(+) Gaming in historical settings and dealing with values of the era

[gamerprinter]

I published a Japanese Horror setting, based on feudal Japan, though it wasn't really Japan - rather the Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG), but I designed to be like real Japan, in that feudal Japan was a police state, a social caste system was in place (and is less mutable in the setting, than in reality), movement from province to province was heavily controlled, very few people have actual money, and everybody is taxed 60% or higher. Though in reality, Japan was a male dominated society, Kaidan didn't emphasize that so much, though there are a lot of ghosts of abused women. Still the setting does utilize the fact that outsiders are considered comparable to the lowest social caste - Kaidan isn't a very welcoming society. I designed it, and I ran games using it, I never actually played in it.

I don't think I've ever played a game where somebody's character was actively trying to be racist, and that's in 44 years of gaming. I'm not saying that someone's actions could or couldn't be viewed as prejudicial, but openly racist - I've never witnessed that.

 

[pemerton]

What's the perceived benefit of playing in a historical setting which doesn't use anything from the chosen time period versus playing in a fantasy/fictional setting?

In this reply, I'm glossing "anything" as closer to "certain salient elements".

I think there are two main answers: people like the colour (be that togas and chariots, or longships and axes, or whatever else); and people like the verisimilitude.

 

[smetzger]

What's the perceived benefit of playing in a historical setting which doesn't use anything from the chosen time period versus playing in a fantasy/fictional setting?

You get something like the Xena and Hercules TV series.
Easy way to make your own setting and easy for players to understand it.
Maps, weather, moon cycles, calendar, food, architecture, and tech level all baked in and you don't have to invent them whole cloth or read a bunch of FR or Greyhawk to understand it.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I interpreted the thread title to refer primarily to non-fantasy settings.

Indeed. I wouldn't pitch a game with magic and monsters as an "historical game" anymore than I would pitch a Harry Potter campaign as "you'll play students in a 1990 UK boarding school".

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Most of us don't think about disease so we don't miss it when it's not there. I could certainly have a not-Rome setting without slavery but I don't think I could set a Call of Cthulhu campaign in Rome circa 32 CE and just say there's no such things as slaves. It would take me right out of the setting. We might as well go play D&D at that point.

I remarked on the striking fact that 18 out of 19 children in a family tree reached the age of 15 in a world without healing magic. The GM made a Jedi Mind Trick gesture we do to invoke Suspension of Disbelief.

I agree that Rome without slaves would be jarring. Spartacus the Union leader raising an army of... workers dissatisfied with their better dental coverage benefits?

 

[Argyle King]

In this reply, I'm glossing "anything" as closer to "certain salient elements".

I think there are two main answers: people like the colour (be that togas and chariots, or longships and axes, or whatever else); and people like the verisimilitude.

You get something like the Xena and Hercules TV series.
Easy way to make your own setting and easy for players to understand it.
Maps, weather, moon cycles, calendar, food, architecture, and tech level all baked in and you don't have to invent them whole cloth or read a bunch of FR or Greyhawk to understand it.

Fair points.

When I originally started participating in the thread, I had misunderstood the title to mean something leaning more toward the historical and not as much toward the fictional.

As the thread grows, I'm curious where something like Banestorm would fit into this discussion.

It's a fantasy setting but heavily influenced by things from our actual history.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Yeah, well, I was making the point that believing that Poseidon controls the ocean is rather different from there being an actual Poseidon who actually controls the oceans.

If you believe Poseidon is controlling the sea, that's a historical setting.

If maybe, perhaps, Poseidon's priest blessing is useful to your ship (at most x-files) it's a fantasy setting with historical trapping. It could count as historical as long as the supernatural is reasonably low-key (and by this I mean extremely).

If you can play a priest of Poseidon and call a storm, it's Theros.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Wouldn't a better/fairer a better question, "What's the perceived benefit of playing in a historical setting which doesn't use select elements from the chosen time period versus playing in a fantasy/fictional setting?"

There isn't much benefit. You start ripping out the things that made that period what it was, you end up with very little.

Say you're running a CoC campaign in 1931 Chicago, but you decide to drop the Great Depression and Prohibition. What you end up with is a setting whose only real tie to the era is the city map.

It is the backdrop that makes a setting what it is, particularly in historical settings. Sure, a handful of investigators are not going to be dealing with the economic issues of the Depression, or have any impact upon the throes of Prohibition, but both events will have effects that impact the PCs in their day-to-day operations.

 

[MGibster]

I remarked on the striking fact that 18 out of 19 children in a family tree reached the age of 15 in a world without healing magic. The GM made a Jedi Mind Trick gesture we do to invoke Suspension of Disbelief.

I know John Adams considered him and Abigail to be very fortunate that all of their children survived childhood and this was in the latter half of the 1700s. I like to throw out nice little details like that in my games. Not enough to overwhelm the players, but just enough so they know they're not in 2021. In Call of Cthulhu, I remind players that most people still don't have telephones and most people that do don't have private lines. Sometimes it's fun to introduce something unexpected, like electricity in the wild west, because they actually had electricity in the late 19th century.

 

[MGibster]

Say you're running a CoC campaign in 1931 Chicago, but you decide to drop the Great Depression and Prohibition. What you end up with is a setting whose only real tie to the era is the city map.

And we'd never have this gem!