How real is your fantasy?

[Quasqueton]

How real is your fantasy world? Consider this question to include not only homebrewed worlds, but also any published setting, big or small.

Does the population in your fantasy world reflect Real World populations of a comparable era?

Does the technology (magical or scientific) match Real World methods and discovery?

Do road systems, trade routes, shipping lanes, etc. match Real World logistics?

Do political systems and political borders match Real World equivalents?

Does the geographic features of your world match Real World geographic features?

Etc., etc., etc.

Has your game ever stumbled during play because some social/economic/political/geographic aspect of the campaign world didn't properly match a Player's Real World understanding of it?

Quasqueton

 

[moticon]

I think my campaign is fairly "realistic" in that it mostly takes place in a sparsely populated area with a few key trade routes and communities that are driven by economic, climactic, political, and geographic features.

Population is spread out as you'd expect. I don't worry about technology, assuming that the tech is what it is (standard DnD).

Most of what takes place in the background makes sense in my settings, unless of course there is something special happening, but then that's usually a key part of an adventure so the PC's are intrigued by it rather than stumbling over it.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Hong seems to think my Studies in Religion academic mojo will cause a Reality Check failure for the metaphysical and spiritual elements of his world, but he worries far too much.

That said, I am tweaking the normal role of religion in D&D worlds to reflect a bit more ambiguity and complexity so as to better represent the interesting conflicts between real-world religious beliefs and opinions, mostly to provide a source of conflict in an area I know I understand.

Does the population in your fantasy world reflect Real World populations of a comparable era?

I won't be worrying too much about this, primarily because I'm setting my campaign (if it ever takes off) in a relatively newly-colonised archipelago that wasn't previously inhabited (at least, not in the areas settled so far).

Does the technology (magical or scientific) match Real World methods and discovery?

To a certain extent. I won't be including a great deal of technology beyond, at the most, the early Renaissance, though I suspect I might want to research the names of ships and whatnot in use during that period, historically - and not just in Europe, since I'm contemplating the addition of an Asian-style culture to the mix. I may, however, seek out technological equivalence rather than historical simultaneity for this purpose.

Do road systems, trade routes, shipping lanes, etc. match Real World logistics?

I intend to figure out what, exactly, is traded between the islands of the archipelago and any other nations in the trading sphere, but I'm not going to obsess about working out currents and the like.

Do political systems and political borders match Real World equivalents?

One nation, one political entity. That said, I intend to use a political system based loosely on a Roman republican model, since that's another area I'm familiar with from my studies. At least - governmental participation will be based on land ownership, with the addition of urban guilds filling the rough role of the plebeian tribunes, representing the common man; if, that is, the common man belongs to a guild. There will be a definite underclass without guild representation or a landed patron to look out for them.

Does the geographic features of your world match Real World geographic features?

I don't intend to commit any ridiculous violations of geophysics, but I won't be breaking out any geology textbooks to figure out how the archipelago should be formed. It's harder to get things wrong on islands, though, I think, than it is on continents.

 

[Gez]

Does the population in your fantasy world reflect Real World populations of a comparable era?

I doubt I could find in our history something I would deem a comparable era. Sure, in a way, it's after Ceremonial Burying, Alphabet, Bridge Building and before Advanced Flight or Nuclear Power; but it's also after Planar Travel, Arcane Magic and before Grand Unified Magical Theory. Which aren't even in the Real World's Civilopedia.

Does the technology (magical or scientific) match Real World methods and discovery?

In a way, some do. But the mindset behind their use is not the same as the modern one. No one would makes an industry out of magic, like was the premise for Eberron, because that's just not how people think.

Do road systems, trade routes, shipping lanes, etc. match Real World logistics?

I'd be surprised.

Do political systems and political borders match Real World equivalents?

Political systems? Well, there's kingdoms and empires and oligarchies and democracies (in the ancient meaning of the word, that is to say citizenship is restricted to a few people). But it's similar only on a superficial level. A more indepth look gives something that would only accidentally resemble Real Earth.
Political borders? Hell no. Not at all.

Does the geographic features of your world match Real World geographic features?

Totally, completely not. Also, on the same vein, RW climatology is pointless in my homebrew. Weather depends more on the doings of druid cabals and the local spirit's mood than on depressions and anticyclones.

Has your game ever stumbled during play because some social/economic/political/geographic aspect of the campaign world didn't properly match a Player's Real World understanding of it?

No, never.

Otherwise, it would start with the first flying dragon. Aerodynamism, square/cube laws, no hexapodal vertebrates, etc.

I don't intend to commit any ridiculous violations of geophysics

It depends on what your definition of ridiculous is, but I gleefully do. The world was created by gods, powers, and spirits. It was shattered by cosmic cataclysms. It is defined by magic and symbolism. Screw plate tectonics, there's no molten core of magma with a hard kernel of compressed metal or funky things like that. There's dimensional foldings and raw emptyness from when the heart of the world was torn out by the gods to create the moon... And now there's fiends building their own planes in that void. And there's teh risk of it crumbling on itself and dissolving realty in the process. So don't make me laugh with ridiculous things like "mountains exist because of subduction plates" or whatever. Mountains exiss because they exist.

 

[Wombat]

I try to keep to fairly "real world" pre-industrial standards in my games (90% of population are farmers, nobility is only a semi-permeable class, not primarily a money-based culture, population density varies wildly by area, etc.), but this also has to take some allowances for the amount of magic allowed in the world. In many ways it is a balancing act between what was actually true and what people believed was true about the later Middle Ages/Renaissance. In many ways, this is like updating the "Medieval Paradigm" of Ars Magica.

There are always changes, due to the magic, but at least there is a basis in reality; this makes, I have found, for a more believable game.

 

[reanjr]

How real is your fantasy world? Consider this question to include not only homebrewed worlds, but also any published setting, big or small.

I'm not sure "real" is the right word. "logical" or "organic" might be better.

Does the population in your fantasy world reflect Real World populations of a comparable era?

Well, there is no such thing as a comparable era in most of my campaigns (there's no direct association between cultures on Earth and in campaign like there is in FR for instance). While I don't actually specify a population for an area usually, the places are filled appropriately as to population density, etc.

Does the technology (magical or scientific) match Real World methods and discovery?

To a certain extent. I've had areas that hadn't yet implemented the stirrup. I've had a culture that kept compound bows a secret. Things like that. Magically, I've never used magic as a daily thing, and so it rarely has campaign wide effects on technology.

Do road systems, trade routes, shipping lanes, etc. match Real World logistics?

No. While I give brief thought to the concept, the road systems basically match what is necessary for adventure. Trade is thought out as to which areas trade with which, but not the exact route they take to get there.

Do political systems and political borders match Real World equivalents?

I don't really know how to answer this one. I generally have mostly feudal societies, with the occasional communist or democracy location. I guess it's not perfectly aligned with the real world, but also not too inplausible either.

Does the geographic features of your world match Real World geographic features?

I doubt it. While I try, I never had too much interest in (and therefore never learned anything about) geology and things like that. I do my best, but don't fret over it (rivers travel to lower elevations, etc.)

Has your game ever stumbled during play because some social/economic/political/geographic aspect of the campaign world didn't properly match a Player's Real World understanding of it?

Yes. I've had some heated arguments about technologies that should be available, especially. But I've also had players boggled at a low population on a planet that I had to explain away by retrospectively making it only recently terraformed (and therefore most areas inhospitable). They tried to plan military tactics based on an implicit understanding of what should be possible manpower-wise. Occasionally players will make too simple an assessment on a town if it's trade has been presented poorly or has not been planned out. (they'll assume since everytime they see trade going out it's fish that poisoning the water would immediately cause the town to become eradicated, for instance).

So, yeah I've had some problems before. But mostly, it's not a realy problem that crops up as much as it is a problem that seeps into the campaign causing the players to turn to metagaming and thinking about the world as a fictional place, because it seems like it.

 

[Ibram]

I try and keep my worlds somewhat consistant geographicly and politicly.
Since my campaings tend to take place durring a late Middle Ages-early Renesance time period most people live by farming. populations are scattered, but cluster around the larger cities and trade routs. Politicly nearly all countries are run by some sort of nobility, with Monarchies being the most common form of government.

 

[DragonLancer]

My campaigns work as close to real world as they can given that its a fantasy world, and that I'm not an expert on such things. As long as theres nothing that doesn't make sense then my players and I are happy.

Its a game. It doesn't need to be uber-realistic, IMO.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Constructions provide the power of heavy equipment, such as paddle wheels, and lifts but manpower is still the perferred work force. Animated objects perform things like fanning, cleaning of city streets, and such.

Airships are rare.

Waterways are the roadways for the most part, I lean toward cannels over roads. While there are paved roads, they are mostly close to major cities.

Cities control an area of about 60 miles to 100 miles around them, then it becomes wilderness with narrow lanes of trade. Population is mostly in the cities.

 

[Silveras]

How real is your fantasy world? Consider this question to include not only homebrewed worlds, but also any published setting, big or small.

Does the population in your fantasy world reflect Real World populations of a comparable era?

Does the technology (magical or scientific) match Real World methods and discovery?

Do road systems, trade routes, shipping lanes, etc. match Real World logistics?

Do political systems and political borders match Real World equivalents?

Does the geographic features of your world match Real World geographic features?

Etc., etc., etc.

Has your game ever stumbled during play because some social/economic/political/geographic aspect of the campaign world didn't properly match a Player's Real World understanding of it?

Quasqueton

My homebrew world is at once similar and dissimilar from historical reality. Generally, when it comes to observable phenomena like gravity, my homebrew looks much like the real world. However, my homebrew happens to be a collection of flat plates with edges (yes, you *can* fall off the edge of the world) connected by magical gates.

Weather patterns are at the whim of the gods. The random weather in the DMG is as usable as any generated by a thorough analytical model of wind currents, humidity patterns, etc.

Diseases are delivered by the malevolent spirits serving the god of Plague, are inflicted through spells and curses, or are carried by vermin.

Things that are behavior-based (like the placement of cities, trade routes, etc.) follow the general principles adjusted for the presence of magic. That is to say, if magic allows water to be found and crops grown in the desert, then a big city can thrive there.

I try to emulate the cultural flavors of history, but I do not obsess about it.