D&D General Neolithic D&D

[Tales and Chronicles]

For weapons, instead of having simple vs martial, I'd go with value and rarity instead, with the idea that superior weapons are also harder to use, hence the domain of martially inclined characters.

Simple:
Club, staff, stone spear, sling, stoneshard dagger, hunter bow, etc

Superior;
Lacquered greatclub (maul), orichalcum dirk (shortsword), cedar blade (longsword), star iron mace (warhammer), war bow, staff-sling etc

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Fiction exaggerates. There have always people doing stuff, but they are never the big damn heroes fiction makes them out to be.

Consider William Marshall. He was a real medieval knight who did real important and influential stuff. But he wasn’t Sir Gawain.

A remarkable dude none the less. YEs! fiction exaggerates but I do not believe I ever said otherwise. I certainly did not intend to imply otherwise.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It is not about reskinning. There is nothing in the rules of D&D that is specifically medieval, outside some items in the arm and armour lists.
There is nothing in core D&D that enforces medievalism and if there is could you point it out, please.

I honestly don't know what would count for you.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I honestly don't know what would count for you.

Societal things, like a powerful church. But that would be setting stuff. Or unD&D things like the absence of magic and non-human life forms. I don’t think it’s possible to “bake in” a historical period to the rules.

Edit: I can expand on that by considering what separates “medieval” from the periods before and after.

Largely, it was a period which saw the emergence of larger nation states, along with the development of the tools to control much larger populations. Those tools were religion, feudalism, and stone castles. The core assumption of D&D is religion is not monolithic, and therefore not useful for controlling the population (exceptions exist); contrary to myth, D&D is not feudal - individuals have far more personal freedom (e.g. to become adventurers) than the feudal system permits. As for castles, the military power of the stone castle is neutralised by magic and flying monsters.

As for the end of the medieval period, this is marked by the increased spread of knowledge, caused by the development of the printing press, easier, faster travel, and the rising middle classes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Societal things, like a powerful church. But that would be setting stuff. Or unD&D things like the absence of magic and non-human life forms. I don’t think it’s possible to “bake in” a historical period to the rules.

Edit: I can expand on that by considering what separates “medieval” from the periods before and after.

Largely, it was a period which saw the emergence of larger nation states, along with the development of the tools to control much larger populations. Those tools were religion, feudalism, and stone castles. The core assumption of D&D is religion is not monolithic, and therefore not useful for controlling the population (exceptions exist); contrary to myth, D&D is not feudal - individuals have far more personal freedom (e.g. to become adventurers) than the feudal system permits. As for castles, the military power of the stone castle is neutralised by magic and flying monsters.

As for the end of the medieval period, this is marked by the increased spread of knowledge, caused by the development of the printing press, easier, faster travel, and the rising middle classes.

So, mostly equipment then? Makes sense to me.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Societal things, like a powerful church. But that would be setting stuff. Or unD&D things like the absence of magic and non-human life forms. I don’t think it’s possible to “bake in” a historical period to the rules.

Edit: I can expand on that by considering what separates “medieval” from the periods before and after.

Largely, it was a period which saw the emergence of larger nation states, along with the development of the tools to control much larger populations. Those tools were religion, feudalism, and stone castles. The core assumption of D&D is religion is not monolithic, and therefore not useful for controlling the population (exceptions exist); contrary to myth, D&D is not feudal - individuals have far more personal freedom (e.g. to become adventurers) than the feudal system permits. As for castles, the military power of the stone castle is neutralised by magic and flying monsters.

As for the end of the medieval period, this is marked by the increased spread of knowledge, caused by the development of the printing press, easier, faster travel, and the rising middle classes.

Yup, that is what I see when I consider the medieval period. It is mostly social stuff that D&D does not really touch on and in so far as it does, the pc have a way more social cachet than they would likely have in a medieval setting outside the early period. That is 400 AD to 1000 AB before feudalism got set in stone.

I do not see anything in core D&D that enforces that, Greyhawk could be run as medieval. FR is quite weird from a historical point of view. Each community seems to be independently free to run its own internal affairs and local relations without consultation to the great powers in the region.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That is 400 AD to 1000 AB before feudalism got set in stone.

The Age formally known as Dark!

Much better for D&D. Little social stratification, lots of blank space on the maps, competing religions, the remains of an older more technologically advanced civilisation, greatly diminished in power.

No stone castles or full plate, but I don’t see that as a problem.

FR is quite weird from a historical point of view. Each community seems to be independently free to run its own internal affairs and local relations without consultation to the great powers in the region

Harpers!

 

[Hriston]

I always assumed Arda was Earth prior to some future cataclysm (which most likely ended the Fourth Age) that left us with the continental configurations we have now, and no standing civilizations of previous eras. Basically the Atlantis theory writ even larger.

I think JRR Tolkien probably had the Genesis flood narrative in mind for the end of the Fourth Age. For the end of the Fifth, I personally imagine the Late Bronze Age collapse. So I'm mostly in agreement, except I don't see a need to reconfigure the continents if Christopher Tolkien's map is not taken as canonical.