D&D General Why Do You Prefer a Medieval Milieu For D&D? +

[mamba]

The Weird West would like a word.

sure, any frontier style would have that too, what doesn’t have it is the victorian age

If it isn't a medieval term, maybe we don't need medieval setting to have it?

that is not how language works. I use the term as it is used today, it does not matter that 500 or 1000 years ago it was not used like that and medieval does not mean it should only be described in / be used for terms that were used at the time (even if they changed meaning since or disappeared).

I grant you that wild west / weird west on the one side, early civilizations (mesopotamia, mesoamerica), and post-apocalyptic (Mad Max, etc.) all also meet the points of light criteria. My point was not so much that all of this is unique to medieval fantasy but that this is why I prefer medieval over victorian, which is what the original question was.

I am fine with the mesopotamia ones too, I do not distinguish too much between then and the medieval I am looking for. Dark Sun fits as well. Weird West and Apocalyptic bring the technology too far however, once you have ‘real’ guns, it changes the world drastically.

 

[Umbran]

sure, any frontier style would have that too, what doesn’t have it is the victorian age

Um... the "Victorian Age" is 1837 to 1901.
The Louisiana Purchase was in 1803. So, the American Frontier and Wild West periods are largely during the Victorian Era.

that is not how language works. I use the term as it is used today, it does not matter that 500 or 1000 years ago it was not used like that and medieval does not mean it should only be described in / be used for terms that were used at the time (even if they changed meaning since or disappeared).

I think you miss the point. The people of the Industrial Revolution used that word pretty much the same way we do today, because it described their experience. Ergo, there's a lot of that age that fits the word.

 

[Reynard]

Um... the "Victorian Age" is 1837 to 1901.
The Louisiana Purchase was in 1803. So, the American Frontier and Wild West periods are largely during the Victorian Era.

Yeah. When I read that statement, I glitched a little. I mean, there is a cowboy as a significant supporting character in Dracula.

 

[Yaarel]

I generally prefer modern settings − either with magic or with near-future supertech. Having specific cities in a technologic armsrace with other cities, while most cities are moreorless like reallife now, feels plausible. Of course, internet gets increasingly sophisticated for everyone connecting to it, virtually the school of Divination spells. Sometimes I treat the internet as the Astral Plane, if characters are virtually present, and the augmented reality overlapping a digital replica of the realworld as Wild Space. The Feywild requires actual physical presence in the world, such as nanobot mist serving as an avatar.

At the same time, I love medievalesque because I love mythologically accurate settings. I love the Viking Period and its living nature and psionics. I love medieval mysticisms and the protosciences resembling parables, where chemistry and psychology havent distinguished from each other yet. I want to see more mythologically accurate settings for regions around the world.

 

[mamba]

Um... the "Victorian Age" is 1837 to 1901.
The Louisiana Purchase was in 1803. So, the American Frontier and Wild West periods are largely during the Victorian Era.

but there is quite a bit of difference between what the wild west looked like and what London at the time looked like, or even England as a whole.

It’s not like the entire world progresses in lockstep.

I think you miss the point. The people of the Industrial Revolution used that word pretty much the same way we do today, because it described their experience. Ergo, there's a lot of that age that fits the word.

and there is a lot from the medieval times that does too Since we are not playing impoverished factory workers to me the medieval fits better

Again, I am not saying all of this is unique to medieval fantasy, I am saying it makes it different from victorian fantasy. That parts of the real world were still gritty frontiers points of light style during the 1800s does not change that

 

[Reynard]

but there is quite a bit of difference between what the wild west looked like and what London at the time looked like, or even England as a whole.

It’s not like the entire world progresses in lockstep.

I think you are actually talking about genre there, not time period.

 

[mamba]

I think you are actually talking about genre there, not time period.

yes, I know, to me the question is more about genre

For those that do*, why do you prefer a medieval fantasy milieu for your D&D games? Why do you want castles and kings and thatch roofed villages, knights and towers and chain? Why do you not want firearms or printing presses, trains or airships?

we did not have printing presses, trains, etc. all over the world at the same time either. That is why you can have a more frontier setting at any time. Arguably you can turn even Star Wars into one.

I prefer a lower technology level however, as I wrote, guns change the setting drastically, so would easy access to telegraphs, trains, or airships. Star Wars is not Mad Max is not Wild West is not medieval, they all can be points of light frontier settings. With more technology it becomes less about the adventures however, anyone with a gun can defeat anyone with a sword

 

[Reynard]

I generally like my D&D a little weird, and Eberron is my favorite D&D setting, but sometimes I do lean into the medieval-esque milieu (as exemplified probably by core book 2E). Usually it is because I want to run something that feels like game of Thrones, lord of the Rings or Abernathy's grimdark mud-n-blood fantasy. Even then, there is pleny of potential for singualr weird things that don't fit the genre popping in.

I agree that there is a valuable familiarity with the medieval milieu, especially for highlighting the weird. If everything is normal 10th century psuedo-Europe, and then the War of the Worlds cannisters start landing, it only enhances the strangeness of a Martian invasion of England a thousand years early.

 

[MGibster]

I make all the players speak in Middle English while playing D&D.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I'm usually fine with Medieval plus some anachronisms, even more likely if they are purely magical. I love the idea of a wandslinger, but mundane firearms are a no go. I don't have an issue with Eberron's Lightning Rail, but the Concordant Express' dumb little smoke stack fills me nerd rage.