I'm mastering a campaign set in 1600s pseudo-France, and while I enjoy the setting the rules we use have started to bother me somewhat. Therefore I got thinking about how to modify D&D for the csmpaign.
I have had some initial thoughts on backgrounds, classes and the like, wanting to cut down from a huge number of classes to a few 'core' ones.
Before I go off a atangent however, I would love to know if someones has done this before? If anyone has some good inspiration, either your own material or aomething you have seen somewhere, I would appreciate any input.
My own (limited) thoughts so far:
Limit classes to fighter, rogue, ranger, and wizard. The fighter and rogue are pretty self-expalnatory, the ranger can be used to model outdoorsmen and pioneers, or 'savages'. The wizard will be modified to have fewer flashy spells, more focus on summoning, maybe a mix of warlock/wizard.
Priests, bards and everything else can be represented through baclgrounds, like Aramis is both a priest and a musketeer.
(Any input on classes is welcome)
Reduce availability of armor and introduce guns. Dark Albion and LotFP's gun rules should do. Reload is several rounds, they reduce AC by 5 and damage dice can explode, ie. when a maximum is rolled the dice are rolled again and added to damage total.
Social status as an important factor: 'Caliphate Nights', a sadly underdeveloped True20 setting, had a cool rule where being low status gave you penalties to persuade or intimidate higer status people, but a bonus to bluffing them - the fops would not believe you were trying to cheat your betters. The inverse being true for high status people, you are better at intimidating and persuading people below you, but can't bluff as well because you are not as streetwise.
Thanks in advance for any help or thoughts in general!