Alternate History Campaigns and RPGs?

[Marc_C]

I played Crimson Skies the miniature Clix wargame by Wizkids. FASA did the original board game but I didn't play it. I know it was also a PC game.

Crimson Skies is set in an alternate universe where the Great Depression has caused the US to break apart. The nation has fractured into several little countries ranging from the Empire State arising in New York to the Communist People's Collective of the Great Plains states. The tried and true methods of shipping things over land has fallen away due to the effects of this balkanization of America so everything has literally taken to the air. This America's love affair is with the airplane and not the automobile. So take to the skies as a dashing air milita pilot and defend your country...or become a vicious air pirate and cut a path of swath through the former land of the free and home of the brave.

Sadly there are no official RPGs but that is certainly a campaign concept I could integrate into my current Modern AGE 1921 pulp campaign when it reaches 1929.

Which alternate history campaigns or rpg have you played?

 

[Marc_C]

Twilight 2000, Free League edition, is another good alternate history RPG.

The adventures in Twilight: 2000 typically involve a military unit which was stranded in Central Europe several years into World War III and places emphasis on attempting to realistically depict military and social systems after a nuclear war. The war, as it continues on from 1997, has aspects of the broken-backed war theory, wherein a catastrophic nuclear exchange occurs between two belligerents, and is then followed by a continuation of conventional war.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

There is also the reboot of Twilight 2000, that may or may not already be out, I lost track. Anyway, instead of being an alternate near future RPG, the way the original version was, the reboot keeps the same time frame, so it becomes an alternate history RPG right away, instead of being so old, the real world moved past it's original time setting.

If you are looking for alternate history games that do not involve the paranormal/supernatural/magical elements, the list can get pretty short. If you are alright with alternate tech, there is stuff like Space 1889 for another alternate history/alternate tech setting, or the various cyberpunk games for near future/alternate tech settings.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I ran a D&D 5th edition campaign set in Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1659, using the Ghosts of Saltmarsh module. It worked extremely well and was going strong until COVID-19 lockdowns killed it. Details can be found here.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

To add to my other comment, if you want another option for your 1930's time period, look into Rocket Age. And it looks like it even has gotten the 5E treatment, which I had not heard of til now:

Rocket Age

Rocket Age is a retro pulp sci-fi game set in a 1938 that never was and a solar system that should have been.

www.whynotgames.com

 

[Marc_C]

To add to my other comment, if you want another option for your 1930's time period, look into Rocket Age. And it looks like it even has gotten the 5E treatment, which I had not heard of til now:

Rocket Age

Rocket Age is a retro pulp sci-fi game set in a 1938 that never was and a solar system that should have been.

www.whynotgames.com

That is very close to what I'm working my way up to with my Modern AGE 1920's campaign. They have not been into space yet but they have stopped all kinds of alien shenanigans on Earth.

 

[Umbran]

Twilight 2000 is another good alternate history RPG.

Well, now it is. Originally, it was a near-future RPG, as it was published before the speculated WWIII would have happened.

Originally, Shadowrun was also near-future, but the real-world has finally caught up with some of the formative events of its alternate history, where magic starts to return.

Which alternate history campaigns or rpg have you played?

Classic Deadlands - history diverges around the time of the Civil War, most notably when, at the Battle of Gettysburg, dead soldiers got back up and started fighting with both sides. For reasons, some pretty dark magic returns to the world at that time, and the US is not what we recall it....

 

[Marc_C]

Well, now it is. Originally, it was a near-future RPG, as it was published before the speculated WWIII would have happened.

Yes of course, I thought I mentioned the new Free League edition in my post but it seems I did not. Corrected.

 

[aramis erak]

I played Crimson Skies the miniature Clix wargame by Wizkids. FASA did the original board game but I didn't play it. I know it was also a PC game.

Crimson Skies is set in an alternate universe where the Great Depression has caused the US to break apart. The nation has fractured into several little countries ranging from the Empire State arising in New York to the Communist People's Collective of the Great Plains states. The tried and true methods of shipping things over land has fallen away due to the effects of this balkanization of America so everything has literally taken to the air. This America's love affair is with the airplane and not the automobile. So take to the skies as a dashing air milita pilot and defend your country...or become a vicious air pirate and cut a path of swath through the former land of the free and home of the brave.

Sadly there are no official RPGs but that is certainly a campaign concept I could integrate into my current Modern AGE 1921 pulp campaign when it reaches 1929.

Which alternate history campaigns or rpg have you played?

Pendragon. About 6 campaigns now of it. My last one ended when Arthur's PC cousin (who got the Sword of the Stone to move), was crowned in 516 due to Arthur's death at a battle at Abbey Beale, just south of Malahaut. Mine all wound up alt-hist to the Pendaron timeline as well as history.

Reichstar. Sure, while it's set in the 24th C, its divergence point is 1941... Great concept. System, not so great.

Spirit of the Century. One extended adventure... (5 weeks or so)... alt 20th C in the 20's.

MSH, AMSH, MSHAG, (MU), and MHRP. All the Marvel games are alt hist. MU only got non-story-focused single session, 2 or 3 times, to feel out the mechanics. MSHAG got multiple one-shots. Others got extended adventures to short campaigns.

Sentinel Comics. Same reason as all the Marvels... modern supers are alt history.

If I am counting Reichstar, I need to also count Star Trek... since the Bell Riots never happened, and nothing close to the DY-100 has been launched, it's the future of an alternate timeline.

My GURPS Horror campaign that ran 5 years... at only a handful of sessions per year. In which Magnum PI is reality, and Thos. Magnum was there to be sacrificed to appease Madam Pele... by the Werewolf living one estate further from Honolulu.

Edit: I forgot to mention 4 campaigns (3 short) of Space: 1889.

 

[Umbran]

Yes of course, I thought I mentioned the new Free League edition in my post but it seems I did not. Corrected.

Oh, I didn't care about the nitpicky, "well actually" of categorization. I find things sliding from speculative-future into retro-future interesting!