Worlds of Design: Baseline Assumptions of Fantasy RPGs

You can write a set of fantasy role-playing game (FRPG) rules without specifying a setting, but there’s a default setting assumed by virtually every FRPG. Moreover, some rules (e.g. the existence of plate armor, and large horses) imply things about technology and breeding in the setting.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

The Basics of FRPG​

All FRPGs start with some assumptions built into the setting, some of them so innocuous that gamers might not even realize they're assumptions to begin with. For example the assumption that there are horses large enough to be ridden, even though for thousands of years of history, horses weren’t large enough for riding (the era of war chariots from about 1700-1000 BCE, and the era before that of infantry only).

Familiarity vs. strangeness is an important question for any worldbuilder to answer. What are gamers familiar with? That tends to be the default. J. R. R. Tolkien’s works (Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, etc.) are nearly a default setting for many, as in the dwarves and elves who are quite different from traditional stories of dwarves and elves. You could argue that the default setting is more Tolkien than it is medieval European, but he largely adopted Late Medieval European (1250-1500), so I prefer to refer to that.

The question is, do you want your ruleset, or your campaign setting, to follow the default? An early example of great deviation from the default was the wonderfully different world of Tekumel (Empire of the Petal Throne, and a few novels). A “different” FRPG might posit no monsters at all, perhaps not even elves and dwarves, just a lot of humans, yet never explicitly say so: if you leave out rules for monsters and humanoid races other than humans, you have a different-than-baseline setting, even if you didn't consciously make that decision. But be warned: too much unfamiliarity may make some players uncomfortable.

Are there baseline assumptions for science fiction? There seems to be so much variety, I wouldn’t try to pin it down.

The Baseline​

What ARE the baseline assumptions? In general, they are mostly late medieval (not “Dark Ages” (500-1000) or High Medieval (1000-1250), as FRPGs tend to be magic grafted to later medieval Europe. In no particular order here is a list of categories for baseline assumptions that I’ll discuss specifically:

• Transportation
• Communication
• State of Political Entities
• Commonality of Magic
• Commonality of Adventurers
• Commonality of Monsters
• Length of History and Rate of Change
• Level of Technology
• Warfare and the Military
• Religion
• Demography
• Climate

Transportation​

Wooden sailing vessels, late medieval style. In calm waters such as landlocked seas and lakes, galleys; in wild waters (such as oceans), small sailing vessels. River barges much preferable to poor roads and carts. And are there wonderful roads left by or maintained by an Empire (Rome)? See "Medieval Travel & Scale."

Communication​

Proceeds at the rate of travel, by horse or by ship. In other words, very slow by modern standards. Even as late as 1815, the Battle of New Orleans was fought after the War of 1812 had ended (in 1814), but before news of the treaty had reached Louisiana from Europe.

State of Political Entities​

Monarchies and lower level independent states (such as Duchies) ruled by “the man in charge” (very rarely, a woman). Nobles. States, not nations (the people rarely care which individual is actually in charge). Castles are so defensible that it’s fairly easy for subordinate nobles to defy their superiors. There are small cities (5-10,000 usually), not really large ones (over 100,000 people).

Commonality of Magic​

Magicians are usually rare, secretive folk. Few people ever see any manifestation of magic. In some cases the church or the government tries to suppress magic. See "The Four Stages of Magic."

Commonality of Adventurers​

Magicians, knights, powerful clerics, all are rare. 1 in 500 people? 1 in 10,000?

Commonality of Monsters​

Human-centric. Monsters are usually individuals rather than large groups. Intelligent monsters are rare. (Here Tolkien’s influence, the great orc/goblin hordes, often overrides European influence.) Undead may be common. Dragons are “legendary.”

Length of History and Rate of Change​

Slow pace of change of technology. Awareness of the greater days of a “universal empire” in the past (such as Rome), now gone. Technology changed much faster in late medieval times, than in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Level of Technology​

Late medieval, or possibly less. (Late medieval for the technology necessary to make full plate armor, if nothing else.) See "When Technology Changes the Game."

Warfare and the Military​

Wars rarely changed borders much (Late Medieval) - the great migrations have ended. Wars certainly aren’t national wars, the common people are spectators. See "The Fundamental Patterns of War."

Religion​

What we’re used to in later medieval times is a universal monotheistic church (Catholicism), though with foreign churches of different stripe (Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist). But in games, more often the setting seems to derive from older, pantheon-based, religions.

Demography​

Density of population is low. Depends on whether the local area is frontier or settled. Cities are population sinks (high mortality rates). There may be stories of a Great Plague (later-1340s and onward in Europe).

Climate​

Temperate medieval European (more often, English (governed by the Gulf Stream)), with fairly cool summers so that full armor is not impossibly hot. (Imagine wearing full armor when the average summer high is 91 degrees F, as in northern Florida.) But winters are much less severe than in the northern USA. (Modern European climate is currently getting much warmer than in late medieval times.)

Your Turn: Do you see the default setting as different that what I’ve summarized?

 

[Warren Ellis]

I suppose worlds where impoverished and illiterate peasants toil under the yoke of their feudal lords in towns where the world more than 20 miles away is shrouded in mystery are too dark, unfamiliar, or alienating.

Actually wasn't this always kind of the case with rural areas anywhere? IIRC they often lag a ways behind cities in various trends throughout history.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Because gold was only used for big transaction, not everyday purchases. It also messes with the economic model where some things are priced about right, but others are way out of wack.

What I usually do is divide all prices by ten, effectively making the silver be worth what gold is normally, thus making the use of SP as the default currency rather easy. The normal prices of things in D&D are blatantly absurd. Like a short sword literally costing its weight in silver sort of absurd.

 

[Minigiant]

I would love to see a game setting where all the non-human nations combined were not still less than the number of human ones.

Warhammer Fantasy is one of the few fantasy settings I know of where the humans are the big blob nation-empires and the nonhumans are the many allied or warring nations. There are only ~7 human country-nations with a ton of city-states in the pre-final era. Whereas the "Anyone Wars Anyone" means the nonhumans are collections of allied countries who something fight each other. But it's not D&D.

D&D spread the idea that only humans and evil humanoids have civil wars or create separate nations by choice and not by geography.

 

[Tonguez]

Actual I use "rich people aren't stupid and buy things" assumption

Transportation
I see the base assumption as Early Renaissance. There are clear roadways and old paths are maintained if safe. Early frigates are being used and engineers are now putting early cannons on ships but ship guns are fewand far between as avies are just now being developed. Nobles and royals who are friendly with the few open mages have access to transportation magic items like portals.

Communication
Proceeds at the speed of horse or ship. However things like the Battle of Louisiana wouldn't happen as major powers of that level would be able to leverage magic to inform the battlefront in quick secure channels.

State of Political Entities
Governance is based on racial or religious culture. Rulership favors men but more lawful races like humans, elves, and dwarves will not defy a queen or duchy if the rules state she is the head of any area by chance or machinations. States can be republics, theorachies, magocracies etc based on the dominant race or religion..

Commonality of Magic
Magic users and magic items are rare... for the poor. The wealthy and the powerful have access to magical allies and items. And that's if they aren't a magic user themselves. However the wilds is littered with magic. Getting access to it is dangerous.

Commonality of Adventurers
Adventurers is a specialty job. They would be as common as.. let's say... lawyers in pursuit except their high mortality rate at the job makes them as common as specialty lawyers.

Commonality of Monsters
Monsters are common. The thing is that they are separated. There are a lot of orcs but they are almost all waaaaaaay over there. And there are dangerous wilds and other monsters in between. The quests happen when something or someone cause the monsters to move.

Length of History and Rate of Change
Changes is slow. Again with travel dangerous in many areas, scholars develop technology independently. And some races like dwarves, elves, and halflings are so content with teir tech level that there is no pursuit of tech advancement.


Level of Technology
Late medieval to Early Rennaissance level for most civilized races. Babrbaric people are straight pre-Classical to high Medieval.

Warfare and the Military
Warfare is late medieval. Base D&D is weird and don't do sieges. War are rare but big. Nations don'ttake over each other much though. It's all civil wars or occupations from stateless armies.

Religion
People are religious. Religions are organized like Catholics but follow multiple deities or churches of allied dieties do not compete for flock.

Demography
Stable nations are saturated with small 100 people farming villages and mining/logging towns. Only a few big cities in stable countries. Unstable places and border kingdoms are littered with small baronies of a few thousand like folk.

Climate
Most of the world is a cool temperate. Mild summers. Bad but comfortable winters. All this is bordered by badlands of extreme temperature or precipitation. Woodland is dominant. Then unnatural grassland (chopped woods or drained marsh) then wetland then mountains then natural grassland then deserts.

bravo, thats a much more accurate list of assumptions.

The whole idea of Adventurers as a specialty job actually goes a long way to explain lots of whole the rest of the world works. I’ve always considered Adventuring parties to be mercenary companies like the Routiers who teerosied France during the 100 years war. Youve can these highly skilled teams with access to powers and magic killing things for hire.

Politics and Productivity (Points of Light?)
1. The Independent Barony is the favoured political model because its about Adventuring heroes clearing regions of monsters so they can be held by the patron Lord. Magic helps to make land more productive so famine and disease is rare for the peasants seeking protection

Gold Standard, Class and Wealth gap
2Gold becomes ubiquitous in trade because its an easier means to pay for mercenary adventurers. Theres also a wide wealth gap between gold using Nobles and Peasants - Adventuring is One of the few ways to bridge the gap.

Demographics, Travel, Communication and Technology Stagnation
3 Peasants are stuck in their village, virtually feudal, under protection of the Lord who have means to keep the monsters away. Having biologically different races also encourages parochialism, but Nobles can access magic to communicate and travel over long distance.

This limited mobility though does lead to technology stagnating.
Gender isnt an issue because magic means that strict division of labour isnt required

4 Most warfare is in the form of small scale raids, sieges dont happen because why waste resources on sustaining your army when 4 skilled Adventurers can easily overthrow the enemy stronghold for you?

 

[Azzy]

If you look at published content from WotC and Paizo from the last 5 or 10 years, the presumed tech and social level of D&D seems more 16th or even 17th century now, instead of medieval. Communities are presented as being affluent, literate, urban, with highly sophisticated and developed governments and infrastructure. You see it in trappings like tricorn hats, elegant carriages, masked balls, universities, tall sailed ships, and the more common appearance of firearms.

It started earlier than that, though. D&D in TSR's era pretty much defaulted to 15th-16th century Europe in technology and social structure. Full plate was in the 1e DMG and UA, tall sailed ships (like carracks) were in the DMG, and the 1e PHB and UA is littered with tonnes of late medieval/early modern pole arms. Both Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms had Italian-like city-states, universities, etc. (I think that masquerades were even a thing in the FR, but I'm no expert on that setting). 2e doubled down, introducing arquebuses in the PHB (and firearms were expanded upon in Forgotten Realms Adventures), galleons in the DMG, and the settings became more 16th-century (early modern period)—complete with not-conquitadors invading the not-Americas in Maztica expansion to the FR, etc.

The only boundaries that I've really seen WotC-era D&D is with Eberron which has a more modern in feel in terms of tech and social structure (with a thin coat of magical early modern period varnish) than the late middle ages/early modern feel of the more traditional settings.

 

[Blue Orange]

I'm pretty sure D&D is going to move away from this, if it hasn't already. It's hard to have a dominant race when everyone (non-monsters) is sexually and racially egalitarian.

That last one's actually an important assumption nobody thinks about. Most premodern societies had pretty fixed gender roles, even if they weren't exactly what we have now, and there was often some kind of 'third gender' category. (You can look at Balkan sworn virgins, Native American two-spirits, and Indian hijra for example.) Similarly, while you did have large multiethnic empires like Rome, the Ummayad or Abbasid caliphates, or the Mongol khanates, there was often a ruling race or religion. In many cases, LGBTQ rights in the fantasy world are not only far ahead of the Late Middle Ages, but of the modern era!

I'm very much in favor of inclusiveness at the table (the real Middle Ages didn't have fireballs or dragons either, and they never even dreamt of a beholder), but the fact that the semi-mythical past is so progressive is something worth thinking about. (GMs with a taste for world-building might want to consider how that came about.)

 

[Haffrung]

Actually wasn't this always kind of the case with rural areas anywhere? IIRC they often lag a ways behind cities in various trends throughout history.

True. And until recently, 90 per cent of people lived in small, agricultural communities. But that's not the world depicted in most D&D settings. And even the NPCs in smaller communities are usually shown as independent, materially comfortable, and literate.

 

[Haffrung]

The presence of magic, even if rare and a god or gods intervening changes everything. Medieval Europe with actual spellcasters is not going to look like the historical time period. In fact, we wouldn't even have our Medieval period, because presumably magic was always there.

What would our world look like if humanity's early beliefs about how the world worked were true? What if magic gave us the tools to shape our lives way earlier than science did?

D&D games vary dramatically in how common magic is in the setting. In some, it's the purview of a handful of eccentric wizards, in others it's commonplace and commercialized.

I lean towards the former. Going by the assumptions outlined in AD&D, 1 out of 100 people in the setting have a class. Magic-users are by far the least common of those classes, so around 1 in 1000 people in the setting are wizards. The overwhelming majority of classed NPCs are no higher than level 1-4, so maybe 1 in 10,000 people in the fantasy world can cast level 3 or higher spells. So that's five people in a barony of 50,000. Most of these will be eccentrics and recluses, who pursue arcane studies for selfish or inscrutable reasons. So in a barony of 50,000, there might be one person capable of casting level 3 or higher spells who takes an active role in the affairs of men. Maybe they're in the court of the baron. But maybe they're an independent political actor. Or an adventurer.

As for magic items, I've always presumed that the reason adventurers go into incredibly perilous locales like dungeons to find magic swords and wands is because they're extremely rare. If arcane artifacts can be bought in shops, wouldn't stealing from those shops be a far easier way to get your hands on them than delving into deadly labyrinths filled with dozens and dozens of monsters? And any entity powerful enough to protect a stock of magic items from assault by a party of level 6 or 8 PCs likely has more important and ambitious things to be doing with their time than running a shop.

Magic only 'changes everything' if it's common enough to function like technology. I think it's entirely within the scope of a standard D&D setting for it to operate very much like our medieval world in social structures and material standards of living, with magic being strange, uncommon, and regarded with awe.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

That last one's actually an important assumption nobody thinks about. Most premodern societies had pretty fixed gender roles, even if they weren't exactly what we have now, and there was often some kind of 'third gender' category. (You can look at Balkan sworn virgins, Native American two-spirits, and Indian hijra for example.) Similarly, while you did have large multiethnic empires like Rome, the Ummayad or Abbasid caliphates, or the Mongol khanates, there was often a ruling race or religion. In many cases, LGBTQ rights in the fantasy world are not only far ahead of the Late Middle Ages, but of the modern era!

I'm very much in favor of inclusiveness at the table (the real Middle Ages didn't have fireballs or dragons either, and they never even dreamt of a beholder), but the fact that the semi-mythical past is so progressive is something worth thinking about. (GMs with a taste for world-building might want to consider how that came about.)

Well, it is not like these things are linear. In many ways Abrahamic religions that gained dominance during the middle-ages were rather socially regressive and in a sense we're still recovering from that. One can easily imagine a world where religions with different social values gained popularity.

 

[Blue Orange]

Well, it is not like these things are linear. In many ways Abrahamic religions that gained dominance during the middle-ages were rather socially regressive and in a sense we're still recovering from that. One can easily imagine a world where religions with different social values gained popularity.

True! I remember Blue Rose (2005) working some of that into the mythology--there are gay gods, for example, and there are cultural terms for that deriving from the attributes of those gods--a straight person is 'keeper of the flame', after the smith god (also straight), and a gay person is 'lover of the dawn', after the sun god (also gay).

(Though remember that Christianity was popular with women at the time in ancient Rome because they were at least spiritually equal (as opposed to just property of the father or husband) and could get married later (15-16 instead of 13-14), and had the option not to get married at all...)

It's also not hard to imagine Waterdeep/Lankhmar/Ankh-Morpork/Messantia having people who came from all over the world to find their fortune...