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

[Reynard]

I fear that getting into it in detail would probably call the moderators down on me, but simply;

D&D and games derived from it is ultimately tell the story about going into someone's home, using violence, and taking their stuff. That's also the story of "how the west was won." If you want to tell a culturally sensitive story about the wild west or a similar frontier, D&D is not the medium to tell that story in.

The only alternative is to have some sort of "virgin land" frontier that was never inhabited by people before the arrival of the players, which significantly limits gameplay.

I thought so, but I did not want to presume.

You can do the wild frontier without the colonialism. Just don't put "savages" there. Done.

 

[Cadence]

I thought so, but I did not want to presume.

You can do the wild frontier without the colonialism. Just don't put "savages" there. Done.

Right. There are plenty of classic westerns (radio and movie from the 50a to 80s) with lots of bad guys and no focus on the colonialism. Or if there is the colonialism, it is the folks who don't respect the native population who are the bad guys.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I thought so, but I did not want to presume.

You can do the wild frontier without the colonialism. Just don't put "savages" there. Done.

If there are no "savages", then you have two options; no people at all, or an established, civilized society. With the latter, that's kind of the opposite of a "frontier".

Right. There are plenty of classic westerns (radio and movie from the 50a to 80s) with lots of bad guys and no focus on the colonialism. Or if there is the colonialism, it is the folks who don't respect the native population who are the bad guys.

That they don't focus on the colonialism isn't something to be lauded. Cognitive dissonance shouldn't be rewarded.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If there are no "savages", then you have two options; no people at all, or an established, civilized society. With the latter, that's kind of the opposite of a "frontier".



That they don't focus on the colonialism isn't something to be lauded. Cognitive dissonance shouldn't be rewarded.

I can see where your name comes from. What kind of games do you use D&D for, may I ask?

 

[Baron Opal II]

If there are no "savages", then you have two options; no people at all, or an established, civilized society. With the latter, that's kind of the opposite of a "frontier".

I would consider "monsters" a viable third option.

 

[Cadence]

If there are no "savages", then you have two options; no people at all, or an established, civilized society. With the latter, that's kind of the opposite of a "frontier".

That they don't focus on the colonialism isn't something to be lauded. Cognitive dissonance shouldn't be rewarded.

The roving cattlemen coming through like a force of nature, the small town that it took time for news to get to and where someone with money or a group of bandits might take over and oppress everyone living there, etc... make it feel like civilization was tenuous at best. The gunsmoke radio show, Magnificent Seven, and Clint Eastwood westerns sure feel frontiersy to me even when the "savages" are just people who have disregarded the rules. Brisco County Jr. feels like it has him going out into the frontier at times.

When Gun Smoke and Six Shooter (starring Jimmy Stewart) had episodes with the indigenous population, it was clear that the sympathies of the main characters (and show creators) was with them. The focus of the shows in general was what was happening in and around Dodge and in the big group of ranches respectively though. Fort Laramie (with Raymond Burr as a captain of cavalry) regularly featured stories involving the native population and tried to make the standard position of the US government and many of the settlers look as awful as it was.

 

[Reynard]

If there are no "savages", then you have two options; no people at all, or an established, civilized society. With the latter,

There is a big excluded middle there. The common trope in D&D is a frontier that was once a part of the Golden Age Empire/Kingdom, now in disrepair and peopled by folks who have been living on the fringes between Law and Chaos for generations. You may have many tiny kingdoms there, where some strongman or another has decided these few square miles belong to him. Etc.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I can see where your name comes from. What kind of games do you use D&D for, may I ask?

I'm not being facetious when I say this: I primarily use D&D to examine the fascist myth of martial heroism. The novel "The Iron Dream" by Norman Spinrad is practically a coda for my campaign.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I would consider "monsters" a viable third option.

Right yeah not enough ink has been spilled over "the orc as the other" yet, has it?

 

[Reynard]

I'm not being facetious when I say this: I primarily use D&D to examine the fascist myth of martial heroism. The novel "The Iron Dream" by Norman Spinrad is practically a coda for my campaign.

Surely you realize you are an outlier, then, and that your taking a strong stance on a specific, personal definition of "frontier" isn't particularly broadly applicable.