Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

The reason we don't see more historical RPGs is because they all suck

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,053
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Let's brainstorm. How do you make grenades for crap like Flight, Summon Monster II, Invisibility, Create Food And Water, or Raise Dead?

If you're talking about a modern setting involving characters who have access to military grade hardware like grenades, then it isn't much of a stretch to think the characters might also have access to helicopter transport and a radio. And those two things together can approximate everything you just mentioned.
So the modern cleric is the radio operator. Who's the modern wizard then?
Demolitions expert, tankhunter, or grenadier.

Who cares? Why would you design a setting that's fundamentally different from D&D around D&D gameplay tropes? Why not, you know... come up with your own system?

Let's take Silent Storm and Hammer & Sickle. They contain some fantasy/sci-fi elements (especially Silent Storm, H&S is more down to earth) but can be considered historical RPGs set during WW2 and the Cold War respectively. The classes you have are soldier, sniper, scout, engineer, medic. They're not equivalents of fantasy classes. They don't have spell-like abilities. Instead they have specializations with certain weapons and items (engineer being better at setting and disarming mines, cutting barbed wire, throwing grenades etc; sniper being better at aimed shots with a scope etc), and the tools your guys have are realistic within the setting. Wirecutters, mines, grenades, first aid kits (that stop bleeding but don't fully restore health!), rocket launchers. There are no fancy effect grenades, just different types of frag grenades that existed during WW2. No abilities inspired by D&D spells, just abilities reflecting the functions of different battlefield jobs like scout and medic.

And the game's combat is a lot of fun, even without any fantasy-style spell-like shit.

Battle Brothers is also a good example. It's fantasy, yes, but it's low fantasy. It's low magic. There are some fantastic beasts and even witches to fight, but they're relatively low-key. It's not high fantasy where spells are flung every turn. The majority of encounters play out like a standard late medieval battle, especially when you fight other humans. Shieldwalls, polearms, crossbows, trying to break through armor with warhammers, etc. And BB's combat is fun, even without major fantasy elements! A game set in late medieval Europe, let's say mid 15th century, that plays like BB would be great fun. You could have scenarios like defending Constantinople from the Ottoman invasion, you could lead your band of bros on a crusade into Egypt or the Holy Land, you could go to the Baltic or Finland to fight some of the last remnants of pagans in Europe who fight in a more tribal style, you could fight against horse archer Mongols in the steppes, you could fight against well-armored German or Italian troops armed with crossbows and handgonnes, you could fight against British longbowmen, etc etc etc. Such a huge variety of different weapon types that all work differently and have different advantages and disadvantages. How is this supposed to not be fun just because it lacks spells? I mean yeah, it would be boring if it just copied D&D rules and cut out the magic (which is like half the ruleset), but that's why you'd use a more fitting system like the one from Battle Brothers.

Anyone who claims historical RPGs would be boring because it would be D&D without magic is retarded. There are systems other than D&D out there, you know.
 
Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Oct 2, 2018
Messages
17,897
Location
大同
Lol. Most people in Europe were constantly hungry until the first half of XX century.
And that's a good thing.
For it paves the way to revolution. :M
George Coșbuc's "We want land"

I'm hungry, naked, homeless, through,
Because of loads I had to carry;
You've spat on me, and hit me - marry,
A dog I've been to you !
Vile lord, whom winds brought to this land,
If hell itself gives you free hand
To tread us down and make us bleed,
We will endure both load and need,
The plough and harness yet take heed,
We ask for land!

Whene'er you see a crust of bread,
Though brown and stale, we see's no more;
You drag our sons to ruthless war,
Our daughters to your bed.
You curse what we hold dear and grand,
Faith and compassion you have banned;
Our children starve with want and chill
And we go mad with pity, still
We'd bear the grinding of your mill,
Had we but land !

You've turned into a field of corn
The village graveyard, and we plough
And dig out bones and weep and mourn
Oh, had we ne'er been born !
For those are bones of our own bone,
But you don't care, o hearts of stone !
Out of our house you drive us now,
And dig our dead out of their grave;
A silent corner of their own
The land we crave !

Besides, we want to know for sure
That we, too, shall together lie,
That on the day on which we die,
You will not mock the poor.
The orphans, those to us so dear,
Who o'er a grave would shed a tear,
Won't know the ditches where we rot;
We've been denied a burial plot
Though we are Christians, are we not ?
We ask for land, d'you hear ?

Nor have we time to say a prayer,
For time is in your power too;
A soul is all we have, and you
Much you do care !
You've sworn to rob us of the right
To tell our grievances outright;
You give us torture when we shout,
Unheard-of torture, chain and clout
And lead when, dead tired, we cry out:
For land we'll fight !

What is it you've here buried ? say !
Corn ? maize ? We have forbears and mothers,
We, fathers, sisters dear and brothers !
Unwished - for guests, away !
Our land is holy, rich and brave,
It is our cradle and our grave;
We have defended it with sweat
And blood, and bitter tears have wet
Each palm of it - so, don't forget:
'Tis land we crave !

We can no more endure the goads,
No more the hunger, the disasters
That follow on the heels of masters
Picked from the roads !
God grant that we shall not demand
Your hated blood instead of land !
When hunger will untie our ties
And poverty will make us rise.
E'en in your grave we will chastise
You and your band !
 

Morpheus Kitami

Liturgist
Joined
May 14, 2020
Messages
2,476
Demolitions expert, tankhunter, or grenadier.
Rogue, prestige class and sorcerer. Although that's pretending that sorcerers can't do more than throw fireballs at people.
Who cares? Why would you design a setting that's fundamentally different from D&D around D&D gameplay tropes? Why not, you know... come up with your own system?
Because thinking up how to turn DnD into a modern setting is fun. No one's actually going to do anything, if someone actually makes something from this thread.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom