Historical-based 4e games

My favorite genre of gaming is (alt-/pseudo-)historical based settings, and earlier in the year, as 4e neared release, I was playing around with creating a historical-based setting for my home 4e game (and perhaps for later publication).

I just got the books last week, and as I'm going through the PHB and the classes, what I'm seeing is not at all conducive to that particular style of game. For the most part, the martial classes can be dropped in as-is (well, more or less, given how some of the powers, especially at higher levels, get a bit on the fantastic side), but the arcane and divine classes are uber-high fantasy, where most historical games tend to be more on the low end of that scale.

My instinct would be to sit down and design a whole slew of powers for the martial classes that are less high fantasy and wholecloth new arcane and divine classes that are more subdued in their use of magic. That's a lot to do, which means I won't be playing that particular setting any time soon.

I'm left with the impression that D&D 4e is meant simply to be D&D 4e and not so much a fantasy toolkit.

Is there anyone out there playing a historical-based 4e game? If so, how are you approaching it, by adapting things to the relative tech/magic level of the setting or by dropping D&D somewhere in history? Am I correct in my impression of the game and should I just leave this idea aside?

You've hit the nail on the head for my particular problem as well -- Adamant has the rights to do a new 4E edition of Skull & Bones, but I can't see any way to make it work given the PC powers structure -- without, as you say, completely re-writing from the ground up.

At the moment, yeah, 4e is less of a toolkit than 3e was.

I expect we might see some changes later on down the road, when designers start really pushing the system to see what it can do, but at least for right now, historical games will look a bit funny.

-O

I don't see why it would be difficult at all to use 4e for a historical game. It certainly would be a lot easier than 3rd edition d20.

Just use the martial classes. All other magic is done through Rituals. Don't have magic items (except for rare, plot-related occult items), and instead give all characters a +1 enhancement per five levels to attacks, damage, and all defenses.

For Skull and Bones, it would be relatively easy to make most characters. You might need to tweak some classes, like giving Fighters an option to be more effective in light armor or unarmored. Houngan would be more difficult, and you would need to create a new class for them if you want them to do more than ritual magic.

This might work:

Keep the martial classes as-is, and take care in how you describe your actions.

Drop the arcane and divine classes.

Use rituals for the casters of the setting. Add in new rituals to cover any gaps.

If you want more spellcasting, consider allowing the multiclass feats. Maybe cap the powers available through them.

What is the future of d20 Modern in the 4e era? Has WotC given word about that?

I'm currently writing up a Alternate History/European Dark Ages campaign, a 10-level story arc that will take adventurers from the sooty streets of Londinium to the fjords of Norway, through the dark fey forests of Germania, and reaching its climax in the demonic courts of Constantinople.

Classes are the 4 martial plus, possibly, the Paladin. Spell use is Ritual-based only (except for some notable NPCs). Races are human/half-elf only to start, but adding later options for Dwarves (Norway), Elves(Germania), and Tieflings(Diabolical Byzantine Empire).

In my opinion, 4E is the best version of D&D for "historical" style games, now that martial characters have an equal share of the special abilities and healing options that are no longer reliant on the constant presence of a cleric, as well as the limited magic of Rituals.

Stick to the heroic tier, levels 1-10. Don't allow the raise dead ritual. Give automatic boni at levels 3 and 8 instead of magic items. Consider banning arcane and divine classes. If you view hit points as abstract rule that criticals cause long term debilitating injuries, if you don't then greatly slow the recovery rate. That should be pretty close to the real world.

Obryn said:

I expect we might see some changes later on down the road, when designers start really pushing the system to see what it can do...

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I'd be right there with you except the non-open nature of 4e content makes me feel that innovation won't happen as quickly as it did before (not to mention that, while some eventual new design may help my game, it doesn't necessarilly mean that I'll be able to use it for my secondary goal of publication, given the closed nature of material published under the GSL). But that's another can of worms and I don't want to derail this thread from its intended topic (a reminder as much for myself as for others).

Atlatl Jones said:

I don't see why it would be difficult at all to use 4e for a historical game. It certainly would be a lot easier than 3rd edition d20.

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/looks at the various historical 3.X d20 historical books in the bookshelf to the right, and thinks of various others in PDF.

That's a bold statement, but that's the kind of opinion/help I'm looking for.

Atlatl Jones said:

Just use the martial classes. All other magic is done through Rituals. Don't have magic items (except for rare, plot-related occult items), and instead give all characters a +1 enhancement per five levels to attacks, damage, and all defenses.

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LostSoul said:

Keep the martial classes as-is, and take care in how you describe your actions.
Drop the arcane and divine classes.
Use rituals for the casters of the setting. Add in new rituals to cover any gaps.
If you want more spellcasting, consider allowing the multiclass feats. Maybe cap the powers available through them.

Click to expand...

I still haven't gotten to Rituals yet, so I'll be checking that out as a possibility.

Since posting earlier, I have kept thinking about it as I read and my second impression is that I'd quite probably have to cap a historical setting at a lower level than the default of 30 in order to simply avoid the high fantasy nerfing that goes on in the Epic tier.

johnsemlak said:

What is the future of d20 Modern in the 4e era? Has WotC given word about that?

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There has been some mention of a non-fantasy 4e-esque ruleset coming out next year or so, but nothing more concrete. But that's another thread altogether, so if anything, fork it over.

I would agree with the OP, as most of the previous posters seem to, that the existing 4e spellcasters do not work well for low fantasy. Martial classes multiclassing would probably be the best solution for now. I hope 4e will at some point build up enough supplements and classes that it can be more of a toolkit, but its not there out-of-the-gate.

I do have to say while reading the rules it did bug me that the with the cleric and paladin, every single thing they did is some divine effect, they never just hit the guy.