Worlds of Design: Baseline Assumptions of Fantasy RPGs

You can write a set of fantasy role-playing game (FRPG) rules without specifying a setting, but there’s a default setting assumed by virtually every FRPG. Moreover, some rules (e.g. the existence of plate armor, and large horses) imply things about technology and breeding in the setting.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

The Basics of FRPG​

All FRPGs start with some assumptions built into the setting, some of them so innocuous that gamers might not even realize they're assumptions to begin with. For example the assumption that there are horses large enough to be ridden, even though for thousands of years of history, horses weren’t large enough for riding (the era of war chariots from about 1700-1000 BCE, and the era before that of infantry only).

Familiarity vs. strangeness is an important question for any worldbuilder to answer. What are gamers familiar with? That tends to be the default. J. R. R. Tolkien’s works (Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, etc.) are nearly a default setting for many, as in the dwarves and elves who are quite different from traditional stories of dwarves and elves. You could argue that the default setting is more Tolkien than it is medieval European, but he largely adopted Late Medieval European (1250-1500), so I prefer to refer to that.

The question is, do you want your ruleset, or your campaign setting, to follow the default? An early example of great deviation from the default was the wonderfully different world of Tekumel (Empire of the Petal Throne, and a few novels). A “different” FRPG might posit no monsters at all, perhaps not even elves and dwarves, just a lot of humans, yet never explicitly say so: if you leave out rules for monsters and humanoid races other than humans, you have a different-than-baseline setting, even if you didn't consciously make that decision. But be warned: too much unfamiliarity may make some players uncomfortable.

Are there baseline assumptions for science fiction? There seems to be so much variety, I wouldn’t try to pin it down.

The Baseline​

What ARE the baseline assumptions? In general, they are mostly late medieval (not “Dark Ages” (500-1000) or High Medieval (1000-1250), as FRPGs tend to be magic grafted to later medieval Europe. In no particular order here is a list of categories for baseline assumptions that I’ll discuss specifically:

• Transportation
• Communication
• State of Political Entities
• Commonality of Magic
• Commonality of Adventurers
• Commonality of Monsters
• Length of History and Rate of Change
• Level of Technology
• Warfare and the Military
• Religion
• Demography
• Climate

Transportation​

Wooden sailing vessels, late medieval style. In calm waters such as landlocked seas and lakes, galleys; in wild waters (such as oceans), small sailing vessels. River barges much preferable to poor roads and carts. And are there wonderful roads left by or maintained by an Empire (Rome)? See "Medieval Travel & Scale."

Communication​

Proceeds at the rate of travel, by horse or by ship. In other words, very slow by modern standards. Even as late as 1815, the Battle of New Orleans was fought after the War of 1812 had ended (in 1814), but before news of the treaty had reached Louisiana from Europe.

State of Political Entities​

Monarchies and lower level independent states (such as Duchies) ruled by “the man in charge” (very rarely, a woman). Nobles. States, not nations (the people rarely care which individual is actually in charge). Castles are so defensible that it’s fairly easy for subordinate nobles to defy their superiors. There are small cities (5-10,000 usually), not really large ones (over 100,000 people).

Commonality of Magic​

Magicians are usually rare, secretive folk. Few people ever see any manifestation of magic. In some cases the church or the government tries to suppress magic. See "The Four Stages of Magic."

Commonality of Adventurers​

Magicians, knights, powerful clerics, all are rare. 1 in 500 people? 1 in 10,000?

Commonality of Monsters​

Human-centric. Monsters are usually individuals rather than large groups. Intelligent monsters are rare. (Here Tolkien’s influence, the great orc/goblin hordes, often overrides European influence.) Undead may be common. Dragons are “legendary.”

Length of History and Rate of Change​

Slow pace of change of technology. Awareness of the greater days of a “universal empire” in the past (such as Rome), now gone. Technology changed much faster in late medieval times, than in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Level of Technology​

Late medieval, or possibly less. (Late medieval for the technology necessary to make full plate armor, if nothing else.) See "When Technology Changes the Game."

Warfare and the Military​

Wars rarely changed borders much (Late Medieval) - the great migrations have ended. Wars certainly aren’t national wars, the common people are spectators. See "The Fundamental Patterns of War."

Religion​

What we’re used to in later medieval times is a universal monotheistic church (Catholicism), though with foreign churches of different stripe (Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist). But in games, more often the setting seems to derive from older, pantheon-based, religions.

Demography​

Density of population is low. Depends on whether the local area is frontier or settled. Cities are population sinks (high mortality rates). There may be stories of a Great Plague (later-1340s and onward in Europe).

Climate​

Temperate medieval European (more often, English (governed by the Gulf Stream)), with fairly cool summers so that full armor is not impossibly hot. (Imagine wearing full armor when the average summer high is 91 degrees F, as in northern Florida.) But winters are much less severe than in the northern USA. (Modern European climate is currently getting much warmer than in late medieval times.)

Your Turn: Do you see the default setting as different that what I’ve summarized?

 

[Chaosmancer]

No, my stance always was that it is perfectly possible that learning magic requires an individual to be particularly gifted on that area in order to learn it at all or at least learn it in a sane amount of time.

And you aren't the only one I've been debating, and I've addressed your position repeatedly.

What part of 'depends on attitudes' you didn't understand? It was expressed as one possible setup for a setting, I was obviously not talking about Forgotten Realms. I played in a long campaign where all magic besides divine magic from one specific god was considered heresy. (At least until our characters arranged some mild reforms...)

See, things like this really make me question why I bother. Because my post had nothing at all to do with the Forgotten Realms.

Boccob is the God of Magic in Greyhawk, and Asmodeus is in Greyhawk too. But, you thought I was talking about the Forgotten Realms. Oh, and Greyhawk had a magic empire in the recent past that had fallen to decay and ruin.

Because the type of magic I'm talking about isn't specific to FR, it is in most settings. There is only one official setting I can think of that had a dearth of magic users and a near universal view that Arcane Magic was bad.

Dark Sun. A game specifically removed from baseline DnD.

Even if most DnD settings try and tell us that "magic is mysterious and not trusted" they will have three or four wizards within walking distance of every town, with a history of helping people around town. Then they will have a cleric or two, maybe a druid out there, and a bard that travels through town every month or so. So, nearly half a dozen familiar faces, with established roles in the community.

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Answer is "Depends of the Kingdom."
You don't necessarily want the King doing the Champion's job regardless of martial skill.

Depends on the kingdom... only very rarely. In general the Champion is stronger.

And that's fine. The King doesn't have to be the strongest warrior, even if he knows how to fight. So, why would the nobles in a society of mages have to be the strongest mages?

It matters how strong they are and how impactful their skills are.

Why? Every time magic has come up you've said they could just buy what they need, so why are you now saying they have to all be 5th level or higher?

In fact, strength, as in combat strength, is literally the least important thing for a noble to have. They are the guys who lead armies, whether or not they can best people in single combat is relatively pointless unless they are dueling.

with 1st and 2nd level spells?
Again the rules even in 5e says 3rd level spells are hard to buy because those who can do it are rare and use this to extract better terms in exchanges.

Detect Thoughts is a second level spell. So is Invisibility. So... yes, you can read minds with a second level spell.

They are terrible and part of the baseline.
In 0e to 3e, you were very weak at low levels.
4e 1st level was like more like every other edition's 5th level.
And 5e encourages DMs to speed through the first 3 levels as you suck at those levels.

Sounds like the baseline changed. Which is what I've been saying.

Funny that.