Settings That Need a Game: Colonial/Revolutionary War Era

After a visit to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia a week ago, it got me thinking about the colonial era in America and England, and how it would make a great campaign setting.

There’s political intrigue, danger, rebellion, religion and, most importantly, guns.

Now, I had been thinking about how this would make a great D&D campaign. Scarrport has some great rules for how to use guns, and Bryan came up with some great rules as well. A slight problem you would see, though, is the lack of variety of weapons. I mean, the only real weapons used at the time were a few different firearms, a bayonet, knives, and the occasional sword.

It’s also the perfect “Points of Light” setting with a small group of colonies living in a vast untamed wilderness.

Now, here’s my idea for a campaign:

It is a few hundred years after your typical setting. You could even base it in your favorite setting. Magic has been outlawed to an extent that the average person sees it as superstition and folklore. That doesn’t keep people from fearing it, though. The only Arcane users that are able to pass among the masses are bards, and that’s simply because no one realizes they’re using magic in their music.

The dwarves, disgusted with humanity’s leap of progress, have retreated into the mountains. Those that didn’t can be found at the circus as freakshows. Likewise halflings and gnomes, who have made their homes in on the rivers and in the forest, respectively. Elves have seen no reason to advance to this disgusting gunpowder era, and are seen like the colonials viewed the Native Americans: with distrust and fear. They are seen as the savages on the fringes of society who have not accepted the brilliant glory of civilization. Occasional envoys arrive from the elves, trying to keep humans from gobbling up more land, but it has been difficult.

Religion would begin combining the worship of gods together, until they are seen as not separate gods, but different aspects of the same.

The shadowfell and feywild are all but forgotten, and a vigilant guard of “minute men” patrol the forest wiping out any monsters and keeping the knowledge of those monsters from the common man.

But then things begin to go wrong as a massive orcish army begins its march towards civilization. Soon, the world will know once again that magic exists, and there is life outside the shining light of the colonies…