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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 73312" data-attributes="member: 158">BE WARNED - IT'S LONG!Here's the only problem - a pseudo-medieval society wouldn't exist in a "by the book" D&D campaign, because of the "outsider" nature of the campaign, and the upward mobility of adventurers.Thinking logically about it - adventurers, by virtue of exploring old ruins, earning debts of gratitude from nobility and merchants, gaining popularity due to their exploits, etc., have access to wealth and power - the two things that any noble wants. By their very nature, the PC's would be nobility all their own - after all, nobility was defined not just by manners, but by actual wealth and property ownership. Knights of the sword were often just thugs who won enough land and property to upkeep armor and a horse. (Knights of the bath were too, in some cases, but I'm talking about ones who "earned" their status rather than being born into it).Keep in mind the situation of the merchant and free classes after the European Plagues and the late middle ages. After the black death wiped out 1/3rd of the labor pool, it went from having TONS of cheap unskilled labor to having a labor shortage. This as well as the rise of merchants and cities threw the power shift to one of an upwardly mobile culture with the "trappings" of class. Nobles still had power for centuries afterward, but what changed the strata was that merchants often had more fiscal power than the nobles - and this leads to political power, eventually.Even in a staid culture where tradition took hold with a rabid bite, it only took about (What? 200 years? About 10 generations?) for egalitarian concepts to take hold in England. Even in our "modern society," it took 100 years post-civil war before America had its Civil Rights Movement towards an egalitarian culture for people of color.Use this as an example of the progress of an egalitarian status among peasantry for a typical D&D world. There had likely been adventurers long enough and in sufficient quantities for there to have been some sort of egalitarian movement in most campaign worlds. It may be better to use a 1700's - 1800's british model of government than a medieval one. You would have a "house of commons" and a "House of Lords" that shared power (even though that power might be slanted towards the nobles).In order for the Nobility to keep power in a by-the-book D&D world, they would have to have great wealth and power themselves, not the rather pitiful status that the majority of the nobility had in medieval Europe. By nature, most Nobility would likely be retired or semi-retired adventurers, rather than 1st level aristocratic brats who merely expected power.It would be a better model IMO to think of Noble as the Larry Ellison's, Ross Perot's, and Bill Gates' of their day. PC's would act deferentially to them (because they know how much prestige, influence, and power they hold), but not to the point of bowing and scraping. I don't recall any of Bill's employees bowing and scraping on camera lately. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Just because the world has replaced technology with magic doesn't mean that the world's political situation has not advanced. If you want a medieval political and social situation, it needs to have very very limited magics as well - possibly with access to no spell over 2nd level?</blockquote>

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