History & RPG Settings

 “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”

— Napoleon Bonaparte

The author in Landsknecht
regalia sweating it out
at the VA Renfaire.

I began my adventure gaming hobby journey more than 40 years ago with fantasy roleplaying games, but along the way I’ve also cultivated a growing interest in historical wargames linked to my enthusiasm for various historical periods. I have, on occasion, tried to merge the two, setting roleplaying game adventures in historical periods. These entertainments used historical elements as a backdrop for more cinematic action where the player’s heroes had the freedom to go anywhere and do anything, often beyond the historical and cultural norms, a core concept roleplaying games pioneered in the field of play (as highlighted in Jon Peterson’s groundbreaking work Playing at the World, expressed as the idea that “anything can be attempted”). Certainly there’s room for occasional — and often one-shot — historical roleplaying game experiences where accuracy enhances an exploration of more serious intellectual and emotional themes. But more frequently historical accuracy plays second fiddle (at best) to roleplaying game expedients placing the focus on the characters and their actions (and consequences) in the context of an engaging plot. It’s using history as window dressing for an entertaining story. Historical settings can tap players’ enthusiasm for various periods and provide environments based in some commonly understood reality, they work best in roleplaying games when infused with fantastic elements.

James Maliszewski recently blogged about “The Silver Key,” a reference to an H.P. Lovecraft story, and how for roleplaying gamers it represented an urge to reconnect with the fantasy, freedom, and dreams since lost in the arduous necessities of our everyday existence. “I do not believe that fantasy, properly understood, is an escape from reality,” Maliszewski wrote. “No, it is an escape to something deeper. It is a return, a recovery, a dream re-entered with eyes open and soul intact.” Roleplaying games give us the freedom to explore our imaginations in search of something more significant...something different for each of us, and at different times, whether it’s indeed a brief reprieve from reality, a first-person cinematic experience, a group storytelling effort, or whatever purpose we need the gaming experience to serve at that moment. The imaginative freedom to go anywhere and do anything remains key to this experience.

At times people like me wish to use historical roleplaying games as the means to undertake this creative journey of discovery. Accurate history restrains the fantasies roleplaying games offer us. The ludic form itself remains grounded in alternate interpretations of historical elements as tools in imaginative entertainment.

The author with a not-too-
authetic medieval pretzel.

Roleplaying games have been playing in a “renfaire” style of popular medieval fantasy since their inception. While Dungeons & Dragons evolved from elements in the miniature and board wargame hobby, it also owes a great deal of momentum to groups like the Society for Creative Anachronism, a creative community that encourages research and re-creation of medieval period skills, art, and culture. D&D’s default fantasy medieval setting emerges from a mixture of elements from popular fantasy literature that inspired early game designers, notably what first edition AD&D’s Dungeon Master’s Guide listed in its inspirational bibliography, “Appendix N.” Fantasy roleplaying games don’t claim to represent historically accurate medieval-level worlds; they draw their inspiration primarily from fiction and designers’ imaginations, with some secondary resources, often from western medieval culture (though not limited to it). They’re tied to popular and accessible concepts of fictitious reality where we can freely play with our characters, plots, and setting elements.

Roleplaying games set in historical periods use these settings as a framework for more fantastic, entertaining adventures, much as films set in historical periods focus more on engaging characters and plots than meticulous historical accuracy. They trade in popular concepts of history, more accessible to the non-academic masses, and hence more entertaining. History nerds like myself can easily let our period roleplaying game endeavors get bogged down in facts, details, and accuracies...and that doesn’t contribute to the escapist entertainment players often seek. Many period films like A Knight’s Tale and Gladiator incorporate historical elements, but overall they’re fun, historically-themed fictitious romps for a modern audience. Players rarely want an academic exercise in historical accuracy. It certainly overburdens a gamemaster to familiarize themselves with a period to the point they could account for detailed accurate setting elements

In my few forays into historically inspired roleplaying gmaes I’ve erred on the side of cinematic license, using what works best from a storytelling point of view rather than a historically accurate perspective. I’m particularly proud of the historical material I incorporated in Pulp Egypt and Heroes of Rura-Tonga, sourcebooks for running adventures in the pulp style. My approach with such material starts with providing a solid historical setting foundation, then infusing it with fantastic elements like ancient magic, monsters, and fantastic technology lurking just beneath the surface. Perhaps some players might find the history intriguing and read more on their own...but the sourcebooks’ primarily serve a role in inspiring entertaining games.

Roleplaying game publishers have long turned to history to provide cinematic backdrops for games exploring fantastic elements, including a few samples from my own game library:

Man, Myth & Magic: Yaquinto Publications’ early roleplaying game sought, in its own complicated way, to provide a foundation for roleplaying adventures in the ancient Roman world, merging various cultures of the time with fantastic elements. Alas, a lackluster attention to the most basic of historical continuity led many to dismiss it.

Boot Hill: One of TSR’s early games focused on the historical American West. It emerged from a set of miniature wargaming gunfighting rules developed into a more detailed roleplaying game.

Gangbusters: TSR published this game focused on 1920s Prohibition-era action and the criminals, law enforcement agents, and other peripheral characters like reporters in a straight historical setting void of fantastic elements and dependent on genre themes.

Call of Cthulhu: First set in the 1920s, when pulp magazine publishers released the Mythos stories, titles like Cthulhu Invictus, Cthulhu Dark Ages, and Achtung! Cthulhu (not to mention other games infusing their historical settings with Mythos elements) have since explored other historical periods, all infused with themes of cosmic horror.

Weird War II: I wrote the Afrika Korpse supplement for Pinnacle’s d20 Weird War II line back in my Desperate Freelancer Days. I put a great deal of effort into the historical research for a period and place I knew only superficially in my broad knowledge of World War II. It kindled my interest in North Africa WWII wargames. But I also had a blast looking at historical elements and designing some horror-fantasy twists to accentuate them.

GURPS: This generic roleplaying game has, in its long history, published numerous supplements for historical periods, including GURPS Imperial Rome and GURPS Egypt. They familiarize gamers with the historical settings and help them navigate them as they use them in their roleplaying game campaigns.

Savage Worlds Weird Wars: Tour of Darkness: Pinnacle’s Vietnam War game might be “too soon” for folks of my generation and sensitivities, but its source material and Plot Point Campaign format demonstrate how to run military scenarios in the historical period and ramp up the tension with fantasy horrific elements.

I’m not featuring several titles I admire which start from a historical foundation and launch into the realm of alternate history: Space 1889, Castle Falkenstein, Victoriana, and Fulminata, among others. These begin with certain premises grounded in history, then infuse them with fantastic counterfactual elements to run off on their own entertaining courses.

All this doesn’t mean historical roleplaying games have no value in exploring historical issues; they just don’t offer the same degree of entertainment and range of imaginative discovery fantasy roleplaying games provide. I am vaguely aware of a recent spate of new, compact roleplaying games (often by indie publishers) that has enabled those bold enough to try them to thoughtfully explore themes far more nuanced than the escapist fare of the late 20th century I featured above. Alas, I’m aware of but not familiar with many historical games of this kind...something I would explore more if I had the time and means. Right now Jason Morningstar’s Night Witches is the main title that comes to mind. Historically inspired matrix games — a more academic yet adjacent form to roleplaying games — provide a different sort of immersion in periods and issues, more an academic pursuit than entertainment.

Games of all kinds abstract reality into a manageable, playable form. Even historical roleplaying games with a high degree of accuracy still make concessions to varying degrees (much like even the most faithful of films in historical settings). One might call such fare “history adjacent.” This popular view of interactive history can help mitigate historically problematic issues like sexism, racism, and prejudice. It allows us to explore stories that matter to participants in a shared continuity, a confluence of personal imagination and historical impressionism. A greater insistence on accuracy can impose a greater sense of limitation, hobbling the sense of freedom to go anywhere and do anything essential for a satisfying experience.

“Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.”

— Francis Bacon