TEXT: Contents
  What Is a Hard Boiled Idea™? B
  Where can I learn more? 
  B
  Cultures 
  1
  Cultural Norms 
  2
  Perspectives 3
  Building Cultures 3
  Degrees of Complexity 3
  Ability Scores 4
  Example: Different Ways of 
  Being Elven 
  5
  Skill Bonuses 
  6
  Vision 6
  Size 7
  Speed 
  7
  Languages 8
  Other Racial Features 
  and Powers 
  8
  An Extended Example: 
  Tribes of the Ape 
  9
  Randomizing 
  Cultures 12
  Tapping the Players’ 
  Brains 
  12
  Another Extended Example: 
  The Svartálfar 12
  Growing Beyond 
  Your Culture 
  13
  Outgrowing 
  Your Roots 
  13
  Changing When 
  You Change 
  13
  Building on a Culture 14
  Experiencing Culture 
  14
  
  What Is a Hard 
  Boiled Idea™?
  What’s a Hard Boiled Idea™? That’s 
  what happens when One Bad Egg gets 
  its hands on one particular concept and 
  cooks it up, hot, fresh, and kicking ass.  
  We’ll crack it open, scoop  it out, and 
  serve it to you with a side of maximized 
  potential.
  Where can I 
  learn more?
  You can learn more about the Shroud, 
  Worldseeds™, and more at our 
  website:
  www.onebadegg.com
  
  Hard Boiled™
  CULTURES
  Writing • Fred Hicks • Jonathan Walton
  Editing • Fred Hicks • Jonathan Walton
  Original Concepts• Simon Carryer
  Layout • Fred Hicks
  Art • Shaman’s Stockart• IStockPhoto.Com
  You can find the original idea by Simon Carryer at
  http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=7789
  You can find more of Simon’s work at 
  http://simoncarryer.googlepages.com/gameindex
  
  HArd BOiLEd™ CuLturES 
  ©2009 One Bad Egg, LLC
  Some images © by Shaman’s Stockart
  dragon Mask image courtesy of iStockPhoto.Com
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  1
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  SHAMAN’S StOCKArt
  Races in Dungeons & Dragons are good for laying down 
  the broad strokes of a character, but they often don’t 
  feel as “lived in” as the ethnicities we encounter in 
  everyday life. One potent reason for this is a general 
  lack of cultural complexity and diversity. D&D races 
  tend to be presented as monocultural societies—all 
  elves are the same the world over, and so on. 
  Various campaign settings—including the home-
  brew worlds of individual play groups—present some 
  elements of culture for D&D players to draw upon. 
  However, these are generally presented as “soft” 
  elements, narrative descriptions that are not reflected 
  in the game system, particularly in the advantages 
  that player races offer. Even when there are clear 
  mechanical choices presented within a single player 
  race—such as the options for dragonborn breath 
  weapons and the bonus power, feat, and skill given to 
  humans—these options are not presented as cultural 
  indicators of any kind. A dragonborn may have light-
  ning breath based on their Strength score, but those 
  choices tells us little about the character or their place 
  in dragonborn society. 
  But what if that choice had meaning? And what if 
  there were several different ways you could configure 
  every character’s racial traits, reflecting the relation-
  ship that character has with the various cultures, 
  factions, issues, interests, and personal decisions that 
  confront members of his race?
  In this brief guide, we aim to present a variety of 
  alternative options for adding cultural complexity 
  and diversity to the races present in your D&D game. 
  Since it’s impossible for us to know exactly what 
  cultural options your home campaign might need (Are 
  there dragonborn in your setting? We don’t know!), 
  we’ve chosen to focus on a few tools that we’ve found 
  useful in building cultures for our own campaigns. 
  We’ve included a number of examples of course, 
  but these are primarily intended to inspire your own 
  creativity, rather than to be implemented in your 
  home campaigns. When you finish reading this guide, 
  we hope you are immediately inspired to tweak a few 
  racial build options, perhaps to give a bit of mechan-
  ical punch to a flavorful NPC or faction.
  In our play experience, setting elements like culture 
  are often most strongly felt when they are represented 
  in the system, giving some teeth to otherwise purely 
  narrative elements. Whether you’re primarily a fan 
  of system or setting, the real jazz starts playing when 
  you add those two together and get a sum greater than 
  the parts. Consequently, setting creation and system 
  tweaking often go hand-in-hand in our campaigns, 
  because nothing jazzes up a new faction, a reoccurring 
  villain, or a dramatic character choice like a unique 
  feat or other new mechanic that indicates something 
  very cool is happening. Hard Boiled Cultures is a 
  guide to getting this jazz playing in your game quickly 
  and easily, using simple principles that can be applied 
  to whatever setting or combination of player races you 
  use in your home campaign.
  Cultures
  
  2
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  rACe In D&D
  the way d&d uses the word “race” and the 
  way we use it in daily life are quite different. 
  in the real world, being considered “white,” 
  “black,” “Asian,” or a member of any other 
  race is often determined both genetically 
  and socially (Are Latinos white? How black 
  is Barack Obama? Why does “Asian” imply 
  “South Asian” in Britain but “East Asian” in 
  the united States?). However, in d&d, there 
  is little uncertainly about whether a character 
  is a dragonborn or not. Only half-elves and 
  other mixed-race characters typically deal with 
  d&d’s version of “race” in a way that some-
  what resembles the issues and complexities 
  that many people face every day.
  However, it’s unlikely to be the case that 
  you’ll want as much diversity within d&d 
  races as you do within real life cultures and 
  ethnicities. Certainly, if most of the key char-
  acters in your campaign belong to one or two 
  player races, it probably makes sense to depict 
  those races as being very diverse. But in a 
  “classic” d&d setting, in which a large number 
  of player races interact, player races, including 
  humans, should not necessarily contain as 
  much cultural diversity as humans do in the 
  real world. Striving for that degree of cultural 
  complexity—especially since the number 
  of races encountered often increases over 
  the course of a campaign—could potentially 
  swamp your world with thousands of different 
  micro-cultures.
  Generally speaking, we find it most useful—
  though not unproblematic—to treat d&d 
  player races as the in-game equivalents of 
  large ethnic or cultural groups in the real 
  world. We recognize that, in the past, this 
  approach has led to controversies about 
  whether d&d races are thinly-disguised 
  ethnic stereotypes—noble savages, honor-
  obsessed “samurai,” mysterious foreigners, 
  etc. However, our hope is that, by creating 
  racial build options that allow for variation 
  and cultural diversity within a single player 
  race, we can diminish this aspect and even 
  allow players to address issues like racial and 
  cultural stereotypes through their interactions 
  with the rule system of the game.
  Cultural Norms
  Our approach to creating cultural differences is decep-
  tively simple.
  From an out-of-character design perspective, we’re 
  going to be doing some reverse engineering. In trying to 
  create cultural diversity within a single player race, we’ll 
  first examine the various racial traits that characters of a 
  specific race typically possess and speculate about what 
  cultural traditions gave rise to those traits. That’s how we 
  approach designing cultures from our vantage point as 
  players, using this reverse engineering process to “uncover” 
  surprising elements and options within racial identity that 
  weren’t evident before…
  … but that’s not how the characters will experience it. The 
  characters within the setting, at the end of the day, experi-
  ence the effects of our brainstorming in the opposite direc-
  tion. In the setting, similar to the real world, a variety of 
  different cultures developed within a single ethnic group 
  and, over time, cultural differences cemented themselves as 
  different racial trait options. As a result, certain individuals 
  or groups within a race developed different ways of being 
  human, or elven, or dragonborn. 
  But since we are D&D players, we’ll proceed with the 
  system front and center, and begin by approaching culture 
  backwards—looking at the racial stats and bonuses (the end 
  result) as hooks for the cultural influences that gave rise 
  to them. Remember, though, that while out-of-character 
  culture design doesn’t follow the same lines of cause and 
  effect that in-character “reality” does, it’s still important 
  to examine cultural design from both directions. Conse-
  quently, throughout the remainder of this guide, you’ll see 
  both approaches repeatedly used to derive cultural tradi-
  tions from different racial trait options or, working from 
  the other direction, to imagine cultural differences and to 
  construct complementary build options for a given  
  player race. 
  This brings us to the idea of cultural norms, modes of 
  behavior that are considered to be normal or traditional 
  for most members of a particular player race. Essentially, 
  norms are the rules by which the most numerous, the most 
  powerful, or the most well known members of a particular 
  culture operate. Individual characters will be forced to 
  position themselves in relation to these norms—deter-
  mining where they fit and don’t fit the expectations their 
  native society has for them—but in reacting to those norms, 
  they can also give rise to other, new cultures or subcultures 
  within their race that view the world in a different way.
  For the moment, just keep in mind that throughout the 
  
  3
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  next several sections we’ll be talking about how a 
  character interacts with the cultural norms of their 
  home community. We’ll also cover how those interac-
  tions affect the way in which that character expresses 
  being human—or an elf, dragonborn, tiefling, or what 
  have you—and what those interactions ultimately 
  mean for that character’s sheet.
  Perspectives
  For every cultural norm, there are four perspectives 
  that may be applied to help create cultural differences 
  within a race. These perspectives were originally 
  proposed by Simon Carryer as a method for gener-
  ating culturally rich NPCs in all sorts of roleplaying 
  games, but we have specifically implemented them 
  here with D&D in mind.
  Icon
  Perspective
  Details
  E
  embodies
  A cultural group or individual 
  might embody, enact, or 
  enforce a particular norm, 
  possibly even glorifying it as a 
  prime principle of life.
  T
  twists
  A cultural group or individual 
  might twist, alter, or avoid the 
  norm, creating dissent, splinter 
  sects, heresies, and under-
  ground conspiracies.
  B
  Breaks
  A cultural group or individual 
  might break the norm outright, 
  creating hypocrisy (if the 
  break goes unacknowledged), 
  bitter rivalries, nations in exile, 
  counter-cultures and more.
  C
  Changed-By
  A cultural group or individual 
  might be profoundly changed 
  by the cultural expectations 
  associated with this norm, for 
  better or worse.
  The process of combining cultural norms and 
  perspectives doesn’t have to be as simple as taking one 
  norm and pairing it with each of the four perspec-
  tives to produce four results. You could apply the 
  same perspective to the same norm several times and 
  produce different results each time—there’s often not 
  just one way to break the rules, as it were. 
  For example, if you decide that young dragonborn 
  warriors are expected to apprentice themselves to 
  older knights, one character might twist this norm by 
  apprenticing outside dragonborn society, to a tiefling 
  warlord, while another character, perhaps becoming a 
  warrior late in life, might apprentice to a younger, but 
  more accomplished dragonborn swordsman.
  The mechanical effects of applying these perspec-
  tives will be discussed below, along with several exam-
  ples of how this could work in practice.
  Building Cultures
  By now, you may have already figured out where 
  we’re going with this. For every race, take a few of its 
  racial traits and extrapolate the cultural norm that 
  those features express. Once you have determined a 
  norm, reexamine it through the four different perspec-
  tives we discussed earlier. Perhaps one perspective 
  is the “default,” expressing the norm itself. However, 
  you can also apply the other perspectives to the norm 
  and figure out different cultural variations that might 
  emerge as character interact with that norm. Finally, 
  on a system level, you can determine how those 
  cultural differences might be modeled as different 
  racial built options.
  All of that probably sounds a little too abstract. Fear 
  not! We’re about to dive into the specifics, by decon-
  structing what races are made of and how they can be 
  changed by various cultural influences.
  Degrees of Complexity
  As previously mentioned, the degree of cultural 
  complexity you might want to model through different 
  racial trait options is likely to vary considerably in 
  different situations. For example, if your setting is 
  composed entirely of humans—or humans and NPC 
  monsters—you might want to break down every single 
  human racial trait into a variety of options, since there 
  are no non-human races to provide additional diver-
  sity. However, if you’re playing in a setting in which 
  there are a number of different player races, you might 
  
  4
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  find it sufficient to create a few racial build options for 
  each player race.
  Generally speaking, there is a spectrum of options 
  available for making culture more or less complicated, 
  based on your needs:
  1. 
  Monoculture, each racial build is exactly the 
  same, as in most of the core 4E races;
  2. Some variation, as in the human and dragonborn 
  racial trait options, but with those traits tied to 
  cultural differences;
  3. Ethnic “splats,” where wood elves are culturally 
  distinct from ice elves, dark elves, eladrin, and 
  sea elves, while those all exist as optional builds 
  under a single elven race;
  4. Mix and match, where each racial build provides 
  a variety of different options, making each tief-
  ling relatively unique while still sharing a “family 
  resemblance” with other tieflings;
  5. Fully deconstructed identities, where the variety 
  of racial build options is so diverse that it’s 
  possible an elf may have more in common with 
  some dragonborn than with other elves.
  The examples in this guide mostly range from 2-4 
  on this list, since we imagine that those will be the 
  options most useful to the vast majority of DMs. But, 
  by all means, if you want to see how deep this rabbit 
  hole goes, we’d love to hear about the results.
  Once you gain some familiarity with tweaking 
  racial trait builds, you might also want to consider 
  the benefits of having varying levels of complexity, 
  depending on how prevalent a particular race or 
  subculture is within your game. For example, if all the 
  player characters are members of the Crimson Order, 
  a halfling mystery cult, then you might want a variety 
  of different builds for characters within that subcul-
  ture, while treating all other halflings as more or less 
  the same.
  Ability Scores
  The six core ability scores drive the heart of any char-
  acter sheet. A +2 in any one of the core abilities grants 
  a +1 bonus to a large number of things ranging from 
  skills to attack bonuses and more. The choice of what 
  race a player takes often comes down to which races 
  offer +2’s in the primary and secondary abilities that 
  are most important to her character’s class.
  When cultural elements get brought into the picture 
  for ability scores, the heavy weight that ability scores 
  carry must be respected. As a guiding principle, large, 
  sweeping cultural issues should give rise to ability 
  score bonuses. This isn’t a place where small differ-
  ences are going to be significant.
  To begin, choose a big issue facing the race, and tie 
  it to one of the ability score bonuses. Decide upon the 
  cultural norm that’s in effect here and whether the 
  ability score bonus is a result of embodying, twisting, 
  breaking, or being changed by that norm. Once you’ve 
  got that down, you can move on to creating other 
  cultural perspectives on the norm and determining 
  whether those different perspectives will change 
  which ability score gets the +2.
  There’s really only one restriction on how ability 
  score bonuses operate: you shouldn’t create a racial 
  build option that results in a “double +2” to the same 
  ability score. That’s why none of the elf cultures in our 
  example below have a +4 to Dexterity or Wisdom.
  When you find yourself pushing in a direction that 
  would violate this restriction, you can either decide 
  to pull back from it, or instead seek out the “human 
  solution” – that is, to give the race only a single +2 in 
  an ability score and compensate for the loss of the 
  second +2 with some other racial ability. In the case 
  of humans, they gain an element of flexibility applied 
  to all the rest of their racial traits. However, a single, 
  limited racial ability could be an alternative way to 
  compensate for the loss.
  Following a principle we’ll elaborate upon 
  throughout the next several sections, a single light-
  weight “feat-equivalent” ability could be a fair trade 
  for one of the standard ability score bonuses. For 
  example, suppose we wanted to make a subculture 
  within the wood elves, a mysterious sect that adheres 
  to an extreme interpretation of the vigilance norm. In 
  that case, we could create an additional elven build 
  option with +2 to Wisdom and a +2 racial bonus to 
  Initiative and Insight.
  Another minor element to consider: when a racial 
  build offers its two +2’s to ability scores that both 
  feed into the same defense (Strength and Constitu-
  tion; Dexterity and Intelligence; or Wisdom and 
  Charisma), that set of bonuses could potentially be 
  viewed as less valuable than a pair that spans two 
  defenses. Whether or not you wish to compensate or 
  charge the build for changing the pairing to or from a 
  one-defense pairing is up to you.
  
  5
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  Example: Different 
  Ways of Being Elven
  Before we move beyond ability scores, let’s stop right 
  here and create several different elf cultures.
  Elves gain a +2 to Dexterity and a +2 to Wisdom. 
  They’re described as a quick, wary, forest-bound race. 
  The “wary” description in particular seems to call out 
  to that +2 Wisdom bonus—and given the forest-heavy 
  elements of the race’s description, we can decide that 
  the default culture is one of “wood elves.” 
  So what cultural norm leads to the wary wisdom of 
  the wood elves? A solid norm that goes hand in hand 
  with this might be: “Constant vigilance is the only way 
  to stay safe.” Looking at our set of perspectives, it’s 
  easy to say that the +2 to Wisdom embodies this norm. 
  If that’s the case, then we have three other perspec-
  tives we could apply to the norm to generate other 
  cultures beyond the hyper-vigilant wood elves: twists, 
  breaks, and changed-by.
  To the right we’re showing a sample set of cultural 
  differences that might result.  The cultures shown 
  here avoid doing a +2 Dex/+2 Int combination for a 
  particular reason – the tie between the elf race and 
  the eladrin. We intentionally left Intelligence out 
  of the equation to allow for the possibility that the 
  eladrin are the product of an “extreme” cultural split, 
  an ethnic group so different from the majority of elves 
  that it is considered a full, separate race in its own 
  right. That also means we leave it up to you to decide 
  if the eladrin Intelligence bonus is an altered perspec-
  tive on the norm of constant vigilance—and what that 
  might imply.
  We also decided to keep the +2 to Dex a constant 
  through all of the above cultures, but it could have just 
  as easily been swapped out for another ability score—
  just because this particular norm is tied to Wisdom 
  doesn’t mean that the Wisdom bonus should neces-
  sarily get changed when the perspective shifts. That’s 
  your call.
  Finally, on the setting side of things, we’ve laid out 
  the above four cultures as somewhat separate from 
  one another. This is fine when you want there to be 
  a strong correspondence between culture and geog-
  raphy, but that’s often not the most interesting way to 
  do this. Consider what might happen if there was a 
  hub of elven culture in your setting, where all of the 
  above types of elves coexisted in the same place. What 
  sorts of rivalries would emerge between the brutal 
  and direct mountain elves and the slightly paranoid 
  wood elves in the city of Dal Paan, with the city elves 
  playing one group against the other?
  Things might get even more interesting if the 
  different elven cultures lived together in Dal Paan for 
  a few centuries, leading different cultural perspectives 
  to bleed into each other and blend together thanks 
  to intermarriage and cultural exchange. While the 
  guard elf bloodlines might still be breeding true (even 
  if their origin is only half remembered), the same 
  can’t be said for the other elven cultures. At that point, 
  those same racial build options become less about 
  who’s a mountain elf and who’s a city elf, and instead 
  are more a question of “What’s this character’s indi-
  vidual perspective on the norm of vigilance?”
  In such a setting, you could easily imagine a guard 
  elf who doesn’t realize she’s a guard elf, growing up 
  E
  embody: Wood elves are hyper-vigilant and 
  forest-bound, believing that constant vigi-
  lance is the only way to stay safe. they are 
  serious, focused, and just a little bit paranoid: 
  +2 dex, +2 Wis.
  T
  twist: the hardscrabble, aggressive mountain 
  elves are also security conscious, seeing the 
  world as a dangerous place. But unlike the 
  wood elves, they believe that the best way 
  to find security is to be more dangerous than 
  the inhospitable world. For them, main-
  taining safety requires investing in might: +2 
  dex, +2 Str.
  B
  Break: City elves have turned their back on 
  their more isolationist cousins. Security isn’t a 
  concern for them; they surround themselves 
  with the incredibly varied and dangerous 
  peoples of the world, and laugh at whatever 
  fate throws their way: +2 dex, +2 Cha.
  C
  Changed-By: Guard elves are seldom seen 
  or, at least, seldom identified. their ancestors 
  swore deep, mystically-binding oaths that 
  have since passed down through the blood-
  line. Guard elves sense, from a very young 
  age, that they are bound to atone for the 
  ancient sins of the past by protecting specific 
  places or people. if necessary, they will die to 
  see their oaths satisfied: +2 dex, +2 Con.
  
  6
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  in a city that was formed from and changed by these 
  cultures as they merged together. One day, she might 
  discover that that there’s an ancient glyph on her 
  family crest that no one recognizes, sending her off on 
  an adventure to rediscover the ancient oaths made by 
  her ancestors…
  Skill Bonuses
  Skill bonuses are more focused and limited than 
  ability scores, so changing which skills are getting a 
  +2 has a less palpable effect than changing an ability 
  score. However, as with ability scores, this is not a 
  territory where “doubling up” should be allowed. 
  It’s easiest to do a direct one-for-one skill swap 
  when building alternatives. Still, a +1 skill bonus is so 
  trivial that exchanging a single +2 racial skill bonus 
  for two +1’s is also not recommended.
  Supposing that you want to eliminate one of the 
  racial skill bonuses entirely, remember that it takes 
  a single feat to become trained in a skill, netting the 
  character a +5. So a +2 to one skill is essentially a 
  “half-feat” equivalent. 
  If you’re looking to swap the dragonborn +2 bonus 
  to History for a new minor ability—creating a cultural 
  movement or outlook all about living in the now 
  and turning a blind eye to the past—you should paw 
  through the list of heroic tier feats and think about 
  doing something that’s roughly half as potent. In the 
  case of our in-the-now dragonborn, maybe they’ve 
  begun acting more fully as citizens of the world and, 
  consequently, gain one or two additional languages 
  instead of the +2 to History (based on the observation 
  that there’s a heroic tier feat that lets you learn three 
  languages). On the other hand, maybe it’s just better 
  to turn the History bonus into a +2 to Diplomacy and 
  call it a day.
  Vision
  Let’s break down what we know about the different 
  types of vision abilities. First, a number of races have 
  low-light vision. Next, we know that at least one race 
  can get low-light vision (and a +1 to Perception) by 
  taking a specific racial feat. No player character race 
  has darkvision, or blindsight, or any of the other exotic 
  sensory variants (such as tremorsense). 
  By its nature, low-light vision is conceptually 
  narrow—there are a few circumstances one can 
  imagine for it to develop or vanish from a particular 
  given race, but not many. Still, that wouldn’t prevent 
  us from imagining a tiefling subculture deciding that 
  “The underground world must be shunned”, based on 
  their belief that the evil curse vexing the tiefling race 
  came from associating with creatures of deep earth 
  (something that could also lead to a host of interesting 
  eating habits -- like a refusal to eat root vegetables and 
  mushrooms, foodstuffs seen as tainted by the under-
  world). In that sense, one could view the default low-
  light vision as breaking this norm—and tieflings that 
  lack low-light vision as embodying it.
  Again using the feat as our unit of measurement, we 
  can safely say that low-light vision is essentially equal 
  to something “just shy of a feat” (for our purposes, 
  low-light vision is the only sensory type really in play—
  but more on that later). So that becomes the trade that 
  needs to occur when altering the vision-type of the 
  default race. 
  If a race is losing its low-light vision, gaining a new 
  race feature that’s “just shy of feat” is a good way to 
  go. For our surface-dwelling sect of tieflings, we might 
  imagine them gaining a small damage or other bonus 
  against creatures of a particular type (such as shadow, 
  which would fit the shun-the-darkness vibe). 
  If a race is gaining low-light vision, it should prob-
  ably lose one of its feat-equivalent (or nearly-equiv-
  alent) abilities. Supposing we were talking about a 
  group of nocturnal humans, we might see them losing 
  their bonus feat, or reducing the number of defenses 
  they get their +1 bonus to.
  While we’ve said that other sensory types beyond 
  low-light are off limits, some DMs might be comfort-
  able with potentially adventure-busting abilities like 
  darkvision, blindsight, et al being viable for some 
  characters. Since we don’t recommend this, we can’t 
  offer any hard and fast rules for making those abili-
  ties available. Most likely, you would want to consider 
  these abilities to be the equal of at least two feats, if 
  not three, and trade for them accordingly. Some of 
  the settings that Wizards of the Coast is producing 
  will probably include PC races with darkvision, 
  so it’s certainly not out of the question. However, 
  constructing one according to the guidelines offered 
  here, which focus on swapping racial traits around, 
  will most likely result in a cultural variant that doesn’t 
  have the usual full boat of racial features.
  
  7
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  Size
  Size alterations will be particularly rare—both 
  Medium and Small sizes have a wide range of possible 
  measurements within each of them, so most cultural 
  differences should come out in the wash of cosmetic 
  detail. Still, it’s not outside the realm of imagination—
  especially in a fantasy world—to imagine halflings as a 
  cultural variant of humans, similar to the diminutive 
  ethnic groups that are found in Central Africa and 
  other parts of the world. That sort of extreme physical 
  difference would be more likely to express itself 
  gradually, over a long period of geographical separa-
  tion. If an ancient human culture followed the norm 
  of “Height indicates the favor of the gods,” one could 
  easily see everyone below 5’3” getting sent over the 
  mountains to live in an exile nation.
  So if you’re feeling particularly creative, feel free to 
  slide the scale between Medium and Small with rela-
  tive impunity. If anything, taking size from medium to 
  small represents a very slight disadvantage, curtailing 
  the sorts of weapons the character can use, while a 
  move from small to medium slightly expands that. A 
  small creature might be able to do a “squeeze” action 
  into a slightly smaller space than a medium-sized 
  creature might, but that’s about as far as advantages 
  go (though the creation of a few feats specifically in 
  support of small-size PCs could definitely expand on 
  that).
  Going beyond the medium to small continuum is 
  where things get tricky. Large creatures often have 
  reach 2, which is a seriously potent advantage, prob-
  ably the equivalent of two feats. Occupying two 
  squares has its own ups and downs—you provide more 
  cover for your allies, but you can’t fit into small spaces 
  and are potentially easier to flank (though with Reach 
  2 that gets a bit complicated). It’s a brave DM that 
  would allow a large PC race in her game; anything 
  bigger than large seems difficult to justify. Similarly, 
  tiny PCs would be difficult in practice, effectively 
  having reach 0 and needing a number of other modi-
  fiers to adequately model the troubles and advantages 
  of being so small.
  Speed
  From the official content released so far, a highly-
  mobile race with a speed of 7 seems to gain that 
  extra quickness for the equivalent of a single feat. 
  Dwarfs are an interesting case—they have a speed of 
  5, but don’t lose speed due to encumbrance and are 
  designed with a bias towards heavily armored classes. 
  We recommended that, with any race, no cultural 
  variant should be faster than speed 7 or slower than 
  speed 5. And, when creating speed 5 cultures, you 
  should carefully consider why the only speed 5 race 
  ensures that their speed will never get reduced to 4! 
  With each one point shift away from the race’s default 
  speed, a feat-equivalent racial feature should be 
  gained or lost, depending on whether speed increases 
  or decreases.
  Plenty of cultural movements and personal orienta-
  tions could lead members of a race to develop high 
  mobility or settle into a slower-moving lifestyle. Turn a 
  tribe of half-elves into a culture of fast-moving nomads 
  (embodying the norm of “Always keep moving”) and 
  an increase to speed 7 makes a lot of sense. Take a 
  SHAMAN’S StOCKArt
  
  8
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  population of apelords out of their native forests, 
  force them underground with a band of dwarfs, and 
  you might see a slower-moving “under-ape” variant 
  emerge (as an outright breaking of the norm “Never 
  call one place home”, a principle passed down by 
  the Walker in Mist, or, potentially, a consequence of 
  following that norm until there was nowhere else to 
  run). Such under-apes have likely traded their default 
  speed 7 for speed 6, a +2 to Dungeoneering, and the 
  ability to speak Dwarven.
  Languages
  Thanks to a feat from the core books, we can know 
  that one language is worth rought one third of a feat. 
  So adding or removing a language may be a good way 
  to “pad out” any less-than-one-feat trades that we’ve 
  mentioned already. But that sort of trade is an outlier, 
  performed at the end of the tweaking process. 
  Stepping back from system for a moment and 
  thinking about languages solely as a concept, it’s easy 
  to recognize that language is a huge part of culture. 
  Simply trading out one of the race’s core languages 
  (never common, unless you’re creating an NPC or 
  highly isolated culture) can create a paradigm-shifting 
  result. 
  Consider a group of dwarfs that don’t speak 
  Dwarven, instead speaking in the tongue of giants. 
  We already know from their racial description that 
  dwarves were once enslaved by giants. How would the 
  vast majority of dwarves regard kinsmen who speak 
  only in the language of a hated enemy? Dwarves that 
  still converse with giants could belong to a subculture 
  of former collaborators or second-class citizens that 
  never quite recovered from the economic conse-
  quences of slavery or, on the other hand, a ruling elite 
  that draws on their historical relationship with giants 
  for security and power.
  Because an extra language is a fairly minor thing 
  mechanically (however significant its cultural impact), 
  you can probably get away with allowing certain 
  cultures to gain a third language without having to 
  “pay” much of anything for it. Though if one of your 
  starting race’s racial features offers a pretty minor 
  benefit, it’s probably best to swap that out for your 
  extra tongue.
  Other Racial Features 
  and Powers
  Race-building (and thus culture-building) is as much 
  art as science, and the guidelines for building them 
  are not hard and firm. But in general you can think 
  of most racial abilities (with a few exceptions such as 
  the dragon breath of dragonborn) as being “feat-equiv-
  alent.” 
  By this point, after going through the basics of racial 
  trait options, you can probably see that most racial 
  “extras” are ripe for being exchanged for other racial 
  traits or standard heroic tier feats. 
  Want to trade out your eladrin weapon proficiency with 
  the longsword for a +1 to poison and psychic damage? 
  Go ahead—you’re clearly a member of the outlawed 
  poison caste!
  You should carefully identify traits which are worth 
  more than one feat. As a quick rule, any racial ability 
  potent enough to be expressed as a power needs to be 
  examined to see if it is the equal of two or more feats. 
  Ask yourself these questions (they aren’t the only ones 
  to ask, but they’re a good starting point):
   
  * Does it allow for an attack as something other than 
  a standard action?
   
  * Does it affect an area rather than a single target?
   
  * Is it an at-will ability?
   
  * Does the ability otherwise create a strong, decisive 
  advantage when used?
  Each question that gets a “yes” is likely to indicate 
  increasing the value of the ability by one additional 
  feat. For example, dragon breath easily gets a “yes” to 
  two of the above, making it the equivilent of three feats. 
  This is not something that’s easily traded away! But 
  the eladrin fey step ability is an encounter ability that 
  allows you to teleport across a distance smaller than 
  a single move. Certainly, it gives an advantage when 
  used, but is it strong and decisive? Maybe not. That 
  power might be considered to be the equivilent of a 
  single feat.
  On the other hand, there are also racial abilities 
  which aren’t worth much at all. The fey origin racial 
  feature is one such thing. If anything, it might be a 
  minor liability, but it certainly seems to offer little 
  advantage. Similarly, trance and group diplomacy both 
  deserve a close look to determine if they’re really the 
  equal of a full feat (our guts indicate they’re both more 
  like half a feat). 
  
  9
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  An Extended Example: 
  Tribes of the Ape
  As an extended example of the ideas presented in this 
  guide, let’s take a look at the apelord race (as seen in 
  Races of the Shroud: The Apelord). There are 
  a number of techniques we could potentially use to 
  create richer, more diverse ape cultures. We could 
  create geographically separate or otherwise culturally 
  distinct tribes. We could create cultural movements 
  within specific tribes. We could even create oppor-
  tunities for individual choice on a character by char-
  acter basis, showing how individual members of the 
  same community could possess dramatically different 
  understandings of what it means to be an apelord. In 
  this example, we’ll do all three, to try to work things 
  towards that “lived-in” feeling we might otherwise be 
  lacking.
  First up, let’s inventory the basics:
  Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 dexterity
  Size: Medium
  Speed: 7 squares
  Vision: Low-light
  Languages: Common (only one!)
  Skill Bonuses: +2 Acrobatics, +2 Athletics
  Other racial features: Ape climbing; treetop tumbling; 
  arms like clubs; rending blows; and shroudborn origin.
  Most of the other racial features are easily one-feat 
  equivalent, though shroudborn origin, much like fey 
  origin, is probably worth almost nothing in terms of its 
  “trade value”.
  A few ideas come up right away. We could dial the 
  size down to small and have a tribe of apelords that 
  are more monkey/orangutan in nature, picking up a 
  second language to make up for the relatively minor 
  disadvantage of being small. But that doesn’t suggest 
  a particularly strong cultural element, so let’s discard 
  that idea in favor of something more interesting.
  In the examples above, we’ve already talked about 
  the idea that the apelord’s speed of 7 could be tied 
  to a cultural norm taken from the teachings of the 
  Walker in Mist (see <bookfirst>Gods of the Shroud</
  book> to learn more about the Walker): “Call no place 
  home. Stay moving.” The break perspective subse-
  quently inspired us to imagine a culture of under-apes 
  that speak Dwarven, have a speed of 6, and get a +2 
  to Dungeoneering. The default apelord is already 
  described as a nomad, so we can safely say that our 
  standard issue apes embody this norm. Let’s fill out 
  this particular matrix with another two cultures—but 
  remember, just because the apelord’s speed suggested 
  this norm, we don’t have to change the race’s speed 
  with each perspective we choose:
  norm: Call no place home. Stay moving.
  E
  embody: Most apelords follow this teaching 
  of the Walker in Mist. their culture is restless, 
  wandering, and nomadic. Speed 7.
  T
  twist: Chased from their forest homes by the 
  walking dead, many clans of apelords spread 
  out over flatter lands. divorced from the 
  trees, these plainswalking apes live exposed 
  to the elements, always on the move. trade 
  out Acrobatics +2 to get Nature +2 instead.
  B
  Break: Some apes have been driven under-
  ground to escape the evils hounding them. 
  these under-apes have acclimated to 
  elements of dwarven culture and lost their 
  drive for wandering and staying in motion, 
  instead learning the ways and speech 
  of their adopted culture. Speed 6, +2 to 
  dungeoneering, Language: dwarven.
  C
  Changed-By: those apes not driven into 
  the plains were sent south and west, to the 
  oceans and inland seas. there, they learned 
  of strange new wonders called “ships”—
  floating contraptions topped with woven 
  vines and dead tree trunks (the rigging) that 
  were always on the move, never staying 
  in one place. Feeling a deep kinship, these 
  apes set sail into uncharted waters. Lose the 
  treetop tumbling ability, and instead gain a +1 
  to speed when swimming, and a +5 to Endur-
  ance for long-term swimming.
  With this first norm, we’ve done the geographic 
  version of culture building. We’ve taken a race, scat-
  tered it to various locales, and made changes to the 
  race based on those locations. While these tribes 
  
  10
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  of apelords might intermix now and again, they’re 
  physically separate most of the time. While this helps 
  build the world, it doesn’t really let us model situa-
  tions where cultural differences are perhaps the most 
  evident—when two or more distinct cultures coexist. 
  Let’s find another norm that will let us explore that 
  situation, perhaps one that will change the core ability 
  scores.
  norm: An apelord proves himself by directly 
  confronting every challenge put before him.
  E
  embody: Our baseline apelord embodies this 
  norm, using his great physical strength and 
  nimble dexterity to overcome foes and obstacles 
  alike. the traditional apelord has +2 Str, +2 dex.
  T
  twist: the intellectualist movement among 
  apelords has eschewed brute strength, instead 
  choosing to focus on improving their minds, 
  overcoming challenges with intellect, not brawn. 
  intellectualist apelords get +2 int, +2 dex.
  B
  Break: the name “yellowback” is a dirty one 
  among the tribes of the ape. But there are 
  apelords painted with this epithet for seeking 
  to find a softer way to resolve conflicts, using 
  charm instead of force. though seldom trusted 
  by others of their own kind, these apelords are 
  the most adept at integrating into other cultures 
  and, as such, occupy a disproportionately large 
  segment of the apelord mercantile class. Charis-
  matic apes get +2 dex, +2 Cha, and replace the 
  apelord skill bonuses with +2 diplomacy and 
  Bluff.
  C
  Changed-By: the drive to hit every challenge 
  head-on has left many warrior apes dead in 
  battle, now striding alongside the Walker in 
  glory. But there are those who survive and have 
  the scars to show it. these scarred apes are not 
  as nimble as they once were, but the sinewy 
  power in their arms is as potent as ever. Scarred 
  apes have +2 Str, +2 Con, and swap out their 
  Acrobatics +2 for a more apropos intimidate +2.
  Here we’ve created some strong cultural forces that 
  we can see at play within a single group of apelords. 
  Traditional and intellectualist apes might have fierce 
  debates or contests to determine whether the mind 
  or the body rules the day. Meanwhile, the charismatic 
  apes (some sneer “yellowbacks”) have some serious 
  cultural prejudices to overcome and veteran, scarred 
  apes, though few and far between, always have a voice 
  that others will listen to.
  If you ask us, this is where the cultural rubber truly 
  meets the road: multiple cultural trends and groups 
  that you can imagine all in one place, interacting with 
  one another. The geographic stuff has its place, to be 
  absolutely certain—that’s how you might form strong 
  national cultures (in the sense of a nation of people, 
  not necessarily a nation-state)—but that’s a more 
  “macro” way of approaching things, and more intense, 
  personal stories will tend to live more at the “micro” 
  level.
  Cultural elements don’t always have to be homog-
  enous, either. Consider the idea of exploring the 
  different means individuals within a culture might 
  choose to achieve a common goal. For this, let’s focus 
  on the intellectualist movement from our previous 
  norm, and come up with a norm that’s internal to 
  that group—so the following is something we’d offer 
  to those players choosing the intellectualist build for 
  their ape characters. Additionally, let’s double up on 
  some of our perspectives to create more than four 
  distinct options, since the intellectualist movement is 
  full of drama and controversy,
  As you can see from the results on the following 
  page, Simon’s “norm and perspective” method is a 
  strong tool for providing interesting variety at nearly 
  any level of a culture. The intellectualists might have 
  just been a minor curiosity along the way before; 
  now we have an assortment of perspectives in action 
  within the movement itself, rendering what was once 
  a simple philosophy now fascinatingly diverse. The 
  stories surrounding these apes will likely be all the 
  better for it.
  
  11
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  E
  embody: the intellectualist movement origi-
  nated among the ruling priesthood of apelords, 
  the sacred community charged with keeping 
  and dispensing knowledge. While several popu-
  list priests initiated the ongoing renaissance by 
  spreading previously restricted knowledge to 
  everyone, the priesthood as a whole strongly 
  opposes intellectualism, since it diminishes 
  their authority and power. Priestly apes replace 
  the standard apelord skill bonuses with a +2 to 
  intimidate and a +2 to any one of the following 
  list: Arcana, History, religion.
  E
  embody: Embody can also be taken as enforce, 
  and that is certainly the case with the educator 
  apes of the intellectualist movement. these 
  scholars travel from village to village, ensuring 
  that all apes—and members of other races – 
  receive the benefit of knowledge, whether 
  they’re ready for it or not. Educator apes replace 
  the standard apelord skill bonuses with a +2 to 
  any two of the following list: Arcana, History, 
  religion.
  T
  twist: Naturalist apes believe that they can only 
  better their minds by getting in touch with the 
  natural world. Choosing to avoid formal, struc-
  tured learning environments, they instead live as 
  far from civilization as they can, only returning 
  annually to share what they have learned. Natu-
  ralist apes replace either of the standard apelord 
  skill bonuses with a +2 to Nature.
  B
  Break: A splinter sect of intellectualists lead by 
  an ape named thunder Calls believe that delib-
  erately seeking to improve one’s mind merely 
  cages it, stunting its potential. these “thun-
  derers” avoid education entirely, instead diving 
  head-first into every opportunity that life puts in 
  front of them. Experience and error will be their 
  teachers, or so they say. thunderers keep the 
  standard apelord skill bonuses.
  B
  Break: iconoclasts believe that ape culture is 
  backwards and ultimately doomed in the face of 
  a modern world of learning, letters, and radical 
  philosophy. these apelords have left the forests 
  for the cities and encourage their brethren to 
  likewise abandon ape life for civilization, even if 
  civilization does not welcome them, iconoclasts 
  replace the standard apelord skill bonuses with 
  +2 to Bluff and +2 to Streetwise.
  C
  Changed-By: Clothed in white robes worn over 
  whatever armor they use, some of the most 
  committed intellectualists become caretaker 
  apes, living a life of service to others. Mate-
  rial gains do not remain with them for long, as 
  they often spend the profits of their ventures 
  on the communities they serve. Caretaker apes 
  set aside their standard skill bonuses for a +2 
  to Heal and a +2 to one of the following list: 
  Arcana, History, religion.
  norm: We must improve our minds in order to better overcome the challenges of the world.
  
  12
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  Randomizing 
  Cultures
  With all of the above in hand, randomly generating 
  cultures turns out to be a pretty easy thing. Take each 
  of the norms you’ve “reverse engineered” from the 
  basic stats of a race, and then roll 1d4 or 1d20 for 
  each norm, consulting the following table:
  d4
  d20
  Perspective Applied
  1
  1-5
  E
  embodies
  2
  6-10
  T
  twists
  3
  11-15
   B
   Breaks
  4
  16-20
  C
  Changed-By
   
  If you’ve invented more or less than four perspec-
  tives, you’ll of course have to tweak this random roll 
  method.
  Doing a little random generation is a good way to 
  break up preconceptions you didn’t know you had. 
  If the random generator indicates that a character 
  possesses two perspectives that seem to be in conflict 
  with one another, solving the seeming paradox may 
  lead you to insights you might not have come across 
  otherwise. Give it a whirl!
  Tapping the 
  Players’ Brains
  A quick read through this document might lead you 
  to think that we’re laying out a lot of extra work for 
  the DM to customize and complicate the races in 
  her game, but that’s not necessarily the case. There’s 
  nothing preventing an enterprising and delegation-
  inclined DM from entrusting the job of creating 
  cultures to interested players.
  Keep in mind, some of your players might gain a 
  real sense of investment in and ownership of your 
  game’s setting if you let them take the wheel and 
  invent a new subculture of dwarves to more effectively 
  play that Dwarf Warlock they’ve been imagining. 
  Such players should easily be able to use these guide-
  lines to invent this new culture and, in the process, 
  reveal some strong plot-driving mojo you might not 
  have otherwise discovered.
  Another Extended Example: 
  The Svartálfar
  To bring this down to the personal level, let’s consider 
  a concrete example involving the co-authors of this 
  guide. Imagine that Fred is planning a campaign in 
  the ancient elven city of Dal Paan, using the elven 
  racial build options from our first example. Jonathan, 
  however, has been itching to play a Dwarven Warlock. 
  While both players are concerned about how a dwarf 
  character will fit into an elf-centric setting, they 
  decide to approach this as an exciting challenge, not 
  an obstacle. 
  Jonathan browses Wikipedia and reads up on tradi-
  tional Norse dwarves, dvergar, sometimes called Svar-
  tálfar, “black elves.” Inspired, he pitches a possible 
  solution to Fred, having the dwarves in this setting 
  share a fey origin with elves. Fred loves this idea and, 
  together, they start exploring various modifications 
  to standard dwarf build: adding fey origin, obviously, 
  maybe getting rid of cast-iron stomach, altering the 
  dwarven ability score bonuses to more closely align 
  with elves, possibly creating a new dwarfstep ability 
  to mimic elves and eladrin, and so forth, basing the 
  changes on the information found in this guide.
  Along the way, they also develop a stronger idea of 
  who Svartálfar are and how they came to live in Dal 
  Paan. Unlike elven cultures, the Svartálfar initially 
  emerged from portals to the fey realms that exist deep 
  underground. Connecting caverns to create immense 
  subterranean cities, the Svartálfar established a ruling 
  council of warlocks, mostly fey pact, but also some 
  infernal pact (since demons are often associated with 
  the underground) and a few crazy star pact ones who 
  spend too much time wandering up to the surface 
  and, consequently, serve as ambassadors to the 
  surface world. Very quickly, the different core warlock 
  builds have blossomed into different elite subcul-
  tures—and might each get associated with one of the 
  four perspectives from our model, revealing a cultural 
  norm or two moving beneath the surface of warlock 
  politics.
  Jonathan decides to play a star pact Svartálfar 
  warlock, but wants the character to be an exile of 
  
  13
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  some variety, living among her distant elf kin in Dal 
  Paan. However, Fred thinks it would be less interesting 
  for Jonathan’s character to be the only Svartálfar in 
  Dal Paan and suggests that Jonathan come up with a 
  reason for a group of Svartálfar would be living on the 
  surface, among the other elves. Agreeing, Jonathan 
  proposes that this group of Dal Paan-based Svartálfar 
  had their home underground city (which perhaps 
  has its own cultural characteristics) taken over by 
  a mysterious entity, either demonic, fey, or some 
  Cthulhu-esque monstrosity from the stars. Perhaps it 
  was even unclear what exactly the malevolent entity 
  was or where it came from, so, amidst the chaos, 
  different factions within the ruling warlock council 
  blamed each other and were unable to unite against 
  the threat.
  Jonathan’s warlock, Julah, was able to save a group 
  of Svartálfar from perishing because of a prophecy she 
  made, but they are not entirely sure what happened 
  after they left. Some Svartálfar have pushed to return 
  to their underground home, searching for survivors or 
  even trying to liberate it from the entity’s hold, but so 
  far Julah and the other remaining warlock elites have 
  forbidden it. However, Julah’s authority as a warlock 
  has become somewhat suspect among the Svartálfar 
  of Dal Paan, since the society they now live in does not 
  operate under a ruling warlock council. Perhaps Julah 
  and the few other warlocks (her allies or adversaries?) 
  are trying to assert control, but urban Svartálfar 
  society is changing rapidly in contact with other elven 
  cultures, making things difficult for the warlocks.
  When Fred and Jonathan discuss their ideas with 
  the other players, Emily, who is in the process of 
  creating a guard elf character, decides that her guard 
  elf, Roland, has sworn to protect the Svartálfar settle-
  ment in Dal Paan, due to an ancestral promise to 
  guard the poor, immigrant quarter of the city. Roland, 
  as an soldier pledged to the rulers of Dal Paan, often 
  works as a liaison between the city and its Svartálfar 
  minority, working with the warlock council (the tradi-
  tional but disputed leaders of the Svartálfar) but also, 
  potentially, with emerging, rival sources of authority.
  Fred, as DM, is also excited about the adventure 
  potential of the corrupted underground city that the 
  Svartálfar came from. Ultimately, though, he decides 
  to save it until the characters have gained a few levels 
  and have established relationships between them-
  selves and other factions within Dal Paan.
  Growing Beyond 
  Your Culture
  With all of this focus on developing culturally diverse 
  player races, how do you allow cultures or an indi-
  vidual character’s approach to their own cultural heri-
  tage to change, over the course of play? 
  Outgrowing Your Roots
  Perhaps the easiest stance to take on character growth 
  and a character’s cultural heritage is that, while race 
  and culture exert a hefty amount of influence over 
  a character right at the outset, the more that a char-
  acter develops, the less those racial and cultural traits 
  matter, in terms of their presence on the sheet and 
  potentially in play. Looked at sideways, this might even 
  be seen as a metaphor for globalization or the conse-
  quences of an adventuring life: the more you travel 
  beyond your native climes, the more you become a 
  citizen of the world and not of any one particular 
  culture. When you come home, your kinsmen may 
  not even recognize you as one of their own.
  Changing When 
  You Change
  Cultural identity could also be played as such a critical 
  issue that, when a character alters her perspective 
  on one of the core cultural norms for her race, the 
  bonuses and other advantages that arise from that 
  perspective change as well. This could mean that 
  someone’s Wisdom drops by two and their Strength 
  increases by two when their cultural perspective shifts 
  from vigilance is the only way to be safe to might makes 
  right in matters of security.
  This takes advantage of one of the great features of 
  fourth edition. It’s expected, even required, that char-
  acters change their abilities over time as they advance 
  in levels. So why not also change when the character 
  changes his stance on an important issue of his day?
  
  14
  Hard Boiled™ Cultures
  Building on a Culture
  Another way to keep cultural identity relevant over the 
  course of play, as a character develops, is to develop 
  culture-specific feats. This is a little more heavy lifting, 
  though thankfully feats are not too hard to invent. 
  As a general principle, coming up with one feat per 
  culture per tier, often reflecting the perspective that 
  group has on a particular cultural norm, is a good way 
  to go, meaning that three feats per culture will often 
  do the basic job. Certainly develop more if that excites 
  you, but it’s not necessary.
  With these feats in hand, you’ll offer easy hooks into 
  the elements of culture that players can opt into as 
  the game progresses—and by giving that culture some 
  additional real, mechanical weight, cultural issues will 
  feel all the more important.
  Experiencing Culture
  Once you’ve opened the door to cultural differences, 
  you needn’t stop at tinkering with the intial racial 
  build options. Consider this: there are many (though 
  perhaps not enough) feats that are tied to race, so 
  there’s very little stopping you from developing addi-
  tional feats that are tied to specific cultures within a 
  given player race. 
  If you don’t want to get into the feat-design game 
  yourself, you can treat feats, skills, and powers gained 
  through experience as indicators a character’s devel-
  oping relationship with their culture. Sure, every 
  dragonborn might be able to take the enlarged dragon 
  breath feat, but what happens when you decide that 
  taking that particular feat indicates that the character 
  was once associated with the radical Brotherhood of 
  the Sacred Breath? And what about those dragonborn 
  frenzy feat-takers, who could only have developed 
  such ferocity from their participation in the forbidden 
  blood sports that a dark cabal of tiefling warlocks 
  have arranged for the amusement of their demonic 
  masters?
  Our reverse engineering trick could even be applied 
  to those feats, generating a cultural norm and the 
  perspective on that norm that lead to the feat. As 
  always, once that pairing is determined, the three 
  other potential perspectives on that norm are just 
  itching to get a little detail—and a feat option—of their 
  own.
  Regardless, the point is that feats, paragon paths, 
  and all the other benefits that characters gain through 
  experience could easily grow into new elements of a 
  culture and reflect meaningfully upon each charac-
  ter’s individual experience and growth within it—or 
  beyond it.
  
  Cultural Norm (For:                                         )
  E Embodies E Enforces E Upholds E
    Notes:
    Notes:
  T Twists T Alters T Avoids T
  B Breaks B Rebels B Confounds B
  C Is-Changed-By C Improves C Degrades C
    Notes:
    Notes:
    Adjustments:
    Adjustments:
    Adjustments:
    Adjustments:
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/3rd Party/4th Edition/Highmoon Games/Hard Boiled Ideas - Cultures.pdf