Victorian Era 3.5

[Darcand]

I am thinking up a Victorian setting and was wondering what to do about making big swords and armor obsolete and encouraging focus on light weapons, agility, things of that nature.

[Xallace]

This (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm) should be a good start.

[RTGoodman]

Or if you're willing to try out a new but similar system, there's d20 Modern (http://www.12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/Home.php), which has a sourcebook called d20 Past that covers everything from the Renaissance until WWII. That, along with the Urban Arcana setting for the magic-based stuff, is probably all you need.

[Myou]

Mmmm, Victorian Era 3.5, that is one sexy idea. :smallredface:

[The Witch-King]

I am thinking up a Victorian setting and was wondering what to do about making big swords and armor obsolete and encouraging focus on light weapons, agility, things of that nature.

Introduce guns and make them all ranged touch attacks.

[Yahzi]

Introduce guns and make them all ranged touch attacks.
Exactly right. Once the standard infantry weapon ignores all armor, so will the players.

Ranged touch attacks for all! :smallbiggrin:

[bosssmiley]

D20 Past (as mentioned above) or E6 are good mechanical jumping off points.
Etherscope has a lot of useful theraminpunk ("Steampunk is sooo 2007!") elements.
Forgotten Futures (http://www.forgottenfutures.com/) has a lot of setting material derived from Victorian sci-fi stories.
The "guns ignore physical armour" rule is a good one.

edit: Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death did Victorian horror/mytsery for D&D. It's 2E, but most of the material has equivalents in 3e.

[Ormur]

I was thinking about something similar when I made this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6504173#post6504173) thread and got a lot of useful information.

[Darcand]

Mmmm, Victorian Era 3.5, that is one sexy idea. :smallredface:

It is, isn't it...

I really like the guns ignore armor rule. I suppose I shall just call all the crossbows "guns" and change them to touch attacks. Unless someone has a better idea?

I really liked defense rating too, and I am also thinking about making +AC magic items easier to aquire.

I would like to stay away from Steampunk with this if possible and take more of a Johnathan Strange or Monster Blood Tatoo run at it. Or even Fable 2. I like the feel of top hat wearing sorcerers and clerics with pistols. If you guys are interested maybe I'll start up a thread in Homebrew so you can see it as I make it.

[Myou]

It is, isn't it...

I really like the guns ignore armor rule. I suppose I shall just call all the crossbows "guns" and change them to touch attacks. Unless someone has a better idea?

I really liked defense rating too, and I am also thinking about making +AC magic items easier to aquire.

I would like to stay away from Steampunk with this if possible and take more of a Johnathan Strange or Monster Blood Tatoo run at it. Or even Fable 2. I like the feel of top hat wearing sorcerers and clerics with pistols. If you guys are interested maybe I'll start up a thread in Homebrew so you can see it as I make it.

Oh baby, I love it when you talk Victorian fashion to me. xD


I suggest making custom guns, since crossbows should still exist and are a little different.
Guns would be better than crosbows, good enough that at lower levels they're the only weapon worth using (except for stealth), while at higher levels power attack and the like would make melee able to compete.

[sadi]

I like range touch as an idea, but you definitely can't use crossbows. I'd honestly make a pistol something like range touch attack 1d8 x4 with a range increment of 10-15. Flintlock rifles I know had an effective range of upto 100 meters, and that 100 should probably mean a nice minus from range categories, like -6 or -8, so a rifle might have a range of 20 or 25, and the pistol would have a much shorter range.

[Myou]

I like range touch as an idea, but you definitely can't use crossbows. I'd honestly make a pistol something like range touch attack 1d8 x4 with a range increment of 10-15. Flintlock rifles I know had an effective range of upto 100 meters, and that 100 should probably mean a nice minus from range categories, like -6 or -8, so a rifle might have a range of 20 or 25, and the pistol would have a much shorter range.

Flintlocks? Those were obsolete in the Victorian era. o.o

As far as I know the Victorians used cartridges like we do today.

[JonestheSpy]

I think having guns be especiialy effective against armor is necesary - that's why armor became obsolete, after all. Don't know if it should just ignore armor altogether though - you might want to take a page from 1st edition and rule that guns have a big to hit bonus against certain armor types - maybe that's just to compicated, though.

Also, remember that big-ass swords and the like would are NOT carried around casually in civilized areas - they're basically a declaration that you intend to kill people in a particualy ungentlemanly fashion, something the authorities will not be approving of. Melee weapons should be along the lines of knives, sword cans, etc, though miliatry or ex-military could probably get away with vcarrying their sabres around. Of course, there's always that great moment when it's time to take the claymore off the mantlepiece it's been decorating for the last hundred years...

[Glimbur]

You might have guns ignore Armor but not Natural Armor, if you want creatures to be a credible threat. Consider having adventures that emphasize class differences: The PC's are hired as guides for a rich hunter, subjugating indigenous people, adventure on the high seas, other Victorian things.

[sadi]

Flintlocks? Those were obsolete in the Victorian era. o.o

As far as I know the Victorians used cartridges like we do today.

I interpret Victorian era is 1830s-1890s as the world, not just the English, which were the major players in the first half until German unification.


Just because Flintlocks were obsolete didn't mean everyone switched over instantly. Flintlock weapons were still being produced in the mid 1840s, and were still in use 20+years after. The English used cartridges, I'm sure the French too, they were the technological elite during the early stages. But countries/areas that weren't as advanced didn't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Model_1840_Flintlock_Musket

Late Victorian era, no flintlock all cartridge, early Victorian era has a mix based on the area you're actually in.

[imp_fireball]

It is, isn't it...

I really like the guns ignore armor rule. I suppose I shall just call all the crossbows "guns" and change them to touch attacks. Unless someone has a better idea?


Well, and a million other things like caliber and size of the gun, which of course increases damage. Also, bullet proofing armor (guns must roll against this type of armor). Oh, and sniper rifles with scopes (I actually made up a rule for scopes that you can use, just ask and you shall receive).

For especially thick armor, say the natural armor of an iron golem, you could give each gun 'armor penetration', which is a static number that suggests how much shield/armor bonus to a target it can ignore. If you want to get really complex, you could make some guns (the really powerful ones) ignore bulletproofing as well.

This you can ignore: There was a bunch of other stuff I added to guns, like being able to sunder despite the fact that they do piercing damage and waterproof containers that are required for gunpowder (because gunpowder is ruined when it gets wet), and fire damage potentially causing gun powder to explode (say, if the person being damaged made a particularly bad reflex save or the attacker made a high roll). Also, firearms feats (you can take partly from modern for that). It'll require some creativity. I should have some more ideas if you ask.


I like range touch as an idea, but you definitely can't use crossbows. I'd honestly make a pistol something like range touch attack 1d8 x4 with a range increment of 10-15. Flintlock rifles I know had an effective range of upto 100 meters, and that 100 should probably mean a nice minus from range categories, like -6 or -8, so a rifle might have a range of 20 or 25, and the pistol would have a much shorter range.

Y'know, a really simple way of converting meters to feet is multiplying those increments by three. Or 3.28 if you like precision.

[Myou]

I interpret Victorian era is 1830s-1890s as the world, not just the English, which were the major players in the first half until German unification.


Just because Flintlocks were obsolete didn't mean everyone switched over instantly. Flintlock weapons were still being produced in the mid 1840s, and were still in use 20+years after. The English used cartridges, I'm sure the French too, they were the technological elite during the early stages. But countries/areas that weren't as advanced didn't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Model_1840_Flintlock_Musket

Late Victorian era, no flintlock all cartridge, early Victorian era has a mix based on the area you're actually in.

Ah, good points, illuminating. :3

I wasn't suggesting that they wouldn't exist - like I said, crossbows hould also still be available - just that they wouldn't be at the top of the food chain as you accidentally implied.

[Exterminatus]

I for one wonder how much damage round shot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_shot) and canister shot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canister_shot) would do. They can be balanced out by taking several minutes to reload. :smalltongue:

(Round shot can make a large hole through a person's body and continue through several other soldiers (and even bypass cuirassier armor), while canister uses the same bullets used by infantrymen, and fires several hundreds of it at the same time in a conical spread. It practically turns the cannon into a giant shotgun. It can also be shot at the ground and be used to "skip" off the terrain, in effect increasing the range).

[Deth Muncher]

By the way, rules for guns have already been invented by WotC. There's a few examples in the 3.5 DMG, but above and beyond that, you can get rules for all sorts of nifty guns in the Dragon Magazine issue 321. They suggest a EWP feat for Firearms.

[deuxhero]

For especially thick armor, say the natural armor of an iron golem, you could give each gun 'armor penetration', which is a static number that suggests how much shield/armor bonus to a target it can ignore. If you want to get really complex, you could make some guns (the really powerful ones) ignore bulletproofing as well.


*emphasis added*

Isn't that what the damage reduction is for?