D&D (2024) Should skills for a campaign based on the 1800s be different from standard D&D

[Kobold Avenger]

So assuming it's a campaign setting that's roughly in the 1800s for technology and other things, and still a highly magical world. Especially a Steampunk with magitech type setting, but also other fiction that generally takes place in that century like Gothic Victorian Horror and Westerns.

Should there be any additions, changes/renaming or removals of skills?

 

[Horwath]

I would just add tools for different things

 

[DEFCON 1]

So assuming it's a campaign setting that's roughly in the 1800s for technology and other things, and still a highly magical world. Especially a Steampunk with magitech type setting, but also other fiction that generally takes place in that century like Gothic Victorian Horror and Westerns.

Should there be any additions, changes/renaming or removals of skills?

The reason for adding or removing skills would be to equal out the number of times individual skills get used. If one or two skills are getting called for way more often than all the others, then they probably should get split in half to balance their counts. Likewise, if certain skills are barely ever called for and it basically becomes a waste for any player to select them for proficiency... then they should be removed or merged into other lower-requested skills to boost their counts.

So for example, if Arcana is called for all the time by the DM due to massive magic and magitech lore dumps they give out-- way moreso than Religion, History or Nature ever are-- then consider splitting off / creating a Tech skill off from Arcana so that the number of checks get split in half to both of them. Or on the other side of the coin, if the DM never requests the players to make Medicine checks (for whatever reason)... then perhaps remove Medicine as its own skill and instead call for Survival checks in their place during the few instances you might otherwise need it. So now Survival covers both the normal Survival stuff as well as things that use to be connected to Medicine.

At the end of the day all you want is for the players to feel like they are making considered choices as to what to be proficient in. And not feel as though they are wasting slots on skills that never appear or that they'd be an idiot for not taking a skill that is getting called to be rolled 1 out of every 4 total checks.

 

[Theory of Games]

So assuming it's a campaign setting that's roughly in the 1800s for technology and other things, and still a highly magical world. Especially a Steampunk with magitech type setting, but also other fiction that generally takes place in that century like Gothic Victorian Horror and Westerns.

Should there be any additions, changes/renaming or removals of skills?

Nope. The current list of skills easily port over

 

[Tonguez]

I use an 18th century (1700s) setting and the skills cover it pretty well, the only real gap you might have is Engineering (Steampunk)

You may want to have Ettiquette (High society) as a feat that gives expertise to Persuasion and History checks

rename Nature to Science
rename Arcana to Occultism
Make sure to include Epic levels of Deduction under Investigation as a nod to Holmes

Medicines an interesting one, if you still got clerics with healing Medicine is pointless, but if you are looking at 19th century medical improvements or Doctors stitching and re-animating corpses you may want to expand what Medicine does in the game.

Personally I require Clerics to make a medicine check to stop blood flow when healing wounds.

 

[Remathilis]

If you are simply upgrading a bog-standard D&D game to 19th century technology, you probably won't need to change much at all. Most of the changes will be on the equipment list to account for things that are more advanced than the PHB, like pocket watches or pistols. That is assuming though you still want paladins, rangers, and elves. The biggest decision you will have to make is how prevalent you want firearms to be and how that will affect class weapon proficiencies.

 

[Yaarel]

So assuming it's a campaign setting that's roughly in the 1800s for technology and other things, and still a highly magical world. Especially a Steampunk with magitech type setting, but also other fiction that generally takes place in that century like Gothic Victorian Horror and Westerns.

Should there be any additions, changes/renaming or removals of skills?

The 5e skills are mainly solid for most genres. Some tweaks are helpful.

As far as I can tell, most D&D settings need an Engineering skill for mechanical contraptions.

Unfortunately, the Religion skill is worthless in most settings, especially if the religious worldview isnt an objective reality. Either expand Religion to include philosophy, politics, languages, symbolism, and meaningfulness generally, plus if applicable, all of the Astral Plane, Celestial, Fiend, Sigil factions, and Aberrations. Otherwise, merge Religion into History and call it a day.

Generally delete Acrobatics and use Athletics instead, but this is true for most genres.

Especially for 1800s science, carefully distinguish Nature and Survival. I am using Nature for physics-chemistry, then Survival for botany-zoology. Probably delete Medicine and use Survival instead.

Maybe a Commerce skill is helpful, for economy, marketplace, banking, and traderoutes and international travel.

 

[humble minion]

Maybe a Commerce skill is helpful, for economy, marketplace, banking, and traderoutes and international travel.

This is a gap I’ve noticed in my embryonic setting project set in roughly this time period/tech level. Commerce, law, politics, that sort of thing. Probably one skill can safely cover them all, we don’t want to bloat the skill list too much. You could do it with a background, of course, that’s a bit too restrictive for me. You want to be able to create a feckless and incompetent member of the landowning gentry, or a lawyer of humble background who is highly competent, or a trusted servant who handles their master’s business matters. Making it a skill gives more design space.

The other one I’ve been considering is Society. It doesn’t only cover etiquette, but also stuff like understanding who is who, and your ability to do stuff like perform the latest fashionable dances without embarrassing yourself, or know the rumour that’s been going around about the Marquis of Featherington’s younger son. But whether this is required is going to be a matter of emphasis - my project is heavily influenced by Austen, so obviously this sort of thing is front and centre for me.

As for tech, what I’d probably do is reflect that science/engineering are becoming more advanced/expansive fields by proliferating tools, and requiring proficiency in multiple tools for large and complex projects. So you’d need both smithing/metalworking proficiency AND physics to make a steam engine. A village blacksmith who specialises in horseshoes couldn’t make one alone, nor could an academic mathematical scientist. You’d need both skills, or people with both skills. And then you’d probably need someone with civil engineering/construction proficiency to design and route a railway track for it to run on.

Or something like that.

 

[Reynard]

D&D is so anachronistic and modern anyway, I don't think there is anything that demands a new skill between 14th-ish vs 19th-ish centuries.

The biggest difference between those eras is whether there are guns (and its impact on armor). But if guns aren't a thing, I wouldn't worry about it.