Okay, so per Bob, I put Muslim back in. That means the world has CFs: "East Asian," "Muslim" and "Western." Which is still more than IW's "IST."
Yes, IW has, by definition, an infinite number of CFs. That doesn't mean that each world gets more than one in that setting. In fact, they've gone out of their way to show us that they only have one, and some don't even get to differentiate theirs from even more generic CFs.
Best case scenario, I can find reference, in Britannica-6, for a grand total of five CFs, and they're being more granular than the Basic Set encourages:Chinese, Islamic, Japanese, Orthodox, Western.
The Basic Set doesn't break East Asian down any further than that, due to the fact that we'd still have to add East Asian in as well, just to cover everything else that isn't covered by Chinese or Japanese. Arguments had been made, successfully, that, with the fall of the Soviet Union, Orthodox should be folded into Western--so it was. Bringing us back to the big three that I listed before: East Asian, Muslim and Western.
You're welcome to play however you want Rob. Bob doesn't need to rewrite the CF rules from the basic set. It's better to stick with the overly-simplified version from the basic set and let other GMs add the level of detail they want. Don't force it on them. I, for one, don't use the CF rules much. I don't like them. Being vague and overly-generic, they're much easier to ignore. I focus more on the Area Knowledge skill as that seems to be a better indicator. No, that's not RAW, but it works just fine for my groups. Better, in fact, as it allows them to have more detailed cultural information for specific areas, and less for others.
Yes, IW has, by definition, an infinite number of CFs. That doesn't mean that each world gets more than one in that setting. In fact, they've gone out of their way to show us that they only have one, and some don't even get to differentiate theirs from even more generic CFs.
Best case scenario, I can find reference, in Britannica-6, for a grand total of five CFs, and they're being more granular than the Basic Set encourages:Chinese, Islamic, Japanese, Orthodox, Western.
The Basic Set doesn't break East Asian down any further than that, due to the fact that we'd still have to add East Asian in as well, just to cover everything else that isn't covered by Chinese or Japanese. Arguments had been made, successfully, that, with the fall of the Soviet Union, Orthodox should be folded into Western--so it was. Bringing us back to the big three that I listed before: East Asian, Muslim and Western.
You're welcome to play however you want Rob. Bob doesn't need to rewrite the CF rules from the basic set. It's better to stick with the overly-simplified version from the basic set and let other GMs add the level of detail they want. Don't force it on them. I, for one, don't use the CF rules much. I don't like them. Being vague and overly-generic, they're much easier to ignore. I focus more on the Area Knowledge skill as that seems to be a better indicator. No, that's not RAW, but it works just fine for my groups. Better, in fact, as it allows them to have more detailed cultural information for specific areas, and less for others.