Details details

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about my experimental idea for running historical off shoot games from your main campaign.

Today, we're going to take a look at some useful tricks for running a game set sometime in the past.

Like with all projects the devil hides amongst the details, and historical gaming is no different.

Obviously there's no point in turning your campaign into a historical lecture, but you have to include enough vital facts and details to make the era come alive. Otherwise your Roman campaign is just “now but with togas”.

Most gamers will probably head to the armory first of all, and it's a good place to start. Find out what the major weapons of the time was, at least in general. What you find may surprise you. For example, the first pump action shotgun was designed in 1882, well in time to hunt Jack the Ripper with, should the need arise.

Naturally, the closer your game is to the present, the greater the availability of weaponry becomes. But assembling a list of the most popular firearms of the day, will be the first step in creating a good setting.

Next, look at clothes and fashion. This may seem as a bit of a lame thing to do, but it's vitally important unless every one in the world runs around in their birthday suits. Again, you don't need to go nuts here, but a couple of examples of what men and women wore amongst the lower, middle and upper classes should be enough. That's twelve pictures you have to hunt down and show the players. Not all that arduous eh?

Take a quick look at food and drink while your at it. This is not necessarily all that big of a deal, but as a reminder; any game set in pre Columbian Europe can not feature the humble potato. It has yet to cross the Atlantic. A small but important detail.

Next is transportation. What were people driving in, or were they driving anything at all? Again, a couple of the most prominent examples will do fine.

By now I'm sure your starting to get the idea. Thanks to the plethora of film and movies set in all kinds of cool eras, it's getting easier and easier to bring these times to life again.

Naturally it get's harder the farther back you go, but funnily enough, the same happen when you only go say, twenty years back. Take a look at a random X-files episode and look at what kind of technology is and isn't available. Remember that in 1993 cell phones were practically non existent and people actually faxed each other instead of using email. But keeping straight what happened when it's still so close is sometimes maddening.

Finally, I want to talk about the hardest detail; talking.

This is not something I enforce too rigidly in my games, as it gets very tedious after a while. Too many Prithy good Sirrah, and you will all be likely to try kill each other. I like to keep my players somewhat aware of their characters social standing at least. I don't want the Baronet of Whitlington to scream “Fuck you, I told you to waste that asshole”, when he could say “Damn you, I told you to kill that oaf” without spraining either his tongue or my ears.

That's it in a nutshell. With the easy availability of smart phones it's become very easy to quickly check years or events without holding up the game too much.

Now you just have to find a balance between what you feel your game needs and what your players will put up with!

Good gaming!