Fuck, I hate culture designers

[soggie]

I'm writing the cultural background for the deadlanders, which is a bunch of bandits living in the deadlands - a patch of hilly, muddy/marshy barrens stretching out for a hundred miles in all directions infested with outlandish creatures like bone drakes and saraza foxes (wolverine-like mutated foxes).

So I decided, hey, let's make them worship a god which they believe to have caused the plague apocalypse in order to teach humanity that showing compassion for the weak would only lead to extinction of mankind. All's fine and dandy, until I started writing the social order part.

While the creation of deadlanders are inspired by the Fremen of the Dune universe (bone drakes as pets, worships suffering, infanticide, brutal martial training, etc), I decided that plagiarism is evil and gave them a matriachal society. Brilliant right? While men far outnumber women, it is the women who chooses mates and the men have to talk to the women in a highly formal variant of their local tongue, always referring to themselves as "your humble servant".

That should make them unique! That should be the glowing difference between them and the Fremen! Hell, I feel like a genius on the same level as Frank Herbert, until I remembered something.

Drows.



PS: Fuck it. You don't write for 2 hours only to discard everything and start from scratch again. Here's the detailed article.

 

[Catbert]

In my humble opinion, the most memorable fictional worlds were designed with the purpose of conveying a certain feeling or presenting a piece of social, political or philosophical commentary. Their designers didn't set out to create "the most unique world ever". You sound like you're enumerating all the of possible tropes and picking the most "unique" combination for the race you're designing.

I humbly recommend that you use your artistic skills to express yourself rather than pursue this moot goal of designing the most unique race. What does "unique" mean in this context, anyway? Everything can be boiled down to a single word, if one wants to do so:

Fremen are noble savages with glowy eyes, who live in the desert and would really wish their planet had more water.

Or, you can discuss the underlying themes and messages that Herbert wanted to establish and present when he created the Fremen. There's a little more depth to them than what I just wrote.

In before <insert generic troll post about my summary being accurate and correct and Dune being shit and Herbert being a flaming furry faggot>.

 

[Angthoron]

I have to agree there - "original" doesn't necessarily mean "good" or "appropriate". For instance, with the given situation, are the women so incredibly badass that the men can't simply take them by force as might be expected in a PA setting? Or is this group so highly indoctrinated into their faith that they let women, the highest commodity for a man in a wasteland besides a gun and a meal, decide for them? By choosing to be original, you set yourself up for additional challenges - now you have to explain this phenomenon, unless you go for "the wizard did it" cop-out.

If you want to go with "tough women" line, check the way such societies generally functioned in history - what made them respected and feared, why they had the power that they had. You should base this on existing reality, not on other authors' vision of tough societies. If you can do it well, who cares it seems like the Drow? Besides, if it seems like the Drow too much, change some features of their mentality, social customs, whatever.

It's not important to create a unique race - it's important to create a functioning one. I once came up with a race of elves that were senseless carnivores that hunted on their prey by hanging off the trees upside down, at the right moment falling off the said tree headfirst and piercing the victim with their razor-sharp pointy ears. Unique? Possibly. Actually functioning? Hell no.

 

[JarlFrank]

OMG THERE ARE OTHER SOCIETIES WHO ARE MATRIARCHIAL SO ITZ NOT UNIQUE

So what? If you think this way, you'll never be able to do anything truly unique because every aspect of your culture has been either there in the real world or most probably already in another fantasy/scifi book/movie/game/P&Psetting.

Goals when designing a culture:
Make them interesting
Make them consistent
Make them logical considering where they live and what they do

If it's interesting and consistent, nobody will give a fuck that it's kinda like Drows.

 

[Catbert]

I suggest you read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, where he describes with fair credibility a society in which women have a lot of power over men simply because they are few and competition is fierce.

Heinlein considered further ramifications of this situation beyond merely stating "women rule here". For instance, he describes how a man could be very easily lynched for offending a woman. He presents the different ways people chose to marry in response to the scarcity of females and what a "family" means in this context. For instance consider the line marriage where a group of women is married to a group of men, who all share the burden of raising children and where joining another person into the marriage requires general consensus.

The most interesting point is that I feel that Heinlein chose this setting exactly because he wanted to discuss in a meaningful way the meaning of family, relationships and love, all recurring themes in his books.

 

[Angthoron]

Yes, the important part is how you actually implement it. Make an interesting, consistent, working society, character, concept, and nobody will care if it reminds of something - because it will be good on its own merit.

Make it bad, on the other hand, and no matter how original, there won't be anyone to save you from criticism and even completely unwarranted comparing to something that might have nothing to do with what you actually wrote.

 

[visions]

Most experts today agree that there has probably never actually been a ruling matriarchy in human history, although the belief that some societies may have been ruled by a matriarchy in the past was a popular misconception in the 19th and also the 20th century.

I don't know whether you know this or consider it relevant regarding your setting, thought I'd point it out anyway.

 

[Catbert]

[citation needed]

 

[rpgcodexusername]

A blog by Splintered Core's Lead Designer, RUBEN Tan,

Jew Detected..........


only jokin,

keep up the good works

 

[JarlFrank]

Actually he's a Chink.

 

[rpgcodexusername]

close enough ,

 

[JarlFrank]

If he was a Jew I'd stop working for him immediately.

 

[Catbert]

You are working for Jews, one way or another...

All of you. They are everywhere.

 

[GarfunkeL]

As long as the men have some rights and women cannot just whip them to death on a whim, you haven't reached Drow territory, so no fear.

 

[soggie]

My idea of a matriachal society is based more off religion than anything else though. The origin of the idea is pretty straight-forward. Imagine a wasteland, and imagine a society where there are far more men than women (ratio of 4 to 1?). Now two things might happen - men would kill one another to claim the women, or the position of power would shift to the women had they utilized their limited numbers as a political tool.

In the lore, I toyed with the idea of women introducing the concept of religion (with advanced knowledge of technology, maybe...) and utilizing it to surround themselves with simple men in a society that encourages men to focus more on physical and martial development rather than intellectual advancement. Added with the irrefutable angle of a religious code, it won't be hard to cement one's position in a society.

I have a brief story about how this all came about, which involves escaped sex slaves who were taken in by a retired lorekeeper who through her teachings in history, gave them an idea of how to create a society that will ensure that womenkind would never be enslaved to men anymore.

It's still pretty raw and unfinished though. I'll sleep on it a few more days to see if everything fits.

 

[Jaesun]

Goals when designing a culture:
Make them interesting
Make them consistent
Make them logical considering where they live and what they do

Make them a reason that the player comes upon such society, and possibly has choice or consequence with said group. Otherwise just make them a generic culture and move on.

If it's interesting and consistent, nobody will give a fuck that it's kinda like Drows.

fixed.

 

[spectre]

I have a brief story about how this all came about, which involves escaped sex slaves who were taken in by a retired lorekeeper who through her teachings in history, gave them an idea of how to create a society that will ensure that womenkind would never be enslaved to men anymore.

All is swell, just rethink this bit. It reeks of banal shit boring we are teh suffragists fantasy.

 

[soggie]

Smells like Dune prequels eh? hehe.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Ask yourself why these cultural details matter. If the story you're telling will have the same meaning regardless of how these deadlanders live, then why go through the trouble of working out the details? Leave it to the reader's imagination, and focus on the things that actually give your story meaning.

One of the main reasons why SF/Fantasy is largely considered a joke genre is because SF/Fantasy authors get more interested in worldbuilding than storytelling and theme. Never invent cultural/historical details simply for the sake of inventing them. Instead describe the things that actually pertain to your story and will give your reader ideas to mull over.

For example, the mood machine in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep most vividly establishes the dreariness and despair of the world. As such, it was worth being invented by Dick and carefully described. I suspect however, that whether or not the Deadlanders are matriarchal of patriarchal will have little to no effect on the theme of your story. As such, go with whichever one you like more and don't worry about it.

 

[soggie]

Ask yourself why these cultural details matter. If the story you're telling will have the same meaning regardless of how these deadlanders live, then why go through the trouble of working out the details? Leave it to the reader's imagination, and focus on the things that actually give your story meaning.

One of the main reasons why SF/Fantasy is largely considered a joke genre is because SF/Fantasy authors get more interested in worldbuilding than storytelling and theme. Never invent cultural/historical details simply for the sake of inventing them. Instead describe the things that actually pertain to your story and will give your reader ideas to mull over.

For example, the mood machine in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep most vividly establishes the dreariness and despair of the world. As such, it was worth being invented by Dick and carefully described. I suspect however, that whether or not the Deadlanders are matriarchal of patriarchal will have little to no effect on the theme of your story. As such, go with whichever one you like more and don't worry about it.

I agree with your sense of economics.

The reason why I fleshed out the deadlanders was because the travel across the deadlands is one of the four ways to finish the third arch of the game. And joining the deadlanders is a possibility in the game, so it is very necessary to write down the cultural details so that the writers (well, for now it's just writer) know how to design the NPCs and quests.

 

[soggie]

I don' like this thread.

I thought we all love dramatic popcorns.

 

[JarlFrank]

I've read your blogpost and I like most of it, although some things could be improved.

Also, SMA, I do like adding lore for lore's sake (think Morrowind - the amount of lore not related to the main plot was amazing) because I'm a worldbuilder at heart. In a game, adding this lore is perfectly fine since you'll be doing non-mainquest related things anyway.

 

[Phelot]

From time to time I like to think up different cultures and detail how they live and act, what they're afraid of, what they live for, etc.

The first thing I consider is the setting and how it can be broken down. So for most settings, we have a time period, climate, any catastrophic events to consider (i.e. is my setting post-apoc?) scarcity of food, etc.

From there I try to think of different human habits in regards to civilization, religion, etc. and play around with them. For the most part, I can't fathom coming up with things totally alien, but then maybe that's just not necessary... if you want something alien then just leave it as a mystery. For example, let's say we have a sci-fi setting with a menacing "evil" master alien race bent on universal destruction. Why would such a race want such a thing? It's best to not even delve into it. They're a force that cannot be understood otherwise you risk retarded shit like we see in Mass Effect: An advanced alien race that speaks English and that wants to destroy everything. Sometimes less is more, as they say.

As for a wasteland tribal group, what you described sounds fine, but I would just like to say that most tribes from anywhere in the world typically ARE the same, they simply have different aesthetics.

As for some cool cultures that still have some "human" aspects, I gotta go back to the Marathon Universe.

One of the aliens you never meet speaks in metaphors only. The main antagonists, the Phfor have a log the player can find of them torturing a member of the metaphor spitting race for information. It was a long winded metaphor that the Phfor struggled to decipher. When they finally do, they realize that the tortured being was simply saying "I can't tell you, because the pain you're inflicting prevents me from thinking properly."

It was meant as a joke, but I thought it was a cool idea. Of course, I don't like made up cultures that just take one human aspect and exaggerate it, and then make it so every member of said culture adheres ONLY to that exaggeration... unless it makes sense logically i.e. the culture is extremely oppressive.

 

[soggie]

Can't say I agree 100% though. First, the deadlanders are not exactly tribals. They're people who live in the deadlands, and consider the place their holy land. They consider infidels travelling across the lands to be gifts bestowed by their god, as well as tests of their capabilities, which led them to raid these caravans and in turn be seen as bandits.

They are a force to be reckoned with if you manage to get on their good side. Who knows, you might even end up leading them and helping them spread their worship of Aladha around the lands.

 

[JarlFrank]

My approach is to think: "What kind of artstyle do I want my culture to have, how should their society be structured (including religion, social classes and, in fantasy-settings, how magic is treated) and in what kind of area should they live?"
I start with an archetypical description, then modify it by cutting out unrealistic or plain silly elements, and generally shaping it to make it more and more like a culture that could really exist. Only when it's completely consistent they're going to be implemented.

Consistency is the most important thing. If your cultures are not consistent, players will notice, and your whole setting will break down.