Historically Themed Campaigns/Settings

[evildm]

With the recent discussion on Egyptian, Greek, and Roman gods in another thread, it's piqued my curiosity to know who, if anybody, is running a historically themed campaign? Not so much taking place on the real world, but just themed as such. If so, tell us about it here. How well is it going? What did you have to change to make it work right? And so on.

 

[Sulimo]

The last pseudo historical campaign I played in (which died mid-campaign about 12 mnths ago) used a pseudo-Imperial Rome style setting (for one of the major powers anyway).

The main thing that we had to deal with was Wizardly magic and how that would effect the society and history of the empire. What was done was that wizards were not allowed to take part in politics - that was the theory. Of course the Imperial Wizards guild was the power behind the emperor, and probably was the main world power actually.

Us PC's were all members of a mercanary group who through the campaign got involved in a major factional dispute within the above Wizards guild. Attempts to assasinate the Emperor took place, as well as the above Empire launching a full scale invasion on a nearby state, and at the end a citywide wizard war in the Imperial capital where many demons were summoned and frankly it [the city not the campaign] all went to hell. Hopefully when the GM gets more free time we'll actually finish the campaign...even if it was a GURPS game (which I'm not the most enthusiastic about).

 

[Teflon Billy]

I ran an Ars Magica campaign based in Tranylvania during the attempted "christianization" of the pagan Vlachs by the Magyar forces of Hungary's King Istvann (who would becoem St. Steven).

I wish I had had Avalanche Press's excellent Blood Prince of Wallachia supplement at the time.

I am also giving seriosu thought to running a Carribean Pirates campaign using Avalanche's Black Flags supplement.

Avalanche impresses me.

 

[The_Dood]

I am currently running a campaign mixing babylonian culture with dark age twist.

The only thing I have had to deal with is the availability of magic items and costing masterwork items. Its hard for a PC to sell a composite bow for 400 when a normal one goes for 20.

 

[Mouseferatu]

At the moment, no, I'm not running a historically-themed campaign.

In the past, however, I have run campaigns set in fantasy versions of Egypt and Rome, and I've been considering Viking and Chivalric Western Europe.

I'm also planning to do an OA mini-campaign, but I don't know if that qualifies as historically-based or just historical culture-based. (There's a subtle difference.)

 

[FungiMuncher]

Well, I posted a link in the other thread. There's also one in my profile to the older stuff (Gee, I really need to update it all...)

Anyway, the whole campaign has been going for about a year and a half. I've been enjoying it, and the players keep coming back, so I guess that's a good sign. Basically, when I started it, I didn't want to deviate too much from the core D&D rules, so I made it very clear up front that the campaign would NOT be historically accurate. There are all the standard classes, with spellcasters being rarer than typical D&D. It's during the dark ages. The Romans/Byzantines are in power, orcs are the barbarians, and goblins have been "domesticated" (they're the slaves).

Oh, I also have used the Manual of the Planes to good use. I used the myths of the Fairy Realms, and extended the idea to include a realm of Dragons, and another realm of Giants. These are each alternate material planes, accessible through the Shadow Realm. The fantasy races have migrated to earth from these realms in ages past.

Originally, the PCs started out in central Europe, along the barbarian frontiers. They tracked down an enemy Shadow Elf (simply an elf with the shadow creature template) into the Black Forest, and discovered a portal to the Fairy Realm.

Well, since then, we've had a TPK, and the players have restarted in Egypt, based in Alexandria. Now they're dealing a lot with animal headed people, and trying to figure out what the Snakeman cult of Apep is up to.

There are quite a lot of anachronisms (for example, elves make longbows, dwarves make heavy armor), and gaps from the actual historical record (there are really no atrocities or schisms from the pseudo-Christian religion), but the players seem to take it all in stride. I guess I'm really lucky in that regard.

FM

 

[bmcdaniel]

My campaign is set in "Heroic-Age" Greece, which is about half mythological Greece and half anthropologically accurate Dark Age Greece.

The largest changes to canonical D&D I've made are to the classes (no paladins, rangers, monks, or clerics; added Olympic-style athletes and noncombatant priests; wizards and sorcerors are rare in extremis) and races (humans preferred; elves, fauns, centaurs and minotaurs available).

 

[S'mon]

I ran an Ars Magica campaign based in Tranylvania during the attempted "christianization" of the pagan Vlachs by the Magyar forces of Hungary's King Istvann (who would becoem St. Steven).

I wish I had had Avalanche Press's excellent Blood Prince of Wallachia supplement at the time.

I am also giving seriosu thought to running a Carribean Pirates campaign using Avalanche's Black Flags supplement.

Avalanche impresses me.

I find Avalanche a bit variable. I agree that Black Flags is impressive, I also bought Greenland Saga by the same author, Mike Bennighof, and found it very interesting, but Ragnarok! by a different author had pretty much nothing in it you wouldn't get in a standard 'Norse Mythos' entry in an encyclopedia or Deities & Demigods etc, it was a big disappointment.

 

[bwgwl]

my campaign-world-in-hiatus was eastern mediterranean/middle east/south asia flavored.

the world had cultures based on the classical Greeks, Carthaginians, and Phoenicians; Pharonic Egypt; Islamic Arabs, Persians, and East Africans; India; and the central Asian Turkish nomads. among others... my map is even similar to that part of our Earth, so the cultures are in the correct geographical relationship to each other.

i find using real-world cultures as a basis, instead of trying to come up with something whole cloth, a lot more satisfying. whenever i read a setting in which the cultures were creating solely by the author and have no connection with our history, they always feel a bit "hollow" and unreal to me. they don't have the same kind of depth.

besides, it's a whole lot easier to describe cultures to the players. "The Lasceans? Think Classical Greeks, but with standard D&D technology."

 

[Eosin the Red]

My home game is based around a 600-1150 England, but I have played in other parts of the world (nordic area + a long standing game in what would be Burgandy). Replaced the church with an arcane society that behaves just like the classical church. Low magic occurance - high magic impact.

It has been a persistant world for about 8 years but people have played in other countries and other game systems.