Freelance Traveller

Adding Cultural Flavor

by Les Hendrix

This article originally appeared in Cepheus Journal #015, but was not properly credited as a reprint with permission in the November/December 2024 issue of Freelance Traveller.

Why does everyone on this planet dress the same, and why do we get in fights at every bar?

The residents of any world add color to a campaign and can greatly impact the characters’ experience. The Cultural Characteristics of a population can also provide understanding of the motivations of individuals, organizations and governments. The sophonts of an Innovative and Tolerant world will be much more pleasant to interact with than those from a Stagnant and Violent culture.

Do you remember those farmers on Lancaster Prime? They all dressed the same and hadn’t entertained a new idea in three millennia. But they were honest and generous and fed us well. What about Grittydelphia? Even the kids tried to scam you, and if you looked at someone wrong, they might pull a knife on you. Those bar fights were worse than a death ball scrum, everyone hated everyone. But if you paid the right guy, they could get anything done, anytime, no questions asked.

These Cultural Characteristics were loosely adapted from the HEXACO model of personality structure, adding additional characteristics which may be apparent in a broader culture, and removing those which wouldn’t affect interaction with the players.

Cultural and Societal Characteristics

How do sophonts from another planet interact with the characters, with other groups and with each other? After making this up on the fly for years, I devised a list of a few characteristics which provide additional flavor for the general population at large. Cultural Characteristics give the GM a means to describe and understand the behaviors and motivation of cultures, subcultures and individuals from a given world or society. These characteristics further influence the Society’s behavior, motivations and outlook.

Societal Characteristics are shaped by the Cultural Characteristics of planets’ population and can be used as guideline for the governments’ behavior towards other worlds, and the population. Societal Characteristics include Unity, Productivity and Militarism.

Because Societal Characteristics are derived from the culture of its citizens, Culture Characteristics are determined first. The Culture Characteristic Chart provides the referee with descriptive labels to paint a broad picture of the planet’s inhabitants, or a given culture, and how they may interact with the players and their fellow residents.

At a planetary level, these Cultural Characteristics generally describe the dominant culture closest to the Starport, and probably the dominant world government. Numerous other subcultures probably exist on the same planet and can be developed by the GM as needed from these tables.

If a Society is not Unified, the referee should pick one or more Cultural Characteristics which describe why the sub­cultures are at odds with one another. The more extreme characteristics on the Culture Chart usually cause the most contention.

Because Social Science is not a hard science, this chart uses descriptors rather than scores to describe the cultural factors. What is the difference between a score of Tolerance 8 and Tolerance 11? Both are Tolerant compared with a Tolerance (or intolerance) of 2 or 3. Labels are used, rather than the score. This gives the referee leeway and recognizes that not all members of the culture will behave the same way. There are tolerant members of intolerant cultures and vice versa. A DM value is assigned to each descriptor, for the GM to utilize for reactions or other interactions with NPCs or societal organizations.

Cultural Characteristics

Six characteristics provide a reasonable amount of flavor to the population. The Cultural Characteristics described are Conformity, Honesty, Innovation, Responsibility, Peacefulness and Tolerance. The opposite would be Egotistical, Corrupt, Stagnant, Reckless, Aggressive and Intolerant.

Conformity

Are the citizens individualistic or more conformist? Do individuals enjoy more rights or does the collective good of the group supersede individual rights?

Honesty

Are the citizens honest, fair, and honorable or are they scheming, dishonest, greedy and generally corrupt?

Innovation

Is the population innovative, creative and open minded to new ideas, or are they unchanging, conventional and stagnant?

Responsibility

Are the inhabitants diligent and responsible with a long view or are they reckless, and irresponsible with only short­term planning, if any?

Peacefulness

Are citizens peaceful, agreeable and patient or are they stubborn, quarrelsome and possibly prone to violence?

Tolerance

Do the people accept others from outside their own group, including off-worlders, or are they xenophobic and suspicious or hostile towards “others”?

Roll 2d6 for each characteristic on Table 1 below. Use the modifiers to determine which descriptor describes the culture. These are not necessarily permanent, and the referee can adjust the characteristic up or down, either to fit their own campaign or if certain events change the culture.

Examples to adjust a characteristic: 1) A sudden influx of refugees from a war-ravaged planet nearby has lowered the population’s Tolerance and Peacefulness. 2) The government has recently changed to a Charismatic Dictator, and the population has become more Conformist but less Peaceful.

Culture Modifiers: These UWP values modify the 2d6 roll on the Culture Characteristics Table.

Law Level:

Law level represents not only the freedom to carry weapons, but also the degree to which the government controls or interferes with citizens’ lives. A lower law level means fewer regulations for individuals, organizations and corporations. The citizens of planets with Low Law Levels tend to be less conformist (­-) and more innovative (+).

Repressive Government (UWP 3,8,9 and possibly 1):

Certain governments are more restrictive and controlling. This modifies cultural behavior in several ways. Repressive and bureaucratic governments (and corporations) tend to be more conformist (+). These governments (ex-corporations) tend to be systematically corrupt or dishonest (-) and to discourage free thinking and innovation (-). They also reduce the efficiency of the population by imposing political direction over the economy.

Authoritarian governments (UWP A+):

Authoritarian regimes have the modifiers of a Repressive Government and further threaten or utilize violence against its citizens, reducing peacefulness (-). Authoritarian regimes often promote a culture of us versus them, reducing tolerance (-).

Class A Starport:

A first class starport provides the culture with access to commerce, other cultures and knowledge exchange. This is a boon to innovation, responsibility and tolerance (+). The starport will also model and provide economic incentive for a stellar normal peaceful behavior (+).

Hostile Habitat Worlds (HHW)

are worlds that require extraordinary resources to support the population, where humans will probably become extinct without technology. These include trade classes Asteroid, Desert, Fluid, Ice Capped, Non Agricultural, Vacuum and Water. The population of HHWs tend to be more responsible (+) and less tolerant (-).

Cultural Conformity

is the only cultural characteristic that influences other characteristics.It should be rolled first. A society that is more conformist will generally be less innovative (­) and more peaceful (+).

With these cultural descriptions, the referee can shape the interaction with NPC’s from port workers to patrons. Do the locals all dress the same? Is everyone looking for a bribe or trying to scam the players? Is cargo only loaded between 8 am and 10 am? Do the cargo loaders carefully place containers, or do they shove them where they fit? Are they belligerent when corrected or do they humbly apologize?

Do they make slurs against spacers, belters, farmers or other out groups? Do fights break out in every bar?

Societal Characteristics

Having painted a broad picture of a planetary culture, how does the world government interact with other governments or groups? Three simple characteristics describe the society: Unity, Productivity and Diplomacy. Used with the six Cultural Characteristics, this can provide background on the stability of a government, the economic impetus of the society and the world’s actions towards other governments.

Unity:

Do a majority of the citizens agree on the general direction of the government? If not, the world is divided into subcultures competing to direct the planet’s government and its economic and diplomatic relations with other worlds.

Productivity:

Are the citizens productive and competitive against other cultures or are they lackadaisical, expecting someone else to intervene and solve their problems?

Diplomacy:

Does the world accomplish goals through peaceful and diplomatic means, or does it project military and/or economic force, implied or actual, to achieve its goals?

Societal Modifiers: These Cultural Characteristics modify the roll on the Societal Characteristic Table.

Conformity:

Highly Conformist cultures are more likely to be unified. If the Culture is Conformist (10+) or Higher, DM +1. Individualistic (3-) or lower cultures use DM -1.

Responsibility:

Organized (10+) Cultures that make long term plans are more likely to be Unified and Productive. Cultures that are Irresponsible (3-) suffer a negative DM on their Diplomacy roll.

Peacefulness:

Cultures that are Patient (10+) tend to be more Unified and Diplomatic DM +1. Quarrelsome (3-) cultures suffer a negative DM -1 to the roll.

Innovative:

Enterprising (10+) Cultures are often more Productive DM +1. Unimaginative (3-) cultures are not innovative by nature DM -1,

Tolerant:

Hospitable (10+) Cultures improve a society’s Diplomatic roll DM +1. Intolerant (3-) cultures suffer a DM -1 on Diplomacy roll.

Honest:

Honest (10+) cultures are more Productive and better at Diplomacy DM +1 for both. Dishonest (3-) cultures suffer DM -1