This is a site where I publish tips for GMing and playing tabletop games, resources for GMs, original one-shots, campaign notes, homebrew details, and much more. There's over 250 guides, games, and articles as well as full campaign recaps and philosophy of gaming, so take a look around and get ready to step up your game!
Showing posts with label values. Show all posts
Showing posts with label values. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
The Core Values of Each Cultural Group in My Homebrew Setting
I recently did a series of guides to clans in my homebrew setting. It began as an effort to emulate the interesting details and complicated dynamics of a campaign I got to play in--my clans would have ideological perspectives and traditions, like my DM's groups. But as I wrote, I realized that in order to pick groups of people who would stand out amongst many in a rich culture, I needed to pick based on what the most central values of those groups were. By the end of that series, it turned out that the halfling guide was actually just a list of social movements (since halflings don't do formal organization), and that was basically just an expression of cultural values. I've spent years writing dozens of profiles on my homebrew societies, always driving at showing their core values, but never just directly saying it. It's time to rectify that. I honestly think that any DM should try to avoid my mistake--get to defining the cultural values of your homebrew groups early in your design so that you can use it as a framework to build on, and if you're a veteran DM who hasn't explicitly named at least a few values for each group, now is the time to start. With that spirit in mind, let's address the five most intently-held values of each culture in my homebrew setting, from most important to less important.
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