Napoleon versus Orcs

[BigVanVader]

So, I'm wanting to run some D&D, but I'm really, really tired of the standard fantasy business, or what I call "Tolkien Fantasy". I like Orcs, I like Elves, I like Giants and I like magic, but I'm tired of castles and stuff. So what I would like to do, is bump things up on the timescale and make things more Napoleonic. You know, so you'd have rows of musketeers taking shots at a hill giant, whose mountain they need for the war effort. That visual is really cool to me.

But, what all would I have to change to make that a possibility? The reason I like muskets are, because they're very powerful weapons in regards to the "old world", but they're slow enough that other weapons are still important. So, as D&D adventurers, their swords and axes and other weapons would still be relevant.

One thing I'm wondering is, I really want to make armor more rare, but would that screw things over for people? You didn't see armies running around in plate mail much as guns became more and more prevalent, but if someone plays a Paladin or a Fighter or something, will they get shafted if they can't get anything better than heavy amounts of clothing?

 

[trentonjoe]

You could give a free feat for the characters that start with Heavy Armor. That way they could take a defensive feat to offset the lack of armor.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You could also just give a scaling "Defense" ability to heavy armor characters that replicates what they'd get with heavy armor. (Probably make it not quite as good, so there's still reason to look for upgrades of various sorts, and to make magic armor rewarding.) They are combat trained, after all, and you can just say that includes the ability to avoid many sorts of attacks.

 

[BigVanVader]

Whizbang, that's actually not a terrible idea.

 

[delericho]

You could also just give a scaling "Defense" ability to heavy armor characters that replicates what they'd get with heavy armor.

That's probably the way to go. Make sure it doesn't stack with 'real' armour, of course!

Possibly the big thing you'll need, though, are the appropriate rules for mass combat in that era: things like rules for cannon, and also formations of musketeers and riflemen (including shifts in formation from line to square and the like).

... and now I want a "Sharpe" RPG.

 

[Derren]

Good luck, but I do not think that the game will play out the way you want it to be. D20 is very bad at doing eras/settings where ranged is the primary form of combat because of HP bloat.
Even at mid level the PCs can walk through a whole a whole barrage of musket fire and close into melee range with hardly a scratch on them.

PS: For some inspiration (Napoleon + Dragons) you can read the Temeraire books.

 

[BigVanVader]

Even at mid level the PCs can walk through a whole a whole barrage of musket fire and close into melee range with hardly a scratch on them.

Yeah, which is why I'm gonna Homebrew it to ensure that never happens. Whether we just make it so you don't gain hitpoints until every five levels, or even if I have to do something really cheap and lame like "Muskets always scale up with the players.". Kinda like how Oblivion did it.

 

[GreenTengu]

Muskets are in no way more deadly than swords.

If you shoot someone point-blank range with a musket or you drive a great-axe into their chest with a full powered swing, their chances of continuing to fight or surviving are going to be completely the same.

So there really is no particular reason to extraordinarily dock hit points nor to give muskets damage amounts that are wildly out-of-scale with other weapons. If you do either one, there will simply be no continued reason for a lot of classes to exist. In fact, if things are such that regardless of your hit die, characters are pretty much guaranteed to die on the first successful attack-- I see no reason to play anything but a Rogue or a spellcaster (assuming they still exist).

 

[Derren]

Muskets are in no way more deadly than swords.

The advantage of ranged weapons is that you can kill enemies before they can close into melee. The HP bloat of D20 makes this impossible as the enemy will always be able to get into melee range except at very low level.

 

[BigVanVader]

You know what, I'm overthinking things. I'll just have the muskets do absurd amounts of damage, but also be unreliable and inaccurate. You know, they're meant to be army weapons, not solo individual weapons so much. So, you have one shot in a combat round, at -2 to hit or something, and after that you have to either drop the thing and draw a sword, or attach a bayonet or something.