(TFT) Daily Life...

["gem6868" <gem6868@verizon.net>]

Here's a way to answer most of these questions.

1)  Plot and narrative setting.  The limits of everything from magic to 
anything else in an RPG are limited b/c it makes for a richer world in which 
to game.  No explanation needed, if it suits the plot then it works.
2)  There are reasons but you need to get your head wrapped around them. 
Read stuff like "Daily Life in Medieval Times".  Do a search on Amazon, 
there's loads of books like this for every period of history.  Once you 
understand more about the limits under which our/your/their ancestors lived, 
you'll get a better feel for "why doesn't such and such do whatever?" sorts 
of questions.

Life before 2000 was radically different.  Even life when I was growing up 
in the mid-20th C., (no real computers, no email, telephones, letter 
writing, typewriters, mechanical cars, etc) was very different from today. 
And it isn't that long ago.  The mechanistic age was not much different in 
rural Alabama (or PA, NY, NJ and MA for that matter) from life there in 
1800.  And life in 1600 Europe was radically more different.  Once you 
realize that your role in life in renaissance Europe was almost certainly 
peasant / slave, and that if you're over 30 now you'd be dead, you'll get 
more perspective on questions as to "why...".

Altho I have a history degree, I still read books like "Daily Life in the 
..." b/c they help give critical insight into something as far back as the 
Peloponnesian Wars.  So if you read Thucydides but want to understand 
"Why..." it's helpful to read something like "Daily life in Ancient Greece". 
It will almost certainly make your RPG settings more detailed and "tasty".
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