Renaissance Faires with magic; that is, costumes and weapons are medieval, but speech, morals, and mores -- and culture! -- are 21st century fan/gamer culture.

Magic shops.

Wandering through life in full armor always.

Quote from: Skepticultist;1031648Shops.  Particularly the "General Store" sort of shop that sells a wide variety of adventuring gear.  In a real medieval society, you did not have shops, you had craftsmen whom you bought from directly.  Nobody would have a shop full of swords -- you'd commission one from a smith with experience making blades.  If you wanted a ladder, you didn't go to the general store and buy a ladder, you either built it yourself or you commissioned a woodworker to build you one.  The standard adventurer's shop just feels incredibly video gamey to me.

Shrug.  I simply don't play it out, because to me going to a ropemaker to buy a rope, to a woodworker to buy a ladder, and to a blacksmith to buy some iron spikes sounds so very, very, very incredibly dull.  I know there is no such thing as a "general store," and in 46 years I've encountered exactly one player who cared.

Settings that are totally or mostly based on real world history. Zzzzzz. When I want history, I'll read an actual history book.

Magic.

I can deal with the non-medievalness.  If I'm playing D&D, I expect a Wild West fantasy that is little like medieval history.

What bugs me a little is the weird economics and to some degree social structures. How do these towns work with gold pieces flowing through them like water? Towns sometimes don't even feel like Wild West towns, and more just like thin excuses to buy stuff, have a few encounters, and get the next quest.

On a similar note, dungeon ecology. In many modules, there are a bunch of mortal, ordinary creatures that need to eat and go do things - and it is utterly unclear how they can survive even a short time. Some modules deal with this reasonably. Others, not so much.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1031607"Race" as a mix of "Species" and "Culture".

So much this. I physically cringe when I read that Elves are better with a bow, or all halflings good at throwing stuff, or Dwarves are all naturals at stonecraft. As if every member of the species gets the exact same training regimen growing up. Race-as-class exacerbates this by making it canon.

Quote from: Kiero;1031587Lazy history, geology and ecology hand-waved away with "a wizard did it".

Societies that look just like historical ones, making no attempt to incorporate the impact functioning magic would have on them.

Monocultures, where everyone from a particular society has all the same personality traits.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1031607"Race" as a mix of "Species" and "Culture".  When humans get a huge number of cultures, and no one else does, I think it irritates me even more.  And the facile exceptions usually aren't much better.  "Oh, let's go all cosmopolitan with a mishmash culture of every race imaginable."  

Me, I think that maybe the friendlier elves that live right next to a major human/halfling agricultural center, with frequent trade and alliance for the last 300-400 years, are going to have a notably different culture than the xenophobic elves deep in hidden wilderness.  And those latter elves get along just fine with the reclusive dwarves living in the mountains nearby, because both groups respect boundaries.  The more mercantile dwarves  to the south, not so much with either of them.

Quote from: Haffrung;1031613Modern mores and social norms in pre-modern societies. Basically modern middle-class North Americans in ren faire clothings. Paizo's stuff is the worst for this.

Settlement patterns that are closer to the American West in density than medieval Europe, often with 15 or 20 miles between settlements. In medieval France of England, a 30 mile by 30 mile area would have more than a dozen villages, several towns, and a city or two. If your settlements is two days walk from the next closest settlement, you've got a god-forsaken backwater, not a bustling medieval town with taverns and other signs of healthy commerce.

As mentioned above, the superficial trappings of feudal society without the social structure.

Lazy real-world analogues (fantasy-Arabia over here, fantasy-Russia over there, fantasy-Aztecs down there, etc) instead of original cultures.

Humanoids as pests rather than horrifying monsters. Goblins should do far worse than steal an occasional sheep. Humanoids should have a niche distinct from small and ugly bandits.

Nations of good people worship good gods and nations of evil people worship evil gods. A religious pantheon, and the culture that sustains it, should accommodate the full sweep of archetypes and deities.

Far too much focus on high-level politics and history, and far too little on boots-on-the-ground geography, lairs, ruins, and NPCs.

Quote from: Skepticultist;1031648Shops.  Particularly the "General Store" sort of shop that sells a wide variety of adventuring gear.  In a real medieval society, you did not have shops, you had craftsmen whom you bought from directly.  Nobody would have a shop full of swords -- you'd commission one from a smith with experience making blades.  If you wanted a ladder, you didn't go to the general store and buy a ladder, you either built it yourself or you commissioned a woodworker to build you one.  The standard adventurer's shop just feels incredibly video gamey to me.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1031660Renaissance Faires with magic; that is, costumes and weapons are medieval, but speech, morals, and mores -- and culture! -- are 21st century fan/gamer culture.

Magic shops.

Wandering through life in full armor always.

All of the above, except "lazy real-world analogues". I can live with those, though there should be an explanation why they have no cultural exchange.
But the Ren Faire syndrome really gets on my nerves;)!

Quote from: RandyB;1031618Agreed. Also, "there must be Balance between Law and Chaos".

I've got news for all the "philosophically superior" "anti-Extremist" Neutrals: Balance is itself an Extreme. The opposite Extreme is Imbalance, aka "Entropy". Welcome to the Extremist camp!


(Yes, I just demonstrated a third axis on the Gygaxian alignment chart. Implications are left as an exercise for the reader.)

News for you: you only demonstrated that you don't know what "Entropy" means, because it's basically a synonym of chaos, and the opposite of order:D! So, no, there's no "third axis", and "balance" is not, in fact, an extreme, it's the middle of ground between chaos and order.

The opposite of balance is hegemony. A True Neutral character will tend to help the opposite of whichever side seems to be gaining the upper hand in order to maintain balance, so the antithesis would be someone who tries to help whichever side appears to be winning in order to end the ancient struggle.

Alignment. It has never made sense in a fantasy setting as a personal character aspect.

It is very rare to see it actually work as a setting aspect.

Quote from: JeremyR;1031583Burying the dead.  It makes no sense at all for that to happen in a D&D world. They should cremate.

I mean, people know the gods are real, what happens after death and so the body is not important for religious purposes. And most importantly, undead exist. Even low level undead is dangerous, much less the higher types that can reproduce. So why let it even get started by burying bodies?

This, along with little understanding what spells like Raise Dead and Resurrection would do to succession/inheritance law.

I probably have quite a list, but off the top of my head. Prolific dungeons... Traps that would have made said dungeons a daily hazard for anything that actually called them home... Creatures that live in dungeons, but don't serve any other purpose than to die on the sword of a murder hobo (not to mention how said creatures actually survives being locked in a 10x10 room)... Undead (with the exception of spirits), any setting were the dead can rise needs to stop burying corpses... One of the reasons I like to play Earthdawn is that the setting lends itself to giving a reason for many of these.

#1 is premodern agrarian societies that have the morals and social expectations of high-tech, urban, industrial societies.
#2 is taking the time and effort to fill in details on religion and politics, yet somehow the entire spectrum is comprised of things that are comfortable to American politics ca. The Current Year.
#3 is having too much detail filled in.

Quote from: AsenRG;1031720News for you: you only demonstrated that you don't know what "Entropy" means, because it's basically a synonym of chaos, and the opposite of order:D! So, no, there's no "third axis", and "balance" is not, in fact, an extreme, it's the middle of ground between chaos and order.

Actually...  Pure Gray is as much an extreme Pure White or Pure Black.  NOTHING is dead center, it always leans in one direction.

I don't like it when magic emulates modern technology, especially mass produced magical items. No magical street lights. No clerics as doctors, and absolutely no magic stores. Magic stores are my biggest pet peeve. I found this +2 magical axe in a dungeon, but I use swords so I'll sell it at the local magic store and then buy a +3 long sword, which is what I'm specialized with. Oh yeah, and put some healing potions and a ring of fire resistance on my bill.

That completely destroys the fantasy feel of a setting for me. Magic should be rare, it should be special, it should not be the equivalent of technological equipment in a modern or sci-fi setting.

Medieval worlds should have a reasonably medieval or pre-modern culture. It doesn't have to be super well researched and historically accurate, but it shouldn't break emmersion or suspension of disbelief.

I hate it when religion doesn't matter, when ckerics and paladins are just combat medics. A cleric or a paladin is the equivalent of a saint - a person so devoted to their god/region that they can perform miracles. It should be treated as such too.

Quote from: RandyB;1031618Agreed. Also, "there must be Balance between Law and Chaos".

I've got news for all the "philosophically superior" "anti-Extremist" Neutrals: Balance is itself an Extreme. The opposite Extreme is Imbalance, aka "Entropy". Welcome to the Extremist camp!


(Yes, I just demonstrated a third axis on the Gygaxian alignment chart. Implications are left as an exercise for the reader.)

Quote from: AsenRG;1031720News for you: you only demonstrated that you don't know what "Entropy" means, because it's basically a synonym of chaos, and the opposite of order:D! So, no, there's no "third axis", and "balance" is not, in fact, an extreme, it's the middle of ground between chaos and order.

No, I understand quite well what Entropy means. And on the Gygaxian "Law-Chaos" alignment axis, Chaos does not equal Entropy. Even so, if "Imbalance = Entropy" is a stumbling block for you, I'll drop it. You're welcome.

Nevertheless, there is a diametric opposite to balance, and that opposite is imbalance, which puts Balance at one extreme end of an alignment axis, and Imbalance at the other. True Neutrals are extremists.

Quote from: fearsomepirate;1031725The opposite of balance is hegemony. A True Neutral character will tend to help the opposite of whichever side seems to be gaining the upper hand in order to maintain balance, so the antithesis would be someone who tries to help whichever side appears to be winning in order to end the ancient struggle.

"Hegemony" works as a synonym for "imbalance". Thanks!