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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Belen" data-source="post: 9392644" data-attributes="member: 1405">Slavery is a part of less advanced societies.It was something that hit me when I first read Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In the book, the main characters are faced with a choice of murdering a bunch of war prisoners (people who were forced to be cannibals) or enslaving them and making them work to grow food. They could not just let a bunch of cannibals who had laid waste to the surrounding area go and they did not want to murder them.They also had to make a decision in whether to send troops to save a power plant and this is where one character made a plea to save the plant using the argument that you only have the morals that you can afford. Saving the power plant meant saving a technology base that would mean that they may not need slavery because power would afford them the ability to grow food with fewer people.Technology allows a society to have morals that a non-technic society cannot afford. It frees up people to live lives that are not just about basic needs. It means that instead of having a small class of elites supported by a massive labor force, that you get to have a larger number of people who can become merchants and scholars. Even the "labor force" can afford a better standard of living.Now, magic can afford higher morals as well but it is also a rare resource and far more expensive that manual labor. In D&D, there are different morals because those of the morals a society can hold and a lot of people model them.I am not saying that slavery was ever good. It was not but the horror is that may have been the least bad choice afforded to those older societies. (Note: the US could have afforded better morals.)I am not defending slavery. Ever.I am also a major proponent of technology as a way to better the lives of people and give us the ability to have and develop better societal morals.I know this was long-winded but I think this is one reason why many GMs rely on historical precedents for how things work.Slavery has never been a major component in my games and it is always a condition that is opposed by characters when it is used and as I mainly use point of light, then it is also not generally a factor as slavery tends to be a force multiplier to provide food etc to cities and nations rather than small communities.</blockquote>

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