This is a list of 68 role-playing games published since 1975 that are set in, or draw heavy inspiration from, the period between AD 1500 and 1800. Most are in English, although there are a number of French games and one Spanish example.
I began this list a few years ago and posted it to Google+ prior to that platform's demise; since then, I've periodically returned to update it and add games as they came to my attention. Many of these games I have not seen in print, but only learned about through online research. The website Le guide du rôliste galactique (https://www.legrog.org/) has been very useful for finding details about many of these, as has Wikipedia. As the list has grown considerably since I first shared it on Google+, it may be worth sharing again. Below is a summary of the list; the full Google spreadsheet (with additional columns of data) can be found here.
The concept of an "early modern period" referring to the period ca. 1500-1800 is commonplace in scholarly circles but is generally eschewed by publishers of popular histories and may be unfamiliar to many. It's admittedly something of a Eurocentric notion but nevertheless a useful one even outside of a European context, insofar as a key defining characteristic of this early "modernity" was the beginnings of forms of European colonialism and imperialism that have so shaped the world over the past half-millennium. As is the case with all such periodizations, historians will continue to argue about its coherence, its beginning, and its end, but the basic formulation is pretty clear. In general terms, the early modern period is understood to mark a rupture from the medieval era that preceded it due to a number of key developments within Europe: the cultural and political consequences of the rapid spread of the new (to Europe) technology of the printing press; the emergence of black powder weapons; the religious schism within western Christianity with the Protestant Reformation; and the advent of overseas expansion to coastal Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Americas, and southeast Asia.
In the context of role-playing games, the early modern period can effectively by summed up by two tropes: musketeers and pirates. The classic literary exemplars of these tropes can be found, respectively, in Dumas' Three Musketeers and Stevenson's Treasure Island. Other minor themes emerge as well, as can be seen by perusing the list: witch-hunting, political revolution, and empire.
If the earliest games in the list were designed to reflect real-world history, many others involve the importing of selective aspects of the early modern period into fantasy settings, or the elaboration of an alternative history that allows for the incorporation of fantastical elements. My criteria for inclusion were broad: if, for example, a game set in a fantasy world involved pirates with tricorn hats, black powder weapons, and examples of Hollywood "pirate talk" (i.e., the West Country accent popularized by actor Robert Newton in the mid-20th century), I added it, even if the setting wasn't even remotely connected to Earth history.
I have no doubt that I've missed many games. I would be glad to learn of them! I am surprised not to have come across any RPGs set in sixteenth-century Japan, for example. But perhaps I have not been looking hard enough.
| En Garde! | Game Designers' Workshop | 1975 |
| Buccaneer | Adversary Games | 1979 |
| Skull & Crossbones | Fantasy Games Unlimited | 1980 |
| Pirates and Plunder | Yaquinto Publications | 1981 |
| Taste My Steel! | Phantasy Network | 1982 |
| Privateers & Gentlemen | Fantasy Games Unlimited | 1983 |
| Flashing Blades | Fantasy Games Unlimited | 1984 |
| Maelstrom | Puffin Books | 1984 |
| High Seas | Fantasy Games Unlimited | 1985 |
| Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay | Games Workshop | 1986 |
| GURPS Swashbucklers | Steve Jackson Games | 1988 |
| Aux armes, citoyens! | Cubic 6 | 1988 |
| Swashbuckler | Jolly Roger Games | 1988 |
| Lace & Steel | The Australian Game Group | 1989 |
| Pirates (campaign supplement for Rolemaster and Fantasy Hero | Iron Crown Enterprises | 1990 |
| Capitaine Vaudou | Casus Belli / Jeux Descartes | 1991 |
| GURPS Scarlet Pimpernel | Steve Jackson Games | 1991 |
| A Mighty Fortress (AD&D 2e Sourcebook) | TSR | 1992 |
| At Rapier's Point (genre book for Rolemaster) | Iron Crown Enterprises | 1993 |
| Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen | Hogshead Publishing | 1998 |
| Furry Pirates | Atlas Games | 1999 |
| 7th Sea | AEG | 1999 |
| Ravenloft Campaign Setting (D&D 3e) | Arthaus/Sword&Sorcery [White Wolf] | 2001 |
| Juego de rol del Capitán Alatriste | Devir Iberia | 2002 |
| 50 Fathoms (Savage Worlds) | Pinnacle Entertainment Group | 2003 |
| Pavillion noir | Black Book Éditions | 2004 |
| 1632 | Battlefield Press | 2004 |
| Mousquetaires de l'ombre | Phénix Édition | 2004 |
| Northern Crown: New World Adventures | Atlas Games | 2005 |
| Te Deum pour un massacre | Éditions du Matagot | 2005 |
| d20 Past (d20 Modern supplement) | Wizards of the Coast | 2005 |
| Witch Hunter | Paradigm Concepts | 2007 |
| Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane | Pinnacle Entertainment Group | 2007 |
| Pirates of the Spanish Main (Savage Worlds) | Pinnacle Entertainment Group | 2007 |
| Pirates (Runequest supplement) | Mongoose Publishing | 2007 |
| Colonial Gothic | Rogue Games | 2007 |
| Poison'd: A Pirate RPG | Lumpley Games | 2007 |
| Khaos 1795 | Les 12 Singes | 2008 |
| Beat to Quarters | Neil Gow | 2009 |
| Lamentations of the Flame Princess | LotFP | 2010 |
| Clockwork & Chivalry | Cubicle 7 | 2010 |
| All for One: Régime Diabolique | Cubicle 7 | 2010 |
| Backswords & Bucklers | Tied to a Kite Games | 2011 |
| Renaissance Deluxe | Cakebread & Walton | 2012 |
| Honor + Intrigue | Basic Action Games | 2012 |
| Terra Incognita - Voyages aux pays de nulle part | Les XII Singes/Respell | 2012 |
| Sabres & Witchery | Beyond Belief Games | 2013 |
| Tenebrae | Les XII Singes | 2013 |
| Solomon Kane 4e édition | Olivier Legrand | 2013 |
| Pirates & Dragons | Cakebread & Walton | 2014 |
| Blood Tide: Black Sails and Dark Rituals (BRP) | Chaosium | 2014 |
| Les lames du cardinal | Sans-Détour Éditions | 2014 |
| XVII, au fil de l'âme | JdR Éditions | 2015 |
| Leaves of Chiaroscuro | Bennett-Burks Design | 2016 |
| Mordiou! | Chibi | 2016 |
| Buccaneer: Through Hell and High Water | Yellow Piece Games / Fabled Environments | 2017 |
| Freebooters | Night Owl Workshop | 2017 |
| LexOccultum | Riotminds | 2018 |
| Miseries & Misfortunes, 2nd edition | Luke Crane | 2019 |
| Rapscallion: Ashcan Edition | Magpie Games | 2019 |
| Sea of Thieves Roleplaying Game | Mongoose Publishing | 2019 |
| Forts & Frontiers - Feast of the Dead quickstart | Campaign Games | 2019 |
| 17th Century Minimalist | Games Omnivorous | 2020 |
| Flames of Freedom Grim and Perilous RPG | Andrews McNeel | 2021 |
| The Dee Sanction | Just Crunch Games | 2021 |
| Nations & Cannons | Flagbearer Games | 2021 |
| Gran Meccanismo: Clockpunk Roleplaying in Da Vinci's Florence | Osprey Publishing | 2022 |
| Iron Kingdoms: The Nightmare Empire | Privateer Press | coming in 2023 |
One thing the list suggests is the perennial interest in the period and its tropes. In 47 years, 68 games have been published, an average of 1.4 games per year. Pirates, it seems, have always been popular, even before the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Above all, the early modern period is the locus par excellence for swashbuckling adventure. Folks try to shoehorn it into their medieval fantasy games, but it doesn't really fit, does it?
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