tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7278070888694275259.post4702312765618606825..comments2024-02-26T17:14:37.218-05:00Comments on Echoes from the Geekcave: Class, Status, and D&DBigharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14232940345429292782noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7278070888694275259.post-54615782033615614042012-04-23T16:06:49.697-04:002012-04-23T16:06:49.697-04:00"The reason not to add social class the way I...<i>"The reason not to add social class the way I understand it historically, in my opinion, is that it will actually take a lot of agency away from the players."</i><br /><br />Exactly.Bigharahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14232940345429292782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7278070888694275259.post-81933130759741241842012-04-23T13:06:04.742-04:002012-04-23T13:06:04.742-04:00Haven't gotten into Game of Thrones yet (book ...Haven't gotten into Game of Thrones yet (book or movie versions), but your post promotes interesting considerations because social class defined the middle ages, yet in most D&D games, it seems to hardly come up. <br />The reason not to add social class the way I understand it historically, in my opinion, is that it will actually take a lot of agency away from the players. PCs of lower social classes will have to do as they are told. PCs of noble classes will also usually have to do as they are told unless they are the head of their particular family. I don't think a lot of people were able to just 'wander around having adventures' in those times (well, a few did... but they were usually termed 'outlaws' and hung or beheaded). Maybe 'Landsknecht' types would fit the role of adventurer better, but they are from a historically later period when the nobility was in decline due to the rise of the commerce classes.<br />I guess I would go with a 'social class Lite' version, as one might find in Lieber's Fafhrd and Mouser novels. "Adventurers" could be members of an ahistorical class apart, and may have come from any social class before becoming adventurers --- for their counterparts, I would look to fictional characters like hard nosed detectives from Hammet stories, gunfighters and prospectors from the old west, 'hero/adventurer' types from pulp novels like Doc Savage. Most player characters in games I have been involved in seem to resemble Sam Spade more than Lancelot or Aragorn if one thinks about the kind of culture/class they live in. <br />Good post!Stefan Poaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192911890556534923noreply@blogger.com