Part 1 of 2, by Ferret Baudoin
There is one time period that fascinates me like no other – the Middle Ages. Knights in armor, kings and queens, and Crusades… what’s not to like? When I was a young kid and played my first game – I had no idea what medieval times were like. Honestly, I didn’t care. I got to kick goblin’s teeth in – wee! But as I got older I found that my suspension of disbelief was harder to swallow. So I thought quite a bit and wondered – what the heck was that time period actually like? On a summer vacation I picked up several books of medieval history and read them voraciously. That’s something I still do on occasion. I realized that the sort of Tolkien-esque worlds I’ve played in or had run, although fascinating, really paled to bits of real history. It also made me realize that the best way to smooth over the disbelief issue is to inject a lot of historical realism into things.
So I’ll tell you a little of my gamemastering journey. Hopefully it’ll make you think of a thing or two or be vaguely entertaining or interesting.
First off, I started thinking about the people. What they believed, why they believed it, and what were their lives like on a typical summer day. High magic worlds like I’d been running really would destroy everything the medieval people believed in. You can embrace high magic and it can make a rich setting that’s fascinating – those to me feel almost quasi-steam punk. But I wanted to take the players into a mythical, fantasy version of medieval Europe – so that didn’t work. So I decided to try and make it that the medieval peasant wouldn’t have to change his whole world view in my game. If magic were uncommon enough I think it would actually reinforce some of their views instead of upending their world.
A lot of my thoughts were about how to inject the fantastical to a player’s perspective – yet keeping it plausible that the peasants, nobles, and clergy wouldn’t seem like dimwits. Humanoids really weren’t a problem because they’re very analogous to barbarians, something parts of medieval Europe were entirely too familiar with. But spells really threw me for a loop. I’d always taken for granted that people could be resurrected in fantasy pen-and-paper games – but as I thought through the consequences I was appalled. If resurrection existed to powerful clerical types – those clerics would be enormously powerful politically, kings and high nobles that could afford their services would be guaranteed a natural lifespan to achieve things. I imagine people would start reacting like the denizens of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld Saga – where strategic suicide could be a legitimate tactic. Any element that started making the society seem alien to me had to go – so no resurrection.
Every spell in the book (and I used two systems over the life of the game setting – Rolemaster and Dungeons and Dragons) I went through with some thought. Some spells got nixed or heavily modified for other reasons. A pet peeve of mine are spells that reduce NPCs into tools, not people. If I can command any Tom, Dick, and Harry on the street to do my bidding and tell me anything about everything – it sort of kills role-playing. You could easily go the other way, because mythical mages like Merlin certainly could have that sort of power. But for me, I wanted people to have to interact with the high and low and use their wits, guile, and persuasive abilities to get by.
Ferret Baudoin is a lead designer at BioWare. He’s worked as a designer at Cyberlore, Black Isle, and Obsidian. His plan is not to take over the world. So don’t pay attention to the silently encroaching mustelid army.
Bwahaha.
Tags: baudoin, campaign planning, gm tips, tabletop
January 17, 2009 at 3:51 am |
Very interesting. I too have had a fascination with realism in my fantasy envirnoments, but must admit it has tended to focus more on the physical environments and the relationship with the ‘world’.
I have always liked my settings to be real, earthy, dirty – and believable, which is kinda difficult when you add the twin pillars of religion and magic into the mix.
I always tried to look at the ’system’ and ‘community’ that was working behind the scenes. Villages towns etc. how did they develop where they did, what keeps them ticking, how does that feed back into their behaviour, how would they react to whatever threat the plot has thrown at them.
Living in the UK there was a huge backstory of history to call on for adding realism, but that always shifted things towards the medieval (not a problem for me – but for some of the other players they wanted less realism and more high fantasy).
My other bugbear was always the view of NPCs and critters as mere canon fodder. Surely they would structure themselves and work in such a way to overcome their weaknesses. A hoard of goblins wouldn’t throw themselves at a party capable of smiting them with magic. They would use cunning, plan attacks, use their strengths, ambush, weaken villages by stealing crops, etc. yet that never really happens in games. It’s more a case of kill them, find their letter of appointment from the ‘real’ villian (or at least the next one up the chain) – then onwards and upwards.
For me the other awkward area is the impact of Magic (and religion where you do have powerful dieties) on the socio-economic setting as well as the physical environment.
How do villagers make a living from farming for example in a world where powerful magic exists that presumably has the power to conjur up food and products from nothing ? (unless you try and restrict magic to transformation only, so that raw materials are always required, for which there will be a demand, and therefore a living to be made for the underclasses).
In such a society there would be such a huge divide between those with power and those without. This hardly ever comes out in fantasy settings which do allow high levels of magic. Such divides would breed contempt, fear and would provide for a very interesting background.
Buildings (my own personal interest) is another area that is effected by magic (or powerful clerical spells). How do you design a castle for example to combat magical threats ? They would need magical protection. If such heavy duty magical protections and glyphs exist, then is there a need for such large cumbersome (And expensive) castles and towers – where a large wooden house could be re-inforced by powerful protection wards.
I’m not sure I could create a a world where castles, towers, temples etc. didn’t exist.
Very interesting blog – looking forward to part 2
Martin
January 19, 2009 at 8:35 am |
Sadly, I let most of my enemies continue to subscribe to Kamikaze Quarterly. I find that often there’s so much I want to squeeze into a session that realistic enemies sometimes lose out to wedging another combat, interesting NPC to talk with, etc. Every now and then using believable enemies properly and routing the enemies seems to be an acceptable compromise.
In re magic. I made magic rare enough that society has no immune system. If only 2 or 3 people in the kingdom have spells that can really wreak that sort of havoc, then people don’t do anything about it. To counter “Mages Gone Wild” I’ve made it that all mages live in fear or renewed persecution that they suffered from centuries. They’re trying to lie low, escape notice. Otherwise everyone’s collective butts could be on the line. Pretty much taken from Ars Magicka, but it makes everything hold together and provides interesting decisions for PC mages.
Starting world-building with the constraints like “Castles, towers, temples, and medieval society all have to still make sense” is really the core of what I did. And I think it pays off. Glad you liked the blog.
February 11, 2009 at 10:05 am |
This comment comes a bit late, but this subject of realism vs. magic in fantasy has always fascinated me. Personally, I like to think of the effects of magic as being based in the beliefs of people, rather than simply being some abstract force easily manipulated by those with the right knowledge. I prefer magic when it is mysterious and never fully understood, as it was seen by actual ancient peoples. To them, both magical and spiritual experiences (and there was not much of a barrier between the two) were confusing, otherworldy, awesome incidents that furthered their sense of being surrounded by powers beyond their comprehension.
I think that to this day, belief, in a sense, creates magic. When I lived on the Navajo Reservation as a child, everyone took it for granted that skinwalkers, ghosts and curses were real things that could have real negative consequences on a person’s life. The power created by this common belief system was almost palpable. I enjoy it when fantasy operates in much the same way, because it seems more realistic.
August 6, 2009 at 1:20 pm |
nice and informative post….keep up the good work and please be sure to inform me of updates!
September 25, 2009 at 6:59 pm |
Thank you share