Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="maddman75" data-source="post: 4652384" data-attributes="member: 2673">An excellent article SHARK.  Have you read Guns, Germs, and Steel?  The conclusions of that book would strongly indicate certain geographical and ecological aspects of an area where large civilizations emerge.- East-west orientation of the continent- Traversable terrain between fertile areas- Abundance of plants and animals that are readily adaptable to domesticationI'll take your points and see how they apply themselves to the generic implied D&D settingThis is definitely in the mix.  There's all these dungeons, built by some past great people, filled with wonders and treasures.  Many settings have details about the ancient peoples and the heights they achieved.The role of the barbarians are filled by humanoids.  Hordes of orcs, trolls, ogres, and goblins roam the countryside.  They build no cities of their own and found no kingdoms, but seek to tear apart the foundations of human civilization.  They are universally portrayed as dim, violent, and uncivilized.Here D&D tends to falter, with the default being a pantheon of deities when a powerful singular church would be more appropriate.  I've played with monotheism before, with paladins and clerics all getting their powers from the same deity.  Variety was provided through patron saints.  Druids were essentially pagans, and considered little better than demon worshippers by the clerics and paladins.Again, the humanoids represent this well.  I cannot recall how 4e handles it, but in AD&D there were different tongues for each humanoid race, with orcs, goblins, kobolds, and others all seperated by language.  They tended to hate each other as well.Its pretty much a staple of the D&D game - some orc warlord has come to power and started raiding the villages.Again, not so much with D&D.  It is consistantly portrayed as an egalitarian and enlightened society, where peasants can see a tiefling walk into town and start casting spells without going for the torch and pitchfork.  This is possibly the least medieval aspect of the implied D&D setting.Again, not so much.  The D&D setting often cares little for changing seasons.This one has some influence in the presence of ways to prevent or become immune to diseases.  But large scale plauges are rare, and it is usually assumed that magic keeps such things in check.I think a game could potentially benefit from making the game more medieval.  I like to think in terms of adventures, so how can we make an adventure out of the above items?- The growing seasons have gotten shorter and the winters harsher and longer.  The PCs find a cult that worships death and cold.  In the distant mountains, this cult is led by an ancient white dragon, who was awoken from his slumber by a god of frozen death to make an eternal winter.- A terrible disease strikes a city, and the nobles call out for help.  They are just fine, as they can afford the expensive rituals to keep the disease off them.  But the people are dying and may be near rioting as they watch their loved ones die in droves while the nobles sit in safety.  There's a mad necromancer spreading the plague, both to inspire rebellion in the city and provide him with fodder for an undead army.Not sure how to make intolerance and ignorance a one-time adventure.  More like a bit of background flavor.</blockquote>

Verification