Got culture?

It seems to me that the prevailing model in D&D is simple western/eurocentric model with perhaps a few chivalric values thrown in. Though I do throw a few extra tidbits in (frex, the two major cultures have differing ideals on social proprietry and gender identity, and there is a hidden code duello I have instituted), it occurs to me that I could certainly do better in this department, perhaps giving each major nation a few cultural values and customs that stand out.

What do you all do in your games to help make the cultures of differing nations stand out? Any dining customs, cultural viewpoints, etc., that help make different nations and subcultures stand out?

It's been my experience that the "flavor" doesn't translate very well into the player's minds as a cultrual consideration. I do have those things, but I find that re-enforcing them with the old standbys (feats, skills, spells, PrCs) that are only available to certain cultures wieghs a lot more in their minds.

One way I managed to acheive this was by putting in feats that are only available at 1st level that are mildly overpowered but had penalties associated with them and then made sure to describe the reason behind those penalties. For example, a PC from country A meets an NPC from country B. I remind the player that country B is a bunch of rustics and that he has a -2 penalty to deal with them becuase they aren't worth his time. Bang! Role-play ensues. I don't get as much of a player reaction when I tell them things that have no effect on the numbers.

Of course, this could just be my group or my DMing style.

Although overall rather western-flavored, I think none of my homebrew's culture are really like anything on Earth. Or, that would seems like a blend of so many things at once you don't know what it actually is.

Drawmack said:

I give every character an extra feet at first level. They must take a bloodline feet with that feet. My blood line feets all have a +2 and a -2 to one skill. On top of this I institute locality abilities. These are things that the players get for free because of where they are from. For example someone from Freeport gets 1 rank of swim for free.

But yes I agree, put numbers on it.

Click to expand...

You could kick a lot of ass with that many feets.


Wulf

Hmmm... I'm really not into this put numbers on it sort of thing. Not that I am against regional feats or the like -- it only makes sense to me.

More, I am looking for customs that would stand out to visitors, or would make for potential stotyline material. For example, see the Chinese Take-out story hour. In the Heian empire, elves and humans are both regarded equally, but hybrids are considered something of an abomination and the half-elves in the party are forced to travel hooded, much to their chagrin. No numbers, but definite impact on the game.

I think with different cultures, you need to avoid the 31 Flavors problem, where one kingdom is like 12th century Europe but its next-door neighbor is like Tokugawa Japan, etc.

As for cultural aspects, it helps to look at the history and religion. Perhaps the country was once governed by a terrible, evil half-elf tyrant, and people came to believe that it was the mixing of human and elf that made him a madman--thus 'hybrids' are shunned.

Now, this is not to say that the people of your mythic nation will know why their culture is the way it is, and have good, articulatable reasons for it. (Maybe only a few scholars know about Emperor Kharg the Mad Half-elf; the average joe doesn't know WHY he shudders with disgust at the notion of a hybrid, it's just the way things are.)

All over the place.

Mine campaign is generally Western flavoured with a few twists.

Enforcement of Culture by crunchy bits:
I enforce cultural changes, through feats like Forgotten Realms does, in fact I steal liberally from their feat least.

I also have regional variants of rangers: horse nomads, bow masters, and defensive hoplites. I accomplis this by swapping out the virtual feats of ambidexterity & two-weapon fighting for one of these three sets: mounted combat & mounted archery, point blank shot and precise shot; and finally dodge and expertise.

My kobolds, one of the most important races in the Southern lands (Think Arabic) have a variant druid who deals with vermin instead of animals.

Monks, which I also call Mythic Heroes, are like rangers in that they have variants. Northern monks are master wrestlers, Isle Elf (think Classical Greek) monks favor holds and joint locks, Orkaan monks favor throws, et cetera. I do this by swapping out the stunning attacks, deflect arrows, and improved trip abilites for different feats detailed in Oriental Adventures.

Religion plays a critical part in my campaign world too. Every region has a very different religion, and I let that shape the politics and the moores of the region. This means strict control of domains and clerical prestige classes. I also have a couple of regions of anti-theists. In these regions I dumped a lot more healing spells into the bard spell lists and let them become the spiritual center for these lands. My Arabic-esque lands rotate around the wisdom of the sufi poets, and my Greek-esque elves follow the wisdom of the philosopher-kings.

Noncruncy enforcement of flavour:
Naming conventions. I use real-world languages to name the various characters and places in the game. Each region gets a language or a set of languages, depending on the vastness of said region. People from my Heartlands are given French, German, Italian, Dutch, English, or German names. My Kobolds all have Farsi names. My Dwarves are given Finnish names. And my Orks get to pick from Russion or Mongolian names.

I've found that doing so helps give and immidiate flavour to a region, and lets me crib on some cultural tidbits when I have to.

I try to make PCs feel cultural shifts through interaction with NPCs and description of their environment. For example, there have been two baronies in my campaign where the characters have spent time. In one of them the people tend to mistrust smooth talk, magic, politics and are generally grumpy. It's a harsh mountain land and their personality reflects this. In another barony, more a crossroad of many commercial routes, the people are very affable, will barter for most anything and are fairly greedy.

Overall, this works well, as long as the environment is adjusted accordingly. However, cultural personalities have to be caricatured to come accross since we're not spending real-time with the people...

So IMC, no crunch, just fluff !

Everything Benben said?

Do that.