#iconrpg

The first (I'll call it the Tolkien approach) is to have each of the races fill a specific role. Elves live in the forest and are old and wise. Hobbits live in the shire and are chill. Dwarves live in the mountains and mine etc.

There can be multiple cultures among a single race (typically the humans) but there are no cultures that have any significant diversity. There can be individuals that live among a culture that is not of their race (e.g Bilgo, Arwen) but they are outliers.

It's very easy to be racist with this approach, but it's not inherently racist. In my (white) opinion, if you want to do this (or lean towards it) make sure that the individual types represent concepts and not real world cultures. The orcs as a representation of industrialisation are great, the fact that they're typically depicted with darker skin than anyone else less so

The other (I'll call it the ICON approach) is to just have a bunch of kintypes primarily for the purpose of allowing for more interesting character designs.

There can still be biological differences, but ultimately your culture is what is important. To directly quote the ICON rulebook: " Culture is far more important than Kintype. A Trogg and a Xixo from the same village are far more alike than two Troggs from different part of the world."

Cultures are also diverse. There is no culture that is just one type of Kin, and there is no Kin that has just one culture.

Obviously, as with most thigns in life, lots of things don't fit either of these extremes.

On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the Tolkien approach and 5 being the ICON approach, I think the Forgotten Realms would be a 3. There are some strong associations with specific cultures to specific species but you can find anything anywhere, especially in the larger cities like Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate.

My setting of Draxnor would be a 4. Associatins between cultures and ancestries are typically weak and mostly only the result of the different ancestries originating in different parts of the world. There is one notable exception, the almost entirely dark elven Drow Queendom, but even they have notable amounts of dwarves, tieflings, and gnomes among them and there are enough dark elves in other nations that most wouldn't assume any dark elf to be part of the Drow Queendom.

Unnamed Enochian character from ICON