You can’t use magic yourself and most fantasy monster elements are influenced by folklore that usually show up later in a regular game and even then rather sparsely. Hell, most BB players have no idea about the monsters hiding under that huge fog of war, never got that far or never found a named “magical” item. Some of the most terrifying foes aren’t of the fantasy kind either… the populated areas of the base game are definitely influenced by medieval Germany and I’d say the folklore parts fit perfectly into that setting. I found it logical that they didn’t turn that part of the game into a generic globalized D&D fantasy world but more into the old Warhammer Empire. It makes sense. As for the pony / mounts… yeah, same reason the game doesn’t have this and that feature like translated versions or indoor dungeons. They can only do so much with a small team.
@ toggle for people of colour: that’s not a good idea I think. The base game should have included some rare people of colour like it was the case in regular medieval times in Germany. The developers made it up for that through the last DLC in a logical way with the southern city states.
@ how to write about harsh medieval times discussion: I agree you don’t have laugh through the writing at the horrid practices of those times (like I said earlier: more reaction options would have been appropriate in this case) but you can’t deny those practices either and if you want to play as the bad guy you should be able to. You can be a much, much(!) bigger cold-hearted bastard in the first two Fallouts and those game worlds will react to it. That latter thing is perhaps missing the most in Battle Brothers although some events do have a follow-up with consequences. I don’t think game designers should guide you into a certain direction on that moral compass, they should give you options and fitting consequences though. Be the goody-do-all guy and you’ll get taken advantage of eventually, be a monster and people will hate you through your reputation after a while. Again: mercenary companies weren’t exactly groups of lawful good paladins. The cynic in me would even say that that hasn’t changed at all nowadays. Jagged Alliance 2 f.e. pretty much circumvents those serious issues completely but it gets away with that by letting your crew resemble a collection of '80s action movie stars in a fitting, humorous setting for that. Battle Brothers does claim to be a more realistic mercenary game. They took up many other JA2-influences of course (for a reason as it is still the best turnbased tactical game out there) but in terms of mood and setting they went for a more serious tone, lacking the character of fixed voiced mercenaries. That works to an extent as some of the rare jokes do but when it gets cringy it becomes a lot more noticeable. It’s uneven at times but to burn the developers or even the writer at the stake for that… no, they’re a very small company and those really poor writing moments remain rare in my opinion. The way some of those texts get mixed could have been done better as well but that’s one of those structural problems and the same reason that official translations were never an option for them.
Can’t wait to see what their next game is, they once posted a picture that hinted at a modern tactical game… with legs. No Battle Brothers 2.