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Thread: Cultural Mashups
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2019-05-09, 05:10 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2016
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Cultural Mashups
Hey all,
I need a whole bunch of cultural labels. Give me any number of descriptors appropriate to a culture or civilization (so, martial, imperial, matriarchal, arcane, etc).
I'm going to build something like the Shakespearan Insult Generator and mashup a whole bunch of cultural descriptors to see what I get.
I've been playing in my own analog of Western Europe for a while now, and it's gotten stale for me. I want to build something else, and I thought, "You know who I should ask? Literally everyone else who cares about this stuff!" While the Playground isn't literally everyone else who cares about this stuff, I figure this team is probably a representative sample thereof.
Thanks, y'all!
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2019-05-10, 03:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
- Location
- Somewhere over th rainbow
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2019-05-10, 08:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2016
- Gender
Re: Cultural Mashups
Yup. Probably should have led with that, I suppose!
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2019-05-10, 11:13 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2017
Re: Cultural Mashups
This wikipedia article has more labels than I even knew existed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._of_government
Highlights include:
Corporatocracy- ruled by corporations
Timocracy- ruled by the most honorable
Demarchy- a form of democracy in which the rulers are randomly picked from a democratically elected pool of people.
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2019-05-10, 01:26 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2018
- Location
- Between SEA and PDX.
- Gender
Re: Cultural Mashups
I can't help but think of humorous scenarios when that government tried to find the best way of being random, without any kind of possible favoritism or cheating.
"Alright everyone. Moment of truth. Now it's time to draw your stick from the hat, and determine who our lord and savior is for the next 5 years."
5th Edition Homebrewery
Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!
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2019-05-10, 02:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2016
- Gender
Re: Cultural Mashups
Actually, there's a great scene from an old Brian Jacques novel called The Long Patrol where the bad guys pick randomly whether they will raid inland or seaward. A plot point is that there's a way to rig the decision if the BBEG wants to go one way or another but needs the appearance of randomness to legitimize the decision.
That's one of the things I was hoping to capture with this.
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2019-05-10, 03:06 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
- Location
- Somewhere over th rainbow
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2019-05-10, 05:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2016
- Gender
Re: Cultural Mashups
There's a good list of the styles of government, but I'm looking for more than that.
So, I've started a sample list:
In addition to forms of government and economy, they might have a tradition and a unique feature:
Traditions:
Arcane Prowess
Martial Prowess
Theatre
Oral Storytelling
Piety
Civic Pride
Animal Prominence (Tigers are sacred, they ride velociraptors, or are really good with horses, etc).
Slave-Taking
Powerful Allies (like djinn or dragons)
Intrigue
Periodic Raiding
Unique Features:
Matriarchal
Randomized Decision-Making
Prominent Welfare State
Unique Environment
Unique Marital Customs
A Signature Weapon
Birth Rates Skewed to One Gender
Unique Religious Rites
Unique Arcane Tradition
Help me out, Playground!
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2019-05-10, 06:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2017
Re: Cultural Mashups
Here are some ideas:
Unique features:
-modernism- an optimistic philosophical idea that traditional methods are inadequate and that the world can be improved with practical experimentation and science. It also suggests that the highest ideals of a civilization is the ability to create and reshape the world around them
-post modernism- a cynical philosophy that suggests that there are no universal truths, knowledge shouldn’t be just taken at face value as there are biases inherent in everything, and that all forms of beauty/art is subjective
-metamodernism (aka post-post modernism)- a vague set of philosophical concepts that can best be described as a combination of modernism and post modernism. The core idea is that most ideas are very extreme, and the best path forward it to take ideas from conflicting points of view in order to create a more cohesive empathetic community.Last edited by Hugh Mann; 2019-05-10 at 06:59 PM.
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2019-05-12, 04:54 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
- Location
- Somewhere over th rainbow
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2019-05-12, 06:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2004
- Location
- Abilene, TX
- Gender
Re: Cultural Mashups
A Xenocracy would imply rule by foreigners, probably racial or extraplanar foreigners - Dragons, angels, devils, djinn but also aasimar, elves, or other long-lived races (humans among orcs!) would have an edge.
A Timocracy, rule by the most honorable, might be held strictly under the control of paladins (honestly IRL everyone would insist on this system of governance if it were possible) but it could be as simple as signet rings that only work if the user is good aligned.
Theocracies actually ruled by gods are a fantasy staple
Mage-rule might be basically "Magical Feudalism" if it's sorcerers or "Magical Technocracy" if it's wizards.
Thanotocracy, rule by the dead, would likely be a very common feature of any world where necromancy was effective and not actively deplored.
Complex caste systems could emerge from divination-oriented cultures, if that's an effective way of sorting people in advance (or even if it's not)
Geocracies where the mortals are ruled either by the land itself or its nature spirits.
Features:
Humanoids might experiment with non-human decision making processes, either through created creatures like golems or through summoning celestials to adjudicate important decisions without being ruled by them per se.
Feeblemind, Bestow Curse, or Mark of Justice would all allow for radically different punishment structures if they were readily available.
There might be "transhuman" cultures, where many races exist as a product of experimentation and not as a result of natural genetic diversity. Grafts, likewise, could add a fascinating dungeon-punk aesthetic to a culture if you wanted to.
Some cultures might have powerful magical artifacts that radically alter the possibilities of inhabitants - I had one elven city state with bells in it that made it impossible to engage in violence anywhere they were audible. Pools that awaken ancestral memories, monsters that trap their victims in the matrix, draconic sigils that render magic impossible, spaces that "reset" every [insert period of time] - the list goes on.Vincent Omnia Veritas
Bandwagon Leader of the Hinjo Fanclub
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2019-05-13, 03:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
- Location
- Somewhere over th rainbow
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2019-05-16, 11:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2016
- Gender
Re: Cultural Mashups
Hey guys,
I finally got this done!
An... 1d6 Economy 1d8 Government 2d8 With a Tradition of... 1d20 And a unique feature 1 Nomadic 1 Autocracy 2 Arcane Prowess 1 Matriarchal 2 Herdsmen 2 Democracy 3 Martial Prowess 2 Randomized Decision-Making 3 Plantation 3 Feudalism 4 Theatre/Music 3 Prominent Welfare State 4 Industrialized 4 Hierarchy 5 Oral Storytelling 4 Unique Environment 5 Agrarian 5 Magocracy 6 Piety 5 Unique Marital Custom 6 Extractive 6 Monarchy 7 Civic Pride 6 A Signature Weapon 7 Republic 8 Animal Prominence 7 Birth Rates Skewed to One Gender 8 Theocracy 9 Slave-Taking 8 Unique Religious Rite 10 Powerful Allies 9 Unique Arcane Tradition 11 Intrigue 10 Unique Information Technology 12 Periodic Raiding 11 Restricted Marriage 13 Free Press/Speech 12 Decadent Excess 14 Invention 13 Historic Enemy 15 Transhumanism 14 An Advanced Technology 16 Roll Twice 15 Significant Nonhuman Enclave 16 Same-sex Relationships Honored 17 Internal Division (Tribalism) 18 Society-Altering Artifact 19 Limited Class Mobility 20 Roll Twice
So with this you can have some fun coming up with crazy cultures. Make a matriarchal industrialized monarchy with a history of intrigue. How did that happen? Who knows! Go nuts and tell me what you think!!!Last edited by Sparky McDibben; 2019-05-16 at 11:55 AM.