Mixing Past with Fantasy

[Priest_Sidran]

I am going to start a campaign here very soon that weaves D20 Past (Victorian Era), with Gates into a Fantasy Setting, and while my players are all purist fantasy (D&D Only) gamers I want to run them through Adventures in Victorian London, Intermixing Jack the Ripper and the Hound of Baskerville with the more normal fantasy fair.

Has anyone done this sort of thing, and are there any recomendations for how to do this, without compromising my players wishes, or my wants.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I ran a superheroes campaign set in the 1800-1900s as "imagineered" by Wells and Verne, with notes cribbed from the Space: 1889 RPG, the Wild, Wild West TV show, William Gibson's Difference Engine (alt-hist sci-fi about Charles Babbage) and other sources.

If I had had it, I would also have used things like Deadlands RPG, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen stories, and the alt-history writings of Kurt Giambastiani and Harry Turtledove.

However, you would probably get a LOTof use out of the Amazing Engine For Faerie, Queen & Country sourcebook- a FRPG campaign setting in the 1870s, which is exactly what you've described. Its long OOP (its a TSR product), so you'll have to scour the internet or your local used book stores.

My best advice is find some sources you can use and LEARN them- if you do it right, you can probably infect your players with your enthusiasm. After all, you're talking about a fairly rich period, culturally and historically speaking. The Civil War was fought. Mark Twain and Charles Dickens were at the their best, as well as many other painters and artists of note. Peter Tchaikosvky's music became famous...and then he comitted suicide. Darwin's Origin of the Species was riling up both scientists and ordinary joes, and we were just beginning to get a solid grasp on what dinosaurs really were. The Houdini was wowing audiences around the world & Circuses featured strongmen with handlebar moustaches. The Great Exhibition- the very first World's Fair- was held, featuring the first of its kind glass & steel Crystal Palace. The eruption of the volcano at Krakatoa in 1883 could be heard in Australia - over 2200 miles away.

Jack the Ripper terrorized Whitechapel...

Mars had canals...

If you know your stuff and show your stuff, the players will dig your stuff.

 

[Priest_Sidran]

Thanks for the Reply,

Here are some of things I thought about while deciding on this concept.

First having the players interweave between a more traditional classic fantasy setting (with some hints at apocalyptic undertones) with the 19th century london, and surrounding country side.

I can see my players running through a brothers grimm like scenario that leads to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writing The Hound of Baskerville, Also as one of the players is playing an Arcana Unearthed Giant even some undertones of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Also after some reading and from knowledge I already had incorperating Jack the Ripper via the Polish Jew controversy as a mad mystic (using the kaballah, and victorian mysticism) to make a Gollem from the bits and pieces of the prostitutes and other mysterious murders and unnamed creatures to make a flesh gollem of a sorts (similar to Frankenstein).

The idea for such an interwoven setting is most assuredly rife with great ideas.

Considering I am going to add in Cthulu, and Silent Hill-esque elements into the game along with Rose Red, and Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Fantasy-Mystery, Mercedes Lackey) It should fit smoothly together.

To do so I am borrowing liberally from Witch World by Andre Norton and Her Gateways from different time periods of the earth with a fantasy setting outside of earth's context.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'd avoid getting too close to the actual historical facts or common speculation of some of the stuff you're considering. It would let players who may know more than you get ahead of the curve you're trying to set as your scenarios unwind.

For instance, a lot of people would know about various speculatory writings about the Jack the Ripper killings...but if you just use those as pure rumor and change it up to your own mystery, you'll keep them off balance and let them have the joy discovery of the real killer, instead of them figuring out your plot ahead of time.

So, in the case of the Ripper, instead of what anyone may have read, you could have the killings be the result of a killer who was trying some Lovecraftian rituals, erred, and simply went mad...

or he could have succeeded, been killed, and the creature he summoned is doing the evil work...

...or it could be the result of a Necromantic cult, and to do the ritual killings, the slayers must wear a particular set of clothes and use a specific knife.

...or an Unseelie Fey Lord, outraged at what industrialized London did to his grove while he was away in the Unseelie Court, is going on a killing spree to scare humans away.

Etc.

Additionally, once you get your setting fleshed out, you can drop in familiar storylines and tropes from other eras or regions and tweek them to fit the campaign era.

For example, in my campaign, I adapted James Bond plots for my superheroic PCs to wander around in- they never suspected that the Archimedian Mirror Heat Ray controlled by a stolen Babbage engine was lifted from Man with the Golden Gun...even though I set the adventure in the seas off of China, just like the original.

They never suspected that the guy who could animate a giant, multi-armed statue of Kali was an amalgam of Japanese Mecha and a Sinbad movie.

And so forth.

 

[arscott]

Masque of Red Death is an old D&D product that combines fantasy horror with the victorian era. One of the adventures that comes in the boxed set revolves around Jack the Ripper.

As for getting your players to accept it, my advice is that you're better off encouraging them to embrace the change, rather than encouraging them to ignore it. Don't just focus on the Victorian Era as a setting--also think about the Victorian Era as a theme--let your plots revolve around important victorian trends like industrialization and imperialism.

You mentioned an alternate fantasy world. Tie it in more explicitly to the victorian england setting. Perhaps it's Avalon, where the creatures of myth and fancy hide from the smoke and iron so poisonous to them. Or perhaps it is England of the ancient past, Discovered by Mr. H.G. Wells and his time machine. Don't just have it be greyhawk, unless you have a really specific reason why it needs to be greyhawk.

 

[Khairn]

Sidrain, that's a really great mix of styles.

Might I recommend 2 books for you to look at.

Second World Sourcebook - Provides some great idea's, fluff and crunchy rules for running a campaign in 2 unique worlds seperated by gates, or any other of a variety of methods of transportation. D20 Modern.

Etherscope - This amazingly stylish setting combines Victorian era style and flavor with cyber-steam technology into one of the very best D20 books I have had the pleasure to read and play.

Throw in a fantasy setting like Eberron and I can see a wild ride for your players.

 

[WmRAllen67]

For a look at one campaign of this type, I'd suggest Kid Charlemagne's "Casebook of Nigel Spenser" (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=140875)

 

[hobgoblin]

there is always the rpg "castle falkenstein".
http://talsorian.com/CastleFalkenstein.php

not d20, but could be nice for some inspirational material

 

[GMSkarka]

Adamant Entertainment has just started a line of d20-Past-based Victorian PDFs, called The Imperial Age, which might be useful to you.

The first two products are Advanced Classes: The Scientific Detective and The Monster Hunter. Both are on sale this week.

The next product in the line will be Imperial Age Magick, which covers hermetic magic in the period.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And let us not forget the games Northern Crown & Nyambe, set slightly ahead of the Victorian era, chronologically...could be good for background info for a divergent history.