
Epic Meepo RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16, 2012 Top 32 |
Most campaign settings I've encountered take place in original fantasy worlds. Our Earth might exist in a given fantasy campaign setting, but it is invariably distant (in time or in space) from the central focus of the campaign.
Has anyone published a fantasy campaign setting that instead takes place on an alternate version of historical Earth? Several computer RPGs have settings of that sort, but I'm more interested in settings for Pathfinder and other pen-and-paper RPGs. Do campaign settings of that sort exist? Is there any interest in campaign settings of that sort?
Examples would include things like a magi-tech interpretation of Plato's Atlantis, a dark fantasy version of Britain in the years following the death of King Arthur, or a timeline where the Trojans defeated the ancient Greeks using powerful ritual magic.

JGray |

As already mentioned, the World of Darkness games (Vampire, Werewolf, etc) are all urban fantasy/horror with heavy subversive alternate history ideas. So is the Dresden Files RPG from Evil Hat, based on the popular book series by Jim Butcher.
The Earthdawn setting takes place in pre-history and Plato's Atlantis is present as Thera, a global empire. It is connected to Shadowrun as the "Fourth World" to Shadowrun's "Sixth World".
Colonial Gothic from Rogue Games is an urban fantasy style "monsters in the darkness" setting but one that takes place during the American Revolution.
The motherload of historical fantasy is, perhaps not surprisingly, steampunkish/gaslight fantasy in origin. Among the games taking place in the Victorian time period are Victoriana from Cubicle 7, Space 1889 (now from Heliograph), Cthulhu by Gaslight from Chaosium, and Ghosts of Albion from Eden Studios.
Of course, I would suggest the award-winning Castle Falkenstein from R. Talsorian as the best of the best. It is an alternate Earth where magic (in the form of sorcery and faeries), history (Otto von Bismark is a major baddie), and fiction (Nemo is sailing the seas) meet in a beautifully evocative setting.
Disclaimer, though, I'm the current line developer for the Castle Falkenstein.

Boomerang Nebula |

The default setting for gurps is Infinite Worlds, which is basically a heap of alternate Earths in parrallel universes (timelines) that have diverged from one another at different points in history. For example there is one timeline where the Roman Empire still exists. It is possible to travel between timelines using sophisticated parachronic technology.

Murph. |

2nd edition AD&D had a series of Historical Reference Campaign Sourcebooks -- the "green books" -- that covered the Roman empire, ancient Greece, Vikings, Charlemagne, etc. Each of these had rules and setting material for playing adventures in that era -- weapons, spells, class "kits" (like PF archetypes), monsters, etc.
They're maybe not quite what you're looking for -- I gave mine away years ago (sigh), but if I recall they hewed pretty closely to "history" rather than "alternate history", though with the assumption that the monsters and magic appropriate to stories about that time exist. Looks like they're all available for PDF purchase, for the curious.

terraleon |

I believe this is what you're looking for.
I'm not sure why it's not here, but there it is. There's quite a bit for it. I've only picked up the world guide, and that was a while back. There are some maps out there for it, too, set at 1200, I believe-- that's actually gone MIA, from here. But they're pretty sharp, I pulled them a long time ago.
There's also Ars Magica's Mythic Europe setting (which is on Paizo's site, and for which I've written a few books). That's got the whole place spun up, but in Ars Magica's system. Honestly, though, once you've got the place and the setting material, you could do the mechanics without too much heartache. At least that's my opinion.
-Ben.