Table of Contents
- Arts & Entertainment
- Social Structure & Organization
- Daily Life & Customs
- Food Culture & Dining
- Education & Knowledge
- Ethics, Values & Law
- Fashion & Appearance
- Language & Communication
- Social Interactions
- Religion & Philosophy
- Magic & Society
- Hospitality & Guest Relations
Arts & Entertainment
What is the status of the various arts in society?
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How are artists viewed?
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Are artists considered to be low or high class?
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Who supports the arts?
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Are there non-human races who tend to be naturally talented artists?
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How does this affect the human practitioners of those arts?
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Which arts are most highly valued and why?
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Are there permanent theatres or concert halls?
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Who owns and runs performance venues?
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Are there travelling troupes of performers?
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What do people at various levels of society do for fun?
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What sports or pastimes are common?
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Which pastimes require skill, money, or ample leisure time?
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What games are commonly known?
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What games are common among everyone, and which are limited to the peasantry or to the nobility?
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Are any games or pastimes illegal?
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Do non-human races have their own games and leisure pastimes?
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How do non-human hobbies and games differ from human games?
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Can magic be used in the arts, and if so, how?
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How do “normal” artists feel about artists who use magic?
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Social Structure & Organization
What are the easiest and most common ways to advance in status?
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Can one attain higher status by amassing more money, marrying well, getting the ruler’s favour?
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How much resistance is there to someone advancing in social status?
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What are the various ranks and titles and proper forms of address for the aristocracy and nobility?
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What is the proper means to addressing peers, social betters, or social inferiors?
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Which occupations are the most respected? Why?
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Which professions are the most looked down upon? Why?
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How many levels are there in this society?
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How firm are the divisions between the levels of society?
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Is it possible to move between the levels of society?
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How difficult is it to rise or fall from one social level to another?
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How much social mobility is there?
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How much social mobility do people think there is?
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What is the status accorded to magicians in society?
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Daily Life & Customs
How do people feel about foreigners?
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How do people feel about non-humans?
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How ready are people to accept different ideas?
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How cosmopolitan is the average person?
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What would it take for a person born in the lower class to advance to the middle class or beyond?
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What things are considered luxuries?
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What do people in general look like?
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Who would stand out in a crowd?
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How do people cope with various disasters — fire, flood, volcanic eruption, plague?
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What kinds of people are likely to face prejudice?
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Is this discrimination institutionalized or is it mostly a matter of public attitude?
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Which days are holidays or festival times?
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What do the holidays and festivals celebrate?
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Are there holidays that are only celebrated in particular countries, cities, or regions?
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Food Culture & Dining
What foods are staples and commonly eaten every day?
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What foods are considered peasant food?
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What foods are rare?
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What foods are normally cooked and which are eaten raw?
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What is the food like?
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What dishes are considered to be holiday food?
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What foods and drinks are associated with particular holidays and events or times of the year?
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How many meals are considered normal in a day?
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When are meals served?
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Which meals are substantial, and which are light?
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Are certain foods reserved mainly for a particular meal?
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Do people tend to like highly spiced food?
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When food is limited in supply, who gets first dibs?
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What things are never eaten? Why?
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What foods do non-humans like, and how do these differ from those favoured by humans?
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Are some foods poisonous or distasteful to one species that are delicacies or necessary to another?
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Are any classes of society limited in what foods they may eat?
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Do special circumstances (such as pregnancy) ever restrict diet?
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Do religions have any beliefs about food and diet?
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Who dines together and who always dines separately?
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Do men and women, parents and children, servants and masters eat together?
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How is social status displayed at the table?
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Are special dining customs observed on certain holidays or for certain events?
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What distinguishes a formal or high-court dinner from an ordinary meal, besides quantity and variety of food?
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How do formal manners differ from everyday ones?
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What eating utensils are used, if any?
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Have utensils developed in the culture or been imported?
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What is the order of a typical upper-class meal?
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What shape are tables and eating areas?
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Where is the place of honour for a guest?
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Where do important members of the household sit?
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Are special arrangements necessary for entertaining guests of different races or species?
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How do the eating customs of different races reflect their cultures and biology?
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Education & Knowledge
How much does it cost to get various levels of education?
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What education is available, and where?
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Are there schoolhouses in every town, or do ordinary people have to travel if they want to be educated?
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Are there universities? Private tutors?
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What is the literacy level in the general population?
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Is literacy considered a useful or necessary skill for nobility, or something only scribes, clerks, or servants need?
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What areas are considered absolutely necessary knowledge for a courtier?
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Which areas of education are nice but not necessary?
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What areas of knowledge would be slightly embarrassing if anyone found out about them?
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How respected are teachers and scholars?
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Who supports educators?
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Are there anti-intellectual groups?
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Is education legally restricted in any way?
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Are there people for whom education is illegal?
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Are philosophers and theologians considered academics?
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How much influence do the theories of philosophers and theologians have on the way people actually behave?
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Ethics, Values & Law
What will people swear a binding oath by?
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What do people use as curse words?
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When and why are curse words used?
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What are the most desired and most valuable things in this society?
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Why is the most valued item so desired?
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Do different races value different things?
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Is there a race or culture for whom non-material things (information, time, spiritual enlightenment) are the valuable things?
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If a people values immaterial things, how did they get that way?
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What things are considered to be normal and acceptable in this society that might be considered abnormal or unacceptable by ours?
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What things are considered shocking in this society?
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What are the reactions of ordinary people when someone does one of these shocking things?
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What are the acceptable limits to honour or honesty in society?
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Is it possible to get out of a binding oath?
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Are white lies socially acceptable?
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What are the attitudes toward ownership?
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What constitutes theft, and what can be stolen with few repercussions?
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Are thieves organized in a guild, licensed by law, or freelance?
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Who is considered to be a citizen, with the rights and privileges thereof?
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What are the rights and privileges of citizens?
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What responsibilities do citizens bear?
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Can citizenship be revoked?
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Are there certain groups of people who have fewer legal rights or less recourse than full citizens?
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Why do those people have fewer rights than others?
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What are the most controversial subjects in this culture?
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What things can you easily start a friendly argument about in any bar?
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What things will automatically start an unfriendly argument?
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What are the social taboos?
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What things are simply “not done”?
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What things are never talked about?
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What would happen if someone did something socially unacceptable?
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How do social taboos vary for different races and groups of people?
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What are the biggest social faux pas?
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What are considered to be faux pas?
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What subjects or actions cause embarrassment or discomfort?
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What are the society’s mores regarding courtship, marriage, and family?
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Is marriage primarily a civil or a religious institution?
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Why are people usually married?
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What are the standards of beauty for people?
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What are the standards of beauty for paintings and sculpture?
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What are the standards of beauty for clothes and furniture?
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What kind of ideal life do people aspire to?
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What kinds of people are the rebels, outcasts, and misfits of this society?
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How does society deal with them?
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Who are the arbiters of ethics (as opposed to law)?
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How did they become the arbiters?
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Fashion & Appearance
What do people wear?
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How expensive is clothing?
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Can the material be produced locally, or must some or all of it be imported?
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Are certain clothes customary for certain occupations?
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How much variation is allowed?
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Is it quality or style which is most important?
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How frequently does style and fashion change?
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Who sets the trends?
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Are the dyes for certain colours rare, making cloth of that colour more expensive or reserved for high-status people?
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Are there sumptuary laws defining who may wear what?
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What are the penalties for dressing above or below one’s station?
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Who decides when changes are needed to such sumptuary laws?
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How often are sumptuary laws adjusted?
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How many changes of clothes can a normal person afford? A noble person?
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How often do people change their clothes?
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How often do people wash their clothes?
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What are the current fashions in clothes? In hats? Jewelry? Shoes?
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Do fashions differ for humans and non-humans?
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Do they differ from country to country or from ethnicity to ethnicity?
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What styles are considered tacky and vulgar?
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What types of decorations and accessories are common?
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What colours and combinations of colours are thought to look good together, or to clash?
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Do opinions on colours vary from race to race?
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What physical features and characteristics are currently fashionable?
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How do trends in physical beauty vary for non-humans?
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Language & Communication
Are some or all people bilingual?
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Is there a common second language many people know?
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Are there secret languages or codes known only by priests, soldiers, guild members?
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If there are secret languages, why were they developed?
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Are secret languages fully functional (they can express anything one could normally express in language) or are they limited to a certain scope?
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What are the variations in speech patterns, syntax, and slang from one social class to another?
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Are there variations in speech patterns from one occupation to another?
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Are there regional variations in speech?
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From what areas do local slang phrases come?
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What kinds of colourful turns of phrase do people use?
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For what things would a local language have many specific words to indicate fine differences?
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What do the people in this culture consider important enough to name?
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How close do people stand to one another when speaking?
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Does personal space differ from place to place?
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How do people with different ideas of personal space react to one another?
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Social Interactions
Are gestures and body language in this society generally subtle?
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Do people talk with their hands, or is that considered vulgar?
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What gestures are insulting?
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What do the insulting gestures mean?
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Do some gestures differ in meaning depending on the culture or time?
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How do overall gestures and body language differ between countries?
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Are there things that don’t matter in one area that are mortal insults in another?
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What are the different ways of showing respect to another?
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To whom is one expected to show respect?
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What are the rules of precedence?
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Who gets to go through doors first? Who gets introduced first in a social setting?
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Do these rules differ in a formal setting?
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Is there a distinction between formal good manners and informal, everyday manners?
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When and where are people expected to be on their best behaviour?
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How important are good manners in this society?
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How do good manners differ from race to race?
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How to people react when someone has just been, by their standards, rude?
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Are people shocked when an outsider learns their manners? Are they patronizing, condescending, or supportive?
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How do people greet one another and how did this greeting originate?
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Is there a special i-am-not-armed gesture for wizards or others with dangerous abilities?
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Is there a difference between the greeting offered to an equal and that offered to a superior or inferior?
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Are there different greetings offered to men or women? Humans and a non-human?
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Is there a way of changing a greeting gesture to make it insulting?
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When meeting someone for the first time, how are they greeted?
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Does this greeting differ if one already knows the person?
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If you see someone you know on the far side of the street, how do you acknowledge them?
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How are two people who have not met before introduced to one another?
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What is the order of precedence when there are several people of differing sex, social status, or race present who must all be introduced to one another?
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Are there people or beings who are never introduced to one another?
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Are true names significant, and if so, under what circumstances would a person be told another’s true name?
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Are there customs involving the way in which someone is named when being introduced?
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Religion & Philosophy
How do various religions view non-believers?
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How do the various religions view foreigners? Non-humans?
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Which religions support the government, and which are more interested in ordinary people?
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Is there a difference between miracles and magic?
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If there is a difference, how are they distinguished?
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Where does religion fit into this society?
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Is there a state church?
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Is freedom of religion normal?
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Do people generally think of the temples and churches as parasites, or as useful parts of society?
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If there are actual, demonstrable gods, what part does faith play in their worship?
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What are the various religious rites like, and why?
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What offerings are considered good?
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Are people supposed to pick one or more gods to worship and ignore the others, or do most people pray to whomever is most likely to grant results in their situation?
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How do people decide which god to worship or which temple to be affiliated with?
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What part do the various religions and philosophies play in public and private life?
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Are priests or philosophers full-time occupations, or do they need day jobs?
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If they are full-time, who supports them?
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Magic & Society
How do various religions view magic?
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Do any religions forbid magic or require it? And if so, what’s their reasoning?
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Do any require or forbid priests to practise magic?
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How do magicians feel about non-magical people?
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Is there a specific name for those who cannot do magic?
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Are spells fast enough to be useful in hand-to-hand combat, or is magic useful only for long, slow things?
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Are there magical weapons available?
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Can magic be used in warfare? In what ways?
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How has the presence of magic affected weapons technology?
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Do you have to do anything special to armour, weapons, walls, &c. to make them better able to resist spells?
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Can ordinary objects be enchanted to make them extremely lethal or will this work properly only on things that are already weapons?
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Can ordinary objects be enchanted to make them (or their user) much, much better at whatever they do?
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How common and useful are such enchanted objects?
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Is a magician’s lifetime normally longer or shorter than average? Why?
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How does a magician tap magical power?
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Does becoming a magician require some rite of passage or does it just happen naturally?
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Is magic a result of study or just part of growing up?
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Are there things (such as magical staves, wands, familiars, and crystal balls) that are necessary or useful to have before casting spells?
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Where and how do wizards get these things?
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Are certain kinds of magic practised solely or chiefly by one sex or another? By one race or culture or another?
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Does a magician’s magical ability or power change over time?
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Can a magician use up all of their magic, thus ceasing to be a magician?
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What do an ex-magicians do with themselves?
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Can the ability to do magic be lost? How?
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Can the ability to do magic be forcibly taken away? How and by whom?
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What is the price magicians pay in order to be magicians?
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Is magic a profession, an art, or just a job?
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Hospitality & Guest Relations
Are there questions that must be asked or avoided when visiting someone?
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Are there topics that can only be raised by the host? By the guest?
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How seriously does the culture take the responsibilities of host and guest?
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What rules define when someone becomes a host or guest?
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What things are considered courteous to offer a guest: food, reading material, personal guards, attendants, music, entertainment?
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What is considered a courteous response to a host’s offer?
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Are there things offered that it is considered rude to accept? Rude to refuse? Rude to ask for?
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When a guest arrives, is food or drink offered immediately, after an interval, or only on request?
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Is there a particular food or drink that it is customary to offer a newly arrived guest?
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Is there a traditional food or drink given to a guest who is departing?
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How do the different customs of various countries and races interact and conflict?
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This cultural and social guide focuses on the beliefs, customs, social structures, and interpersonal dynamics that define different peoples and societies within your fantasy world. Use these answers to create rich, distinct cultures with their own values and ways of life.