What have you done with the sacred cow?

[Celebrim]

Inspired by the sacred cow thread, what differs in the campaign you run/play in compared to the 'sacred cows' of D&D as described in the thread 'Sacred Cows of D&D that make it so'.

In my own:

1) Everyone cannot speak a universal language, 'Common'. While 'Westron' as a merchant language is common through out a large portion of the principal continent, it is no means ubiqitous. Knowledge of it is equivalent to knowledge of English today, Latin during the Roman Empire, and Greek before that. Many common folk will not speak it, and instead know some regional dialect. Even those that do know it speak it so thickly accented and dialectized that a skill check is often required to understand them. Various countries use high or ancient forms of local dialects as court and legal languages.

2) Adventurer does not exist as a profession, and societies with lots of individual freedom are quite rare. Governments do not tolerate armed bands of vigilante groups; noble rank is required to own a sword, licenses are required to transport weapons between jurisdictions, persons found on a lord's property (most of the landscape) with weapons without papers will be assumed to be bandits. An average person will not have heard the term adventurer. If you explained it to them they'd scoff and say, "Oh, you mean you are a blood soaking mercenary. Be off with you." The only case where you would here the term would be a mercenary joking about himself; like a pirate calling himself a 'gentleman of fortune'.

3) Starting characters do not necessarily have easy access to affordable steel weapons and armor, usually because they are expensive items and in many cases illegal.

4) The economy is coin based only above a certain degree of wealth. Taxes are still by and large payed in things like livestock, grain, staves of wood, labor, and so forth. Two peasants will almost certainly agree to exchange goods between each other rather than coin.

5) No orcs. No halflings. No gnomes. Elves have to sleep just like anyone else. No Druids. No monks... well no martial arts monks. Well, not anywhere I've ever described.

But I have to admit I'm stuck in the paradigm otherwise.

 

[Vaxalon]

Sounds like you've done a great deal of cutting, and not a lot of pasting. "You can't do that, and you can't do that, and you can't do that. OH, and if you do that, that, or that, you'rea criminal."

I prefer a game with a more fantastic feel to it. Life in most of the middle ages was nasty, brutish, and short, and I'd rather have a game that wasn't that grubby. Many concepts from the renaissance, such as distillation, printing, and suchlike, exist in my gameworld.

If you have money, you can even have a plumbing system in your house.

So my world has balloons, which are kept aloft by a gas which has a coefficient of lift greater than 1, that is, the envelope will lift MORE weight than the weight of the air it displaces...

"Adventurer" is not only a profession one can claim to have, it's something that can even get you a modicum of respect here and there. Since there are bad adventurers and good ones, that respect is as likely to be an uneasy fear as it is friendly admiration, but hey, that's how it is with all kinds of powerful people.

 

[BryonD]

I prefer a game with a more fantastic feel to it. Life in most of the middle ages was nasty, brutish, and short, and I'd rather have a game that wasn't that grubby. Many concepts from the renaissance, such as distillation, printing, and suchlike, exist in my gameworld.

I agree.

And I think lots of game worlds tend to be this way.

They claim to be medieval, but are really more renaissance for everything except combat.

 

[Tonguez]

My current campaign is set in Mythic Polynesia and so all the Pseudo-Europe ideas of DnD are out

No large land mammals, no large landmasses, no metal, no writing, no money, no shops, you acquire items by gaining 'Favour' and 'Status' in your community.

No Dwarfs, No Elves, No Orcs

Half-elvesand Half-Orcs are considered degenerate humans
Goblins are a playable race and Giants will be (as soon as they are encountered)

No adventurers as such, every PC belongs to a village and clan who might ask the PCs to do various deeds and 'missions' on their behalf

Canniblism is tolerated as normal (in fact all Barbarians are Cannibals imc)

Druid = Shaman and Rangers are ALL found out at sea, No Arcane Magic

 

[Sanackranib]

renaissance games

Remember that the renaissance laster for over 200 years and you had a lower renaissance which culminated in a "high" renaissance. as technology developed and the ability to kill the "ememy" through the use of gunpowder became more common the heavier armors use declined. it is relitively simple to advance technology without introducing gunpowder. if you do this then the heavier armors will not need to be phased out.
besides a little renaissance in your game adds a certin flair to rollplaying.

 

[Vaxalon]

Re: renaissance games

Remember that the renaissance laster for over 200 years and you had a lower renaissance which culminated in a "high" renaissance.

Of course. I didn't claim any particular aspect because I take ideas from all over the renaissance.

as technology developed and the ability to kill the "ememy" through the use of gunpowder became more common the heavier armors use declined.

Also, the decline of knighthood as a combat-oriented profession had something to do with it. Soldiers ceased to have the resources for all that armor. If the setting has enough wealth, the armor will be there along with it. Maxmilian plate will turn a musket-ball as easily as a sword. In fact, the Swiss had shields that could stop musket-balls.

The fact is that musket-balls don't have much penetration. It's the cannons you have to watch out for.

it is relitively simple to advance technology without introducing gunpowder. if you do this then the heavier armors will not need to be phased out.

Or even if you do.

 

[Sanackranib]

Re: Re: renaissance games

The fact is that musket-balls don't have much penetration. It's the cannons you have to watch out for.

Having personally used .54 caliber black powder muskets, I beg to differ. a musket can easily cost you an arm or a leg.

though I do a gree cannons and such are also quite dangerous!

 

[Celebrim]

Vaxalon: I've done alot of adding too, but that wasn't the point of the post. I was mainly interested in seeing if the so called sacred cows had been slaughtered for a party.

The main reason I began instituting more truly medieval law was I got tired of people not role playing. I wanted people to really think about being someone very different than who they were. I wanted people to stop thinking about the game in terms of thier THAC0 and acquiring XP and notes on paper and start using thier imagination. Culture shock has proved to be one way to do that. I can gaurantee Tonguez's campaign forces you to RP just from the description of it.

As far as plumbing goes, that could be had as far back as Rome and wasn't unknown in the middle ages. In fact, I dare say it was rarer in the Renaissance than it was on the middle ages. Public baths didn't go completely out of style until the plague.

Technology across my campaign world varies widely, but that doesn't stop lives from being brutish and short most anywhere. Lives in the modern world are fairly harsh and short by western standards throughout a large part of the world, and lives in the western world didn't really stop being brutish and short until sometime in the first half of the century depending on where you lived. Influenza wiped out a huge chunk of the Southern United States in the twenties.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'a more fantastic feel to it'. What are your influences? Disney? TSR computer games? Hawk the Slayer?

Tonguez: The more I hear about your campaign the more awesome it sounds.

 

[Maerdwyn]

No racial languages (see theCommon Tongue thread)

No alignment, alignment spells, etc.

Very different cosmology (no planes based on alignments or elemental planes, etc) Several defined paths to immortality (only one of which has been recently discovered by the PCs).

BDB (Base Defense Bonus) progression for each class. (armor not generally used or available.) Still trying to work out a Armor-provides DR system, but given the previous point, it hasn't been a pressing concern

Steel is not generally available (treat as Masterwork, and don't have a break chance like "normal" iron weapons and armor do)

No Monks or Paladins in the PCs homeland, but they exist other places. Druid and Paladin ar prestige classes. No class has prohibited weapons, though certain organizations may.

No standard currency

No magical types can forge magic weapons through exceptional skill and effort, and promotions characters' weapons or items (gaining a plus or ability or intelligence, etc.) sometimes replace actual treasure given out for combat.

Otherwise pretty standard

 

[Ace]

Inspired by the sacred cow thread, what differs in the campaign you run/play in compared to the 'sacred cows' of D&D as described in the thread 'Sacred Cows of D&D that make it so'.

In my own:

1) Everyone cannot speak a universal language, 'Common'. While 'Westron' as a merchant language is common through out a large portion of the principal continent, it is no means ubiqitous. Knowledge of it is equivalent to knowledge of English today, Latin during the Roman Empire, and Greek before that. Many common folk will not speak it, and instead know some regional dialect. Even those that do know it speak it so thickly accented and dialectized that a skill check is often required to understand them. Various countries use high or ancient forms of local dialects as court and legal languages.

2) Adventurer does not exist as a profession, and societies with lots of individual freedom are quite rare. Governments do not tolerate armed bands of vigilante groups; noble rank is required to own a sword, licenses are required to transport weapons between jurisdictions, persons found on a lord's property (most of the landscape) with weapons without papers will be assumed to be bandits. An average person will not have heard the term adventurer. If you explained it to them they'd scoff and say, "Oh, you mean you are a blood soaking mercenary. Be off with you." The only case where you would here the term would be a mercenary joking about himself; like a pirate calling himself a 'gentleman of fortune'.

3) Starting characters do not necessarily have easy access to affordable steel weapons and armor, usually because they are expensive items and in many cases illegal.

4) The economy is coin based only above a certain degree of wealth. Taxes are still by and large payed in things like livestock, grain, staves of wood, labor, and so forth. Two peasants will almost certainly agree to exchange goods between each other rather than coin.

5) No orcs. No halflings. No gnomes. Elves have to sleep just like anyone else. No Druids. No monks... well no martial arts monks. Well, not anywhere I've ever described.

But I have to admit I'm stuck in the paradigm otherwise.

HMM, Sacred Cows eh

Well

#1 Everyone speaks something like 20th century English. Seriously.Humans aren't native to the world and the race that brought them over specified that everyone had to understand a single language.

#2 No Professional Adventurers. There are Mercenarys but no one would say he or she was an adventurer.

#3 Weapons are everywhere. In a world where your neighbor may have the ability to destroy a city block you had better be armed. The weather however is really hot so manuverability tends to trump protection

#4 The economy is a little wierd but it is coin based, There is too much magic for it not be be. Remeber one mid level Wizard and a few Dwarven Engineers can cut a tunnel through the planet if they wish (Disintegrate Spell destroys 1000 CF of anything instantly)

#5 All the races exist except half Orcs. All of the races except for Humans and Dwarves are rare. Elves are feared. THere are no monstrous humanoid though, all of those are types of Goblin and have fae powers

#6 Magic Items are common place and available to anyone with the cash. Most goverments commision healing items.

#7 In civilized areas there is no disease (cure disease items in each village) or lasting injury. Water is pure and drinkable (an item that anyone can use to purify 7 gallons of water or a cubic foot of found at will costs 1000GP -- chicken feed for a governments) There is no famine (Magic items exist that create a day ration for a man every 6 seconds (cast create food and drink at will) are common Thankfully there is plentiful birth control

#9 No castles and very few knights. Castles are too hard to defend and Knights are too expensive for the amount of punch they give. The usual army is nothing but skirmishers. Mages dominate the battle field. There are almost no war clerics (the gods don't allow it)

#10 Longevity magic is still rare but does exist

#11 The cosmology is well understood and common knowledge. There is reincarnation. this is a fact as real as gravity and known to everyone There is also little taboo against sucide unless you have a family or other obligations. Life is very cheap and violence is perfectly OK in some areas

#12 Anyone with enough Inteligence can be a Wizard. Anyone with enough Wisdom who is willing to take the vows can be a Cleric or Duid. Anyone with enough Force of Self (high stats) can learn to be a psion