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<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 498248" data-attributes="member: 2205"><p>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: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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 <em>Forgotten Realms, Oriental Adventures</em> and <em>The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game</em> do. In fact, I borrowed a lot of those feats.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> </ul><p>You can see what I did by clicking on the weirdo face in my sig-file. The web-page is woefully incomplete, but I do have the races and backgrounds pages up, which gives just enough info to get started with making characters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 498248, member: 2205"] 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:[list] [*]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 [i]Forgotten Realms, Oriental Adventures[/i] and [i]The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game[/i] 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. [/list]You can see what I did by clicking on the weirdo face in my sig-file. The web-page is woefully incomplete, but I do have the races and backgrounds pages up, which gives just enough info to get started with making characters. [/QUOTE]
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