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Neek
2007-04-04, 08:11 PM
As a result of a freak bomb accident, my last campaign has suddenly came to a standstill. Rather than go back to that, I decided to scrap and head off to my next campaign idea. Rome, but Fantasy.

I am wanting to run a campaign set in Ancient Rome, late Republic era. This means I will be using Earth as a setting and maps, with historical tools, equipment, and possibly economy. It will be using the D&D 3.5 ruleset as the basis for the mechanics, rather than a variety of the d20 Past for one main reason (and the twist): I want to incorporate the fantasy element present in D&D alongside the Roman religion and worldview. This means, there will be dwarves and elves and &c., and this means that I will have to create a distribution from where they are from, analogue existing cultures, and so on and so forth.

There will be some elements that I want to take liberties with.

Races
All the core races will be retained, and will contain relations to certain Roman gods. Selecting a race, plus a culture, grants certain skill bonuses or bonus ranks; the included ranks do not effect the maximum skill points per level, and are not considered bonuses since the character is effectively considered to be "trained."

Dwarves will be considered the chosen race of Vulcan; as such, they are reknowned for their smithing, stone cutting, and architecture. They are reserved and mountain-dwelling, for our world, they will inhabit only the mountain ranges. A string of community exists in the Alps, but they ultimately hail from the Himilayas from the east (their tales tell of a war with the Orcs who invaded, pushing a large population out). They at one point spoke their own language, which was soon reserved for ritual, but has been supplanted by a human tongue. Starting characters will speak the Etruscan language, though Church Dwarven will be a possible bonus language. Both of which are written in the Etruscan alphabet. Their prefered class will not change.
Alpine Dwarves starting package: An Alpine Dwarf receives a +2 Racial bonus on Craft (Armorsmith), Craft (Blacksmith), Craft (Weaponsmith), or Knowledge (Architecture) checks. They also receive 1 bonus rank in Knowledge (Local [Alpine Dwarves]).

Elves live in the deep sylvan areas of the world, but have been known to enjoy the mediterranian climate. They can come from Gaul or Germania, though some communities are fabled to lie deep in Brittania. Those who behold them note their difference in appearence, they are faired in skin and hair and eyes. These are the Gaulish, sometimes known as the Alban, Elves, Elves, and they speak Celtic. They do not have a written language per se, rather practicing a strong oral tradition. They leave epitaphs on tomes and burial mounds in an Iberian script, but that's the extent of their writing. Gaulish Elves receive as their starting package a +2 bonus on a Perform (Oratory) Check, 1 free rank in Knowledge (Local [Gaulish Elf]), and 1 free rank in Knowledge (Wilderness Lore); unlike their counterpart elves, the Gaulish Elves have Druid as their prestige class. Their favored god is Diana.

Elves have also hailed from the province of Asia, and integrated themselves early among the mediterranian cultures. They have footholds and communities among the Greeks, among the Phoenecians (and thereby, to a former extent, the Carthiginians). They have a well repute for being sailors and warriors, but also with their strange cults and magical connections. They are favored by Apollo, but also take part in the cults of Bacchus and to some lesser extent, Baal.

These are known better as the Aegean Elves, and start either speaking Greek or Phoenician. Their language is recorded by the respective alphabet. They receive a +2 bonus on any Profession (Sailor) check, and receive a free rank in Knowledge (Local [Aegean Elf]).

[Hold for other races]

Classes

I intend on keeping the core classes together with some modifications. Sorcerers will be more prolific, the access to spell libraries for a Wizard will be more limited. Barbarians will be favored by the Germanic cultures. Bards, Clerics, and Fighters, and Rogues will remain virtually untouched (though a cleric may receive a cut in BAB, and be given some metamagic feats. I don't know yet). Paladins will either be abolished, uprooted altogether, or be replaced with a prestige class for a more Martian (not the green kind :P) flavor.

I'm not entirely sure where to go from here. I would like some feedback regarding fleshing out the starting packages, however am not yet sure on how much they should provide. Also, anyone have any 3.0 or 3.5 diety portfolios for the Roman gods?

LoopyZebra
2007-04-04, 08:18 PM
Hmm...

I like it. I particularly like how the races are implemented.

Would the Cloistered Cleric variant suit what you're looking to do with the clerics? Deities and Demigods had a pantheon of Greek gods; change the fluff and they're Roman.

Matthew
2007-04-04, 08:24 PM
Sounds good so far. You are probably going to have to put some thought into how the Roman Pantheon interacts with foreign Deities, though. Deities and Demi Gods contains the stats and portfolios for D&D versions of the Roman Gods, but I don't think it's Open Content.

As always, you are probably going to have to deal with the Light Shield / Heavy Shield / Spear / Long Spear problem (don't mistake a Tower Shield for a Scutum).

Also, Republican Legionaries are going to be wearing Mail, rather than Segmentata. Actually, having a handle on Latin couldn't hurt when running this sort of campaign.

Magic is also potentially going to be a significant problem. If you have the money, it might be worth purchasing one of the many Rome Sourcebooks available for RPGs.

How late is Late Republic for you? How close do you want the details of history to rub against the game? Caesar? Sulla?

Clerics are pretty much out, as written. There are no Templar type Warrior Monks in Ancient Rome, to the best of my knowledge, nor much in the way of a Priest Hood, in the sense of a division of society.

Raveler1
2007-04-05, 12:00 PM
Yay for another Historical Fantasy gamer! Welcome to the club- I've at least seen Ancient Greece, now ancient Rome, and I'm doing Ancient Sumer.

Neek
2007-04-05, 01:32 PM
Yay for another Historical Fantasy gamer! Welcome to the club- I've at least seen Ancient Greece, now ancient Rome, and I'm doing Ancient Sumer.

I noticed; I haven't exactly commented on the Ancient Sumer project, but I can't wait to see the final product. It looks great. Same goes with the Greece campaign. Though I guess unlike the existing projects, I'm attempting to be keep it in line with the D&D fantasy... though I wouldn't mind doing d20 Ancient Past.

Matthew: You present a lot of good feedback. I plan on using Player Options: Combat as a source text for the rules on armor and most weapons. The conversion wouldn't be too hard, since I'm not doing a boilerplate conversion. et tu dicis debere me latine scire? Edepol! peritus sum!

I'll discuss the magic in a little bit; I have a few ideas on how to handle it.

Draz74
2007-04-05, 02:02 PM
Clerics are pretty much out, as written. There are no Templar type Warrior Monks in Ancient Rome, to the best of my knowledge, nor much in the way of a Priest Hood, in the sense of a division of society.

True ... what does fit the Roman-era mythological tradition to a tee, though, is the Favored Soul. That's the kind of heroic priests that the Roman gods liked to have champion them.

I can see Perseus, for example, as a Favored Soul of Minerva. (Did the Romans adopt his Greek name, "Perseus," or did they rename him? I don't remember what they thought of this particular myth. I know they renamed Athena Minerva, and Heracles Hercules ...)

Kyace
2007-04-05, 02:34 PM
As a result of a freak bomb accident, my last campaign has suddenly came to a standstill.
I'm quite curious if you mean a bomb in game or out of game.

Neek
2007-04-05, 11:12 PM
In-game, a Gnomish bombflinger armed with ten bombs rolled a critical failure, followed by a critical failure confirmation on an attack role and cratered himself, his friend, and the bast killed the paladin. It was sad.

Matthew
2007-04-14, 12:15 AM
Matthew: You present a lot of good feedback. I plan on using Player Options: Combat as a source text for the rules on armor and most weapons. The conversion wouldn't be too hard, since I'm not doing a boilerplate conversion. et tu dicis debere me latine scire? Edepol! peritus sum!

I'll discuss the magic in a little bit; I have a few ideas on how to handle it.
So, how's this progressing? I see you certainly have a handle on Latin! If your players are familiar it could make for some very entertaining puzzles and traps in the game.

Player's Option: Combat and Tactics is a reasonable resource for this sort of thing, though it is not without its problems. The Glory of Rome Campaign Source Book is also useful to a certain degree. Fixing 'Ancient Combat' is either going to be a matter of Templates, Bonus Feats, House Rules or a combination of all three. There have been a few discussions about how to model such things in D&D in the last month or so, but these are long standing problems for 3.5. Perhaps most significant is the fact that the Short Sword / Gladius cannot be used in combination with Power Attack. I strongly recommend allowing Light Weapons to work. I have a bunch of advice and potential solutions regarding modelling this sort of thing, but a lot depends on the flavour you are going for.

Magic and Divinity is definitely an important area that needs to be addressed early on with a concept like this. It definitely shouldn't feel 'tacked on.'