I'm wondering if the xenology skill should also include obscure human cultures. Human's are aliens too right?

Example: Players meet one of five desert tribes (human) on an outer rim world. The droid of the party (with lots of knowledge skills) wants tocheck if he knows anything about them from their appearance (dark skinned, warpaint, predilection for orange loose flowing garments), architecture, planet, and dialect.

Should he roll his Outer Rim or Xenology check? Or something else?

It kind of strikes me as weird, that if the tribe were any other species, there wouldn't be a discussion... it's obviously xenology, no matter how obscure this tribe is in relation to the whole species, but if it's an obscure isolated group of humans... it's not so clear cut.

On the other hand, the distinction between a species and a culture is important, and perhaps culture is covered more by geographical knowledge checks than ones that relate to species .

If you want to be technical about it, Xenology seems appropriate for any culture that isn't your native culture, no matter the species involved, so I think that makes sense assuming the droid wasn't build by said desert tribe. Xenology is, essentially, "the study of people who aren't you".

I think I was getting hung up on xeno being more physically representative of an "alien" (thanks xenomorph)... as opposed to what the actual latin word means in terms of field of study. thanks Slaunyeh, that makes sense to me.

Why not let the players use both, but with different results? Sure, it's a little more work for you as a GM, but it's a pretty cool way of doing it, especially from the players' perspective. Using Xenology would let them know things about these people's physiology and culture, while Outer Rim would let them know more about their history and environmental influences.

Agree with Slaunyeh.

Why not let the players use both, but with different results? Sure, it's a little more work for you as a GM, but it's a pretty cool way of doing it, especially from the players' perspective. Using Xenology would let them know things about these people's physiology and culture, while Outer Rim would let them know more about their history and environmental influences.

Valid point I think, though I would have split that up differently: xenology = physiology and environmental influences; outer rim = history and their economic and political relationship to other outer rim societies. Culture could be either, but might depend on how much their culture impacts the wider outer rim civilization. Odd cultural features that would only be known locally would be xenology. Cultural features that affect how they relate to other cultures would be outer rim knowledge.

Thanks guys. Very informative. You guys are pretty darn clever if you don't mind smoke up your arse. cheers.

Agree with Slaunyeh.

Why not let the players use both, but with different results? Sure, it's a little more work for you as a GM, but it's a pretty cool way of doing it, especially from the players' perspective. Using Xenology would let them know things about these people's physiology and culture, while Outer Rim would let them know more about their history and environmental influences.

Valid point I think, though I would have split that up differently: xenology = physiology and environmental influences; outer rim = history and their economic and political relationship to other outer rim societies. Culture could be either, but might depend on how much their culture impacts the wider outer rim civilization. Odd cultural features that would only be known locally would be xenology. Cultural features that affect how they relate to other cultures would be outer rim knowledge.

Along these lines, I'd probably break it down as:

Xenology: physiology, culture, history, etc.

Outer Rim: more current events

Xenology: You know that wookies are large, hairy humanoids with a highly honor-bound society, that live in small family clusters among the upper levels of the high forests of...

Outer Rim: You know that wookies are currently an endorsed slave species within the Empire, and...

Xenology: Hutts are enormous, slug-like creatures who live and operate in tightly knit (but loosely trusted) clans and their associated business cartels, and those clans at least *theoretically* work toward the common good of the whole species.

Outer Rim: The local Hutts cartel, primarily the such-and-such clan, control this sector of space, and run their affairs under the guise of Big-Important-Corp Inc.

Underworld: The such-and-such clan has recently started a quiet 'war' with that-other clan over the spice supply coming from the whoozit system. They're looking for new agents and bounty hunters to do their dirty work.

Xenology being the stuff that doesn't change much over long spans of time.

Outer Rim being the more fluid stuff that comes about *because* of the structures you learn about from Xenology. A recent, or localized cultural upheaval could be included here, but after a number of years (decades?) would fall under Xenology as it, or at least it's aftermath, became 'history' rather than current events.

Agree with Slaunyeh.

Why not let the players use both, but with different results? Sure, it's a little more work for you as a GM, but it's a pretty cool way of doing it, especially from the players' perspective. Using Xenology would let them know things about these people's physiology and culture, while Outer Rim would let them know more about their history and environmental influences.

Valid point I think, though I would have split that up differently: xenology = physiology and environmental influences; outer rim = history and their economic and political relationship to other outer rim societies. Culture could be either, but might depend on how much their culture impacts the wider outer rim civilization. Odd cultural features that would only be known locally would be xenology. Cultural features that affect how they relate to other cultures would be outer rim knowledge.

Along these lines, I'd probably break it down as:

Xenology: physiology, culture, history, etc.

Outer Rim: more current events

Xenology: You know that wookies are large, hairy humanoids with a highly honor-bound society, that live in small family clusters among the upper levels of the high forests of...

Outer Rim: You know that wookies are currently an endorsed slave species within the Empire, and...

Xenology: Hutts are enormous, slug-like creatures who live and operate in tightly knit (but loosely trusted) clans and their associated business cartels, and those clans at least *theoretically* work toward the common good of the whole species.

Outer Rim: The local Hutts cartel, primarily the such-and-such clan, control this sector of space, and run their affairs under the guise of Big-Important-Corp Inc.

Underworld: The such-and-such clan has recently started a quiet 'war' with that-other clan over the spice supply coming from the whoozit system. They're looking for new agents and bounty hunters to do their dirty work.

Xenology being the stuff that doesn't change much over long spans of time.

Outer Rim being the more fluid stuff that comes about *because* of the structures you learn about from Xenology. A recent, or localized cultural upheaval could be included here, but after a number of years (decades?) would fall under Xenology as it, or at least it's aftermath, became 'history' rather than current events.

To follow on your format Voice, but use a human tribe to really make the point that xenology isn't just "aliens" like wookiees and hutts.

Xenology: The Ndowi tribe, like all tribes on Socorro, are descendant from millennia old Coruscant settler ships. They live in small matriarchal family units and honour Aakua, the sanctity of "personal space", with great reverence. They speak their own tongue, distinct from the Ibhaan'l people, with more clicks and trills, but the leaders understand a smattering of basic. Their clothing is rugged, especially the footwear, as they live in small remote rock villages, very hard to spot from the surrounding terrain; built up high in the mountains above lava flows. They are renowned free climbers. There is usually an underground lake in a dormant caldera within walking distance, where they harvest the Zsajhira berry, get their drinking water and herd druyza.

Outer rim: The Ndowi tribe are currently the smallest tribal community numbering only 1000. They trade for basics with the Ethra Brewery, who make monthly visits to collect a fresh crop of Zsajhira berries. This has led to a more focused effort on farming the berry in the last generation, which is putting pressure on their subsistence way of life. The elders of the tribe do not like picking the berry in massive quantities for the brewery, fearing for the survivability of the entire crop - while the younger women see it as providing for their families, and the entire tribe, in the best possible way.

I would split the information gained by the knowledge skills and form a "known facts' list and grant a <number of successes> amount of facts to the players.

In case of the Ndowi tribe:

Xenology

• They call themselves the "Ndowi" and are descendant from millennia old Coruscant settler ships.
• They live in small matriarchal family units and honour Aakua, the sanctity of "personal space", with great reverence.
• They speak their own tongue, distinct from the Ibhaan'l people, with more clicks and trills, but the leaders understand a smattering of basic.
• Their clothing is rugged, especially the footwear, as they live in small remote rock villages, very hard to spot from the surrounding terrain; built up high in the mountains above lava flows. They are renowned free climbers.
• There is usually an underground lake in a dormant caldera within walking distance, where they harvest the Zsajhira berry, get their drinking water and herd druyza.

Outer Rim

• The Ndowi tribe are currently the smallest tribal community numbering only 1000. They trade for basics with the Ethra Brewery, who make monthly visits to collect a fresh crop of Zsajhira berries.
• This has led to a more focused effort on farming the berry in the last generation, which is putting pressure on their subsistence way of life.
• The elders of the tribe do not like picking the berry in massive quantities for the brewery, fearing for the survivability of the entire crop - while the younger woman see it as providing for their families, and the entire tribe, in the best possible way.