No.214020
How would you do it, /tg/? What would you emphasize? The expansion of the Empire? The early days of the Roman kingdom? The dying breaths of the Republic and Caesars Civil War, and the Liberators Civil War that followed?
Would you follow the exploits of Roman legions in the far off wilds of Africa, or Gaul, or Britannica or Germanica. Would you include monsters, or would you keep it strictly historical? Would you focus on the plebs and proles, or would you emphasize the senators and equestrians?
No.214087
This reminds me of some faggot who made a homebrew that was about the IX Legion being transported to some typical Fantasy world and kicking the shit out of things or something along the lines
No.214096
>>214020
You know, I don't remember any Rome-based setting that's focused on the really early days of Rome. The days of Romulus and Remus, that stuff.
Throw in that story that Rome was founded by the descendants of Aeneas, the Prince of Troy for some Greek mythology goodness as well.
No.214144
>>214096
No.
We said ROMAN not GREEK do you pay attention?
Roman ===////=== Greek.
Most of the Pantheon was also a late occurence.
No.214196
Early empire.
Delving into terrifying northern forests filled with ancient nature demons. Maintaining the peace in Asia and Egypt despite the machinations of eunuchs and sorcerers. Holding the northern border of Britannia from the wild mountain tribes.
No.214205
>>214087
…didn't Jim Butcher write something like that?
>>214144
Dubs checked. And furthermore, at some point in the Empire's history, that became a popular cultural myth (I say myth, because we can't definitively prove that it happened.). So if you're running a campaign with a very mythical flavor to it, it could very well fit.
I've been stewing on a semi-fantastic campaign wherein the players are legionaries during the time of Gaius Julius Caesar, and they sort of experience his rise and fall, from the Gallic wars, to the Great Roman Civil War, followed by the Liberators Civil War, and having them pick sides, and potentially adapt to the situation, when it appears they've backed the wrong person (I.E, if the players decide "Fuck Caesar, I want to support Pompey"). This would be sprinkled with occasional encounter with monsters, such as giant snakes and crocodiles in the Nile, a tribe of hyena-headed manhunters in Africa, giants (more of the biblical variety, like Goliath).
No.214206
>>214205
>a tribe of hyena-headed manhunters in Africa
Gnolls represent!
No.214218
>>214205
>Pompey
>Not going with Daddy Warbucks, Marcus Licinius Crassus
You get to play fucking monopoly but in real life being one of his brutes. You set fires on someones property, when they start freaking about how they're ruined buy it out from under them then have your ready-to-go bucket brigade extinguish the flames and enjoy your new digs.
Not to mention you get to have all the fanciest toys working for him. It'd like being a henchman for the Kingpin
Up to the point he tries his hand out at military shit and gets his ass murdered and they start using his dome as a prop in a play
No.214224
>>214205
>…didn't Jim Butcher write something like that?
He made roman legion + pokemon, aka Codex Alera. It's pretty good.
No.214227
A small village full of crazy Gauls that drink a magic potion made by their druid which gives them superhuman strength.
No.214308
>>214205
>…didn't Jim Butcher write something like that?
Yeah, he did. It's called Codex Alera and everyone is a Roman who can control elementals. It's a pretty good series but some parts are a bit of chore to get through.
No.214324
I wouldn't mind running a campaign during the Fall of the Western Empire. Think about it: holding back the Barbarian Hordes with every victory becoming more pryrric than the last, corruption, scheming Generals and Tyrants, intrigue with the Eastern Empire, the death of the Old Gods and the acsension of Christianity. And as the Legions withdraw, the players become Warlords in Britain or perhaps even darkest Africa. There's quite a bit of game material there, and a chance for drama if the PCs worship Sol or Mithras.
Hell if you wanted to make it weird, you could have wild Nature Spirits popping up as Civilization declines. Or the Hellenic Dryads and Minotaurs disappearing in monster encounters as Judaeo Christian Angels and Demons take their place.
No.214488
>>214087
You mean this? It's actually pretty good.
No.214850
>>214020
I'd try using GURPS Imperial Rome.
PDF: ftp://109.172.12.231/doki/gurps/GURPS%203rd%20Edition%20eBooks/GURPS%20Imperial%20Rome.pdf
Probably worth a read even if you don't use GURPS, just for the world-building notes.
No.214855
>>214227
>Asterix and Obelix
Mah nigger
No.214876
>>214020
Why would you ask about Roman Fantasy and then immediately reference actual Roman history?
Wouldn't the point of a Roman Fantasy be to take the themes, technologies, religious inspiration and so on of Rome and build a new world off of it.
Otherwise its just Roman history.
No.214890
>>214876
Someone missed the point. It's entirely feasible to run a game set in the mythic age of Greece, with people like Hercules and Jason and Achilles running around, fighting creatures like the Gorgons and the Kraken and Charybdis and Scylla.
You're suggesting a fantasy world with a Roman spin- a Roman flavored Arthurian type deal. I'm talking about Rome with a fantastic spin.
Either one can be talked about, but that's what the opening post is getting at.
No.214892
Isn't Runequest all about that?
Also, I'm kinda conflicted about this, mostly because I enjoy most of roman law but also I love the adventure feeling old greek kingdoms gave.
No.214903
>>214488
There's also a book about a Roman Legion that gets kidnapped by Aliens who use humans from all eras as mercenaries and Gladiators.
No.214950
No.215133
>>214850
>Probably worth a read even if you don't use GURPS, just for the world-building notes.
This also applies to every other GURPS sourcebook.
No.216388
>>215133
GURPS in a nutshell. I kinda like the system (though I'm extremely reluctant to use it, simply because I don't know it like the back of my hand), but the fact that the sourcebooks are reasonably well-researched is a decent plus.
Another idea is an almost Thieves' World style street-level campaign, where the players are perhaps members of one college or another, defending their turf and so on.
No.216393
>>214890
Be kind of cool for fantasy Africanus and Germanicus running around kicking cathigian and german ass
No.216411
No.217334
Late Empire.
The players are centurions leading their men in combat against the vile barbarians from the north, every few battles the auxilia they're working with seem to get more and more bizarre and the enemy get more numerous, wilder, and almost seem to appear less and less human.
On top of all that the officers above them seem more interested in their families political games than in actually leading the campaign.
Will the players choose to focus entirely on the men they lead? To try to redirect the officers to actually doing their duty? Try to side with one of the political factions of Rome in the hope of improving their life after retirement? Run, with at least a few of the men they trust, hoping to escape this madhouse? Or something else entirely?
No.217391
>>214020
>How would you do it, /tg/?
Magical World, in which only the Lands of the civilized Empire exist, that is surrounded by a vast nothingness of Nature.
If the Empire grows weak, parts of its land are taken over by Nature and the Creatures that dwell in it.
If the Empire grows strong, its taking Land from Nature and has to deal with the shit it uncovers.
Shit has been going on so long, that the Empire has moved from its original starting place and even far away parts of the nothingness of Nature may hide ruins of the Empire.
No.217773
The game "The Age of Decadence" would make a cool RPG. The people in it are pretty much Romans.
No.217820
>>217391
The region surrounding the empire really is nothing. It is only when men enter this nothingness that it becomes something.
Not sure where to go with this idea.
No.217848
>>217820
The land could be shaped based on emotions of whoever came in, but after the first formation a region becomes static.
No.217899
Maybe magic. Maybe no magic. But focused on an extrapolation of pic related.
No proper industrial revolution, no cogfop nonsense - but Romans mastering and applying this early "steam engine" in every way they could.
Automatization of some processes would happen, sure. But the most interesting would be seeing it applied to naval exploration - having pre-gunpowder, traditional romans going full great navigations and global expansion and conquest.
No.219333
>>217899
>Romans sailing to the New World
>Setting up colonies
>Incorporating the natives
>Aztec auxiliaries
There is something gravely wrong with the world, for this to not be a thing.
No.219381
>>219333
What's wrong with it?
No.219383
>>219381
The idea itself is gold, I'm saying its tragic that no one (to my knowledge) has employed such a thing yet in fiction.
No.219384
>>219333
>Romans incorporate the Aztecs into the empire
>Rome trains and outfits them with better weapons
>Aztecs now fight with bronze weapons&armor against obsidian weapons and animal hide
>Roman Aztecs conquer damn near everything in their part of the world
>Massive ship armadas get built with that bountiful lumber
>Even more lumber gets shipped home
>The Roman Navy now has more ships than sailors
>Aztecs continue to push north and south
>The further they go, the more people get indoctrinated into the Roman Empire
>The more people get indoctrinated, the bigger their invasion force gets
>The bigger the invasion force gets, the easier it is to conquer
>Rome conquer's the world
No.219385
>>219381
A severe lack of awesome. Also, check the mans trips for Joves sake.
No.219405
>>219384
It is a pity Christianity became popular, because Pantheons are much more interesting, and to think of the Roman/Aztec religious clash is just… interesting.
No.219522
>>219384
Turtledove needs to get on that stat.
No.219579
>>219405
Except that it wouldn't clash, on the Roman's end. They'd see the various Aztec gods in relation to their own as something like relative spirits. It's why the Roman Empire worked so well, socially speaking.
No.219603
>>219579
This.
The Aztec gods would either be incorporated
>That being you call Temazcalteci is also known as Hera. We worship the same gods, but they have different names.
or the Aztec gods would be a neighboring pantheon that's on good terms with the Roman ones.
>Our gods divide up the East and West long ago and were eagerly awaiting the day when they could be reunited. Let's go conquer the world, brother!
No.219608
>>219384
From a friend:
> A human sacrifice before every battle to please Xol Invictux
> Aztec auxiliaries shipped back to Europe.
> Accustomed to the jungle fighting required in sub-saharan Africa
> Mans Iberia
> berian legions rotate north and conquer all of central europe up through scandinavia
> West out to the Urals
> South into the Congo
> They rebuild Alexander's empire
AVE MUNDUS ROMANUM
No.219614
I'd use Iron Heroes, either original broken flavor or one of the fixes. Magic exists, but is unreliable and dangerous. Monsters are the wild beasts of legend, from fuck-huge wolves to giants to bands of marauding centaurs.
Setting is the Last Days of the Empire, in Northern Britannia. The players are legionnaires or other citizens of a city that grew up around a Roman garrison. With the political instability and germanic tribes tearing through the empire, the garrison must hold out against the hostile nature spirits and rebellious natives. Local political leaders rebel, seeing opportunity for power now that Rome is more distant than ever.
Then the call comes down: the garrison is rescinded. All legionnaires must return to Rome. The emperor has written off Britannia. But the characters have made ties with the locals. Some have been stationed here for years. They've built up the city, sometimes very literally. They've started families. They've earned the loyalty of the locals.
So do they still owe duty to a dying empire? Or do they strike off and fend for themselves, protecting this place they called home?
No.224655
No.224661
>>214020
>What would you emphasize?
Civilization vs Barbarism.
Even the magic, if any. Magic would be ornate and structure for Romans, with very clear result that don't stray too far out of the core effect, but Barbarian magic would be wild, savage and unpredictable.
>>217899
>but Romans mastering and applying this early "steam engine" in every way they could
Steampunk a shit.
No.224664
>>224661
>IT HAS STEAM ON IT
>IT MUST BE STEAMPUNK
No.224666
>>224664
Your steam-powered are delicious.
No.224688
>>217848
Their gods are actually a bunch of storytellers, and they're the center of some massive epic that's still in the process of being written.
No.224690
>>224661
This.
Disregard Steam, focus on hierarchies and make magic a gift from the gods.
No.224694
>>219603
Read that as Tezcatlipoca for a moment and keked mightily
No.226475
I'd quite like to see something set during the reign of fantasy Caligula.
Why? Well, not for ERP purposes, absolutely not. No, really…
No.226502
>>219384
Now that's interesting, but I think it'd be more likely that the collective would split at some point, especially considering how European Rome fell apart imagine trying to hold itself together across a fucking ocean. It seems more likely to me that some corrupt officials would realize how far they are from the angry fist of Rome itself and realize they can get away with a lot more shit than they would be able to at home, which would probably lead up to them deciding with all the ample resources and a strong foothold against the natives that they haven't brought to heel yet they'd just cast off the fuckers and make a new empire of their own over there, possibly cannibalizing the architecture and making Tenochtitlan a new capital and moving on from there.
No.226507
>>217773
>Age of Decadence
My African-American fellow. This game is one of my favourite RPGs that I played in the last few years. For anyone interested, the story goes like this: after a long and exhausting war with an opposing nation, which involved battles among gods themselves, the Empire has fallen on hard times. The land has been poisoned by the residual magic left over from the war, most of the cities have fallen and even the Emperor is long gone. Only 3 noble houses of the original 7 remain, constantly kept in check by the remnants of the Imperial Guard. There is little food, little hope and even less magic.
Gameplay is great, combat is really challenging, although you have to minmax like hell if you want to progress in this game. Replayability is also good since there are about 6 different playthoughs available. Really great game, I recommend everyone to try it I am not a shill, pirate it if you want.
Polite sage for off topic and /v/ content.