Little Changes with Big Flavor

[Painfully]

Of all the threads on EN World, this one deserves to be bumped each time a DM begins a new campaign. So...

*BUMP*

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen this thread before.

Sweet.

 

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

Wow, never saw this thread before in my good ol' days of lurkerdom.
Thanks very much for bumping this!

Here's one:
You'd be amazed at the social, cultural and political ripples that turn into tsunamis when you drop the printing press and renaissance men into a medieval fantasy techno-economy...

 

[Altalazar]

Wow, never saw this thread before in my good ol' days of lurkerdom.
Thanks very much for bumping this!

Here's one:
You'd be amazed at the social, cultural and political ripples that turn into tsunamis when you drop the printing press and renaissance men into a medieval fantasy techno-economy...

How about dropping in the magical equivalent of the internet? Every peasant can communicate in a bulletin board of magical communication - it certainly would make politics more interesting (and make oppression that much harder).

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

How about dropping in the magical equivalent of the internet? Every peasant can communicate in a bulletin board of magical communication - it certainly would make politics more interesting (and make oppression that much harder).

:\ It's a pretty easy case to make that a smart oppressor absolutely LOVES communication of this nature. So much easier to control thought than action.

 

[randomling]

Oooooooooooooooh. Altalazar, I love that idea! I wonder how it'd work?

It'd have to be a really high magic (or high mysticism) world: perhaps you're linked up via ley lines and touchstones that link into power-spots in the earth - very druidic.

That's got all kinds of possibilities!

 

[VirgilCaine]

Great thread, people.

I'll use the Dark Side Points idea for my D20 Modern game with an X-files FX level.

 

[Altalazar]

:\ It's a pretty easy case to make that a smart oppressor absolutely LOVES communication of this nature. So much easier to control thought than action.

As always, it would be a double-edged sword. They could have the same problem we have now, which is too much information - with no way to tell if a source is accurate or not. Most D&D worlds don't have very developed science, so that leaves all sorts of rooms for wild claims and less tools to examine if they are true or not.

It leaves open the door for some interesting adventure hooks as well. It also opens the resources of libraries and such over long distances. Just hope you are using the RIGHT library...

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

As always, it would be a double-edged sword. They could have the same problem we have now, which is too much information - with no way to tell if a source is accurate or not. Most D&D worlds don't have very developed science, so that leaves all sorts of rooms for wild claims and less tools to examine if they are true or not...

Exactly, just like now in the real world. There is no greater tool for a government pulling a fast one than misinformation, and the internet is the most highly evolved form of misinformation in the world. Machiavelli is probably spinning in his grave having seen the internet and thinking, "Oh, the book I could write!"

 

[rbingham2000]

• Give magic a way to be defeated. If you cannot defeat magic by any means except stronger magic and/or magical items, then you have to explain why the magic-users of your campaign world didn't take over long ago (though a world ruled by sorcerers is a good fantasy standby). Maybe illusion magic can be foiled by mirrors, which reflect the true visage of the thing or person being hidden or masked by the illusion. Maybe a sorcerer who likes to use fire magic can have his powers negated by throwing a bucket of water on him. Maybe a necromancer cannot stand the touch of the sun, which gives life to all living things.
  
• There are a lot more ideas for government available than the old standby hereditary monarchy of the ancient and medieval era. Greece was where we got democracy from, and the Romans had a quite serviceable republic before they turned into an empire.