Commoners vs. Adventurers
Commoners have jobs. In the typical D&D world, this is agriculture. In towns, there will be more merchants & craftsmen. Adventurers don't tend to have jobs, and when they do, they don't tend to keep them very long. They risk life and limb for quick gains, or an even quicker death. They accept gambling with their lives; much more so than any militiaman defending his and his neighbors' homes!
Commoners own land (when and if they can), sharecrop someone else's, etc., but in general, they live and die within a day's walk of where they were born. Adventurers roam the world, even learning to use magic items to teleport themselves all about!
Commoners learn a trade. What they have in life comes directly from their skills and abilities in that. For adventurers, adventuring IS their trade, and whatever they have has been gained from its practice.
Commoners in Medieval society had a life expectancy of about 40 years. Thus, they will never live to see 7th level, on the average. In AD&D 1e, the Captain of the Guard was defined as 7th level... so only an experienced military officer would have gained that level. Like an adventurer, he would have to have faced death to get to that point. Adventurers, on the other hand, are "crazy people" who accept the risks of being homeless, jobless, wandering about, looking for a hole in the ground into which people go, and never come back out again (i.e., a Dungeon), glibly accepting the risk of life and limb for the expected gains that they may never live to see...
No, adventurers are not your ordinary, everyday Commoners. Some are heroic, some are just greedy rogues... but they are ALL unusual people! Consider the following...
How many people do you know who are homeless, have no fixed job, carry most of what they own on their backs, always travel armed, travel often in search of "new work", which pays very well (assuming they don't die)?
Not even the military special forces fits the bill on all of that! MAYBE a few modern-day mercenaries, but I doubt it! Nope, adventurers are unusual folks, no doubt about it!
Anyway, I created a background skills system for my game, where I gave some bonus Societal skills to the PCs (4+INT for each 15 years lived, +1/15 years for Humans, +1/30 for Half-Elves & Half-Orcs). People accused me of being Elf-centric, unbalanced, and "drunk", because Elves got "too many" points, with their advanced starting age... Despite the fact that Humans had more, at the same age (assuming they lived so long).
It has always bothered me that a century-plus-old Elf, with the same INT as a Human of the same class, has fewer skill points than the Human does!
That makes me wonder what Elves DO until they reach "maturity", and what that maturity means... A lot of people seem to think that "maturity" is physical... I assumed that "maturity" meant that the Elf (Dwarf, whatever) knew enough to be accepted as a working member of their society...
Since Elves are expected to be masters of Lore, skilled in music, dance, archery, and sword play, I allowed them to spend the extra Racial Background Skill points on Knowledge, Perform, Crafts, etc., which fit. Dwarves could choose Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Craft (Stonemason), etc. The skills available depended upon the PC's race.
In either system (Sean K's or mine) Dwarves and Elves are going to be higher level than Humans, just because of the age difference. Maybe they advance slower, because their lives aren't as hard, but...
Anyway, I like the idea that living a long time makes you higher level. I'll use it. All it really means is that most of those higher level folks that the DMG lists are also just older!
Commoners have jobs. In the typical D&D world, this is agriculture. In towns, there will be more merchants & craftsmen. Adventurers don't tend to have jobs, and when they do, they don't tend to keep them very long. They risk life and limb for quick gains, or an even quicker death. They accept gambling with their lives; much more so than any militiaman defending his and his neighbors' homes!
Commoners own land (when and if they can), sharecrop someone else's, etc., but in general, they live and die within a day's walk of where they were born. Adventurers roam the world, even learning to use magic items to teleport themselves all about!
Commoners learn a trade. What they have in life comes directly from their skills and abilities in that. For adventurers, adventuring IS their trade, and whatever they have has been gained from its practice.
Commoners in Medieval society had a life expectancy of about 40 years. Thus, they will never live to see 7th level, on the average. In AD&D 1e, the Captain of the Guard was defined as 7th level... so only an experienced military officer would have gained that level. Like an adventurer, he would have to have faced death to get to that point. Adventurers, on the other hand, are "crazy people" who accept the risks of being homeless, jobless, wandering about, looking for a hole in the ground into which people go, and never come back out again (i.e., a Dungeon), glibly accepting the risk of life and limb for the expected gains that they may never live to see...
No, adventurers are not your ordinary, everyday Commoners. Some are heroic, some are just greedy rogues... but they are ALL unusual people! Consider the following...
How many people do you know who are homeless, have no fixed job, carry most of what they own on their backs, always travel armed, travel often in search of "new work", which pays very well (assuming they don't die)?
Not even the military special forces fits the bill on all of that! MAYBE a few modern-day mercenaries, but I doubt it! Nope, adventurers are unusual folks, no doubt about it!
Anyway, I created a background skills system for my game, where I gave some bonus Societal skills to the PCs (4+INT for each 15 years lived, +1/15 years for Humans, +1/30 for Half-Elves & Half-Orcs). People accused me of being Elf-centric, unbalanced, and "drunk", because Elves got "too many" points, with their advanced starting age... Despite the fact that Humans had more, at the same age (assuming they lived so long).
It has always bothered me that a century-plus-old Elf, with the same INT as a Human of the same class, has fewer skill points than the Human does!
That makes me wonder what Elves DO until they reach "maturity", and what that maturity means... A lot of people seem to think that "maturity" is physical... I assumed that "maturity" meant that the Elf (Dwarf, whatever) knew enough to be accepted as a working member of their society...
Since Elves are expected to be masters of Lore, skilled in music, dance, archery, and sword play, I allowed them to spend the extra Racial Background Skill points on Knowledge, Perform, Crafts, etc., which fit. Dwarves could choose Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Craft (Stonemason), etc. The skills available depended upon the PC's race.
In either system (Sean K's or mine) Dwarves and Elves are going to be higher level than Humans, just because of the age difference. Maybe they advance slower, because their lives aren't as hard, but...
Anyway, I like the idea that living a long time makes you higher level. I'll use it. All it really means is that most of those higher level folks that the DMG lists are also just older!
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