D&D General What Bits of History Inspire Your Homebrew Setting?

[doctorbadwolf]

Yes. I used the world "history" broadly when thinking of my responses, because I would include our historical understanding of culture and folklore into how history inspires, not just events.

I also thinks history (whether real-world or stolen from fiction) is best mixed up and re-combined to allow for new possibilities to emerge, esp. when used for a fantastical genre and in how the PCs might interact with the setting.

A worldbuilding DM should be careful when using historical inspirations. We can see the result of those events and old understandings, but it is best not to implement them in such a way to that constrict possibilities to those results only.

Agreed on all points.

A lot of my inspiration also comes from the historical fantasy of Guy Kay. My goal is to find the beauty in a time and place and translate that into a fantasy setting.

 

[GuyBoy]

Slightly tangential as it's not directly about inspiring my homegrown setting, but I'm blessed to live close to a number of historical sites and I've played RPGs in at least three of them, which is very atmospheric and inspiring.
Specifically the ruined castles at Thurnham and Sutton Valence (both post-1066 stone bailey castles) for D&D and the (terrifying) experience of playing CoC at night by Coldrum Long Barrow, a Neolithic burial mound.

 

[Tonguez]

HELL YES to this ridiculous armour that actually looks like it would work.

Personally, history-wise, I'm just really overly attached to Dark Ages-era cultures, real and fictional - Byzantium, Frankia, The Old North/Hen Ogledd, and so on, basically anything except the bloody Vikings, I've had enough of the bloody Vikings!

In my first teenage homebrew I called the Great Britain analogue "Cruithne" and based it on a mix of Hen Ogledd, the Ulster Cycle and The Book of Invasions of Erenn

 

[cbwjm]

I have developed the bare bones of a Mediterranean setting which takes historical/mythical notes from around that area, ignoring the differences in time that areas actually existed. So I have a Greek/Roman empire (or empires), Sumer and Babylon fighting for dominance, Phoenicia on the edge of their empire, Egypt and Arabia, Scandinavia with their Norse warriors. Western Europe I turned into an elven empire of wild elves who follow the Celtic deities. North-Eastern Europe with their grim slavic deities.

I'm mostly making it for fun but might drop it on my gaming group and see if anyone wants to play a session or two in it. Probably going to run some dolmenwood before it though.

 

[Azzy]

Currently, my campaign is inspired by the bronze age collapse. A volcanic eruption and earthquakes have shattered the civilized empires and now "sea peoples," mass migration, and anarchy are changing the landscape of the regions.

Ooh. That's a fascinating chapter of history and a great point to take inspiration from.

 

[Alzrius]

It's not quite the same as being inspired by history directly, but I still would like to implement some of the rules restricting magic from certain sourcebooks from AD&D 2E's Historical Reference line. Things like certain spells only working in consecrated areas, for instance, or other spells only being "miracles" that you can't cast, but have to make a direct appeal to your god to grant.

 

[Jaiken]

I use the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Wei, Wu and Shu story to make my custom campaign. There are a total of 16 factions and it is an open world campaign.