D&D 5E Linage culture needs the culture part

[Waller]

This pretty much exists already in at least two books.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

and

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

The standalone 'advanced 5E' backwards compatible tabletop RPG!

www.levelup5e.com

 

[Weiley31]

This pretty much exists already in at least two books.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

and

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

The standalone 'advanced 5E' backwards compatible tabletop RPG!

www.levelup5e.com

My only issue with the Ancestry and Culture book is that I feel like a number of the options in it feels barebones. But hey at least I got a way of playing a Drider or Arachne type character in 5E.

 

[NotAYakk]

I wouldn't do racial mono cultures. I'd do regions sometimes with racial alternatives.

So you have South Albion, Northeast Albion, South Albion Dwarves, etc.

In the world building I'm doing, I trying to keep away from racial kingdoms.

I have 12ish major powers. One ex-major power was Fey (it got up and left a few decades ago). One is aquatic, one has a Dwarven Royal Clan, and another is ruled by a Dragonborn dynasty.

But I'm intentionally deferring "race" information. Each major kingdom is going to have a language skill that also gives proficiency in cultural information about that realm; "History" is deep history (which impacts the campaign), while "Albion language" gives proficiency in both the language and the history/politics of Albion.

I made a civilization of Dino-wranglers and mad scientists, and I'm thinking of using Tieflings there. The idea is that they have learned how to manipulate life with magic; producing "hybrid" humanoid races (tieflings, half-orcs, muls, half-elves, etc) along with dinosaurs, owlbears and strange chimeric life forms.

But they aren't "racial essential". There will be halfling settlements both in and outside of the major empires, but I don't want to start world building with a "halfling kingdom".

 

[Vaalingrade]

Cultural Language: Any exotic

… Maybe just a list...

 

[Greg K]

I'd use descriptors for culture, something like militaristic, seafarers, nomadic, mystical, enlightened etc, which can layer on top of any race/background. They could even be light enough that two can be chosen to describe a culture. A mystical-nomadic culture might wander over a large swath of land and have magic as a common part of their culture while a militaristic-mystical culture might have a requirement to train in simple weapons and light armour with some battle magic as part of growing up. Perhaps typical dwarf culture is militaristic-craftsmen to get that fighters who are skilled craftsmen feel to it. The basic building blocks could also be examples if you feel like you can't quite get that roman culture feel from the provided cultures.

It's a lot to create but the pay-off I think would be great once completed.

Yeah, I had slowly been doing something similar (and influenced by Runequest, Rolemaster, and Harp). Some examples that I had been considering were:
Barbarian (could probably use another term), Nomad (Foot), Nomad (Horse), Nomad (River), Rural (Farm/village), Urban
Arctic, Aquatic (Underwater), Coast, Desert, Forest (Cold), Forest (Temperate), Hills, Grassland/Savanah, Island, Jungle, Mountain, Wetland (Marsh/Swamp), Woodland, Underground
Special; Mageocracy, Military, Monastic, Theocracy, Street.

Also, Rich Howard had a good start in his article, Ultimate Adaptability, for a variant Human based upon culture which was posted both at All Things Gaming (his personal gaming site) and at Tribality. He does, however, keep attribute bonuses based on culture. I would also look to Gygax's AD&D Barbarian class (in Dragon or 1e Unearthed Arcana) for cultural skills and weapons, and David Howery's AD&D article, Tracking Down the Barbarian, from Dragon for cultural armor and weapon proficiencies.
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