World War 1 in D&D

Find a copy of Twilight 2000. Only use the things from whatever era you want to play in.
We even added in an Alien Invasion campaign.

We are working on board games now for a change. If you like world wars try Axis and allies. And yes there is a WWI version.

I hope to run a game of Axis and Allies 1940 that covers the entire world at my LGS, and I have Twilight 2000.

I like TL2000. Its a pretty good game. Quite expandable. Find all the old adventure modules from version 1.

My one friend has every single form of Axis and Allies along with all the maps. We are now playing through convention games with a LOT of detail.

For a take on spinning 5E to incorporate modern (and in this case futuristic) technology, the Star Wars 5E system is a very comprehensive reskinning. WWI lies somewhere in between 5E and SW5E but there may be some things you can be inspired by and/or incorporate here. 

https://sw5e.com/

That sounds like a great idea. Heck, worldbuilding for worldbuilding's sake is always fun, even if it never sees the table. Some will argue that the magic of D&D and the technology of our modernizing world are incompatible. But we only developed those technologies because we didn't have magic to rely upon. So let's say the standard D&D trope setting is equivalent to the medieval era. Now let's fast forward a half dozen centuries. Given that magic exists, many of our technological advancements would have been pre-empted by magically-driven alternatives. We would still have developed rifles, but they might fire lightning charges instead of bullets. We would still have poisonous gas grenades, but instead of chemicals inside a metal cylinder they might be a crystal sphere enchanted with the Stinking Cloud spell.  And we could still fall back on some of the common tropes, like having dwarves building massive steel trains, but instead of being powered by a steam or diesel engine they're powered by elementals or something. 

It wouldn't be easy, that's for sure. This sounds like several years worth of work to imagine, design, and test. But I say it's well worth the effort and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Quote from Davyd >>

 

Yes, because D&D is a system designed to play high fantasy roleplaying games. It's not a universal system, it's not meant to play any setting. It has a niche that it operates within.

 D&D has always been a universal system, it was based on Chainmail a Wargame, with fantasy bits added to it to fit more with Tolkien style story telling. At it's heart D&D is still a Dungeon crawler Wargame, the fantasy and magic is just a theming which can easily be skinned to any setting you can imagin. 5th edition is weak in one area because they removed some of the old rules for things that did't fit the dungeon crawler wargame. It's not good at political, mystery, roleplay heavy drama, yet those things still thrive in 5e and 5.5e. I personally DM a group of crazy roleplayers who do 2 sessions fun/funny roleplay and 4 sessions dungeon crawl murderhobo. Currently I am doing a Rogue Trader setting game, where one party member is the new Rogue Trader of an acient trade dynesty that goes back 10,000 years and the other party members are a rogue psyker and drukhari. I can easily add all the sci-fi elements, convert 5.5e monsters to be 40k monsters, give the party items and magic that fits the setting. And there in no friction to gameplay at all. In fact 5.5e is better at rogue trader gameplay than original 2009 TTRPG published by Fantasy Flight which I own. Ironically it was because they designed the systems to be overly complex, that unless everyone reads the book and understands it, you game master ends up doing all the work. With 5.5e the players can do all the work, and I as DM just need to throw things at the players to deal with. 

It's why rules light systems encorage more RP not less. D&D removed all the rules that bogged down RP and now RP thrives because players make it up with only a few prompts by the DM. I tell them they need to make a trade deal with a planet, they figure out what is needed, how to solve issues, I ask them to roll ... with no guidence, and they self impose win and failure events on those dice rolls. 

So yeah D&D 5.5e  is a great universal system, as long as you have dungeon crawl days. 

Quote from gothicshark >>

 D&D has always been a universal system

While certain core mechanics of D&D can be made universal, and trying to apply D&D-like rules to other genres goes back a very long time (Metamorphosis Alpha was probably first), D&D itself has never been generic -- the genre is literally in the name of the game.

In any case, trying to use D&D for a 20th century game, while technically possible, will basically involve discarding 95% of the rules and coming up with a large number of new rules, so I'd recommend a game where someone has already done that work.

The "DND is a universal system" phrase comes from "DnD' as internet-only slang for TTRPGs as a whole, and doesn't distinguish between the attempted generification in "DND" vs the more correct "Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition"

Universal system..... No i wouldn't say it is, but it can be pretty flexible.

Then there is GURPS that tries to be universal.....