Got culture?

Sanackranib · Dec 3, 2002

prala

Can you post further info on the Prala? I have always been fasinated by gypsies but don't know a whole lot about them and I would very much like to enclude them in my game/player backgrounds etc.

jdavis · Dec 3, 2002

Fleshing out trade and geography helps, We have a Island in our campaign with one major city on it, it is famous for it's Ironwood forest and the giant swamp that takes up most of the rest of the island. The culture of the island is largely based on the fact that fresh red meat is hard to come by, as is metal, but Iron wood is plentiful here, but rare everywhere else. The City started to take on a sort of New Orleans type feel. Lots of trade and lots of odd people who live in the swamp.

Sanackranib · Dec 3, 2002

swamp dwellers

sounds cool can you post more about the place ad folks who life there?

jdavis · Dec 3, 2002

Re: swamp dwellers

Sanackranib said:
sounds cool can you post more about the place ad folks who life there?

I had a 4 page word document on the island but the computer ate it.

The Main city set at the northern end of the island surrounding a large bay, on one side of the bay was the lower class fishermen and a Halfling community, The other side was all docks and the merchant class. The southern end of the city was flooded in by the swamp, lots of people lived on small islands and got around with flat bottomed boats. The swamp was full of Lizard men so people tendednot to wander. There were several traders who knew the swamp and would trade with the Lizard men, which was a risky proposition. While it was illeagal it wasn't unheard of for people to disapear from town and be traded to the Lizard men (they had a taste for Halflings). The Lizard men worshipped the long dead corpse of a Black Dragon, so they had treasure to spare, of course most of the stuff wasn't considered valuable to them. The lizard men were constantly at war with other monsterous races that lived in the Volcanic mountain ranges that made up the Southern tip of the island, so they pretty much left the city in peace. People who lived in the swamp and talked about the lizard men not being that bad were considered a odd lot by those who lived in the more northern parts of the town. The Northern Part of town was full of wealthy merchants and trade guilds. Magic was regulated by a local guild and a unregestered spell caster was considered a criminal. There was also a local law that allowed temples to any god to be built as long as they were not openly hostile. This led to alot of odd worship habits of the wealthy. It was common knowledge that things happened behind closed doors that were better off not being talked about. There was alot more to it that I cannot remember off the top of my head. I remember it was real hard for the Paladin in the group as he could sense evil around him but was forbidden to act to stop it unless it became actively hostile. The place had a sort of decadent charm to it

s/LaSH · Dec 3, 2002

As far as cultures go, I'm kinda spoiled... I DM a medieval Earth setting. That makes things very easy... or does it?

The elves live in northern Europe; they were the ones that sacked Rome, and many of them still remember it. That's one quick culture point.

The orcs live in eastern Europe and northern Asia. They wear furs and have cossack-style dances, which is cool. (The PCs loved it.)

The gnolls come from beyond the Congo, and have converted to Islam. So you've got these hideous massive man-dog beasts that could tear you limb from limb, and instead they police the marketplace or work on mathematics. (Actually, I haven't got any gnollish mathematicians in there yet... I'll have to do that, because at the time Islam was more advanced than anyone else.)

The Mer (any aquatic race that doesn't eat people is a Mer race) show up from time to time when you're sailing, exchange conversation, maybe trade a little. Some of them come on land to trade, so you can see a blue man in a booth on the docks selling valuable shells, for example. (It's like trading glass beads to the natives, heheh.) They're the only non-historical realm in the piece, but they stay strictly neutral and are naturally separate from terrestrial realms.

Dragons... if they're known in a region, they're a power base and leadership rolled into one. It gives a culture stability, I'll say that. "Hi, I'm Razinus Peralin. I once ate a Roman legion. Do you still want to cause trouble in my town?"

hong · Dec 3, 2002

s/LaSH said:
The elves live in northern Europe; they were the ones that sacked Rome, and many of them still remember it. That's one quick culture point.

Goth Elves Must Die!

Psion · Dec 3, 2002

willpax said:
One simple change I implement that hasn't been mentioned: ditch the common tongue.

Oh, that's a given...

IMC, I have a trade tongue that is a mish-mash of the languages of the two major human cultural blocks in the region that is used in the east, but you can't expect anyone to know it in the west or on other continents.

Psion · Dec 3, 2002

Re: Alternate Settings...

Warmaster_Horus said:
I've got a couple that I have as a concept and other tried ones.

A post apocalypse world...

Another one is a land where there were terrible warws millenia ago...

Another great setting is the galaxy of the Warhammer 40K game...

Another idea is a setting untouched by human hands yet...

Somehow I don't think you understood the fundamental question of the thread. All this stuff is good if we were looking for setting ideas. The thread is about ideas for cultural traits, which is a somewhat different question.

AngelTears · Dec 3, 2002

I like using motifes

Like for Sturmsgård the human empire represents a very Nazi Germany's idolized mythology of its heritage, a Scandinavian-Germano-Romanic world.

The Elvish Empire on the other hand is that of Art Deco with a lot of Celtic English/Welsh mythology. Elvish culture is very staid, meaning that it changes very slowly, and consists of a lot of social underpinings.

Orkish civilization are basically the Gauls taken from Julius Ceasar's biography. Their are basically nomadic groups that are sudenly forced from the bronze age into the iron age.

So, where the human empire has mass produced equipment of low to middle quality. The Elves have very fine graceful high quality equipment, with a lot of intricate work put into it. Orks use bronze age equipment and captured human equipment.