How medieval are your medieval(-ish) fantasy games?

A while ago I asked how modern your modern games were. Now I am on holiday, visiting several cities with very long histories and at the same time reading a lot of fantasy books to keep me entertained on the train. And I noticed, despite generally being set in a medieval like world, the settings tend to be rather modern in the details.

So, how are you medieval like fantasy worlds?
Does every kingdom have its own currency (its all silver, etc. but without the right face on the coin it won't be accepted legally and/or is worth less?
Does every region has its own dialect and every kingdom its own language?
Are serfs bound to the land they live on and property of their lord who can micromanage them as much as he wants (for example who they can/have to mary)?
Is literacy a sign of wealth or nobility as schools hardly exist and lower class children have to work anyway?
Is sanitation and hygene virtually unheard of, with only very big and wealthy cities having a sewer?
Is the church extremely powerful and even the mightiest of kings bowing to their wishes?

My fantasy settings tend to be more ancient than medieval, with lots of Roman influence.

Very unmedieval. High fantasy contains far too many elements which totally change the nature of a medieval setting.

I agree with Morrus even the very idea of Adventurers is un-medieval. I'd put High Fantasy at at least early modern (with some trappings of Late Middle) where Adventurers are mercenary companies made up primarily of the younger sons of nobles and merchants.

Personally I happily take the 15/16th century as my model and allow for lots of anachronism

I try to nod to it, but definitely leave out the things that will slow the game down. Which happens to include everything on your list.

Not very. I'm not a historian, and I operate on the premise that a) there are a not of supernatural things in D&D and b) they change things. There are certainly authentic historical elements mixed in there to ground it and make it interesting, but my world is a largely modern culture.

Derren said:

A while ago I asked how modern your modern games were. Now I am on holiday, visiting several cities with very long histories and at the same time reading a lot of fantasy books to keep me entertained on the train. And I noticed, despite generally being set in a medieval like world, the settings tend to be rather modern in the details.

So, how are you medieval like fantasy worlds?
Does every kingdom have its own currency (its all silver, etc. but without the right face on the coin it won't be accepted legally and/or is worth less?
Does every region has its own dialect and every kingdom its own language?
Are serfs bound to the land they live on and property of their lord who can micromanage them as much as he wants (for example who they can/have to mary)?
Is literacy a sign of wealth or nobility as schools hardly exist and lower class children have to work anyway?
Is sanitation and hygene virtually unheard of, with only very big and wealthy cities having a sewer?
Is the church extremely powerful and even the mightiest of kings bowing to their wishes?

Click to expand...

For very medieval games like Pendragon or Ars Magica's Mythic Europe they are quite medieval in nature.

Kingdoms, dukedoms and some counties mint their own coin. There is a lot of trade in unminted metal as well -- pieces from jewelry especially. Most kingdoms don't mint gold coin and find its refused even when they do -- unless they emblazon the coinage with heretical symbols from the south Mediterranean to demonstrate an area wealthy enough to support gold trade.
Regions have languages that many of the inhabitants speak -- kingdoms can be made of differing regional cultures and effectively split the country into classes. Dialects exist, but neighboring counties can almost always understand one another if they speak the same language. There is typically a lingua franca -- usually the language of the ruling class or Church Latin.
Serfdom and rights associated vary by regional tradition so serfs in England have different rights than France or Germany and often from barony to barony.
Literacy is hardly a sign of nobility -- it's a sign of the Church and later, working middle-class.
Sanitation is pretty much unheard of except in the ancient cities -- Rome or Constantinople. Though travelers report the heretics infesting southern Spain and Middle East have marvels like sewers.
The Church wields an interesting amount of power. It cannot hope to withstand a lord intent of sacking Rome save through moral suasion and threatening domestic strife from public excommunication of the lord and all who work with him. But the Church is the centre of learning and knowledge. Everyone cedes to it in terms of fitness to marry and to rule. Having the Church on-side is often considered vital to gain legitimacy for political action. It has more intrigue surrounding it than any European kingdom.

I once wrote and ran a game which I tried to make pretty true to a medieval setting. Not sure how successful I was in that regard. In general, I don't know enough about the time period to do it well, and when I try I run the risk of players knowing more about "what it was actually like" than I do. And that sucks.

I figure if there is going to be magic then I can say "Nuts to Historical Accuracy!" and still be well within my rights as a GM.

Extremely Medieval. One of the reasons why I like Kingdoms of Kalamar.

I few years back I began converting my Greyhawk campaign using A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. So, to answer your question... very!

I didn't enter this hobby from a traditional fantasy background - far from it! The extent of my fantasy knowledge growing up was limited to Disney movies. It wasn't until many years after I started playing D&D that I discovered Tolkien, Howard, and the rest. My introduction to D&D actually came from playing with Castle Lego pieces and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I was already roleplaying in medieval times, D&D just provided me with formalized rules.