That type of inn were rarely a thing either before the 17th century and if you actually found one, all the players would be expected to share the same bed (or at best they would get 1 for men and 1 for women). History bites as they say.
The DnD party walked into a realistic inn: “A room with five beds and dinner please.” Innkeeper: “We have one room with one bed. No dinner, just bread and beer.”
@@loke6664 Inns have always been a thing since the Ancient Romans, but they were historically pit stops that opened up at strategic points along travel routes. The concept of the urban inn to accommodate diverse travelers that are coming to the urban locale didn't really appear until the Ren. period. If you were traveling in that age, it was for a specific purpose and wouldn't be traveling long distance without already having something planned.
Overthrowing the local lord might actually help with that starvation issue. He's probably got a bunch of food squirreled away, which he wasn't sharing with any dirty peasants. Plus, now that he's gone, no taxes--and medieval taxes were mostly in . . . food!
Yeah... But spells do cost money so the divide between rich and poor would be even worse in D&D then it was in real life. The "Death takes both rich and poor" saying from the black death times wouldn't work as well when the temples charge a fee in gold for cure spells. Let's just say D&D is made to not be too realistic even from the start and it have gotten even less so with time. It is best not to think too much about these things or your next campaign will be a downer for your players.
@@loke6664 Well, it's still probably cheaper and more effective than the american health care system, since they can actually cure conditions that modern medicine can only treat.
@@MindCaged Uh, I am European, our health care isn't exactly free but rather close. Still, the price of a cure disease spell is very high for a labourer or a farmer, that requires them to save for a long time and poor people don't have that luxury. All D&D setting I played (not sure about One D&D though) have plenty of poor people, beggars and thieves. They will spread the plague just like it did in history.
I was around during medieval times. This is pretty accurate. I was actually put on trial for witch craft and murder. I was found guilty but they can’t hang a dragon.
Well, it is a bit exaggerated, but the death, infant mortality, illiteracy rate, frequency of illnesses, fear of demonic priests (spellcasters), and other stuff seemed pretty spot on. Dunno about the horse tribunal
@@ZanderSabbag to be fair that type of things get rocky since the priest in town can literally cure diseases. and there the fear of magic would quickly and utterly stomped out by greed. having magically clean floors for free and fixing stuff?!?!?!?!?! the bar keep would fucking murder the person who suggested the spellcaster to be killed. also spellcasters have good money too.
@@chongwillson972 I can see it going either way. We have examples in history of sufficiently large leaps in technology being treated as devilry, even if they are beneficial.
@@renadex4905 it’s a bit of a myth, but the ottomans are said to have forbidden the printing press because it was devilry and sinful, the incessant thirst for knowledge. I can’t give you any other trustworthy example tho, honestly couldn’t find other sources or examples.
It's a misunderstanding of D&D's setting to think D&D isn't realistic because of a lack of diseases like dysentery imo. D&D isn't a medieval setting; it's high fantasy. They have clerics who can heal instantly with magic and teleportation for long distances. While they may not have cars, D&D's high fantasy elements mean diseases like dysentery, tuberculosis, or the plague are out of place since clerics can easily cure them. Of course, if it's a magical plague, then that's a different story lmao. I still enjoyed the video just my take on it.
that and, a decently experienced paladin can enchant a rug to heal those who walk over it, it only triggers once per person per 24 hours but it's still enough that cumulative, a paladin doing their duty will improve the general health of a tavern/inns patrons greatly
And DnD usually has a way better educational system than in medieval times, meaning they definitely have actual doctors who know their stuff and use magical ingredients and potions as medicine.
Have you checked what Clerics charge to cast spells? There is no way poor people can afford that. The number of actual clerics in most towns aren't super high either and they can only cast so many spells each day. Yeah, you might get lucky and a kind adventurer cleric or druid cast a cure on you out of compassion but spells are likely just for the rich and well to do. So if you are rich, you can get cured quickly of any ailment and you can even get rezzed if someone murders you or you die in an accident. If you are poor, you are just as screwed as historical poor people were. If a plague hits, the clerics will first use their spells on themselves and the nobles, if they have any left it will go to merchants and artisans. If they still somehow have a slot or 2 left after all that, they might cure a normal person out of kindness before they go to sleep to regain their spells.
So a realistic tavern doesn't know what a... bath is? Don't get me wrong not all inns/taverns offered that service... but it existed. . I am half convinced you made this JUST to see the comments going "Ummm actually!"... in which case... yeah you got me good.
He probably _could_ read. Most medieval people could write and read. It's a very practical thing to be able to do. They just couldn't read or write _Latin,_ so they were considered illiterate because of that.
In Europe bath usage and literacy rates increased at the end of the medieval period and beginning of the modern period. For most of the medieval period literacy rates were below 20% and regular bathing wasn’t introduced until after the crusades if I’m not mistaken
@@Tfin To be fair this is very country/time dependent, but most of the locals still couldn’t read/write. The court poets, scribes, monks, and eventually upper class were the ones who were educated. Even in the 1500’s 90% of the working class couldn’t read English in England.
@@Shall-O no it is not Tfin is correct literacy was based on latin. It was quite common that person could read and write in native language. Yet these people where counted as iliterate. For baths well no they even have bath houses. I suggest you present your sources.
@@benjaminoechsli1941 forget lay on hands, get a rug, cast symbol of healing on it, use a permanence wand or scroll on it, now you have a welcome mat that heals each individual person that enters your establishment once every 24 hours [as long as positive energy doesn't hurt them]
@@d3str0i3r That’s a clever idea and brings up a good point: In most D&D settings, magic is - if it’s not a pretentiously “realistic” setting like the one in the video - at the very least familiar and known by the larger population. Even if it’s just the clergy or the local alchemist.
Medieval times were tough and gritty, no mistake. But they weren't necessarily grimdark. Things being as such is as much a genre/trope as high fantasy is. As is often the case the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Remember, the people 3,000 years ago were no less capable of intelligence than we are. We just happen to have better education. And just like us, they were mostly just trying to get through the day to go home to their loved ones, or drink in their loneliness.
I doubt that. I believe that people 3000 years ago were far more intelligent than we are. Today everyone can survive. Even the dumbest people. Back then is another story.
@@yesyesyesyes1600 there was a ruler who went to war with the sea and ordered his army to kill it by stabbing it and shooting it, he loss some men in that war.
Indeed, the quality of life a person can expect through history varies. But in Europe the Medieval period was actually a localised high spot on that curve, it gets worse in the rapid industrialisation and mass movements into the cities to come and was worse before at many points in time. Though on the whole once you get past the earliest divergence of hunter gather to a static agricultural society that can be compared to our own things have trended towards a larger, heather, more productive populations (at least until recently when population on the whole is at least growing slower if not shrinking a bit). Its not till very very recently with things like antibiotics and worker safety being a priority that things like mortality rates and general wealth and health of the population start to jump to something recognisable to today - even your grandparents or at least their parents for most folks alive today would have been part of a bigger family than the norm and quite likely lost at least one sibling fairly young and probably suffered from some form of industrial disease.
Taverns are just the medieval cottage industry equivalent of roadside services. Since they didn't have motor vehicals back then, taverns just catered to the needs of service animals & the travellers themselves. In modern terms, think motel / fast food resteraunt / shop, based out of someone's house with a place for horses to rest outside. Though as a largely unregulated cottage industry, the capacity, quality of service, and range of services offered by taverns could vary considerably, ranging from the full range of overnight stable, public house, bar, post office (of sorts), resteraunt, provisions retailer and overnight lodging, to a limited time stopping point where one could simply pay to water their horse and take a quick break. Despite the level of specialisation a tavern might have, fundimentally, they were all public houses, which is why in fantasy, they all resemble the modern bar / restaurant public house template.
None of this is actually realistic. Do not take it as gospel or at all educational. Medieval times was kinda grim, but this video makes it seem like people were living like a lazy hoarder with 10 cats and like 5 dogs and a horse. Or like actual cavemen that somehow got access to medieval technology? Inserting some grittiness in your games to make the world feel grounded isn't anti-fun. Feel free to do so. Don't listen to this silly man. Edit: Very little* of this is actually realistic. As an example: Everyone - yes, I do mean everyone, soap and bathing existed in some form all around the world - in medieval times was familiar with what a bath was, and found ways of bathing regularly. Or at least were able to clean themselves. Whether it was in a simple giant iron or wooden pot or even just a bucket from the local clean well that you poured over yourself or a fancy porcelain tub, people found ways of cleaning.
@@voidjockey82 I know it was prevalent in ancient Greece, or at least Rome. Before that I’m not sure. I’m not a historian, I just know a few things about history because I’m a fan of fantasy settings who has a few friends who are nuts about this kind of thing.
@@voidjockey82 actual historian here, as @theawkwardpotato1973 said, in Roman times bathing houses were the common rule. When the Western Roman Empire fell, the Germanic kingdoms and former Roman territories inherited that tradition. Contrary to popular belief, bathing was a thing during the medieval period. It was during the Modern Age when bathing began to be seen as sinful (a sign of vanity and pride) and people began bathing less often. As a side note, yes, most of this video isn't realistic. Still, I got a laugh or two. And isn't even on the top 10 of worst "historical" content I've seen on the Internet.
@@GuayLee I was mainly curious about bathing houses in Europe during the Medieval and Renaissance period. Saw several xylographs of them, mainly the one by Albrecht Dürer, but never knew which historical period they were supposedly depicting, if it even was an accurate depiction at all. Also, Kitten will forever be remembered as the Emperor's finest.
Actually it's not all that realistic. While fantasy settings might look like our medieval times the existence of magic actually changes things drastically. Clerics that can actually heal, potions that actually work, druids to look after animals and farmlands. In a fantasy setting the difference isnt low or high technology it's if the world is low magic or high magic.
I think of stuff like this whenever I see those romance/adventure stories where they get sent back in time and fall in love and decide to stay in the past. I'm like the author apparently has very rose-tinted ideas of what life was like back then, or completely takes modern conveniences for granted. There are very few people who have the knowledge and temperament to live in those conditions, and I'm guessing they would regret it eventually when they /desperately/ need something and its just not available in the past. There's a reason why most medieval stories are medieval /fantasy/ settings, the fantasy part is absolutely vital because without magic those conditions would be absolutely horrific, or more horrific. Frankly the existence of dark lords and monsters that can actually be fought against might be worth it to have magic that can cure diseases and provide necessities.
They actually did take baths fairly often, Roman baths didn’t disappear when the Roman’s did, many of them were left around I have realized I have fallen for the bait
I want to make this town. In the party is It's morally obligated To take over to make everything better for everybody ( Because they're all to bad at leading and organizing). But then the king attacks to "Liberate" the town from them.
The high mortality rate from disease was mostly confined to infants and toddlers, which had a fairly dismal chance of surviving. But if you did, your odds vastly improved. So the AVERAGE age of death might be in the early 30s, but that is deceptive. If you made it through early childhood, it isn't at all odd to expect to live into your 50s or even 60s and beyond. I think a lot of D&D games (such as the Sword Coast region of Forgotten Realms) takes place in a culture that is actually in the early modern period. It is just the relative absence of guns and primitive machinery that makes us think it is medieval. So more modern taverns and inns become reasonable. What is often missing is that most of these places would be part of someone's home, and they didn't offer rooms, like you said. Or if they did, it would be THEIR room, and you'd sleep with them, and it wouldn't be anything sexual. Sharing a bed was considered fairly normative, even with strangers, especially for merchants. One inaccuracy is bathing. They did bathe. They even heated water for this purpose. But they didn't bathe as often as we do, especially during the winter. Many cultures believed bathing during the winter could cause ill spirits, and there is some truth to this, since rapid changes in temperature do affect the immune system. But, there was no deodorant! So bathing or not, people had their natural odor in attendance to some degree. You could use a rock of salt on your pits and that could help temporarily. And although body shaving has been around for thousands of years to one degree or another, I wouldn't expect to find it regularly in medieval Europe. As for literacy, this is true enough, but exaggerated. Keep in mind that even in our time, it is a gradient, rather than an either/or. Look up Menocchio the Miller for an example of a Renaissance peasant who was VERY literate. I'd expect them to understand some public signage and simple hash mark math. I've noticed a lot of D&D settings actually do have some kind of printing press, albeit magical or rudimentary, which I think would increase general literacy. The glacially slow development of technology in fantasy settings does make some sense when you take into account the utility of magic, or, in some settings, the increased difficulty or impossibility of fabricating gunpowder. These settings might advance culturally much faster than they do technologically. A lot of bright people who would have been scientists and inventors instead become arcanists or occultists, because the results speak for themselves. So it isn't hard to argue this would trickle down to even the peasantry in a fantasy setting, and you do have some sort of village inn or tavern. I know I'm nitpicking on a comedy bit, but this is a research topic of some interest to me.
You laugh at animals going on trial, but I fully support them for dogs that have bitten someone instead of what happens now. [Not talking about full on maulings but for when they bite people who shouldn't have been messing with them]
Harvest devil enters the bar Barkeep: what will it be Harvest devil: let me see the contract first Barkeep: what’s a contract Harvests devil: the thing that will remove the problems in your life Barkeep: it can remove cheating on your wife with a wench and being kicked out into the barn? Harvest devil: yes, sign Barkeep: takes pen. Harvest devil: smiles Barkeep: Oink Oink Harvest devil: casts fear, pig runs away to farm Harvest devil: the bar is now the domain of the hells everyone is now a tiefling Humans at bar: F*ck
Yeah well if you embrace all the bad medieval tropes at once maybe. People in the middle ages did have things like A: Beds B: Steady supply of food, baring of course the worst famine years C: Baths, indeed the medieval age where cleaner than the coming centuries until the mid 19th century D: people traveled (even the peasantry) for many reasons, including leisure. Markets, church attendance for distant hamlets, pilgrimage, weddings, funerals, pilgrimage, business and simply excursion for pleasure where all done. E: nitpicking but the tavern and inn owners generally where among the more well-off members of a local community, seeing as it is a rather major enterprise. He is also probably literate...
Top notch comedy mate! You kept 'em coming and it was a joy all the way through! I couldn't help but notice Harold commenting that Angus was hung, not hanged. What a life! Combat divorce, rebound with a male colleague, then unexpectedly fall for another's betrothed! I can see why for 5 generations they haven't left this town. Turns out it's pretty exciting!
One Gnome player drown in a pure alcohol and other player served that alcohol for people week later in game 😂 since then we always drink Gnome Beer! Most hilarious when Gnome Town was selling the illegal Gnome Beer 😅
4:01 - "...The horse is going to court?..." - Yes. That was the case before slavery was incorporated into the legal system: As of right now, and for the foreseeable future, whenever 2 parties appear in court before a judge, they do so under the assumption that Both parties KNOW the law (this is why lawyers INSIST that before you do ANYTHING that might be used in court, you speak to a lawyer). Now, what to do when the one that wronged you can't know the law, like the aforementioned horse, or another animal, or a mentally disabled person, or a child? Are they exempt from appearing before a judge? So they can continue wronging people? No! Such animals/people are paired with, and put under the responsibility (and authority) of those, who DO know the law. This is why children have parents/guardians, and animals have owners. This is the essence of slavery, and why in the distant past conquered nations were enslaved - what do you do with a person, who had lived their entire life according to a set of laws, which is no longer relevant, and who is forced to live under a new set of laws, that they had no way of learning beforehand? Because just letting such person free is setting them up for breaking some law, that they didn't know existed, only to find themselves fined, jailed, or executed due to their ignorance of something they couldn't know. So slavery was the solution - such people got a master, who was responsible for them, and who taught them how to behave under the new set of laws. And whenever the slave wronged somebody, that somebody would sue the master, since from legal standpoint the master and their slaves are a single legal entity.
This is a common pet peeve of mine, its not realistic, its just GOT style grim fantasy instead of D&D style cartoon fantasy, its the other extreme. Video was funny as always, not a complaint there, this is just for anyone that finds this comment and happens to care. The middle ages had a high rate of infant mortality, if you made it past childhood, you were probably gonna live a full life. We know when plagues struck where for a reason, they were big, scary, and enough of an event to be worth writing down. The reality would moreso just be the inns didnt double as taverns - many settlements might have a place to go drink after a day in the fields, but inns with rooms to rent were pretty much exclusive to large cities and pretty rare until the renaissance. Also baths were a huge thing in history. People somehow forget that soap was invented around 2500BC, humans dont like stink. The myth of not bathing comes from the black plague era, where people avoided 'the baths' - as in bath houses - to avoid getting sick, because of the high foot traffic. Bathing was a beloved medieval passtime with cities having elaborate bathhouses - and no, i dont mean cheeky brothels, i mean youd take your family to the baths, be served food, and listen to music play. I dont know when the origin of ale was, but 'halfale' was a method of storing water longterm. You add a little bit of alcohol and it keeps it pure when stored stagnantly, so you dont need to boil it everytime you drink. This is where the idea that 'they only drank alcohol' came from - it was just enough alcohol to keep something clean, so you werent gonna get sloshed. Divorce by combat did exist however. That was gold. Typically as a handicap, theyd dig a hole, stick the man in it waist deep, and give him a stick. The woman would be free to move around, and given a rock in a stocking to use as a flail.
Gary Gygax made it clear this was how to run a game. It was to maintain realism, illiteracy, diseases, poisoness plants, wild animals, do not forget taxes and the cost of living as well. I ran all my games like this since the late 1970s and today. Players never complained.
Where was the fight in the background? The gambling, the band of bards, the professional "ladies", the mysterious stranger in the corner, all should have been there.
Am I the only one who thought of this as sarcastic comedy to highlight the difference between D&D taverns and real ones by the over the top exaggeration? Either way, for actual realism to incorporate into D&D / TTRPG world building I usually go to "Modern History TV" if that's your thing. Well researched, thoughtful, and honest looks at medieval history. This was hilarious though.
D&D campaign with realism, eh? Disease is everywhere and the Lesser Restoration spell is more than most commoners can afford. Plant Growth is an extremely useful spell for doubling agriculture yields. It's a spell that makes adventurers into folk heroes. Ah man, this video kept getting more and more depressing ... couldn't finish watching it.
Disease is a problem till the local paladin use his free lay on hands. It costs 5 points, but he can do it like 6 times a day. Luckly paladins are more good natured, so you won't depend on the greedy cleric for help.
Not quite as realistic as you may think. People in medieval time DID bath on a regular basis. At least once a week was available for the majority of peasants. The mortality rates varied depending on region and population dencity from "really bad" to "quite optimistic". Still not nearly as morbit as pop culture likes to picture. Literacy was also much more available to common folk. At least the basic stuff. Even for simple farmers it was a necessity in order to go by. Food availability was also sporadic. Sometimes you would have a season of harsh famine and the other times you would have plenty to eat.
Everything Wrong with your knowlege of Medieval Times 1 - Plagues were not that common, and not enough to wipe out entire towns one after the other 2 -People weren't so stupid as to overthrow a lord because they didn't have any food to eat. There's a misconception that people back then were dumb, they might not know what algebra is, but they could understand things like cause and effect regarding food. 3 - Trial by combat wasn't used to settle devorces, also if they were catholic a devorce wouldn't be possible. Well except the buying wive's thing, but that was only for peasants in the countryside as the church gave up on tring to stop them. 4 - People knew what beds were. Beleive it or not, peasants only worked 7 months out of the year and spent the rest of the time traveling. In fact vacations was a common past time. The people of the past, were well travelled and knew about things like beds, even if they never slept in one. 5 - People know to make ale, knew what it was, and eewa! Left over liquid, it'd ferment into viniger long before turning into ale. 6 - People of this era were very clean. In fact they were terrified of getting infections so washing hands before meals, bathing and ect were not only common, but socially REQUIRED. 7 - They knew what room's were, though most taverns acted like pubs and not hotels 8 - Lepracy wasn't that common, and the infected were often shunted into lepper comunities or discarded onto lepper ships. 9 - Duels weren't so common, people valued their lives back then just as people do today. 10 - Finishing work, the Pesentry actually got quite alot of down time. We work more hours today then they did hundreds of years ago. 11 - Never leaving town, like I said travelling was a great past time back then. So I find this hard to beleive for multiple generations. 12 - Unable to read, Sundy church taught people the basics of reading, for free and most people partook. In fact reading was common, though extremely limited and lacked propper grammer, no formallised spelling and ect. There are letter's from common folk back in this era, many and it showed a public availability of reading. 13 - Medivel times wasn't that grim, sure it was an alien culture, but the people were vivacious and enjoyed life.
TBH a tarven in D&D likely isn't that close to medieval, if only becuse of the impact of magic... through I do hope your dms world building is more intresting than copy paste medieval anyway!
trying to implement real world midevil ideas into a world of fantasy and its own midevil issues seems kinda funny. The "right, I can't fucking read" part felt legit. Like, how is anyone in that world learning unless they have schools in every village with an established education system?
That is entirely wrong many people could read write they just could only read and write their local dialect of the local language which was always written phonetically what they could not read or write was Latin which was the standard of who was considered being literate. People needed to keep records of all of their dealings with everyone else in the village or town as actually having coin was extremely rare and everyone needed to know who owed what to who. The problem was the people who lived in the next lords lands over would speak slightly differently and as everything was written phonetically they may or may not be able to read what the other people in the next lords lands had written down. Learning Latin was highly restricted as the bible was only written in Latin and the church did not want the riffraff to know what was actually written in the bible so the riffraff could not challenge the church on religious matters.
I want to make this town. In the party is It's morally obligated To take over to make everything better for everybody ( Because they're all to bad at leading and organizing). But then the king attacks to "Liberate" the town from them.
I want to make this town. In the party is It's morally obligated To take over to make everything better for everybody ( Because they're all to bad at leading and organizing). But then the king attacks to "Liberate" the town from them.
