So what's the technology of your setting like

Most of them arent medieval at all.

>Fantasy setting in an alternate world
>Actually DM, they didn't have pianos back then. They weren't invented until the 1600s
What the fuck is "back then"? What fucking year and planet do you think you're on? I assure you you're wrong on both ends and we've been over this three times already.

Well, I know it's probably not cavemen, WW2, cyberpunk, or space opera, so it's useful enough if I want those. And if I'm looking for a specific medieval period/region, I can always ask.

just as it is obvious what technology level this roughly refers to

take an average, you moron. it's probably a lot like the year 1200 with a few more earlier and/or later elements mixed in. you can inquire as you go.

It's only obvious to someone who knows nothing about the Middle Ages.

The medieval period spans a thousand fucking years you halfwit.

Ah, yes. An average. Like in 1200. Where some civilisations were developing clockwork while some others could barely wipe their arse after a shit. Try harder for your impotent teenage Sperge anger about being right to make any actual adult sense.

I know it's tough but sometimes you just have to use Commons sense

When people say medieval they mean high middle ages (1000-1300)

what innovations took place then that would effect a TT game?

you know, the future

The past, though.

Don't be contrarian just because, user. You damn well know what 'medieval' means in that context.

I mean it will become pretty clear whether the game is inspired by the 700s or 1400s if you listen to one more sentence by the GM.

Honest question, would you sperg out the same way if the GM told you the setting where 'Ancient Egyptian' or 'Roman'?

I would probably make a thread about it on Veeky Forums.

99% of the time when people say medieval in a setting context they mean medieval.

People like longswords, plate, greatswords, late medieval polearms and stuff like that.

They mean late medieval*

>points out the obvious meaning in OP to a guy that clearly didn't get it
>this is being a contrarian

Are you saying technology at the start of WW2 (funky interwar period tanks and anti-tank rifles) was same as at the end of WW2 (infrared sights, jet planes, ballistic missiles, and nukes)? Because it really does sound like that's what you're saying when you think 6 years is not enough time to develop tech.

>when you think 6 years is not enough time to develop tech.
Please point to the exact place where I said anything even remotely similar.

So what was your issue?

Nonono. You first. Where did I say anything similar to what you claimed I said?

So in other words you don't have an issue with my use of WW2 as an example and just wanted to bait.

No, I want you to answer my question before I bother answering yours.

>Ask GM for the setting
>GM says "You know, medieval"
>I appear with a Samurai with matchlocks
>He gets mad
I don't get it
>Says "Medieval Europe"
>Appear with a knight with matchlocks
>He still gets mad
Srly, what's the problem?

>yeah man, medieval!
>you know, we have a guy with "platemail", a "longsword", and a shield over here, he can barely move because of his armor but he's tough lol
>also he wears a crusader helmet with his plate, deus vult XD
>and a guy with "chainmail", because you know, it's lighter and easier to move in, and dual wielding two "longswords"
>and a girl wearing "studded leather" and dual wielding daggers
>and a guy wearing "ringmail" because that's different from "chainmail", it's heavier but not as heavy as "platemail"
>what? guns? guns aren't medieval user this isn't the wild west lol

Is the answer "Bronze Age" better or worse?

>also we have a wizard and a druid with a winter wolf animal companion, which is like a wolf the size of a big horse that also breathers ice
You know, medieval

stop

>"studded leather"
Of all the standard "medieval" tropes, this one bothers me the most.

It's clearly leather made from a seasoned bull who had already been studded out several times.

There's a pretty big gap between early and late middle ages.

But if you're confused, you can straighten in out in a few simple questions:
Is plate-mail a thing?
Are castles mostly wood, or stone?
What about fire arms?

>GM says his setting has Stone age technology
>get mad when my character has weapons made from native copper

>"Can you tell me something about the setting?"
>"You know, the usual fantasy setting"
>Made a Dex Archer Scout focused on precision damage
>Setting is actually Eberron meets Ravenloft

>GM says his setting has modern technology
>gets mad when my character communicates only via tweets
>gets even madder when my character continues to do so after seizing governmental power

>ask an general question with no specifics
>get a general answer with no specifics
>shitpost on Veeky Forums with no specifics
checks out

>So what's the technology of your setting like
>Medieval

A bad wrong answer because it does not say very much.

> mid 14th century

A good answer because it is narrow.

>Hey, user, what's your setting like?
>Oh, you know, European
>What does that mean?
>Use an average, you moron

The problem is that when people say "medieval", what they mean to say is "DnD/ASOIAF/Monty Python", because "Medieval" isn't a technology level any more than "prehistoric" is. Prehistoric might mean "haven't figured out how to make stone tools yet" or it might mean "Iron swords but tribal and no writing".
Similarly, in the early medieval periods of Europe civilisation was just picking back up from the collapse of the western roman empire, castles were mostly wood, a longsword was the most advanced weaponry there was and most soldiers had cloth armour, with only the highest of knights using chainmail.
Late medieval, on the other hand, was where you saw knights in full plate doing somersaults while shooting their matchlocks on horseback.
To a late medieval soldier, a greathelm would be outdated by 500 years, to an early medieval soldier a set of plate mail would turn him into a battlefield god, and a cannon would let him rule the world.
"Medieval" stretches from the 5th to the 15th centuries, only idiots and writers think it was one consistent tech level.

>Ancient Egyptian
pretty stale desu i agree
>Roman
Now that makes quite a fucking diffrence you know?

>what? guns? guns aren't medieval user this isn't the wild west lol
NOW IM ANGRY

> mid 14th century
>A good answer because it is narrow.
And almost nobody is going to know what that means.

If somebody says "Medieval", then I assume High Middle Ages, pre-firearms and pre-Black Death--the 12th century, perhaps--with some anachronisms expected (gothic plate armor isn't unlikely). One thing you have to realize is that if the setting isn't literally Medieval Europe, then some of the particulars are going to be different. So really, shit couldn't correspond too closely to any one moment in Medieval history. So if somebody says "Medieval", you can assume as I do, but ask a few questions to get the particulars.

>isn't a technology level

Ok, so what approximations would one have to use that 1) didn't demand listing all the technology available or B) the person you're talking to needing good grasp on world history and technological advancement.

No, there's no fucking way of describing ANY period of history's technology level without referring to the technology present or events that happened. A short list of the most prevalent and well-known of each would be the best way, so you don't have to remember junior cert history to understand the setting, but no, there's no useful way of describing any period without describing that period.

High Medieval
>WHAT YOU MEAN DM I NO HISTORY REEE
Crusades, longswords, chainmail, windmills.

That should give your retards a decent grasp. So if they ask
>GIB ME PLATE MAIL
or
>I WANT PLAY GUNSLINGER
you can say "no, sorry, chainmail is the best armour invented yet" or "no, sorry, they're still figuring out cannons"
A player with brain cells in the positive can usually extrapolate the relevant information if you give them a short list of highlights. You don't need to list ALL technology, or expect them to understand the entire geo-political climate of the middle ages, especially seeing as you are playing in fantasyland. But if you care even the slightest bit about worldbuilding, mixed technology levels is pretty shit going, and you should be able to explain your setting and make it sound consistent. If your crazy northern barbarians are using viking tech and your enlightened empire has plate, how the fuck have they not exterminated the northerners. And you always want to avoid if you care even slightly about your setting.

I just pretend that it's Brigandine armor instead.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigandine

Or leather bits with the large plates lined with metal, or bits of metal covering joints.

And then I treat Splint armor as the metal pieces being larger/thicker and on the outside instead of between 2 layers of cloth.

To be fair guns were rarely used in field battles before the 1420s. The only people who really used guns before that was gate guards at cites and castles.

Note that I am talking about guns, not cannons. They figured out a effective way to put cannons on ships around 1412-1413. They started trying around 1380 with the Battle of Chioggia. For cannon used in field battles I know of one time in happening the 14th century and it did not happen again till about 1414 by a force under command of Jan Žižka.

What happened in the 1420s was the Hussite wars. During the first 5 years of it there was more development of guns, cannons, and tactic for the use of the latter then there had been in the century before it. It caused Central Europe to go from lagging behind China in those areas to being well ahead them.

>Late medieval, on the other hand, was where you saw knights in full plate doing somersaults while shooting their matchlocks on horseback.
To a late medieval soldier, a greathelm would be outdated by 500 years, to an early medieval soldier a set of plate mail would turn him into a battlefield god, and a cannon would let him rule the world.

This is very helpful, thank you.

Given that many TT games use magic, do you think that'd preclude/prevent firearm development because there's no need for long-ranged offensive power that doesn't already exist?

>plate mail

Maybe something like pic related, an amalgamation of plate and mail?

That looks more like chain if you ask me. But I'm no expert.

But it has plates woven into the mail.

Sure, but it's still almost entirely mail.

For purposes of stats I'd make it chainmail.

But there are still people literally afraid of toilets who wipe their ass with their bare hand. How long must these street shitters continue to bring down our average civilization?

jesus christ fuck off

3 more years.