Is the early modern era inherently boring for roleplaying?
>melee fighting obsolete
>guns still suck
>no folkloric/legendary background
>magic means fuck-all compared to cannons and rifles
Actually 20-50s earth makes some really good basis for high adventure stories involving explorers and archeologists. There are still dark corners of the earth and anything (from Lovecraft to Atlantis) could be lurking there. Also, no satellite mapping, internet or mobile phones to ruin the feel of high adventure. You know like Indiana Jones etc.
If anything it's pretty much ideal era of high adventure given that there's lots of technology to do things, but not too much to take adventure away.
Ah, ignore my last post. I misunderstood what you meant by early modern era. I agree that "age of reason" is pretty much worst kind of era to play and I think it only really works out as Samurai adventures set in Japan.
>>46408986
>Melee fighting obsolete
>Guns still suck
>Magic means fuck-all compared to cannons and rifles
So... If Melee, Guns, and Magic all wouldn't work for combat.. how would people fight, harsh words?
>>46409223
Considering the 1700's world map, I think he was meaning earlier than the 1900's, yet the time period OP attempts to describe definitely does not apply to the 1700's.
Because melee was still a thing, mostly because guns sucked, magic would have rocked shit, and it had TONS of folklore and legends... What the fuck do you call pirates?
Look at all the white shit on that map, that's prime exploring territory! Rife with deadly and unpredictable terrain, as well as savage natives who's backwards ways defy logic! Toss in some actual magic shit and I'd play the hell out of that campaign.
>>46409223
>>46409253
Even Japan was at its most boring during this period
>the class of elite warriors turned into glorified bureaucrats and retainers
>country isolated itself from the world and everybody spent 24/7 perfecting boring ceremonies and social etiquette
>>46408986
IMO, the first third of the Early Modern Era (early 1500s - late 1600s) would be great for roleplaying.
>>46409311
>So... If Melee, Guns, and Magic all wouldn't work for combat.. how would people fight, harsh words?
I think the idea is that you fight with guns, but you don't enjoy it.
>>46409311
Oh yeah, pirates can make that period tons of fun. I'd totally forgot about them because pirates are so popular that they pretty much have became their own genre.
I guess this redeems that time period as being suitable roleplaying.
Sailors, explorers and traders. Give the party a ship and watch them rape and pillage.
>>46409397
It's possible to make muskets enjoyable, but of course you have to sacrifice realism. Also, melee would be huge thing due to reload times. They did have big bayonets back then for a reason.
>>46409420
Every fantasy roleplaying game sacrifices realism for fun.
>>46408986
I never understand these threads, all you have to do to make the time period fun and adventure filled is apply the same handwaving that is normally reserved for medieval settings. Think about Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, set after the invention of the musket and it's widely regarded as one of the best in the series.
>>46409518
>I never understand these threads
It's lazy shitposting from a profoundly uncreative dullard - you know, like most of /tg/
Is the medieval period inherently boring for roleplaying?
>melee fighting difficult and deadly
>guns are nonexistent or in China
>no real folkloric/ legendary creatures/places
>magic isn't real
>probably going to die of plague
>>46408986
>early modern era
>15th to 18th centuries
>literally an age of discovery
>go to strange new lands
>see people and things you don't understand
>weird animals and naked pagan customs that don't make sense
>slaughter them in droves with superior tactics and technology
>take their shit, it's yours now
>quest for god, gold, and glory.
>be an early missionary and deal with myriad hardships of life and faith in an alien world
>be a literal swashbuckling pirate and/or buccaneer
>work for one of the first global companies, like the east india company
>fight for freedom and democracy in the fledgling American republic
>fight as a grenadier, hucking spheres of fiery death into crowds of enemies
>People were still using plate armor through the 15th century
>American witch trials and colonization
>Revolutionary War, French and Indian War, Napoleonic War, etc etc etc
There was so much going on back then.
There are loads of interesting game ideas outside of dnd and modern fantasy, you just have to think a little bit to find them.
I would argue that this period of time would be the most interesting, story-wise, if the GM has a firm grasp of history. You have so many uniquely diverse cultures and also the relative ease to travel between them, due to advancements in sailing.
>>46409557
Is the modern-day period inherently boring for roleplaying?
>melee fights barely exist anymore
>guns are everywhere, even bad guys have them, makes fights too deadly
>no folkloric/legendary background
>magic doesn't even exist
>you'd probably roll a wageslave that can't adventure anyway
>>46409557
You know there is a reason why medieval fantasy is not really medieval at all.
>>46409600
You just need mercenaries/operators (preferably stranded and badly funded, so exploring and murderhoboing becomes important) and a country with bad insane dictator. Pretty easy to make it fun.
>>46408986
>magic means fuck-all compared to cannons and rifles
How do cannons and rifles manage to make divinations, mental influence, blessings and curses, etc. mean fuck-all?
>>46409640
>How do cannons and rifles manage to make divinations, mental influence, blessings and curses, etc.
>>46409640
Seriously, high level casters in D&D alone can teleport, summon powerful creatures, raise the dead, throw fire from nothing, read minds, control minds, create storms, blind people, heal wounds, turn invisible, bestow/remove curses, and travel to different planes of existence. All of this while looking like a regular person.
How exactly would any of that be invalidated by a cannon?
>>46409657
Explain exactly how that's different from a wand/staff
>>46409637
Then if medieval settings aren't really medieval why should early modern settings be held to a standard of realism that isn't applied to other time periods?
>>46408986
>Age of Exploration/Sail
>Guns and melee coexist
>tons of folklore and legends to draw on
>you can have magic AND cannons AND rifles
???
>>46409674
Better ergonomics and you don't need any magic skill to use it (some times wands/staves require that, not always though), but yeah in the end it is just want/staff in a form of a gun. Also, usually wands/staves tend to have one kind of charge in them. Charges of caster are inside shells, so you can load approriate spell without having to change your weapon.
>>46409657
>>46409708
No one said shit about magitech. That's clearly more advanced than any musket.
>>46409663
Two canons
A low-power setting (like ZnT for instance) would mesh really well with such a setting. The inevitable friction between the lower class and the nobility/mage class as the lower class steadily become more powerful (as magic starts becoming more widespread among the populace + guns) would be interesting to read about.
>>46408986
>is the Golden Age of Piracy boring
Not only no but fuck no. OP.
U wot m8?
There's loads of material
>for the first time ever, regular globetrotting on a fantasy adventure is plausible
>roving pirates and slavers lurking all over the world
>even more advanced civilizations yet huge swathes of the world is unknown or home to barbarians
>banks exist
>standing armies? lolnope, mercenaries
>farm boys have an actual chance of leaving home to be heroes instead of getting themselves and their serf families horribly punished for leaving their lord's territory
>central asian trade is back up and running, with the terrifying threat of nomadic hordes reduced to annoying bandits, and y'know cute tsundere tribal girls
>african gold trade still going stronk
>printing press exists
>fucking potatoes make sense in not!europe
>armies are way bigger and wars are more devastating
>guns, swords, pikes, artillery, and cavalry all coexist
>>46409469
>They did have big bayonets back then for a reason.
that reason being that they weren't ivented till the enlightenment era?
>>46410062
Nigga medieval settings mix plate armor with chainmail and greek fire
Acceptable breaks from reality
>>46408986
>What is 7th sea?
>>46408986
No, and you're dumb.
Anyway the average D&D setting has been hovering at an early modern level of cultural development for some time. Nobles have balls and ride in coaches, occasionally stopping at inns. The average farmer is a freeholder who pays in cash for all his goods, and his children probably learn to read. Your bard is probably a professional minstrel or a shakespearean actor and his swashbuckling flair is mostly derived from 19th century romances. The wizard's scholarly approach to arcane subjects resembles a renaissance occultist more than any earlier concept of a magician. Your party thief is an experted on sophisticated locking mechanisms, when a genuinely medieval setting would have a simple latch be the height of security.
Firearms are practically the only thing we're missing, and it's easy enough to explain it away as a niche that's already filled by magic. All the guys that would be developing such weapons instead chose to make a pile of cash servicing the adventuring class's demand for full plate armour.
>>46409637
>You know there is a reason why medieval fantasy is not really medieval at all.
Because nerds know fuck all about real history?
>>46410194
Don't forget big cities with 19th century style sewers. You find those from pretty much every "medieval" fantasy game.
>>46410278
19th century?
You're being quite generous
Shit seems Edwardian era half the time
>>46408986
>CE
>>46410194
>>46410194
Only the ruling system often seems to be pre-medieval even. No council, neither of aristocrats nor of states, no pre-parliamentism and only one-level liege pyramids.
But hey, at least you can get your repeating crossbow to shoot rats in the house-sized sewers
>>46410403
What are you, stupid? Almost every single D&D setting includes a noble class.
>>46410418
*snort*
The DnD definition of noble is interesting
>>46410440
>*snort*
*unsheathes katana*
>>46410418
what are you, somebody who calls people stupid very quickly? Being called 'a noble' doesn't give you a say. Practically all DnD settings have absolutist monarchs who don't have any backing of a mercantilist system, but just the fact that everybody (including those called 'nobles') are just okay with it.
>>46410449
Yeah I am, stupid
>>46410467
oh boy, you've done it now!
I think you are stupid, while I contest that I am not.
>>46410476
Fun fact, when I first typed >>46410467 , I nearly wrote "Yeah, I am stupid".
>>46408986
>Unimaginative enough to think the early modern period makes for boring roleplay
>CE
>No folkloric/legendary background
Off yourself, please
>>46410447
Yare yare
Not today, kiddo
*slashes past you in slo mo^
>melee fighting obsolete
>wars are still fought and won by the bayonet
The fuck is wrong with you homes
>>46408986
Pirates, pirates, and more pirates! Stinks to be a landlubber, but get out in the high seas so you can appreciate the fact that ships no longer stink!
Since boarding is all close quarters, both guns AND swords remain useful, as do spears if you're one of those weirdos who still sticks to them, and magic can easily turn the tide of battle; literally.
Sort of like how WWI makes a great aviation setting even though it stinks to be on the ground, and stinks even more if you're unfortunate enough to be a swordsman during that time period.
>>46410194
Firearms already exist in D&D, it's just that for some reason most DMs ignore them like they're a wand of death.
>>46408986
I think you'd need to go back to a time where only unicellular organisms existed to find a real life period that is "inherently boring for roleplaying". The setting isn't there to replace a good plot hook.
>>46408986
>He doesn't like pirates
>>46408986
i'd totally play in a setting inspired by the Spanish Conquistadors discovering the Aztecs
>>46411384
Modern era starts 1500, earlier by some measures.
Spanish conquest of the Aztecs starts 1519.
Faggot.
>>46411436
OP was referring to the "early modern era" as 1700 >CE
You're right nonetheless
>>46408986
You can do the roleplaying in the 3 Islamic empires and the Eurasian steppe or in fantasy regions inspired by those. In those regions meele and archery was still relevant, magic is often associated with the east, and gunpowder weapons are not as widespread.
>>46410670
>>46410990
I've had enough of pirates to last a lifetime tbqdesu.
>>46408986
>current year is lame
>Somali Pirates
>African Warlords
>Latin American Cartels
>The Middle East's still in a giant clusterfuck, just like it's been since the dawn of recorded history
>Being !Academi and taking all this on wouldn't be fun
Naw, you're a fag.
>>46412675
He's not talking about the C U R R E N T Y E A R but I agree with you on the faggot point.
>>46408986
It's actually the best era for roleplaying. One feature common to all rpg systems is that player characters have a combat advantage over their enemies. The colonial era is one of the times in history when one people had a big advantage over their neighbors. Guns versus spears makes sense for a roleplaying game. Just make the savage natives non-human and/or sympathetic and nobody will care.
>>46408986
It's the setting for swashbucklers, merchants and colonists.
Also melee wasn't obsolete as sabres had their heyday at the time.
