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<blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 9045580" data-attributes="member: 6988941"><p>Gift giving and guest-friendship are pretty ubiquitous in the early warrior cultures which mythology tends to be set it, whether it be Greek myth and epics, Norse myths and sagas, or a panoply of other examples less influential on Western Fantasy literature. The leaders give grand gifts to assert their own status, place the recipient in their debt, but also to recognize the recipient's status as being comparable to their own. There's been a lot of anthropological work on this phenomenon.</p><p></p><p>A separate but related influence on fantasy literature is that Western Medieval, and even early modern, lords did not pay their higher status retainers with money. Rather they shared their largess in the forms of food, housing, equipment, and occasional more extravagant gifts. This honored them, while at the same time keeping them dependent. And the whole feudal system (to the extent there ever really was a "feudal system") is infused with this ethos.</p><p></p><p>Which is all just to say, if you want to give your games a mythological or historical flavor, or the flavor of a lot of fantasy literature inspired thereby, having some extravagant and/or ritualized gift giving is a good way to do it. Not every magic weapon needs to be found in an ancient tomb or on an enemy's corpse, and having the party receive grand gifts before the quest, rather than in reward after, can be a great tone setting element.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Benjamin Olson, post: 9045580, member: 6988941"] Gift giving and guest-friendship are pretty ubiquitous in the early warrior cultures which mythology tends to be set it, whether it be Greek myth and epics, Norse myths and sagas, or a panoply of other examples less influential on Western Fantasy literature. The leaders give grand gifts to assert their own status, place the recipient in their debt, but also to recognize the recipient's status as being comparable to their own. There's been a lot of anthropological work on this phenomenon. A separate but related influence on fantasy literature is that Western Medieval, and even early modern, lords did not pay their higher status retainers with money. Rather they shared their largess in the forms of food, housing, equipment, and occasional more extravagant gifts. This honored them, while at the same time keeping them dependent. And the whole feudal system (to the extent there ever really was a "feudal system") is infused with this ethos. Which is all just to say, if you want to give your games a mythological or historical flavor, or the flavor of a lot of fantasy literature inspired thereby, having some extravagant and/or ritualized gift giving is a good way to do it. Not every magic weapon needs to be found in an ancient tomb or on an enemy's corpse, and having the party receive grand gifts before the quest, rather than in reward after, can be a great tone setting element. [/QUOTE]
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