Elements of a realistic campaign

[Mallus]

The first element of a 'realistic' campaign is a set of rules other than D&D...

Seriously though, I think a certain level of realism is important for a successful game (that choking sound you hear is coming from my players and the readers of our Story Hour). Now I'm not talking about making the game a realistic simulation of medieval society and warfare, I mean realism as it applies to people (and characters in fiction).

The best example of this I can think of right now is Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On the surface level, the Buffyverse is totally absurd, the very definition of unrealistic; demon-fighting kung-fu teenagers, undead in every Starbucks, high school nerds building fembots, etc. But for all of that, the characters are believable. They ring true, behave more or less like real people, even though they might be demons, angsty vampires or slumming gods.

This is the kind of realism I strive for. I don't care if every village has a reasonable number of chickens, I don't lose sleep over the ecology of the umber hulk. But I do try to get my NPC's motivations in order, and that my characterizations, for those I bother to characterize, have a little of the spark of life about them. A believable spark...

It's been my experience that successful D&D worlds are made up of people (both PC & NPC's), it's what players remember fondly, not geography or weather.

 

[Celebrim]

But what elements do you believe a campaign should contain or omit to become [deep breath] verisimilitudinous, and how much trouble should a GM put into maintaining it?

IMO realistic campaigns:

1) Have large stretches of land which is neither a 'haven' nor a 'dungeon', and a certain amount of travel is expected across this area.
2) Have populations that are if not destitute, then are are recognizably primitive and impoverished and they do not consider this situation unusual. Poverty is the most universal constant of the human condition, a fact which most modern people are well sheltered from to the point of having no experience with it (but often thinking that they do).
3) Experiences weather at times when it is not a plot device.
4) Regularly involve various challenges which cannot be overcome by combat prowess. One mark of a realistic campaign is that power gamers experienced with the campaign sacrifice a certain amount of combat prowess and that combat twinks typically have higher casualty rates than more balanced characters because there is more going on pretty much all the time than 'kill things and take there stuff'.
5) Has NPC's with complex motives that are neither explicitly foils or enablers of the PCs. These NPC's are proactive and are assumed to do important things offstage, and are not normally at the PC's beck and call because what the PC's are doing isn't the sum total of events in the world. NPC's do not generally attack on sight or want to fight to the death unless they think they've no choice, because they do not want to live short lives. The associated assumption is that PC's that do these things consistantly are planning on living short lives.
6) Have taxes and laws which the PC's encounter at times when they are not a plot device. In fact, tongue only half in cheek, I could probably shorten this list to, 'If your PC's pay taxes regularly, its a realistic campaign. Otherwise, it's not.'
7) Has dealt with the problem that you are trying to simulate a real world, that is based on a narrative world where the simpliest explanation for its characteristics is magic doesn't really exist. In other words, if magic is rare and mysterious, you have a plausible explanation for this, or else, you assume that because it exists it's not rare and mysterious and take the consequences of that. If monsters are always, 'over there', you have a plausible explanation for it, or else you assume a society were monsters are not always 'over there'. Likewise, you have considered how society will have evolved with magic at the level of rarity you have assumed and not be surprised by how the PC's magic (fireball, flight, etc.) invalidates certain realities of the real world. In other words, your campaign's history does not however much detail it has, effectively begin with the PC's.
8) Attempts to make some sense economically. Specifically, some thought has been given to the question of what daily labor costs implies about available wealth in the area, and conversely what available wealth implies about daily labor costs. For example, you don't have an encounter with a group of bandits (or its monstrous equivalent) that yields thousands of gp worth of wealth, if the people that they've been preying on have a daily income of 1-6 sp per day unless your willing to conceed that that group of bandits has effectively become the government of the region (because they've clearly aggregated that much of the societies wealth to themselves). And, if you do conceed that, consider what it implies about the PC's impact on the society if they liberate those funds for themselves or try to spend them. In particular, a realistic campaign will assume that some things just aren't available no matter how much money you have because of at the least labor or skill shortages.
9) You avoid anachronistic tropes, or at least are consciously aware of when you are using anachronisms like monetary economies, goods on demand, casteless societies, slaveless societies, gender equality, cultural monotheism, universal cosmopolitanism, high quality free access roads, modern sensibilities about brutality or cruelty, individualism, well-defined nation states, universal rule of law, near universal literacy, freedom of information, freedom of travel, professional national armies, and so on and so forth. It's not that you necessarily can't or shouldn't have these things, but if you accept them without consideration, you probably aren't running a realistic campaign.
10) Informed by if not necessarily recreating history, so as to ensure that the simulated world is as a messy as the real one.

The goal is for the whole thing to hang together not just as a game (for which you don't need any realism at all), but as something which suffers having its surface scratched. Alot of the time you can get away with no realism because your players have no real desire to interact with the game world. But, the minute that the players leave the default paradigm and start trying to interact with the world, the limitations of an unrealistic world become painfully obvious. And for me, because I'm the sort of person who is continually scratching the surface even in the midst of watching a movie, the game losses something when it doesn't bear close inspection.

 

[Celebrim]

Pretty much ditto of what Dross and DrunkonDuty said.

I even went so far as to buy, read, and use XRP's Magical Medievel Societies: Western Europe, Silk Road, etc... When I finished those work sheets for a manor, a 100 square mile land holdings of a baron, and a city of 50,000, I was absolutely blown away how much gold such people generate in a "D&D economy"....

I just wish to point out that said city is about twice as large as medieval London. There isn't anything wrong with that necessarily, but it is potentially one of those modern anachronisms. Another potential anachronism is to imagine that there is even remotely enough gold in the Barony to represent all of its economic activity. In point of fact, probably no one in the Barony actually generates real physical gold (who owns the mines?), and the Baron probably would have a very hard time extracting 20% of the Baronies economic activity as coin. Also, the D&D economy uses a 'gold standard' and almost certainly a realistic economy would be on a 'silver standard'. Of course, all of this can be dealt with by adjusting the planet's 'physics' (maybe gold is much more plentiful on your world), but I think if you intend to be realistic these are the sort of things you consciously think about. For example, if gold is more plentiful, wealthy people probably have long since adopted some sort of paper money because wealth is otherwise to difficult (and expensive!) to transport and exchange.

For economics, I find it helpful to set some standard in your mind for how much a coin is worth. For example, IMC, a daily wage for an unskilled laborer is about one silver peice, or, roughly equivalent to $50. Since silver trades for gold at 20:1, a gold peice has about $1000 worth of purchasing power. Hense, a small industry with a profit of 100,000 gp per year makes absolutely no sense under my economic assumptions, but then neither necessarily do the standard costs of equipment and magic items. On the other hand, if one gold peice has roughly $50 worth of purchasing power, maybe 100,000 gp profit does make sense, but in that case what should $5 million dollars worth of purchasing power be able to buy (and maintain!).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

1) Mud. Lots of it.

2) Children below adventuring age. People do not spring into life at the moment they can become a henchman or a love interest.

3) Old people who are not exposition fountains.

4) Crops. They eat somehow.

5) Disease. People who never once get tapped by a mummy die of diseases, but it never seems to happen in most D&D games.

 

[Slife]

For a really realistic campaign? Screw the greeks, use these elements:

Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Chlorine, Argon, Potassium, Calcium, Scandium, Titanium, Vanadium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Gallium, Germanium, Arsenic, Selenium, Bromine, Krypton, Rubidium, Strontium, Yttrium, Zirconium, Niobium, Molybdenum, Technetium, Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Silver, Cadmium, Indium, Tin, Antimony, Tellurium, Iodine, Xenon, Caesium, Barium, Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Promethium, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, Lutetium, Hafnium, Tantalum, Tungsten, Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium, Platinum, Gold, Mercury, Thallium, Lead, Bismuth, Polonium, Astatine, Radon, Francium, Radium, Actinium, Thorium, Protactinium, Uranium, Neptunium, Plutonium, Americium, Curium, Berkelium, Californium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Mendelevium, Nobelium, Lawrencium, Rutherfordium, Dubnium, Seaborgium, Bohrium, Hassium, Meitnerium, Ununnilium, Unununium, Ununbium


Mind you, the elemental plane of francium might not last very long, but your domain choices will be awesome!

 

[Dan Bell]

For those of you who are seeking realism, try the rules-independent HarnWorld setting.

 

[Treebore]

I just wish to point out that said city is about twice as large as medieval London. There isn't anything wrong with that necessarily, but it is potentially one of those modern anachronisms. Another potential anachronism is to imagine that there is even remotely enough gold in the Barony to represent all of its economic activity. In point of fact, probably no one in the Barony actually generates real physical gold (who owns the mines?), and the Baron probably would have a very hard time extracting 20% of the Baronies economic activity as coin. Also, the D&D economy uses a 'gold standard' and almost certainly a realistic economy would be on a 'silver standard'. Of course, all of this can be dealt with by adjusting the planet's 'physics' (maybe gold is much more plentiful on your world), but I think if you intend to be realistic these are the sort of things you consciously think about. For example, if gold is more plentiful, wealthy people probably have long since adopted some sort of paper money because wealth is otherwise to difficult (and expensive!) to transport and exchange.

For economics, I find it helpful to set some standard in your mind for how much a coin is worth. For example, IMC, a daily wage for an unskilled laborer is about one silver peice, or, roughly equivalent to $50. Since silver trades for gold at 20:1, a gold peice has about $1000 worth of purchasing power. Hense, a small industry with a profit of 100,000 gp per year makes absolutely no sense under my economic assumptions, but then neither necessarily do the standard costs of equipment and magic items. On the other hand, if one gold peice has roughly $50 worth of purchasing power, maybe 100,000 gp profit does make sense, but in that case what should $5 million dollars worth of purchasing power be able to buy (and maintain!).

Well, Joe Browning established his system on "D&D gold" using guidleines from the DMG. The only changes I have made to coins in my game is that I "Romanized" them. IE made them the size the Romans did. So I have 100 gold coins to a pound rather than 50.

Plus the population size of the city is based on the setting, not medievel Europe. My wife uses medievel Europe as her setting, but I don't. So in the setting I use the population the author gave makes sense.

So like you say, depending on what assumptions a setting uses effects what will maintain realism.

 

[Ringan]

Agree with everything you said, Celebrim, especially...

IMO realistic campaigns:

1) Have large stretches of land which is neither a 'haven' nor a 'dungeon', and a certain amount of travel is expected across this area.

...

3) Experiences weather at times when it is not a plot device.

And you brought up some assumptions that I hadn't realized I had been making, here...

9) You avoid anachronistic tropes, or at least are consciously aware of when you are using anachronisms like monetary economies, goods on demand, casteless societies, slaveless societies, gender equality, cultural monotheism, universal cosmopolitanism, high quality free access roads, modern sensibilities about brutality or cruelty, individualism, well-defined nation states, universal rule of law, near universal literacy, freedom of information, freedom of travel, professional national armies, and so on and so forth. It's not that you necessarily can't or shouldn't have these things, but if you accept them without consideration, you probably aren't running a realistic campaign.

Thanks for the insight!

 

[Mallus]

And for me, because I'm the sort of person who is continually scratching the surface even in the midst of watching a movie, the game losses something when it doesn't bear close inspection.

I find myself asking, "If most campaign settings don't hold up to scrutiny, do more rigorously and realistically detailed ones hold up to actual play?

It's a good list Cel, but the trick is implementing it. Care to give any thoughts on how to do it?

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

For those of you who are seeking realism, try the rules-independent HarnWorld setting.

No kidding! I just went there and downloaded Goffin manorial fief. Talk about a timesaver! And the production values of the downloads I've seen so far are very good. Although not 100% game system neutral or agnostic. Terms like "half-vilein" and Size 6 have no meaning for me.