What little things that people commonly do, do you consider non-SMA? And why?

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Ain't it funny? No, will be what everyone's about to say. Yeah, yeah, whatever, I couldn't care less what you think either.

Almost from the start this thread was pretty much doomed. You want to know a major factor for why any discussion about SMA is going to lead to bad places? Because very few of us, if any at all, have Ph.D.s or equivalent degrees in Medieval studies of any sort.

[Shenron]

I think Artemesia's point was that these inconsistencies are going to exist despite our attempts to deal with them and many of the things that are done that are non-SMA (e.g. using scout reports as infallible documents) are just done to make the game simpler.

I think you might actually be agreeing...

[Glaumring the Fox]

Ain't it funny? No, will be what everyone's about to say. Yeah, yeah, whatever, I couldn't care less what you think either.

Almost from the start this thread was pretty much doomed. You want to know a major factor for why any discussion about SMA is going to lead to bad places? Because very few of us, if any at all, have Ph.D.s or equivalent degrees in Medieval studies of any sort.

Now hold on a minute... I happen to be an expert roleplayer 

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Ah, but in the context of SMA, I was under the impression that Serious Roleplayer was oxymoronic. In the event that it is not, those types are generally called actors.

[BardicNerd]

Ah, but in the context of SMA, I was under the impression that Serious Roleplayer was oxymoronic. In the event that it is not, those types are generally called actors.

Hi, I'm an actor whose hobby is doing medieval recreation.


Now, if only I had more time to do epic medieval RPs on Dwilight.

[Vellos]

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/High_Tech_Game

Not sure how this hasn't been mentioned yet.

Didn't you and I collaborate on some of that, Artemesia, or am I imagining things?

[Indirik]

I am really not concerned with game mechanics anachronisms or oddities, such as instant letters, day and night being the same, etc., etc. There are very good reasons for all those, that involve the ability to effectively play the game. I'm pretty sure that we as players can look past this stuff, and get on with the game.

What I'm looking for are things that players have their characters do that others see as non-SMA.

The literacy aspect is interesting. But then most people treat "letters" as more like face-to-face conversation. Even when the correspondents are thousands of miles apart, people write letters and argue back and forth like they're all sitting around a meeting table. Given that, does the matter of literacy ever really come up? I can't recall off-hand any time it has been mentioned.

The inappropriate names one is a good one, but a bit difficult. Enforcement has varied from time to time, and the criteria has changed. Names that come from things like anime and video games will probably be viewed as SMA or not based on the experiences of the each individual person. I probably wouldn't get almost any anime references, while they would other people gag.

[Perth]

The literacy aspect is interesting. But then most people treat "letters" as more like face-to-face conversation. Even when the correspondents are thousands of miles apart, people write letters and argue back and forth like they're all sitting around a meeting table. Given that, does the matter of literacy ever really come up? I can't recall off-hand any time it has been mentioned.

In regards to the literacy thing, a pretty big amount of people I've played with all seem to at some insinuate that their letters are written and transcribed by scribes anyways, so that makes the issue of literacy a bit of a moot point. I mean, hasn't everyone at some point blamed a typo or mistake on their "idiot" scribe? If not everyone, I feel it is a fairly common thing. So, nothing implies our nobles are literate, merely that they can have a scribe transcribe for them and read other's letters to them.

[GoldPanda]

I would think that most nobles would know basic reading and writing, and basic arithmetic below 100. I mean, if the nobility can afford to educate the scribes, they can damn well afford to educate their own children. This way your noble can double-check his scribe's results to make sure that he actually wrote what the noble told him to write, and your noble can still read his orders if his scribe kicks the bucket mid-campaign.

So why use scribes at all? Well nobody wants to read your noble's chicken scribbles handwriting. Maybe nobody can read it. While Sir Blockhead has been training his horsemanship, swordsmanship, leadership skills, etc., his entire childhood, the scribe has been practicing producing a florid script that would make angels weep.

And I always suspect that "honor" really means math skills. You can command up to as many men as you can count. Wouldn't that make a lot of sense? 

[Bedwyr]

The most annoying thing for me is people not actually thinking as their characters, but thinking of them as characters.  Especially in the little things.  Torture being one of the more common examples, but things like sex (yes, keeping it a family friendly game, but I think since rape is a game-mechanic option pg-13 seems acceptable) or other personal motivations seem to fall by the wayside.  But the absolute worst aspect of this for me is on things like Cavalier restrictions on looting or Hero civil work.  I was guilty of this for a while when I started playing, I'll freely admit, but it annoys the hell out of me when I see someone say "Sorry, I would loot, but I can't, Cavalier you know".

[Tom]

Given that, does the matter of literacy ever really come up?

Oh, absolutely. Literacy is outlawed in Outer Tilog, and scribes are regularily executed for the crime. :-)

[Velax]

But the absolute worst aspect of this for me is on things like Cavalier restrictions on looting or Hero civil work.  I was guilty of this for a while when I started playing, I'll freely admit, but it annoys the hell out of me when I see someone say "Sorry, I would loot, but I can't, Cavalier you know".

How do you justify it then? Say, "I refuse to loot. My code of honour forbids it"? Could do that...but then how do you justify ordering others to loot if you're a marshal or general? That would hamstring your entire army or realm and likely get you kicked out of the position.

[Sacha]

"I said do what I say, not do what I do."

Taking the Cavaliers not looting example, I see many possible nuances. Why is someone a cavalier? Amaury Capet didn't become one out of motives of honor, but because Cavaliers gain more recognition from battle, and because they can command more cavalry than other classes. The looting restriction in his case was an inconvenience, not a matter of personal conviction. He ordered lootings during the Lurian Civil War to cripple the enemy's economy through starvation, killing some 100,000 peasants in the process, and the reason he did not join in was not because he considered looting dishonorable, but because partaking as a Cavalier would look poorly in the eyes of his peers.

My biggest SMA-related annoyance is inconsistency in character behaviors. One week Sir Kepler will be a Champion of Virtue, the next week his men are seen raping and slaughtering defenseless peasants, that sort of thing. It's like everyone's a schizophrenic, bringing up the personality that best suits him that day and making a 180 degree the next day.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Well, mental illness can be transmitted in the family. And it's SMA to have incestuous families with a !@#$ton of mental problems. I say it's perfectly SMA lol. The crazier the more realistic, because that definitely means he/she/(s)he/it is a product of nobles trying to keep their pure bloodline intact by partaking in mixing blood within the same bloodline...if you know what I mean, lol.

It's those nobles who don't show some form of insanity, horrible physical mutation, or extreme sexual deviance (like lusting after horses, for example), who are non-SMA, and don't belong on Dwilight lol.

See my new thread for an interesting theory.

[Bedwyr]

How do you justify it then? Say, "I refuse to loot. My code of honour forbids it"? Could do that...but then how do you justify ordering others to loot if you're a marshal or general? That would hamstring your entire army or realm and likely get you kicked out of the position.

Simple.  I will not dirty my hands with such, that is why I have you all to do it for me.  There was a huge difference between doing something yourself and having it done, which interestingly I think only the Far East models successfully of all the islands I've played on.  Jenred is the one lone nutjob who insists that ordering something is the same as doing it yourself, while all the rest of the Rulers (quite correctly) insist that he's being quite silly.