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Historical periods, Problematic Elements, Gameplay, and Fun
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<blockquote data-quote="Blue Orange" data-source="post: 8770796" data-attributes="member: 7025997"><p>It really winds up depending on the sensitivities of your table. You don't want to do anything your players will find traumatizing, but if none of them have huge problems with this you could play it as it was (or at least as far as you know the way it was, which of course is probably not accurate given the limited sources). History is quite brutal, but D&D is combat related and usually involves killing lots of monsters. If you know a player has a specific sensitivity like slavery or racism, you could avoid those subjects...or if it's European-African racism that's the problem, for example, focus on 'racism' between Goths and Romans, for example, who would be considered separate 'races' in that time; you could even invert Nazi stereotypes about German superiority for sneering Roman snobs ("blond hair and blue eyes--so ugly!"). Most of history involves large amounts of slavery and conflict between ethnic groups (and if they're not fighting over blood, they're fighting over money or religion). </p><p></p><p>You could also make a Fantasy Counterpart Culture, what with a fallen empire like the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, Netheril (this one fell literally), or Ergoth as was done in various D&D supplements. File off the serial numbers so nothing hits too close to home for anyone and you can have all the viking raids you want. Play up the social limitations of the not-Vikings--you have a clan to keep happy with your raiding, and if you don't bring back enough booty you're in trouble. The 'barbarians' had their own rules they had to live by, after all.</p><p></p><p>If nothing else it's worth remembering that our age's <em>own </em>values may be looked on poorly in a few hundred years. "All that sensitivity and they did nothing to stop climate change and now we're all living on canoes and raiding the ruins of the skyscrapers between floods!"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue Orange, post: 8770796, member: 7025997"] It really winds up depending on the sensitivities of your table. You don't want to do anything your players will find traumatizing, but if none of them have huge problems with this you could play it as it was (or at least as far as you know the way it was, which of course is probably not accurate given the limited sources). History is quite brutal, but D&D is combat related and usually involves killing lots of monsters. If you know a player has a specific sensitivity like slavery or racism, you could avoid those subjects...or if it's European-African racism that's the problem, for example, focus on 'racism' between Goths and Romans, for example, who would be considered separate 'races' in that time; you could even invert Nazi stereotypes about German superiority for sneering Roman snobs ("blond hair and blue eyes--so ugly!"). Most of history involves large amounts of slavery and conflict between ethnic groups (and if they're not fighting over blood, they're fighting over money or religion). You could also make a Fantasy Counterpart Culture, what with a fallen empire like the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, Netheril (this one fell literally), or Ergoth as was done in various D&D supplements. File off the serial numbers so nothing hits too close to home for anyone and you can have all the viking raids you want. Play up the social limitations of the not-Vikings--you have a clan to keep happy with your raiding, and if you don't bring back enough booty you're in trouble. The 'barbarians' had their own rules they had to live by, after all. If nothing else it's worth remembering that our age's [I]own [/I]values may be looked on poorly in a few hundred years. "All that sensitivity and they did nothing to stop climate change and now we're all living on canoes and raiding the ruins of the skyscrapers between floods!" [/QUOTE]
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