I’ve been to Lightbridge in Second Life before, a medieval roleplaying sim set in the year 1529 in part of English controlled France. The thing with Lightbridge is that the roleplay is aimed at human characters rather than the more fantasy based element we usually see.
The other thing with Lightbridge is that it’s set in a period of history that is currently being covered in the excellent BBC drama Wolf Hall. The BBC drama itself is based on the book Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.
There are of course some key differences between Lightbridge and Wolf Hall. Whereas Wolf Hall deals with the rise to prominence of Thomas Cromwell at a time of great upheaval for the church and monarchy in England, Lightbridge is set in the fictional harbour town of Pont de Lumière, which lies between Calais and The Duchy Of Burgundy. This is a small garrison city and therefore you wouldn’t expect to see characters such as Thomas Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII or Cardinal Wolsey roaming the streets and popping into the tavern.
Indeed the character generation forbids the roleplaying of such characters :
We do not permit players to play important real life characters (Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey, Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor, etc.) as they are reserved for admins for special roleplay events. Players may, however, play a real life character if there is no significant history to speak of that might be altered by their gameplay. Players must provide references for the existence of the character.
However fans of Wolf Hall, armed with their knowledge of these times could indeed create quite interesting characters whom would know of the politics of the times.
