Reading over Mythras a while back; I enjoyed the ancient greek backdrop to the whole book, Man vs Mythical beasts along with the mundane perils of the ancient world such as treacherous landscapes, banditry, cults, plagues, and nobles who specifically have in for you and have the coin to employ many exotic ways to deal with irritating adventurers. It had me take a look into systems that factor in history such as Lion & Dragon and Harnworld, and I thought that a system that takes into account history and applies it to it's rules/theme more is convenient for not having to buy a setting book after but I'd rather use books dedicated to history and brainstorm a setting out of that and use Mythras or any other system that fit the theme/tone I had in mind.
Are there any books that cover ancient civilizations and the intricacies of their folklore, civilizations, and understandings of the world that I could look into for inspiration? Any civilization will do, Norse, Celtic, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, and/or any others; I want to get inspiration and recognize what other games take from history to tell their stories. Especially about the peculiarities of a civilization such as reading stars to tell one's fate or looking deeply into a fire to find meaning/commune to spirits. Even books that aren't strictly history but is inspired by it and tells an interesting story are welcome, along with epics/poems written by writers of that civilization such as Homer's Odessey. Even books expressly written for TTRPG use as a setting, but uses great historical inspiration or skews existing history in a compelling way to make for a more interesting setting.
Tales of the Caliphate Nights is really good that way. It's a True 20 supplement, so Green Ronin. I'd recommend trying to find it second hand because of that.
You could give Poul Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga a read.
Best historical book I own is for Samurai, written by Stephan Turnbull, called Samurai Warfare.
Its purely historical Japan, obviously, and mostly about the big historical period, the "Sengoku" 1500's in Japan, when the country split into warring factions with famous clan names like Toyotomi, Tokugawa, and Oda.
Now, you don't have to get the history book. There is a game out there that is great for teaching you Japanese history and culture called Sengoku Revised. It has the first 3rd of the book devoted to Japan, Manners, and Customs, Daily life in Japan, Religion, Societal Structures.
Is Sengoku a good game? Couldn't tell you. I have never played it and probably never will. But, as a historical game it seems pretty devoted to getting their facts correct, even if you want to reset the game in a fantasy world with new geography, clans, and have magic monsters like wingless Asian dragons, and Oni demons.
Another interesting game is also called High Medieval by Morrigan Press.
This is an Omni System game set in real life Europe, but a Europe that has dwarves and gnomes living in Nordic countries, Elves in the hidden forests of Ireland, Dragons on mountain tops, giants, and Magicians who are actively hunted by inquisitors of the Holy Church of Rome.
Omni System is not something I'm fairly familiar with, but there is a $6 PDF of the core rules (without any setting) you can download that is only 22 pages long. Essentially the game is the D20 (weapons do fixed damage for example), and has 5 levels of results called Mishap, Failure, Partial Success, Success, and Critical Success. For example, a weapon hit that is a partial success means you did half damage that the weapon has (4 damage, instead of the full 8 damage your sword can do).
Mythras has a number of historical supplements: Ancient Britain, Rome, Babylon, Constantinople.
Zozer Games has some nice rules-light games for historic Roman RPing:
43AD and Warband: Roman invasion of Britannia.
Zenobia: ancient Near East in the time of Queen Zenobia.
Blood and Bronze: another rules-light game set in ancient Mesopotamia.
There's fan-made content for BRP/RQ: Warlords of Alexander.
There's a million and one historical RPGs out there. Aside from some of the obvious ones, like Call of Cthulhu, Deadlands or Vampire: Dark Ages, here's a short list of some of the ones on my radar. Some of these I've read, some I own but haven't really looked at. Some are just sitting on my Wishlist. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to play any of these yet.
Divided by period:
Ancient/Classical:
Lex Arcana: A fantasy game set in a world where the Roman Empire never fell.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/253285/Lex-Arcana-RPG--QuickStarter
43 AD: a game set in Roman Britain.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/100538/43AD--Roleplaying-in-Roman-Britain
Heroes of Hellas: a supplement for Barbarians of Lemuria: Mythic Edition, set in the Heroic Age of Ancient Greece
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/117629/Heroes-Of-Hellas
Fvlminata: Another Roman-era RPG
https://www.amazon.com/Fvlminata-Lightning-Michael-S-Miller/dp/0971234604
Zenobia: A fantasy game set in a version of classical Persia and the Middle East.
https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/free-rpgs.html
Medieval & Renaissance:
Wolves of God: An OSR game by Kevin Crawford, set in Anglo-Saxon England:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/308470/Wolves-of-God-Adventures-in-Dark-Ages-England
Trudvang Chronicles: technically set in a fantasy world, but hews very closely to real-world norse mythology.
https://www.amazon.com/TRUDVANG-CHRONICLES-Handbook-Theodore-Bergquist/dp/9197726362
Romance of the Perilous Land A semi-historical fantasy game based on Arthurian Legend and British folklore.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/297540/Romance-of-the-Perilous-Land-A-Roleplaying-Game-of-British-Folklore
Early Modern and Beyond:
Maelstrom: an old 80s d100 RPG lately revived by Arion games. The default game is set in the period of the English Civil War, but there are other versions for the period of the Norman conquest (Maelstrom Domesday) and for ancient Rome.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/54233/Maelstrom
Helveczia: An OSR game set in a fictional province of Switzerland around the year 1700.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/374327/Helveczia-Picaresque-RPG?term=helvec
Clockwork & Chivalry: a BRP game, based on an alternate history of the English Civil War.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/97899/Clockwork-and-Chivalry-2nd-Edition-Core-Rulebook?term=clockwork+chival
Vaesen: a Victorian era game that bills itself as "nordic horror".
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/11437/Free-League-Publishing/subcategory/35998/Vaesen
The Savage World of Solomon Kane: a SWADE sub-game set around the year 1620. The book includes a pretty extensive primer on the history of that period.
https://www.amazon.com/Savage-World-Solomon-Worlds-S2P10400/dp/0979245583/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KF5UJBIO5NHL&keywords=savage+worlds+solomon+kane&qid=1685241900&sprefix=savage+worlds+solo%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1
(SWADE also has a Pirates of the Spanish Main setting, and probably other historical ones as well)
Witch Hunter: a D10 game set in an alternate 17th century, apparently similar in tone to Solomon Kane.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/123055/Witch-Hunter-2nd-Edition
Miseries and Misfortunes: an OSR game set in early modern France
https://www.burningwheel.com/miseries-misfortunes/
All for One: Regime Diabolique: A non-OSR game set in early modern France.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82714/All-for-One-Regime-Diabolique
Wightchester: An undead city-crawl by "Grim" Jim Desborough, set in England in 1666:
https://post-mort.com/collections/frontpage/products/wightchester-prison-city-of-the-damned
Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Nominally just a generic OSR fantasy game, but a large percentage of the adventures take place in the real world during specific periods. For example, the adventure "Better than Any Man" is set against the backdrop of the Swedish invasion of Germany in the 1630s.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/116452/Better-Than-Any-Man
TSR put out a series of historical setting books for D&D.
As a game Lion & Dragon
As supplements the GURPS ones are the best, then there was a series for D&D with Egypt, Aztecs and others IIRC (with sexy women in the covers) that is pretty decent.
Quote from: GeekyBugle on May 28, 2023, 12:19:06 PM
As a game Lion & Dragon
As supplements the GURPS ones are the best, then there was a series for D&D with Egypt, Aztecs and others IIRC (with sexy women in the covers) that is pretty decent.
Greetings!
Definitely, my friend! GURPS page for page, is probably equal or superior to any supplement in the market, ever produced. Some products of course, focus on one particular time frame or culture, but as a general resource or inspiration, GURPS supplements can't be beat. As I recall, I think I have in my collection;
GURPS Middle Ages I
GURPS Middle Ages II
GURPS Rome
GURPS Celts
GURPS Vikings
GURPS Greece
GURPS Arabia
GURPS India
GURPS China
GURPS Japan
GURPS Mongols
GURPS Aztecs
GURPS Russia
GURPS Fantasy I
I have had these for *decades* now. I treasure them, and would never sell them. Each concentrtaes I think on a 100 or 200 pages of history, lore, mythoogy, animals, magic, military, adventures, all kinds of good stuff!
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Quote from: SHARK on May 28, 2023, 10:27:28 PM
Quote from: GeekyBugle on May 28, 2023, 12:19:06 PM
As a game Lion & Dragon
As supplements the GURPS ones are the best, then there was a series for D&D with Egypt, Aztecs and others IIRC (with sexy women in the covers) that is pretty decent.
Greetings!
Definitely, my friend! GURPS page for page, is probably equal or superior to any supplement in the market, ever produced. Some products of course, focus on one particular time frame or culture, but as a general resource or inspiration, GURPS supplements can't be beat. As I recall, I think I have in my collection;
GURPS Middle Ages I
GURPS Middle Ages II
GURPS Rome
GURPS Celts
GURPS Vikings
GURPS Greece
GURPS Arabia
GURPS India
GURPS China
GURPS Japan
GURPS Mongols
GURPS Aztecs
GURPS Russia
GURPS Fantasy I
I have had these for *decades* now. I treasure them, and would never sell them. Each concentrtaes I think on a 100 or 200 pages of history, lore, mythoogy, animals, magic, military, adventures, all kinds of good stuff!
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Yes, I have them too, I only lament they never made others:
Maya
Incas
Kush
other African ones whose name escapes me ATM.