10 Absolute Truths about the World of D&D

[Remathilis]

I got into a discussion the other day about the ability to detect alignment, and how society would react if we could tell who favored anarchy, law, goodness or evil. Would society splinter along these lines? Why doesn't it in D&D?

That got me thinking about things that are true in D&D that aren't necessarily true about OUR world. Things Joe Commoner takes for granted in his world that you or I don't. Here is my list.

1.) Concrete Alignment: I touched on this. You, by virtue or nature or nurture, project a palpable aura that shows your devotion to the powers of law, good, chaos, evil, or neutrailty. Priests and paladins can sense your innate ability to be a good or evil person. Sure, with magic you can hide it, and you can always work to change it, but nevertheless, Your alliegance to some concrete belief in good or evil (or chaos or law, or none of the above) is tangible and detectable.

2.) Magic is just a career: Some go off to become cobblers. Others run inns. You began an apprenticship to unlock the mysteries of the universe with some bizzare words and gestures. You can summon balls of fire, consort with fiends and angels, teleport great distances in seconds, and read the thoughts of your fellow man. Even more interesting is that unless you are obviously not trying to take over the countryside, people will COME to you for aid. You can SELL your services like the cobbler sells shoes. Sure, there is some inherent distrust, but in almost any thorp, hamlet or village, your services can and will be used.

3.) Adventuring is a legit trade: People, having learned to wield either steel or spell, come to local villages seeking employment. They don't want to set up shop or (like a tinkerer) fix your pots, they want to right-wrongs, save damsels, and get paid to do it. They flood your local enconomy with gold (some from far-off lands) and request the services of the best blacksmiths, rope-makers, innkeepers, and apothecaries. Whole areas of the economy of even the smallest village are based around the care of these souls.

4.) Adventuring is the quickest route to self improvement: A farmer could spend years trying to earn the exact same amount of experience that a fighter does in one outing of slaying orcs. Life or death situations make you faster, stronger, tougher. You learn new mysteries of magic, new fighting techniques, new heights of skill. You gain treasure and magic lost for centruries. With enough time and experience, you can challenge kings in pure prowess. While the noble who fought in the Greyhawk Wars 10 years ago might be 5th level, you've surpassed him in 1 year of adventuring.

5.) There are 1,000s of Sentient Races: Unlike here, where humanity is alone in its mental facility, D&D have 1,000s of sentient races. Some live for hundreds of years. Some look vaguely human, some feral or beastial. Some are short, others tall. Some looks partially animalistic, some border on demonic. Most have vaguely human mindsets, but others border on alien. They can be stronger, faster, tougher, smarter or than humans. Each has a unique language, culture, religion, and ecological niche. They live in peace or (more commonly) wage neverending war. Some even live together in larger cities, and can marry and produce offspring (a seperate race unto itself!)

6.) Faith, Religion, and God is Real. Faith is not believing in some cannon of law or some abstract deity. The miracle of the gods is REAL. Angels and Demons come from the beyond. Clerics call up prayers to there patrons and recieve real power in return. Powerful ones can even call upon there gods intercession into mortal affairs. Sometimes the gods don't wait for a call and interfere directly. There is NO wrong faith; Pelor is as real as Nerull, despite difference in dogma. A person can go to whatever plane matches his alignment (see 1) and see his afterlife. He could even talk directly to his god and ask them all those questions (what is the meaning of life?) if he saw fit.

7.) There are beasts too terrible to mention. And they live near you. Beyond the sentient races, there are monsters. Giants, medusa, dragons. They live in the dark places of the world. Mountains, volcanoes, forests, swamps. Some are barely beastial, others are geniuses beyond the reach of mortals. They can kill with thought, throw boulders the size of ox-carts, paralyze you with fear, or breathe fire upon you. They enter your village for gold, food, slaves. It is the adventurers job (see 3) to stop them. It is a never-ending cycle of danger and violence.

8.) Magic is Everywhere. The cleric's miracles of faith. The wizard's spellbook. The blood of dragons. Nature itself. Potions, rings, magic swords. Psionics. Incarnum. Shadow, True Names, and Pacts. Artificing. All of these are paths of magic. To the commoner, they are practically the same, so it reasons out that you can gain power from ANYTHING. From gods. From unborn souls. From your own mind. All one needs in training and proper intellect and you can learn to do anything.

9.) Death is not the end. Aside from rare mishaps and old age, death is not the end. Ressurection magic can bring back anyone who has enough gold and has died an untimely death. Loved ones can come back. Beloved kings can rule again. Tyrants can rule from beyond the grave. And then there is the undead, those who use foul magic to live forever as either spirt or rotting shell. Blessed with powers beyond mortals, cursed with the effects of there immortality.

10.) The only constant is change. Things can change all around you. Men become wolves. Druids take the form of bears. Wizards polymorph into trolls. Normal men with sorcerous blood become half-draconic. Monks transend humanity and become something "other." You can be born one thing and end up something entirely different. Heck, your wife might be a doppelganger. Or a nymph. Who can ever really say?

Now before you rant on about how impossible something is in D&D, think on these ten "truths" as the people living in this world would see them. Its a very different world than the one you or I live in...

 

[painandgreed]

11.) Arguements - No matter what the rules or the DM says, somebody will argue over it.

(Not really about the world, but somebody will probably dispute the above 10 points in some way shape or form for some campaign.)

 

[Henry]

This goes hand-in-hand with a post that Kamikaze Midget made sometime last year about what a peasant in a D&D world has done and seen, and what phases him and what doesn't. Darned if I can find it now, and I'm pretty sure it was before the crash.

 

[Shade]

5.) There are 1,000s of Sentient Races: Unlike here, where humanity is alone in its mental facility, D&D have 1,000s of sentient races. Some live for hundreds of years. Some look vaguely human, some feral or beastial. Some are short, others tall. Some looks partially animalistic, some border on demonic. Most have vaguely human mindsets, but others border on alien. They can be stronger, faster, tougher, smarter or than humans. Each has a unique language, culture, religion, and ecological niche. They live in peace or (more commonly) wage neverending war. Some even live together in larger cities, and can marry and produce offspring (a seperate race unto itself!)

As a corollary to this, no matter how many races exist, there's a good chance they'll share a Common tongue to facilitate simple communication.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

1.) Concrete Alignment

Or, you could argue that the detection spells are more complicated creatures. They detect how your actions and intents sit in the eyes of the higher powers, not any devotion that you have as an individual. The auras also vary in strength. If any real world human could total up their actions over their lives, would it not be possible to say if they have done more good or ill?

2.) Magic is just a carrier

Or, the rules skip over the fact that you have that ineffable spark necessary to do something few can. They do that in the interest of giving the human player choices.

3.) Adventuring is a legit trade

So, mercenaries and explorers don't exist in the real world? People went on crusades, quests, and missions in service to God, king and country in the real world. Nothing says adventurers HAVE to be a dime a dozen.

4.) Adventuring is the quickest route to self improvement

In 3.x, the XP you earn is based on the CR of your challenge. It is my thought that people in challenging occupations advance more quickly. Adventuring is certainly a challenging occupation. I see no reason that ship captains, soldiers, scholars, and others shouldn't advance at a rapid pace if they are always challenged.

5.) There are 1,000s of Sentient Races

This is an oddity, but there are many explanations, including divine intervention, planar or planetary travel, magical or genetic manipulation (either artificial or natural), etc.

6.) Faith, Religion, and God is Real.

But will an omnipotent being think as you or me? Do they have different agendas? Do they allow heresies to persist solely to increase the numbers who worship them? Can a mortal really understand the relationships between the gods?

7.) There are beasts too terrible to mention. And they live near you.

Or, adventurers tend to hang out in the borderlands, where the wilderness is nearby. Populations are lower, allowing for larger swaths of wilderness. Also, why is a monster a beast? It could be just as intelligent, but people always attack because it looks so fearsome.

8.) Magic is Everywhere.

Or, magic is rare, but adventurers are by their vary nature exposed to ancient magics, odd rites, and wondrous devices. Or, even adventurers have limited access to magic (e.g., see the Midnight or Conan settings).

9.) Death is not the end.

Or, the ability to reverse death is rare or non-existant. Even a simple raise dead requires in the RAW 5,000 gp in diamonds, so it is not something to which every commoner has access. If magic is readily accessible, then assassins will be sure to carry items to make sure their targets don't come back.

10.) The only constant is change.

QFT, even in the real world.

The point I'm making is that all of these can vary from campaign to campaign, based on the imagination of the DM. All of the archetypes of D&D are also based on fantasy fiction, which in turn is based on a combination of real-world history and myth. You don't have to follow the default implied by the rules. Your rules apply to settings like Ptolus, the Forgotten Realms, or Eberron. They apply less well to Midnight, Conan, the Black Company, or Legend of the Five Rings.

Heck, if every campaign followed these 10 rules, gaming would be rather dull...

 

[CRGreathouse]

1.) Concrete Alignment

Since we're already comparing the real world to the D&D world, there's no reason to assume a priori that we don't have concrete alignment in the real world, just that we don't have magic to detect it.

2.) Magic is just a carrier

I'm not sure what your point is here. Surely in the Middle Ages and especially the Renaissance people would offer their magical services for sale, and that's in a world without magic.

3.) Adventuring is a legit trade

This isn't true in my campaign, and I imagine there are many others in which it is likewise not true.

4.) Adventuring is the quickest route to self improvement
5.) There are 1,000s of Sentient Races

I'll grant you these two, with the caveat that the first is mostly an artifact of the leveling system that I try to reduce in effect for my game.

6.) Faith, Religion, and God is Real
7.) There are beasts too terrible to mention

Surely in the Middle Ages #6 and #7 would have been believed.

8.) Magic is Everywhere

Decidedly not true in my campaign, and again I imagine I'm not alone here.

9.) Death is not the end

While this is true in any campaign in which raise dead can be cast, I think it changes different campaigns differently. IMC is doesn't have much effect because most characters aren't willing to come back. Heck, I've had players who were very attached to their characters refuse a raise (or even true resurrection) because their characters wouldn't have it.

10.) The only constant is change

Again, as everywhere.

 

[FreeXenon]

Henry, I think this is what you were looking for: Common Commoner

 

[Nightfall]

11th absolute truth: Nightfall will always try to pimp Scarred Lands.

 

[Quasqueton]

Concrete Alignment: I touched on this. You, by virtue or nature or nurture, project a palpable aura that shows your devotion to the powers of law, good, chaos, evil, or neutrailty. Priests and paladins can sense your innate ability to be a good or evil person. Sure, with magic you can hide it, and you can always work to change it, but nevertheless, Your alliegance to some concrete belief in good or evil (or chaos or law, or none of the above) is tangible and detectable.

Neutrality is most often a lack of devotion/allegiance in a particular moral/ethical direction.

Death is not the end. Aside from rare mishaps and old age, death is not the end.

For a rare few. 99.9% of the time for 99.9% of the people, death is “the end.”

Quasqueton

 

[Remathilis]

I shoulda prefaced by saying "D&D world as assumed by RAW"

Lots of specific campaigns/DM/settings have chucked a few of these. I have on occasion. but the default, implied setting included almost all of this.

The difference between alot of these and "real world" ideas is the burden of proof. Granted, our scientific world today can explain the world without need of gods or dragons, but its one to to say "medieval people believed in fairies" and "fairies are a real, established aspect like sheep are"

Similarly, lots of people made a living in he middle ages as "wizards" using folk remedy, snake oil and real science to make potions and explodables, this is really different from what a D&D mage can do, even at low levels.

Lastly, I'll grant that mercenaries and explorers made thier living being "adventurers" but they rarely impacted local economies & societies like D&D ones do. The cartloads of gold, the specialty shops for adventurers (even excluding magic shoppes) even the idea of "there is a problem, we need to hire adventurers" seems different than what most people assumed.