Like many members of this site, I majored in History, and consider myself a tremendous history buff.  I know that historical campaigns are out there, but that aside from one's own texts and internet research there isn't much to go on as far as published gaming resources.

So I thought about recruiting a few like-minded people, and doing a line called Historical Cast:  NPC collections for any game.  I recall GURPS doing something like this with Who's Who, which I thought was a great idea, if a little too generalized and non-specific for my tastes.  Each historical figure would be written up with an informative biography, a public domain likeness/depiction, a system-generic rating system in several key areas such as "Intellect:  Excellent; Physical Strength: Fair", etc.  After that, there would be several short ideas for incorporating that character in a campaign.

The idea would be to have each character have a page of their own in a collection of individuals from a particular area.  So you could have perhaps 8-12 characters from one historical period in a pdf download, perfect for folks needing NPCs, minor and major, for when they play in that area.

Just some sample product ideas:

Revolutionary War: American Generals and Officers
The Mexican-American War
The Tokugawa Shogunate
Julio-Claudian Emperors
The American Civil War:  Lee's Lieutenants
The American Civil War:  Union Spies & Operatives
The Court of Louis XVI
Waterloo
The First/Second Triumvirate
Roundheads/Cavaliers: The English Civil War
The Spanish Civil War
World War Two:  So many, many ones to do with this.
The Napoleonic War at Sea:  the Nile/Trafalgar/Copenhagen
Three Kingdoms: Yellow Turbans Rebellion
The Time of Shakespeare


It would also likely to be smart to do a survey, and see what historical eras gamers would most like for settings.  I figured these collections could sell for around $1-$3 each for a pdf download--no one would get rich off of it, but perhaps they'd help out some folks who want to run a historical campaign but are intimidated or uncertain of their ability to do so.  I also have no design skill, so I suppose someone would be needed to make some sort of minimalist attractive design.

Thoughts?  I know it wouldn't break any sales records, but might be a fun project.  Maybe there'd even be a publisher interested in helping out/hosting it.

You might want to ping Pundit about this one. I know he has gathered quite a lot of information for our Roman & 3 Kingdoms campaigns.

I would be happy to help out. You know I love the historical stuff!

Bill

Dang you, Bill! Got in there ahead of me!

-clash

Well, if either of you fellas would be kind enough to offer a little publishing advice if this gets off the ground, I'd sure appreciate it.  I have no idea how to go about it, other than I know I'd need help...

Happy to, Zachary!

-clash

Well, let me ask you gents this first:  would this be a viable product?  I imagined as something, cheap, bare-bones but hopefully generic enough but detailed to a point where its useful to a wide range of gamers...

Quote from: Zachary The FirstWell, let me ask you gents this first:  would this be a viable product?  I imagined as something, cheap, bare-bones but hopefully generic enough but detailed to a point where its useful to a wide range of gamers...

IIRC Osprey had a series of books like this and palladium might have also. The Osprey books did well. They were saddle stitch statement sized book but they were focused on a historical figure and then fleshed out his enemies, allies, armies and government.

Regardless, I think something like this would do well as a PDF. I think XRP might have historical reference as a line.  The important aspects would be focus, level of detail, ease to digest and use, and price. If you do a five page supplement and it is a series of hard dates, a droning timeline and little else, it would be a hard sell. I would approach it as almost more of a story format. Not fiction but bring the characters alive inserting facts into the prose to make it easier to read and digest. Of course, we should also look at quick references like a timeline table with major events.

Just my take. Clash?

Bill

I agree completely, Bill. Almost word for word.

-clash

I'd love to do something like this for Roman settings. Shit, you could do a whole series of that alone.
The Judeo-claudians, the Year of the 4 Emperors, the Flavians, the Five Good Emperors, etc etc.

RPGPundit

So Zach, something like this?

Oh, yeah.
 
Bill you're a wiz.
 
Pundit, I'm getting excited about the possibilities of this.  The Cataline Conspiracy, Gracchian Reforms, Sulla's Dictatorship....wow.
 
I was also thinking some fringer ones, like Notable Tories of the American Revolution or Confederate Spies of the Civil War would be a blast.
 
We have enough historians that if we had an editor, we could put out some of these fairly easily, I think.
 
Clash, Bill, thanks for your continued input on this, btw.

Is that an actual product, Bill? Or something you whipped up? It looks sweet.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceIs that an actual product, Bill? Or something you whipped up? It looks sweet.

-clash

I whipped it up last night. BTW- Tower Source is also something I whipped up. I have no idea such a company exists but I did not want to put HinterWelt on the page since this is more of a cooperative effort.

Maybe we should re-title though to "Fringe History". I think "Game Source" is descriptive if a bit dry.

Linda might be able to edit but she will truly let you know if it is too dry. Length would also be a factor.

Glad you liked it guys. Let me know if you want changes.

Bill

Actually I like it as it is. Nice and clean. I also like Tower Source.

-clash