Cavalier Hearts: An RPG Campaign Setting

So, I have recently begun work on what will be a dream setting for my role-playing game campaigns and my fan fiction stories, a historical fiction/historical fantasy setting that I like to call Cavalier Hearts and it is an open-world anime-inspired setting that combines two of my newfound passions.

Those two passions are The American Civil War and yaoi manga so this should make for one hell of a ride. Imagine if Ken Burns directed a fujoshi-bait anime like Free! or Ouran Host Club (I'm a huge fan of Ouran, BTW) or if Shelby Foote wrote yaoi manga, and you would sort of be in the same ballpark as Cavalier Roses.

Basically it's the American Civil War except everyone in both the Union and Confederate forces are beautiful and handsome bishonen anime guys.

Because even the most absolute straightest of guys out there will agree that when anime guys kiss, it is adorable and beautiful, even if they don't want to admit it. It's a scientific fact!

But no, this is not just some weird trip into my "Magical Realm" either...

Cavalier Hearts is a campaign setting that can be adapted for multiple systems out there (I'm currently planning to use it with Big Eyes Small Mouth) and can be used as a straight-up historical Civil War combat and tactics simulator, or it can be a setting for sentimentalism, beauty, melodrama, tragic romances, and other tropes of the yaoi genre.

There would be five character archetypes in Cavalier Hearts, each with their own starting equipment and objectives. The archetypes are Private, NCO, Officer, Medic, and Flag Bearer

The main focus of Cavalier Hearts is the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, spanning from the beginning of the war in 1861 to the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865.

Some of the battles I would love to include in Cavalier Hearts would be the following....

The Battle of Bull Run
The Battle of Hampton Roads
The Battle of Seven Pines
The Seven Days Battles
The Shenandoah Valley Campaign
The Battle of Second Manassas
The Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of The Wilderness
The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse
The Battle of Cold Harbor
The Petersburg Campaign
The Battle of Five Forks
The Battle of Sailor's Creek
The Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

Other features of Cavalier Hearts would include the following...

1. A wide variety of weapons and uniforms from the era of the American Civil War
2. The ability for players to form their own companies (adventuring parties) at GM discretion
3. The ability of characters to form romances at GM's discretion
4. A wide depth of setting details, taken from both Civil War combat manuals and yaoi manga
5. An open-world campaign map covering the areas of Virginia, Maryland, DC, and Pennsylvania
6. Encampments and Fortifications
7. Characters can buy extra goods from the Commissary at their camp or fort
8. A full table of ranks ranging from Private to Colonel
9. Whiskey, tobacco, candy, flowers, stuffed animals, plushies, and dakimakura at the Commissary
10. More prestigious and famous soldiers can get a following of fujoshi to help and defend them
11. Characters can be either Seme or Uke, Union or Confederate, the sky is the limit!


Ideally, if Cavalier Hearts were a video game, it would have a kickass soundtrack of songs appropriate to the setting of the game. These would be the songs in such an ideal soundtrack.

1. Ashokan Farewell
2. The Battle Cry of Freedom
3. The Battle Hymn of the Republic
4. Dixie
5. When Johnny Comes Marching Home
6. The Bonnie Blue Flag
7. Lorena
8. Kingdom Coming
9. Marching Through Georgia
10. The New York Volunteer
11. Rose of Alabama
12. Cumberland Gap
13. Lincoln and Liberty
14. I'm A Good Old Rebel
15. It's Raining Men

That being said, I understand that Cavalier Hearts is a very niche setting concept and it will probably only attract three groups of players....

1. Elderly history buffs and other senile out-of-touch Boomer types who have probably never played an RPG in their lives before

2. Fujoshi (yaoi fangirls), mostly either teens or college girls, fawning over their characters, making kissing faces at the gaming table, and engaging in really awkward erotic role-playing in online play

3. Edgy thirteen-year old boys who always play Confederate characters and spend the game swearing in-character, killing random PC's and NPC's alike, randomly spewing ethnic slurs and other various obscenities, and generally just being "That Guy"

And if any normie or even your average gamer plays a game of Cavalier Hearts and asks any of these three groups how the game is played and what the game is about, they'll probably just call him a griefer and kick him out of the gaming table.