WI: Victorian D&D?

Benefiting the Victorians, they thought of their real world as something more adventurous than what we have. The West was wild, Africa was still a dark continent, the jungles of the Amazon still held ancient treasures and peoples, Asia was the mysterious east, and there was possibilities everywhere. Not everything was hooked onto a grid, paved over and explored yet. That's why Dime novels and the like were in vogue. It doesn't necessarily need to be Space 1889 or Lovecraft to create something exciting, though I suppose those could be element. A lot of what it could be is just taking those Dime store novels and stories and making them into a playable world where people could be someone like Wyatt Earp or Allan Quartermain.

My point exactly. The most 'fantasy' settings you might see still take place in Africa or Asia or etc and would feature some sort of new, unheard of scientific advancement as opposed to elves and etc. Most of this 'Victorian D&D' would simply be real-life adventures, or near-to-real life, set down in a type of playable game.

And even then the Victorians wouldn't view it as a game; they'd see some sort educational and character-building tool to 'practice' strategy/tactics, leadership, teamwork, etc.
 

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Benefiting the Victorians, they thought of their real world as something more adventurous than what we have. The West was wild, Africa was still a dark continent, the jungles of the Amazon still held ancient treasures and peoples, Asia was the mysterious east, and there was possibilities everywhere. Not everything was hooked onto a grid, paved over and explored yet. That's why Dime novels and the like were in vogue. It doesn't necessarily need to be Space 1889 or Lovecraft to create something exciting, though I suppose those could be element. A lot of what it could be is just taking those Dime store novels and stories and making them into a playable world where people could be someone like Wyatt Earp or Allan Quartermain.

This is true, but also bear in mind that the Victorians were subject to romanticism about the past, so escapism could also take root in a past setting (stereotypical chivalric knights of King Arthur, that kind of thing).
 
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