100 Cultural quirks (and the resulting submarkets)!

[Notreallyhere77]

Hey all!

I hope this isn't a copy of an earlier thread, and if it is, I'm sorry.
We're going to make a compilation of interesting pieces of culture that can be applied to our own homebrew settings. Mine are purposefully game-neutral, though there's no reason you can't add something more suited to fantasy, sci-fi, modern, or some whatever.
Each entry must contain both a cultural feature (a belief, practice, or value), and a money-making opportunity that capitalizes on that feature, legal or not.
Hopefully this thread reaches 100 entries or more. The first 10 are on me.

1. Dandruff is considered a sign of defective moral character. Foreign shampoos to combat the affliction can be found, but only on the black market. Affected individuals with reputations to keep are sometimes blackmailed later.
2. Plototheocracy! Only the gods with the most opulent temples and wealthy patrons are worthy of worship. Temple guards wear gold armor, priests wear ostentatious jewelry and display expensive art, etc. Every church, even the most lawful good, have a secret branch dedicated to making forgeries of wealth (glass "gems" for jewelry, gold-dipped stone statues, gold-plating equipment for armor a weapons) and anyone who can produce gold paint stands to make a fortune from anomymous buyers.
3. Everyone in the colony is required to wear a hat outdoors, just like in the old country. However, the consistent strong winds were unanticipated, and many decent folk have to carry spare hats or look very foolish as they chase their hats down the street. A group of children make spending money by collecting hats at the downwind side of town and returning them to their owners for a small reward. A wind-resistant hat design would solve the problem, which is why it is expressly forbidden by the (wealthy and powerful) Hatters' Guild.
4. By law, only adult makes are allowed to own businesses. Also, marriage is viewed mostly as a business partnership between two families. As such, only male business owners are allowed to be married by law. However, once a marriage is sanctioned by the proper officials, it cannot be reversed or annulled in any way (another law). Therefore, heterosexual couples who want to enjoy the benefits of marriage (more protection under law) must disguise the female as a businessman well enough to convince local officials, who are making more and more thorough inspections. For some reason (up to you), changing the laws isn't even considered.
5. All men and women must shave a specific body part for each holiday (i.e. on the first day of spring all left arms are shaven.) For the rest of the year, no hair is shaven at all, giving each part a year to grow back. The holiday rush is at once a hell and a godsend for local barbers, as most citizens lack skill with a razor.
6. Everyone is convinced of the legitimacy of a fictional lost civilization, and pay well for artifacts thereof. The civilization really, truly is fictional, as explicitly stated by its inventor a century ago, but for some reason no one remembers that part of the stories. (Fun historical note, Atlantis was invented by Plato, who explicitly stated that it was a hypothetical dystopia in the early versions of the story. That does not stop people from spending millions of dollars looking for it at the bottom of the ocean today).
7. Placing a candle on the big rock by the harbor for a loved one is a common practice. It has been a common practice for so long that the rock has doubled in size due to the accumulation of melted wax. A few experts say it should be even bigger, but it's stayed relatively stable. While it is not technically illegal to steal melted wax to sell to candlemakers, surely no one would be so depraved as to desecrate a sacred place like that for money. Surely. Right?
8. Due to the relative perceptions of beauty and the relative availability of both minerals, copper and gold have their values switched on the island. Travel to and from the island is a lucrative business, but cannot remain stable forever.
9. If you wear a colored ribbon around your ankle, it is a passive political statement (the color corresponds to a particular cause). Wearing the same ribbon around your arm means you are willing to get into a fisticuffs or worse in support of your cause. Government officials pay neutral and unbiased individuals to wear dual-colored ribbons (opposing causes) around their waists and act as mediators to prevent violence. Non-citizens with diplomatic skills are ideal because they have lower stakes in policy.
10. Everyone knows that powdered keratin is a peerless aphrodisiac, but only when harvested from a specific creature. Accounts vary on which creature must be harvested, but many are rare and/or dangerous. Of course, powdered fingernail clippings of vagrants are made of the same substance and will taste the same to customers....

[genmoose]

11. Those that go missing must be confirmed dead, not presumed dead, before their mortal possessions can be passed on. This is no big deal for people that stay within civilization but for those that go missing away from home they are still legally presumed to be alive. The next of kin will pay handsomely if someone can gain proof of death.
12. A particularly devout group believes that if one were to die in debt to another, no matter how slight, that their soul would be forced to serve the creditors until the end of time. As a result, this group rarely assumes debt and never from someone outside the community. Rich members of this group will pay well to those that can track down long lost creditors and ‘return payment’.
13. Time travels in great cycles and if one is wise enough, one can predict the future by looking at the cycles of the past. People will pay well for tomes from ancient times but unscrupulous folks could also fabricate ‘old’ tomes to drive actions in the present.
14. Sneezing allows a small part of one’s soul to escape. In order to entice it back in, one must perform a kind or generous deed to prove that one is a good person. Given to a beggar is a common method. Some beggars have noticed their cups are much more full when they plant ragweed just a little upwind of where they panhandle.
15. Society believes that the social contract between an individual and government should be completely voluntary. Therefore those that adhere to the contract wear a specific pin, identifying themselves as a citizen and accepting the authority of the law as well as its protections. Those without the pins are non citizens and cannot be prosecuted for breaking the law, but likewise they have no rights to protection. A citizen could murder a non-citizen at will without consequence. A large market has developed for protection of non-citizens as well as pins that can be rapidly deployed and retracted depending on the situation.

[GorinichSerpant]

Once this list is complete, it would be fun to combine all of these quirks into a single setting. :smallbiggrin:

I would add to it, but sadly I can't think of anything interesting right now.

[dramatic flare]

16. One of my afterlives:
Maro is not a god in the traditional sense, though all the power and trappings of godhood come with the title. Maro is an evil, domination, nonviolent god who believes that control is the ultimate power. Followers of Maro are encouraged to dominate quietly, legally, or blackheartedly, but a dead body can do none of your work.
In this way, Maro is not a god, he is an ideal. All the followers of Maro end up in his manse, and trick, connive, and gamble away their influence over each other. Only Maro has no influence over him, but anyone can challenge Maro for the right to rule.
No one knows what Maro wants to do with Maro's power except Maro.

[GrayGriffin]

17. Offering food to anyone not related to you by blood, or who is not an elder of the community, is considered a gesture of courtship. Accepting the food is a sign of reciprocation. However, requesting food from another has no such connotations, but it does make the requester seem unable to take care of themselves. Secret black-market food stalls, run by the less desirable bachelors who have monopolies on prime gathering places/recipes, spring up quite quickly.

[Mnemophage]

18: One of the founding principles of this society is that it is descended from a race of peerless beauty, skill and poise, but through the dishonorable actions of a notable few, the entire people were cursed with hideous, limiting bodies. In truth, they're just like every other normal member of their species, but a pervasive self-loathing defines the culture, and every individual goes about completely masked and covered to hide their shame. Full-face masks are simply another part of the daily outfit.

19: A drug that the rest of the country considers morally degrading and economically reprehensible is treated as a valuable and worthwhile product within an ethnically- and economically-distinct province. There, it is traded and consumed openly, even prescribed by local healers to treat any number of diverse ailments. Of course, exports are forbidden, but that doesn't keep smugglers any less busy. Pressure is building between this province and the rest of the country, but for a number of economic and historic reasons, secession or expulsion simply isn't viable.

20: It has been a long-standing tradition for worshipers at the Painted Temple to wash their feet in the Pool of Sky before entering. Naturally, a town developed around the Temple, to take advantage of the proximity to the sacred space, and the groups of pilgrims who would travel there. Then the population exploded. The Temple is still as glorious as ever, but the Pool has become hideously polluted due to centuries of podiatric effluent. No permanent way of cleansing the Pool has yet been discovered, and the practice is too ancient to break. It's beginning to seep into the groundwater, and people are getting sick.

[Notreallyhere77]

I'm loving the new entries, and in particular, #14 made me laugh out loud. Good job.
@dramatic flare - I like your contribution in that it's colorful and unique, but what is the specific submarket or other money-making opportunity that this belief creates?

@menmophage - ditto for number 20. The other entries are spot-on. I might even steal the mass-mask-market idea for a game I'm about to run.

[Unseenmal]

21. Unlike the rest of the known world, The <Insert Name> City has no prisons. In fact, the very idea of prisons is seen as barbaric and cruel. What it does have is the largest number of mental hospitals in the world. Breaking the law is not seen as a violation of a codified rule-set but as a sickness of the mind. You can be committed for crimes as heinous as murder to something as lowly as mortified pride...whatever that means :smallsmile:. Doctors can be paid to commit a rival or release a loved one. Breakouts are as common as break-ins. Impersonation of a doctor could be a lucrative business. Until you are found out, that is.

22. No one goes outside anymore. At least, no one with half a brain. Why would you? It's dangerous out there. That is unless you go out using your Proxy. Proxy's are fully functioning automatons (golems for the less sci-fi settings) that provide a completely interactive experience for the user without that pesky need to leave the home. All 5 senses can be experienced through your Proxy. The problem is that someone's figured out how to take control of other people's Proxy to use for evil or simply destroy them. On top of that, the Lifers have been touting the loss of humanity due to Proxy use. They have setup Proxy free zones and try to live like people of old. If you can't figure out how to make money with this one, then you just aren't trying. Proxy salesman working with the hackers. Security consultant. Etc.

[MrConsideration]

23. Due to a lack of building materials, many buildings and objects in this desert community are partially constructed from the bones of the dead, including armour and jewellery. Instruments are produced that rattle children's finger-bones together or bash tibia on pelvis to produce sound. Skulls are rendered into armoured masks for warfare. Combs are hewn from the bones of loved ones. Despite the revulsion this invites in foreigners. this society refuses to acknowledge that this could be construed as morbid or evil, and remains jovial in their efficient use of their ancestors.

24. To display caste-status an individual must wear a number of painful, heavy earrings corresponding to their caste. Those of higher authority struggle under the metaphorical and literal weight of their obligations. Those without earrings are mocked and derided in the street, and can claim no legal protection.

25. Choose a body-part. This society considers it shameful and repulsive......but sexually exciting. Foreigners who parade around with their body-part on display for all the world to see are greeted accordingly.

26. Descent is absolutely everything. Everybody in this society must carry around extensive proof of their genealogy stretching back to the first settlers of the area to have free-passage. Those who can't prove their ancestry are arrested on sight.

27. This city's ruling council is randomly selected by a construct, magical beast or machine. Some few believe that the process is not random at all, but part of an insidious intent, a byzantine conspiracy of staggering complexity on behalf of some unknown power.

28. This society is dominated by a pervasive fatalism due to their religious belief that all events are pre-ordained and free-will does not exist. Fortune-tellers abound, ranging from highly professional auguries to back-street future-pedlars. To not follow explicitly the path set out by any of these oracles is considered a rebellion against god, an impossible crime against the divine order.

[PersonMan]

Not seeing #27's market creation bit, but the options for #25 are cool. I mean, how better to set a scene than have the PCs accosted by a horde of merchants all peddling "right forearm wear" just outside of some desert city?

[Fire Lord Pi]

This is absolutely great! I'll be stealing most of these.

In return, I have a contribution.

29. A city contains two major races (with a 3:1 ratio). Those who are considered "citizens" recieve a trial by jurry. This jurry is composed of 7 members. 3 are citizens of the dominant race, 1 is a citizen of the lesser race and three others are included:

A slave (who brings the wisdom of one who knows obedience),
A child (who brings the innocence of youth; no one is allowed to manipulate the child, he just listens and gives his gut feeling),
And a foreign traveler (who has the wisdom of the world).

30.the city is ruled by an Earl who is effectively considered a god. Whenever he enters the city, EVERYTHING is decorated with the colour he chose to wear, except for the people because wearing his colour would e assuming equality with His Radiance. The Earl doesn't walk (he is carried on a litter), nor talk (he wishpers to a man who yells what he says), nor fight (he has a champion always accompany him). These assistants are called the Legs of the Earl, the Voice of the Earl, and the Arm of the Earl, respectively.
Additionally, no man can stand higher than the Earl. So if his litter is lowered and he chooses to walk everyone must sit or kneel beneath him.
Finally, he can bestow a sash of whatever colour he chooses, that can be worn by his subjects (on days when the Earl chooses the same colour). Wearing the sash offers the wearer a share in the respect and Radiance the Earl has.

(I have a lot for this one, because I used it in a campaign. It worked very well)

[Togath]

31: In this nation, there are no prisons. Instead, a convicted criminal serves as an unpaid laborer. In theory this labor is to the party they affected, but in cases where there is either no one remaining, or the crime can be considered to have affected part of the nation, rather than specific party, they can be sold off to the highest bidder for their services.
The practice does produce a large profit, and the affected party can choose to forgo accepting the labor, to have the criminal sold off by the nation, with some(some) of the profits going to the victim.
Unfortunately, these practices are not looked upon as nobles by all nations, some considering it nothing more than a slave trade, causing frequent political stress between the nations and others(especially as the nation's definition of "criminal" is rather open and vague[a pickpocket or shoplifter could end up in labor just as easily as a murderer], and they apply these laws regardless of the "criminal's" nationality)

[commander panda]

This is awesome! I'm stealing so many of these.

One of my own.

32. "adventuring" has become something of a fad in recent years among the board residents of a local pseudo-utopian city-state, much to the chagrin of every non-citizen for hundreds of miles around.
Wealthy members of this society will pay profesional adventurers to take them on guided raids of goblin "bandit camps" (not usually bandits.) "dangerous" dungeon crawls at "ancient and forgotten tombs" (thoroughly searched and safety tested, with secretly imported monsters.) and take them places to dish out some "vigilantly justice" on "heinous criminals."
Likewise, nonviolent non-citizens will also pay adventurers for protection from raiding partys.

[Notreallyhere77]

I just remembered I had another from a game I was in. I was playing one of my DM's homebrew races, and since it was his first campaign with this race, I was allowed to have some say in their culture. I came up with these:

33. To die on an empty stomach means to become a ghost, unable to reach a true afterlife, and to join the howling winds in eternal torment. Dying members of this culture will go out of their way to be fed as often as possible, and a pre-combat feast is a necessity.

34. Adults are only allowed to use or wear objects made from something they have killed personally. Until they kill something, they are considered children no matter how old they are, and the materials of the objects they can use are limited to organics. Children were allowed to use any material they wanted, but had diminished rights and no legal clout.

However, my character was lost in a city (the only city in the world, and a city to which my race was not native) where there weren't so many things to kill (legally, at any rate), and my weapons, made of bone and horn, needed a serious upgrade. One of the other PCs, who became my character's best friend, guided me through the process of forging his first metal blade. After some debate, it was determined that after leaving the metal in a fire for hours, beating it over and over with a hammer, repeating the process until the metal was in an unrecognizable shape, and finally drowning it, the iron was dead, and I had killed it, and was thus allowed to use it. Had the campaign continued beyond 2 sessions, I would have brought the secrets of killing metal back to my people, and they would have become very good customers to any metal vendors.

[Taet]

35. These people of all one race like to be equal. They always have and it is alignment style Good. :smallsmile: Right now though there is a fashion that wants everyone to be equal height too. Short people wear high heels. Tall people choose to walk in gutters and bow their heads down when talking to shorter people. Snobby short people sit on expensive reference books. Lower class short people sit on cheap magazines. Snobby tall people carry short chairs with them. Lower class tall people kneel at the table instead. Tall people are starting to be very annoyed. :smallannoyed:

The party is probably not of equal heights. Do they bring the magic of shrink item? Can they work for the political group that wants to challenge the equal heights fashion? or make it into a law? How does the culture react to the first person it meets from a different size category?

36. This village has a proud tradition of being the very best scouts. They are all scouts because they are all very farsighted. Badly. Anything standing close enough to touch is a blur. They can see four times as far as normal people of their race but then come home to the wrong house and never notice as long as the body count was right. :smalleek: They cook with very long iron sticks to hold the pots far enough away to see the fire. They judge the health of horses by touch. They learn to read but never use the skill because setting up a board and writing letters two feet tall is a waste of time and space.

The party comes there to hire one for their army or wilderness trip or flight guide. Do they invent a new way for people to get around the problems? Are they hired for the yearly close up work of mending and writing? Would the villagers even take a cure when somebody found one?

[ReaderAt2046]

Not seeing #27's market creation bit, but the options for #25 are cool. I mean, how better to set a scene than have the PCs accosted by a horde of merchants all peddling "right forearm wear" just outside of some desert city?

This is actually one of the more interesting quirks of Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive book series. Followers of the Vorin religion (the main human religion in that setting), consider a woman's left hand, or "safehand", to be inappropriate for public display. All respectable women wear a glove over that hand or have a longer left sleeve that buttons up and covers the safehand. To wear two short sleeves in public signals that you're a prostitute trawling for clients.

Also, a contribution:

# 37: To the people of this culture, deliberately cutting one's hair is a profoundly shameful and degrading act. For hair to naturally fall out, however, has no such connotations, and as such potions that cause baldness would be highly valued in this culture's black market as a means of getting rid of obnoxiously long hair.

[Taet]

38. Children wear no clothes until they walk and talk and ask for them. Ever. In any weather. :smalleek: The few who do not die are very strong in all weathers. Some children do not ask for clothes before they go through puberty. Some never do and walk around naked all life long. :smallsigh: The new religion argument goes around whether or not giving a child a blanket counts as clothing. They argue about the difference between on and over and around. They argue about knots and buttons and pins. :smallyuk:

The party already knows that this large culture says that foreigners are children and that every area has its own simple way of proving a person is not a child. This is the time when the weird player wraps a child in ways the religion can accept. Or brings in a new way to shut a diaper that the religion has not banned yet. Or invents the persistent spell Clean Baby and/or Horse Poo Off the Streets.

39. In this machine age vegetarian land the thinkers are trying to end all cruelty. They are trying to pass laws that owning a work animal and caring for it and selling it outside the land to be butchered is still immoral. Rich ones even buy animals that are only good for meat and giving them a peaceful old age. Servants get a starving wage but they are free to leave and find a different starving wage. Radicals say that someone can choose to give themselves for meat and that is the only ethical meat. :smallconfused:

The party hopefully does not show up wearing leather armor without a very good and testable excuse that it was not made in cruelty. Or owing pay to followers. Or asking for meat at a rad noble's banquet. The correct and formal reply is to ask who is offering to give the meat.

40. Fighting on the land is an act of war and the state will put you to death for it on the spot. But the sea is the enemy of all that breathes and so all casual fighting takes place where any fighter has the chance to drown. Over time the idea of settling arguments on the water led to all governments, lawyers, fighters, merchants doing business on boats. Inland towns even dug and flooded a deep pool to devote that ground to the idea of Law. Every day someone who grasps for too much is thrown into the pond. :smallamused:

It may surprise the party that nobody in the culture knows how to swim. People do not climb out of the pond of law once they are thrown in. :smalleek: Are all of those big metal ankle bracelets of office solid as they look?

[Mono Vertigo]

41. Long ago, the cycle of season was much longer (blame the gods or a wizard): one could wait one to five years before winter came, and winter itself lasted an average of 6 months.
The people we're talking about also breeds an unusual kind of cattle, which can hibernate and survive any winter without fuss, but only when adult. The young all die very quickly from the cold and diseases. The adults also live long, and have numerous young in their lives. Hence, the rational decision was to slaughter all the young at the first sign of winter, as not to waste the meat, and smoke/salt/dry it; enough animals would reach maturity during the warmer seasons anyway.
Hence, the offer for the meat of young animals is much higher that the one for adults.
Thing is, the cycle of seasons has since shortened and stabilized. Still, whenever the weather becomes colder, many young animals are slaughtered, and their meat is temporarily used as currency until the good weather comes back.
Using normal currency during that time is considered rude. Also, savvy merchants can trade the (proportionally much rarer) meat of adult animals, like mutton/beef/pork/etc, in exchange for thrice their weight in delicious durable snacks.
Economic shenanigans to be expected if a weather-controlling wizard enters that country.

[Doorhandle]

42. Jousting, rather than being part of chivalry is equivalent to an honorable duel to the death; It's a proclamation that "I refuse to live in a world where my opponent gets his way."
As such, it is conducted without armor, often with targets painted onto the opposing parties tabards or bare chests. As even with this aid knights can miss, joust are to continue until one or both opponents are incapable of fighting back: occasionally leading a joust to last for hours.

As a result, jousting lances and horses are often sold with coffins, with morgues and jousting fields located right next to each-other, and all witnesses to a joust dressed in morning clothes. While particularly wealthy (or wise) clients could buy a scroll of resurrection as part of the deal, such and act is seen so contrary to the point that most clerics (and many of the jousters) refuse to resurrect anyone who has died via joust. This has still lead to a thriving black market on the relevant scrolls, especially reincarnation: coming back as a gnoll almost guaranteed escape from justice in this way, at the cost of humiliation.

Oddly enough, striking the horse and not the rider instead is still seen as dishonorable; but than again, what did the horse do to deserve such ire?

[Metahuman1]

43 is really a set up to add extra comedy to 44.


43: There is a warrior society (the adult men are all pretty much built like Hercules or Sigfried, the Women all pretty much built like Valykery's and Amazons. Tall and very well muscled, in the women's case, usually quite busty, in the mens, quite well packaged. They indulge combat with weapons and armor only as a necessity when dealing with other cultures, because needing weapons is a sign of weakness. Inspite of this, the culture is very jovial, fun loving, and prioritizing enjoying one self highly, more so when enjoying your self doesn't involve harming others with out very good cause (cause it made me feel better is not good cause.)

44: Said Culture has Joint Ruler-ship were the heir's to the thrown are already married to one another (no, no incest, if they have multiple kids, your not technically in line for the thrown until your an adult and married, and then you take place based on age.). The rulers who sit on the thrown are endowed with fantastic knowledge and intellectual prowess and empathy and wisdom form an ancient ritual. The catch is that said Rulership Ritual siphons Intellect from there populace. Meaning there surrounded by good natured air heads, well meaning idiots, and nicely intentioned ditz's. Who love to party hard, and utterly excel at steam rolling opponents in a fight.

[calam]

45.Asking for anything in public is considered a selfish act to the point that it's considered rude to ask for a menu! In order to circumvent that people wear strings of beads or other charms that symbolize their requests and wait around to be given what they want. For example if someone from that culture wanted to buy an ax they would wear a necklace with an iron ax on it and wait to be given their ax. People here will pay a lot for charms they don't own as well as exotic materials for obscure requests.

46.This city is known for the importance they put on their ancestors. Rich families use magic to keep their ancestors' ghosts on the material plane for continued leadership. poorer families save for speak with dead spells and all bodies must be preserved as long as possible. Anything that allows bodies to be preserved longer or to make contact with the departed is of high demand.

47.In this culture and ritual combat is considered the proper way to settle major disputes but the duel requires a weapon made of the bones of your ancestors to be used for the final blow. Without one the duels is considered dishonorable if not grounds for forfeit. Scavengers are hired to find and verify the bones of long dead ancestors for the battle as it is considered more honorable to use older bones.

[Doorhandle]

48. A legendary king once had chains and manacles built into his throne, crown, and clothing: as he viewed rulership as a burden, the weight on his shoulders reminding him of the weight of his responsibility. By the modern period however, the rich and powerful have missed the point, and now wear richly-adorned, gem-encrusted chains as marks of office.

In addition to the lucrative market in golden manacles, such adornments have made regular chains unbecoming for any criminal who is not also noble, and as such various replacements are also a growing market in the area.

49. The culture considers all killing, even that of animals, wrong... but does not think the same of eating meat. Thus, one can make a decent living finding animals that have died of natural causes and passing them up to be cooked. Likewise, cattle farming is still popular, but all such industries are small-scale supplements to other works, due to the necessity of waiting for the animals to grow old and die. Unscrupulous farmers have been known to keep such animals in bad conditions so they die faster, however...

[Notreallyhere77]

I am ecstatic at all of the replies here! Sorry I've been out, I just got a new job.
Let's see if I can come up with a couple more.

50. (this is one I'll be using for my campaign, but I want to surprise my players with it rather than tell them in advance.) The Haruspex is a very popular figure, and is visited by many who wish to see their future foretold. There are two fees. The second one is optional, but the first must be paid in advance. See, the haruspex practices haruspicy, the prediction of the future through the reading of entrails. Humanoid entrails. Specifically, the entrails of your friend right there. He can tell the future of your whole party just from one member's intestines and such. The first fee is the body to be dissected, and it has to be one of you. The second fee includes diamond dust for bringing the focus of the divination back to life, plus the price of the magic to do so. Many wealthy businessmen, nobles, and high-ranking clergy find this price well worth it, but the process of being dissected is painful and few go through it voluntarily without severe coercion. The Haruspex does not adhere to any religion, and so his services are available to all, but the owner of a nearby diamond mine has the best situation of all, seconded by his well-paid diamond grinders.

51. It is well known that bad luck is contagious - one ill omen for one person can bring doom to a whole village if left unchecked. But it is also known that some cursed people attract bad luck, and can suck all the bad luck out of a community through physical contact, leaving only good fortune in their wake (like a reverse scapegoat). Some people going through hard times, especially when surrounded by people doing well in comparison, decide that they are members of the cursed bad luck magnets and wear signs to advertise the fact, and visit other villages, walk through every street, touch each person, and leave as soon as possible, presumably to find a terrible fate (resulting from the combined misfortune of an entire village) once gone. Of course, these brave martyrs are paid well by grateful citizens, so some less ethical folk will claim to be cursed and go through the motions for some extra cash. Then again, for a cursed one to visit the same village twice invites death...