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One of the fun things about a made up society is rituals that PC have to try to memorize or at least understand the significance of to fit in or not step on toes. I'm trying to come up with some for a culture I'm working on. What cool customs/rituals have you seen/read about in real societies or games. I'll give some examples of ones that I've used.

Russian drinking rituals are a lot of fun for games and have a lot of odd quirks. A toast is said and then you are expected to down a coffee cup sized portion of vodka. There's a lot more to it but that would be a post in itself.

Strong ideas about if things are done in public or private. For instance it might not be considered acceptable to buy or sell in private. There are obvious inversions of what we might consider polite in a different culture. Things like belching at a meal. This could be taken to different lengths purposely trying to trip the players ideas of what is appropriate.

How do you knock on a door if there is no door? How do you say I need to talk to you to someone in a private place? Native Americans that lived in tents (Tee pees). I read somewhere (memory is fuzzy this was a long time ago) that it was rude to just shout to the person you wanted to talk to so you would go over to the tent and scuff your feet on the ground. It was usually loud enough to get their attention.

Japan, China, and India are oft replicated in fiction for their customs.

What are cool ideas that you've used or would like to use in games?

I used to work with Fijians when I was in the Army. They had a drinking ritual, which involved sipping tea made from a narcotic root. People would take a drink and rythmic clapping would break out, then there would be a pause more clapping etc. It was cool to watch.

I also worked with Gurkhas (Nepalese), whenever I visited their accommodation to pass on a message, to a guy who was on a training course with me, they'd sit me down and serve tea and little jars of pickled limes and mango. Only I would eat and drink, then I was expected to tour around the billet (8 man) whilst all the occupants showed me where the slept. Odd, but kind of humbling, especially considering I may have popped over to say we were starting a 7.15 instead of 7.30!

Those are quite good Mr. E

I just read an article by an American that's grown to hate living in Japan. The thing that struck me about it was that all the crap that he mentions that annoyed the crap out of him were customs that would have made a lot of sense if he were working on a boat, the yelling of rote phrases, "irashaimas!" "itadakimas!" "iterashaida!", the excessive conformity, the office socializing (you have to attend office parties or risk being fired), all of them are sailing customs. He was just tired of living in a society of sailors, fishermen, and pirates.

I was at the mosque and someone told me that I should be wearing shorter pants. I looked at him like he's crazy. There's snow outside. I should wear long pants tucked into boots. But he was encouraging me to follow the example of Prophet Muhammad, whose pants ended above the ankle. Obviously he was wearing those pants because he lived in a desert, in a time before terrycloth, and washed his feet 5 times a day as part of his ablutions, so he didn't want to get his pants muddy. I should only follow such a custom in snowy New Jersey if I found ice-water on my socks an acceptable price for silly piety.

I mention these to suggest an exercise you may want to try for your fictitious cultures. Give them customs that made a lot of sense at some point in that culture's history, even if the situation has changed so that the custom is dumb or annoying in the society's current time or place.

Okay, so linking to that comment. Seriously in love with it.

Maybe we should have a bunch of ones that we deal with now.

How about meaningless social greetings?

"How are you?"
"I'm fine, how are you?"

When someone asks you how you are doing, they don't actually expect an answer to it.

The Japanese culture is great for traditions, I dated a Japanese girl for a couple of years. Here are some stereotypical traditions I can remember (which don't always hold up - of the Japanese people I still know, many love to buck these trends):

1. Don't lick the end of your chopsticks
2. Don't stick your chopsticks down on the table, balance them in a bowl or on a special napkin.
3. When going out to a bar, sit down and let the ladies buy your drink (this one was almost impossible for me to do)
4. No signs of affection (kissing/holding hands) in public
5. People's names get changed depending on the situation - you add 'san' as mark of respect and 'chan' as a mark of familiarity.
6. If you leave a social/work gathering first, you are judged poorly

We had some in the air force reserves too:

1. If someone is alone in the bar (in the mess) then you invite them over to join in.
2. When passing a bottle of port around the table at the end of dinner, it must not touch the table.
3. If there is any port left in the bottle, it must be drunk by the most junior office (called Mr Vice)
4. When the Commanding Officer gives a speech, someone must run a book on its length
5. If your mobile phone goes off in the bar, you buy everyone a round (except if you're duty officer).

Just a few to be going on to.

I didn't know 3 and 6 on the Japanese list. I guess it's hard to leave a social gathering if nobody can be first!

The reserves list is interesting, I'll have to ask my uncle about that since he's in the reserves on the U.S. side. I don't think I understand 4. What does it mean to "run a book on it's length"?