Anachronisms in D&D | Where Fantasy Meets History | Wandering DMs S06 E04

Wandering DMs

The Wandering DMs dig into the concept of anachronisms in D&D settings. They will explore the historic roots of D&D campaign settings, and where modern objects, events, or ideas have leaked in. Does the existence of anachronism break immersion, or is the very nature of the fantasy genre open to all forms of content? Where and how do we draw the line?

An anachronism is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type of anachronism is an object misplaced in time, but it may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a plant or animal, a custom, or anything else associated with a particular period that is placed outside its proper temporal domain.

Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. The fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seemingly possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies.

This description uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Fantasy literature" and "Anachronism", which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.