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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 2524036" data-attributes="member: 14159">Well, I brought up this issue in the other thread, so I'll speak up.I didn't mean to talk about magic being common.  Ironically, the Roman-themed homebrew I'm working on is very low-magic (I was making it with d20 Modern/Past but now considering Iron Heroes).  I was talking about technological and cultural elements of a pseudo-Roman setting which seem to fit the typical D&D setting a lot better than the pseudo-medieval model that is typically presumed.  Things like polytheism, a known-worldwide common language, a huge city as the center of civilization, strange cults, bizarre creatures from afar, slavery, mighty empires, vast armies, all these fit a lot better around 100 AD than 1100 AD.  A pseudo-medieval setting strains it's historic roots when it has a culture tolerates the existence of arcane magic, allows more than one religion (or for PC's to deviate from the beliefs of that religion), has any language in common use among people of various lands.Personally, I like my settings to have some aura of pseudohistory, a flavor and style reminiscent of some time in the past.  Strange high-fantasy worlds that are totally unlike anything that ever happened seem to strain credibility to me in the long term, because I always find myself asking "could a culture last like this", "could this model of civlization arise and last like this" and similar questions.  By rooting the game in a historic base, the verisimilitude of the setting is greatly augmented, it also gives the players more of a mental anchor to help imagine the setting with.  Even as a patchwork of various elements from various times and cultures (like the Forgotten Realms, with it's Celtic, Italian, Moroccan, Spanish, Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian and Persian themed areas) works, because the real world also was quite a patchwork of cultures, with often very different languages and peoples living fairly close to each other.</blockquote>

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