D&D 5E Peasant Revolts in 5e

[doctorbadwolf]

Also most revolts weren’t “crushed”, they just showed and told everyone to return to their homes, and the peasants were like...but you were starving us, and they were like, yeah we’ll stop doing that just go home ffs, and the peasants went home and life went on.

However, in dnd, magic doesn’t actually seem to care about wealth, and peasants revolts would be more likely to occur when there are peasants with magic, and in most dnd worlds the nobility is just as mundane as the peasantry, so its much harder to say.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don’t care about the “could the peasants win” part of the argument. I didn’t speak on that.

Most lords aren’t in a kingdom like England, which at the time had been embroiled in major wars pretty often. The ability to field more than a dozen knights is pretty limited in most places.

England was reasonably weak in the time frame.

Continental armies tended to be bigger.

They had peasant revolts in Byzantium in the 14th century in Thessaloniki iirc. Crushed. They were well on the way out at that point lasted a few more decades.

On the continent 14th century Italian city states could field similar numbers. I think Swiss Pikemen were a thing as well. Venice could field thousands.

Hungary was a power in this timeframe, HRE was a thing, Spanish kingdoms could field thousands.

It doesn't really matter if individual Lord's couldn't the system in place stopped the revolts from being successful.

The local Lord might get killed probably not on the field of battle. The other nobles get the Willie's and sooner or later the revolt gets crushed.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

However, in dnd, magic doesn’t actually seem to care about wealth

I don't think that is really true - see "the cost of attending wizard school" thread. Peasants wouldn't be able to afford to become wizards, and sorcerers are supposed to be exceedingly rare.

And as for those warlocks (AKA witches) they would be executed, to keep magical knowledge out of the hands of the peasantry.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

England was reasonably weak in the time frame.

Continental armies tended to be bigger.

They had peasant revolts in Byzantium in the 14th century in Thessaloniki iirc. Crushed. They were well on the way out at that point lasted a few more decades.

On the continent 14th century Italian city states could field similar numbers. I think Swiss Pikemen were a thing as well. Venice could field thousands.

Hungary was a power in this timeframe, HRE was a thing, Spanish kingdoms could field thousands.

It doesn't really matter if individual Lord's couldn't the system in place stopped the revolts from being successful.

The local Lord might get killed probably not on the field of battle. The other nobles get the Willie's and sooner or later the revolt gets crushed.

Very few revolts got “crushed”. They tended to simply burn out or end when the king’s men showed up.

And again, for the last time, I do not care about the “did revolts work” argument. I have not ever spoken on that. Stop trying to engage me on it.

 

[Zardnaar]

Also most revolts weren’t “crushed”, they just showed and told everyone to return to their homes, and the peasants were like...but you were starving us, and they were like, yeah we’ll stop doing that just go home ffs, and the peasants went home and life went on.

However, in dnd, magic doesn’t actually seem to care about wealth, and peasants revolts would be more likely to occur when there are peasants with magic, and in most dnd worlds the nobility is just as mundane as the peasantry, so its much harder to say.

D&D world a lot if spellcasters would side with the nobles still.

If the PCs are involved then yeah absolutely the revolt could succeed. It's a completely different system than IRL and they tend to make the world's a modern liberal Democracy in views.

If you have a strong centralized faith aka the Christian Church they'll support the nobles. France codified the 3 estates


More wizards would also come from the upper classes. They're the ones that can read (well some of them).

But yeah the revolts could totally succeed espicially if the PCs are nobles and side with the peasants. Then you have something more like the 30 years war or a civil war.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

D&D world a lot if spellcasters would side with the nobles still.

If the PCs are involved then yeah absolutely the revolt could succeed. It's a completely different system than IRL and they tend to make the world's a modern liberal Democracy in views.

If you have a strong centralized faith aka the Christian Church they'll support the nobles. France codified the 3 estates


More wizards would also come from the upper classes. They're the ones that can read (well some of them).

But yeah the revolts could totally succeed espicially if the PCs are nobles and side with the peasants. Then you have something more like the 30 years war or a civil war.

Zardnaar. I do not care.

I might be interested in exploring my disagreement with your first (completely unsupported) statement here, but I’ve no interest in the question of whether real world revolts work.

But your suppositions about people supporting the nobility are pretty strange. You seem to be arguing backward from a desired conclusion.

 

[M20]

Not fantasy, but I can suggest Tombland by C.J. Sansom, dealing with the Kett uprising.

As in that novel, I would be inclined to put the players in the position of trying to prevent the peasants from committing injustices/being slaughtered.

Why would the Peasants be evil/commit injustices if all they did was revolt against severe oppression almost identical to slavery? If you were a peasant at that time wouldn’t you have done the same?

 

[Weiley31]

Do they get levels in Sidekick classes or are we going by the DCC Character Funnel rules?

 

[John R Davis]

The peasants would never revolt. They will have grown fat and lazy due to abundance of cantrips and magical healing .
They don't know how lucky they are!

 

[jmartkdr2]

and for bonus points, are there any fantasy movies or novels that star peasants? I've done some checks already and noticing most peasant stories are essentially "secret princes" and thus disqualified.

Star Wars, Wheel of Time, Discworld more than half the time, Princess Bride, Left Hand of God, Eragon...

If anything I think the MC not starting as a peasant is the exception, although Frodo was a wealthy-ish landowner and LotR has outsized influence.