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The hero of a fantasy or science fiction story goes to another world and meets a fictional group of semi-nomadic and/or hunter-gatherer people, but, like, maybe not in a transparently racist way.

  1. They don't need a white hero (or if they're aliens, a human hero) to step in and save them from something they really could have saved themselves from without him.
  2. They don't have a village with a totem pole and teepees.
  3. They don't have a witch doctor or fortune teller who curses people.
  4. The hero can't learn all their ways in a month and somehow become the best at them. The nomads have been doing this stuff their whole lives and have normal human intelligence, therefore they are experts at what they do.
  5. If they don't read, they must have a sophisticated system for passing on knowledge through apprenticeship, song, oral history or art.
  6. They're not cannibals.

What else?

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    $\begingroup$ Hey, Robyn, this seems more like a question for Writing than here, that being said you may well get some interesting/useful stuff before closure as off-topic. Not voting to close at present, will re-visit that decision in a few hours. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 13:14
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    $\begingroup$ This has nothing to do with building your world and everything to do with how you present your story to your audience. Voting to close as off-topic. Cliches are not part of worldbuilding; they're part of writing. I agree with Confounded that you would probably receive better feedback on the Writing SE. $\endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 13:18
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    $\begingroup$ Why not? Any story is gonna go throught clichés.. Here you are creating your own nomadic people, so whatever is the situation you will fit them in. That's the main point of worldbuilding. Also, racism or cannibalism or any of this concept have a place in writing, because they are part of the human behavior, and whatever you are doing (writing, RPG, etc...) your main target is humans who will indentify or reject some of this concepts. Getting subjects to avoid seems to be the opposite of what worldbuilding is for : liberty, imagination. $\endgroup$
    – ncalep
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 13:20
  • $\begingroup$ I considered posting it to Writing, but I am looking for characteristics of the nomadic society, not characteristics of the hero, which is why I posted it here. Can questions be moved between forums, or would I have to post it again? $\endgroup$
    – Robyn
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 13:24
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    $\begingroup$ Nuffin wrong with tipis (or lavvus, or yurts, or tupiqs or whatever else). Portable shelters tend to converge on a fair comment set of design elements that'll be hard to avoid. They'll almost certainly want to sleep under something, unless they're unusually hardcore or live somewhere with an unusually benign climate. $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 14:01

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