Boot Hill.
Furry Pirates sans the magic. Aside from the Disney-esque animals instead of humans its a straight-up historical setting. As is Furry Outlaws.
A Call of Cthulhu campaign sans the mythos. Was effectively a film noir adventure. It started off looking like it was a supernatural threat. but turned out to be a sham.
A very brief Top Secret session.

Been wanting to try the James Bond RPG but never had a chance.

Mmmm. Currently have been doing D&D convention sessions about the Crusades, sepcifically the second Crusade infrom 1145-1153 or so. Really should get the PDF up and online, however have to sort out some of the artwork on that.

Also like doing Roman era D&D campaigns, however haven't run a game for that these last 4-5 years. Would be open to doing an age of heroes campaign set in Greece, along the lines of the Odyssey.

Also have been looking at doing some historical Indian campaigns, and/or recreating stories of the Mahabharata with Arrows of Indra, however have just not had any spare time to build a game around that. Plus I really need more Indian Minis, and Elephnats...

I'd love to but the players would always kick and scream if they don't get their superpowers. Fortunately, Avalon Hill games make for a good time and without having to talk in funny voices.

I've always wanted to run a game set during the Vietnam War or the American Civil War.

Boot Hill and Top Secret are the only straight historic games I've played.

Quite a few if you include wargame campaigns (which have included some roleplaying elements).

And I've played in several historical RPG campaigns run by others.

I haven't run very many historical RPG settings myself, and when I have, they tend to be shortish scenarios rather than running a whole ongoing campaign.

The "no magic" in some historical games seems to me more historical as "historical magic" than modern magic denial. For example, the Celtic games my friends ran were pretty interesting in how much the players learned and acted in Celtic rather than modern ways around things like stripping down and woading up and doing pre-battle rituals before combat, making offerings, the gift economy, etc. If you and everyone around you believe woad & rituals are effective battle preparations and you work yourself into a trance before combat, it's going to have some effects on how the combat plays out.

Quote from: Doc Sammy;1037508I've always wanted to run a game set during the Vietnam War or the American Civil War.

Two under-served niches. I also think the Napoleonic wars and WWI are under-represented in roleplaying games. Both would be amazing (for similar reasons).

Quote from: Larsdangly;1037531Two under-served niches. I also think the Napoleonic wars and WWI are under-represented in roleplaying games. Both would be amazing (for similar reasons).

I was looking up stuff on firearms and clothing in the 17th and 18th centuries because of a setting I am working on which is not historical. The Napoleonic Wars fits into that era quite nicely, and may partially serve as a template. I really need to read up on history in that time period. Running an historical game would be awesome with interested players.

The setting I would really like to work on if I had the time for it would deal with the Mongol Expansion Period with particular attention to the invasion of Kievan Rus in the 13th Century.

Quote from: Doc Sammy;1037508I've always wanted to run a game set during the Vietnam War or the American Civil War.

Quote from: Larsdangly;1037531Two under-served niches. I also think the Napoleonic wars and WWI are under-represented in roleplaying games. Both would be amazing (for similar reasons).

Do you want the games to be heroic (player characters can eventually triumph against the odds) or tragic (player characters will eventually fail no matter how hard they try)? It's always harder to find and keep players for the latter. There aren't that many who enjoy that kind of masochism.

Quote from: Kiero;1037293I'm not surprised you struggled with a Thirty Years War game, that's about as brutal a choice of era as you could find.

It was the 80s and I cycled past a 4-minute warning siren every day. It didn't seem that bad by comparison ...

Lots

Quote from: RandyB;1037683Do you want the games to be heroic (player characters can eventually triumph against the odds) or tragic (player characters will eventually fail no matter how hard they try)? It's always harder to find and keep players for the latter. There aren't that many who enjoy that kind of masochism.

I don't really know how to answer that because I don't think about roleplaying game campaigns this way. I don't want any particular outcome for my player characters, or the PC's in gams I run. What happens to them in the end is what happens to them in the end. The interesting part, to me, is providing a fun, responsive environment where the players can cook up ideas and try to pull them off.

Quote from: Skarg;1037522Quite a few if you include wargame campaigns (which have included some roleplaying elements).

The nice thing about wargames is that they are often already historical settings and pretty much ready to go out of the box.

Quote from: Larsdangly;1037715I don't really know how to answer that because I don't think about roleplaying game campaigns this way. I don't want any particular outcome for my player characters, or the PC's in gams I run. What happens to them in the end is what happens to them in the end. The interesting part, to me, is providing a fun, responsive environment where the players can cook up ideas and try to pull them off.

Sounds like you are in the "they can succeed" camp. "Let the dice fall" fits in that camp very well. A good plan, with favorable die rolls, can produce success.

Quote from: RandyB;1037683Do you want the games to be heroic (player characters can eventually triumph against the odds) or tragic (player characters will eventually fail no matter how hard they try)? It's always harder to find and keep players for the latter. There aren't that many who enjoy that kind of masochism.

I'm kind of with Larsdangly on this. If it is an historical setting, then I would probably be using some hardcore rules. Kind of like the Health and Stamina variant from d20 Star Wars without the Stamina. Mind you then it might be prudent to consider the effects of armor against specific weapons because that suddenly becomes a very important survival consideration.

As for historical, the way I would approach it is that at the time the Campaign starts, history is Rules as Written. Certain other events which will probably happen will indeed happen, unless the player characters act in some way to cause change, and succeed. I sure as hell am not going to do any butterfly effect shit, because I am not that kind of masochist. So I would have humans statted within the range of human ability as best as game rules can represent it according to my arbitrary house rules. Heroism would be a result of action as well as luck (mostly die rolls). A game could also be tragic, but this would be the result of the character's actions UNLESS they entered a situation with factors at play out of their league, but I would at least give them a few warnings before they ignore me and rush headlong into stupidity.

In my games, I usually expect the player characters to run off the rails. I have no idea if they will succeed or fail because I have no idea what is going to happen. I adapt the Menzter's Monster Reaction Table for NPC interactions, even in games that aren't D&D because I have the thing internalized. So I don't even know how the NPCs are going to react to the player characters because it hasn't happened yet. Sure, I can think out a few outcomes, and if I'm really lucky the party might make a decision that results in one of those outcomes, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a miracle.

Now in traditional fantasy settings, you can adjust the survivability/lethality of encounters to suit your setting. In such games, I always lowball at first, because it serves a few purposes. 1, it lets you know what the party can handle. 2, you can always bring in reinforcements if things are too easy. 3, a few cake walks encounters builds up party confidence, which results in them dropping their guard which in turn gives me great amusement. In an historical campaign, this might not be so easy to adjust because you are trying to emulate the foes they may encounter as well as you can. So the party may have an easy time, or if they pick the wrong fight things could end up very badly for them. In a traditional game, I am going to craft low level encounters for low level parties. In an historical game, I am going to craft encounters that are plausible, and plausibility doesn't care for level parity.