Culture Skill - why would this be a trained only skill? To me it seems like everybody know at least some of whatever culture they belong to.
Culture Skill - why would this be a trained only skill? To me it seems like everybody know at least some of whatever culture they belong to.
You can make DCs up to 10 untrained. Anything beyond that isn't common knowledge. You could reasonably drop the DC by 5 or even auto pass for something the character should know like Lashunta are telepathic is the character is a Lashunta.
Most of the culture tests I have seen in adventures typically are for really arcane points of a culture or archeology/language deciphering type stuff which makes sense for it to be trained. This is less about basic facts and more about sociology/anthropology/xeneology.
You also have to assume if people have their personal comps any basic points of culture or commonly known stuff should just be in their local infosphere or your ships info database and should not require any checks at all if you have even a bit of time to consult with them.
Also because culture covers languages.
If you meet a new culture, does the fact that you are well aware of dealing with your own culture gives you automatic skill in dealing with another culture. I can easily see it requiring a good background in understanding any new culture - so requiring training makes sense.