Implemented poorly, this can make your campaign stale and predictable. Used well, I think the Mega Man Model can form a strong backbone to a campaign, allowing the players to feel like they know aspects of the world without ever having experienced it, allowing both the Players and the DM to more fully engage the campaign.

That? Very clever. The primary method I had thought of and used for creating familiarity are references to real world cultures (or caricatyres of them). Alternatively, standard D&D dwarves are fairly well defined. Using repetition is indeed a good idea.