How Close To "Real" Is Your World?

[Kid Charlemagne]

I don't think I've ever posted a poll before...

The question is this: How "Real" is your world?

There have been several threads in the past few days (the Cold Iron thread, the Slave Turnover thread, the Campaign World - Distances thread) that revolve around the question of how close to real world physics, politics, economics, etc.

How much do you hew to the characteristics of the real world? Do your kingdoms look much like medieval kingdoms? Do chemistry and physics work essentially like they do in real life, with exceptions for magic? Do the economies of your world operate through market forces or do things have intrinsic value that does not change?

Myself, I like my campaign worlds to match closely to real-life where possible, with the obvious exceptions of magic and such. Dragon fly when techniically they shouldn't, and gunpowder exists but the ingredients are different, but otherwise, the great majority of the rules of science in our world apply.

 

[diaglo]

it is magical.

PCs and most NPCs know nothing in comparison.

they learn as they explore.

just like in real life. it takes time and practice. and being in the right place at the right time.

 

[Ibram]

I hold fairly close to real world physics... in most regards.

Magic does tend to throw things off however, but I try to work around that.

Gunpowder works, the world revolves around the sun, ect... Magic is another aspect of the univers, more of a collection of physical laws then a single force in and of itself. These laws are far beyond the understanding of mortals however, and such magic retains its mystery and danger.

most importantly... magic is a zero sum game, the universe doesnt give things away for free.

 

[the Jester]

Not really real at all, but with an internal logic and consistency that (I hope) makes a lot of sense.

The physics are different- what looks like gravity is a result of surface tension, for instance- and it's not a planet at all, it's the inside surface of a giant bubble in water. The sun is a blazing object that orbits a central island at a distance of about half a million miles. And the world is huge.

 

[MonsterMash]

No published or homebrew world I use is that realistic as a lot of the time I'd rather fudge the economics, magic, etc, as long as I can make it work in a fairly consistent pattern and it lets us have fun that's good enough.

 

[JimAde]

Mine's a boring old planet made of rock and stuff, circling a star in the normal way.

Real-world physics are the rule, magic breaks the rules in certain prescribed ways. Spells are pre-existing gifts created by the gods and unlocked by casters (which is why one caster's fireball has the same effect as another's, even though it might look a little different).

Economics are as realistic as I can make them without putting too much effort into it. It's not a focus of the game.

 

[Laman Stahros]

The main problem I have with most campaign settings is that they don't take into account magic at their core. If magic works and is reliable, then the countries are not going to be medieval countries with magic lightly laid on top. Magic would have effects that would reach from the most minor to the most major. My world tries to take this into account.

 

[Old One]

(the Cold Iron thread, the Slav Turnover thread, the Campaign World - Distances thread)

Is this a new kind of Russian pastry?

Pretty real...economics, politics, etc...mainly modeled on historical precedence.

~ OO

 

[Boddha]

I went for the "not terribly real" option, I try to stick with a kind of logical reality most of the time for two reasons 1) it's what we know and are used to and 2) I'm to lazy/don't have enough time to model things more accurately.

The other thing that gets me with some published settings/novel settings is the thousands of years worth of history with little or no scientific (or magic-ific) advancement.

 

[radferth]

I like to keep things real because I have a science background and I like to base things on historical societies. This means I run fairly low magic worlds, because otherwise things would diverge too much from the pseudo-historical thing I am trying to do. I have gone so far as to equate adamant with titanium and mithral with modern steel (those clever dwarves and their chromolly breastplates). Not that this tends to come up much, but it is nice knowing that I have someplace to turn if the characters have inconvenient questions. Of course I have enjoyed playing in settings such as Glorantha, which is so highly mythic that even simple real-world physics cannot be relied upon. For example, gold used to fall up, because it wanted to be with the sun god. When he was slain and went to the underworld, gold started falling down. For some reason it kept falling down even when the sun god was resurected, but some gold, refered to as "old gold" never got in the habit of falling down, so it falls up. There was a lot of weird stuff like this, which was fun to play with, but I would have a hard time DMing it.