Culture-making checklist

I’m in the middle of a project that involves sketching out various cultures for use in D&D campaigns. I’ll provide more details on this as the project progresses, but I thought it might be worthwhile to go through a bit of the process here.

The following list was drafted as a set of guidelines. It is not complete, but it is probably more detailed than I’ll need in many cases. What I tried to do was touch on different elements that might be relevant to the description of a society. When I think about the society, I make sure that I consider each of the bullet points. There’s plenty of overlap between categories here. That isn’t the issue. I consider this a brainstorming tool and thought others might find it helpful.

• Agriculture (crops, farming methods, harvest)
• Architecture (aesthetic styles, buildings, materials, streets, waste disposal, walls or defensive structures)
• Art, visual (common art forms practiced, styles, how are artists supported, how important is art/what is its societal role?, religious art)
• Art, performing, non-musical (dance, theater, street performers)
• Calendar/Holidays (harvest, solstice/equinox, other)
• Climate (average rainfall and temperature, noteworthy adverse weather conditions)
• Crafts (local materials, level of technology, relative worth of materials, styles, kilns, forges, and furnaces)
• Crime (criminal underground, common crimes, contraband, illegal magic)
• Cuisine (beverages, dietary restrictions, methods of preparation, range of foods, spices used, typical meals)
• Dangers (native beasties, likely pitfalls of visitors, diseases)
• Economy (coinage, employment_
• Education (schools, apprenticeships, higher education/sages)
• Entertainment (gambling, festivals, sports, games, what do they do for fun?)
• Environment (flora, fauna, geology, water, biome)
• Etiquette (dining, grooming, group functions, formal vs casual, taboos, bodily functions, behavior around offspring)
• Humor (satire)
• Industry
• Family Structure (extended family, living situation, marriage, child rearing)
• Fashion (clothing styles, materials, different social groups, body modification, cosmetics)
• Foreign Relations
• Government (selection, church & state, important ruling figures/offices)
• History
• Languages (writing, accents, dialects)
• Law Enforcement (watch/guard details, honest or corrupt, punishment)
• Laws (how formed, how codified? how consistently applied?, criminal laws, civil laws, religious laws)
• Literature (poetry)
• Livestock (mounts, pets, hunting animals, food production)
• Magical Traditions
• Medicine/Health (who is it available to?, magic or science?)
• Military (special units, army, navy, air force, siege weapons)
• Music (instruments, styles)
• Naming Conventions (surnames, nicknames)
• Religious Traditions (rites of passage, death rites, daily/weekly practices, mythology, marriage)
• Romance (casual sex, courtship/dating, what is considered attractive?)
• Secret Societies/Mystery cults
• Social Classes
• Subcultures
• Superstitions (lucky charms, ill omens)
• Technology
• Transportation
• Trade