Culture Template- What've I missed!?

[Belen]

Hey all,

I know, I am breaking the mold and posting something less ranty. I'm feeling non-confrontational today! I created a new template for handling cultures in the world. Basically it will help me write large chunks of the world in a uniform manner, so that I have as much detail in one culture as I do in another.

Any suggestions? What did I miss, if anything? I tend to do these templates/ outlines a lot, but I thought I would get the official EnWorld opinion on this one.

Dave

Elisan Culture Template

Earth Equivalent:

Intro Paragraph:

Geography
„h Natural Landmarks/ Wonders
„h Natural Dangers
„h Common/ Exotic Vegetation
„h Common/ Exotic Animals

Climate
„h Temperature
„h Rainfall
„h Storms/ Disasters

The People

Races: (ie. Who lives here.)

Government
„h Theocracy, Monarchy, Magocracy, Democracy, Council
„h Bureaucracy (who runs it and how)
„h Laws/ Goals
„h Foreign Policy
„h Holidays
„h Alignment?
„h Commoners

Religion- (overall parts of the religion- individual Gods will be separate)
„h Pantheistic, Monotheistic, Animistic, Humanocentric
„h Hierarchy
„h Beliefs
„h Practices
„h Prayers
„h Holidays
„h Dominant Priesthood- (ie. Do the government or people support a certain god above all others)
„h Place of Commoners

Livelihood/ Daily existence
„h Hierarchy (nobles etc., also include how each part views the other.)
„h Family unit
„h Professions
„h Agriculture/ Fishing/ Hunting
„h Beliefs/ Practices/ Superstitions/ Quotes

Names- (list of common names/ naming conventions)

 

[WayneLigon]

„h Family unit

--Sex Roles: Who does what and where? Who can use weapons? Who can deal with children? What happens when someone breaks these rules?

--When are children not children any more? Is there a rite or ceremony they must complete? Is it based on age, or accomplishment? (Example: Tribe One's kids become adults when their fifteeth summer passes. Tribe Two's boys must bring back their weight in meat from a summer hunt before they can be considered a man. A girl must bear a child before she is a woman).

--What benefits do not-kids get? What responsibilities do they have? (Example 1: kids cannot commit crimes before age 7; anything they do, anything at all, is taken out on the parents.)

--Marriage: who gets to marry whom? Are there ways around this? If they can marry someone from outside the culture, what is done to that person to make him One Of Us?

--What happens to you when you get old?

 

[Rune]

Hey, that's pretty spiffy! Except that I don't think it should imply that cultures should be directly mirrored from real-world cultures.

Minor issue, though. Consider this *YOINKED*

 

[Belen]

Thanks! I appreciate the advice.

I actually placed the "Earth Equivalent" section there as a reference to where I got the ideas. It is fine and dandy to create stuff on your own, but nothing I create will ever be as complete as the real world.

So if I create something that is an amalgamation of Egyptian/ Greek/ Japanese, then I know where to research the holes.

Dave

 

[PowerWordDumb]

While I wouldn't expect there to be earth equivalencies on all cultures, in cases where you were inspired by something tangible I'd love to see that referenced. It's no fun rifling through four pages of boring blahblah just to find out that a campaign designer has just ripped off and rebadged (say) the celts of Morocco from around the 8th century. In such cases it'd be easier to just give that up from the beginning so I can get a quick grasp on the flavor we're talking about, and then dig into the flavor text if/when I need more details.

 

[MaxKaladin]

While this includes a lot of cultural detail, it really looks like a more broad document for detailing a nation or group of some kind.

 

[MaxKaladin]

While this includes a lot of cultural detail, it really looks like a more broad document for detailing a nation or group of some kind.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

I thought that too at first, then I decided that sections like geography and climate can have as much to do with explaining a culture's traditions and sensibilities as with describing the physical nations the culture inhabits.

Would the bedouin nomads really be the same if you transported them to a lush temperate area for instance? No, and many of their traditions & rituals would have no meaning and make no sense.

 

[MaxKaladin]

I didn't mean to imply that climate and geography have no impact on culture, just that they probably belong elsewhere.