A Bit of History
One important thing to keep in mind is to not get hung up on the word 'authentic'. That word is bullshit, pure and simple, and it nothing more than a marketing term used to sell goods and ideas. Even if you are using an actual artifact in your game, its use by a modern does not make it 'authentic'. Instead, aim for making your game period appropriate, meaning that the stage you set is designed to invoke a specific era, not to recreate it. To put it simply, unless you have a huge budget, you are not going to be able to recreate an era in full, in fact if your era is pre-role-playing, you won’t be able to do this at all. Musketeers simply did not sit around in an electrically lit room rolling dice and pretending to be heroes from ages past, nor did Mongol warriors, prehistoric hunters, or Old West gunslingers. I am not trying to insult re-enactors or others who recreate past eras; these are fine occupations and hobbies and go a long way in teaching people about the past. What I am saying is that at your table you should concentrate on set dressing, not 'authenticity'.
Music
This is by far the easiest thing to bring to the table; all you need is a few music tracks and something to play them on. Finding period music, that can be more difficult, depending on the period. For example, anything done during the late Renaissance or Early Enlightenment has a trove of recordings available for the most popular styles of those times. If running a musketeers style game, a little Baroque music playing in the background does wonders for giving the feel. Likewise, there is a lot of good music available for Westerns; I would recommend Ian Tyson as an approachable modern musician who sings traditional Western trail music, as well as his own compositions. Just be warned, some of his albums get a little creative with the arrangements, especially And Stood There Amazed, Western-Caribbean fusion is not for every taste. Pirate themed games are very lucky right now, as there are a ton of good sea shanty and pirate bands out there, many of which can be heard on the Bilge Monkey podcast. Much like Ian Tyson, some go outside the traditional bounds and might not be the right choice, though Captain Dan and His Scurvy Crew's pirate-gansta-hip-hop style seems oddly appropriate for roving bands of sea going marauders.
Whichever songs you choose for your historical campaign, the big choice you have to make is how to use it in the game. If the music is intended to be background only, keep the volume down and don’t actively work it into the game. Having music that is playing softly in the background, and then drawing the player's attention to it, is a bad idea. It is jarring, interruptive, and breaks the mood.
The other option is to make the music an integral part of the role-playing experience, and this can be difficult to do. Choose the music carefully and plan accordingly, do not simply build a playlist and hope the party gets to the climatic battle before that song plays. You have to be on your toes and ready to insert the right song for the right scene, something that may prove distracting or cumbersome, and the last thing you want to do is interrupt the flow of the game and have everyone break out of character and mood. When planning out your playlist, make sure you have plenty of extra songs to cover unexpected twists in the plot, otherwise you are planning a musical railroad for the party where whenever they stray off the tracks the music stops (of course this can be used to heighten tension, imagine if every bad lead and red herring in a horror game causes the music to stop).
Food
This is a big thing for me, as I was raised with a love of good food and an understanding of how food plays a role in defining one's cultural heritage. For me, cooking was something that everybody did, and I still get a little perplexed when people say they don’t know how to cook, its like saying you can’t read, something important has been missing from your education. I understand that some people do not have the knack for cooking, or simply don’t care to learn. However, smell and taste are excellent ways to invoke a period, and some decent food at the game table is much better than soda and pizza.
In cooking for a historical game is where worries about 'authenticity' become the most obvious. Are you using the 'authentic' ingredients, preparing them according to historical recipes, using 'authentic' methods and techniques? Honestly, who cares if the end result matches the mood you are trying to set and tastes good (and no one gets sick, that would be counter-productive). Recreating historical foodways is very difficult and not recommend for most moderns. The cost in ingredients and tools can be very high, not to mention the amount of research involved, learning a different way of approaching the kitchen, and even food safety issues (pre-modern times was full of nasty little icks that can make you very sick). Instead, choose a menu that is period appropriate, tasty, and suits the dietary issues of the group.
A few examples would be appropriate, a musketeers game, a Old West game, and a Legends of the Five Rings game. For my musketeers game, we selected menus that played on the idea of French cooking, especially French peasant cooking. In this regard we were lucky, as between my copy of Julia Child's the Art of French Cooking (an excellent cookbook, don’t let its size or reputation dissuade you) and my Alsatian heritage (the above mentioned cultural foodways I grew up with), very little research was needed. Note, we did not set out to recreate a 16th Century French dinner, merely something that felt appropriate. Some coq au vin, a little wine, a few apple tarts, and away we went. Likewise, for an Old West game, we served what amounted to Tex-Mex, not terribly 'authentic' but it fit the era nicely and was within the ability of everyone involved (we do pitch-ins with rotating assignments). When I played in a Legends of the Five Rings game, before the first session we all went to a Japanese steakhouse to discuss the characters and campaign, and subsequent sessions involved a lot of Chinese carryout. 'Authentic', who cares, we ate good food and were put in the mood of feudal Samurai in a fantasy Asia.
Recipes can easily be found on the internet, and by sticking to what is available in your locality, the cost can be kept below that of several pizzas. As I mentioned above, my own group does a pitch-in, and this is by far the best way to both spread the cost and labor. By rotating who is responsible for what item, you can avoid having someone feel put upon to always provide the entre or desert, not only are different courses pricier or more time consuming than others, who wants to make the desert every time? Also, I have found that players who won’t research their character's era will go to great lengths to find out what food to suggest or bring, and consequently, learn about the period being played.
Décor
By far the most difficult and expensive part of setting your stage is the furniture, wall hangings, and other elements of interior decoration. Unless you have a well-stocked set of props and decorations, and a place to store them, décor may be a bit of an overwhelming task. Don’t be discouraged by these difficulties, they can be worked around with ease and efficiency. Keeping in mind that you are aiming for period appropriate and not a complete recreation of an era (unless you happen to be a re-enactor with a recreated room to game in, in which case I have to ask if your group has an opening). A few small pieces are all you really need, and can be picked up with varying levels of expense. Junk shops, swamp meets, and even yard sales can all yield interesting and evocative items for little cost, and hunting these places can be a lot of fun.Two examples serve to show how you can really set the mood without going to much work and putting out a lot of money. Many years ago we played historical rpgs in a friend's garage, using the lack of air conditioning or heating as a means of getting into the 'old timey' mood. To enhance this, we played at night and lit the room entirely with candles and lanterns, casting a nice pre-electric glow. It is much easier to understand how a person could sneak around inside a mansion when you see all the shadows and half-shapes around you. The same group also played a Legends of the Five Rings campaign in a modern apartment, but we often moved the table aside, threw some mattresses on the floor, and played in a seated position with little writing tables and clipboards.
You don’t even have to go to this much trouble to evoke a feeling of yesterday. If your group normally plays around a table, moving to the living room for a Victorian game of middle-class monster hunters helps to set the 'parlor' mood. Taking down overtly out of genre items that are in the room you play in can help as well. For example, if you have an awesome Boris Vellejo print, but you're playing a game about a Republican Roman household and their mundane trials and tribulations, you might want to remove it. Clearing away all that technological clutter that we moderns enjoy also helps, leave the cell phones, notebook computers, tablets, and such in another room or safely tucked away in people's game bags. If playing in a room with a computer or TV, take it out or cover it up.
Costumes
Not everyone wants to wear a costume while gaming, and some see it as part of the common misconceptions about the hobby that lead to ridicule. Others find them expensive or uncomfortable, not to mention the choice between changing at the location or traveling from home to game dressed in character. Much like décor, a little bit goes a long way and a small amount of effort and expense is all that is required.
Unless you happen to have a full period costume (and the whole group does, please don’t be That Guy who makes his friends look bad) putting one together could be problematic. However, a few small touches help set the stage, such as a necklace, hat, scarf, or even a shirt. As an example, during the aforementioned Legends of the Five Rings campaign, we occasionally brought our old martial arts uniforms and wore the jackets (at least those of us who still fit, there were a lot of very loosely tied obi). Since not everybody had one, those who had extra brought some, and the whole group could be seen sitting on the mattresses, eating rice and noodles, and wearing various gi jackets, a fitting scene for the game. The same small touches can be made for a variety of genres, depending on how much work you want to go into. A cowboy hat or boots for Old West, a top hat or bowler for Victorian, or even a sheet a la Animal House for Ancient Rome.
Visuals and Learning
One of the problems I often run into when running historical games is that not everyone in the group is up to speed on the time period, and this can break the mood and hurt verisimilitude. We can't expect every person in a group to be able to put in the time and effort to study up on a period, and that is one of the reasons to set your stage. Visual aids are a big help, and I'm not talking about just the things needed to run the game. A photo slideshow of a place and era can be very helpful, and looks great. A little searching on the internet should turn up some images of the period ranging from artwork to photographs (even some of re-enactors). The slide show should not be terribly long, a dozen or so images goes a long way, and provides an opportunity for those more 'in the know' about a period to gently inform their fellows. The big advantage of a short slide show is that it helps players visualize the scenes in the game, and gives them some idea as to how their characters should look.
Still images can be very powerful, but moving pictures with sound (talkies!) can be more so. How much time you want to devote to screening a movie depends on the available time and the group's preferences. Keep in mind that you don’t have to show the whole thing, a short clip can help put people in the right mood and convey a wealth of information about a time and place. Avoid the temptation to show rather dry documentaries, because unless your group loves the era some or all of them will quickly get bored and wander off. Instead, pick something that is evocative and entertaining, but shows what type of game you are trying to run.
Recently, I ran a short-lived prehistoric based heroic fantasy game. At the start of the first session, I showed a fifteen-minute clip from Walking with Cavemen. Although good, its not the most accurate documentary, but it is highly engrossing and helped to show the era in a way that simply describing prehistoric life could not. For the long ago Legends of the Five Rings campaign, I did something similar, only everybody who could showed up early for the game and we screened an entire Chanbara movie. This worked well, until one day I decided to show something else, picking Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker. Although a great movie, and helped to illustrate some issues involving honor and the acceptance of loss, it was too much of a downer for the group (not to mention the climatic fireworks scene disturbed a few players) and not at all keeping in the high-action style we had been playing.
Putting It All Together
As I write this I am planning for a 1960's cWoD game set in Las Vegas. For music, I have a playlist heavy on the Sinatra, but some Elvis as well, and others form that era (Johnny Cash, Dean Martin, etc…). This will be played in the background at a low volume, just to the side of the table so as not to distract or interfere with people talking. Food is where things get a little odd, as the foodways are not that different than today. My first though was to go high-end, but honestly, none of us can afford steak and lobster, so a different approach has to be made. Presentation will set the scene nicely, with plenty of cocktail toothpick with those little flags, individual plate settings, and martini glasses (cocktail optional, even if you are drinking Mt. Dew out of it the mood is still maintained). Burgers, cheap steaks (hey, chuck is still steak), salads, shrimp, French fries, modern fare, but appropriate. We might even do a large buffet at some time. As far as décor, lacking a roulette wheel or someplace to store it, I am going to place dice (plain white six-siders), poker chips and playing cards in the center of the table. Not much, but its what we have, so it will have to do. Also, no one in the group owns a tux, so we will dress up a little, suits and sports coats if possible, a nice shirt and tie otherwise. Classy, that's our goal, but also comfortable for several hours of gaming. Finally, I have accumulated a photo slideshow of Vegas in the Sixties, as well as queued on Netflix several period appropriate movies to show during the cooking/ pre-game part of our game sessions.
At this time there are no new releases to announce, but a few things should be coming out soon. NS-3 The Death Curse of Sven Oakenfist for the Northlands Saga adventure Series from Frog God Games should be out in both Pathfinder and Swords and Wizardry editions. Also, by the end of the month, or in early March at the latest, I should have two new self-published titles on sell at DriveThru RPG, Pathfinder Character Traits Medieval Europe and Pathfinder Character Traits Feudal Japan. Until next month, set the scene for a bit of history during your next game, and enjoy.
