One of the challenges in designing a historically themed RPG is that history is full of controversial figures. This doesn’t have to put you off playing in a historical setting or even weaving those figures into your stories. After considerable thought and study, we at Shewstone Publishing have come up our preferred approach.
The following short article is an except from the Magonomia® Core Rules.
Real-world people are complicated. One could read several entire books about Queen Elizabeth and not come away with a clear opinion whether she was a good ruler or a bad one. In fiction, especially in collaborative fiction like an RPG, nuance and moral ambiguity don’t always improve the narrative. When you want to use historical characters in your game, we recommend you decide first what role you want that character to fill in your campaign, then choose Aspects, skills, and stunts that suit that role.
For example, consider the famous buccaneer Francis Drake. You could portray him as the dashing, heroic figure he seemed to want to project. If you research his actions, some of the shine comes off his image. He led one slave trading voyage and some might say he recklessly provoked war with Spain. Thus, it’s possible to write two rather different characters based on Francis Drake: “Drake as a Patriotic Hero” or “Drake as a Manipulative Loose Cannon.” Either is perfectly usable, depending on the role you want Drake to have in your campaign.
When we present a historical character in Magonomia products, the character’s name will always be accompanied by an explicit “angle” we’re taking on the character. You may later see the same historical person presented from an entirely different angle, with different Aspects and a different role in mind for the character.
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