Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-07-2017, 02:49 PM   #21
JoelSammallahti
 
JoelSammallahti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

The idea that weird not-quite-humans lived in faraway lands was really common in classical, medieval and early modern times, although it's difficult to ascertain with what degree of confidence it was believed in. But a dwarf or gnome is no weirder than a pygmy or wild man, and considerably less weird than the headless men, one-legged men, and dog-headed men that supposedly were to be found all over Africa, India, and similarly inaccessible places. It's entirely possible that there would be a genocidal freakout - perfectly human minority groups like Jews and Roma did get that treatment more than once. But it's not at all implausible that a humanlike race would just be incorporated into the worldview and even society of medieval humans with little difficulty.
JoelSammallahti is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 02:52 PM   #22
mr beer
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

'Medieval' isn't one time or place, it's a bit like asking how DF races would be treated if they turned up in the real world any time from Queen Victoria's reign onwards. Local reactions would range anywhere from between fleeing in terror, locking them up in a zoo forever, impromptu murder and shanghaiing them into some dodgy reality TV show.

Also, our ancestors weren't an homogenous mass of superstitious dung age simpletons. There are plenty of intelligent, educated and/or powerful people who would be extremely interested in their origins, the point of differences between normal humans, how they got here and also how they could be exploited for profit.
mr beer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 03:36 PM   #23
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Medieval Europe believed there were men with dogs heads in Africa
With this in mind, assuming they considered those to be people and not some sort of monster, I retract my statement about reactions to much less deformed folks.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul
Varyon is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 04:28 PM   #24
Bruno
 
Bruno's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
With this in mind, assuming they considered those to be people and not some sort of monster, I retract my statement about reactions to much less deformed folks.
The ninth-century Frankish theologian Ratramnus wrote a letter, the Epistola de Cynocephalis, on whether the Cynocephali should be considered human (he thought that they were). This meant of course there was a duty to preach the Gospel to them.
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table
A Wiki for my F2F Group
A neglected GURPS blog
Bruno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 04:42 PM   #25
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

The Catholic Church had no doubts that the Native Americans were people, but the Spanish and Portuguese still enslaved, raped, and murdered millions of Native Americans. The same thing applied to the Protestants and the treatment of Native Americans in North America. I can only imagine that their treatment of nonhumans would have been worse than their treatment of humans.
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 05:34 PM   #26
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

There is no treatment so bad that actual historical humans haven't committed upon other peoples.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 05:49 PM   #27
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
I can only imagine that their treatment of nonhumans would have been worse than their treatment of humans.
Eh, I would assume 'the same', but it's also fairly situational. It's less a case of "people as a group want to do bad things to you" than "people as a group don't care whether bad things happen to you", and then some individuals decide that doing bad things to you is fun and/or profitable.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 06:06 PM   #28
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
The Catholic Church had no doubts that the Native Americans were people, but the Spanish and Portuguese still enslaved, raped, and murdered millions of Native Americans. The same thing applied to the Protestants and the treatment of Native Americans in North America. I can only imagine that their treatment of nonhumans would have been worse than their treatment of humans.
That depends entirely on several variables:

1. How many of these guys are there? If a single elf shows up they can end up just being an exotic curiosity...like Pocahontas in London.

2. How tough are these guys? Do humans have a substantive combat advantage over them? The Chinese Empire would not have been treated like the Native Americans had they made it there.

3. Do these guys have stuff that humans actually want to take? If they live in places that aren't really habitable for humans like...under da sea, under da sea, conquest may not be in the cards.
David Johnston2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 09:37 PM   #29
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

Quote:
Originally Posted by b-dog View Post
I am curious about how a real world medieval town would react to the Dungeon Fantasy races coming into their town. Of course the reaction towards ogres, trolls, goblins and orcs would be terrible but how about elves, drwarves, gnomes and halflings? Since most people would follow the Judeo-Christian world view as man created by God in His image and descended from Adam what would they think about the other races and where they came from? Just curious...
As it happens no one could agree on it at the time. There is no reason they have to agree in the game.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-07-2017, 11:04 PM   #30
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town

Who gets treated more inhumanely, those that are prettier and better off than you, or those that are uglier and worse off?
History seems to say, "yes.", or "it depends."
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:42 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.