IMO, in The Forgotten Realms, wearing a prominently displayed round piece of onyx should arouse a degree of suspicion. Best case scenario, you've got a symbol akin to a manji: not quite a swastika, but close enough to catch unwanted attention.
Originally Posted by Black_Elk
Hehe Pork chops! yeah but like even there they could at least dish up a side of applesauce or whatever.
The earrings and regalia are a nice touch, but that's not serviceable if the player isn't well versed. That's also why I was trying to bring up romans and such, cause they're familiar enough to explain the issue but not quite as on the nose as that dude in pontifical style robes sporting crosses and the belltop hat and vestments. That's familiar, a lot of this FR stuff isn't. But at the same time it draws heavily on real world mythologies and religions and uses symbols and such that might be easy to mix up. You know, where they change a letter or two around or add an aspirant, so they'd have an easy out if they ever got sued. Like hey! We can let these Satanist teach the kids about Baal! And they reply, sorry sir you must have misread, we're talking about Bhaal not Baal! lol. Whereas we know what they're doing there. There's just so much overlap though, and if the player doesn't know or have the DM to instruct them, then it's not surprising they find themselves confused.
I think it needs something a lot more than that, it needs to somehow justify itself and what its doing, to make those choices in character creation or representation actually feel significant to the setting and the story.
That's the point, isn't it? A skillful writer can not only - with a minimum amount of detail - draw you into a fictional world, but they can also make you want to delve in even deeper to discover those richer and more nuanced details. Right not, we're witnessing a distinct dearth of much needed literary skill.
