2,200 GP for that +1 Sword In The Window. How Modern is Your Fantasy RPG?

It's surprising that modern RPGs aren't more popular when you think about some of the fantasy RPG conventions that have evolved over the years. When you get down to it, most of them are modern conveniences with a woodcut veneer.

Some of these conventions are based on the ease of running the game, others come from years of lazy fantasy fiction, and some are lack of research on how life really was back when knights rode horses, not Maseratis.

Getting a room at the Holly Dale Inn

Every village, no matter how small, has an inn waiting for the heroes to come in and haggle over rooms and stay the night. It's also the local pub, complete with bard and drinking buddies who are ready rumor vomit all sorts of exposition and red herrings about that abandoned lot up on the hill.

True, you can find lots of old inns in Europe, but travel was the exception, not the rule, in the Middle Ages. While cities and larger towns had a few inns, the out of reach places that PCs typically go to wouldn't offer a medieval Motel VI.

Yep. If you're saving the remote village from the dangers that sneak out of the dungeons, you're best bed would be a straw bed by the fireplace in a farmer's hut. Unless you wanted to kick the family out of their beds … Yeah Mr. Hero, let little Timmy sleep on the floor. Don't mind his sniffles.

Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer the "inn at every village," but it's even cooler to drive away from the Holly Dale Inn in my muscle car as compared to a riding horse.


Now Available at the Army/Navy Smithy Depot

Where do I start on this one? How many times have you seen a game where the players rifle through the equipment lists like it's a catalogue and start buying any old sword that catches their fancy, asking why would anyone take that sword when clearly this weapon is better.

The more accurate question would be "If you could chose a weapon from anywhere in the world over a 400 year time period, why would anyone take that sword when clearly this weapon was better."

When RPGs got started, the games tried to offer the largest assortment of items over the widest time period soGMs could fine tune the list to their campaign and tastes. Somewhere along the line, that unspoken rule became silent acquiescence of the whole list instead.

Ironically for most of the time periods that inspired the list, personal weapons were illegal for anyone who wasn't a feudal lord or soldier. In theory, it was because the lords had sworn to defend the land with their lives. In reality, it made peasant riot control much easier.


Buying at Rad'io deShack's Magic Shoppe

And then there's the players who submit a shopping list of magic items to confirm if that +1 sword is available. Historically, items of great power or holy significance were in the hands of those who already had the power, the nobility and the church. In fact the old cliché of "clean out that old haunted castle on my land … and keep the loot," would never fly. As far as the Baron is concerned, anything worth keeping from that ruined keep has been a lost family heirloom, including every single gold coin.

Then there's the part where many players and GMs have lowered the bar over the years.

They buy a +1 sword. That's it. A magical weapon that has become so mundane that it has no name, no legend, no mystique. Sting, Frodo's dagger, was only a +1 weapon that glowed when evil was afoot. Yet it had more than one name and a reputation that made orcs shake in their boots.

Compared to that, picking up a +1 sword from the smithy is no different than getting a Desert Eagle from the gun store.

Beyond just weapons, it would have been more likely that anyone selling charms and potions out of stall was more apt to be labeled a con man, witch or a heretic than a magic shop.


It's the Gold Piece Economy, Stupid

Why aren't more medieval farmers adventuring? When most adventuring parties make a thousand times more gold than he sees in a lifetime, it's worth the chance. Odds are he's going to die as cannon fodder in the next crusade anyway.

The "gold piece" economy is one of pure suspension of disbelief, where players liberate more gold coinage than most medieval country GNPs.

I had one player who retired his PC early. After a good haul, he became a legit merchant and thus his storyline was over. My reward for the player was that he got a replacement character at the same level as the old one AND got to play the reformed merchant as a regular NPC who hired out the party on occasion.

The other players didn't "get it," but I did. The lowly thief they always picked on was now their boss. That player always had a bit of pride when he portrayed that PC.

Then again, you could say that it only takes one adventuring party to spend 25 gold pieces in a remote town and you'll get an inn at every village. :)

But in a Modern role playing game, PCs can blithely buy yachts, M-50 cals and virtual reality room and there's no questions about how that will impact the local economy.
All in good fun
We don't go to an action movie expecting an Oscar performance. And for most of our fantasy games, we don't role dice expecting to play Hamlet or one of the Crusades. I, for one, think that's a good thing.

The hallmark of good entertainment is that we don't notice the plot holes and inconsistencies until after the fun is over and our brains are forced to reengage with logic and the mundane world.

So, I'm not knocking the clichés and conveniences that fantasy RPGs have developed over the years. If you've played more historical versions like Pendragon, though, you'll see how much of the final decade of the 20th Century is hiding just underneath the surface.

Which means to play a modern game, or sci-fi, game really isn't that much of stretch compared to a fantasy RPG. And it might even be a fun change of pace.

Just admit it; you always wanted to hunt down junkyard ghouls with a cell phone in one hand and a blessed M90 in the other. ;)
-- CC