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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9046746" data-attributes="member: 42582">It seems that mediaeval people thought that the existence of certain sorts of &quot;magic&quot; or supernatural phenomena was consistent with the sort of natural and social environments they were familiar with.So when we imagine FRPGing in those environments, one option is to adopt their frameworks of understanding and explanation. This necessarily requires suspending our own frameworks of understanding and explanation (otherwise, events in the fiction would not only be causally overdetermined, but would be overdetermined by inconsistent causes!).The best known example of this in RPGing, I think, is Glorantha - for instance, in Glorantha mountain ranges are explained by mythical considerations, not scientific geology; diseases are caused by evil spirits, not germs or other biological phenomena/agents; etc.Every time I read a post about FPRGing which discusses how monsters might have &quot;evolved&quot;, which worries about the existence of half-elves through the lens of genetics, that assumes that universal gravitation operates, I wince.There are techniques of learning how to imaginatively inhabit a different sort of social situation. I don't claim to be an expert - for instance, I've neither studied nor taught anthropology.But I have taught theoretical sociology through a broadly &quot;modernity&quot;/&quot;world history&quot; lens, and an important first step in teaching this material is to expose students to examples of non-&quot;modern&quot; social forms and practices, in ways that centre these as &quot;normal&quot; and human rather than weird or deviant or &quot;other&quot;.I'm not really familiar with any RPG that tries to take this approach, with the possible exception (again, and maybe unsurprisingly) of Gloranthic RPGing.I'm not familiar with an D&amp;D material that takes this approach!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9046746, member: 42582"] It seems that mediaeval people thought that the existence of certain sorts of "magic" or supernatural phenomena was consistent with the sort of natural and social environments they were familiar with. So when we imagine FRPGing in those environments, one option is to adopt their frameworks of understanding and explanation. This necessarily requires suspending our own frameworks of understanding and explanation (otherwise, events in the fiction would not only be causally overdetermined, but would be overdetermined by inconsistent causes!). The best known example of this in RPGing, I think, is Glorantha - for instance, in Glorantha mountain ranges are explained by mythical considerations, not scientific geology; diseases are caused by evil spirits, not germs or other biological phenomena/agents; etc. Every time I read a post about FPRGing which discusses how monsters might have "evolved", which worries about the existence of half-elves through the lens of genetics, that assumes that universal gravitation operates, I wince. There are techniques of learning how to imaginatively inhabit a different sort of social situation. I don't claim to be an expert - for instance, I've neither studied nor taught anthropology. But I have taught theoretical sociology through a broadly "modernity"/"world history" lens, and an important first step in teaching this material is to expose students to examples of non-"modern" social forms and practices, in ways that centre these as "normal" and human rather than weird or deviant or "other". I'm not really familiar with any RPG that tries to take this approach, with the possible exception (again, and maybe unsurprisingly) of Gloranthic RPGing. I'm not familiar with an D&D material that takes this approach! [/QUOTE]

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