In the mid-80s, the Golden Age of TSR, I was fascinated by the World of Greyhawk. I participated in any sort of RPG since the late 90s, but I've never lost that fascination.
My current project is putting together tabletop forces for mass battles in the Flanesses. My problems tends to be that I tend to require verisimilitude to be interested. I'm not a fan of "superhero" fantasy. Furthermore, unless the battle tactics at least align somewhat with medieval or dark age warfare I would lose interest.
I've been mulling over questions of verisimilitude, which I will endeavor to answer in subsequent posts:
- How does linear warfare exist in a setting with battlefield magic that is at least as effective as 20th-century artillery?
- How would the continued existence of "evil" races be tolerated in a setting militarily dominated by humans/demihumans? If the evil races present such a danger to humanity how have they not been extirpated or at least reduced to numbers small enough to not present a threat? There has been at least one attempt, the "Hateful Wars."
- How can Late Medieval/Early Renaissance cultures simultaneously exist and interact with Dark Age cultures? The Frost Barbarians (Vikings) exist in the same continent as Elizabethan Nyrond. One may assume that while the Frost Barbarians are not as advanced as the leading kingdoms of the Flanesses, they have normal human intelligence and would attempt to obtain new technologies. I'll have to research this. I have the sense it this situation isn't uncommon in history.
- Gunpowder. I don't know if I want to include it or not. The French used gunpowder artillery to great advantage at Castilon, but I haven't found a great many further examples of gunpowder being decisive in the time period I want to emulate but my research isn't extensive.
More to follow. The answers to some of my questions will be dictated by the miniatures I have available to me. I have most of my areas of interest covered in 15mm.
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