Incline RPGs with historical settings

[ilitarist]

Stainless Veteran is right. Crusader Kings 2 is about roleplaying. Not in the sense of statgrinding and powerplay but in a more pure form. All Paradox games are really about that, but in CK2 it's easier to see because it's character-based, not nation-based.

DLC creep is a problem, many of them add features that were broken by later additions. You may even have a better experience with no DLCs at all. But there are good ones like Old Gods (unique Pagan playstyle), Way of Life (lots of roleplaying options) and Conclave (fleshed out internal politics). Most of the others unlock playing as some new type of nation, you may want Sword of Islam for Muslims but others are not that interesting.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Paradoxically, one of the best overall experiences with medieval historical settings, if we don't take into an account Darklands and KCD, were Crusader Kings 2. Not a RPG, of course, but in what other game you can oust a Ryurikovich, make Rus Ryazanskaya, and schadenfreudingly watch their territories shrink, and individuals wither away into insignificance. I remeber in one of my walkthroughs, one young descendant of Rurik tried to strike a fortune in Varangian Guard. After two years of service he got mixed up into some plot. It didn't end well. He returned to his home town blind, crippled and castrated. Then his uncle from neighboring county raised an army against him, captured his lands and poor the poor cripple into an oubliette, where he died miserably. What other game can craft such stories on the fly? With mods CK2 becomes even more interesting. On the other hand, that game has ton of overpriced DLC, and many parts of it aren't interesting at all.

Maybe it's a subjective thing, but I always start playing CK2 as a role-playing game, but things quickly devolve into me looking for ways to game the rules instead of roleplaying, and never developing any interest in the characters as personalities.

 

[DoomIhlVaria]

Teudogar and the alliance with Rome holds up surprisingly well.

This game's art looks like he just recolored Ultima VII's assets. This is probably pretty lazy but I like the result anyway.

 

[Fowyr]

There were also mostly mythological Dusk of the Gods and completely fantasy Ragnarok.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

If we're talking about mods, than not only M&B has decent quasi-historical mods, but even NWN1 had at least one. Bastard of Kosigan leaned heavily on fantasy side of things, and is buggy as fuck. but overall it was surprisingly decent.

Also if we're talking about quasi-historical fantasy settings, than I nominate URW. It doesn't have much plot (if any) but this is probably the only game that makes you feel as Iron Age tribesman. It's a survival roguelike which predates all that survival games craze at least for two and a half decade or so.

Also I can't not mention Celtic Tales: Balor of an Evil Eye. It's not a RPG, of course, though it does have quite a few RPG elements, and a decent plot. But it have heaps of atmosphere. I played it first in 7th grade, and it got me enthralled. I started to read about Celtic people, their culture, mythology and history. So while it's more mythological than historic, it's still is a great game, which I can wholeheartedly recommend to everyone.


Also, while talking about KOEI games, there was that little hidden gem - Uncharted Waters series - a really great pirate (mostly) RPG, which can be also called quasi-historical.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Claudius Mods about Knights of Round Table as II century Sarmatian Knights and the one about Crusades was not bad at ll neither.... it even has couple of chapters in Constantinople... those are for NWN2 though... and yes there was one about Andaluz too but I am not into playing as dirty Mudslime so I passed this out.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Cladius Mods about Knights of Round Table as II Cecond century Sarmatian Knights and the one about Crusades was not bad at ll neither.... it even has couple of chapters in Constantinople... those are for NWN2 though.

Wait, Claudius did one for the Crusades?
All I got were: Sarmates!, Al-Andalus and the Sci-fi one, Cygni-16.