tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post2731745426329945179..comments2023-07-01T05:04:43.376-07:00Comments on Really Bad Eggs: Papers, PleaseBlack Vulmeahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270071699114783644noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-70291181064807633462012-08-29T11:48:36.610-07:002012-08-29T11:48:36.610-07:00We assume a fairly high degree of literacy at leas...We assume a fairly high degree of literacy at least in the urban(ish) areas and relied on that when we used the broadsides to spread rumours. 1 of 5 sounds about right.<br /><br />7th Sea hasn't much to say about all this, but we've always kept fairly close to history with everday life, so I would assume that forging the seal is indeed a serious offence, more so than the papers themselves. <br /><br />???https://www.blogger.com/profile/00467285279627231933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-85435654359539617252012-08-29T06:30:42.407-07:002012-08-29T06:30:42.407-07:00Literacy in 1680s France is about 1 in 20 for poor...Literacy in 1680s France is about 1 in 20 for poor peasants, 1 in 5 for wealthier peasants. By the time of the Revolution it jumped, however, as rural schools became more widespread during the 18th century.<br /><br />It's also geographically variable, with literacy much more common in the langue d'or (north of the Loire) than the langue d'oc (south of the Loire).Black Vulmeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04270071699114783644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-90897613927104391722012-08-29T05:47:37.359-07:002012-08-29T05:47:37.359-07:00The penalties are stiff and severe.
The cultural g...The penalties are stiff and severe.<br />The cultural groups are much smaller: it's harder to pass yourself off solely with forged documents when everyone in a particular caste grew up together, knows one-another, etc. <br />Connections/Network/Reputation and the Old Boy Network are more important than the documents.<br />Duels and vendetta. <br />Sense of Honor, even among thieves: it's one thing to take what isn't yours; it's a whole 'nother level of skull-duggery to arrogate to yourself privileges and perfections you do not possess.<br /><br />But...it does present an interesting opportunity for the enterprising rogue. I just don't see it ending well for the character. :DFlambeauxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00133131881423202010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-69837680518273344502012-08-29T05:42:11.059-07:002012-08-29T05:42:11.059-07:00TSR's GAZ 3 The Principalities of Glantri atte...TSR's <i>GAZ 3 The Principalities of Glantri</i> attempted to explore aspects of that. It offered suggestions for how the bureaucracy would invasively regulate every aspect of life. It also has lots of intrigue and swashbuckling elves. <br /><br />It doesn't work for "standard" D&D but it's a great resource with some very interesting ideas, IMO. Flambeauxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00133131881423202010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-67668791585171085662012-08-29T05:38:47.675-07:002012-08-29T05:38:47.675-07:00The seal is probably more important than the conte...The seal is probably more important than the contents from the perspective of legal violations...but it does depend on the assumptions of the game world you're working in.<br /><br />Also, literacy rates in the Medieval and Early Modern world weren't as poor as popular opinion assumes. So you really could, without doing violence to history, assume widespread functional literacy. People didn't read for leisure but that's a very different sort of thing than being completely illiterate. And that, really, had more to do with a lack of leisure or the cultural preference to spend leisure time in religious or social activities.Flambeauxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00133131881423202010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-45531006223357722852012-08-29T01:26:33.576-07:002012-08-29T01:26:33.576-07:00I wondered about this when I had my character forg...I wondered about this when I had my character forge papers during out last 7th Sea session. What exactly was I forging anyway? I decided on a passport and some personal papers that were not official documentation, like letters and bills. After reading all this here, I'm going to add a seal. And worry about the fact that I'm going to get arrested for that as well.???https://www.blogger.com/profile/00467285279627231933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-47459427242625779262012-08-28T21:20:12.743-07:002012-08-28T21:20:12.743-07:00Yeah, the obvious question is, why aren't forg...Yeah, the obvious question is, why aren't forgers rampant? Well, for starters, the number of people who can forge a document in the first place is fairly low . . .Black Vulmeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04270071699114783644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-54647091506282412712012-08-28T21:18:51.571-07:002012-08-28T21:18:51.571-07:00I love that sort of setting detail, particularly a...I love that sort of setting detail, particularly as it affects player choices.Black Vulmeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04270071699114783644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-46103727053433478512012-08-28T21:17:58.388-07:002012-08-28T21:17:58.388-07:00Identity, ancestry, birth records, and blackmail a...Identity, ancestry, birth records, and blackmail are featured in the second Captain Alatriste novel, <i>Purity of Blood</i>, so yes, the intrigue potential for swashbuckling campaigns is great.<br /><br />Thinking about Tristan's questions for most fantasy settings opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities as well - what sorts of magical identification are available? how foolproof are they? I could see, frex, everyone in a high-magic setting having magical tattoos from shortly after birth.Black Vulmeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04270071699114783644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-25336478745788576132012-08-28T21:04:31.990-07:002012-08-28T21:04:31.990-07:00*hangs "Mission Accomplished" banner ove...*<i>hangs "Mission Accomplished" banner over computer</i>*<br /><br />;^)Black Vulmeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04270071699114783644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-51662763014548464882012-08-28T13:26:31.609-07:002012-08-28T13:26:31.609-07:00Absolutely. It's actually a fascinating progre...Absolutely. It's actually a fascinating progression, particularly in terms of strategies employed to ensure familial survival. Prior to that, most strategies were extralegal such as investing in monasteries and giving land to familial holdings (such as churches, bishoprics, abbeys) rather than systemically and legally establishing a closed class.<br /><br />Interesting stuff either way!JDG Perldeinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07632961831809544262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-71471796379196689082012-08-28T13:16:28.769-07:002012-08-28T13:16:28.769-07:00It is just about that time that the centralization...It is just about that time that the centralization of power in the hands of a growing bureaucracy leads the sovereign to begin selling titles.<br /><br />So it should be no surprise that nobles start asserting their privileges and attempting to make them exclusively hereditary at the same time that centralization and an upwardly mobile merchant-clerical caste begin whittling away those privileges.Flambeauxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00133131881423202010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-24998712712907880212012-08-28T12:54:21.883-07:002012-08-28T12:54:21.883-07:00Essentially, nobility (nobilis) went from a qualit...Essentially, nobility (nobilis) went from a quality (something you have of yourself) to a social class (something you must be born into by right).JDG Perldeinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07632961831809544262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-41233738931819329462012-08-28T12:52:49.304-07:002012-08-28T12:52:49.304-07:00That's actually only true once nobility become...That's actually only true once nobility become entrenched (1500s+) but in earlier periods of the Middle Ages that was actually not the case. Indeed, heraldic features weren't even registered in any organized way.<br /><br />Of course, the more centralized and record-based a society is, the more this will change. Byzantium had a much different approach to records (and thus identity) than did the European West.<br /><br />This sort of feeds into a whole thing about nobility that I like to talk about sometimes: in the Middle Ages, up till the mid-1400s, social mobility was much greater than the premodern period. In the 17th and 18th centuries the nobility became concerned about its rights as a class and identifying who was noble and who was not. In the 10th and 11th centuries you could prove you were noble not by drawing familial links (though those never hurt) but by showing you had never been subject to "servile" duties and that you owned a certain amount of land.JDG Perldeinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07632961831809544262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-73455891878194806482012-08-28T12:46:35.535-07:002012-08-28T12:46:35.535-07:00Actually, once you accept that identification isn&...Actually, once you accept that identification isn't limited to the written word and that symbols are sometimes much more potent, you have a whole world of intrigue involving fraud, forgery, mistaken or stolen identity, etc.<br /><br />I noble's signet ring and his coat of arms were legally protected devices because they were often the only way of identifying a man an determining his proper rights and privileges.<br /><br />To steal the ring, to misuse the arms, was no different than the modern problem of identity theft.<br /><br />I can actually think of a lot of ways, even in a largely illiterate society, for identity papers and the like to be important elements in the game.<br /><br />And I really like the idea of the local lords requiring a Letter of Marque under which all dungeoneering must be done. Treasure hauled with the Letter is subject to tax. Treasure hauled without is forfeit...if you're caught and/or prosecuted.<br /><br />Much food for thought here...Flambeauxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00133131881423202010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-76427858756861056942012-08-28T12:28:24.157-07:002012-08-28T12:28:24.157-07:00This kind of thing relies on widespread literacy, ...This kind of thing relies on widespread literacy, though. I might cook up a similar answer for Arunia, but it would be much more ad-hoc considering that most people (imperial secretaries excluded) don't know how to read.JDG Perldeinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07632961831809544262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-87084573462229927352012-08-28T10:52:25.513-07:002012-08-28T10:52:25.513-07:00In an AD&D PbP game I'm currently playing ...In an AD&D PbP game I'm currently playing in there is a guarded border between two areas. Some members of our party aided the local Merchant's Guild and the reward was a Border Pass.<br /><br />If you didn't have one, you could show up on the border with goods to sell, insist you were a merchant, and they'd probably let you through if only to go pay the fee at the Customs House up the road to allow you to work as a merchant.<br /><br />It effectively closed off part of the game world until the players wanted to go exploring it without being ham-fisted or rail-roady.Flambeauxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00133131881423202010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-64032155887979256132012-08-28T09:26:45.769-07:002012-08-28T09:26:45.769-07:00Now there's a topic I've honestly never gi...Now there's a topic I've honestly never given much thought. It seems like an absolute must for any campaign with a political intrigue element. Even ordinary dungeoneering might require some sort of letter of marque from the king or the local lord. Good stuff to ponder.waywardwayfarerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00338700537762637962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930065815010914887.post-11656408346611914842012-08-28T04:39:10.776-07:002012-08-28T04:39:10.776-07:00Good thoughts. I had wondered about this a bit in...Good thoughts. I had wondered about this a bit in regard to gaming sort of eras. You've got me even more interested now.Treyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351noreply@blogger.com