I've been thinking about this game called The Pool and a setting I've been tinkering on, putting an existing ODnD module into Real World Medieval Burgundy. I think the Pool might work exceptionally well for Forum play.

This would be the game prompt:
The story begins in the County of Rethel, in what is now the French Ardennes. It is the year 1460. The County is momentarily under the rule of Charles the First, Count of Nevers and Rethel. The Count has been accused of witchcraft (in an effort to supplant Charles The Bold, Count of Charolais, as the heir.) and has fled to France. In his stead, the County Estate is now held by a castellan, Godfrey le Flamand. The taint of witchcraft has shaped the lands though, as there are now rumors of monsters in the hills and other strange visions. Godfrey is not happy with this, or what his liege has probably done. He wants to purge the land, for righteousness and the Order of the Golden Fleece.

More information on the county, the environment, etc. is easy to find on wikipedia and would be provided as well.

It's an interesting idea (both in terms of setting and system), but were I a player, I'd probably want to know the answers to the following questions before I put in an RTJ:

A) What specifically is the role of the players going to be? Are they involved in this hunt of purging witchcraft or are they simply inhabitants of the land?

B) Is this game going to focus more on the hunting monsters etc or on a more general genre piece (i.e. politics, intrigue and chivalry in the 1460s)? Is this more of a role-playing character piece or more of a dungeon crawler?

C) You mention that you're putting an existing ODnD module into the new setting, but using the Pool as the model. Why is the Pool good for this kind of game and why are you choosing it over ODnD?

My other thoughts are, having glanced over the Pool, that it seems to benefit from a lot of conversation between players and the GM to work out what dice pools are appropriate, and there's potential for a bit more rules lawyering than you might have in a more structured format. Based on that, you might encounter some issues if you've got a mixed player base with divergent posting schedules.

Good feedback.

The player would decide as a team what exactly they would want to do or focus on story wise. They could be farmers being plagued by sudden inexplicable happenings and sudden actual witch-hunts. They could also be soldiers of the Castellan going out to hunt monsters and sorcery. Or they could be mercenaries trying to find work in this place, doesn't really matter what kind of work. They might even choose something else!

I think this is a good system for a forum because it's not bogged down in rolling attacks and defenses, but rather you write scenes and roll to see what happens.

The conversation about what dice pool to use is something I hadn't thought about yet, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem, although it might slow it down more than I thought it would. All in all, it doesn't seem like fight scenes (wether dungeon crawling or not) would no longer bog down play drastically.

Sounds interesting, although whether you'd be able to get all the players to agree on a single thing might be easier said that done!

I do agree that the quick combat mechanic would potentially avoid some of the greater disadvantages of trying to do fights in a PBP setting, albeit you would potentially need to be a bit tight on aspects like the dice wagering format, especially when a player might be dying and you have other players opting to put dice into the middle.

Still, a potentially interesting approach - I'll be interested to see if there's more general interest for this!

An interesting idea to be sure.

I could see it going to very interesting places if you were to find a dedicated and historically literate group!

I had never heard of The Pool. Although it seems easy enough to learn.

I plan on doing the heavy lifting there if needed, although I'm not entirely knowledgable in my own history (I'm from Belgium, my last name is Bourguignon, which mean "of Burgundy"). It's mainly a jumping off point for an alternate history moment, where magic is real and things might change. Like, the Count of Nevers and Rethel normally dies not many years after, still hiding in France, but should the players decide to try and hunt him down, these things might change from history.

I mainly like using a historic setting to have a more definite flavor and avoid a more vanilla fantasy vibe. And it gives me a lot of things to draw upon. I don't have to come up with NPC's that much, even though I invented the Castellan of this intro blurb. There's a lot of room for a "what if" type of mentality.

The only thing I'd say (and I'm aware I'm dipping my oar in far deeper than is probabl polite) is that historical settings are good for flavour but you may have to be quick on your feet as to explain why that's the point to diverge from the official timeline, and why this stuff hasn't happened (or been known to happen) before.

I've run a couple of games using a semi-historical timeline and there's a bit of a risk about how much you tie your hands using existing historical facts rather than fudging the specifics and capturing the feel of the piece, and it can really end up frying your canon.

It's not impossible, by any means, and if you can do it well then it's a really good experience. Just beware because you'll get some players who don't want or have the time to do the research and resent the players who do, and others who will and then demand how X is canon given the chronicle from the period specifically cites Y, and use it as an excuse to try and take liberties or metagame.

If you take this forward, it might be worth picking a point about 50 years previously and then build a kind of 'pocket universe canon' into that period which is where it diverges from the historical - it means you can create a canon which everyone can access but which preserves the verisimilitude of the setting. That, or run a kind of Assassin's Creed/NWod 'hidden history' which never makes it into the official records and which has some precedent.

Good tips, once again! Thanks!

I'd be interested

Okay, we seem to have 1-3 people that are interested. I will start setting this up and send an r-mail when it's done.