OT: The ambiance and setting (part 3)

[Omnirizon]

part 1: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...t=41273&page=5
part 2: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...t=41368&page=4

MAKING A GAME ----- _~/PART THREE\~_: the setting

the setting WILL be 16th-17th century history. this is a fruitful setting due to the clash of weaponry and military styles happening at this point; polearms, maces, swords, bows, crossbows, firearms, cavalry, cannon, were all being experimented with and used together in ways that no other time in history has ever seen. the new technologies in metallurgy breathed a last bit of life into armors and older styles of handheld weaponry and new developments in crossbows and experiments with firearms changed the role of both infantry and cavalry. heavy polearms were developed (for protecting the slow firearms and bowmen), new styles and faster swords where designed (for finding the weak spots in the new carbonized steel armors that couldn't be hacked at), and more maces with new designs for not glancing off armor where put into use (for delivering impact damage against more resilient armor and fighting in the new styles and formations with cavalry who now used mobility and close range rather than shocks and charge due to better missile weapon technology). cannon also was developed, and large standing armies combined with siege warfare became the norm. sea battles took on new twists with new cannon, sail, and ship design technology. All in all it was a very rich time for the combination of weaponry and military styles as humans were experimenting with and attempting to adapt old methods to the new technologies.

Very few fantasy games that I know of actually place their settings in the 16th century. This is a time of more standardized warfare, less enchantment and magic, less frontier. The time of protestants, rationalists, humanists, Francis Bacon and the new forms of knowledge and philosophy. Really, the only games I can think of that will use this setting to any degree are the Final Fantasy series. its mixture of magic and high technology are the perfect fit with the clash of the old and new that was happening in this time, and the rest of FF's setting, the dress, the styles, the towns and rhetoric, all follow suit.

My current idea is to pull some dominions nations into this setting. Since there will be no dom4, it isn't like there is any danger of awkwardly overlapping; there's a little room for creative license. Maybe call it "4rth Age" or something. I don't want this to simply be like Heroes of Might and Magic in dom setting though. So it can't be just like "there's this unit and this unit and blah blah blah", rather, how would the nations look in Late Renaissance garb?

the humans have mostly taken over.

disenchantment, skepticism of church.

the old 'sacreds' (which tended to be non human too) now exist in fewer numbers, maybe arn't sacred, are even disdained.

non-humans are mistreated rather than revered.

what else? the 'fairy and fey' nations would have to all but disappear. oddly enough, their real life national counterparts had much lesser roles in world affairs during that time too. i'm having a hard time figuring what to do with nations like Vanheim et al.