Do you research much for your stories, both on Althanas and off?

[Breaker]

For Althanas stories, I don't do much research at all, except for occasionally referencing the wiki. This is essentially for two reasons; first of all, I've been reading fantasy for almost twenty years now, and writing it (specifically on Althanas) for more than ten years. This has given me a fairly vast amount of knowledge to draw upon when writing here. I used to do more research into, for example, historical cultures, but at this point I feel like I have enough working knowledge of history to just invent compelling fantasy.

On the other hand, when I write more contemporary stuff off Althanas, I usually do at least a little research into things like careers, cities, maps, and hobbies which are important to the characters. For example, I wrote one story recently that revolved around a professional translator and a mixed martial artist. I'm a huge fan and former practitioner of MMA, so I didn't need to do much research there, however I did regularly interview a pro translator in order to get some insight into how her job typically worked, and what she liked doing in her spare time. I also tend to research things like sexual preferences/kinks when I'm writing erotica, again mostly by interviewing people about their own preferences.

Personally I think the two genres that require the most research are science fiction and historical anything, and I don't write in those niches very often for that reason. I don't like feeling as though I have to research every word I write, but I do like influencing my work with facts and real opinions from real people.