Early Modern d20, or post-D&D

[redmetal]

I've been playing with a group for a short while now, and our DM decided he no longer wished to run his D&D campaign, so I took it upon myself to volunteer. Part of the condition however, is that I didn't want to run "straight" D&D any longer. I'm pretty burned on the high-fantasy aspect of D&D and for a medieval setting altogether, so I've decided to run a mish-mash of D&D and d20 past into a low-magic early modern (16th-17th century) setting.

I've got a few ideas rolling around, and I'm keen for suggestions. Especially good source material for game information, as I've been out of the loop for at least 2 years.

Some things I do have ideas for, are really on how to incorporate gunpowder weapons effectively:

I'm considering using the variant armor rules from arcana unearthed which grant damage reduction as opposed to straight up AC (defense) bonuses, but I'm considering having these effects negated by gunpowder weapons. By early modern times, armor just wasn't all that practical, so I want to reflect this in the game itself.

Also, any suggestions for low-magic races, classes, etc.?

 

[Vigilance]

My historical d20 modern sourcebook, Blood and Time, has rules for armor and weapons for Progress Levels 0-4, as well as rules for how armor interacts with gunpowder weapons.

It also contains a long timeline of world events throughout history.

http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=7002&

 

[bento]

I'm running a historical horror (France 1550s) one-shot this weekend using True20, The Demon Hunter's Handbook (Goodman Games) and Gunpowder Plots (Sword Edge Publishing). I've actually run it before and it worked well as an introduction to True20 for some D20 players. Other sources of inspiration were TSR's A Mighty Fortress and GURPS Swashbuckler.

I found Gunpowder Plots to be THE supplement I needed to develop some quick and dirty rules for gunpowder weapons, although it required some correspondence with the author to get clarification on a few things. $2 pdf beats $20 WoTC paperback (D20 Past) in my book.

When I was going through the "discovery process" some folks also suggested Northern Crown as a good source for material, as well as 7th Sea by AEG.

 

[Michael Dean]

A short list of my faves:

Atlas Games has Northern Crown, set in a fictional America in the 1650's. A definite favorite of mine.

Misfit Studios published (through Green Ronin) Spiros Blaak, a fictional setting set in a 1600's era.

Misfit Studios also has Spiros Blaak Arsenal, which is a 100 page or so pdf dealing primarily with firearms and cannon, and is a very nice and inexpensive supplement that's useful even if you don't have Spiros Blaak, and I highly recommend it.

Green Ronin also has Skull & Bones, a d20 Pirate book, which is also highly recommended.

If you like that, Adamant has a pdf supplement to Skull & Bones called Corsair, which has ship to ship fighting in the age of sail. Adamant also has a number of pdf supplements called Buccaneers & Boccor, which has adventures and articles about pirates.

In short, there's a lot of really good d20 material out there dealing with the time period you're looking for, as well as some nice rules for gunpowder and guns. I feel like I'm leaving something out, so if I remember it later I'll definitely post it.

 

[Desdichado]

My homebrew has recently been retrofitted (in the interest of simplicity in terms of sourcebooks in use) to run pretty much with just d20 Modern plus d20 Past using the Shadow Chasers/Stalkers mini-setting assumptions (which is the lowest magic of the three assumptions.)

 

[redmetal]

My homebrew has recently been retrofitted (in the interest of simplicity in terms of sourcebooks in use) to run pretty much with just d20 Modern plus d20 Past using the Shadow Chasers/Stalkers mini-setting assumptions (which is the lowest magic of the three assumptions.)

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I've made good progress already.

Oh, and Hobo, you have the best damn signature.