At some nice ryokans in Kyoto you have to beg to receive a bill. “So what’s the damage?”
“Oh, I couldn’t take your money for such meager service.”
“No, really. I’ll pony up. How much?”
“Please. the food I served wasn’t fit for dogs. I won’t hear of receiving anything for it…”

Of course you still are expected to pay. You just have to get the manager to give you a price without offending him by having him give you a price.

A significant gender imbalance in the other direction results in polygamy, even Western/Christian societies, though it then reverts quickly (historical examples available!).

Here’s an interesting reason why the whole Klingon thing has always struck me as ridiculously stupid: real world example of a society with a similar standard (natives on a pacific island, forget which one). Leadership and standing were determined by how quickly one could chop down a tree – with the available stone axes, this was almost entirely skill-based, and resulted in the older men being in charge. When metal axes were introduced by outsiders, the young men quickly got the reins of power and completely screwed everything up.

Out of curiosity, if i use a might-makes-right culture with Klingon style usurping (“I challenge you for rule of the entire ‘friggin empire, in the middle of a meeting, using only these conviniently placed melee weapons!”) what would the effects be?

Beyond the obvious fighter-PC taking control of every town the party goes to.

Only 25% of Dwarves are born female. This results in a rigid social structure that is both matriarchal and polyandrous. Single Dwarven men generally spend the first part of their lives building up wealth, talent, and/or fame in order to bring a bigger dowry to their marriage. (This explains the dour nature, the fascination with gold, the lack of Dwarven women, and the “Lawful” tendencies.)

Elven culture is decadent, in the sense that it’s entirely popularity-driven. Elves live about 300 years or thereabouts, and don’t have many kids, so all the Big Things are already taken care of (food, lodging, etc). So the bulk of them spend the rest of their time playing popularity games like… Well, like spoiled little high school students. Some give up on this and pursue other things, and others get so unpopular that they take some time off and go adventuring.

Halflings have a symbiotic culture with Humans, and are genetically related to them. Halflings are generally artisans, farmers, and ranchers, most of whom live within ten miles of a Human settlement. Yes, they’re more like Tolkien’s Hobbits than roving gypsies… It’s acceptable to “plow foreign fields” before settling down, but it’s a bit questionable to keep doing so.

Gnomes are gnerds. Gnomes are the technicians and engineers of the world. They are NOT tinker gnomes, but they are very interested in efficiency over aesthetics, and absolutely fascinated with clockwork. Gnomes also run the only true bank with more than one branch (The Bank of Bilderberg), and they also often act as information brokers. The Gnomish appreciation of practical jokes lives on, albeit oftentimes a bit inappropriate.

My theory is more that the lack of women (or excess of men, depending on how you look at it) due to death in childbirth leads to belligerent men, which leads to war, which leads to higher death rates among men, which restores balance. Assuming this theory is correct, you could end up with a serious imbalance if a particular culture came up with, for instance, the germ theory of medicine, and used it to drastically reduce the childbirth death rate, while not sharing it with their neighbors. The resulting preponderance of women ushers in an era of local peace, but unfortunately the neighboring cultures, without the advantage of the low childbirth death rate, maintains a belligerent influence at the borders, thus sapping the men from the society.

A fascinating book on the subject of strange cultural customs and their origins (I don’t necessarily agree with all of it, but it’s fascinating nonetheless) is “Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches” by Marvin Harris. I understand that some of his other books are equally as interesting.

(Awesome article. There is so much here to mine. I was already needing to write an adventure for tonight about a Thanksgiving-type “Harvest Feast.” Now I shall be covered in Shamus tinted glory for my wonderful session. Thanks!)