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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kitsune9" data-source="post: 5820958" data-attributes="member: 18507">It's very challenging to enforce a "cultural viewpoint" onto players who 1. don't understand it, or 2. don't want to understand it, or 3. think they understand it, but differ with the DM's understanding of it. It's actually hard to get players to remember anything that is "fluffy" in a campaign unless it's in their face in every game session.Unless we grew up in that culture, had it help shaped our own moral compass, it's hard to play from a different point of view each time. The exception would be to play something diametrically opposed to our experiences and attitudes. Our own experiences and what we think is right and wrong is what really determines our reactions.Also, unless each game session reinforces the cultural aspect as part of the game, this is something that's easily forgotten. Players will remember their hp, AC, attack rolls, how to flank, but if the DM gives a whole bunch of history, cultural mores, and so on, it's going to be in one ear and out the other. Even if the DM writes it down and gives it out as a handout, the players are still likely not going to remember it, let alone reference it.For example, I wrote a short primer in Carrion Crown campaign. I wrote that magic items can only be bought and sold in certain locations; otherwise, if you went to your local village and asked about buying magic items, you'll be accused of witchcraft and dealt with accordingly. Already my players are forgetting this aspect. I have six players. I think one of them only read the character generation part and didn't bother with the rest, four of them read it but they certainly didn't print it out nor do they reference it, and one of them did print it out, but he doesn't reference it either.In my Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign, one of the players was a noble and threw away thousands of years of cultural upbringing and social acceptance to do things like "power to the little people" and so on. Essentially, the player was playing their character with a modernist vision when in reality such envisionment didn't exist.As a GM, I like to have players remember campaign fluff and I reward them for it (players get a free drawing of the Harrow Deck through certain actions that others would do in the culture they are in), but I don't punish them for making choices that would only come from a 21st Century American.</blockquote>

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