Napoleonic Wars RPG

J

jonathan8604

Mongoose
I dunno how many of ya'll have read the "Sharpe's" series from Bernard Cornwell, but personally I think that'd be a bad-ass setting for a roleplaying game. Even if ya don't get the license, it's about time somebody did a full-blown Napoleonic War RPG anyway. You could have Spanish rebels (Teresa, El Catolico), British Riflemen (Sharpe, Harper), scouts (Colonel Hardy), spies (El Mirador), mercenaries (Killick), etc. and I don't know about you guys, but I can come up with about a thousand different plot hooks for it off the top of my head just looking at those classes.

**Yeah, this is the Sharpe's RPG thread, but I figured a change in title would draw more of the community at large, besides so long as it's napoleonic, there's nothin stoppin' us from running a Sharpe's campaign with it.**
 
i say that would be the best ever. Sharpe is just amazing. It could follow all of his adventures. You could roleplay the chosen men!
 
I'm not really into RPGs but i wouldn't mind a tabletop battle game of the Napolionic wars in 28mm so then that way i could use my Dads old lead Napolionic soldiers!
 
I would much rather see custom characters and units. Perhaps stat them all out so you COULD play them if you liked, but it's always been the feel of the novels that I've found so intriguing ya know? Like the sense of desperation that Sharpe feels when he loses his rank and the Rifles. The overwhelming rage that courses through him as he storms the breach at Badajoz leading to his mutilation of the surrendered Frenchman. The sense of duty, loyalty, and honor found within all of the books' heroes, and the grim reality that no man is above temptation. Actually, for all of you out there who haven't read these books, buy "Sharpe's Rifles" from Amazon.com. You won't be disappointed, and anyone already running a military campaign is sure to walk away with some ideas. Just be warned that these books are addictive and that I'm not responsible for you letting your pets starve simply because you weren't able to pull yourself away.
 
there's approximately 1 million sets of wargame rules for napoleonic warfare out there :)

An RPG would be sweet, though with the black powder stuff in the runequest weapons book, it shouldnt be too hard.. hm...
 
One of the more awesome reasons to make it an RPG. There's a wide variety of minis already available to keep track of the battles, but some 28mm minis of the book's characters would be cool.

i.e. Sgt Harper and his seven-barrelled gun. :)
 
Just play flintloque damns you!

Sharke's regiment, the 105th Mordor Light infantry.
With Sharke's enemy, Obidiah Hogswill leading his deserter army through Dark Elven Catalucia marauding as he pleases. :lol:
 
Wargames are wargames. Now, if they came out with a Flintloque RPG, I might would be satisfied, cuz even though it is tongue in cheek, it'd just make it that much more fun. Let's face it, whether it's the French or our long-eared elf friends, they both blow up REAL good..
 
I've read the Sharpe novels and they are great. The series is much more popular in the U.K. where there was a succesful series of TV movies etc. It is almost unknown in the U.S. In fact, I think it is safe to say that there is very little interest in the U.S. about the Napoleonic wars. That's too bad, but I'm just saying it is something a publisher would have to consider since the U.S. is the biggest market.

On the other hand, it does seem strange that there is not one single Napoleonic war RPG, considering that RPGs grew out of miniature wargames, and the Napoleonic era was the most popular setting for miniature wargames.

The early 19th century provides an overlap between the swordplay era and the modern military era, which provides some interesting opportunities.
 
Correction, FANTASY miniature gaming came out of roleplaying, roleplaying has always been primarily Fantasy.
Though historicals would hit a new market, I could see it being quite successful. :)
 
CruelDespot said:
. In fact, I think it is safe to say that there is very little interest in the U.S. about the Napoleonic wars. That's too bad, but I'm just saying it is something a publisher would have to consider since the U.S. is the biggest market. .
Click to expand...

I disagree, there is a fair amount of interest in the period there, especially when you consider the War of 1812. Likewise in Britain certainly the American Civil War is quite popular. Those two periods were prior to the mid 90s the most popular wargaming periods.
The problem IMHO is that with the rise of computer gaming, Games Workshop etc complex rules lost popularity.

We saw this with the rise of DBA/DBM and ancient/medieval simplified warfare gaining popularity. GW saw sci-fi and fantasy take off. Then GW got into ancient and medieval. Only recently with Flames of War has WW2 become a mass played era.

With the right rules set I think both Napoleonics and ACW can regain their old crown
 
I honestly believe that a Napoleonic RPG would do well in the gaming market, as well as a new ruleset for wargaming. Kind've like SST. Yeah, you can do a lot with just the SST RPG, but when it comes down to massive battles, it's time to pull out the minis.

Mongoose needs to get the ball rolling. Then they'll have a whole genre pretty much to themselves. :)

On the Sharpe's liscense though, I don't see where it would be very expensive to obtain, and like CruelDespot said, it's popularity is mainly in the UK. However, just the fact that the game would be tied in with a liscense means the gamers that pick it up would obviously want to check out the franchise it's based on.

It's also a lot easier to get kids into periods such as the 19th century utilizing fictitious heroes such as Sharpe, rather than presenting them with what basically amounts to a plain-jane history book w/ rules for roleplaying. Therefore it'd pretty much be a win/win situation for Mongoose & Bernard Cornwell.
 
A Regency RPG should be able to cover anything from dollymops and guttersnipes in the streets of London to fashionable young things in the ballrooms of Bath and then the fields of Spain or even further afield such as India or even Russia or the penal colony of Australia [1]. Indeed it might be the bright young men from the Bath soiree who, disappointed in love, have bought a commission and gone off to the Peninsular to become heroes, or die, crying for their mothers with a French bullet in their gut. Maybe they desert and in disgrace end up blackbirding on the coast of Africa. Another might end up setting fire to a certain house in Washington or staggering around the swaps of Louisiana.

As to the whole thing being anti-French well yes it is, but you say it as if it was a bad thing but we won the war after all (with help, give the Germans and others their due). However you could play it just as easily from the other side with loyal agents of the glorious emperor or fanatics still loyal to the ideals of the original revolution. I feel a lot of sympathy for Villefort in the 'Count of Monte Cristo' [2] as my own father is a bit of a Bonapartist.

A nice touch is that you extend this back very easily to cover the golden age of piracy.

Would it sell better in America if you emphasise that side of things, the war of 1812 and the like?

I think the naval side is very important [3] (though a naval Regency RPG exists) but that might just be me, early exposure to the Hornblower books does that to you but you really just want a quick and dirty way of handling this.

Notes
1. Even at this date the British Empire stretches around a considerable amount of the globe and covers just about every possible climatic zone and vegetation type with the possible exception of tropical rain forest.

2. Another book that is ideal source material for a game of this type.

3. It might be worth pointing out that at one point during the Napoleonic wars half the warships in the world were British.
 
Gah.. Klingsor's got me wantin' this thing so bad, I'm tempted to make it myself--WAIT A MINUTE!!!

*runs into a small room, the sounds of heavy equipment and air wrenches emanating from within. then as quickly as it all began the sounds cease and jonathan re-emerges from the room.*

Well I forget that in order to design a roleplaying game, one must actually know what he is doing. So with that said.. MOOOOONGOOOOOSE!!!!
 
Yeah, something kinda like Flintloque would be awesome, where your troops gain xp and you have to keep them supplied n all that stuff. Now that I've read up on it, I really do think that RuneQuest n Flintloque could be well utilized together. Use RuneQuest for roleplaying, and when it comes time for battle break out the Flintloque skirmish rules with maybe a few slight modifications. Hmm.. yes.. as I stated on the Indie thread FlintQuest!!
 
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