Cultural Mashups

[Sparky McDibben]

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!

[Wizard_Lizard]

Are these dnd cultures?

[Sparky McDibben]

Yup. Probably should have led with that, I suppose!

[Hugh Mann]

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.

[Man_Over_Game]

Demarchy- a form of democracy in which the rulers are randomly picked from a democratically elected pool of people.

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."

[Sparky McDibben]

Demarchy- a form of democracy in which the rulers are randomly picked from a democratically elected pool of people.

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.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Drow are a matriarchy
Dragonborn are communist
Humand could be whatever.
Also I think there is a list in the dmg somewhere.

[Sparky McDibben]

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!

[Hugh Mann]

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.

[Wizard_Lizard]

You could have a group devoted to knowledge.
They rely on other stronger groups to protect them.
Or maybe yhey live in isolation.

[White Blade]

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.

[Wizard_Lizard]

I think a pseudocracy could be fun.

[Sparky McDibben]

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!!!