[D&D history/development] I wonder why...

[Theron]

I've always wondered what they were thinking with the look of the troll. Never have liked it. There should be tusks, and thick huge claws. And clothing.

The early obsession with accurate mapping always amused me.

The gold peice standard. From one side I can understand it's simplicity, and in tales one never hears about 'chests of shining silver' but still.

The whole Great Wheel concept.

The D&D troll is adapted nearly verbatim from the trolls in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts & Three Lions. The illustrations match his descriptions quite accurately.

 

[mmadsen]

Why do NPCs make 1 sp a day?

Because most of humanity throughout the world earned roughly one silver penny per day throughout most of human history prior to the Industrial Revolution?

That's totally crazy, when your 1st level expert shopkeeper gets heaps of coins from random adventurers and the adventurers themselves could literally buy their lives as if it were nothing?

A shopkeeper isn't at all typical of a pre-modern economy; he's part of the petite bourgeoisie, the tiny social class that was neither peasant nor aristocrat (nor priest).

Also, what makes you think it's terribly profitable to cater to random adventurers? Even with a 100% mark-up, you might not earn much return on your investment; it's not as if you're going to turn over your entire inventory in days or weeks or even months. Scrounge up hundreds of gold pieces, in a world with no modern finance, spend it all on odd goods no one normal really needs, then wait until adventurers show up to pay a premium for those goods?

 

[Hussar]

Funnily enough, the troll also matches the depictions in Three Billy Goats Gruff by Asbjornensen (sp), down to the nose as long as a poker and whatnot.

 

[sukael]

Sure we can talk about a dozen rationalizations for all of this. But given the lore for most settings, we're generally talking about sophisticated cultures that are thousands of years old and they never so much as wonder why a crystal refracts light. Nobody thinks of these things? Ever?

Simple... real-world scientific things just don't work that way in the D&D metaverse.

 

[Tewligan]

I've always wondered what they were thinking with the look of the troll. Never have liked it. There should be tusks, and thick huge claws. And clothing.

That's an ogre, isn't it?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Sure we can talk about a dozen rationalizations for all of this. But given the lore for most settings, we're generally talking about sophisticated cultures that are thousands of years old and they never so much as wonder why a crystal refracts light. Nobody thinks of these things? Ever?

I don't say that. I say that D&D doesn't have to follow the same physical rules as our world. In fact, I say it can't, because you'll have a hard time explaining magic then.

And the line "I'ts Magic!" isn't just to handwave discussions on message boards. It works quite well within the game world itself, too!

People there usually don't waste time with "mundane science" (like "why is light reflected like that") because magic ignores mundane rules, circumvents them, superdedes them.

Most smart people won't bother with questions like "why do things drop when I let them go? Why can birds fly? How can I imitate the bird?" because they know that "if I use magic, I won't drop!". So instead of wasting their time trying to create some unwieldy contraption that lets them fly like a bird, when they can use the time learning the fly spell, or improving said spell.


If you want magical scientists Splitting the Thaum, D&D isn't for you. You need Discworld!

 

[Vocenoctum]

That's an ogre, isn't it?

I had a campaign using the Shadowrun type idea.
Troll was the name given to ogres and trolls. D&D trolls were simply infected ogres, (like troll/dzoo nuqua in SR) and half orcs were replaced by Trollborn (which weren't actually physically the children of ogres, but rather cursed). Hags also fit into it of course.

 

[Vocenoctum]

We don't have firearms because the universe/gods don't let us or the materials aren't there. OK.

I think guns are possible, but not used because of the monetary investment and because folks that have power don't want them advanced. Moreso because we want armor, and guns make armor worthless.

But ....

We have dwarves who can make an adamantite sword cut through volcanoes but they can't muster up the metallurgy to make a decent steam engine railroad.

Seriously, how many folks hate Eberron for the magic railroad? I do think dwarves/ gnomes have steam engines for some uses though, just nothing world spanning.

We can build roads, but not dig a trench for canals.

I'm pretty sure we have canals...

We have gods of healing and knowledge, but they never get together to work on germ theory.

We have a heal skill that aids disease recovery, so I assume a basic knowledge of disease and poison. Magic does hinder a true working knowledge, and we haven't actually mastered disease in real life either... of course, it's rare for a real "massive plague" in D&D.

That said, my pet peeve (which Eberron somewhat addresses) is that magical healing seems so inaccessible to normal folks. If the village priest wouldn't cast CLW to save little Timmy from bleeding out, then he'd be the next one bleeding out.

We have the ability to cut 10,000gp crystals and minerals, but we don't have the optics to make a decent magnifying glass to look at cells.

I'm sure they do have optics, and I'm sure some have a working knowledge of basic components of life. It just doesn't come up, and I doubt commoners care.

It is more important to a city to magic up a +2 longsword than it is to feed thousands of people. This applies even to lawful good areas.

Yes, the kings crown costs enough to feed thousands, and Defense budgets are high. I can't help you there.

People worship evil gods and commit evil deeds knowing that there exists a literal hell. Anywhere that has so much as a 1st level cleric can get daily confirmation of this. The level of communication between deity and worshiper could only be improved with instant text messaging, yet almost every lawful good church in D&D has at least one person, if not a sub-organization, that operates with malignant motivations.

Evil lies, and the fact you can become a Balor eventually is a great lure. At the same time, Evil never tells you how long that might take...

 

[Treebore]

I am sorry if someone answered this already, I haven't read the whole thread

Tiamat is Lawful Evil because she is in charge of the first of the 9 layers of hell, where everyone is lawful evil. I am pretty sure that is from the 1E MM write up.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I am sorry if someone answered this already, I haven't read the whole thread

Tiamat is Lawful Evil because she is in charge of the first of the 9 layers of hell, where everyone is lawful evil. I am pretty sure that is from the 1E MM write up.

But that's circular logic. If she weren't LE, Gygax wouldn't have written her to be a ruler of Hell.