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To make a culture

Started by Cheomesh, December 28, 2009, 07:37:19 PM

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Cheomesh

If one is to create a cultural write up to give someone an idea of what X is like, what should this write up include and to what detail?  In the past, I have created long-winded write ups on a few aspects I thought would be key, but I appeared to be wrong.

What should be included?  To what detail?

Government?  Religion?  Calender and days of import?  Their industries?  Their way of war?

Tell me your thoughts that I may ingest them.

M.
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Drizztrocks

I am also bad at this. I think one of the most important aspects is for it not to be boring. I don't know.

 I do remember Poly Carp saying once that he tried to do it from as much of a stand point of the characters as possible without being "in character". And he has the most amazing descriptions for everything. Look over the Clockwork Jungle thread for ideas, because that is one of the finest settings I have ever seen.

Hibou

Depends on the style of the rest of your work. Templates are not always a good method but might be useful depending on how straightforward and encompassing you want information to be. Culture differs because its people differ, and therefore you should make it known early on that it deviates in places and is not uniform. It might be much more valuable to know how in a smaller region or even one individual town (or whatever the case may be) to know that the laws and religions have been warped a bit from the standard.

As for what information you should give, remember just to give what's necessary, both because it'll save you time and because that's exactly what it is. You can always improvise and add more as you go along. The tiny fragments, such as private etiquette and religious festivals can wait until they need to be described.

Industries is a strong point, and here you could probably afford to be specific. This could (and maybe should) be a replacement for information about terrain, as unless a culture is local enough or inhabits an area uniform enough, saying that a country's primary terrain is hills and forest doesn't really convey much except the image of small knolls with trees on them in very dense quantity. On the other hand, you can work wonders by saying that the country obtains some of its most valuable exports from the mines in the northeastern hills, or that 60% of rural areas sustain livestock which in turn feed not only that culture but several allied ones.

Religion is important, but you can probably get away with just stating the common ones and any culture-specific derivatives. A distribution of the religion across different regions of said culture, if there are different dominant ones in different areas or it even just happens to be that some areas are more devout than others is also helpful.

Ways of war can consist adequately of a stating of numbers of forces, whether they're volunteer or conscript, are full-time or mostly reserves, and the percentages that the different types of forces make up out of the total number. Some recently military history can be good too, but keep it short. If you're talking about detailing actual strategy, I wouldn't bother - I've never seen anything along those lines to sound realistic at all.
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Ghostman

What kind of scenarios and stories do you envision taking place in this cultural setting? Answering this question should give pointers as to what things will need attention to detail.

Think about it as you directing theatrical plays, setting the stage for the actors, providing them with necessary knowledge to act their roles, making sure there are right kinds of props available, etc.

For example, if characters will be shown (in detail) dining with friends/relatives/strangers, it would be good to know about cuisine (=what is served), etiquette (even the lower classes of society have unwritten norms for acceptable behaviour) and the general procedure (will meals and drinks be served in some specific order, etc). You'd also do well to know what kind of tableware is used (plates? bowls? forks? chopsticks?) - and whether or not there is such a thing as a dining table to begin with.

Of course, the more familiar these details are to your audience, the less need there is to actually write them down. And if scenes of dining are to be glossed over rather than staged as important parts of the play, you may be able to ignore the details even if they would deviate greatly from the norms of your audience.
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LordVreeg

(am at work, so this is a snippett...cannot ignore this, though)

Cultures do not exist in a vaccuum, even in terms of history, they are described by their differentiation and relationships to other cultures.

Cultures need to be seperated from Nations and races, though the three are interelated heavily.

And cross-culture pollination/influence has to be looked at as well.  Igbar, for instance, is a mutt area where the old Argussian cultures (which is in turn very influenced by the Omnian and Ambrellian cultures (which stem from ancient southern Clan Wastri and Clan Kalil)) clash with the Northern Brightish and Marcher cultures (which stem from Vicorian and ancient Suprosian Omwo~ influences).

[ooc]An example from the Igbar pages...
The Laws will be discussed in detail later, but one curiosity is worth mentioning.  The Grey March, Sembina and the Bright Lands are all matrilineal countries, meaning that descent and family names are generally kept through the mother.  This is due to the fact the tribal clans and the clans of families that have become acculturated are all matrilineal.  However, Argussian Empiric law has always been patrilineal, and Igbar has kept laws of descent, legitimacy and inheritance that way since it has been done that way since the 300's.  However, it often causes a 'clan-vs 'law' dynamic.  Often, two set of records are kept.
[/ooc]
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Gamer Printshop

Don't take this as being rude, but there are many threads on this site that answers your specific questions. In fact there's a thread called "Forum Discussion" that deals specifically with the kind of background information you're asking about - why don't you review that thread...

 Forum Discussion

Granted that thread may go in to details that you don't really need, but the topic touches on a great variety of campaign setting details. Look at the topics and see which directly apply to your needs then work them out in detail - voilla!

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LordVreeg

Oh, hell, we've revolved topics...as is human nature... since the beginning.
VerkonenVreeg, The Nice.Celtricia, World of Factions

Steel Island Online gaming thread
The Collegium Arcana Online Game
Old, evil, twisted, damaged, and afflicted.  Orbis non sufficit.Thread Murderer Extraordinaire, and supposedly pragmatic...\"That is my interpretation. That the same rules designed to reduce the role of the GM and to empower the player also destroyed the autonomy to create a consistent setting. And more importantly, these rules reduce the Roleplaying component of what is supposed to be a \'Fantasy Roleplaying game\' to something else\"-Vreeg

Elemental_Elf

Quote from: LordVreegOh, hell, we've revolved topics...as is human nature... since the beginning.

Definitely. There's a certain elegance to the revolving door topics (on this site) because different people usually contribute which gives the viewer/participant (and the site) a much better grasp of the given topic. I can definitely think of two or three threads that centered on the difference between High and Low Magic and how they interact and differ from High and Low Fantasy.

Xeviat

Heck, I've asked this question before too. When I asked it, I brought in an example I wrote up for my Dwarves (as they were the race I was working on, mainly because they come first alphabetically). The answers I liked best all said one thing:

Write only the what, not the why.

You can go into more detail later. But if you're talking about a quick description (lets say at the beginning of a campaign setting book where you are selecting your class, race, culture, or other basic character elements), you do want it to be concise.

As that is a VERY vague answer, these are the things which I find to be the most important (yes, I like templates alot):

Basic Description
Relations (with other cultures)
Racial Makeup
Alignment (this can be left out)
Society (like how social classes are stratified)
Professions
Religions
Names
Adventurers (seeds for why someone would leave the "comforts" of their culture to go traipsing about the world)

Now, some of those I'll probably be consolidating (professions and society could be together), and a few more of those are probably going to be pushed to the "back of the book". Really, I would like to reduce things to a paragraph or two.

So, I feel for you. This is a difficult aspect of writing for other people.
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Endless_Helix

I agree with EE, no matter how many times we discuss this, it will never be enough. There's a reason these sort of topics get brought up again and again; it's one of the basic things we do here, and one of the most important things, since it's hard to have adventurers come from a world with no culture. (Part of me wants to try to make a world entirely without any sort of culture now, just because.)

My advice (limited as it may be) to the OP would be to make an outline of what you want out of your culture, then pick say the top 5 points that you think expresses that culture well. The number is arbitrary, depending on how much space you want to devote to it. Xev has a good list, but it can take a while get a lot of the bottom end of that.

I'd also suggest that you just post what you've got, and then see what people ask for. That always helped me.
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Stargate525

I think it also depends on the purpose of the write-up. For instance, the cultural brief I give my players is significantly different from the one I give in the setting overview, which is also different from the full culture in the setting information itself. (Generally, they get bigger as you go).

For the brief one would give to players (say as a handout or as a refresher as you are traveling to the area), the most important stuff is the trivial stuff that most people seem to overlook. For example, unexpected laws or traditions (such as a ban on clothing styles or never knocking on the door, only the doorframe) are going to be far more important than its major imports and exports (unless the players are going there for economic reason, and in that case they probably already know that information). Similarly, you don't need to describe the terrain, as they will have seen a map and you rob yourself of the ability to describe the terrain 'in person' later on. Important local figures, the structure of the government, especially at the local level, are important, as that's what they're likely to encounter. Perhaps some information on landmarks and festivals as well.

For an overview, one would include more generalized information, such as relations with other cultures, economic information, perhaps a little bit of recent history. High-level leaders and a full brief on the structure of the government, I feel, is essential.
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beejazz

My girlfriend, in her World History course, learned PIRATES.

Political
Intellectual
Religious
Artistic
Technological
Economic
Social

I'm considering stealing it.
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QuoteI don't believe in it anyway.
What?
England.
Just a conspiracy of cartographers, then?

Nomadic

Quote from: beejazzMy girlfriend, in her World History course, learned PIRATES.

Political
Intellectual
Religious
Artistic
Technological
Economic
Social

I'm considering stealing it.

Stealing pirates? MADNESS!

Superfluous Crow

That's actually not a bad set of headings (PIRATES). We're only missing physical appearance and naming and perhaps some country/where-to-be-found info.
But some of it might be difficult to fill out. Intellectual and artistic particularly.
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beejazz

Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowThat's actually not a bad set of headings (PIRATES). We're only missing physical appearance and naming and perhaps some country/where-to-be-found info.
But some of it might be difficult to fill out. Intellectual and artistic particularly.
For an AP world history course, I think it's pretty much perfect. By for fantasy, yeah, it leaves out physiology and magic, and as you point out lots of game settings will gloss over arts and intellectual stuff. But PPRMTES doesn't read as well  :-p
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 Beejazz's Homebrew Discussion

QuoteI don't believe in it anyway.
What?
England.
Just a conspiracy of cartographers, then?