Colonial Adventures

A latter day Emirikol?

Over the holiday I've been reading The Dark Side of the Enlightenment: Wizards, Alchemists, and Spiritual Seekers in the Age of Reason, and it got me thinking (though not for the first time) about a game set in a slightly alternate history/fantasy version of Colonial America as the Revolutionary War approaches. Such a setting offers plenty of wilderness to be tamed in performance of the Gygaxian ritual, but also political intrigues, mystic cults, and a clash cultures.

Though something like Warhammer Fantasy would work for this, it strikes me that the Adventures in Middle-Earth implementation of D&D 5e would also fit the bill. The de-emphasis of magic better fits a hidden magic or mildly fantastic historical setting. The idea of replacing races with cultures works well. Its Scholar class could probably be a good template for how to implement a Rosicrucian Hermetic Magi, Cabbalist, or Alchemist. The Wanderer could form the basis of a magic-free Frontier Ranger. There would still be some bases to be covered: Some sort of depowered Warlock would be useful for hidden New England witches and a less magically Bard raconteur/agitator (though maybe better handled as a thief?).

Of course this territory has been somewhat mined by game systems to some degree before (Colonial Gothic and Northern Crown, I'm aware of), so there are other places to steal ideas.