English Colony sounding names

[Tzi]

I know it is a bit late, but I've actually made a colonial North America themed setting ages ago and it was set in a region divided between multiple colony "states," akin to say New England. I believe I titled the setting "Heart of Darkness." As the continent was vast, unexplored and unknown. I tended to use names derived from cultures, for one a common practice is to name a Colony after someone. For example I had one Colony called "Sadieland," literally the Land named for Sadie. Whom was the wife of the explorer who landed there and received a royal charter to settle there. Others were New Caledonia, in the far south a rival empire had Sierra Sancheca and Annetta. Ect ect.

This sounds pretty cool. Did you post it anywhere?
I agree with others, It isn't a well touched on era in American history. Primarily because IMHO it comes from a radically different era in American History that really predates our modern American culture. Before the Civil War, America wasn't really a united country as it is today. The States were culturally very separate and regions practically were like different countries with very different cultural customs. Vermont and Virginia were extreme different and very much disliked one another. Which is a theme I played at in my own campaign. When a deep 2 year winter gripped the world the motherlands lost control over the colonies and quickly the colonies descended into strife. Some forming coalitions, In some corners men rallied armies to declare themselves Kings, fledgling democracies formed, ect. The Old West is more familiar because by then America, the land we know, really came to be. Also thanks to Hollywood and books the era of the Civil War and after it in the Wild West really has a plethora of cultural material, were as (Save for a few documentaries, an Assassins Creed game, and a Tim Burton movie) the colonial period and its stories really gets a lot less coverage. Also the colonial period mainly deals with a much smaller America. It is mainly the story of New England, Virginia, The Carolina's, Georgia. Most of America that we know now did not exist, were as in the Wild West we cover the continent, so it is more familiar to us.

But also in a Colonial setting I was able to turn up the horror factor. One example was a quest were the party encountered a town besieged by a murderous werewolf. And stalked by a witch. The witch actually it turned out was the sister of the werewolf and was attempting to keep her locked up but the town militia wanted to be rid of her and was looking about her home for evidence to use against her when they unwittingly let the werewolf free from the basement. Of course those who freed it never returned, and the militia began to rally the town against the witch connecting her with the sudden appearance of the werewolf.... deeper then that the head of the militia wanted the witches house and land since it had excellent timber for his mill business and he didn't like the competition.

Other quests were a desperate tribe of natives whose Shaman made infernal pacts with beasts of the pit to give them advantages over the colonists in war. This however came at a price, as the tribe slowly morphed into tieflings and their black magic twisted the lands they were fighting to save.

This sounds pretty cool. Did you post it anywhere?

I sadly never posted it. The entire setting exists in a binder, I've got a notebook full of lore, gods, text, and a graph paper notebook of maps and charts. Unfortunately it was my first setting, my first attempt at world building so I ignored a lot of things and due to scheduling the campaign ended after awhile.

I still have all my notes and on some level I want to continue with it's themes and the time period to an extent. Though now I've taken to peppering a degree of Sci-Fantasy into what I do, the Colonial period is actually my favorite historically and also a great source of inspiration for settings.

[Gamer Printshop]

I've always assumed the lack of Colonial-style settings was that:

1. You have to develop a lot of setting material for the various empires that are colonizing the new world, material that will not be directly used in game as often as material generated specifically for the colonies.

There's probably truth in that, but I figure that this 'New World', at least by the map is strictly English as far as imperial powers go. If it were closer to colonial America, then presumeably 'New France' or some other Canadian derivative is north of the area shown on the map, as well as the possibility of a 'New Spain' south of the map area. I would presume, there'd be no need to offer anything more than a quick overview of the other imperial nations - info regarding wealth, areas of control, primary import/export, state of the military, politics and agenda - and perhaps technology (size of sailing ships, etc.)

2. Guns. For some reason muskets are just not that popular in the pen and paper world. People just want to either start when guns are just arriving or well after they have been perfected.

Eh, plenty of Old West/Cowboy games out there, so there are plenty of gun slinging settings on the market. I could easily believe that 'Colonial Era' is probably less popular than eras that preceed and follow it. So it's certainly less popular, but that shouldn't suggest that it isn't worth pursuing.

3. The threat of feeling/being insensitive... Its hard to describe. I think people are hesitant to set a game in a world where the "white man" is conquering the "red man's" land. Even if you mask the concept behind a veil of "the humans are colonizing a new world filled with vicious orcs", it still feels vaguely offensive, in a way. I think this might be a chiefly American perception because if you move a few thousand miles to the south and have a setting where elvish conquistadors are beating down aztec-like lizardfolk, it does not feel as... Wrong/bad(?) as the former.

There is definitely a large faction of people with concerns of racial (and other) sensitivity in the world today. I don't really know how many are active gamers, and some level of racial/ethnic sensitivity should be kept in mind in any kind of historical fantasy development. That said, noting some of the literary works set in the New World that include native Americans - Last of the Mohicans and The Scarlet Letter, neither are particularly 'anti-native' in tone nor content. I'm of the opinion that the primary killer of native Americans were the introduction of diseases from Europe, like smallpox. But this wasn't deliberate biological warfare, we were merely carriers of such disease, and lacked knowledge of how disease was spread. White man may have carried this death with them, but its dispensation was nothing deliberate. I don't believe there is a need to glorify any possible historic event involving the murder or genocidal attacks against native Americans in a game setting.

For those individuals overly sensitive to issues of white vs. native Americans, such a setting could be problematic, and such people wouldn't play in such a situation. But really, I don't see a huge audience of politically correct emphasis in the gaming industry. As long as one isn't deliberately mean spirited or prejudice to a given race (even a fictional one) in such a setting - I don't really think there is an issue.

If you remove those equivocations, a colonial setting really is not that different than a normal D&D setting. Its about civilization expanding into the "empty" wilderness where, lo and behold, more primitive peoples dwell. Every time a group of adventurers clears out a cave full of goblins, they are in effect paving the way civilization's inevitable sprawl. Really the only difference is that you deal with separate colonies, rather than baronies and have a higher percentage of republics as compared to monarchies.

Honestly, I've personally only played in a handful of settings that fit in the sand-boxy hex divided unexplored region, yet none of those settings felt very 'colonial new world' to me. Without being established as a new continent, without a distinctly imperial British flavor, set in a post Renaissance religion/politics/technology of 16th - 18th century flavor, I don't see such a setting as being anything like other D&D worlds. Though for me flavor is a lot.

Side note, I don't really see a ton of Old West style games either. Many of the ones that do exist add in Steam Punk elements, thereby blending genres.

Genre blends or not, there are still pistols and pistolerros even if riding an airship. I don't believe there are too many exclusively historical settings being played by various gamers out there. Most historical-esque settings are genre mashups of some kind. Even look at my Kaidan setting which is feudal Japan and horror. Deadlands is Old West and horror. There are settings/systems like Sidewinder by DogHouseRulez which is very much old west historical, not really including any kind of 'magic' or 'other worldly' nature.

[Steerpike]

I'm of the opinion that the primary killer of native Americans were the introduction of diseases from Europe, like smallpox. But this wasn't deliberate biological warfare, we were merely carriers of such disease, and lacked knowledge of how disease was spread.

Not trying to "call you out," or anything (and certainly not trying to imply you're being insensitive), but some historians do disagree with this to an extent. Example.  Most smallpox contagion was accidental but some of it may have been deliberate; it's a subject of debate.  There's a fair bit of evidence that the colonists at least considered it.

Whether or not smallpox blankets were used or not, though, it's pretty much undeniable Europeans did slaughter thousands of Native Americans quite deliberately in their efforts to subjugate the continent, while also violently imposing their values on the indigenous populace, a practice that extended well into the twentieth-century with things like residential schools in Canada where First Nations students were frequently molested, beaten, and forced to accept European values (a key goal of the system was literally described as "killing the Indian in the child").

I'm certainly not saying that these events preclude a game set in the colonial period, though - far, far from it, I love the idea of a colonial setting.  Light Dragon and you make a good point, though, that sensitivity about such issues probably isn't the chief reason the period is neglected.

[Gamer Printshop]

I know of specific incidences where vile acts blamed on Native Americans were actually done by whites causing the socalled Black Hawk War, acts done by William Henry Harrison like slaughtering a peaceful religious community. So there definitely vile acts done in American history instigated by white Americans. However, when the colonies were very early in settlement, when the populations were fearfully small compared to the unknown wilderness interior (about 50 miles from the sea...).

This was the environment the map depicts as a fictional analog, though they really aren't "English colonies" nor inhabited by native Americans - its all fiction.

If we look at the actual prejudice, extreme period belief systems, unequal social hierarchy, religious intoleration, brutal management of society in general at any point in history (anywhere in the world), compared to modern sensibilities, it was all pretty bad. To point out one example of social intoleration in the "Colonial Period" as being especially significant - I see little difference from any other point in history, even today in some places in the world.

[Steerpike]

That's very true, and a good point.  The colonial Americans certainly weren't any worse than, say, the Romans or the Mongols... although once the rhetoric around equality and the pursuit of happiness starts appearing it's harder not to see them as hypocrites.

[Tzi]

I know of specific incidences where vile acts blamed on Native Americans were actually done by whites causing the socalled Black Hawk War, acts done by William Henry Harrison like slaughtering a peaceful religious community. So there definitely vile acts done in American history instigated by white Americans. However, when the colonies were very early in settlement, when the populations were fearfully small compared to the unknown wilderness interior (about 50 miles from the sea...).

This was the environment the map depicts as a fictional analog, though they really aren't "English colonies" nor inhabited by native Americans - its all fiction.

If we look at the actual prejudice, extreme period belief systems, unequal social hierarchy, religious intoleration, brutal management of society in general at any point in history (anywhere in the world), compared to modern sensibilities, it was all pretty bad. To point out one example of social intoleration in the "Colonial Period" as being especially significant - I see little difference from any other point in history, even today in some places in the world.

I think the Colonial period is simply chronologically closer. The horrible things done here have the printing press, and it being fairly recent compared to other atrocities. We know the Romans were d-bags, we know Assyria was the evil empire, ect, but these events lay far back in the mists of history. Not a lot of ink exists of accounts about it, this is so distant that it feels safer.

[Steerpike]

Right.  And it's rarer to hold up, say, Caesar or Augustus as moral authorities and heroes than it is to revere the early settlers and founding fathers or invoke their values for political purposes.

[Gamer Printshop]

What about games set in WW2, Viet Nam or Afganistan today? Should such games just be avoided altogether, since those would definitely touch upon modern concepts of human rights and intoleration? I never let modern political thinking/humanity issues cloud my game environments, they might actually be elements to help drive the direction or fervor of emotions. I don't eschew them because they might hurt somebodies feelings (that said, I don't deliberately sabotage players by forcing them to act inappropriately to modern sensibilities, and I insure all participants understand the setting and situation prior to the start of any campaign). I don't limit my games nor gaming concepts with modern sensibilities no matter how close chronologically analog events are to our current age.

I would never publish a game or setting with deliberate issues that might inflame issues of intoleration (just as I wouldn't publish a module that included issues of rape, incest, necrophilia, molestation), but games played at my own table or not limited by such restrictions. I know my players and I know how far I can take a concept before it's too far...

[Steerpike]

What about games set in WW2, Viet Nam or Afganistan today? Should such games just be avoided altogether, since those would definitely touch upon modern concepts of human rights and intoleration? I never let modern political thinking/humanity issues cloud my game environments, they might actually be elements to help drive the direction or fervor of emotions.

Here here! I don't think any setting or time period should be off limits, no matter how intense the horrors of history (though I might shy away from setting a game in a concentration camp...).

Also, I would totally read/buy/write modules with graphic/obscene sexual content, including rape, incest, necrophilia, and molestation.  In my old CE game there was an adventure where the players uncovered a zombie sex ring where a necromancer was digging up and reanimating the corpses of beautiful young women and selling them to a necrophiliac brothel.  My Fimbulvinter game began with a group of viking marauders preparing to have their way with one of the player characters (although I was very, very confident that the marauders would have their guts spilled, which did indeed happen).  Inbred hillfolk are a staple of any backwoods horror scenario, and in a Game of Thrones style game of political intrigue I wouldn't shy away from incest.   But that's me.

[Gamer Printshop]

I could see a Hogan's Heroes style game with all players as inmates in a prisoner of war camp, like Stalag 13 - perhaps not played as campy as the television show, but it would be a fun game, I'd think.

[Steerpike]

Stalag 13, absolutely, Auschwitz, probably not (or, at least: very, very carefully, and probably only as part of a bigger campaign).

[Gamer Printshop]

While I tend not to play them, but there is "Actung Cthulhu!" and plenty other eldritch horror based Nazi games, where a concentration camp scenario might fit. If the Jewish inmates aren't completely incapable, there could be a golem creating situation going on, or perhaps a hibbuk box trapped Jewish ghost scenario. It would have to be played carefully, and no doubt the concentration camp itself probably only a part of such of an adventure, and not an entire campaign, but I think its doable.

[SA]

Oh man. We did a thing once where the players were in a concentration camp, sacrificing fellow Jews  to forestall their own doom. It's maybe the fourth darkest thing we ever ran, with bad times had by all. We also did a thing about interdimensional parallel-earths sexual slavery (stealing girls from one New York and selling them to another).

Most of the shit I come up with (like, larger by an order of magnitude) doesn't end up on the CBG for this very reason. Also why you'll never see our Cadaverous Earth/Jade Stage play reports.

[Steerpike]

My god, that was the fourth darkest?!?

I can barely imagine what the first must've been like...

[sparkletwist]

Personally, I think that if your entire group is comfortable with doing shit like that, go for it, but I also think that if your entire group is comfortable with doing shit like that, you're probably doing it wrong.