A Bit of History
The past is a foreign country, at least according to Leslie Hartley. He went on to say that they do things differently there, and he's right. It is something we often forget when running and playing in historical role-playing games. The sights, sounds, and smells, not to mention the casual behavior of the people may well shock you. You don't even have to go very far back to discover this, only a few decades will do. Imagine if your doctor came and, lit a cigarette, and told you that you had lung cancer (and offered you a smoke right after). How about if after the last get together with friends, one had one for the road, and meant he would be taking that scotch with him on his drive home. Not that long ago, this wouldn't have raised an eyebrow in most circles. Today, these actions are at the least considered heinous breeches of decorum, if not outright criminal.
Go further back, and things change even more. We all know that issues of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality have changed over time, and these things have been discussed right here in earlier columns. Some of the assumptions of the past, thoughts and attitudes taken for granted by the majority, are harder to fathom. The ethnic joke was once so common as to elicit few comments, and even be considered appropriate in polite society. Smacking you secretary on the butt was normal, even a sign of appreciation (though I doubt the secretaries saw it that way). Going even further, classism was once the dominant paradigm in most cultures, and reached extents we can hardly understand today.
Paranoid About Parasites
Most times and most places can be described in one word, unclean. One of the first things you'll notice is the smell, its like the worst gamer funk on the last day of a convention turned up to eleven. To put it bluntly, most of human history has gone by without a decent bath and it reeks. People who can afford to, and whose cultural milieu allows them to, douse themselves with perfume. Which adds a whole other dimension to the smell. In our modern world we are used to certain chemical scents, and those are replaced in the past by a whole range of natural odors, from the clothes to the masking scents, and on to the way pottery, wood, and metal smell.
Beyond personal hygiene issues, there is also the constant background smells of poor sanitation, lack of refrigeration, and differing views on city planning (and by poor sanitation I don't just mean people dumped their chamber pots in the streets, in many place and times you voided your bowels in the street). Smoke hangs heavy in the air, everywhere, when fire is the prime source of heat and light. It wafts about from cooking hearths, bakeries, smithies, and kilns. It gets in your clothes, your hair, and clings to your skin. Next time your super hunter ranger type PC spends time in town, he'll walk into the forest and practically yell "human" to every wild animal downwind. Stay long enough, and all these scents become background noise, you stop noticing them. Ever been on a long camping trip, especially if you've been doing some hunting or fishing? It’s a little disturbing when you realize that rotting offal and smoke aren't even noticeable anymore, much less the general funk that roils off of you.
Which leads us to the next issue, disease. Before proper sanitation and immunization, sickness was common, and often much more debilitating and lethal than in the modern age. You are walking around with weeks, if not months, of dirt and sweat on you and in your clothes. Not to mention everything you've spilled on yourself and couldn't wash off (detergents, what detergents). Should you sneeze, cough, or vomit, particles are likely sticking to some part of you. Now imagine life as the average PC, how often do you get hurt? Each wound is just an open invitation to infection, a veritable buffet of human flesh for any pathogen that's in the mood. Without antibiotics and modern medical care, you best hope that cauterization is practiced whenever you are, or its time to think about amputation. I kid you not; there are accounts of people contracting lethal infections from a scratch.
If you do get sick, and you will, trust me, you must rely on what passes for medicine in the then and there. That may not be a good thing, as pre-modern medicine was hit or miss at best, and downright deadly most of the time. Sure, some of you may point to traditional medicine, herbal remedies and such as viable alternatives to scientific medicine, and there is some benefit to these things. What is often forgotten is that traditional is also a code word for 'its what we've always done', in other words its not what is most effective, but what is passed down through the generations. Traditional medicine has been tested merely by trial and error, and will likely still be in R&D when applied. It has also been mostly wrong, or when it works, it works for reasons entirely different than what tradition says.
What to Eat in Colonial America
Nothing, honestly none of it is really tasty or even safe for the modern consumer. Pre-modern era, quality control was up to the individual making or selling the foodstuffs. Milk's a bit off, just mark it down, or mix it with fresh milk, thus stretching your inventory and boosting your profit. Have a bit of meat that's turning green, try and cook the poison out and add a thick sauce to cover the taste. Look at the section above on parasites, and say hello to trichinosis, salmonella, and tapeworms, just to name a few of your new friends. One good thing, however, is that most of the food is much lower in sugar than we moderns are used to, which is healthier (though for some, not as palatable). Spices and flavorings are limited in most parts of the world to what is grown locally, or what can be transported and purchased at great expense. Get used to salt and animal fat as your main flavoring agents, with a few herbs thrown in for good measure.
Quantities are also much less than in the modern age, and most meals rely heavily on grains. Most of us moderns could deal with smaller portions, even benefit from them, but the general lack of meat can be distressing. I mean lack, as in we'll have some stew next Sunday if things go well, now eat your parsnip soup and be glad you have it.
As far as drinks, well, expect drinks in the alcoholic sense. Often these were watered down and of lower alcohol content than modern beer, wine, and liquors. The reason being that you really don't want to drink the water. Ever have amoebic dysentery? It’s not fun with modern medicine and internal plumbing. Thus people tended to drink things that were doctored with something, anything, that could make the water safer. Alcohol was the standard, but tea and coffee both raise the acidity levels enough to kill some pathogens, plus they're boiled, and thus mostly safe. Looking at the amount of alcoholic drinks consumed in the past is shocking, even when you consider that they are watered down. The tavern bills during the Continental Congresses makes one wonder how they got anything done, and might be the reason that some of the founding documents of the United States of America are somewhat vague in places.
This Wool is Itchy
Looking at clothing, here we see some things that are directly applicable to role-playing. Before the modern era, your clothes would be made of natural materials, wool, cotton, silk, linen, leather, or fur. Dyes would not be as bright, or as long lasting, and usually unavailable to the common man in any quantity. Natural fibers wear out more rapidly, and the detergents available were not only less effective, but also tended to damage the cloth faster (not to mention the laundering processes were much more harsh than the modern washing machine). Add to this the fact that clothes were expensive, and that you didn't change them as often, and you end up with maybe two sets of clothes for most people. These get muddy, stained, torn, and wear thin rather rapidly, especially if you're mucking about in the wilderness or some lost ruins. A common form of payment for retainers and servants throughout most of human history has been an annual suit of clothes. Think about that the next time your bold heroes have returned triumphant to receive their reward from the king. Pendragon does a wonderful job simulating the degradation of clothing, your PCs clothes decrease in value by half at the end of each year, until you are wearing nothing but rags.
Another aspect of past clothing styles that is often overlooked is fasteners. No zippers before 1891, none at all. Buttons were in use before then, but going further back and you have lacing, ties, hooks and eyes, buckles, pins, and nifty folding to keep your clothes closed. Need to get to that nasty arrow wound; either use a knife or start untying. To hold all this together and make it work, most clothing was either very simple (a toga is difficult to fold, but really just a big sheet) or utilize a complex system of straps, flaps and fasteners. The more money on had, the greater complexity of ones clothes, to the point where the very wealthy really did need someone to help them get dressed (as hard as that dress is to zip up the back, imagine if it was all hook and eye clasps. Think about this the next time a PC saves the princess (or prince) and returns to the castle, enters the bedchamber, the soft violins play (saxophones in my games), and things fade to black. All that would be heard would be soft exclamations and muffled curses about laces and pins.
Let me tell you, its good to be back, and I'm glad the time cow's biofilter managed to get rid of that tapeworm. I desperately need a shower to scrub off all these bits of history, so until next time, I hope you have enjoyed the column. Next month tune in for the first of a five part series on forgotten histories. We'll start our journey in Ancient North America, and use our time cow to mooove on to other times and places. That last sentence was udderly ridiculous. If I don't stop with the bad puns my editor will cry bull and accuse me of trying to beef up the word count.
Another shameless plug this month, and hopefully I'll have a big shameless plug in a month or two. The July 2010 issue of Pyramid magazine "Cyberpunk" features a short article of mine, "Voices in My Head" that looks at wet-ware chips and the fun things you can do with them.
