Got culture?
- Thread starter Psion
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Desdichado
Hero
In my experience, building cultures is often more of a DM excercise, and getting players to really buy into cultural details can be difficult unless you just pick a few things and point them out many times. So I do the following:
- A lot of cultural values such as gender roles, education, literacy, mobility, etc. are much more modern than they are medieval. Players naturally think that way, so to ease the transition, their characters probably do to.
- For humans I have mocked up some backgrounds that give a small mechanical bonus (like making a skill a class skill for that character regardless of actual class taken, for example) and access to background feats, much like Forgotten Realms, Oriental Adventures and The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game do. In fact, I borrowed a lot of those feats.
- Included with those backgrounds is a very small description of the region, including what people there dress like, what a few of their standout customs are, and a prestige class that, in some way or another, typifies that region, or adds flavor. I don't necessarily ever expect a PC to take one of those prestige classes, but they do help to show in a concrete way what the regional culture is all about.
- I detail smaller customs now and then as needed, and inform my players ahead of time. Really, though, the goal (I think) is not to burden the players with information overload on the cultural mores they'll have to deal with in-game -- it's better to just stick to a few practices that stand out and just let everything else be standard and expected. Or, as desired, to add occasional flavor.
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Jürgen Hubert
First Post
Having distinctive cultures is important for a good fantasy setting, and I've tried to put some thought into it for Urbis. Some of the various societies are clearly based on real-world cultures, while others have no real equivalent in our world. Here is what I have come up with so far:
- Atalus is a cross between Venice, Constantinople, and Rome - just with more people.
- Avareen could be called a "fairy kingdom" - lots of elves and fey creatures, and (as in the fairy tales I am aiming for) humans are hunted for sport rather than being accepted as equals.
- The Desert of Thunder has no real-world equivalent, though some parts of the Sahara desert come close. I primarily wanted to explore what a realm ruled by blue dragons would look like.
- The Eternal Storm has a nice Gold Rush atmosphere - and the "battle against the Elements" should be taken quite literally here...
- The Flannish Cities are mostly based on Northern Germany and the Dutch low-lands from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, with a good deal of architectural megalomania thrown in.
- The Gawaris Desert is basically Arabian Nights territory.
- Gol Algor: Steampunk dwarves and gnomes. Need I say more?
- Gol Grungor: The "traditional" dwarven kingdom.
- Gol Murak: The "Kingdom under Siege".
- The Great Southern Chaos: This one is dedicated to all people everywhere who dwell in swamps...
- Hamajan Mountains: Mythical Tibet and environs.
- The Hobgoblin Dominions: I tried to work out here how a militaristic nonhuman society would develop...
- The Lake of Dreams: A mixture of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands.
- The Lands of the Dead: Mythical Transsilvania, with a few groups of necromancers thrown in.
- League of Armach: The Roman Empire probably comes closest, though any aggressively expansionist realm will do.
- Narevoreen : The mythical "Enchanted Islands to the West".
- The Norrfjell Wastes: Northern Scandinavia.
- Parginian Rim: Renaissance Italy.
- The Siebenbund: Switzerland - if it had been inhabited by halflings.
- Snake Kingdoms: Tropical jungles full of savage-but-civilized monsters - complete with bizarre breeding practices...
- Star Mountains: Terror Icognita crossed with the starport in French Guiana.
- The Worlds Beyond: The solar system, as written by H. P. Lovecraft.
To sum it up, I've tried to give each region a distinctive culture and character.
And there are still a few regions that I want to detail...
- Atalus is a cross between Venice, Constantinople, and Rome - just with more people.
- Avareen could be called a "fairy kingdom" - lots of elves and fey creatures, and (as in the fairy tales I am aiming for) humans are hunted for sport rather than being accepted as equals.
- The Desert of Thunder has no real-world equivalent, though some parts of the Sahara desert come close. I primarily wanted to explore what a realm ruled by blue dragons would look like.
- The Eternal Storm has a nice Gold Rush atmosphere - and the "battle against the Elements" should be taken quite literally here...
- The Flannish Cities are mostly based on Northern Germany and the Dutch low-lands from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, with a good deal of architectural megalomania thrown in.
- The Gawaris Desert is basically Arabian Nights territory.
- Gol Algor: Steampunk dwarves and gnomes. Need I say more?
- Gol Grungor: The "traditional" dwarven kingdom.
- Gol Murak: The "Kingdom under Siege".
- The Great Southern Chaos: This one is dedicated to all people everywhere who dwell in swamps...
- Hamajan Mountains: Mythical Tibet and environs.
- The Hobgoblin Dominions: I tried to work out here how a militaristic nonhuman society would develop...
- The Lake of Dreams: A mixture of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands.
- The Lands of the Dead: Mythical Transsilvania, with a few groups of necromancers thrown in.
- League of Armach: The Roman Empire probably comes closest, though any aggressively expansionist realm will do.
- Narevoreen : The mythical "Enchanted Islands to the West".
- The Norrfjell Wastes: Northern Scandinavia.
- Parginian Rim: Renaissance Italy.
- The Siebenbund: Switzerland - if it had been inhabited by halflings.
- Snake Kingdoms: Tropical jungles full of savage-but-civilized monsters - complete with bizarre breeding practices...
- Star Mountains: Terror Icognita crossed with the starport in French Guiana.
- The Worlds Beyond: The solar system, as written by H. P. Lovecraft.
To sum it up, I've tried to give each region a distinctive culture and character.
And there are still a few regions that I want to detail...
I use vignettes -- for each culture I think of one or more daily RPG activities which would be markedly different (renting a room, buying a sword, passing through the city gates, etc.), and then play out that activity with enough detail to emphasize the difference. That tends to get the idea across quickly while also providing ample opportunities for roleplay and PC screwup--er, plot developments. 
My players have really only encountered one of my world's cultures so far. It is a tribal system where revenge and hospitality are the two main pillars of society.
Revenge, eye for an eye style, is easy to integrate into play. Kill (or even physically injure) someone from another tribe and all their relatives will come for you. Its great because the players are forced to deal with several problems without resorting to violence.
The hospitality aspect is mostly flavor so far. If you ask for hospitality it will in most cases be granted and you get to stay with your host, under his tribe's protection, for three days no questions asked. Saves lots on taverns could be bad if you off someone who is protected.
Please see my story hour for more details:
Aryana- Slayers of the Eldritch
Corey
Revenge, eye for an eye style, is easy to integrate into play. Kill (or even physically injure) someone from another tribe and all their relatives will come for you. Its great because the players are forced to deal with several problems without resorting to violence.
The hospitality aspect is mostly flavor so far. If you ask for hospitality it will in most cases be granted and you get to stay with your host, under his tribe's protection, for three days no questions asked. Saves lots on taverns could be bad if you off someone who is protected.
Please see my story hour for more details:
Aryana- Slayers of the Eldritch
Corey
I find describing people's outfits makes a big difference, especially those of people with ceremonial positions. Banquet and inn food is another highly effective way of transmitting culture. Preferences for recreational drugs is another. In some of the above cases, one can even emulate these things to a small degree for the game (I had my pickled herring episode a few weeks ago).
A society's central sources of starch and sugar is another big one as it often determines the type of alcohol, the shape of food and what the rural countryside looks like.
Most importantly, the best way to build a culture is to determine 1-3 variables about the culture and then develop it based on what the implications of ideas in one sphere has for others. For instance, if there are no gods of food except a hunting god, chances are that the society is or has been until recently pastoral or hunter-gatherer. Given that they're living in cities, what does that say? Perhaps it suggests that they are the barbarians who invaded the city and threw out the ancient empire... And you're off.
Another way to really situate some in a culture is to force people to play out their 'gather information' rolls. What truth is valued and where it is found tell you a lot about a culture.
A society's central sources of starch and sugar is another big one as it often determines the type of alcohol, the shape of food and what the rural countryside looks like.
Most importantly, the best way to build a culture is to determine 1-3 variables about the culture and then develop it based on what the implications of ideas in one sphere has for others. For instance, if there are no gods of food except a hunting god, chances are that the society is or has been until recently pastoral or hunter-gatherer. Given that they're living in cities, what does that say? Perhaps it suggests that they are the barbarians who invaded the city and threw out the ancient empire... And you're off.
Another way to really situate some in a culture is to force people to play out their 'gather information' rolls. What truth is valued and where it is found tell you a lot about a culture.
As others have pointed out, you should always emphasize religious differences and NPC attitudes based on region and other factors. If you keep playing out various atittudes, your players will become more sensitive to it.
You should also try to lavishly develop and describe whatever aspects you want the players to respond to. If the players see you putting effort into it, they can usually intuit that it is important.
One simple change I implement that hasn't been mentioned: ditch the common tongue. I have a language system in which there are several language families. The first language in any family is either native or learned at doubel skill point cost; related languages are then learned at the regular cost. (For example: there are many parts of my world that are the fragments of an ancient Roman-style empire; all of those languages are related to each other, so learning one makes learning others easier. It doesn't help with the very different languages of the western coastal areas, however). It is especially nice to make to big villians speak a language unknown to the players; it makes the "asking for a password" scene so much fun!
You should also try to lavishly develop and describe whatever aspects you want the players to respond to. If the players see you putting effort into it, they can usually intuit that it is important.
One simple change I implement that hasn't been mentioned: ditch the common tongue. I have a language system in which there are several language families. The first language in any family is either native or learned at doubel skill point cost; related languages are then learned at the regular cost. (For example: there are many parts of my world that are the fragments of an ancient Roman-style empire; all of those languages are related to each other, so learning one makes learning others easier. It doesn't help with the very different languages of the western coastal areas, however). It is especially nice to make to big villians speak a language unknown to the players; it makes the "asking for a password" scene so much fun!
Warmaster_Horus
First Post
Alternate Settings...
I've got a couple that I have as a concept and other tried ones.
A post apocalypse world. Not like the Mad Max movies or Fallout, though they are pretty good setting too. What I had in mind was like a nattural disaster happened and the gods, or god, did not stop it. Result is that the advanced culture has devolved into barbarism, and savagery. One or two bastions of civilisation reamin but they are too few.
Another one is a land where there were terrible warws millenia ago. Where Men and Machines Contructed by men used forbidden technologies and weapons against each other until the mahcines were defeated. But the Price was too high, the world was nearly destroyed too, and what few people that remained decided to abolish those ancient technologies/magicks and start anew. In the millenia that followed, the different civilisations came to be like your generic D&D world. But deep underground or high in the sky, the technology/magick/machines from those terrible wars still remain, but forgotten. Anyone who wittingly or unwittingly activating one can gain great power or create another series of catastrophic Wars.
I use this setting in one of my groups actually, and so far it worked great. My players are having real fun, and when they first saw the forbidden sign of the Nuclear Fire in one of the forgotten underground complexes, they really freaked out.
Another great setting is the galaxy of the Warhammer 40K game. As long as you don't go overboard with stuff like Space Marines, Super duper aliens, and keep the gothic feeling in the game, you'll have great fun with this one. This actually has been my favorite DMing experience yet.
Another idea is a setting untouched by human hands yet. All the players and such are members of the elder races in a very high druidic and clerical magic and fantasy land. There are no gods or such but the races revere nature as a whole, both its life giving and destroying sides. Magic essentially comes from nature but there are no practitioners of arcane magic(elves' favored class is druid) However the stars tell the coming of a great evil and a coming doom for the world. Weirdly enough in the remote corners of the world new creatures are emerging, the likes of which were not seen before. Creatures that are like the elves or dwarves but bigger built and not so fixated upon one central idea of life. Creatures that have pitifully short life spans, and worship strange beings. They call themselves men, and wield a kind of magic that was not seen before in the world. A magic that does not come from the land but from somewhere else. And with the arrival of the good and nutral newcomers, come those bearing the darkness as well....
Well these are some of the ideas I have right now, I'll post more when I come up with others.
I've got a couple that I have as a concept and other tried ones.
A post apocalypse world. Not like the Mad Max movies or Fallout, though they are pretty good setting too. What I had in mind was like a nattural disaster happened and the gods, or god, did not stop it. Result is that the advanced culture has devolved into barbarism, and savagery. One or two bastions of civilisation reamin but they are too few.
Another one is a land where there were terrible warws millenia ago. Where Men and Machines Contructed by men used forbidden technologies and weapons against each other until the mahcines were defeated. But the Price was too high, the world was nearly destroyed too, and what few people that remained decided to abolish those ancient technologies/magicks and start anew. In the millenia that followed, the different civilisations came to be like your generic D&D world. But deep underground or high in the sky, the technology/magick/machines from those terrible wars still remain, but forgotten. Anyone who wittingly or unwittingly activating one can gain great power or create another series of catastrophic Wars.
I use this setting in one of my groups actually, and so far it worked great. My players are having real fun, and when they first saw the forbidden sign of the Nuclear Fire in one of the forgotten underground complexes, they really freaked out.
Another great setting is the galaxy of the Warhammer 40K game. As long as you don't go overboard with stuff like Space Marines, Super duper aliens, and keep the gothic feeling in the game, you'll have great fun with this one. This actually has been my favorite DMing experience yet.
Another idea is a setting untouched by human hands yet. All the players and such are members of the elder races in a very high druidic and clerical magic and fantasy land. There are no gods or such but the races revere nature as a whole, both its life giving and destroying sides. Magic essentially comes from nature but there are no practitioners of arcane magic(elves' favored class is druid) However the stars tell the coming of a great evil and a coming doom for the world. Weirdly enough in the remote corners of the world new creatures are emerging, the likes of which were not seen before. Creatures that are like the elves or dwarves but bigger built and not so fixated upon one central idea of life. Creatures that have pitifully short life spans, and worship strange beings. They call themselves men, and wield a kind of magic that was not seen before in the world. A magic that does not come from the land but from somewhere else. And with the arrival of the good and nutral newcomers, come those bearing the darkness as well....
Well these are some of the ideas I have right now, I'll post more when I come up with others.
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Sanackranib
First Post
cultural diversity
one small way that has been overlooked is the "local food"
I run my game in Darakeene (scarred lands) the food here is both simple and plain. (the dwarf thinks its fine. everyone else thinks that the dward thinks gruel has taste so they don't exactly count his opinion on food very high). they have heard of a place to the south that has exotic and spicy food (zathaski) food can play a big part of your local culture.
one small way that has been overlooked is the "local food"
I run my game in Darakeene (scarred lands) the food here is both simple and plain. (the dwarf thinks its fine. everyone else thinks that the dward thinks gruel has taste so they don't exactly count his opinion on food very high). they have heard of a place to the south that has exotic and spicy food (zathaski) food can play a big part of your local culture.
One thing that is often overlooked is that territorial borders and cultural groups usually do not coincide perfectly. In my homebrew I've been writing up cultures seperately from nations. This device allows me more freedom in defining interesting cultures. Two abbreviated examples:
The Prala: A people forced on an exodus from their homeland long ago, they are now known as the river people. Poor gypsies, thieves, and beggars, the Prala exist in the margins, mostly along the waterways of the great inland sea. They endure great prejudice wherever they go. They exist in travelling bands throughout the Central Kingdoms, but the two most well known permanent settlements are the city of tents, a shantytown outside the western wall of the largest city in the world, and the floating city, a constantly shifting city of boats tied together in a river as it runs through another major city in a different nation. Both of these serve as very active black markets, allowed to thrive because they serve convenient purposes to their host cities.
The Malaccans/Malacalos: Once a great cultural center of art and romantic ideals, Malacca has long been embroiled in a devastating civil war, and within Malacca proper only the oldest generation now alive still keeps alive the old romantic ideals of their heritage. The younger generations are jaded and cynical. Many bohemian immigrants have fled Malacca and travelled across the world, often achieving great status as celebrated musicians and artists in foreign lands. The Malaccan cultural group, however, extends across the northern Malaccan border into a neighboring nation. These people who live across the national border are called the Malacalos. Living in a region that is still safe and prosperous, the Malacalos as a whole still live according to the older traditions and ideals. While the homeland, once a great cultural center, withers, the Malacalos still flourish. Thus the cultural center of this group is starting to shift from the traditional homeland due to the civil war.
Here also would be included food, dress, architecture, religion, language, lifestyle, etc. Multiple cultural groups can exist in the same area.
By contrast, nations are described as the political and military bodies that govern a given territory.
In terms of fluff, both of these examples give characters strong archetypes to play off of if they choose -- the travelling vagabond gypsy and the bohemian artist (with a repressed chivalrous streak ala Don Quixote), but of course the player is free to deviate at will.
For reinforcing the cultural traits, I came up with something very similar to the d20 Modern profession mechanism. I was actually surprised when d20 Modern came out and was so close to what I was doing. Based on culture, every character gets a couple of skills that are considered class skills for all classes they take. If the class they take at 1st level already has a given skill, they may choose a +1 competance bonus in that skill instead.
According to this system, someone who comes from the Prala culture might want to be a rogue because they would gain +1 bonuses to bluff and pick pockets. Someone who decides to be a Prala, but chooses a different class, can still be good at bluff and pick pockets, which makes them more rogue-like, regardless of their class. Thus, all Prala characters can choose their own path freely but have incentives toward a certain direction. I like how this works out.
The Prala: A people forced on an exodus from their homeland long ago, they are now known as the river people. Poor gypsies, thieves, and beggars, the Prala exist in the margins, mostly along the waterways of the great inland sea. They endure great prejudice wherever they go. They exist in travelling bands throughout the Central Kingdoms, but the two most well known permanent settlements are the city of tents, a shantytown outside the western wall of the largest city in the world, and the floating city, a constantly shifting city of boats tied together in a river as it runs through another major city in a different nation. Both of these serve as very active black markets, allowed to thrive because they serve convenient purposes to their host cities.
The Malaccans/Malacalos: Once a great cultural center of art and romantic ideals, Malacca has long been embroiled in a devastating civil war, and within Malacca proper only the oldest generation now alive still keeps alive the old romantic ideals of their heritage. The younger generations are jaded and cynical. Many bohemian immigrants have fled Malacca and travelled across the world, often achieving great status as celebrated musicians and artists in foreign lands. The Malaccan cultural group, however, extends across the northern Malaccan border into a neighboring nation. These people who live across the national border are called the Malacalos. Living in a region that is still safe and prosperous, the Malacalos as a whole still live according to the older traditions and ideals. While the homeland, once a great cultural center, withers, the Malacalos still flourish. Thus the cultural center of this group is starting to shift from the traditional homeland due to the civil war.
Here also would be included food, dress, architecture, religion, language, lifestyle, etc. Multiple cultural groups can exist in the same area.
By contrast, nations are described as the political and military bodies that govern a given territory.
In terms of fluff, both of these examples give characters strong archetypes to play off of if they choose -- the travelling vagabond gypsy and the bohemian artist (with a repressed chivalrous streak ala Don Quixote), but of course the player is free to deviate at will.
For reinforcing the cultural traits, I came up with something very similar to the d20 Modern profession mechanism. I was actually surprised when d20 Modern came out and was so close to what I was doing. Based on culture, every character gets a couple of skills that are considered class skills for all classes they take. If the class they take at 1st level already has a given skill, they may choose a +1 competance bonus in that skill instead.
According to this system, someone who comes from the Prala culture might want to be a rogue because they would gain +1 bonuses to bluff and pick pockets. Someone who decides to be a Prala, but chooses a different class, can still be good at bluff and pick pockets, which makes them more rogue-like, regardless of their class. Thus, all Prala characters can choose their own path freely but have incentives toward a certain direction. I like how this works out.
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