1000 Questions: Page 2

Questions on Daily Life

City Life

• Does a city's layout reflect some particular philosophy, such as that the ruler of the city must be at the center or at the highest point or at the most strategic location within the city?

• Are practical consideration such as the confluence of rivers or trade routes of greater import?

• Are cities planned and laid out or do they grow in a more organic fashion?

• Are there public or private parks in cities?

• How wide are the boulevards, streets and alleys?

• What are the chief landmarks in a typical city?

• Where are the interesting neighborhoods in town: the districts worth visiting and those worth avoiding at all costs?

• Do neighborhoods, wards, roads, courts and alleys have names?

• How are houses or shops addressed?

• How can an unfamiliar visitor find a location?

• Where do people go to shop, eat, have fun, worship or visit culturally significant places?

• What sorts of goods, foods & entertainments are available in large cities that are not available in the country or smaller towns?

• What are houses in the city like: their size, layout, manner of construction and available ammenities?

• When might a city house be abandoned by its inhabitants?

Country Life

• What is the composition of the rural landscape: small farmsteads; semi-independent manors; vast latifundia?

• Are peasants, farmers, yeomen or serfs tied to their land by law or custom, or can they move from place to place or even to a town if they desire?

• Can they own their farms and property, or is all land held "in common" or is it rented from a lord or landholder?

• Given the state of roads and transportation, how much food is it possible to ship to a given location before it spoils?

• Are rural areas primarily farms, forests, grazing meadows, or waste land?

• In outlying areas where there aren't many people, how many roads are there, who builds them, and to what standards are they built and who maintains them?

• How reliable is the weather from year to year -- is crop production relatively dependable, or do people have to cope with regular famines due to drought or floods?

• What kinds of catastrophic weather are common -- tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, waterspouts, dust storms, thaumic typhoons and how do people cope with them?

• How are agricultural areas divided up between the different races of people?

• What kinds of conflicts are likely to result when two or more groups' territories & interests intersect?

• What kinds of rights over land, crops, game, etc. does a landowner have?

• Is poaching a problem?

• What are houses in the country like: size, layout, manner of construction, ammenities available?

• When might a country house or farm be abandoned by its inhabitants?

Matters of Daily Life

• What are accepted norms of personal hygiene: do most people bathe regularly, or is bathing considered a health hazard?

• How is rubbish and other waste material disposed of?

• What kinds of furniture are in common use?

• What is furniture like in design, shape and decoration; and what is it usually made of?

• Are certain articles of furniture reserved for high-status individuals?

• In what ways does furniture design reflect the customs and lifestyle of the people?

• What are the plumbing and sanitary systems like; and how reliable are they?

• How do they differ between country and city?

• How do people cope with various domestic disasters like fire, floods, tornadoes and the like?

• How common are such disasters?

• How early do people get up in the morning?

• Are clocks common, or do people tell time by the sun or by listening for church or town-hall bells or some other public alarm?

Technology & Thaumology: Craft and Magic in Partnership

Questions on the Technological Level of the World and its Regions

• Are philosophy and science unified, or do they exist as separate and independent disciplines?

• What devices and technologies are available for ordinary people's use?

• Are such devices taken for granted?

• What sorts of devices or technologies are available for a limited, priviledged sector of society?

• How is the knowledge base of this culture distributed?

• Is it freely available to all, or are certain segments kept hidden from the uninitiated?

• What is the level of technology in this society comparable to -- stone age, bronze age, iron age, silicon age or some combination of eras?

• What is the basis of technology: agrarian, manufacturing, military?

• What important inventions or advances have been made; which ones are about to be made?

• Have any of these inventions reached the point of affecting the daily life of the average person, or are they absurdly rare curiosities?

• What inventions or advances have not been made that you would normally expect to see at this stage of technological development?

• How much is known about the laws of nature, be they physics, magic, chemistry, etc.?

• How much of what is commonly known and assumed to be correct turns out in fact to be quite wrong?

• Is there a scientific or philosophical method used to arrive at an understanding of the facts of nature?

• Where is research done: universities, private laboratories, under the auspices of the ruler or government or religious institution?

• In what areas might magic replace technology, and thus perhaps suppress its development?

• Or are science, technology and magic wedded together?

Questions on Magic

• What is the nature of magic in this world?

• Where does magic power come from?

• Is magic an exhaustible resource?

• If a magician must feed his spells with his own willpower, life-force, or sanity, what long-term effects will this have on the health and/or stability of the magician?

• What can magic not do: what are the limits to magical power?

• How do magicians try to get around these limitations?

• What is the price magicians must pay in order to work magic?

• Is there a difference between miracles and magic?

• If so, how are they distinguished?

• What is needed in order to cast a spell; and are there different ways of obtaining a similar end?

• What kinds of paraphernalia, such as staffs, wands, crystal balls, skelletons of animals suspended from the ceiling, are required for the proper working of magic?

• How do wizards obtain these things?

• Do they make their own or buy them from craftsmen, inherit them from their teachers, or order them from a supply shop?

• Can two or more wizards combine their power to cast a stronger spell, or is magic done only by individuals?

• What makes one wizard more powerful than another?

• What general varieties of magic are practiced, e.g., herbal, ritual, alchemical, demonology, necromancy?

• Does one particular variety of magic work better than others?

• Are there quack forms of magical practice?

• Are certain kinds of magic practiced solely or chiefly by one sex or another?

• By one race or another?

• Does a magician's magical ability or power change over time -- e.g., growing stronger or weaker during puberty, or with increasing age?

• Can a magician "use up" all of his magic, thus ceasing to be a magician and what might he do after?

• Can the ability to do magic be lost or taken away?

• Are wizards organized or hierarchical?

• What happens when the person at the top dies; who takes over and how is this determined?

• Are magicians a force in politics or religion?

• Are there national policies that revolve around or involve magic in some way?

• Are wizards above or below the law -- or are they a law unto themselves?

• Do they have full rights as citizens, no rights, or can they do as they like without regard to anyone else's rights?

• Are there statutes, constabularies and law courts that handle thaumic crimes?

• How does magic and the people who practice it figure into the power or international prestige of a country?

• Is a magician's lifetime normally longer or shorter than the average?

• And does this vary for the different races?

• Are there races all of whose members are magic users?

• Are there fashions or fads in magic?

• Are there certain kinds of magic or particular spells that are illegal to practice?

• If a wizard casts such a spell and is found out, how would such a criminal magician be detected in the first place; how might he be apprehended, tried & punished?

• Is the catching and punishing of lawbreaking magicians the responsibility of the guild, or do the ordinary courts have to handle it?

Thaumology

• What effects have magic had on ordinary technology?

• Are the two married into a single discipline, or is magic above or otherwise insufficient to manipulate ordinary technology?

• Are there thaumological means of transportation such as thaumically motivated waggons or airships?

• How do they compare in speed, safety and expense to non-magical means?

• Are there any drawbacks to thaumological travel?

• How commonly are such methods used, and for what purposes?

• Are there thaumological means of rapid communication?

• Of waging wars?

• Can ordinary objects be enchanted to make them (or their users) supremely good at something, like a Sauce Pan of Gourmet Cookery?

• How common and useful are such enchantments?

• Do they endure indefinitely or does their efficacy wear off?

• Are there especially constructed thaumological devices that serve (for better or worse) the purpose of a device of ordinary technology?

• To what degree does the presence of magic, enchanted objects, and wizards in general replace technology?

• Is technology frequently duplicated or merely supplemented?

• Is daily life made demonstrably better or worse or simply more perilous by thaumology and magic?

• Can spells and/or magical items be mass-produced?

• Are there magic carpet factories and boutiques selling magic rings, or must such devices be individually crafted?

• Can spells and/or magical items be used to increase the efficiency of manufacturing or mass production?

• Do businesses keep a wizard on retainer the way a business might keep a lawyer on staff?

• If so, what, exactly, are they paying for?