Primitive Screwhead
First Post
In closing, you guys aren't looking for realism.
<snip>
You do humanity a disservice to treat the common folk of your campaigns as hapless and perpetual victims.
Not quite on the mark.. and welcome to the board BTW.
I am looking for a way to present the standard DnD adventurer festooned with weapons and dripping gold from his over-full pockets with the fictional medieval barter/coin/feudal world of DnD.
So you are right, not looking for realism at all.
The common folk are simply that. Common folk. As a dragon would say, they are very nice and crunchy with ketchup. Common folk in DnD need uncommon folk to fight back against all the magical/supernatural/aberrant things that exist. If the Common folk were not helpless in the face of the unknown, the PC's would be 'Heros'. So yes, they tend to be hapless and perpetual victims of the big nasty powerful things that live around them.