D&D is usually set in some vaugely medieval/renneisance era but I want my next game to be set in the 1600's.
What features should I include, apart from the obvious addition of gunpowder weapons?
This is, after all, the age of coffee houses and ice cream, science and colonialism, rising bourgeois and early industry.
>What features should I include, apart from the obvious addition of gunpowder weapons?
Hardly anything changes when you transplant Ye Olde Fantasy Land into the 17th century, allow me to list the things that must be present.
>The rise of the urban center
>The rise of the Absolute Monarch
>The rediscovery and interest in those that came before, whether that be Roman, Greek or some fantastical fantasy proxy
>Colonization and Exploration in the name of the Three Gs, Gold God and Glory
>Speaking of God, everyone's kind of iffy on what exactly that means, your setting should have maybe three major religions with numerous sects, some blatantly heretical and others more ambiguous
>The rise of Humanism - that is, the belief human life has value beyond the religious
>Republican ideals might not be there yet, but you can see them from here
what was some crazy science and inventions of the time?
I think they were a little beyond bleeding patients but a little before electrocuting elephants but I am unlearned on the subject.
>>Republican ideals might not be there yet, but you can see them from here
I believe parliamentarianism (is that a thing?) strikes england at the time. They have a civil war over it and stuff.
Outrageously decadent aristocrats.
You need country estates with peacocks and zebra roaming the grounds, big parties with fountains of wine, and naval battles between crews of midgets on the lake, as fireworks go off overhead, frightening the tropical birds in the aviary half to death.
while at the same time they are losing their relevance.
Love it!
Bloodletting remained a staple of medicine well into the 19th century. Somewhat functional steam engines started appearing in the early 18th century, mostly used for pumping, keeping mines from flooding and feeding water wheels that in turn powered useful things, with the kinda ok ones turning up towards the end.
Between the somewhat regular plague outbreaks, colder climate messing up the harvests and war war war, there will be quite a bit of doom and gloom and end time prophecies going around.
Being really rich lends a relevance all of it's own.
Remember, Louis and Marie Antoinette didn't get the chop until 1793 and the Hapsburgs kept doing the same shit for another 50 years or so.
Depends on where you set it. France in some ways had barely changed from the feudal age, a strong centralized power under the Sun King not withstanding. Britain had started taking the steps towards modernization and proper industry.
Probably shouldn't forget some sort of New World with a lot of resources and potential for riches, as well as increased contact with an Asian expy for rare exotic goods.
>Probably shouldn't forget some sort of New World with a lot of resources and potential for riches, as well as increased contact with an Asian expy for rare exotic goods.
Don't forget the ancient evil is not only alive and well, it's a mighty empire with established borders and vast armies of brainwashed slave-soldiers.
What?
Ottomans I think
Yeah, I was going for the Ottomans. You can't have the 17th century without a Siege of Vienna or Battle of Lepanto.
Oh, okay. Well don't forget that the French had a longstanding alliance with the Ottomans for most of that period. Even the 'ancient evil' can become familiar in the shifting wars of alliances and bloodlines.
>Even the 'ancient evil' can become familiar in the shifting wars of alliances and bloodlines.
Realpolitik is one hell of a drug.
This was the age of characters like Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin, who used their position in the royal court to become enormously wealthy and influential, essentially creating the concept of a financial elite outside of the traditional feudal power structure.
And there were more direct attempts to overthrow the state, like Oliver Cromwell in England or the Fronde in France.
I wish Guy Davis stopped fucking about and actually publish The Marquis And The Midwife.
Interestingly enough, the 1600s is more or less the century that separates science as we know it (with a certain metodology and all) definitely form crazily beautiful renassaince alchemical-magic sheaninigans. Newton was Newton but he still searched for the fucking Philosopher's Stone.
Anyway the 1600s is also a century in which "globalization" isn't rampant as in the 1700s, but it's on the horizon. Colonies are kinda of their own thing and not just Spain's silver mines. Great competition for naval traffics.
Japan closes borders, India starts its long path toward colonization.
>shit happened in Asia, pretty interesting shit at that, but probably outside of the scope of these suggestions
Not!Italy is definitely past their prime, and so not!Germany. It's the age of the nation-states, and ruthless centralization.
One of which was in the 16th. And they were hardly more brainwashed than Europeans' ones. Hell, if anything by contrast with the religion wars of northern europe Turks seemed positevely tolerant.
Did I mention religion wars? Because shit was NASTY. A direct trheat to national stability.
Bitchin' ruffs.
I would like to clarify that it's not colonization like we think of - not really the same scramble for Africa, or even the sort of territorial control that you mentioned in the 1700s.
In the 1600s we have more in the way of mercantilism - you basically have a few cities here and there to foster trade or to get special resources to enrich the home country. They're not supposed to be realms in their own right as much as an excuse for Versailles to have mirrors on all the walls in a hallway, you know?
This would be fun as shit if you then draw your supernatural elements from the fiction of the day. Nobles making literal pacts with demons to get ahead (Faustus), seemingly indolent fairy courts using illusion and manipulation to gain power in the mortal realm (MSND), grandiose plots built atop information gained from soothsaying that unravel when the prophesies come true in all the wrong ways (you know the play I mean and I ain't saying it's name), high level sorcerers who are de facto military powers in their own right (The Tempest). Less of a separation between the monster-filled wilds and the political powers of the mortal world and more of them all being thrown together in a pressure cooker of intrigue, avarice, and conflict.
>One of which was in the 16th. And they were hardly more brainwashed than Europeans' ones. Hell, if anything by contrast with the religion wars of northern europe Turks seemed positevely tolerant.
No no no, you misunderstand what I was trying to say. A setting inspired by the 17th century should have an "Ancient Enemy" who active as both a military and political entity. None of this "Ancient Evil Awakens" tripe, the Evil's awake and incredibly successful - and it's been around for so long that some people have just accepted it as being the status quo, rather than some great boogeyman.
Sure, the Corsairs are sailing into the collective memory of every man, woman and child who can smell the sea, but the setting creator should note the big, near-apocalyptic wars with the Ancient Evil already happened decades or even centuries ago, and the Evil is forever plotting for their next big push.
Wasn't the New World Colonies incredibly superstitious regarding the wilds just beyond their palisades? I distinctly recall my history teacher saying many colonists believed they were settling on what is effectively the last, great stronghold of Satan in the world, and it was their duty to bring God to the land.
That's something I think would be beautiful in a 17th century setting. Religious zealotry has passed from the minor nobility in the Middle Ages, to the common folk - I can't remember the last time I've seen a campaign where the people themselves were the opposition, rather than some single knight or noble or any other vestige of aristocracy.
Speaking of Aristocracy, this was the era that essentially birthed the Vampire as we know it today, a representation of decadent nobility whose political power might have been castrated, but their lands and incomes were not.
That's kind of more a Puritan thing specifically, but your history teacher wasn't wrong. Most people were coming to the New World - especially in the 1600s - for trade, not for some sort of religious reason. There were a lot of attempts at mass conversion by the Spanish, and the French made their own attempts that went back and forth, but it wasn't exactly the highest priority.
However, the vampire as we know it didn't really come about until the late Victorian era, and that was more a literary and cultural thing - Dracula's from an older, Catholic world and is stronger and more powerful than the feeble modern man that many at the time were despairing of. But I don't think anyone would mind you including it in a 17th century game.
sorry to derail this thread a bit but what things would be featured in a dnd world based more around the 18th century. I'm currently working on a setting based around the age of sail and cannon where magic took the place of technological development.
Sectarian religious conflict that acts a conduit for deeper social, political, and ethnic strife. Also professional mercenary companies. Lots of them. And you better pay them well, or they'll just desert to your enemy. Or maybe they'll take the money and run because fuck it, 17th century warfare sucks.
Is it too early in the thread to suggest actually trying to make a setting?
Some considerations:
>I think we should pretty much make up our own geography, instead of going full WHFB. More freedom to set the world up how we like that way
>I think we should put everyone on a more even technological footing, so the not!Aztecs etc can stay major players. If go that route, stick the not!Americas closer to the not!Old world, and have the actual New World be the domain of devils. That's right, we're literally colonizing Hell
>Hell isn't ruled over by a single Satan, maybe it used to be but now it's a bunch of squabbling kingdoms. That way a human kingdom can have colonies there and still make deals with them to fuck over their rivals
>How do we keep magic while representing the rise of science as we know it?
>How do we deal with religious conflicts? Will there be actual not!Catholicism or is it more disagreements over the will of Crystal Dragon Jesus? Or are these disputes actually rooted in theory and practice of magic?
>Will there be actual not!Catholicism or is it more disagreements over the will of Crystal Dragon Jesus?
Fuck you, Crystal Dragon Jesus was really a White Dragon.
What if you made the Not!Aztecs a race of Obsidian Golems who believe they're people, and survive by sustaining their activation ritual through blood sacrifice?
Well, it's certainly one way to keep things fair without just going, "everyone gets guns and plate armor because I say so"