One thing I’ve noticed about fantasy RPGs is that they lean into hierarchy, that is, vertical power relations. This replicates the Great Chain of Being of the feudal era, with kings deriving power straight from god, and the entire social pyramid below them consisting of royals, nobles, craftsman, merchants, soldiers and peasants as you go down.
Inuit society has very little hierarchy, and what it does have comes up from below. A chief is only in power so long as the people trust his actions and decisions. Instead, community is what binds together Inuit, as it does with many indigenous societies.
In roleplaying terms, we try to avoid saying “I know…” or “Does my character know…” Instead, you would say, “I learned from my uncle that…” In Nuna, all knowledge is derived from connections to other people, for Inuit as well as Outsider characters. For Inuit characters, community is what gives them their ability to listen to the land, for Viking it lets them work steel and fight, and for whalers it lets them know the sea and the strange leviathans they hunt.
I am working on the mechanical and roleplaying underpinnings for this now. Going to be a different kind of BRP, with lots of flavour and ways to connect to the gameworld.
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