arscott
First Post
Well, right now the only thing I'm DMing is the Play By Post pirate campaign(link in sig), and that's actually set on earth (though 17th century, rather than middle ages). So it's definately historical, though not medieval.
In general though, I'm less likely to have a strictly historical social setting. Most Fantasy doesn't take place on earth, so it doesn't need to ape our historical settings.
Christianity was a major force, if not the major force, in shaping Medieval society, so I always cringe a bit when I see medieval social concepts dropped into a blatantly polytheistic world without though as to what would need to be true about a world's religion in order to make the concepts feasable.
Were I to run a D&D campaign set in a fantastical universe, I'd the cultures in my societies would be a carefully planned hodgepodge of modern and historical society with my own fictional ideas added in. I might have a society that combines the indian Caste system with rennisaince italian city-states next to an island nation of Pirate/Vikings. I might have a country that embraces modern Ideas like social security and universal health-care, while still practicing chattel slavery and cannibalism. And I might have a country that's got the exact same social structure as 12th-century Normandy. It's ultimately a matter of whatever's interesting while still being semi-logical.
In general though, I'm less likely to have a strictly historical social setting. Most Fantasy doesn't take place on earth, so it doesn't need to ape our historical settings.
Christianity was a major force, if not the major force, in shaping Medieval society, so I always cringe a bit when I see medieval social concepts dropped into a blatantly polytheistic world without though as to what would need to be true about a world's religion in order to make the concepts feasable.
Were I to run a D&D campaign set in a fantastical universe, I'd the cultures in my societies would be a carefully planned hodgepodge of modern and historical society with my own fictional ideas added in. I might have a society that combines the indian Caste system with rennisaince italian city-states next to an island nation of Pirate/Vikings. I might have a country that embraces modern Ideas like social security and universal health-care, while still practicing chattel slavery and cannibalism. And I might have a country that's got the exact same social structure as 12th-century Normandy. It's ultimately a matter of whatever's interesting while still being semi-logical.
