What particular bit of Europe are you focused on for inspiration?

I try to model different countries as regions in a kingdom.

Okay, so it sounds like you need to re-invent a new setting entirely, drawing only on the elements of history you want and filling in the rest with your own needs.

Call it Avrupa.

So the Kings demesne is a bit French, to the north I have Prussia, coast is very Hanseatic, I cram in Cossack refugees too

auxonne.

I'm modifying the setting that was playtested

Hmm.

I have the setting quite figured out.

If you crush Europe down to a single kingdom, that means its ruler is a Pope-equivalent psychopomp who is constantly struggling with the governors who need his authority but don't really care about his priorities.

And the bits that are conflicting are a) absence of religion focus and b) Christian way of life

@BESW Exactly! That's why it's called Courtly Intrigue. A new king succeeds his father and everyone tries to use it for his own gain. Cue the PCs, working behind the scenes for their own purposes.

You can file the numbers off of Christianity and then just structure your game so it's a focus of the setting but not the play.

Hmmm

I was thinking of that as a backup plan.

It doesn't sound too elegant.

I am not trying to be a malcontent, just thinking of possible ways to address it without having people say "look! christianity dressed up!"

@eimyr How large is this country? The kind of range of cultures Europe had doesn't really make much sense in a single country.

@eimyr I'm not sure why that's a sticking point, since your setting is already "Look! Europe dressed up!"

or "well, how come these guys are knights with christian values? Sham!"

@Miniman Point at Bohemia (currently Czech Republic) and you'll se a huge range of cultures around it.

@Miniman Before 19th century there were no national states - kingdoms the size of Poland held a multitude of cultures, sometimes completely unrelated.

@BESW Maybe I'm just too paranoid about not trying to aggravate religious issues.

I wanted to make an RPG that stirs that pot, but not this one.

Perhaps you'er right and I'm overthinking a fairly simple matter.

It's not an unreasonable goal.

But you're looking to keep many trappings of 15th century Christianity --politically active psychopomp, code of honour, etc-- while stripping it of its politicality.

In a political game.

erm...

Not so much, actually. The bits that I would miss the most is religious base for feudalism and the arbitrariness of certain ordeals

Okay, so rip it out at the roots, cut off what you want, and re-grow a new religious system to support what you want while staying out of the way the rest of the time.

but I think I'll reskin Christianity into a church of Yeh Almighty.

And just accept it's a reskin, as much as the rest of the game is

I just wanted my game to have a setting that's not "standard fantasy", move it a bit closer to historical accuracy

I'd suggest looking at Feudal Japan and its codes and traditions for additional inspiration; melding that in may help your new iteration be more diverse.

but all in all, it's a mutually exclusive goal

@BESW For diversity I'm adding some Eastern European flavour to it. I haven't decided anything about "foreign lands" yet, maybe some asian stuff would have a proper place there.

I'm not suggesting that you add foreign lands.

I am. Creating a foreign land or a domestic faction is the core of game creation.

I'm suggesting that you incorporate concepts from feudal Japan into your European microcosm.

I can't see it yet...

And I think I might be too ignorant about asian culture to do it right

But I'm thinking... if I REALLY need to write a game that's set in historically accurate settings, I can always write up HYPER REALISTIC ADVENTURES.

Both systems have warriors with a strict code of honour, a central leader who wields both religious and temporal power, a complex hierarchy of castes and convoluted politics...

...Alternately, you could trust your audience and say straight-up "This setting is a European microcosm, and we've got Christianity in here, but my group isn't comfortable with all the baggage of 15th century Christianity so I'll be edging around that. If your group thinks adding that in would be cool, more power to you."

Bam, done, rocket surgery avoided.

Sounds like a good plan

I could even come clean and say "look, Christianity really dropped the ball there, with Crusades and witch-hunts, heresy wars and overall dickery. I don't want players to be muddled with that, so the Church of st. Papa is our cartoon religion that you can use for politics, but it won't be at the center of play, because you are supposed to be politicians, not cult leaders"

At the same time I might endorse PC-as-a-cleric play, because it won't be as restrictive as it otherwise would

cool

thanks for the help, I really appreciate it

No problem. Good luck!

Also, if I'm taking too much of your time, blame Greener.

I usually do.

TIL the Blue Beetle stole Hitler's moustache.