Fwurg

[Brend]

This thread is for posting design ideas, inspiration, and discussion on:

Cultural Foundations

These are the cultural foundations of your world. They roughly describe the form of government, and broad cultural organisation of the communities on the world. Player have the freedom to interpret these in a way that fits their world.

These will not give economical benefits.

(Some arbitrary examples are: Religious, Democracy, Oligarchy, Autocracy, Federation, Empire, Caste System, Class System, Total Egalitarianism.)

Cultural Traits

These are the prominent culural qualities that set this culture apart from all the others. There are many differences between cultures, even those socially organized in the same way. These are the traits that are strongly embedded in the culture to the point of strongly influencing the political, economical and individual life; and not changing any time soon.

These give direct economical benefits and unlocks.

(Some arbitrary examples are: Nomadic, Militaristic, Ecological)

We have not yet determined the number of Cultural Foundations and Cultural Traits a world has, and will let this depend a bit on how well we can come up with these.

Feel free to simply describe your ideas for your world. We can always find a way to match it to the system!

(Do not worry about the details, implementation, or numbers you give. Those are subject to change anyway since we must balance them with the other things that are being designed.)

[Mercury]

Maybe also interesting to consider:

Caste System vs Class System vs Egalitarian

This determines social mobility of individuals within society. Caste systems are rigid, you are born and stay forever in a caste, making clear boundaries and ensuring rulers are trained explicitly to rule. Class systems segregate classes, but allow people to step over to other castes by gaining or losing wealth or power, privileging those who are more capable over those who don't. Egalitarian societies have no limit in mobility and anyone can become anything, but may miss out as those who would be great as they get lower rewards for their efforts.

Religious vs Atheistic vs Philosophy

Religion is a power structure that runs perpendicular to government, but with clear influence in the latter. Religion might take the form of worshipping a deity, but could easily be a philosophy that is followed to extremes. A religious society may have a church or powerful priests, while a philosophical society may have "speakers" for their philosophical belief system, spreading their ideology with equal fervour and true crusades. Atheistic nations may denounce all religious power and actively work to dismantle such movements. Note that multiple religions and philosophies may be competing too.

[Pixie]

Hedonistic maybe? As in happiness (and pleasure) of oneself and those around one as one of the most important aspects of life.

With resect to Mercury's suggestions: I like the Caste system/class system/egalitarian concept and how it can be used to describe a society. But in the religious/atheistic/philosopy concept, I do not really see the concrete difference between the pillars as described at the moment. To me it seems all three result in the same behaviour, just under a different name. Maybe 'globalized philosophy of life' vs 'pillarisation' vs 'Anything is fine, just keep it private' could be a good addition to describe a societies approach to religion better.

[Brend]

(The top post was editted to in accordance with what is described here; which is a summary of what Mercury and me discussed.)

After some discussion between Mercury and me, we concluded that it would be best to rework the idea of Cultural Traits. We really like the idea of having people make a bold declaration of "My world is a Caste-based Feudal Democracy!"

We think that such a declaration will help players by offering them some concrete ideas of what kinds of cultural and governmental foundations they can build on to define their own world. It will also help communicate to other players a little of what they can expect from your world, at least on a cultural and political level.

However, we do not want people to be constrained by this. This being a Star Wars-derived setting, things like a "Caste-based Feudal Democracy" are certainly a possibility. That might boil down to a new queen being voted into "office" every five years; or the leader of the world being chosen by his peers in the highest caste only and holding office for life. Players should remain free to design their world how they want.

So, we split the current cultural traits into two concepts: Cultural Foundations & Cultural Traits.

The idea behind this separation is to have a place for people to boldy declare their glorious Communist Empire. We want them to do so without feeling that there is another choice that gives them a better economical situation but that does not give them the kind of world they want to play. So we prevent any economical impact from Cultural Foundations, while giving Cultural Traits free reign.

Note 1: The Cultural Traits work under any kind of Cultural Foundation.

Note 2: Cultural Foundations are somewhat flexible in their interpretation, nor are there enough to describe every form of government or social organisation. That is not the point of the cultural foundations. The point is to have a basis from which players can more clearly describe how their world works.

[Brend]

I'm really interested in what other peoples' opinion is on these two concepts. (Since, in all honesty, they are not as clear-cut as I had hoped)

[Fedor]

I am trying to shoe horn two concepts into the cultural traits section, which I have not yet made generic

Slave holders- This society uses slaves as the bottom class, where there are slaves that work in mines, but also that run household tasks or educate children.
and
Traditionalism - The society places a large value on the right and proper way of things, the way things have always been done. Actions are based in precedent or else they are daring and outrageous.

I would initially put them under cultural traits and not foundations as they are more strongly embedded in culture than describing a form of government. That makes it somewhat clear-cut

[Elmer]

I like this idea. I can't exactly remember the previous idea of cultural stuff, but I remember that I didn't quite know what to do with it. With this separation of government and cultural 'highlights', I immediately see what my faction would look like:

Foundation: Class-based Consensual-Meritocracy (or simply Consensus): People are divided into classes according to their merit. The governing classes are the main deciders of the rules, the rest has to agree.

Culture: Xenophobic, Militaristic and self-sacrificial. Aliens are scary, we need weapons to protect ourself against the aliens and the individual is subordinate to the greater good.

[Pixie]

I like this idea too. Previously I had some trouble formulating how my faction would work and how that related to the important aspects of the society, but this separation makes it a lot simpler for me.
My faction would look something like this:

Foundation: (Functionally) Egalitarian Meritocracy: Anyone can become anything if they have the right talent and social competences for it. Decisions are made by the people occupying functions relevant to the topic and these people are accountable for their decisions and decision process. Decisions should be in the best interest of society.

Culture: Ecological, Hedonistic and Conscientious. Long term health and happiness of each and every individual is very important. A healthy environment is a precondition for health. Society is a collection of individuals who can be relied upon to support each other.

[Dragonmaster352]

Well since the idea seems to work and everyone is posting their idea for their world I thought I'd do the same.

Foundation: Caste-based military dictatorship. There are several different castes but ultimately, it is the military caste that rules all. Its leader, the dictator, is a high ranking military officer. Other castes include the labour caste, the merchant caste, the religious caste and the nobility caste.

Culture: Conscientious, Nationalistic and Totalitarian. Society is organised and efficient and every individual enjoys a high level of order. Castes work together to the benefit of all and thus the nation itself. There is no higher authority then the military caste, it is most obvious from several centuries of martial law without any war either internally or externally.