D&D 5E What’s So Great About Medieval Europe?

[Oofta]

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Do you have similar issues with Roleplaying in modern settings like World of Darkness where there is Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.?

I've never played WOD (my wife is a D&D purest and I don't have enough time) so I couldn't say.

But in most D&D campaigns the gods are very real and present. At a higher level clerics get to chat with their gods. So ... that becomes problematic. If I'm Catholic and the church is represented as historically accurate some time periods are problematic. Can wealthy people really buy their way into heaven? If absolution is really a scam then what does that say about the church that pushes it? If someone else in the group is devout but has a different religion, I know that they worship a false god.

Clerics in my for-the-most-part standard mythology accept that other gods could be real.

I also don't want to step on anyone's toes. I know extremely little about most world religions, I even have limited knowledge of Catholicism.

 

[Voadam]

I really want an ancient world DnD setting. Give me city states inspired by what we know of Ur, inspired by the OG Tiamat lore and by Gilgamesh and by early Semetic mythology.

A little bit of that in Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia from Sword & Sorcery Studios which is a 3e adventure anthology/sourcebook.

Also for a little later period there is Testament Biblical Era Roleplaying by Green Ronin which has the Caananites for 3e.

Not the exact subsystems you were looking for, but striking in the area.

I felt Scarred Lands had a lot of City State feel to it as a nonhistorical fantasy setting.

 

[Oofta]

No, I don't want my own thread shut down, and I'm not sure why you keep trying to angle anyone who disagrees with you toward that.

But the way you word your responses consistently paints the choices as "evil orcs" vs "orcs that are just humans in rubber masks". That dichotomy doesn't exist.

I was referring to Mourrus's post. He's shut down two threads in recent weeks that veered off into the whole "what are orcs" topics. As far as disagreeing I have absolutely no issue with someone disagreeing with me. I have an issue with people telling me their way is better, more cultured, or that I just refuse to accept the obvious "truth" and that if only I opened my eyes I'd agree.

Just because I'm representing the extremes doesn't mean I don't believe there aren't middle grounds. I'm not sure they matter all that much.

We've been asked to drop the topic so have a good one.

 

[Morrus]

Blood and soil

That’s a good idea. Post some Nazi propaganda on my site to increase your warning count from 10 to 11. Time for you to find somewhere else to hang out. Babysitting you appears to be a full time job I don’t have time for.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A little bit of that in Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia from Sword & Sorcery Studios which is a 3e adventure anthology/sourcebook.

Also for a little later period there is Testament Biblical Era Roleplaying by Green Ronin which has the Caananites for 3e.

Not the exact subsystems you were looking for, but striking in the area.

I felt Scarred Lands had a lot of City State feel to it as a nonhistorical fantasy setting.

Those would definitely help buld a homebrew setting, for sure. And maybe someday I'll do that. I just have too many plates spinning to take on a new project like that. Theros will also help, tbh, with it's mythic bent and rules to support that style of play.

I hadn't really thought about it til now, but Theros also does what I've been wanting dnd to do for about 15 years or so. Make "epic" a layer of character building that is optional and which makes characters epic from the start, or at whatever narrative point you choose.

Now imagine applying the Supernatural Gifts to a 3pp 5e game that doesn't automatically make characters epic at high levels, like Adventures in Middle Earth! It's exactly what I want from DnD!

I was referring to Mourrus's post. He's shut down two threads in recent weeks that veered off into the whole "what are orcs" topics. As far as disagreeing I have absolutely no issue with someone disagreeing with me. I have an issue with people telling me their way is better, more cultured, or that I just refuse to accept the obvious "truth" and that if only I opened my eyes I'd agree.

Just because I'm representing the extremes doesn't mean I don't believe there aren't middle grounds. I'm not sure they matter all that much.

We've been asked to drop the topic so have a good one.

I haven't seen any post asking the topic of orcs to be dropped, but if you don't want to continue discussing it that's fine.

 

[Morrus]

I haven't seen any post asking the topic of orcs to be dropped, but if you don't want to continue discussing it that's fine.

Scroll up to post 541.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Nothing was great about Medieval Europe. It sucked. However because it was terrible, it makes a good place to adventure in.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I can't even...I made a thread about medieval europe and dnd.

 

[Aldarc]

A little bit of that in Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia from Sword & Sorcery Studios which is a 3e adventure anthology/sourcebook.

Also for a little later period there is Testament Biblical Era Roleplaying by Green Ronin which has the Caananites for 3e.

These are two of the settings that I had in mind when I said that I have seen a lot of TTRPGs set in the Ancient Southwest Asia, but not too many settings inspired by Ancient Southwest Asia. With a few exceptions - mainly the modern era - I'm not really a fan of Real Historical World but Magic.

 

[Oofta]

I can't even...I made a thread about medieval europe and dnd.

Not sure what you're saying. I have posted a few times why I think psuedo-medieval Europe costume dressing works for a lot of people. Other people have also piped in.

Something I haven't mentioned - I'd love an Arabian Nights style campaign, an update to Oriental Adventures, a weird west, modern or sci-fantasy settings. Which is why I asked about what other settings others would be interested in several pages ago.