HISTORICAL CAMPAIGNS

[John Dallman]

I like historical and semi-historical games a lot, and I've played them under GURPS. Any such game tends to become a secret- or alternate-history game, because PCs have a way of changing things, even when they aren't trying to. The most successful, by far, is an occult WWII game that has been running for 16 years. There's an article about it in issue 2 of The Path of Cunning.

 

[aramis erak]

Thought it might be cool to start a general history RPG thread. How do you approach running a game set in real world history? Any times and places you think are particularly well suited to RPG adventures? Recommended books, primary sources, breakdowns and historical atlases?

Depends upon the Era and the genre.
I'd not use GURPS for anything even vaguely humorous; hell, I'd not use gurps for anything these days.

My House Rules for running Historical settings (including alt-hist settings and fantasy-history, like Pendragon, Ars Magica, and Vaesen)

1. Actual history ends the moment a PC takes their first action.
2. When practical, actual history comes to pass unless PC's actions dictate otherwise.
3. Since players will use historical knowledge, dates and times should vary slightly from known
4. Historical tech spread slower than most people realize.
5. If players do something that would be a faux pas, let them renege after being informed why. (I do this for unusual fantasy settings, too.

One of my current campaigns is historical - kind of - Vaesen. My group is in 1825... they have a "camera".. big nasty mess, makes very poor daguerreotypes, based upon leaked info. Can also be used as a Camera Obscura for drawing scenes. THey keep it, carry it, and, across 3 adventures, have used it once, to photocopy a document.... Because it takes an hour to use.

They're proud of having it. And happy it gave them the document... but they missed that it was the same handwriting as the other document. (I made handouts. I've downloaded a half-dozen hand-fonts.) And they are vaguely aware that it's about 5 years too soon for one in Sweden.

The other thing that is important is that the PCs are people of their time, and players need to buy into this. If they're doing something that would be inappropriate, give them a chance to renege on it, or go ahead if it is intentionally out of norm. I do this for certain fantasy settings, too, like L5R, and for both Trek and Star Wars.

THere's also the psychological effect of "I'm not the big hero, so why should I play?" Which is why points 1 and 2 are important - I'm even good with replacing the main cast if the players are up for it. I had one Pendragon game where, of the 7 players 5 were table knights, and one managed to prevent the issue with Lancelot and Guinevere (by beating Lance to the rescue...). If history changes from the first play action, it avoids the "I'm not the hero" to a degree.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Depends upon the Era and the genre.
I'd not use GURPS for anything even vaguely humorous; hell, I'd not use gurps for anything these days.

My House Rules for running Historical settings (including alt-hist settings and fantasy-history, like Pendragon, Ars Magica, and Vaesen)

1. Actual history ends the moment a PC takes their first action.
2. When practical, actual history comes to pass unless PC's actions dictate otherwise.
3. Since players will use historical knowledge, dates and times should vary slightly from known
4. Historical tech spread slower than most people realize.
5. If players do something that would be a faux pas, let them renege after being informed why. (I do this for unusual fantasy settings, too.

One of my current campaigns is historical - kind of - Vaesen. My group is in 1825... they have a "camera".. big nasty mess, makes very poor daguerreotypes, based upon leaked info. Can also be used as a Camera Obscura for drawing scenes. THey keep it, carry it, and, across 3 adventures, have used it once, to photocopy a document.... Because it takes an hour to use.

They're proud of having it. And happy it gave them the document... but they missed that it was the same handwriting as the other document. (I made handouts. I've downloaded a half-dozen hand-fonts.) And they are vaguely aware that it's about 5 years too soon for one in Sweden.

The other thing that is important is that the PCs are people of their time, and players need to buy into this. If they're doing something that would be inappropriate, give them a chance to renege on it, or go ahead if it is intentionally out of norm. I do this for certain fantasy settings, too, like L5R, and for both Trek and Star Wars.

THere's also the psychological effect of "I'm not the big hero, so why should I play?" Which is why points 1 and 2 are important - I'm even good with replacing the main cast if the players are up for it. I had one Pendragon game where, of the 7 players 5 were table knights, and one managed to prevent the issue with Lancelot and Guinevere (by beating Lance to the rescue...). If history changes from the first play action, it avoids the "I'm not the hero" to a degree.

Brilliant!

My players never consider themselves heroes*, and I never put them into positions where they can affect world events, so #1 and #3 are not big issues for me.

On a side note, I recently ran a campaign set in 1889, and discovered that period catalogues are available as free pdfs online (really free, not 'file-share' free).

#5 is crucial. And, as you noted, it applies to any setting of depth, historical or otherwise. As I always like to point out, their PCs have knowledge the players do not, and a big one of those is social norms.

* = They operate off four basic principles: spite, greed, petty-mindedness, and irrational affections for inconsequential NPCs.

 

[MGibster]

And folks, if you want to run an historical campaign set in the current city you live in there are a wealth of resources you're likely to find at your local library. I'm talking maps, city directories with lists of businesses and addresses, and of course we can't forget newspapers. You don't need to go overboard, if I run a campaign set in Little Rock 1927 nobody is going to know the difference which corner of 9th and Broadway I place Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church. But these are tools you can use to make your setting come alive.

 

[Bluenose]

What rules set I'd use would depend on the focus of the game. A game about trying to advance your status as petty nobles in the court of Louis XIII is going to want more rules about social status, fashion, relationships and factions and less on hitting enemies with an axe; a game about Viking warriors going off on voyages will probably want more rules on sailing, using an axe and how to plunder effectively.

Saying that, I've played a few historical campaigns and mostly I've used Runequest or more recently Mythras. At various times there have been historical sourcebooks for those systems (Vikings and Land of Ninja for RQ2 are the oldest, TDM have got a series of semi-historical ones for Mythras including appropriate magic for the cultures if you want it). I once used Heroquest for a game of Roman senate politics in the late Republic, through to the rise of Emperor Pompeius and his death at the head of his legions fighting the mighty Parthian-Egyptian alliance - events that are familiar, I'm sure, to all students of ancient history. And if you count Call of Cthulhu as historical then I've played that a bit too.

 

[Bilharzia]

I've run a few Mythic Earth adventures using Mythras, and I'm a few months into a Mythic Britain campaign, using the supplement of the same name, which started with the "Waterlands" adventure, an excellent Celtic mystery-horror scenario set in the fens of the north east coast of England. Mythic Britain is set around 500 CE and is more of a Bernard Cornwell style than Excalibur, even though Arthur, Merlin and Morgana are knocking around this time though as dark ages Celts. British druidism is represented using the animism magic system, with the Annwn otherworld being accessible to druids (only) and magic the province of spirits. Early Christians can venerate saints but only very rarely successfully call on Miracles.

Looking forward to Bronze Age Mythic Babylon (during Hammurabi) which is looking very good, due out sometime in 2021.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I would like something about myths from Middle Orient in the Jahiliyyah ("age of ignorance"), the pre-islamic age with the Sumerian, Akkadians, Mesopotamian, Babylonians pantheons.

 

[John Dallman]

On a side note, I recently ran a campaign set in 1889, and discovered that period catalogues are available as free pdfs online (really free, not 'file-share' free).

Got some links? I collect this stuff.

 

[wingsandsword]

Thought it might be cool to start a general history RPG thread. How do you approach running a game set in real world history? Any times and places you think are particularly well suited to RPG adventures? Recommended books, primary sources, breakdowns and historical atlases?

I ran a year long campaign about 20 years ago that was set roughly during the 3rd crusade.

I used the "green book" AD&D Historic Reference series for it.

I really, really wish they'd made an equivalent work for 3e, or even later editions. Getting D&D away from pseudo-historic gaming was a real weakness of later editions, IMO.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Got some links? I collect this stuff.

No, sorry, I downloaded the pdfs, and didn't keep the links.