D&D 5E Thoughts on Divorcing D&D From [EDIT: Medievalishness], Mechanically Speaking.

[Gammadoodler]

Sure.

The PCs are a group of freelance explorers, often hired by upper crust types that like to show off their esoteric collections to their peers. They consist of : a war weary veteran grenadier, a charming fop of a burglar and pickpocket, a faerie-kin magician more curious than greedy, and an orangutan former pugilist turned adventurer.

Their patron -- the thrice widowed Matron DeVille -- has acquired the bloody notebook of another explorer who claims to have located the remote tomb of an infamous warlock who DeVille believes to have been buried with rare arcane baubles she can add to her collection. She hires the PCs, giving them expenses up front and guaranteeing to buy what they find for a good price.

The notebook gets the PCs started and they have to red-line travel to some remote land. Once there, they have to use clues from the notebook to make contact with some locals and get a guide, or otherwise find the tomb themselves. Once they find it, it is a dungeon crawl leading to a confrontation with the wraith of the dead warlock. Sprinkle in some potential bandit encounters and/or rival treasure hunters, as well as some intrigue involving DeVille's own rivals, and you have a pretty standard D&D style adventure with a late 19th century pulpy flair.

Does that help?

(NOTE: This is exactly an Eberron adventure I have run before.)

If this is an Eberron adventure that you ran, what were the medievalist mechanical taxes you felt you were paying by using D&D? Or, what pulpy flair did you feel had inadequate mechanical support?

 

[Reynard]

If this is an Eberron adventure that you ran, what were the medievalist mechanical taxes you felt you were paying by using D&D? Or, what pulpy flair did you feel had inadequate mechanical support?

I love Eberron in general, but for this milieu in particular I want something more grounded outside the direct elements that the PCs deal with. Magic and monsters are rare and forgotten, etc.

 

[Stormonu]

I love Eberron in general, but for this milieu in particular I want something more grounded outside the direct elements that the PCs deal with. Magic and monsters are rare and forgotten, etc.

Sorry to keep harping on it, but that does sound very much like the Gothic Earth setting of Masque, or any "Hidden Supernatural World" campaign setting.

Also, an excuse to post the gun rules from Masque - as you can see, they're fairly similar to the 5E versions in the DMG.

 

[Reynard]

Sorry to keep harping on it, but that does sound very much like the Gothic Earth setting of Masque, or any "Hidden Supernatural World" campaign setting.

Also, an excuse to post the gun rules from Masque - as you can see, they're fairly similar to the 5E versions in the DMG.

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It occurs to me that just based on the way the systems are built, this would probably be easier in 2E.

 

[mellored]

There was a 400 year overlap from the major introduction of guns in the early 16th century until the end of WW1 where melee fighting still played a major role in combat. It wasn't until the full scale introduction of squad level machine guns in the interwar years that gunfights became so deadly that charging into melee became an act of desperation rather than a standard tactical option.

The OP mentioned Tommy guns. That was 1918, and automatic.

And even durring Napoleon in the early 1800's, he supposedly said "God is on the side with the best artillery".

Though in the 1600's and 1700's sure. The long reload time and low accuracy of flint locks would still allow for melee. It could basically be a once per encounter skill, then switch to the sword.

But once the cartridge was created in the early 1800's, melee was on it's way out. Having pre-measured the gunpowder really boosted consistently and reload times. And the modern bullet was invented in 1849 sealed the deal.

Not that a game has to follow history of course. Maybe gunpowder was never invented and all guns use compressed air power, or some trapped elemental.

 

[Baron Opal II]

@Baron Opal II Wouldn't those be increasing ratios?

I flipped the ratios. My bad.

With increasing tech of firearms the magicians were worth less in battle.

 

[Shardstone]

I'll take any excuse to make new classes, but I think this exercise is more enjoyable by imagining how classes from vanilla would manifest in such a world. Bards in World War 2 could be on spy squads with rogues trying to crack the encoded arcane plans of enemy forces; paladins, who can only smite in melee, engage enemy commanders in duels; clerics look for holy relics in ruins unearthed underneath random peoples homes and houses (something that happens IRL); wizards establish legitimate universities that are for IRL learning + arcane schooling; druids get into conflicts with city governments about the use of natural resources and city expansion; etc.

 

[Reynard]

I'll take any excuse to make new classes, but I think this exercise is more enjoyable by imagining how classes from vanilla would manifest in such a world. Bards in World War 2 could be on spy squads with rogues trying to crack the encoded arcane plans of enemy forces; paladins, who can only smite in melee, engage enemy commanders in duels; clerics look for holy relics in ruins unearthed underneath random peoples homes and houses (something that happens IRL); wizards establish legitimate universities that are for IRL learning + arcane schooling; druids get into conflicts with city governments about the use of natural resources and city expansion; etc.

Just a point from my perspective: WW2 is way too late. WW1 is the very far end of what i would find interesting in this theoretical.

 

[Shardstone]

Just a point from my perspective: WW2 is way too late. WW1 is the very far end of what i would find interesting in this theoretical.

Still works; those ideas work through the Civil War period and through the American Revolution as well, just with slightly lower technology. In fact, running this time frame makes me think the vanilla classes are even more fitting, and that playing with their idea, remapping their aesthetics to the era, would produce something pretty interesting. Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[Wolfpack48]

I actually think modern D&D is tied more to Disney than medievalism.