I find the 16th and 17th centuries very interesting and would love to play more games in the time period, either the actual period on earth or a fantasy setting with the same themes and technology/societal level.
I don't have much experience with RPGs though, being much more into wargaming, so I looked around and collected a whole list of different options without knowing how good they are.
Which ones are reasonably easy to GM as I would have to do it I expect (huge bonus if they have ready made adventures), fits the period in general (I.E it's not exclusively a pirate game which seems to be pretty common) and works well mechanically with rules that are easy to teach.
The list might come in handy for others as well so general early modern period games thread I suppose.
D&D/Pathfinder (edition/books?)
7th Sea (different versions?)
Honor+intrigue
Swashbucklers of the 7 skies
Miseries and Misfortunes
RoleMaster.
- At Rapier's Point
- Pirates
- And a 10' Pole
17th Century Minimalist
Zweihänder
Warhammer fantasy role playing
Renaissance d100
GURPS
- Martial Arts
- Low-Tech
- Magic
- Swashbuckling
Lamentations of the Flame Princess
All for One: Regime Diabolique
The Dee Sanction
Gran Meccanismo
War of Wolves
Midderlands
Privateers and Gentlemen
Maelstrom
Fallen RPG
Savage worlds
- Pirates of the Spanish Main
- 50 Fathoms
Flashing Blades
- High Seas
Sword & Musket
Lace and Steel
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Why is the Swedish king molesting a cannon?
It's leather and he's also the king of Finnland.
Le reddit tier knob: "leather cannon" (nahkakanuuna) is an actual Finnish slang word for a penis.
I figured I could throw in a Tom of Finnland reference, but that's pretty good.
Gotta keep the Vatican in their lane somehow.
That was how you aimed cannons back then. Master Gunners would lay on top to calculate angles.
the swedish king just blasted off his leather cannon and sunk your ships, how do you reply without sounding mad?
So what kind of campaign do you think of running, anon?
definitely something with an adventure flair, either nautical or on land. As I mentioned pre-made adventures to get started is a big plus so consequently I have to adapt to that
>The best choice
All for One: Regime Diabolique
>Good
Honor+intrigue
7th Sea 2e
>Easy to run and learn
Warhammer fantasy role playing 4e
GURPS
>Best ignored
Everything else
>Lmao
Zweihander
I'm actually surprised that a newbie knows about All for One, but it's the best system of the ones you've listed, so I don't have to say anything about it
>All for One
seems to be two versions of this, Ubiquity and savage worlds. Is there a qualitative difference between the two or is it just a matter of preference?
If there is a Savage Worlds version, ignore it (it falls where rest of SW - best ignored). I was 100% sure there is only Ubiquity one. Use it, it's one of the better systems out there for those rare cases when you want to have and also eat the cake: it is insanely flexible and adjustable, while still offering actual solid rules and tactical approach to situation rather than "mother may I", AND in a pinch you can reduce it to "mother may I", too.
anywhere I can find the PDF?
Oh, and one more thing:
Ubiquity has the massive advantage, especially important in the setting you want to run: ZERO issues with mass combat. So when situation calls for it, you can even have whole companies fight against each other. Nuff stuff
thanks I'll definitely check it out, seems like a really good option for games set in a historical setting (as opposed to another world).
Seems like honor+intrigue has rules allowing for more fantasy style games and 7th sea is fantasy and also seems to have a big new world focus(?)
homie, Ubiquity was originally designed for Hollow Earth Expedition, and then followed by Desolation. It's as fantastical and outlandish as it wants it to be, but it can be also used for dry and straight games if you need to. Again - flexible as frick.
7th sea has decent rules and meh setting - but fortunately it is ignorable. I'd to as far and claim the game works better if you ignore the not!setting and just play it as real world with fantasy elements.
alright that's good to know, I think I'm going to be able to find players since there always seems to be more people willing to play than there is to GM games, but it might be good to be able to offer both a more historical and a more fantasy option (even if the fantasy option would be essentially the same but with fictive nations and more elves and magic)
I want a buff coat
So, my players want me to run a swashbuckling, piratey game and we're leaning toward 7th Sea. Haven't played either, but I've read through both 1E and 2E.
It seems like 1E has more crunchy, dynamic combat with the way the swordsmanship schools work and such, which seems like a pretty important part of a swashbuckling game. 2E seems more polished overall.
Anyone with experience with 7th Sea have any advice to offer?
Use 2e crunch with 1e setting.
>Thread served its purpose long ago
>moron homosexuals are going to keep it up for a whole week long
I'm sorry to hear they turned down your janny application again
Why don't you just use your mod powers to delete the thread????
H+I similarly had pretty simple mass combat and naval combat subsystems. They're not wargame-tier, but they work and help facilitate fun.
Nta, but H+I mass combat is pretty fricking shit when compared with Ubiquity, thou
Damn it'd be a real shame if people used your comment as a reason to reply further to the thread, keeping it from deletion or something.
Nations and Cannons for 5e
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hrM8qSf7EGWflO_gHPN3onvAol4akvbY/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tpGR60qB7zjltNRC8yE3LN6e8abq8IIa/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x331v3EgS20Y1dheg44D90pFu_2E3-SW/view?usp=sharing
Is there some sort of good, broad reference for, say, the mid 1600s? I've got a bunch of Osprey but they're a bit dated for some and more military-focused (not that I'm opposed to military-oriented texts). I've actually been working on a 17th century fantasy setting in my head over the last few months now, it would be nice to have some kinda multi-subject historical ref in one place.
this book is a good global perspective of the entire 17th century and is both interesting and contains a lot of things to steal for a game
I’ll be sure to give it a look, thanks.
Thank you, looking forward to reading it.
I've quite enjoyed Podcast:
"The Political History of the United States"
Episode 2 is named:
"A survey of 16th century European politics"
Moved the goal poast real quick didn't you.
I don't know what's your mothertongue, but look for polish author Sienkiewicz (XIX century author, got a noble prize, so there's a chance for translation), "With Fire and Sword" trilogy, especially the second book "Deluge". The trilogy is set in 1648-1673, if you like polish cavalry like winged hussars, but also swedish forces of that time, you'll love it.
There's an English libri Vox on YouTube.
Listened to the beginning, the author is excellent.
Thank you so much for this recommendation!
Henryk Sienkiewicz is considered one of the best polish authors of all time (like Tolkien in Great Britain). He got the nobel prize for his novel "Quo Vadis". His "With Fire and Sword" trilogy is excellent ("Three Musketeers" is like fanfiction tier compared to it). It's surprising it's not very popular outside Poland.
The historical background of first novel "With Fire and Sword" is cossack uprising in Ukraine in 1648.
Second "The Deluge" - polish-swedish war in 1655-1660 (I think it's the best of the three).
Third "Mister Wołodyjowski" is set during polish-osman (turkish) war in 1672–1676.
The novels are full of battles and other military aspects (all three main characters are soldiers - it seems Sienkiewicz was a military nerd, since he depicts military aspects very thorougly), duels, a bit of court scheming and even some (very little and subtle) fantasy elements - and of course damsels in distress (so to speak - more like: b***hes struggling for being faithful). To sum it up - I'm happy you like it and I really suggest you read it all.
>Deluge
>seemingly good minor NPC has a dark backstory
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_(history)
>Moved the goal poast real quick didn't you.
I'm not the original respondent, I just hate China and the Chinese and don't personally fund arguments relying on them compelling.
>I've got a bunch of Osprey but they're a bit dated for some
Every fricking time. The American contingent, everybody
I'm not American Anon.
You'll have to forgive him, he's obsessed.
I am. Still waiting for one example of how an Osprey book is grossly out of date and nobody can provide it. Someone was talking about Han Chinese armour the other day, it was like getting close to Moby Dick. I just want to know. It seems to be up there with "Warlord is crypto GW" and "Mantic only make terrible models and games." Ie horseshit
>Still waiting for one example of how an Osprey book is grossly out of date and nobody can provide it.
Anon, when I said dated, I meant that they are old and too dry of a read compared to newer stuff they've printed out. Not that the stuff in them was incorrect, let alone grossly so. Dingus.
>too dry a read
I'll bet
Osprey is limited by the publication date, source material and the skill of the artist. With the advent of the internet, there are numerous examples of archaelogical sites, period artwork and museum collections readily accesible to the layman. Using the Han dynasty as an example, Osprey references the Yangjiwan terracottas which is only applicable to the early Western Han. Other sites that feature more heavily armored soldiers can be seen in the figurines unearthed from Shanwancun, Shizhishan and Yangling.
Yeah, but I don't actually care about China or the Chinese, so that's not really an effective argument for me.
None of what I've stated is limited to their works on Chinese armaments. It shouldn't come as a suprise that illustrations made in the 80/90s made by non experts with limited source material fall flat compared to the level of knowledge that exists today. I don't find any issue with referencing them as supplementary information albeit some elements are overturned in light of more recent research.
Are there any naval combat games with a 1500-1600s setting and magic besides man'o'war (some factions at least)?
I don't believe so, the Age of Discovery is overshadowed by the Napoleonic era somewhat hard. But you could just take Man'o'War or Kings of War Armada and make it fit that time period, or steal the magic system and shove it into Galleys & Galleon or something. Or hell, homebrew you're own game entirely. I believe in your Anon, you're great at doing stuff.
I got plenty of 1/2400 17th century ships and some 16th century ones which is way too small for standard MoW or armada scale, but stealing the spells from either of those games and adding to some other historical game could probably be done.
I've played war by sail with my age of sail minis and it's a good game (only part I don’t like is that it becomes tedious to roll one dice per gun after a while) so I might have to try that at some point. I'm open for suggestions of other perhaps somewhat simpler games to experiment with as well
What games combine this setting and elves the best?
Frick off, slop homosexual.