Is the 19th century an under utilized setting?
>>98704812The 19th century isn't a setting at all.
>>98705160As a setting then
>>98704812Almost all of history is underserved compared to the fantasy slop of D&D (which bears no particular resemblance to any period more specific than "the past.")
wrong and gay
>>98704812Historical settings in general are underrrated. People just want to play the same freakshit world over and over. It's always the same races, magic and aesthetics.I for one like medieval settings with actual folklore being real (but rare). There's a dragon in that mountain, a troll lives in the tundra, a banshee haunts the castle, a miracle happened, an elf is being mischievous and stealing stuff, (notice how I used singular instead of plural, to make them rare occasions as opposed to races which roam around in taverns alongside humans, implying it's not a common sight).In this sort of games, the supernatural has to be rare, so most of the game would have to be centered around natural occurrances (fighting bandits, rescuing noblemen, dealing with aristocrats and their intrigues, etc.). Don't expect wizards or clerics to go around casting flashy lights... In fact I wonder to what extent they should be playable.
>>98705341So what system are you running said games in to have the more fantastical elements so diminished?
>>98705373NAYRT but that sounds like Dragon Warriors.
>>98705373I've used OSR (Lion & Dragon, B/X), Mazes & Minotaurs' Vikings supplement and also a system of mine, but honestly, it doesn't matter that much since it's a matter of flavor rather than mechanics. Just keep the magic to a minimum and have the players focus on something more mundane.It's very hard to find players who are on board with that.
>>98705373GURPS
>>98705292Then no, it isn't underutilized, because no time period, and no genre is underutilized as a setting.The modular nature of TTRPGs allows people to make whatever they want, so everyone who wants games based in such settings is properly utilizing them.
>>98711947Oh shut up
>>98704812What are you fucking talking about? For the most part. Steampunk, and Westerns are based on the 19th century. We have a flood of settings in or based on the "19th century."
>>98705373For me it is BRP.
>>98713622Just answering retarded questions. Don't like it? Don't ask retarded questions.
>>98704812The 19th is probably the single century after maybe the 20th most likely to be used directly or pastiched in a game. I think the 16th/17th is a distant runner up, most notable due to WFRP or a handful of other games that like early modern settings. The 18th is the century no one cares about.
>>98704812The only setting that *gets* the spirit of that age is Rogue Trader.You basically aren't doing the 19th century decadence right unless you got a drawer full of tentacle porn, a mechatronic fur suit and a servant to shave your beard stubble early morning, while you're still asleep.
>>98704812The 19th century. you mean the one that had the entire victorian period and all that comes with it including all the steampunk alt-history stuff, the century that had the US civil war and literally all the cowboys. The century that had the Napoleonic Wars. The rapid grabs for pieces of Africa. The century where a lot of gothic horror stories are either set or were written. All mad scientist tropes based on mad scientists real and fictional of this time. Japan opened its borders leading to rapid modernization. Some cool china stuff probably that I'm forgetting. Everything Jules Verne wrote. Lots of dumb romance stories about aristocrats. Yeah, no, no one ever uses this setting for anything. It's completely underutilized.
>>98705300Third post best post. But DnD doesn't even resemble the past, it looks like a shitty 21st century product through and through.>>98705341This is just DnD with extra steps. Nothing of this is particularly original, good, interesting or related to the 19th century for that matter. The 19th century was the century which actually kicked what we call today "globalization" so if a time period has a reason to have tons of fantasy races living close to each other in a common background that's the 19th century. The great powers conquered most of the globe and forced uncivilized regions to adopt "western" culture, massive engineering projects were undertaken and railways were constructed connecting regions that used to be inaccessible, a hunger for the orient, the mystic and esoterism was awaken in this century and religion had a resurgence, so the believe in the supernatural and the rejection of pure rationalism got extremely popular. Instead of wizards you had madmen funding their own cults or philosophies.
>>98704812Any time period that spans 100 years of human history is by its very definition going to be under utilized because its so broad a time to deal with you daft cunt.
>>98704812My problem with it is that almost modern firearms exist but armor effective against them doesn't, so every fight will be ultra lethal rocket tag.
>>98717949>but armor effective against them doesn'tIn the 19th century Bullet resistant armour was used by natives in Korea and Alaska, Sudanese shields made of elephant/rhino hide could reputedly turn away shots at range, curiassers had at least a chance and sappers wore early metal armour, ditto Ned Kelly.But more importantly is the fact that unless you're trying to jam it into a system not built around the idea, you can account for the threat of bullets via luck points, or do it like Cyberpunk where smart tactics and reasonable cover use/being a moving target make you harder to hit. Or abstract hit points to being near misses like most Star Wars systems do. And that's not even getting into how up until the end of the century the majority of firearms still had a very low rate of fire if it even exceeded a single shot.Not that your concern is unwarranted, but solutions exist in history and in the game systems you can chose to run.
