From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu
Date: Sat 23 Apr 1994 - 00:57:35 EEST
Paul Reilly, replying to Martin Crim:
> Seriously, though, having the fuzz arrive is an anachronism,
> and anachronisms really irk me in RPGs and fantasy fiction.
Umm... the Romans had officers more like modern police than you might imagine. Along with many other armed types with no strict modern counterpart. A 'fuzz arriving' scene in First Cen. BC Rome (say Late Republican) could involve aediles, curule aediles, tribunes, private bodyguards of senators and/or wealthy citizens, etc. I should go back and read Martin's original post - I do object to gratuitous anachronisms, but the ancients were pretty sophisticated in a lot of ways that don't seem to be well known nowadays.
Not just Rome, either. Greek city-states had superintendents of markets whose duties included suppression of theft. The Persians had officers to suppress crime. Etc., etc.
Loren writes:
>I agree. The only worse anachronism I've seen in RQ games is the
>war-on-some-drugs.
Now there is one that IS irksome - it's clearly drawn from modern Western society, particularly the US. While many societies have restricted intoxicants, etc., the 'flavor' of the Hazia prohibitions, etc. seems peculiarly modern... unlike for example the references to Black Lotus Dust, which is clearly Darkness related and thus the Dara Happans have a good reason to suppress it. (Or is that from my campaign? Sometimes I forget...)
Martin continues:
> "the watch" ought to stop fires and riots; the way to deal with
> an on-going crime (in areas analogous to Europe) is to raise the
> hue and cry, after which all able-bodied men are legally required
> to aid in apprehending the criminal and bringing him to the
> sheriff; prisons were rare in the ancient world, and justice
> swift (shoot, Delaware was caning people into the 20th century
Uhh... this sounds alot more medieval than ancient, if you don't mind my saying so. Roman court procedure resembled modern court procedure in many ways (perhaps esp. in Germany? Joerg?). There is a good reason for this - we inherited the foundations of our legal system (well, some of us) from the Romans. In England and thus the US, this blended with the Anglo-Saxon common law to produce a strange mongrel.
All for now,
Paul
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