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Zelda games serve as good examples for this sort of thing. Some fights are straightforward and can be powered through. Others have much more that needs to be accounted for, and specific obstacles that are open to a number of solutions. Now take those lessons, and apply them for encounters that will be met with variety of people, their abilities, and different approaches.

Low-level campaigns are entirely different genres than high-level

Hot take: your currency matters less than nothing, and if you're concerned about it, your campaign probably stinks because your priorities are a mess.

19:58 Mesolithic, not Mesozoic, however if you smash them together it would work. Also a purely Mesolithic low-fantasy setting would be BALLER.

This is a fun history/fantasy we’ll actually format. Also, I think police and guards are orgs that you can point to as an example of systemic (insert bad behavior). I think since they tend to protect their own and rug sweep the bad shit they do, it forms an us vs them culture that gets taught to newbies and is reinforced anytime something happens to one of their members.

Oh hey, and as a humble HEMA (Fiorist) practitioner, appreciate the arms and armor sections lol. The daggers especially are so prominent that there's a part where Fiore basically says "then stab him with your dagger"... There was no mention of a dagger, nor was it drawn. It just appears and Fiore assumes you have a dagger because of course you do. On that note as well is the importance of mercenaries in medieval culture. Most countries didn't just have an army ready to go at any given moment, and it was often mercenaries who trained the peasants when mustered. Potentially a really cool element that is often left out of fantasy.

I actively roll my eyes at safety stuff for d&d but 100% think they are necessary. Especially with new groups or new people.

Gold sucks as currency even in normal world, especially once you reach amounts of it that are hard to transport. Thats why Romans and later in middle ages Italians, and separately Chinese, decided that a stanoed document saying "this is worth X in gold equivalent" is way better. Sure you can argue that gold holds its worth relatively well and can be used in times of crisis but only to a degree.

I think one important example of banditry you missed is exemplified by Peter Niers a 16th century bandit operating in the HRE. His gang was a loose affiliation of people disguised as shepherds. Bandits could use mobility of the jobs to move about the countryside without drawing supposition and move to other locals to fence stolen goods or escape if the heat grew too great in their current location. The low social standing of the jobs would allow recruitment of collaborators, who worked in those professions outside the gang, to various involvement levels either through the promise of more wealth or violence. There are also stories that the bandits would use black magic to disguise themselves which can add more flavor for the DM to use to make them a larger threat.

I don't like the idea of going into a town and buying healing potions in mass. They should be very rare, low effect and high priced. Sellers would price gouge for a potion that mened tendons and stop infection. Keep HP low and maybe do healer skill checks to recover 1 or 2 hit points. Makes combat so much more terrifying.

for the guards in skyrim i've always interpreted them less as 'town guards' and more like the men at arms for the jarls

Just started running Outcast Silver Raiders from Exalted Funeral. Highly recommend checking it out! It’s a low fantasy OSR and the artwork is sick!

Its more easy to adjust the values of items to make gold a more rare resource than lose time inventing currency with stupid names

Wonderful video! Your points do sound very valid, and bring context to this profession that I've never thought of. This will be mighty useful, as I'm currently trying to make my games low-fantasy and more natural. Thank you! Still, just going to drop my 2 cents, I believe that if we have a setting where monsters exist, there might be another tier of guardsmen. Pitchforks are mostly good against your fellow man, but other creatures might require more sophisticated tools and equipment. And so I personally think this isn't really far-fetched to assume that a village might organize a small unit, perhaps hire a veteran or a retired adventurer from somewhere, to help train their own band of defenders. These people might not even get paid with coin, but rather they're fed for free, they get some services free, in exchange for them to protect the community during the day and night shifts. So something between your tiers 1 and 2. Of course, those would still be people, they would probably be passive in how they perform their duties, but at the same time they would be locals and very much interested in the well-being of the community. The only difference is that their trade is protection. Of course, this probably would not be everywhere, as for a small village a person that isn't a farmhand means less people working the fields, but I still think this is somewhat realistic and would offer somewhat better means of protection that your normal tier 1.

very nice video, i enjoyed listening to it fully ❤

A Medievalist likes his Medieval period stories with a homeopathic dose of magic spice? Wow.

Your take on the best Robin Hood is dead ass correct

Low fantasy is the most engaging and believable world building. Its basically real mediaeval world with goblins and trolls.

When it comes to adventuring, I’ve always seen it as a group of powerful sociopaths who’re in it for the thrill and fame

"In Hunchback of Notre Dame the church is often seem chasing away entertainers" They were not chasing away entertainers, they were chasing away gipsies. The judge makes quite clear multiple times that his hatred is because of that.

Using training in skills as currency has real world parallels. According to some accounts, the martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) derived from exchange of favors (or services) instead of money. A Judo black belt named Maeda taught the Gracie family some Judo in exchange for their help with business and other matters in Brazil. The Gracie family subsequently played a key role in developing BJJ, which is largely based upon their interpretation of Maeda’s art.

just started bouncing through your videos after seeing your big vid on Low Fantasy and I gotta say this is so far my favorite; cuz up to now currency was something I was just ignoring in my own pair of ttrpgs I'm working on, at least one of which I'm now obsessed with the thought of salt as the defacto tender. As for the other one, I think I actually like the thought of livestock or even game animals and their byproducts as currency for a couple reasons. It makes the players' acquisition of wealth feel very tangible in an OSR kinda way, where more lengthy excursions or errands will tax the players by having them literally eat their money circumstances depending, and the bigger the players get in the world, the more land and servants they'll need to help manage their wealth. It also lends very well to the use of blood magic in a game where hp/ritual sacrifice can be used to achieve the DC on a spell check, and can lead to very organic ways of in-world conversion rates that don't take a genius to think of. Sure those two dozen cows you brought along can graze just fine and milk plenty, but you better find a beef-loving fisherman to trade em now cuz the next four towns we have to go through are on a bare coast region that only accepts dried eels as payment. or even something as simple as a halfling/gnome merchant who won't accept payment in any animals bigger than a pony

“Allow players to cobble together suits of armour (assign armour values and benefits for each)” I’m so in favour of this. Instead of leather, chainmail and plate, I use helmet, breastplate and shirt. They have the same effects on speed and armour class, but make sense in-world and can be visualised and taken apart

Thank you for caring enough about the other actual human beings at the table to encourage using safety tools. Instant subscribe.

Our DM found the solution to gold weight, we're all broke as hell 😃👍

About craftsmens, most mediavel skill level were a lot higher then present day ones. Worked in restoration for a time and and most of the tings we tryed not to touch bechause no one knows anymore how to do carpentry in that level, or modern materials simply wouldnt hold up more than a few hundred years. During the 19-20th century lots of the combined knowlage got lost, also no one watched TV, played videogames or read toulsands of books for entertainment, they honed they skills do sports or socialise. In a way we live in a lot more in our head, in an immagined world than reality.

Oh man, this is a video / topic I've been looking for forEVER. I've known something of the historical basis of banditry for years, and once read an especially compelling / sympathetic portrayel of bandits (as desperate people with limited options)... but have I had any luck finding discussion about this vis-a-vis fantasy stories or RPGs? Not until now!

I do agree aggressively about the Robin Hood cartoon ITS DA BEST

Im posting this at the start of the video (so apologises if its referenced), but lowkey hoping to hear about a 14th century bandit gang was WILD. It was les by a landed (and prosperous) knight and a priest. Numerous records of them committing terrible violence and theft, but the priest kept taking sanctuary in his own church while the knight would get pardoned by the king because he conscripted his gang (and others) into the King's army. The knight after a while seems to have gotten fed up of being on the run half the time and accepted a final pardoned and returned to his estate. The priest however hid in his church from a sheriff/constable who had been trying to capture him for years, got just burnt down the church with the priest and gang inside. He was criticised for burning the church but nothing more than that. So interesting how gangs were often well connected members of society and how they used their position to break the law, but also how constantly doing so also can backfire for the criminals (a sheriff wouldn't dare have burnt the church otherwise). Side note what the romans sometimes called bandits may have been more akin to what we would call insurgents which is always an interesting thing to think about with bandits.

In the first game I ran for my current group, the player managed to turn it from fantasy to trench warfare. It was when the goblins hit the minefield that I knew I was no longer in control. Then using poison gas on the villian's lair proved it.

17:38 good idea to mention that medieval armies would often not be issues weapons, and would be expected to bring their own gear, often with laws based on societal class and position. Thats probably one reason why the english civil war led to so many weapons. That would be around the time period (I think) that lower ranked soldiers would be issued weapons, and with firearms, many of the issued weapons would be relatively valuable compared to what a person of that social class would be able to afford on their own. Theory needs evidence, anyone have more knowledge of this?

If you want to have “good” bandits, I suggest giving them a political alignment and having them just be a little friendlier towards one faction.

12:35 charismatic cult-like leader makes me think of famous pirates. I’m blanking on her name but the Chinese pirate queen comes to mind. I would assume that the more charismatic leaders would just be leaders that managed to keep the group going a little longer after the hard times, or whose group got a little larger. Perhaps they manage to move from bandit leaders to warband chiefs or “respectable businessmen” based on the connections and wealth they made.

11:47 my sources say “Robin Hood” was a common name used by outlaws to protect their family name as a family would often share reputation and reprisals and feud could be enacted upon members of a family that were not part of any initial event, and who may not even know of the conflict.

11:08 It should be noted that illegal substances foes not need to mean drugs. It could be a certain type of fabric or trade good outlawed from sale due to political or even religious reasons, or any number of smuggling or avoidance of taxes, tariffs or fees.

Also, in Warhammer 40K, you have the Carcharodons (aka possibly Space Sharks). Essentially bandits occasionally when they need resources but have a general moral compass to kill enemies of mankind. Their battle tactics are very hit n run then collect loot. Not true bandits but a rogue army who doesn't listen to the Empires higherups but still loosely respected by the main army because of their respect to (mostly) protect mankind's empire.

Vinland Saga shows a good idea of a group of skilled warriors who bandit and mercenary or do both at the same time.

Commenting to feed the algorithm

Another great video!

You talk about hit points. We ran a campaign in 3.5 where when you get a level you only get 1HP + CON bonus (only if positive). It's loads of fun. Most parties cannot survive after 5 level. I guess this is why on the older D&D setting you get a castle and retainers at around this point. When the hit points are low and heroes are one critical away from death all the notions of "fun and chivalric good guys" ala Firefly, Han Solo or Robin Hood goes away. Battles are cruel, brutal and short... very much like in real life. Give it a try. It's a lot of fun!

its better as a conductor than a currency

Really love the symbiotic aspect of gameplay between the two characters that’s baked into the system. I can see a lot of fun interactions coming from it!

🥳🫂👍🏿 Very cool - having a character’s darker inner self controlled by a separate player reminds me a little of Wraith - awesome

I really thank you for your "themes that will and won't be in the story checklist" 3:21. Me and my group of friends enjoy Dark Fantasy with a lot of the items in the red included. However I only enjoy it, if the character is actually able to overcome said themes. I have gotten to old to just read torture porn... . where good loses and evil always prevails. lol

One thing I feel is important to note about bandits, especially those who were former military vets, is that they can be expected to be competent at what they do. It's not just the martial training that transitions well into banditry but their tactics too. A lot of medieval warfare was essentially state-sanctioned banditry, take the chevauchees of the Hundred Years war for example. Lightning fast but devastating raids where they looted everything they can carry and burned everything they couldn't.

Rituals are less immediately useful in combat, so playing a mage would be more offscreen and less interesting to most players, which is why we don't see a lot of traction for low fantasy settings in my opinion. It would also be difficult to feel like a "heroic" mage if you're having to sacrifice animals and/or intelligent creatures to power your rituals given how our cultures and sensibilities about such things have changed over time.