The reason why medieval settings are so common is fairly obvious. Before the medieval period, the primary winner of warfare was tight formations of disciplined shield wall infantry, while after the the medieval period they just ditched the shields and went with pike and shot formations instead. But during the medieval period, the individual knight as at their most powerful, and the power of disciplined formations of infantry was at its weakest. This works particularly well with TRPG settings which focus on individual skills over group formations and teamwork. But of course, this begs the question...how do you mechanically design a soldier from a society where fighting in groups with other soldiers is more prized?
>Before the medieval period, the primary winner of warfare was tight formations of disciplined shield wall infantry,You're ignoring big part of egyptian history where the deciding factor was chariots.
>>93408292There should be an rpg about chariot warfare
>>93408202
>>93408202Thats a terrible theory, most RPGs actively encourage fighting in close formations due to marching order and exploiting choke points and movement mechanics, even when the majority of characters arent knights, and they developed out of wargaming which is traditionally done with block formations of infantryYou dont even propose a mechanical translation between medevial warfare and game mechanic, so there's no possible way to answer your bullshit non-question
>>93408314There should, alas most RPGs suck at any form of vehicular combat.
>>93408202>TRPGs use medieval settings because of knights>not because they came about as a collision between wargaming and the popular pulp and fantasy works that were around in the 70sDo you have any evidence to back this up?In reality, all ancient myth is ripe with heroes that fight individually and even have real examples like gladiators. You design design the mechanics the same way you design them for a medieval setting: you abstract out the vast majorities of the details. Most rpgs don't even bother to explain how the rogue is dealing meaningful damage to a flame elemental by shanking it, forget about the differences between formation vs individual combat or that a sword should have an obvious reach advantage over a dagger.
>>93408347>most RPGs actively encourage fighting in close formationsAoE spells say otherwise
nah, the reason is because they have the most numerous cool designs especially since people anachronistically attribute other cool armors and outfits to the medieval period.Before then you only really had 1 cool looking soldier during any particular period.
I thought it was just because people were comfortable with a setting they are familiar with.
>>93408202The reason the medieval setting is so common os because everyone to this day is still copying Tolkien and Middle Earth was assumed to be medieval even though it's far more of an iron age than anything else. Plus the media that inspired Gygax and the other first gen nerds that created these systems was mostly medieval movies because studios were pumping them out like crazy between 1929-1979, and most fantasy writers were ripping off Hollywood not other writers.You're giving them way too much credit.
>>93408202It's pretty cool to see such a glowing endorsement for medieval settings.You know what? You keep playing your games in medieval settings.Not sure why this needed a thread, especially since there's another thread up that's criticizing how ubiquitous medieval settings are, but you keep playing your games how you want.
In reality, all ancient myth is rape.
>>93408408Most "cool" medieval armour is not even medieval, but early modern armour. Show me a "medieval setting" where full plate armour hasn't been invented yet.
>>93408408>Before then you only really had 1 cool looking soldier during any particular period.Who was he?
>>93410084>Show me a "medieval setting" where full plate armour hasn't been invented yet.That's hard since plate armour covering the body has existed for a very long time in one form or another. It's not like we just "invented" it one day out of the blue.
>>93408202>The reason why medieval settings are so common is fairly obvious>Continues with some fucking asspull ignoring everything we know about the genres roots
Adventurer Parties are basically explorers, skirmishers and combat scouts. They are the ideal units for small-scale and personal storylines since they work in loose formations, smaller units, and require higher degree of initiative.
>>93408202>I know my history from hollywood movies
>>93408369Constantly fast moving objects are tough to emulate in a turn-based system.
>>93410619No, Hollywood movies would have you believe that disciplined fighting formations such and battles are all about twirly slo-mo fighting with your shirt off.
>>93410231>It's not like we just "invented" it one day out of the blueNta but isn't that what kinda happened?
>>93410619if only...
>>93410698Development of armor is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, small iterative changes, taking what you know and trying to make it better. Radical changes only happened when new proven functional idea was discovered by conquest or trade and adopted locally.
>>93410116John Lorica SegmentataAnd before him John Corinthian Helm
Common rpg settings involves dungeon delving.Even if your game were set during the three kingdoms or hellenistic period with abundant massed armies, dungeon delving would still benefit individual of great skill, rather than drilled masses.
>>93411098>Centurion John Segmentata! I don't care what those barbarians did! You've gone too far!>I'm throwing you out of this legion! Indefinite suspension!>Now give me your vine staff... and your other vine staff!
>>93408292>let us race in our armies place.>your best charioteer vs me, let us make famous this Dead Man's Curve!The pulp writes itself, in hieroglyphics
>>93410698>>93410756Reminder that roman mail shirts were literal short sleeved tunics made from two identical, flat pieces being connected along the edges while medieval european mail has tayloring and fitting around the armpits, arms and back to allow for long sleeves and tight fits without any loss of mobility.Reminder that european high to early modern armour stands downstreams of fashion, indicating that advances in tayloring were what was required before the sort of sculpted, form-fitting armour we think of as typical for Euros could come about.Meaning full plate armour is the result of tens of thousands of high testes men's desire to wear yoga pants that properly show off their butts and legs during a period when stretch material had yet to be invented.
>>93408202The reason medieval settings are common is because that's just the expectation for post-LOTR fantasy.Like I say "fantasy" and you probably immediately think of something medieval with dragons and shit unless I specify it's actually like Asian wuxia or whatever.Look at fantasy video games. 90% are medieval. Fantasy novels? Honestly I don't read much outside the classics but it looks like 90% of those too are medieval based on the covers.In fact, it has kind of reached an unfortunate point where "Asian wuxia" for example could be considered a separate genre in the modern context.
>>93410756Logistics play into it as well. Romans went from armour made of plates to chainmail because it was cheaper and easier to maintain. At some point, with advances in metallurgy and forging, it came cheaper to mass-produce cuirasses over chainmail shirts. Doesn't mean we didn't have cuirasses before that time, it was just easier to get good quality stuff produced in numbers. Face covering helmets, metal vambraces and greaves, tassets, articulated joints. All things that existed long before putting them all into one suit of armour became the norm. And at some point we stopped doing that and went for a simple cuirass and helmet. Then dropped those. Then brought helmets back. Then came flexible kevlar vests. And we started stuffing more and more solid plates in them. Shit keeps going round and round.
>>93415786I almost don't like calling wuxia and xianxia fantasy because fantasy might ad well just means elves/elf proxies and shit
>>93416677>fantasy might ad well just means elves/elf proxies and shitThat's post-LOTR. Tolkien didn't invent fantasy. Robert E. Howard was doing fantasy without elves before LOTR, for example.
>>93410662Constant motion is actually a state of rest. Instead of the PCs and vehicles moving, they should stay static while the environment moves around them.
The AKCHUELL reason why the medieval setting is popular is because the medieval dark ages works well in the context of a semi-anarchic setting where adventurers can carve out a name for themselves amidst the ruins of a previous more advanced empire. That setting gives more freedom to players for advancement purposes because land isn't already claimed and treasure excavated. it fits the sweet spot between total frontier wilderness (no dungeons or towns) and dense civilization (no opportunity for advancement through adventuring).Any time period or setting (real or fictional) that approximates a semi-anarchic regional order with ancient facilities holding valuables fits the style of play of the classic table-top RPG. The medieval period is the most accessible for a variety of reasons.
>>93416778I'm quite aware of that but we're not in 1930, modern fantasy to most people includes things Tolkien didn't write about too, because it's an amalgamation of multiple different authors through the filter of D&D and vidya
>>93419095>modern fantasy to most people includes things Tolkien didn't write about too,Then your original complaint is rendered moot and retarded, no?
>>93415786Taking a moment to remind all anons in this thread that the Wild West is a 10/10 setting for a campaignyou have:>small groups of adventurers>bandits>rangers & roving lawmen>mythical beasts>mysticism out the ass>a mountain of music & movies to draw from for referenceyou can even mix in warring states period japanese mythology too if you're feeling cheeky
>>93416120Ehhh, the armor of the Legions were always pretty variable and inconsistent, and trends were less conscious decisions and more just practicality making itself known. For any given Legionary even within the same Legion, the use of mail and how much it covered would have varied, use of laminar and how much it covered varied, and there's even instances of lamellar/scale being used, and back when they used mostly self-equipped citizen levies there were instances of no or practically no armor aside from a single plate on the chest among the poorer legionaries.People today are used to standardization, but prior to the era of factories and mass consumption, there just wasn't such a thing. Even in war, what any given soldier had was heavily individualized and dependent on who he knew, what he had, and where he was, with any of those factors mattering more than the calendar date ever did.
>>93419593From early legion to late legion, the trend was moving towards chainmail in recovered examples and period depictions. And of course stuff was mixed. It was mixed in the medieval period and it's even mixed today, no matter how much the militaries love standardization. Because the one thing the government hates is spending money.
>>93408202I have a question. What exactly is the difference between Heroic Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery as a setting? They look the same to me
>>93408202>But during the medieval period, the individual knight as at their most powerful, and the power of disciplined formations of infantry was at its weakest.But this isn't true. Medieval warfare centred around infantry, just like ancient and early modern warfare.
>>93410619Don't give him that much credit. No matter how smart your setting, it can only be as intelligent as your dumbest player.
>>93408314“SEA PEOPLE could be here”, Ramesses thought, “I’ve never ridden across this valley before”. The cool seabreeze felt good against his bare chest. “I HATE SEA PEOPLE” he thought. Battlehymns to Ptah reverberated through his entire chariot. Making it pulsate even as the sacred beer circulated through his powerful thick veins and washed away his (merited) fear of the sea people’s amphibious hordes. “With a chariot, you can go anywhere you want” he said to himself, out loud
>>93408202RPGs have nothing to do with historical warfare, and there's no reason to think that the dominance of knights has anything to do with why a particular setting is popular, and medieval fantasy is far from being a dominant setting.
>>93422417Fucking lost.
>>93422417
>>93408400Quit playing dogshit cape larping systems?
>>93408202>retard doesn't know what medieval means>also entirely unfamiliar with non revisionist history What's the point of this thread, faggot?
>>93415786>Honestly I don't readAnd it fucking shows, Anon. Where did you learn to make such outlandish assumptions?
>>93419530Hell, set it in the Philippines and you've got a kitchen sink setting with cowboys, samurai, and conquistadorsAlso kungfu Muslims who live in the south
>>93411976A chariot racing game ala the fast and furious or initial d would be pretty fun ngl.>Ywn race your chariot around mortis homo’s curve to win the heart of a cute Goth girl
>>93424039We'd have to RTVRN beyond the pre-bronze age collapse to get to a period during which everybody was into chariot riding.
