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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Coldwyn" data-source="post: 5426913" data-attributes="member: 10041">[MENTION=6667746]shadzar[/MENTION]First of, some things: Whatever your timestamp may say, it´s close to midnight when I start writing this, I´m thru half a bottle of fine japanese whiskey by now, I´m used to communicate in a very precise language and need to translate my thoughts to english, I´ve majored in art history and finaly, can some mod please split that post over to it´s own "Is D&D really Western Europe Medieval" thread?For simplicitys sake, let´s focus on Greater Germany because it´s easier to look up wikipedia with the locations and dates given.When I say D&D has a frontiers mentality, I mean that there are little towns/hamlets sitting alone in the wilderness, surrounded by antagonistic creatures.When I say Outlaws vs Sheriffs, I mean brave heroes going out to solve the problem because the local authorities can´t.For contrast and context, compare a map of modern Germany with a map of Greater Germany in the middle middle ages and compare what you see. It´s the same.Now think about the state most Settings in D&D are in an compare that to early to middle 1800 in the US.So, coming back to that, the local authorities in Greater Germany really tamed the wilderness, made travel and commerce save and reacted to any problem by massive force of arms. Check out the History of Erfurt, for example, a town that around 1300 not only fielded 3 universities but also managed to secure the trade routes between Moscow, Greater Germany and Paris by force of arms.Now think about your typical D&D towns and inviroments and compare that to the situation west of the Mississippi around 1800. Notice something?I could go on about travelling distances between places (from villages to full-blown cities) and castles/outposts, but I´m certainly too drunk to do that.So let´s get over to the social aspects.The actual middle ages saw Greater Germany very fractured as well as very unified. Fractured because it was, at times, well over a hundred kingdoms and small tiefdoms, unified because they nearly all shared the same outlooks and priciples. That existed on a physical ground a bit smaller than modern day Texas.Now compare that to D&D, huge tracts of land, all belonging to more or less the same nation(s), settlements without contact to the rest of the world and so on.by that time, there was no sole rule by a monarchy or other heritary class, it was already shared by the merchant class, like the Fuggers or Medici, still, the serving class (serfs) had to serve, else there´d be punishment. Having said this, we also see the rise of the citizen and the artisan in this era.Ah well, to cut it short, when you compare D&D to early and middle 1800 USA, then to actual medieval Europe, you see where you land.Now I gotta get me a refill of that japanese stuff =D</blockquote>

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