literacy and you average adventurer

[Tsyr]

But surely Dwarfs should be literate - what with all the runes and the need for a system of mathematical symbols related to their engineering (so a very specific number-intensive literacy but literate none the less)

Elves on the other hand would be more into an oral culture of reciting long ballards and painting beautiful pictures than one of writing things down. (of course their pictures may develop into Pictographs such as the Aztecs(Mayans?) used

Well, first of all, note the IMC. That stands for In My Campaign. And IMC, Dwarves and Elves are a touch different.

But even in the standard setting, I see my stance as being fairly accurate...

Dwarves aren't the uber-engineers of a "standard" dnd setting... that's gnomes. Dwarves are smiths, artisans, craftsmen, etc... sure, the average dwarf may know some artisans notations, maybe numbers, but really, what use does a swordsmith or a jewler have to be literate? And dwarves, as I see it, wouldn't waste their time on something they didn't need.

Elves, on the other hand, seem to LOVE wasting their time on things they don't need, so why WOULDN'T they be literate? and in several languages probably? They have time, motivation (Hey, with near to a millinia to play with, you get bored of songs one day), and besides... literacy is as much an art as anything else. Novels, poetry, etc. Elves aren't tribal, they are just... artsy. So while oral tradition may still be strong, I don't think it would over-weigh other forms of communication.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I like it, in fact I regard it as one of the better things about 3e.

It really gets the point across that this is not real world dark ages europe here.


To many people out there trying to play D&D as if it was medievel europe without all the society changes that magic brings about.

Whether people could read in our soceity has absolutly NO bearing on if they should in DND

 

[Tsyr]

I like it, in fact I regard it as one of the better things about 3e.

It really gets the point across that this is not real world dark ages europe here.


To many people out there trying to play D&D as if it was medievel europe without all the society changes that magic brings about.

Whether people could read in our soceity has absolutly NO bearing on if they should in DND

/me nods

I've championed this point since the boards opened... no one ever listens to it though.

That said though, I'm not completely sure that the magic and so forth would have any huge effect on literacy.

 

[Heap Thaumaturgist]

Well, IMC, literacy will be something hard to come by. Then again, MC is -not- your usual D&D, so it makes sense there. I'll be using a ranks system alot like Nemm's.

For the most part my signs work alot like signs did before literacy became commonplace in our world ... The Golden Grapes Inn has a large sign outside with, well, gold-painted grapes on it. Orcish "Do Not Enter" signs are particular totems with an arrangement of skulls and feathers. Plague markers are painted sticks ... things that don't involve words because language is an oral thing and writing comes second.

Wizards and Rogues for the most part will have literacy as a class skill. Everybody else will have to pay cross-class for it, in small doses, meaning most people won't bother with it and will have to ask the Wiz what something means ...

--HT

... oh, and Clerics of certain orders will get literacy as a class skill. That's where our biggest drive to literacy came from.

 

[Heap Thaumaturgist]

Unrelated to IMC but still connected ...

I don't think Magic would make that huge an impact on the common man as far as literacy goes. Even if they can read, normal people aren't supposed to be able to read spells and spellbooks. That involves Read Magic. You can cast a spell to comprehend languages you don't know, true, but if you're a wizard it's pretty much assumed that you learned how to read already anyway, just in your own language and not, perhaps, Old High Flumph.

The common man wouldn't -need- literacy to interact with magic, because he can't regardless. And, it seems, the common man in D&D still wouldn't need to read for religious reasons because I've heard very little about holy books of particular faiths. Unless, by magic, you're saying that perhaps there's a teaching orizon built into the threshold of your local temple that imparts a little reading knowledge in people every time they go to services...

It's quite possible, I suppose, that magic could be used to teach the masses to read ... but there's been no suggestion of it. Comprehend Languages wears off and no other spells out there seem to put permanent knowledge of a language in your brain.

--HT

 

[Ace]

I make them all literate so that I can use things like signs that say "Go back, keep out" and suchlike, so that they can read notes and books...

It just makes for a more interesting game.

I agree. It makes the game less frustrating for me as DM.

 

[johnnygolastly]

Re: Re: literacy and you average adventurer

When was DnD dark ages again? I don't see a completely separate world with very different "rules" from our own as having the exact same historical situations.

maybe his campaign is set in europe in the dark ages.

 

[Aristotle]

Depending on the importance of literacy in a campaign world it could be handled a few different ways. If literacy is a major divider between the lower class and the upper class than it might even work as a Feat. Then you just give classes that should be literate the Literacy Feat as a virtual feat with the class.