Does D&D even have a component of "midieval" anymore?

[EditorBFG]

You know, 2nd Edition had this sort of weird Renaissance vibe to it-- a lot of Renaissance items in the original 2nd Ed PHB, lots of period outfits in the art.

3rd Edition has fully evolved into something else-- I won't argue that this is specifically a bad thing, but it is of no historical period. If anything, it has evolved to look more like a video game. But I dunno, maybe the whole steampunk/anime/WoW vibe is an all-new animal of its own.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Was it ever really all that medieval?

I somewhat have to agree. According to many arguments I've read on the web, D&D seems to many themes with the stereotypical Western movie than anything else. Things like small, isolated towns surrounded by "savages," bandits, or other agents of chaos and a small group of self-sufficient, independent-minded people entering the town to make things right. There are a lot of medieval trappings, magic, fantasy races, and so on, but I'm not sure the fundamental game deviates too much from the standard Western. YMMV, of course.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Depends whose game you play in.

The default rules? No.

I think it's an absolute crock. I like my environments dark, grim n gritty.

Medieval goes dark, grim n gritty better than anybody else Take a look at the art direction CD Projekt has used in their upcoming PC Game The Witcher,

The environments ooze authenticity. The character art direction has been Hollywooded a little - but steampunk is utterly absent from the setting - but it does sneak into the looks of some of the characters.

I prefer to focus on the environments

Now that's a game I want to play - and a world I want to play in.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

I've always felt that D+D suits the renaissance more than it does Medieval tropes.

1. There's more ability to change class.
2. The weapons and armour are late renaissance. Plate armour and rapiers at the same time?
3. The general thinking of D+D is more 'enlightened' than Medieval stuff. While there's tons of senseless violence, it's generally for a purpose of some sort.
4. Modern sensibilities are beginning to come out; Lords might be just humans after all.

etc etc.

Roleplaying is fun. But roleplaying Medieval sensibilities requires historical research, which players don't neccesarily want. You'd need to play (to the modern mind) a superstitious, narrow-minded brute of a character unless you had a reason not to be, basically. That isn't neccesarily fun.

A scene from history - for entertainment, people would throw cats on an open fire enclosed with a cage and laugh at their cries of pain and their antics as they tried to get out.

Another scene; a pig was hung from the neck, drawn and quartered and so forth because he trampled his master; he was judged guilty of murder.


Thats more medieval than anything. The sword of truth is the sword with the most blood on it.

A poster above mentioned he liked grim and gritty because Medieval epitomises the movement. I disagree; you want grim and gritty, try napoleonic wars or Thirty Years War. They are far grittier than medieval battles and deaths.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

While D&D is still very much medieval in my opinion, most of the current art would beg to differ. Then there's Eberon but don't get me started on that.

I know what you mean. The art direction in a rpg is very important for setting the mood. i don't think d&d "nailed it" as its called.

 

[Hussar]

Really, I don't think this varies a whole lot by edition either. I mean, you had space ships and powered armor in 1ed. The alignment system has always been modern. I've yet to see a campaign setting that killed women for wearing armor or carrying a sword. Adventurers are allowed to move from kingdom to kingdom and don't have nobles simply demanding their equipment as gifts. There is actually a chance that a non-noble could become king of the land. The list goes on and on. D&D, in any incarnation, has never been particularly medieval. It might have the trappings, but, culturally, it's been far more modern.

 

[Merkuri]

D&D is (and always has been, IMO) a fantasy world very loosely based on the medieval period. It's closer to Tolkein than it is to the actual dark ages of real-world history. And there's nothing wrong with that. IMO, the setting has much to do with the "feel" of the game and if you wanted to run a more historically accurate setting you are free to do so. Of course, you're also free to run a setting like Eberron, which deviates a lot from the loose medieval basis of D&D.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

D&D is not socially or economicly medieval, and, imo, thats a Good Thing. Because with alternate races, magic and divine intervention it would be perposterous if it was.

 

[Plane Sailing]

A scene from history - for entertainment, people would throw cats on an open fire enclosed with a cage and laugh at their cries of pain and their antics as they tried to get out.

Another scene; a pig was hung from the neck, drawn and quartered and so forth because he trampled his master; he was judged guilty of murder.

Don't have to be medieval for that kind of thing. The last fully public hanging in the UK was in 1868, but we have this record from a hanging in Stafford from 1856 to illustrate what was considered 'entertainment':

In spite of heavy rain throughout the proceeding night the crowd was estimated to be between 30,000 and 35,000, the majority of which was made up of men. Many of them walked the ten miles from Rugeley. Special trains came from Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent and London. By dawn hundreds had already taken their stand in the most favourable positions.

In Stafford the heavy drizzle did not stop the atmosphere of anticipation and excitement. The public houses had stayed open all night as did many of the Non-conformist chapels.

As for hanging animals...

During the time of the Napoleonic Wars. A French ship was wrecked just of the coast of the headland of Old Hartlepool.

The only survivor to be washed ashore was a small monkey dressed in a French sailors uniform. The wretched creature had apparently been used for entertainment by the crew of the unfortunate ship.

The people of Hartlepool at the time were largely simple fishing folk and had (probably) never seen a monkey and so they assumed it was a French spy, they promptly took it away for questioning. Unfortunately (for itself) the monkey could neither speak nor understand English and could only gibber agitatedly, which only served to further persuade the locals to the identity of the prisoner as they took this gibbering to be French! Finally the monkey was put on trial, found guilty of spying and of course sentenced to death by hanging. The monkey was finally hung on the fish sands a small stretch of beach below the ancient town wall.

 

[WayneLigon]

It's about a medieval as Conan's Aquilonia is, or Lankhmar , or Middle Earth; regardless of edition or art styles, it's always been about - and intended to be about - High Adventure, not dying from an infected cut. Anyone who ever thought it was suppossed to cleave anywhere close to Earthly reality from the 7th to the 15th centuries must have been looking at Gygax's polearm listings too closely and missed the point.