What are your default assumptions about the D&D gameworld?

[jedipotter]

So the other assumptions thread got me thinking. What are your assumptions about a game world? What do you assume all game worlds have, unless specifically told something different by the DM.

Do you assume magic shops, temples and spellcasters for hire on every corner? Do you assume the average NPC will be clueless? Do you assume the average NPC will be weak? Do you assume dragon are rare? Do you assume 21st century law and order? Or more 10th century law and order?

The published settings don't really answer this type of thing, other then a vague paragraph or two. And this type of thing rarely gets put in the notes of any Homebrew setting. Other then something like, if the setting is 'low magic' there will be a note of no magic shops.

[BWR]

So the other assumptions thread got me thinking. What are your assumptions about a game world? What do you assume all game worlds have, unless specifically told something different by the DM.

Do you assume magic shops, temples and spellcasters for hire on every corner? Do you assume the average NPC will be clueless? Do you assume the average NPC will be weak? Do you assume dragon are rare? Do you assume 21st century law and order? Or more 10th century law and order?

The published settings don't really answer this type of thing, other then a vague paragraph or two. And this type of thing rarely gets put in the notes of any Homebrew setting. Other then something like, if the setting is 'low magic' there will be a note of no magic shops.

Read the old Mystara Gazetteers. Nearly all list the basics of law and punishment in the countries they detail, as well as common monsters (dragons are never listed as common). As for magic shops and hiring casters, this wasn't really a thing in BECMI, so it's pointed out where it exists, because the default is it doesn't.

If nothing else is given, the default is something similar to Greyhawk or FR with the assumptions of the rulebooks of whatever system we're using. However I've never really played in any game where it wasn't an established setting or the DM hasn't told us ahead of time what to expect, so my assumptions rarely come up in actual play.

[Phelix-Mu]

My assumption is that everything about the world is determined by the DM. Undue assumptions pretty much just complicate communication. As a player, it's my top priority to make sure that all relevant mechanics and such involved in my concept work out in the DM's version of wherever it's all taking place. I take my cues from the DM; if the DM says it works like in the books, that's good. If it's otherwise, that's also good.

The key is communicating the nature of the world clearly early on in the process of character generation/recruiting. Having "default assumptions" is a way to bypass communication, and that can interfere with smooth functioning later on.

Assumptions can be even more troublesome in pbps or other text media, as these media tend to restrict communication already due to the deliberative/intentional nature of "speaking" across them (along with lack of body language and other implied levels of meaning).

[Captnq]

That it has at least one dimension and exists in Time.

(Getting the PCs to RP a line segment was hard, but not impossible.)