D&D 5E A Victorian-Era, Minimal-Steampunk, Dead Magic, Mainly Roleplaying, Tabletop Game for a friend's girlfriend.

[jayoungr]

I will say this: mysteries are not necessarily easy for a novice GM to run. If you do a mystery adventure, I strongly recommend reading "The Three Clue Rule."

 

[jayoungr]

I mean, you just whacked all but one race, all but three classes, most of the equipment list, half the DMG and ninety percent of the Monster Manual, what's left?

It doesn't sound like we're talking about a whole campaign, though. For a one-shot, you don't need a lot of races, classes, equipment, or monsters. And using a restricted subsection of the possible options will probably actually be helpful for a novice DM.

 

[Tony Vargas]

But is there any resources you know of that have Victorian-appropriate content? Have you anything you could contribute that would fit? Any tips in DMing a Victorian-Era game?

There have been a few games set in the period or in steampunk alternative histories of the period.

C'thulhu by Gaslight
Castle Falkenstien (the Comme il Faut supplement could be quite handy)
Space: 1889
Deadlands
Victoriana
Airship Pirates

 

[casterblaster]

Dump her? Are you guys serious? The only way that narrow path would go is not well. I know the OP isn't going to try and do something like that because all that would do is turn your friend against you. Youre doing the right thing bro. Try to make it fun for her and maybe she will open up to the game more. Sorry I don't have any advice on the setting you want to use, just thought I'd add my two cents. Never let a game come in between you or any of your friends relationship it will only lead to resentment.

 

[Dorian_Grey]

Interesting problem - and one I don't have a lot of experience with. My gaming group was started in, and led by, leadership within my Church (I was born and raised as a Unitarian Universalist - still am too!). We never had a problem with being accused of being sinful... because the person who would normally be in charge of that in our lives had no problem with the game.

At the same time, you might want to make this person aware of the fact that D&D has a pretty strong religious underpinning - including support from Mormons (I think there was even a D20 supplement released that was all about Mormon beliefs - ah nm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_the_Vineyard - looks like a lot of fun too) and Dragonlance has many concepts drawn from Christian theology due to the religious beliefs of the writers.

Anyway, if you know specific challenges I'd be happy to send them off to my old youth minister and get someone's opinion who actually has spent eight years in biblical study classes to get his PhD in theology.

 

[casterblaster]

Yeah a buddy of mine which is a player in my 5e game played a game when he was younger DMed by his preacher or youth minister. I always thought that was cool and a good way to entertain a group of teenagers. My grandmother on the other hand...man she told me I was inviting demons into my house haha. Never understood why she figured that. But yeah she constantly anointed my house with oil and spoke in tounges. Yeah im from the south so hardcore old school hell fire and brimstone exist. Good times.

Disclaimer: I love my mamaw though, cant beat her cornbread and butterbeans.

 

[jayoungr]

[mention=6849612]SingleCelledPsyk,[/mention] if you let us know how your ideas are running, we might be able to offer more specific suggestions. For example, since we're dealing with a novice GM, I wonder if reskinning an existing adventure might work well. I know someone on the board has run "Lost Mine of Phandelver" reset in the Old West, for instance. If you give us an idea of the sort of adventure you'd like to do, we might be able to suggest a good one for reskinning. Or at least some possible monsters/traps/magic items.

 

[Dorian_Grey]

[mention=6849612]SingleCelledPsyk,[/mention] if you let us know how your ideas are running, we might be able to offer more specific suggestions. For example, since we're dealing with a novice GM, I wonder if reskinning an existing adventure might work well. I know someone on the board has run "Lost Mine of Phandelver" reset in the Old West, for instance. If you give us an idea of the sort of adventure you'd like to do, we might be able to suggest a good one for reskinning. Or at least some possible monsters/traps/magic items.

This is a genius idea, and the DMG even has rules for firearms - so you could have a party of gunslingers going out to deal with some bandits or some such - when selling it to her, just say it's essentially every John Wayne Western!

Actually this gives me some good ideas as well.

 

[Prickly]

You could always just play deadlands without the magic.

Steampunk western

 

[SingleCelledPsyk]

Anyway, to the question of this putative campaign... frankly, D&D is not at all suited to a 19th-century, no-magic, humans-only setting. I mean, you just whacked all but one race, all but three classes, most of the equipment list, half the DMG and ninety percent of the Monster Manual, what's left? If it were me, I'd look into a different system, maybe FUDGE or something like it. But if you're committed to D&D, you can probably kitbash it into something that will serve your needs.

Most of the monster manual I can keep, the supernatural can always be explained with a little tinkering. Plus I don't mind the homebrewing, I've actually got classes for it already, ones that have been tried and tested by a larger community. There's the problem with race but instead I'm going to go with different human races, like there already are. It's no way gonna be victorian-era committed, it's just a starting point.