Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nor'Morgwae 08-17-07, 10:58 PM	How do you add culture and depth to your campaign world? I almost posted this in "What's a DM to do?" for that very reason but it's really a question for a DM. It's a question for a world crafter. So, what strategies, tips or methods do you have for brining your world to life? What makes you tavern different from every other tavern in every other world run by every other game master? Adding culture into my game world is not something I have ever been very good at and I think that it has become one of my biggest weakpoints as a DM. This trickles down into NPC reactions, versimilitude of the world and setting and even player involvement. In fact, I've seen this as a weakness in the Fantasy genre in general, RPG or otherwise. To get things rolling: One of the techniques I'm going to try using more is sporting events. At first it seems really out of place in a D&D game, why talk about tossing ball around when there are dragons to be slain? Well, I think that a sport is a relatively easy way to add a lot of depth to a society. Even if it does nothing else it gives people somthing to talk about. I doubt that any of you can say you don't at least know someone who it's a fanatic about some form of sporting event. What people do in their free time says a lot about the culture and a lot of people in a lot of cultures have spent their time watching or playing sports. You can drop an adventure hook in the middle of a joust or start up a bar fight over which ball team is going to win the game over the weekend. Heck, you can even get the players involved in teh game some how. Anyway, what do the rest of you do? Edit: Also, feel free to link ot other threads/discussion about this topic. Any information helps.
yellowdingo 08-17-07, 11:42 PM	A Tomatoeing They could see the people coming and going by the gates. Guardsmen on the watch, the city beyond anounced itself in a cloud of smoke and smells eminating from every corner. "So this town we are headed to...do they sell beer?" Gaen scratched at his itchy scalp. "Oh Aye! they do a fine range of beers, ales, spirits, and wines." Franja nodded. He had drunk many of their beverages. The two companions stepped off the road to let a cart of locals pass. Gaen scratched at his scalp and the act immediately drew looks of disgust and horror from the cart. Weird People... DM Briefing: The local community has a few rules regarding personal hygine. People scratching themselves in public will be arrested and publicly bathed in tomato. It stems from an experience with the plague a few centuries back-the cure was to wash everyone in tomatoes- then they washed anyone who refused to clean themselves so it became the penalty for hygiene crimes.
Delfedd 08-18-07, 12:22 AM	I sometimes find it helpful to give places a totem creature. This doesn't have to be an obvious totem, it can be quite subtle. But once you make that totem creature, stick to it. If a certain tribe of halflings have the dragonfly as their totem creature, make the halflings take levels in monk with spring attack. The masterwork knives that they use are shaped like a dragonfly with it's wings folded. The totem creature is a simple way to get across a theme. A city with "bear" as it's total might look big and strong, may have an impressive millitary, but they rarely go to war. They would rather stick to agriculture and fishing.
queenfange 08-18-07, 08:44 AM	I love creating cultures for my settings. I like the ideas everyone has had so far- sports, totem creatures, and use of tomatoes to clean people who act in an unclean manner are all very creative. Depending on the maturity level of your campaign, you may want to flesh out marriage laws, courtship traditions, and related things. These can either be shown in the campaign through PC interactions with NPCs or between NPCs; in the latter case, the PCs are either present for or somehow influenced by the NPCs actions. For example, imagine a situation where the PCs are trying to track down a demon disguised as a worg in a formerly tribal goblin kingdom. The great noble who owns most of the city's worgs has just sent them with his engaged daughter to her future husband in the neighboring province as a dowry. Not only do the PCs have to track down the worgs now, but they must find a way to inspect them without letting the accompanying goblin wife-to-be and her chaperones know; any damage to or loss of dowry gifts before they have been given to the new husband is a very severe insult to goblins as it brings infertility to the bride. Standards of beauty also may give flavor to different ethnic groups and races within the campaign. Since they spent most of their time on the earth as scavengers always in search of food, obesity is considered attractive for goblin women- it demonstrates that they are well-provided for and never go hungry (which also increases their chances of conceiving healthy children). If you enjoy writing stories or poems at all, use those to flesh out your world. Come up with myths, legends, stories of the gods, works of famous poets and authors. On a related note, if you are a music buff (even just one who likes to listen to a lot of music), compose or assemble soundtracks for different regions to play softly in the background. Soothing, peaceful music gives a relaxed feel to the mystic halflings who live in the lower desert, while fast-paced songs with unusual instruments remind players of the gnomes' quirkiness in both personality and invention. For how to make taverns different, that's on a smaller scale than just culture, though it certainly can and should embody the local culture. Pay attention to exactly what food and drink is served there and why, what the serving folk are like, who the proprietor (sp) is and how involved they are in the business, and what it smells like. Is it smoky, reflecting the fondness of the local workingmen for pipes? What about the aroma of overcooked, heavily spiced beef, stewing in the back room for tonight's supper? Perhaps the people who work at the tavern are obsessed with a sterile cleanliness, so there's almost no smell at all, in stark contrast to the horse manure and straw odors that pervade in the town streets. Hope that helps.
Thanuir 08-18-07, 12:27 PM	Relevancy. Players likely won't be interested in culture unless it matters in the game, and specifically affects their characters. So, whatever you do, make it somehow relevant. One easy trick is using one real-world culture as a reference point and source of inspiration. A lot easier than creating a new one out of thin air.
yellowdingo 08-19-07, 11:47 PM	Nude Games Devor crawled through the sewer pipe until he reached the grate that looked in on the Arena. The smell foul beyond belief. Out on the field of the Arena, women, naked and in all their oiled glory ran, threw javelins and wrestled with all the brutality of one of the Black Taverns illicit cage fights. Two fine womenly figures threw themselves against the stone edge of the arena and pulled the grate loose. They looked straight at Devor and Screamed. "Man!" A pair of hands grabbed him by the ears and pulled Devor from the pipe. "Kill! Kill! Kill!" came the cry from the all woman crowd. A warriorwoman charged in with a Javelin and impaled him. The Crowd roared at his death. DM Briefing: A WOMEN-ONLY arena event forces men indoors for three days. Any male caught out of their homes during the event might be beaten or killed by the mobs of drunken women wandering the streets in celebration. Any man sneaking into the arena where the nude events are taking place certainly will be killed if discovered.
Baernwulf_of_Nor 08-20-07, 02:33 AM	A few things I do/have done. Create a calendar, I find that the players feel more in a world that has seasons and a timeline. Have time actually pass. Between adventures and during adventures keep track of time, count the days and so forth. Make the characters pick a birthday on said calendar. This will place them very much so, even if its just mentally they think they were actually born in the world. Have scheduled festivals/holidays on the calendar for players to look forward to. The Mage Duals are always a roar during the Festival of Champions. Have NPC's have relationships beyond just the PC's. For example, a gruff ranger was in love with a beautiful barmaid, but was too drawn into his emotionless warrior persona to tell her. Have the relationships develop over time. After the PC's come back from a long month in the wild, they find the ranger has confessed his love to her, and they are to be wed. For some reason I don't think I really helped your questions but tada! That's the advice I have for you. BoN
FponkDamn 08-20-07, 03:11 AM	Juxtaposition. Nothing reinforces culture like the differences between two or more of them. In my most recent campaign, the Kingdom of the Sun was made of ten provinces that were each once their own smaller kingdom. While they had a united monarchy, many of their cultural traits came through. One province was mostly desert, and the people there had had few resources in the past, so feuding warlords warred constantly for what little there was. As a result, when this province joined the kingdom, their military might was vast and impressive - and they could now trade that military experience to other, richer provinces for the resources they lacked. And so, those people now have a strong mercenary tradition. This is seen by the players (all native to a more agricultural, more peaceful province) when they noticed that the soldiers marching to war were all very foreign-looking. That led to inquiries about those people, etc. So you see these things more when there's a definite difference. - Johnny
GoriceXII 08-20-07, 07:55 AM	Religion helps. Deciding what kinds of deities are worshipped, how religion fits into the life of the nation or the region is very important. Religion may be a mere veneer and people tend to do what they like or it may be so vital that no one plants crops, judges a court of law, marries or goes to war without it. Queenfange makes a good point--you can use adventures to draw out how characters will see culture. Did you know that many earlier societies actually had dress codes based on status and not money? We have vestiges of this (military uniforms, clergy, judges) but this used to apply to everyone. So for instance a Celtic prince might not give a certain kind of cloak to a follower because it would be illegal for him to wear it!
darkhunter2007 08-21-07, 09:36 AM	Nude Games Devor crawled through the sewer pipe until he reached the grate that looked in on the Arena. The smell foul beyond belief. Out on the field of the Arena, women, naked and in all their oiled glory ran, threw javelins and wrestled with all the brutality of one of the Black Taverns illicit cage fights. Two fine womenly figures threw themselves against the stone edge of the arena and pulled the grate loose. They looked straight at Devor and Screamed. "Man!" A pair of hands grabbed him by the ears and pulled Devor from the pipe. "Kill! Kill! Kill!" came the cry from the all woman crowd. A warriorwoman charged in with a Javelin and impaled him. The Crowd roared at his death. DM Briefing: A WOMEN-ONLY arena event forces men indoors for three days. Any male caught out of their homes during the event might be beaten or killed by the mobs of drunken women wandering the streets in celebration. Any man sneaking into the arena where the nude events are taking place certainly will be killed if discovered. Oh my god!! how comes you thought of this before I do!?!?!?!:weep: :confused: Thats so cool! it has all the ingedients:nudity,blood,weman and alcohool. I'm with you man!
OmnipotentSeal 08-22-07, 01:31 AM	Before you can even begin to create individual cultures, I think, a general overview of the "thesis" of the world itself is required. From understanding the main themes and influences of the world, for example, a world that is heavily based on works like Morte D'Arthur would have different people in it than works like those based of Neuromancer. In the former, a player/DM, might find knight-errands on quests and countries with political systems that are a lot like sixteenth century Britain and Europe, while the latter may still have the same literary elements, but also have the psychotropic tech based tone of Gibson's work. Naturally, the people in both would be completely different. That being said, once one understands the stories he/she wishes to tell, then thinking of cultures is not as difficult. Personally, I like to have my cultural/historical/literary influences mapped out, attempting to find new combinations of the same material. Also giving each species/race a definite archetype helps, like "dwarven industrialists" or "halfling pirates" or "imperial elves." Basically wrapping the culture around that archetype, adding more and more complexity, in religion, or government, etc. And then thinking of ways they interact and influence each other, so you could have cities built on the ruins of other cities, and areas where the populace my speak a different dialect that is closer to a neighboring country, or worship a different god(s).
Tsochar 08-22-07, 12:37 PM	Relevancy. Players likely won't be interested in culture unless it matters in the game, and specifically affects their characters. So, whatever you do, make it somehow relevant. One easy trick is using one real-world culture as a reference point and source of inspiration. A lot easier than creating a new one out of thin air. This statement pretty well describes my methodology, although replicating a believable real-world culture can be as difficult as you want it to be, depending on the detail used. Usually, I intersperse the RL-based cultures with a healthy amount of traditional D&D archetypes, mainly for the integrity of the setting. As for relevancy, if you make the setting interesting enough, some players might enjoy listening to stories and histories. It depends on the players involved, of course, so usually a non-minimal but still fairly simple cultural background will work. Something I've discovered from this approach is that oftentimes such cultures affect the availability of certain weapons and armor. In warm areas, for example, cloth is often worn because heavy armor can be too cumbersome to wear without risking heatstroke. Consequently, scimitars and other curved weapons are more common, because they are more effective against cloth. Such was the case in Arabia a while ago. In other cases, spears may be used rather than swords, such as in Ancient Greece or the Zulu Empire. In some cultures, healing is done not by clerics, but by shamans that contact the spirit world (ethereal plane, perhaps) and make alchemical concoctions. Such differences can place the PCs at unique advantages or disadvantages. As for local customs, especially odd ones, it's usually better to throw those in sparingly. Otherwise, the PCs might spend a bit too long making sure they don't stone outsiders that wear blue on mondays or whatever.
yellowdingo 08-24-07, 08:05 AM	This statement pretty well describes my methodology, although replicating a believable real-world culture can be as difficult as you want it to be, depending on the detail used. Usually, I intersperse the RL-based cultures with a healthy amount of traditional D&D archetypes, mainly for the integrity of the setting. As for relevancy, if you make the setting interesting enough, some players might enjoy listening to stories and histories. It depends on the players involved, of course, so usually a non-minimal but still fairly simple cultural background will work. Something I've discovered from this approach is that oftentimes such cultures affect the availability of certain weapons and armor. In warm areas, for example, cloth is often worn because heavy armor can be too cumbersome to wear without risking heatstroke. Consequently, scimitars and other curved weapons are more common, because they are more effective against cloth. Such was the case in Arabia a while ago. In other cases, spears may be used rather than swords, such as in Ancient Greece or the Zulu Empire. In some cultures, healing is done not by clerics, but by shamans that contact the spirit world (ethereal plane, perhaps) and make alchemical concoctions. Such differences can place the PCs at unique advantages or disadvantages. As for local customs, especially odd ones, it's usually better to throw those in sparingly. Otherwise, the PCs might spend a bit too long making sure they don't stone outsiders that wear blue on mondays or whatever. Yeah, I love that...I worked on a campaign with Bluntpencil2001 a year back- The locals had cool armour like: Coined Armor (Weight: Leather +20lb, AC: Leather+1, Description: Holed coins sewen to leather). Ribbed Leather(Weight: Leather+20lb, AC: Leather (Leather+2 vs blunt/bludgeoning weapons), Description: Mithril Ribs sewn on the inside of the Leather). No-one had full metal armour (it was a Carolingan Setting so it was based around variants of leather armour).