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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3508391" data-attributes="member: 4937">One the things that so annoys me about 3rd edition is that the default cultural setting appears to be 21st century America.  So many of the things you take for granted in that post are artifacts of our particular time and culture.  Thats why I was stunned by the assumption that lighted streets were default.  Things like menus in restuarants, instant gratification, retail stores, journalists, prices determined by markets, and so forth that I've seen banted about on these boards as must existing are largely artifacts of our current culture and technology and don't necessarily have any business being put into a fantasy campaign thoughtlessly (thoughtfully adding these things is another matter). The culture found in default D&D has become such an anachronism that it is less alien for all its magical trappings than what can still be found in much of the modern third world.  Perhaps its because I've lived in the 3rd world, but I find this terribly confining, unimaginative, and for lack of a better word 'unrealistic'.  You say that players have no motivation to value things which don't involve killing things.  To a certain extent you are right, in that there are very few rules for things that don't involve killing things.  But on the other hand, they don't value these things not because they are not valuable, but because they are not made to value them.  PC's don't value them because they know that the DM will ignore them, and so why should they value them?  If the DM ignores them, then there actual value is nothing.  Why should you eat if the universe doesn't demand you eat?  Why should you defecate if the unverse doesn't demand you do so?  Why should you bathe if you never get dirty or smelly?  Why should you worry about hygiene if you never get sick or infested with parasites?  Why should you own a home if you can carry everything you need on your back?  And so forth.  Now, I'm not saying that you should necessarily worry about these things as a DM.  It may suit your group to ignore the necessities of life in favor of killing things.  But don't claim that this isn't a choice you've made.  All I'm suggesting is that you shouldn't make this choice thoughtlessly, but after consideration.</blockquote>

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