D&D 5E What’s So Great About Medieval Europe?

[Zardnaar]

No, it wasn’t. And producing the food is one of the least egregious of the industrial factors of climate change. It’s a factor, but food ain’t why we are in the mess we are in.

I’m done. You’re not even remotely trying to hear what others are saying, you’re just dedicated to viewing humans and the present world as garbage, regardless of evidence.

What I'm saying is that it's stupid to filter the past through our own world view.

Victorians did that and look how we judge them now.

 

[Minigiant]

And Elric, Conan, Lankhmar.

It hits a lot of cultural touchstones.

Any attempt to stray to far from that probably is t commercially viable at least in numbers WotC wants.

Even something as simple as magic weapons being needed to hit critters draws heavily on Greek legends.

People aren't going to find the appeal of non European cultures that appealing en masse.

I didn't say D&D didn't have other influences.
I said the PC and Monster design of early D&D brought in LOTR fans. And LOTR fans nudged D&D to be Middle Earth draped on Medieval Europe locally but everywhere.

I mean if OD&D had Kitsune, Genasi, and Anansis as PC races and staple monsters were Oni and Mayan Batmen, D&D would look a lot different .

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Only outside of the modern era.

Compared to every other era it's not the best not the worst.

I'm sure in 200 years they'll look at our lifestyles and go wtf were we doing. To the planet if nothing else.

No right now is literally better objectively on every metric but the environment than every other era in history.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What I'm saying is that it's stupid to filter the past through our own world view.

Victorians did that and look how we judge them now.

They were factual wrong on a ton of specifics, and viewed the past as full of garbage, while they had worse health, cleanliness, birth survival rates (mothers and children) and in many places even worse inequality than the eras they mocked.

that is inarguably not the case for the modern era.

 

[Zardnaar]

They were factual wrong on a ton of specifics, and viewed the past as full of garbage, while they had worse health, cleanliness, birth survival rates (mothers and children) and in many places even worse inequality than the eras they mocked.

that is inarguably not the case for the modern era.

If you won the genetic jackpot and we're born in a first world country.

But yeah medieval Europe may have been better than later on.

 

[Guest 6801328]

No right now is literally better objectively on every metric but the environment than every other era in history.

College students no longer settle disputes by dueling with swords. So that's objectively worse.

EDIT: And it's really hard to find cars with manual transmissions. Worse.

EDIT2: And G.I. Joe is like, what, 3" tall? Much, much worse.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If you won the genetic jackpot and we're born in a first world country.

Gross, but also wrong. Life is better in very very nearly every place that isn’t a war zone compared to 500 years ago.

Literacy, medicine, access to food (not only are fewer ppl hungry, fewer ppl are at starvation levels of hunger, than ever before), infant and mother mortality rates, rates of disease vs rates of immunization, rates of violent death and rates of victimization, % of ppl in slavery or near-slavery conditions, seriously every measurable metric.

It requires either wildly Rose colored glasses for the distant past, or wildly pessimistic views of the condition of the average person in a given region, to conclude that people are worse off now than a few hundred years ago.

But yeah medieval Europe may have been better than later on.

laughably no.

 

[Zardnaar]

Gross, but also wrong. Life is better in very very nearly every place that isn’t a war zone compared to 500 years ago.

Literacy, medicine, access to food (not only are fewer ppl hungry, fewer ppl are at starvation levels of hunger, than ever before), infant and mother mortality rates, rates of disease vs rates of immunization, rates of violent death and rates of victimization, % of ppl in slavery or near-slavery conditions, seriously every measurable metric.

It requires either wildly Rose colored glasses for the distant past, or wildly pessimistic views of the condition of the average person in a given region, to conclude that people are worse off now than a few hundred years ago.



laughably no.

18th and early 19th century weren't fun.
Neither was the reformation.

Not claiming medieval Europe was great but everything pre modern era was fairly awful by modern standards.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

But that isn’t what we are saying, and we will never stop confronting people with facts in the face of unrealistic pessimism, so...

No, it isn't what your saying, but it's a perfectly reasonable stance to take in response. Especially to someone with depression.

 

[Garthanos]

Life is better in very very nearly every place that isn’t a war zone compared to 500 years ago.

And the pattern of progress is not boom now its the modern era sudden , while there is definitely some we can call sudden attributable directly to scientific advancement wrt improvement of life. That getting along better seems to be at least as much cultural as anything humans have learned to get along better.