The noble and cleric can’t read? Classes that effectively have to read in 5e and similar systems:
Bard: plays, music, stories Cleric: holy texts Monk: holy texts if they are the monastery type of monks Paladin: if trained w/clerics or in a temple. not if they are wild-sprouted paladins. Rogue: thieves’ cant, smugglers for manifests, forgery. really just the average cutpurse and enforcer wouldn’t need to Wizard: a nerd’s nerd
Artificer: inventor’s notes.
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Fun fact: People could commonly read in the Middle Ages.
There is wide spread belief that medieval Europeans couldn’t read and write, but most peasants could read and write in their VERNACULAR languages. The idea that only 10% of the population could read and write comes from that fact that only 10% of the population could read LATIN, which is the only reading that they thought mattered.
They weren’t wrong to think this too. Latin was one of the only standardized languages due to its use by the church. Vernacular languages varied very widely from place to place, such that it was very common that two peasants from neighboring towns or regions would not be able to understand each other, even if they could read and write some form of “German”.
Most peasant would then be able to read and write their own notes and records, but probably wouldn’t be able to sent letters to next town or read any books.
Bro what?! You have a source? This is very interesting
This is neat. Thanks. You also put right instead of write, but just once
Yeah…
I type on mobile. Let me fix it.
Quests:
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You have scurvy. Find a citrus. (Spoiler, there are no citrus on the whole map.)
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Watch these sheep for 12 hours. And again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. Until you die.
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A minstrel is in town. Watch for a minute on your way to watch your sheep.
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Your wife has died of the plague. Bury her, then go watch your sheep.
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Don’t shag your sheep. (Difficulty: impossible)
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You have the plague. Lie down in bed until you die.
You have the plague. Lie down in bed until you die.
Damn. Who is going to watch these sheep?
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I know this is a ttrpg community rather than a video game community, but I’d like to chime in and say this is something I really liked about Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
You start off illiterate, but there’s a quest to learn to read and afterwards, reading more books and such will improve your reading skills. Starting off, anything you read is literal gibberish, but then it becomes semi-coherent text with typos, and as you progress, it just gets clearer.
I could see this being something you could also incorporate in a ttrpg to add an extra challenge to your players.
There’s also something like this in The Outer Wilds. The player character is given a tool to translate the writings of an alien race that’s long extinct. In the Echoes Of The Eye DLC you investigate the colony ship of another alien race, but you have no way of translating their writings. Your only option is to infer what happened to them via investigations and by viewing picture slides.
It’s perfectly acceptable that magic exists, but people being able to read is wildly unrealistic.
I mean the wizards would more often than not be the ones who could read since they’d need to be able to study the magic texts.
yeah, but maybe they’re only able to read some arcane dead language.
Imagine a mini game where it looks like an ancient language and you half to play a mini game to uncover curtain words.
Once you uncover those words about 40% is missing the next time you see it and each time you see them less and less letters are obscured.
Clever typos or oblivious poster?
Boy, I’m bad at typing while walking. Auto complete has failed me again.
We know how reading works.
Suspension of disbelief is an agreement to change things - but you have to convey that they are changed, or else everyone applies the rules they already know. Healing magic is made-up and can work however you want. Getting stabbed is real. You don’t get stabbed and immediately go “guess I’m fine,” except through the application of something made-up.
Admittedly, reading is so commonplace now, we assume it’s universal. Literacy is the rule we apply by default.
But D&D still specifies which languages your character can speak.
Additionally, remember that there probably isn’t any standardized spelling, so if you give your players notes you can misspell however you like.
This could even be a clue that a letter has been forged, if the previous letters were spelled one way and the forged one is spelled differently!
Shadow of the Demon Lord does this. Each language can have speak, read, write. Players have to invest to do these things. it’s kind of neat, but I can see it also being pointless book keeping to some.
