Culture in DND

[Jürgen Hubert]

Personally, in my campaign world every race adhere to the regional culture. All elves do not have the same culture, instead the elves of one region will be a part of the culture and they just follow built-in instincts. For instance, elves are gypsies in one region and bedouin in the next. They fit into the culture that they belong.

With
Urbis, I've tried to give the "standard" non-human races some more variety. There is one elven realm that follows the classical faerie-tale feudal system, and the elves there regard humans (and most other races) as amusing pets. Then there's another that's staunchly isolationist, and a third one where humans are used as breeding stock to prop up their numbers.

Same with dwarven realms. One is extremely conservative and adheres rigidly to traditions, another is intermixed with gnomes and is open for all sorts of innovations, and a third one is in a desperate and loosing struggle for survival against yuan-ti (it doesn't always have to be orcs and goblins...).

Of course, to me the real focus are the expatriates - those non-humans who, for various reasons, have choosen (or been forced) to live in human cities, and all sorts of interesting frictions open up there with the larger urban communities...

I've written some stuff on how these expatriates live, and you can read it here ...

 

[MerakSpielman]

I seem to remember there being only one public social behavior that is universal to all human cultures. Can anybody guess what it is?

Answer:

Spoiler

The tendancy to gather in circles. When multiple people want to talk to each other, they always form a rough circle, unconsciously.

 

[Tuzenbach]

Cool! I've found a new message board with which to expend massive chunks of my tedious existence!

A German culture?!?! Geez, who'd ever want to do a silly thing like that.......

 

[MerakSpielman]

Welcome to the boards, Tuzenbach!

 

[Tuzenbach]

Welcome to the boards, Tuzenbach!

Thanks! Now all I need is knowledge on Avatar creating/acquisiton and I'll be set.

 

[Hjorimir]

I seem to remember there being only one public social behavior that is universal to all human cultures. Can anybody guess what it is?

Answer:

Spoiler

The tendancy to gather in circles. When multiple people want to talk to each other, they always form a rough circle, unconsciously.

You have to wonder if that is due more to the fact that in a circle everybody can be equally close as opposed to instinct. Almost correlates to Pyramids and Ziggurats...those forms were built because that is the only way ancient architecture could really reach a great height and remain stable.

 

[MerakSpielman]

You have to wonder if that is due more to the fact that in a circle everybody can be equally close as opposed to instinct. Almost correlates to Pyramids and Ziggurats...those forms were built because that is the only way ancient architecture could really reach a great height and remain stable.

Well, I think the cultural anthropologists were desparately looking for something we all had in common - from the most technologically advanced society to the most primitive - that didn't seem biologically engineered. Forming a circle is the most practical, efficient, and simple way to meet. Everybody can see everybody else's face, you can hear everybody else speak, and you can, if you like, put things in the middle (tables, maps, fires, something to be examined, whatever) and everybody can see it. What's interesting is this tendancy seems to exist almost totally independant of the number of people present - from three to over a hundred - up to the point where people can't hear the people on the other side. Walk through a party or social gathering where there are lots of people and there will be lots of little circles, all creating their own little private space, usually composed of 3 to 8 people. Larger than that and it starts to get difficult to hear everybody over the noise in the room.

Circling is sometimes done for religious ceremonies, but this is not universal.

The other common way for groups of people to gather is in a crowd, all looking at a person or persons in front of them (classroom, theatre, listening to a speech, etc) but this is also not a universal behavior.

 

[Tonguez]

I think this could be done using a few basic components and then options for each. And perhaps a good start point would be to examine the culture of the DnD World

So combining Philosophy and Anthropology we might get something like:

Metaphysics
Beleifs about the Universe - in DnD the Universe is made up of 4 Elements, Arcane & Divine are seperated and the physical world is surrounded by Spiritual Planes
The Nature of Self - The Self (PC) is comprised of Body and ???. One can learn many things (ie Multiclass) and with this Knowledge have the ability to attain great power and overcome limitations
Religion - there are many gods of varying power and involvements in everyday life
Ethics
Nature of Alignment - is it absolute or relative?
Social Norms - it is acceptable for adventurers to kick in doors and take other peoples stuff as long as other people are bad
Enforcement of Laws - Paladins may smite evil
Aesthetics
Social Values - Orcs are ugly so must be bad, elves are pretty so must be good, except Drow
Customs - Adventurers meet each other in Taverns and often go off into abandoned ruins
Politics
Social Structure - Feudal but not really
Status & Influence PCs are independent of the system but Nobles always have higher status
Economics
Technology level - Medieval/Renaisance but Magic
Education - everyone is Literate and participates in a cash economy
Control of Resources - Capitalism is rife even though its suppose to be feudal. A PC can buy anything they want as long as they are willing to RP