What real world elements show up in D&D the least?

[Celebrim]

Next would be sickness and broken bones. Lots of falling and huge crits with bludgeoning weapons, but never the chance of infection or a broken bone.

Special mention should be made of this, because by and large this is a deliberate choice. Many of the other things mentioned are simply being overlooked or else didn't merit mentioning in published material, but broken bones and indeed maiming of any sort is not in the rules as a deliberate decision of the designers.

The simulationist in me desparately wants to put it back in. The experience DM in me realizes that it doesn't actually add anything to the game, so thus far I'm resisting the temptation.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Special mention should be made of this, because by and large this is a deliberate choice. Many of the other things mentioned are simply being overlooked or else didn't merit mentioning in published material, but broken bones and indeed maiming of any sort is not in the rules as a deliberate decision of the designers.

The simulationist in me desparately wants to put it back in. The experience DM in me realizes that it doesn't actually add anything to the game, so thus far I'm resisting the temptation.

Here here! And besides, speaking in-game, healing magic is so readily available that I doubt most PCs would have to concern themselves with it.

 

[roguerouge]

Missing game elements

Taxes should shoot right to number one. This is the first campaign I've been in where a character was motivated by adventure simply to be able to pay the tax man.

Professions. Everyone seems to become a lord, a guild member, or a mercenary. You can always pick out the party spy master by their ranks in profession. Nobody goes back to their job during their down time.

Hobbies get under-utilized too. Think about how most people spend their free time and then about what your characters spend their time doing. I'm lucky to be in a campaign with a monk spending time learning chess and drawing and my ranger's learned orc dancing (a.k.a clogging.) He's got an entertainer's outfit too.

Sex. Although in one game I made the dumb mistake of trying to impose a dice roll mechanic on the act itself. Never ever do that to a player.

Simmering class resentment that the rich and powerful get to live forever with their cure diseases and their true resurrections, while the poor die in the gutter. I've yet to see a good high level cleric justify to a grieving widow of a farmer why his life wasn't worth one of the diamonds he has in his back pocket. (No. Not there!)

Fashions and fads.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Any sense of a real economy. That has always bugged me since I have an Economics/Finance background.

However it is too much work for too little fun payoff to do anything about it. Plus I think that I would be the only one that would really appreciate it anyway.

I think an economy as modelled by A Magic Medieval Society: Western Europe adds just enough framework to be worth using. Unless someone actually is running their own barony, the math never takes center stage. It's handy for the DM for making a fief that feels somewhat plausible, though.

 

[Hussar]

Speciesism. It's pretty rare to find a setting where you would be run out of town for being a dwarf. Most settings pretty much accept all the "civilized" races as being well, acceptable in any settlement. You don't see too many ghetto's and the like based on race.

As well, you rarely see settings that dwell too much on the roll species would play in law. After all, it's illegal in our world for humans to kill other humans (most of the time). However, is it illegal to kill a halfling? A kobold? A tendrilloculos? I've yet to see a setting that comes anywhere near that bag of worms.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Speciesism. It's pretty rare to find a setting where you would be run out of town for being a dwarf. Most settings pretty much accept all the "civilized" races as being well, acceptable in any settlement. You don't see too many ghetto's and the like based on race.

As well, you rarely see settings that dwell too much on the roll species would play in law. After all, it's illegal in our world for humans to kill other humans (most of the time). However, is it illegal to kill a halfling? A kobold? A tendrilloculos? I've yet to see a setting that comes anywhere near that bag of worms.

I try to make a few million nods to this when I do urban campaigns. Fer'instance, in my Feathered and Fallen setting, tieflings are subject to segregation and "Jim Crow" style laws, keeping them in their place, while aasimar are given certain rights and responsibilities by simple virtue of birth. "Orc Ghettos" and "The Dwarven Quarter" and things like that have long been a feature in my cities. And towns will rarely have much diversity -- it'll be human, with maybe one family of dwarves living more or less like the rest of the humans.

And legality is largely a matter of citizenship, a la Ancient Greece. If the tendrilloculos is a citizen, its illegal to kill him. Of course, if he's a citizen of the opposing nation, then it's just fine.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As well, you rarely see settings that dwell too much on the roll species would play in law. After all, it's illegal in our world for humans to kill other humans (most of the time). However, is it illegal to kill a halfling? A kobold? A tendrilloculos? I've yet to see a setting that comes anywhere near that bag of worms.

Ptolus has this. It's illegal to be a dark elf, and most monstrous races can be killed by anyone without repercussion. And given that it's the center of the adventuring world, thanks to being built atop thousands of years of ruins (thanks to the magical McGuffin calling every evil overlord in history to the spot), it's a bad place to be a goblin or a kobold.

Even if they're not killed on the spot, Imperial law makes a big difference between citizens and non-citizens, and if you're not a human or a dwarf, you're probably not a citizen.

 

[Presto2112]

Well, the dungeon in Scourge of the Howling Horde has a bathroom. Two of em' actually.

I'd guess the lack of toilets and going-to-the-bathroom rules probably has something do do with not giving a legion of teenage D&D players any more ammunition for toilet humor. As it is, they usually don't need any help with that.

An upcoming site-based adventure I wrote has a latrine specifically written into it. It's a subterranean locale where hobgoblin monks and assassins loyal to Hextor train and operate. The latrine is a 20 foot deep pit, and a large board with a hole covering the pit. At the bottom of the pit is a gelatinous cube which consumes the effluent and other garbage thrown into the pit, so it doesn't stink.

And naturally, there is a teleportation trap somewhere in the dungeon, where the victim is teleported into the slick-walled pit with the cube.

 

[Ringan]

Civil engineers. Someone has to maintain those sewers, and given the numbers of monsters, murderous thieves' guilds, and deranged cultists, they can't be slouches either.

Haha, I am sigging this.

 

[|)ar|{]

Fear, there is not near enough fear in D&D. And not the magic stuff I mean good old fashion I don't want to die" fear. I can't recall the last time any of my players ran away screaming. No matter how I set the mood or what I throw at them, except perhaps a big dragon, they'll at least try an fight it.

I don't play in a filthy world. In most of mine magic has improved living conditions to allow time for sanitation. Helpful druids and clerics fixing poor crops, wizards fixing water shortages, heck magic can improve a lot of things. Even simple cantrips can clean you up or fix ragged pants. Things like this work better in Eberron than say Darksun but even so it doesn't bother me too much to ignore it.

Food, weather and enviroment on the other hand always get my full attention in games. Timely fog, lightning or a rainstorm can add a lot to an encounter. Mud is slippery, wind makes balancing hard and fog shuts down archers and what not. I have ran several games where enviroment, weather, food, and survival are the main antagonists and they were great fun.

Ohhh I know something that is ignored... The food chain. I mean when you add up the biomass needed to support a breeding population of some of the larger creatures in D&D you'd have to conclude they eat rocks or magic or something. Thats an other thing that is often missed. Babys. Where are the young dire piglets. The baby displacer kittens. Ahh thats would be cute. Taking about taking a little wind out of your players sails. While searching the cave you find a bunch of, now motherless, displacer kittens. Well I guess I've gamed with people who would just sell them but I'm pretty sure I could make at least one of the girls in my current group cry with a situation like that.