The German FRPG "Midgard" sports an pseudo-Aztec culture called "Nahuatlan". (Which has been known in the Armageddon wargaming campaign of which the game setting has been split as "Huanaca".) It's of course a bit anachronistic with magical assassins as servants of the war god, or with the death god employing slawic-style vampires as celestial servants, but it's the closest thing I know to a ready-made replica of Aztecs in a fantasy setting.


In regards of culture mish-mash, I think there's a healthy middle-ground between "direct rip-off" and "nut-job combo of things Man Was Not Meant To Mix", and that it's a middle-ground where some of the more interesting fantasy cultures are placed. I think for instance of 7th Sea's Vendel (which combines Gustavus the Great's Sweden and the commercially driven enterprising of 16-17th century Netherlands), or in my current homebrew setting for FtA! the Zhodabathi, which are derived a lot from the anachronistic pseudo-malaysian setting of the Sandokan adventure flicks.

Quote from: BillDowns;283394When I worked at a hospital here in Texas, we had a doctor from Spain - Gonsales.  With an 's' at the end, not a 'z'.  He insisted that hispanic surnames with a 'z' were New World spellings, not Old World.
 
IDK, sounds good to me.....

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!;283471That's interesting.  I didn't know that.  As to which school, the answer is "all 5 that I attended, public and private", with the caveat that this was 20+ years ago so it's possible I'm misremembering.  Who knows, maybe t is a "New World" thing...?  Sepa la bola.

I'll do my best to explain it. In Spanish there are a lot of surnames with an -ez ending. Originally, they were patronymics, but nowadays they're just surnames.

But then, why Cortés is written Cortés and not Cortez? Well, in, as you call it, New World Spanish, there is no difference between the sounds represented by s and z, whereas in Old World Spanish there is a difference. It means that to a native speaker of NW Spanish, Cortes and Cortez sound the same way, whereas to a native speaker of OW Spanish (like myself), they don't. This caused that some surnames that end in -es (like Cortés), which weren't originally patronymics, got reinterpreted as a typical surname in -ez, which they aren't, and that's the reason why you can find Cortés written Cortez. I'll give another example, Hugo Chávez, Chávez is a reintepretation of Chaves, with an -es (like Manuel Chaves, a Spanish politician).

To add more confusion, such surnames like Rodrigues, with an -es ending, do exist, but they are not Spanish, they are Portuguese (and as such, written according to Portuguese orthography). There are a lot of typical Spanish surnames that exist in Portugal, and the other way around (like Carvalho, a very typical Portuguese surname, exist in Spain too as Carvallo).

My apologies for the derailing.

Quote from: Skyrock;283573In regards of culture mish-mash, I think there's a healthy middle-ground between "direct rip-off" and "nut-job combo of things Man Was Not Meant To Mix", and that it's a middle-ground where some of the more interesting fantasy cultures are placed. I think for instance of 7th Sea's Vendel (which combines Gustavus the Great's Sweden and the commercially driven enterprising of 16-17th century Netherlands), or in my current homebrew setting for FtA! the Zhodabathi, which are derived a lot from the anachronistic pseudo-malaysian setting of the Sandokan adventure flicks.

That does sound extremely cool as an FtA! setting!
But I think the point is that you can get as weird as you like if the setting is mostly a background for unbridled adventuring; its once you get into the serious "social" RP that you have to be more thoughtful with what you weird-up.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;283690But I think the point is that you can get as weird as you like if the setting is mostly a background for unbridled adventuring; its once you get into the serious "social" RP that you have to be more thoughtful with what you weird-up.

I agree, which is why an AZtec game is really hard to do if you want the PCs to be Aztecs.  While adventuring parties are built into Aztec society (the pochteca) the social interactions and  ideas of correct behavior get...weird.

Their society was as rigid as feudal Japan, with just as many rules...but they were all different from what you'd expect.

Quote from: RPGPundit;283531A world with two suns and four moons and insect creatures and a dominant culture based on a mix of the ancient olmecs, the assyrians, and the 18th century italian city-states, who practice polyamory and speak 8 different languages, all based on Urdu, which are included in the setting and memorizing about 2000 words of vocab from this made-up language is essentially a pre-requisite of playing the game; that's weird by the fantasy norm standard.

RPGPundit

An amusing little rodomontade, but every single statement in that paragraph is complete and utter bollocks as regards Tekumel (well OK it does have insect creatures - but that's about it)

Some of it is just plain bollocks in anyone's world - 18th Century Italian City States? - there was just two independent city states left in C18 Italy - the decadent Venetian and Genoese Republics.

Never understood Pundit's irrational hatred of poor Professor Barker and all his works - short of actually being Gygax or Arneson could he be any more Old School?

On Aztecs would second recommendation of Ross Hassig's book.

Hugh Thomas is a good modern account of the conquest but is very much from a Spanish perspective.

Inga Clendinnen's Aztecs also does a pretty good job of getting into their heads and conveying the utter alien-ness of the culture.

Did once toy with the idea of running a Pendragon-based Aztec generational campaign starting in the early-mid C15 and running right through to the conquest.

The formation of the triple alliance and the overthrow of the Tepanecs at the start of that period probably has the most potential for a purely Aztec campaign.

Later on you could have fun as an Aztec Pochteca or Rogue Trader boldly going to Yucatan or Texas.

The Spanish conquest itself however would be too depressing to play out - not even a single battle of Camlann to end the saga but just an endless sordid procession of one-sided massacres, betrayals and plagues.

On Aztecs would second recommendation of Ross Hassig's book.

Hugh Thomas is a good modern account of the conquest but is very much from a Spanish perspective.

Inga Clendinnen's Aztecs also does a pretty good job of getting into their heads and conveying the utter alien-ness of the culture.

Did once toy with the idea of running a Pendragon-based Aztec generational campaign starting in the early C15 and running through to the conquest.

(Pendragon may seem a weird choice rules mechanically but Flower Wars have a lot more in common with Arthurian tournaments than with warfare, Glory expressed in mathematically precise terms of enemies captured and sacrificed is the basic game currency and the traits and passions are a pretty good way of getting characters to play as Aztec warriors and priests rather than generic western adventurers in funny costumes).

The formation of the triple alliance and the overthrow of the Tepanecs at the start of that period probably has the most potential for a purely Aztec campaign.

Later on you could have fun as an Aztec Pochteca or Rogue Trader boldly going to Yucatan or Texas.

The Spanish conquest itself however would be kind of depressing to play out and the difficulty of handling it was the main reason I gave up the project.

I don't think I'd play the Conquest either, for the same reasons.

The problem with Clendinnen is that she basically lays out the mindset without explaining a damn thing.  She's a dilettante as an Historian and is a tad lackadaisical with her sources.  I find that she hones in on one or two sources and takes largely from them, tacitly ignoring where those sources are rebuked by later historiography.

Hence why I recommend Hassig.

Bear with me!  I think it would be neat to use the GURPS source book for Aztecs as background/fluff (I got the book, even though I don't own GURPS--I've just always thought that Aztecs were intriguing).  I was an English teacher, by the way.  Oh, and you could play Scion, as children of the Aztec gods/goddesses for pcs.  That sounds like it would be hella-fun to me.

Quote from: teckno72;283852Bear with me!  I think it would be neat to use the GURPS source book for Aztecs as background/fluff (I got the book, even though I don't own GURPS--I've just always thought that Aztecs were intriguing).  I was an English teacher, by the way.  Oh, and you could play Scion, as children of the Aztec gods/goddesses for pcs.  That sounds like it would be hella-fun to me.

I actually did play a Scion PC named Raymundo "Lil Rey" Morales, a child of Huitzilipochtli.  He was a gang-banger in LA.

It was a lot of fun.

On books was assuming that the OP wanted inspirational and background material for an RPG rather than an in-depth literature review.

Sure Clendinnen is a bit of a dilettante - but she writes very well and does convey a lot of fascinating information about Aztec psychology and belief.

Arguably her book is shallower and 'less scholarly' than say David Carrasco's City of Sacrifice but I'd still happily recommend her both to someone who is unlikely to ever read more than a couple of books on the subject and to a serious student looking for pre-course reading.

Hassig is a very different writer - can't remember if he's an actual Marxist but he's far more focused on what tribute lists tell you about the real relationships between the Aztecs and their neighbours.

He's also the best introduction to Aztec warfare - which is usually a subject close to RPGer's hearts.

Taken together Clendinnen and Hassig make a good start - but no more than that.

Quote from: RPGPundit;283690That does sound extremely cool as an FtA! setting!
But I think the point is that you can get as weird as you like if the setting is mostly a background for unbridled adventuring; its once you get into the serious "social" RP that you have to be more thoughtful with what you weird-up.

As Sandokans pseudo-Malaysia has been mostly a cheap (but cool!) excuse to allow a wild-bearded pirate captain to rescue Sultan daughters with cute saris and dots on the forehead from the dirty hands of fez-wearing Kali cultists in the service of Redcoats in front of half-destruct jungle mosquees, and as my setting is so gonzo that there's even a race of faux-christmas elves, I guess "background for unbridled aventuring" in contrast to "serious" fits the bill well enough.