@Yaarel and
@Scribe An honest question about whether we get cultures: Do we get information on any of the following components (not a full list) for each culture ?
1. Subsistence Patterns (e.g., Hunter and Gatherer, pastoralists, etc.)
2. Political Organization (e.g., band, chiefdom, feudal)
3. Kinship, Descent
4. Social Stratification (egalitarian, stratified (e.g., estate, caste, class))
5. Modes of Exchange (reciprocity (general, balanced, negative), redistribution, market)
6. Belief systems (i.e. animism (many specialists and many spirits/supernatural beings), shamanism (single specialist and many spirits/supernatural beings), polytheism, monotheism, or syncretism
7. types of religious specialists or practitioners (shamans, diviners, healers, priests/priestesses, etc.)
8. any notes on social mores and punishment
9. any notes on the types of backgrounds/occupations and classes appropriate to each culture
edit: 10. Technology
Dealing with a culture works best when the DM is intimately familiar with it. Even so, one can purchase a setting from an indy who is from that culture. Much of the time, making up ones own culture by piecing together personal experiences can work. There is a balancing act between "what makes a fun combat encounter" versus "how does one appreciate the contributions of a culture".
1. For subsistence patterns, economy often equals spirituality. For example, in a nonurban nomadic culture, everyone is equal. There are no slaves, there are no masters. "Authority" might be a grandmother or an elder brother. Maybe there is a second aunt who has a reputation for good decisions. So spirituality is mostly about families and family relationships. Especially, animism. There is lots of appreciation yet little or no obedience. Simply being constructive and surviving together is a sacred experience.
In an early urbanization, there is hierarchy and specializations. So spirituality likewise has a king, servitude, and obedience. There are different beings who are responsible for different jobs. Specialization.
In an imperialistic economy where cultures across the world are forced to collide together, all the ancestral "truths" become relativistic, and spirituality seeks deeper truths. Thus the Golden Rule becomes holy, and transcendental concepts of a spirituality beyond any particular finite experience gain meaningfulness.
Some periods in history are times religious collapse, experimentation, and adaptation are in play, and it is unclear how a particular religious tradition will evolve into the future.
2. Political organization = faction.
3. Descent and kinship only matters if the character finds them interesting and gets into it. If there is something specific, like the parents are spies, choose the appropriate skills, tools, and possibly feat.
4. Social stratification. I wouldnt go there, unless I really wanted to focus on the experience. The past is a nice place to visit but I wouldnt want to live. Most of the time, I prefer modern egalitarianism, even when it is humorously anachronistic.
5. Currency, barter, etcetera. This can be fascinating if a table gets into it. Ancient Egyptians used loaves of bread as money. They were baked in a specific shape at a certain weight. Likewise, they would measure all items in units of how much gold it is worth. But the gold being the flesh of gods was so sacred, few dared ever touch gold, except the family of pharaoh and priests, and foreigners. When they bartered it was like a credit card. They would say, I owe you this amount of gold. You can get items from me in the future until I pay off my debt. The system worked so well, the Egyptians often avoided the use coins, even when the Roman Empire made it how does business.
6. Belief systems = factions. Background and class choice can shore up any concepts that require substantiation.
7. Clergy (formal religious jobs), same as 6. factions. For monotheism, God wants adherents to make the world a better place, and use the talents and gifts towards this goal, plus the Positive Energy Plane is the imminent aspect of the transcendence. Polytheism, Theros is great. Forgotten Realms (to me) feels more like characters are worshiping monsters. Shamanism is important to me, and I am still trying to figure out how to make 2024 rules work well. For example, read the Feywild and Shadowfell to feel more like a Twilight Zone, an alternate reality happening somewhere else. This is fun in its own right, but animism and its spiritual journeys happen in the material plane, even if the journeyer is encountering the features of nature while visiting them in a dream. I will get back to you on shamanism.
8. Social mores. It depends on the choice of setting.
9. Assigning backgrounds to a culture. A culture is like a MagicTheGathering deck of cards, where each card is a particular persons own experience. Build the culture by deciding which backgrounds seem most "prominent" (whether common and expected, or prestigious and rare).
10. Technology. It depends on the tech. In my settings, most guns dont do more damage than an arrow or a sword, but some ignore armor. These impose a Dex save instead. (A Wisdom Perception save can also make sense.) For future high tech, I see which spells make sense and reflavor them.
The above is how I would go about starting a world. Other DMs can have different concerns. Importantly, you dont need to invent an entire world. Just focus on the location that your players will run into. Expand and evolve organically from there.
Culture in Level Up covers the society your character grew up in by providing a set of mechanical traits to whatever heritage you picked up during the character creation process. And it doesn't have to match your character's heritage. You could play as a member of Dwarven heritage who was raised in a Mountain Dwarf culture, a Hill Dwarf culture or a Deep Dwarf culture (subraces in 5e were remade into cultures in Level Up). Or you could have it where your Dwarf was raised by Elves (High, Wood, Eladrin or Shadow). And if your character was to grow up in one of the four elven cultures in A5e, they get to learn some Elven cultural traits instead of Dwarven ones.
