"Anachronisms" in your game

[tonym]

Chess.
Coupons.
Toe tags.

Hmm. Actually, I don't consider chess an anachronism. More of a parallel development.


Tony M

 

[der_kluge]

I'm not GM'ing, but in the campaign I've been formulating in my head, alchemists are snake oil salesmen, and hawk their wares ala early 19th century con artists, except their wares more or less work as advertised.

 

[MaxKaladin]

GURPS calls this the Ethnic Badass syndrome, referring to any weapon or device given exceptional game stats simply because it's "cool" or associated with an exotic group (e.g. ninja, Thuggee, etc.). Ironically, the original thread was about, yes, the katana.

Don't forget the infamous Lakota...

The katana is one of those things I have little tolerance for in my games as well. Fortunately, I don't have any katanaphiles in my current gaming group right now.

One anachronism that comes to mind from my homebrew is the presence of cajun halflings -- swamp dwelling halflings with a penchant for a certain style of cooking.

 

[The_Fan]

I run Eberron, so it's hard to say what is an anachronism since it's an entirely different technological development. I do have some nonstandard things:

Canned goods
Central heating/cooling
X-ray machines (and other diagnostic equipment)
Artificial limbs
Cameras
Trenchcoats
Roulette

 

[CRGreathouse]

Main one is that in most campaign cultures IMC women can be soldiers/warriors. Otherwise it's mostly the magic, which allows for instantaneous communication, travel etc.

My campaign is like S'mon's in this respect -- not very anarchronistic, but gender equality is common.

 

[Wombat]

- My favorite line from that whole wonderful series.

Well, it was either going to be that or the slightly earlier line about not bringing a vampire aboard the ship...

 

[SHARK]

Anachronisms, Ha!

Greetings!

Well, I'd say that some of the things that magic can provide are not--despite appearances--anachronistic, but rather rational developments of the resources at hand that magic provides. Still, for the sake of argument I'll concede that my campaigns use various magical applications that reflect certain modern developments.

Socially, I would say that my campaign has few anachronisms. My campaigns feature feudal lords doing what they want, peasants are crushed, and there is plenty of racism, sexism, slavery and religious strife. Oh, and paladins and other knights are *expected* to mete out justice on the spot to criminals and evil-doers as they see fit, with no expectations of anyone being taken anywhere for trial by jury. Criminals and evil monsters have no rights. Lynchings and being burned at the stake are pretty common, too.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[painandgreed]

Germ theory and advanced medicine as healing. Given that it is standard germs and stuff causing sickness, and that most clerics can always start asking gods as to the cause and cure to various ailments, the repository of accurate knowledge was gathered early on in history. Although the technology isn't always there, society has a general knowledge of what causes illness and thus covers their sewers, boils their water, and follow other practices of hygeine. Somebody well trained in the heal skill could be considered to be equal to an EMT these days.

 

[Galethorn]

Ok, how about a point-by-point?

Assuming that I'm trying to replicate 12th century europe in 'broad strokes'...

1. The 'dominant' religion is a very low-key 'do-unto-others' sort of church, and it has a small (four-member) pantheon, is divided into many different sects and factions (and therefore lacks centralized power of any kind), and ultimately plays only a minimal role in Big Stuff when compared with economic and political power-centers (kings, trade guilds, etc.). As such, they don't really have the power or gumption to persecute other religions.

2. There are mythic creatures, including but not limited to fairies, a dragon or two, spirits that embody various different things (as well as the spirits of the dead), animated corpses, extra-big animals and insects, and various sorts of giants, all of which live in their own parts of the wilderness.

3. There are humanoid beings other than humans, including elves (the calm, reserved survivors of a once-great civilization, who have retreated to the forest), dwarves (great craftsmen, reduced to a mere fraction of their former numbers, and forced to live among humans), orcs/goblins/trolls (the progeny of an evil god in the distant past), and gnomes (curious forest-dwellers; the most civilized of the fey).

4. Varying degrees of gender equality (at worst, women can take most vocations, but some are frowned upon, and at best, there aren't any distinctions).

5. A very, very, very, very, very, very small percentage of the human population can use magic--however, they cloister themselves in isolated places, and, as such, most people don't believe they're "real". Generally speaking, magic is rare enough that most people won't see magic even once in their entire lifetime.

Those are the major ones. By and large, the sociocultural system is within the range that europe and similar agrarian regions have existed within (monarchs at the top, farmers at the bottom).

That said, I don't have most of the lame, setting-breaking D&Disms that a lot of people fail to account for because...well, I don't run the setting with D&D; Grim Tales is just a better system for it. And besides, it's more fun this way.

 

[the Lorax]

I try to make my homebrew campaign settings devoid of what I consider anachronisms. One of the anachronisms I don't tolerate and have seen often as a player, is to add Katanas in an otherwise totally western European medieval setting.

I well know that Arwen in the first LotR movie has a sword which blade looks like that of a katana, yet it's not the same thing. The players I have seen use katanas instead of longswords in a European medieval setting, wanted to have a one handed-sword that deals 1d10 of damage instead of 1d8, and because of the Highlander movie thought that there was something especially cool about the katana... **rolleyes**

I will allow the katana only the day I will run Legends of the Samurai. And of course only the appropriate classes will be allowed to wear a katana.

I really think you are caught up on semantics here.
Weather you are talking about the Heron Marked blades from Wheel of time series, any of the medieval 'choppers' from the Maciejowski Bible or even the grossmessr (a germanic sword from around 1400+). All of these, including the katana, are hand and a half swords, slightly curved with a single edge.

OTOH, according to the rules, a katana is nothing more than a masterwork bastard sword, as it should be.