Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mkarol" data-source="post: 726190" data-attributes="member: 3738">In my experience this is an oft asked question and my response is:  Magic!Now, this is more so in high magic than in low magic settings.  No, magic doesn't cause everyone to read.  No,  wizards do not walk around teaching everyone to read.  No, little Tommy and Jane do not go to bed each night ready to learn to read in the hopes of becoming magic wielding heroes.Rather, unlike medieval Earth, D&D worlds are 'medieval' for long periods of time; they do not progress industrially because Magic serves the purpose of technological advancement or captures the minds of the dedicated individuals who would come up with steam power, automobiles, and the internet.  So life does 'improve' for even the unwashed masses in these worlds, although butler's can't expect a vacuum cleaner to come along anytime soon.  These improvements include education and in turn literacy.Personally, I think the idea of illiteracy only for Barbarians to be stupid.---I think literacy adds to the adventure by making the characters able to read maps, scrolls, hints, and so forth without being overly bogged down with pictograms or hieroglyphics.  They can also write notes back in forth or with NPCs where appropriate.  Sure, in a dungeon crawl, it might not be that necessary, but if you want to communicate with an employer or liege or church; well, it makes it easier.Granted, I do know of some fun RP experiences where a character (unbeknownst to the others) could not read very well.  Said illiterate was in charge of the map, and then given the written 'clues.'   The DM would write him garbled messages like "Brown ?/';!  is left" and the illiterate would just make things up while his party bought it!Edit:  I stopped ranting, and actually answered the question asked.</blockquote>

Verification