personalities.  While they will follow authority they have assented to, they will fiercely resist having another's will imposed on them at an individual, group, or societal level.  Bullies may find themselves mobbed by a group of chaktaks, and more than one warlord has attempted to conquer a chaktak settlement only to find it abandoned as its entire population relocated.

Humans are weird:  While chaktak enjoy humans' enterprise and initiative, they find them to be dangerously careless and shortsighted.

Playable attitudes:  A chaktak will always have a plan for what to do if a danger appears, and will assume that others do the same, even if it knows intellectually that those of other races probably won't.  It dislikes interpersonal conflict, and will often simply leave unnoticed if it does not like its social environment.

Mechanics

Compared to humans, chaktak are gifted in the sense talent and weak in the athletics talent.  New chaktak heroes must allocate at least one point to sense, and may allocate up to six.  They may allocate no more than four initial points to athletics.

Due to their hard exoskeleton, they have +1 natural armor, but the only recover 3 points of health per full rest.

Chaktak are strong natural swimmers, and gain +2 spaces to any swim movement.  They must also place at least one point in the swimming skill.

Chaktak are vulnerable to adverse environments and take double fatigue loss from heat, cold, and exposure.

Professions

Chaktak art and craftsmanship is widely sought.  While individual chaktak may be fearsome warriors, their temperament makes them unsuitable as soldiers.  They are skilled at farming and hunting in the seas, but lackluster at best in raising food on land

History

Groups of chaktak accompanied Tacha humans from the old world, mostly in a support rather than adventurous role.  While old world chaktak cities are spectacular places of beauty and learning, since they reproduce relatively slowly, new world settlements have grown slowly compared to those of other races.  Trouble brewed when the Saeng family rose to leadership among the Tacha.  While the previous rulers treated the chaktak as equal partners, the Saeng dynasty attempted to treat them as subjects, imposing their will upon them.  Almost the entire chaktak population of the Tacha cities departed almost overnight, some creating their own settlements up and down the coast and some moving to Cosk or Solund lands.  The Tacha economy nearly collapsed, and after extensive negotiation, some chaktak consented to return.  Since this event, most rulers have tended towards a hands-off approach to chaktak within their borders.

Relations with other races:

Chaktak and humans tend to get along well together, both on a personal and societal level.  Their is a mutual mistrust with the Kohbi, due to the many pirates and generally lawless nature of this race.  Chaktak also find the mizvete likeable, though they are confused by their stories, behavior, and humor.

Effects on environment:

Chaktak settlements tend to be long and narrow along beaches, with stone and concrete walls.  They thus tend to block access and passage to and from the water.  They have little effect on the land side of their communities, save for harvesting firewood, but create extensive farms under the water, both of animal and plant varieties.

Situational hooks:

For the best arms, armor, art, and craftsmanship, one must go to the chaktak.  They have little proficiency at capturing raw materials, so they are a ready market for the sale of wood, metals, textiles, and gems.  They will often hire mercenaries of other races to deal with difficult or dangerous situations for them.

Culture

Type:  Civilized

Social organization:  Chaktak live in families with a male/female pair that produce offspring, their 4-6 eldest children, and 12-20 younger children.  The eldest children will remain with their parents for their entire lives and tend not to reproduce.  The younger children leave their families and form their own homes once they fully physically mature, at an age of about 30 years.  Each settlement has a leading council with about 1 member per 100 adult chaktaks in the settlement.  Council members are chosen by discussion and consensus among groups of chaktak, and make decisions in the same way.  This works well for the chaktak, though it probably wouldn't work at all for humans.  In an emergency a single decisive leader may be chosen.  Chaktak form commercial houses of three to 50 individuals for endeavors such as farming and craft production.

Language:  The chaktaks have their own language, primarily consisting of had consonants and clicks, but all but the youngest speak patois, and proficiency in other languages is common.

Technology:  Chaktaks have the most advanced technology in the new world:  steam engines and clockwork.  They have a method of making rustproof arms-grade steel.  They will sell items of this steel, but will not share the methods of creating it.

Economy:  Chaktak have a traditional monetary economy and trade extensively with other communities.  Because wealth is shared evenly within an enterprise and within a family, their rich/poor divide tends to be much smaller than that of humans.  Also, while food is bought and sold, any chaktak will share food with anyone in need without recompense.

Values:  Cooperation, peace, and tranquility are valued highly.  Change and new things are treated with caution and distrust.  Generosity and self improvement are encouraged,  Thievery is almost unknown and is punished severely when found.

Customs:  A chaktak will always offer food when visited, even in a store or factory.  Every four years each settlement has a maturation festival, where children of at least 30 years old are promoted to adult status.  There is a weeklong festival, at the end of which the new adults move to new homes within the settlement or depart.  (about 50/50).  The chaktak paint their buildings in one to three bright pastel colors, blue and white being the most common.

Religion:  Most chaktaks are religious and regularly attend to their devotions.

Art:  Chaktak work in every artistic medium, but are best known for metalworking, textiles, and glass.  They tend towards simple, elegant form and bright pastel colors in abstract patterns.

Clothing:  Chaktak have little need for clothing because of their tough "skin."  They will frequently wear vests and belts for the pockets.  They also very frequently paint their skins with abstract patterns and realistic images.

Food:  Chaktak harvest fish and kelp from underwater farms.  Most settlements will also have a small fishing fleet.  They cultivate orchards near their towns.  They enjoy vegetables but do not grow them themselves.

Recreation:  Arts and crafts are both work and recreation to the chaktak.  Sea turtles and dolphins are common pets and companions.  Music, strategy games, and a sport akin to swimming touch football are popular pastimes.

And for comparison with humans in the mechanics section, here's the baseline talent section in character creation

Talents reflect a character's innate abilities.  Each hero starts with seven points that can be distributed among the talents as desired, subject to the limitation that no more than five points may be put into a single talent.
The talents are
   Attack - used for all physical attacks
   Defense - used to defend against all attacks
   Athletics - used for mobility and feats of strength
   Guile - used for stealth and deception
   Sense - for perception, navigation, and survival
   Magic - used to perform and resist magical arts

Conceptually, they seem to be a bit of mess.

• Crabs aren't good swimmers, but you want to them to be swimmers, so you gave them wings?
• Steampunk metal and glass working crabs? Fire doesn't work in water, so they'd need to spend most of their time on land. Not to mention crabs are cooked by boiling, so there's a natural dissonance. Basing them on a specific crab might help, probably some kind of tidal variety. Though even intertidal crabs tend to remain wet, which goes against forges and metal working. Could just make them fully terrestrial.
• I'm having a hard time visualizing them. Are they some kind of centaur-crabs? I can't reconcile three ovals, anthropomorphic, crab, and praying mantis. Complex physical descriptions can be hard, without art.
• How big are they? You're giving the dimension of ovals, but not the overall creature, nor how massive it is compared to a human.
• What do their homes look like? Huts, daub and wattle houses, stonework, hermit-like shells, metal bunkers?
• You're using some absolutist language, like saying they can't be soldiers. Might be better to describe them as tendencies instead.
• You have crabs with "powerful" legs and claws, and you're making them weak? (Athletics.)
• Why would textiles be one of their major industries, if they wear almost no clothes?
• Also, that's way too detailed. Way, way too detailed. Even if you keep a lot of that for your personal use, you need a short summary for the players. I wouldn't go over a single short paragraph, or a half a dozen bullet points. It should clearly give an idea of what they look like, how they think, and their culture, and cut all the extraneous elements and implications.

My observation on the checklist... other than the grossly physical elements, the entire framework only works if the campaign is limited to a comparatively small region. Just variety of culture within human societies c. AD 1250 would require "human" to be a multitude of races (different motivations, social structures, technology, economies, etc.).

Presuming that every elf and dwarf (or whatever) is part of some global monoculture just makes them feel artificial.

To be fair, D&D has been pretty good about creating differences among the primary races; hill vs. mountain vs. deep dwarves or grey, high, wood, wild and dark elves, etc. and their campaign worlds typically focus primarily on a single continental region.

So that's all the more reason to incorporate such elements into your species themselves (unless they're intended to be some minor geographically isolated species).

I found the chaktaks fascinating and I'd definitely play one in a campaign, though I might ask to tweak my particular PC in a couple of ways -- with typical RPG'er contrariness I immediately thought of a chaktak who'd left his home, or possibly was even kicked out of it, because he was, by chaktak standards, incredibly ornery and difficult to get along with (which of course will seem like just normal individuality to most humans).

I can see reasons to leave this out of the players' blurb -- there should always be things that even players don't know about their characters' own kind -- but it struck me that the metalworking secret might be a magical enzyme that the chaktak secrete which functions as an incredibly powerful solvent; it can turn most metals or minerals liquid through an alchemical reaction, and other enzymes allow metals to be reshaped into blades or mechanical components of incredible hardness, durability or tensile strength. This would explain how they got so good at craftsmanship while being limited to aquatic-adjacent environments, and would also explain why they refuse to sell the secret: they can't. (And if anyone ever finds out, chaktak may suddenly become very expensive slaves for any power without any conscience about such things.)

This in turn leads to other questions:
- When the chaktak do organize to fight, what kind of tactics do they use?
- Could they secrete an enzyme that corrodes organic material as well, i.e. spit acid?
- What happens to a chaktak deprived of the ability to enter water?  How long can an individual chaktak survive without it?  Does it have to be fresh or salt water?  Are there different subspecies with different requirements?
- How do chaktak treat those individuals who vary from their social norm?  It sounds like exile would be a worse punishment, legally, than imprisonment for them.
- What are some typical vices, weaknesses, and character flaws for chaktak characters? PCs wouldn't necessarily have to share these, but I could see many adventurers running afoul of a chaktak disdain for rudeness, physical ugliness, or violent tendencies -- if all it takes is one other PC losing his temper to a single Chak in a bar at night for every chaktak in town to suddenly start refusing business to the party, this could definitely disrupt a few plans.
- Alternately, I can see an eloquent and crafty demagogue exploiting, through beautiful and commanding speeches, the chaktak tendency to cooperation and love of beauty towards, shall we say, not necessarily benevolent ends.