The Quintissential D&D Setting

[Mithras]

If the D&D universe of treasure hunts, tombs, castles, lost magics, curses, sorcerers and tons of disposable treasure actually existed in history. - which era comes the closest?

Been thinking about this, maybe introducing D&D to children under the guise of history. You obviously need a fairly free society that allows plenty of wandering about, spending money and such like. It also requires a healthy amount of lost tombs, dungeons and stuff - possibly from an older age.

Medieval England, and also Dynastic Egypt are right out - although they are the first two eras I thought of. Most of society seems to be enslaved in one way or the other.

My other thoughts were:

Roman Egypt - Rome had a fairly free economy and all those pharonic tombs and pyramids are ripe for the looting. A potential D&D setting there.

Anglo-Saxon England - Not a very free society, but PCs could all be nobility I suppose. Tombs are places of magic would be those Iron Age and Bronze Age round barrows (faerie mounds) as well as other places of Celtic myth.

Classical Greece - A free economy, lots of wandering mercenaries plus all that lost magic from the time of the myths. Sounds good (and I've already put in some D&D time on this here.

Norman England - Depsite what I said about Medieval England, I'm reading DARKWOOD at the moment, and I suppose PCs could be outlaws who travel up and down the land raiding tombs, fighting sorcerers and stuff - all in secret... but the real aim is to make all this dungeon-bashing quite open.

Can anyone think of an era that would seem to accomodate D&D's style well??


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[Jürgen Hubert]

(Crossposted from RPG.Net. Hey, if you are doing this, I can too! )

Perhaps the high era of the Vikings - you get to invade other countries, kill people, and take their stuff!

 

[Mithras]

(Crossposted from RPG.Net. Hey, if you are doing this, I can too! )

Gah! I thought you'd had another brilliant idea!

Perhaps the high era of the Vikings - you get to invade other countries, kill people, and take their stuff!

I did consider this, but I think it's too wide ranging. I like a bit of focus. I suppose I could concentrate on Vikings in the North of England. Hell, York was a Viking kingdom, which makes a great base area!

Could I get a decent spread of classes, though?

 

[Theuderic]

The time of Charlemagne.

 

[Joshua Randall]

The Spanish conquistadores almost literally were D&D adventurers: wreaking havok while looking for gold and fame. I think the 16th century would be a good time period for a D&D game, although you'd need to decide what to do about firearms.

 

[Magius del Cotto]

Actually, midieval times would probably work quite well for D&D. A travelling knight, a wandering noble, a young minstrel, and many other possibilities. You just have to not be a serf (and thus tied to the land), and you can have good old D&D adventure, minus the magic, of course.
But then, there's always the Age of Reason or the Rennaissance, both of which would make an interesting era for adventuring. Or you could try for an ancient middle-eastern campaign, or a feudal Japan/China style game. These all would work well for the game, even though most of the population may be little more than slaves.

 

[Theuderic]

Actually, midieval times would probably work quite well for D&D.

You talking about historic settings right? Because it's always been my opinion that most D&D games are run in quasi medieval times.

 

[Virginia Wilde]

There already is a Charlemagne setting for d20. I forgot what it was called, though.

Check out Avalanche press....high cheesecake, but they do know what they're talking about, unfortunately.

On a side note, I have an 1820s India-type setting for submission to publishers. I just need to start submitting.

 

[Mithras]

But then, there's always the Age of Reason or the Rennaissance, both of which would make an interesting era for adventuring.

I am well versed in the ins and outs of roleplaying in historical settings. Rich cultures, epic sweeps of history and so on. What is different about this approach is that instead of a historical campaign, accurate and evocative of the time, I'm wanting the historical equivalent of a [I}dungeon-crawl[/I], no holds barred.

I'm going to try and run D&D as is with magic and everything (although perhaps at a lower level), but it will still be dungeon crawling.