I'm a big fan of "the War Hound and All the World's Pain" (Michael Moorcock) and would love to run a fantastic 30-Years War RPG campaign. What system and setting books / materials would you recommend?
You can take a look at the Better than any man (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15980.phtml) adventure for Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
I don't know your tastes in games so it's hard to do anything but some name-dropping : the Savage World of Solomon Kane for pulp/heroic action, Deluxe Renaissance (http://clockworkandchivalry.co.uk/games/renaissance-2/) for a more lethal experience, Warhammer of course.
You can watch the Last Valley (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065969/)
You can read Simplicius Simplicissimus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius_Simplicissimus)
Take your pick!
WFRP. This is as close as we're ever getting to an Ulrich von Bek RPG. Fantasy Renaisssance Germany with Chaos = the hordes of hell and all. In fact, Moorcock is explicitly thanked in the dedication. I'd take 1e (for the grittier and darker magic), do away with the D&Disms (dwarves, orcs, miracle-working healer priests, etc.) and get the Renaissance Germany serial numbers painted back on, and you're good to go. There is also a tribute game (Zweihänder) coming out, you might want to check it out too.
Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I could be mistaken but if I recall correctly, 17th Century Northern Europe is the setting for several LotFP adventures. And everyone who's running gritty historical dark fantasy games with it seems very happy.
BRP. Any edition of that timeless Chaosium clasic, Stormbringer, will do this right out of the box. But sticking to stuff that's in print, my choice would be Runequest 6, though Legend or Openquest or Magic World will do the trick. Just make sure you pick up Arcana of Legend: Blood Magic for the excelent demon summoning rules, and other nasty stuff.
Savage Worlds. This is what I actually used for historical dark fantasy/horror, with The Savage World of Solomon Kane. The Horror Companion has some good rules such as rituals, and appropriate beasties.
All good stuff. Off to RPGNOW!!!
For real world inspiration and the history behind it all, check out Europe's Tragedy by Peter H Wilson.
Seriously, any war that's set off by defenestration is just as weird as a fantasy analogue.
http://web.sbu.edu/history/tschaeper/Hist101/Defenestration.html
My Lady Rotha A Romance of the Thirty Years War, by Stanley J. Weyman is good and the beginning makes a nice set up for a group of PCs wandering/touring a number of locations. It should be available through Amazon (possibly for free, I read it on my Kindle) or on Gutenberg (definitely free).
Osprey books are nice for colorful pictures of uniforms, though you can also find quite a few pictures for free on the net. One of the great things about the period is that most important people had portraits done. They make a great resource and addition for NPCs.
My blog in the sig is focused on that time period, so you may find some useful stuff there, though my main focus is France, not the Germanies. You should check out the Frankfurt write-up that Bluesponge did on his blog ...a Brace of Pistols. There's a link to his blog on my blog.
Yeah, Better than Any Man is the only directly historical RPG product (as in, historical but with magic), that I can think of that makes reference to the period. Even so, while a great adventure, it's far from being a really great historical sourcebook or something like that. At best its a fair sourcebook for one small region and for the 'style' of the times.
Witch Hunter: the Invisible World takes place at the beginning on of the War of Grand Alliances, but could easily be moved back to take place during the 30 years war. If course, with it's focus on the secret war against the adversary, those events would be more in the background. But it is very cool to weave these supernatural dealings into the fabric of real events.
For instance, in my game, part of France's initial campaign into the Palatinate has been to free a faerie lord held by one of the witch Hunter orders. This has led some shadowy forces in Britisn to push for war against the faerie courts out of fear of a potential alliance. This all, naturally, plays into the hands of certain figures who need a distraction to accomplish their goals.
Fortunately, the players have yet to catch wind of this...
Tom
If you can overlook the conventions of boys' own fiction (such as the protagonists being literal boys at the start of the story, and all the female characters being mere ciphers), G A Henty has quite a few (free e-book) stories in the period. Lion of the North and Won by the Sword are the two most relevant, you can get them on Project Gutenberg.
I had a thread not that long ago on the wars of the 17th century (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=31756) which might be worth a look. Beware, though, the Thirty Years War specifically was nasty. Armies didn't have proper supply arrangements, looting and pillaging the local populace was standard practise, and there were roving mobs of ex-soldiers turned to banditry all over.
What about A Mighty Fortress for AD&D 2e?
For the (pseudo-)historical part, the classic four sources are:
- Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus. Basically a very dark comedy, with slightly autobiographic touches of the author, combined with a narrative based on a classic fool's character.
- The diaries of Peter Hagendorf. Hagendorf was a mercenary during the war and his reports cover his personal life from 1625 to 1648, including one of the more accurate reports of the "Wedding of Magdeburg". If you only ever read one source, make it this.
- Schiller's Wallenstein Trilogy. It is filled to the rim with the usual Schillerian pathos, as it is his best work. Throuh this particular filter of great emotions (there is nothing small in this play, , the play shows a significant part of the war's politics and power struggles; Schiller knew mostly what he wrote about and based on his own historical studies (published a few years earlier).
- The counter-example to Wallenstein is Brecht's Mutter Courage, following the conflict not from the perspective of the greatest generals but the lowest camp followers. It is a well-deserved classic and a good counter-point to Wallenstein (it is also much shorter).
For the fantasy part, the 30 years war was the great era of witch hunts: When life sucked hard, people hope for easy solutions - and blaiming a convenient "witch" as a scapegoat for anything that went wrong, combined with the hope of instant improvement once the witch is dead was an attractively simple solution to many complex problems. In a fictional setting, however, the superstition concerning witches and so on could be true. Witchcraft would be my first choice for supernatural components, and logically, similar concepts like werewolves of both the cursed and the voluntary version, decidedly non-hollywoodian vampires. The 30 years war is after all a horror setting by default. Expanding on this makes sense, as long as the monsters are recognizable different from the banal ovil of a marauding soldateska and the usual war atrocities.
Quote from: Kiero;844460I had a thread not that long ago on the wars of the 17th century (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=31756) which might be worth a look.
I was going to cite that thread, but I was too lazy to search for it. Thanks for including the link.
I'll have to check out the Henty books. The nice thing about boys tales are the plots are simple. I find simple plots are a good starting place for adventure seeds.
Quote from: Beagle;844475For the (pseudo-)historical part, the classic four sources are:
Also very useful.
Quote from: Bren;844543I'll have to check out the Henty books. The nice thing about boys tales are the plots are simple. I find simple plots are a good starting place for adventure seeds.
Indeed, once you accomodate the conventions of the genre (and I avoid the ones set in Africa for the latent racism of Henty's time), they're quite enjoyable.
That the protagonists almost always have a level of inventiveness more commonplace in a seasoned, middle-aged veteran, also adds to the variety. There's a lot of clever escapes and such.
I find this chronological listing (http://www.henty.com/s86p1428.htm) useful for picking out the ones I want to read. The fact that they are all free ebooks I can load up my Kindle with is a bonus.
Quote from: Kiero;844554I find this chronological listing (http://www.henty.com/s86p1428.htm) useful for picking out the ones I want to read. The fact that they are all free ebooks I can load up my Kindle with is a bonus.
That is helpful. Thanks!
Mighty Fortress does generally cover the period, it's true. So does GURPS swashbucklers, if I remember correctly.
We have one of our writers working on a campaign set at the beginning of the conflict. So far, I've only seen the Factions - but I'm very impressed.
I'd also echo One Horse Town's recommendation of Europe's Tragedy, as a good history of the period.