Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What proportion of the population are adventurers?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="R_Chance" data-source="post: 7614753" data-attributes="member: 55149"><p>No, not really <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> I'm familiar with everything you mention below. The number of people participating in the activities you mention below is a tiny percentage of the total population and the area of their participation is limited to very narrow ranges. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This is an advantage. Limited to a literal handful of people. Most priests in the Middle Ages couldn't read. Monks copied documents by wrote without being able to read them. Only a handful of the nobility or merchant classes could read. This improves as the Middle Ages progress, especially among the clergy, but you're talking the Renaissance before significant numbers of people can read Latin (or Greek). Written hand copied documents don't travel that well over a painfully slow system of trade and communication. Scholarship exists, but it's essentially stuck in slow motion.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Medieval long range trade was primarily in luxury items. Most trade was local. And again, the numbers of people doing it were limited and the only thing that made long distance trade viable was the value of the items being traded. Trade improves as travel becomes safer and easier. I'm not sure how easy travel is in a D&D setting...</p><p></p><p>The huge majority of people never saw anything produced at significant distances in the Middle Ages. This does, again, begin to improve over the course of the Middle Ages leading into the Renaissance but the impact is felt by limited numbers of people among the elites. Centers of trade and commerce do begin to emerge in the High Middle Ages (i.e. the Hanseatic Leagues trading empire c. 1300s iirc) but it is, imho, easy to overestimate their impact on the majority of the population. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Again, the numbers are small. Given that cathedrals could take a century plus to build and castles decades, the labor force could build up over time and is not as mobile as we, in the modern age, would think construction workers are. Then too a lot of the grunt labor was local with the architects / engineers being the highly skilled / in demand workers. </p><p></p><p>The Crusades do mark a major movement of people and bring about more change than about anything else in the period. They are a once in a life time event with pretty high rate of "non return" due to death or resettlement. </p><p></p><p>As for mercenaries, the White Company (which operated in the High Middle Ages / early Renaissance, 1300s iirc) with about 2,000 men (Anglo Welch longbowmen) was one of the largest and most efficient. The Italian city states made wide use of Condottiere (mercenaries) in their wars and mercenaries were engaged in the other major wars. This relates as much to how rare specialists (even in violence) were, to the relative scarcity (of specialists of any kind) in the Middle Ages, and the economic burden of supporting soldiers in this period. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm not saying that medieval craftsmanship was poor. I'm saying educational / training opportunities were limited (as you said above) and that the huge bulk of the population throughout the periods in question focused their efforts on food production allowing for a limited number of other specialists to exist (compared to modern society). Adventurers, to get back to the original point of this, would have to be pulled from that relatively small number. Most specialists would be smiths, priests, carpenters, and the hundreds of other specialties required by medieval society. The adventurers would be a handful of a handful in short.</p><p></p><p>Having said all of that I can see specific areas drawing the attention of this relatively tiny number of adventurers. And my own campaign makes that assumption <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Furthermore, there a lot of medieval economic assumptions which might not apply (as strictly) to a fantasy world. Agriculture might be more efficient (it couldn't be worse) and literacy more wide spread. You might be basing your setting on economic patterns that are more Renaissance / Reformation in nature. And the numbers while larger, will still be relatively limited <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>*edit* Odd thoughts and typos...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="R_Chance, post: 7614753, member: 55149"] No, not really :) I'm familiar with everything you mention below. The number of people participating in the activities you mention below is a tiny percentage of the total population and the area of their participation is limited to very narrow ranges. This is an advantage. Limited to a literal handful of people. Most priests in the Middle Ages couldn't read. Monks copied documents by wrote without being able to read them. Only a handful of the nobility or merchant classes could read. This improves as the Middle Ages progress, especially among the clergy, but you're talking the Renaissance before significant numbers of people can read Latin (or Greek). Written hand copied documents don't travel that well over a painfully slow system of trade and communication. Scholarship exists, but it's essentially stuck in slow motion. Medieval long range trade was primarily in luxury items. Most trade was local. And again, the numbers of people doing it were limited and the only thing that made long distance trade viable was the value of the items being traded. Trade improves as travel becomes safer and easier. I'm not sure how easy travel is in a D&D setting... The huge majority of people never saw anything produced at significant distances in the Middle Ages. This does, again, begin to improve over the course of the Middle Ages leading into the Renaissance but the impact is felt by limited numbers of people among the elites. Centers of trade and commerce do begin to emerge in the High Middle Ages (i.e. the Hanseatic Leagues trading empire c. 1300s iirc) but it is, imho, easy to overestimate their impact on the majority of the population. Again, the numbers are small. Given that cathedrals could take a century plus to build and castles decades, the labor force could build up over time and is not as mobile as we, in the modern age, would think construction workers are. Then too a lot of the grunt labor was local with the architects / engineers being the highly skilled / in demand workers. The Crusades do mark a major movement of people and bring about more change than about anything else in the period. They are a once in a life time event with pretty high rate of "non return" due to death or resettlement. As for mercenaries, the White Company (which operated in the High Middle Ages / early Renaissance, 1300s iirc) with about 2,000 men (Anglo Welch longbowmen) was one of the largest and most efficient. The Italian city states made wide use of Condottiere (mercenaries) in their wars and mercenaries were engaged in the other major wars. This relates as much to how rare specialists (even in violence) were, to the relative scarcity (of specialists of any kind) in the Middle Ages, and the economic burden of supporting soldiers in this period. I'm not saying that medieval craftsmanship was poor. I'm saying educational / training opportunities were limited (as you said above) and that the huge bulk of the population throughout the periods in question focused their efforts on food production allowing for a limited number of other specialists to exist (compared to modern society). Adventurers, to get back to the original point of this, would have to be pulled from that relatively small number. Most specialists would be smiths, priests, carpenters, and the hundreds of other specialties required by medieval society. The adventurers would be a handful of a handful in short. Having said all of that I can see specific areas drawing the attention of this relatively tiny number of adventurers. And my own campaign makes that assumption :) Furthermore, there a lot of medieval economic assumptions which might not apply (as strictly) to a fantasy world. Agriculture might be more efficient (it couldn't be worse) and literacy more wide spread. You might be basing your setting on economic patterns that are more Renaissance / Reformation in nature. And the numbers while larger, will still be relatively limited :) *edit* Odd thoughts and typos... [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What proportion of the population are adventurers?
Top