tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post1898549095550381392..comments2024-03-25T22:48:31.750-04:00Comments on Dreams in the Lich House: Adapting D&D to the Early Modern SettingsJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-36963485340085302182012-05-19T06:59:53.458-04:002012-05-19T06:59:53.458-04:00I'm actually considering using something simil...I'm actually considering using something similar to the French Revolution as a backdrop for an urban LotFP campaign. Revolutions mean instability with multiple factions vying for power; conspiracies abound, and ambitious individuals (such as Napoleon) can have an "End Game" of empire building (yes, he actually was a Soldier, Conqueror, Emperor...). You'll probably organize a "club" instead of building a stronghold, or, alternatively, join the army and organize a circle of loyal officers around you.<br /><br />Also, I could possibly use something along the lines of the Committee for Public Safety as a patron organization for starting PCs - they'll have plenty of conspiracies to investigate and a mandate to go after "Enemies of the Revolution" (including, but not limited to, necromancers, demon-summoners, cults and mad scientists)...Omer Golan-Joelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09242085820257230639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-18725368427948288592012-05-16T22:19:41.955-04:002012-05-16T22:19:41.955-04:00For ideas on 17th century social advancement (buyi...For ideas on 17th century social advancement (buying titles and positions and such), you could do a lot worse than checking out <i>Flashing Blades</i> or its inspiration, <i>En Garde</i> (I confess that I haven't actually seen the latter, but I am told that it is where the social advancement schemes in <i>Flashing Blades</i> were first presented).faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-19327701712310085262012-05-16T22:06:51.393-04:002012-05-16T22:06:51.393-04:00You should check out the supplement TSR put out fo...You should check out the supplement TSR put out for this in Second Edition: HR4 A Mighty Fortress.<br /><br /><a href="http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1712" rel="nofollow">http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1712</a><br /><br />From the rpg.net description:<br /><br /><i>Adapts the Elizabethan age to AD&D 2, with new kits, equipment, a timeline, historical essays, and three partly developed adventure ideas. Also includes how to handle magic and fantasy monsters in the setting. A colour map of Europe circa 1610 is bound into the book.</i><br /><br />It's quite good. In fact, all of the HR series sourcebooks are good, with the exception of the one on ancient Greece.<br /><br />Also, it was written by Steve Winter, who now has an active blog that you probably already know about:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.howlingtower.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.howlingtower.com/</a>Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-46729508663227961412012-05-16T18:57:38.516-04:002012-05-16T18:57:38.516-04:00Great insight fellas, it gives me a lot to think a...Great insight fellas, it gives me a lot to think about. My conception of the end-game was focused on D&D's "kill the monsters, build a castle, tame the land" approach to settlement but I can see how buying titles, armies, wars of conquest, or becoming 'secret masters', could be just as engaging in the 17th century. (Or becoming commodore of your own pirate fleet).Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-7351347744371553842012-05-16T18:37:46.826-04:002012-05-16T18:37:46.826-04:00DrBargle, there's a review of that worthy book...DrBargle, there's a review of that worthy book here on this very blog:<br /><br /><a href="http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2011/06/quick-review-backblades-and-bucklers.html" rel="nofollow">Review of Backswords and Bucklers</a><br /><br />I love that book - it has lots of ideas for interesting urban adventures in the Elizabethan age, centered around 'tavern trawling'.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-74437750028130441772012-05-16T15:18:31.501-04:002012-05-16T15:18:31.501-04:00JDJarvis and faoladh said much of what I was going...JDJarvis and faoladh said much of what I was going to say - except I'd prefer not to agree with the propaganda of the 19th century and instead say that the colonies actually had their own high-level character networks, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansabdar" rel="nofollow">thanks very much</a>. Not that you couldn't endgame in the most traditional way, even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rajahs" rel="nofollow">after the Napoleonic watershed</a>.<br /><br />I like the 17th century because it's an interesting hybrid in so many ways. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Pieterszoon_Hein" rel="nofollow">Piet Heyn</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert_of_the_Rhine" rel="nofollow">Prince Rupert of the Rhine</a> are clearly DnD characters. Lots of the power structures and military strategies are scrambling to catch up with colonies (gold rushes) and gunpowder (alchemy) and new methods of labour organisation (dark lords), so it's really just an unstable and adaptive DnD-magic world, rather than one that ignores the implications of the broken, mystical DnD economy. And if you scratch the surface of the East India Companies, all that rational capitalism stuff melts away and you're left with internecine intrigue between families worthy of any cod-medieval or Italianate game-of-assassins fantasy heartbreaker.<br /><br />Regarding high magic my big question is, why do we accept it in pseudo-medieval settings? My guess is familiarity with the idea and/or ignorance about the social ties that made villages, towns and fiefdoms work before the late 18th century. What's actually really different about Hardy's (admittedly romanticised, nostalgic) England and... whatever kind of England we assume in "vanilla" DnD? Is it that famous "march of rationality" associated with modernity? <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2007/07/21/monkey-hangers/" rel="nofollow">Hmmmm...</a> OK, that's a cheap,easily refuted shot. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Caraboo" rel="nofollow">Hmmmmmmm...</a> Well, if you don't like <a href="http://www.jonathanstrange.com/" rel="nofollow">massively powerful magic in London's drawing rooms</a>, just remember Metternich's assessment of the "modernity" of central Europe in the 1840s: "The Orient begins at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landstra%C3%9Fe" rel="nofollow">Landstrasse</a>"* - the medieval became a place, somewhere between eastern Austria and Transylvania and the Caucasus and every point east of there, rather than a thoroughly past time.<br /><br />It's true that there was a general shift away from personal command and glory and power toward corporate/national victories and defeats: a "migration to the back" among military leaders, but there were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_Nelson" rel="nofollow">notable exceptions</a> and the legend lived on regardless... effectively front-line work became the domain of 2nd-5th level characters, and people above that level... well, they became <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_d%27Eon" rel="nofollow">secret</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_bond" rel="nofollow">masters</a>.<br /><br />* yeah OK, he's been "quoted" with every possible variant on this theme.richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13517340075234811323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-87771916418393196422012-05-16T11:06:57.256-04:002012-05-16T11:06:57.256-04:00On the Endgame in Early Modern games, look no furt...On the Endgame in Early Modern games, look no further than the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_conspiracy" rel="nofollow">Burr Conspiracy</a>. Or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertatia" rel="nofollow">Libertatia</a>. And so on.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-26165437985386041312012-05-16T10:05:58.901-04:002012-05-16T10:05:58.901-04:00Post-renaissance society is a lot more organized a...Post-renaissance society is a lot more organized and has, by and large, abolished the feudal system. Although nobility was still around, they weren't (usually) autonomous anymore - they had their power much more on the behalf of the king (or other rulers) as a central authority. <br /><br />For some countries, such as France, this was a long and difficult process that took well into the 17th century, but the development was underway. <br /><br />At the same time, cities strengthened their importance and created alternative sources of power. They became important to the economy, through rising trade. That made them stronger as political bodies - and sometimes extended in the form of merchant houses and networks, that took away some of the nobilities claim to power. <br /><br />As you say, in some few cases there could still be radical shifts of power, especially during wars. All the way up to Napolean times it could happen that a capable field commander was rewarded with fiefdoms and such. <br /><br />But the newer means of power, of course, lay in building up other kind of organizations. First trading houses and other economic ventures. Companies. They worked within the (emerging) structure of a nation, sometimes branching out into multinational bodies. Later on, different religious groupings - like the Jesuits - that sort of surplant the cloistered and knightly orders. And so on. Universities, societies, in the 18th century the rising fad of secret societies and even later political parties - all of them in some ways acting as sources of power for those in the leadership. <br /><br />Organisations act at least semi-autonomous. The stronger the civil state grows, with it's bureaucracy, laws, courts et.c. the less autonomy of course. But in the early modern society, they would be the natural option, I'd say.sapienthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06580115662189882667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-41216643944686910192012-05-16T09:23:06.329-04:002012-05-16T09:23:06.329-04:00Have you seen Backswords & Bucklers?
http://t...Have you seen Backswords & Bucklers?<br /><br />http://tiedtoakite.com/backswords_bucklersAndy Bartletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06683770320671028815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-58498139068104433142012-05-16T07:12:43.766-04:002012-05-16T07:12:43.766-04:00The end-game could be exchanged for influence and ...The end-game could be exchanged for influence and prestige in court, titles, land, and so forth. Not that much different really, and in keeping with the times.Simon Forsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01243845335993440168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-26262404233188515172012-05-16T07:08:20.298-04:002012-05-16T07:08:20.298-04:00There's room for domain building in an early m...There's room for domain building in an early modern campaign; such places are known as colonies. Characters can still build forts on the frontiers. Wizards can seclude themselves to research the arcane mysteries. Clerics can build monasteries and churches. Thieves can have hideouts, some can become infamous.<br /><br />Guns in the hands of a few do little to change the game on the skirmish scale PCs often deal with. Large battles change and the greatest of warriors is not immune to a stray cannon ball.JDJarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691101939920824546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-71647382637577199672012-05-16T07:08:14.062-04:002012-05-16T07:08:14.062-04:00There's room for domain building in an early m...There's room for domain building in an early modern campaign; such places are known as colonies. Characters can still build forts on the frontiers. Wizards can seclude themselves to research the arcane mysteries. Clerics can build monasteries and churches. Thieves can have hideouts, some can become infamous.<br /><br />Guns in the hands of a few do little to change the game on the skirmish scale PCs often deal with. Large battles change and the greatest of warriors is not immune to a stray cannon ball.JDJarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691101939920824546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-60903222859485208502012-05-16T07:06:17.610-04:002012-05-16T07:06:17.610-04:00There's room for domain building in an early m...There's room for domain building in an early modern campaign; such places are known as colonies. Characters can still build forts on the frontiers. Wizards can seclude themselves to research the arcane mysteries. Clerics can build monasteries and churches. Thieves can have hideouts, some can become infamous.<br /><br />Guns in the hands of a few do little to change the game on the skirmish scale PCs often deal with. Large battles change and the greatest of warriors is not immune to a stray cannon ball.JDJarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691101939920824546noreply@blogger.com