Roman Empire "Reskin": Suggestions for Adopting a Roman Aesthetic in D&D/Pathfinder

[BlackOnyx]

Looking for suggestions on how to "reskin" a new campaign (lower fantasy E6) to fit the aesthetic of the Roman Empire.

Suggestions for alternate item/system names, political structures, and/or adventure threads are all welcome.

Historical accuracy isn't of particular concern; themes and ideas that sound "stereotypically Roman" should be adequate.

(To be clear, mechanically the game would remain the same. "Fluff" and "tone" are the areas I'm looking to build upon.)

[PhantasyPen]

Okay! So is this for the players or for an NPC nation? Some concepts for a roman stereotype nation would be:

Heavy Military Emphasis: A career in politics was literally impossible without military experience in the Republic Era, since serving in the army was a requirement of holding office.

No Kings: The Romans hated the concept of monarchy to a comical degree, to the point that IIRC the official title of Caesar was "Dictator for life" and/or "First Citizen." Even mentioning the idea of a "king" was grounds for an assassination or exile.

Faith is Important: The Romans were a militaristic people tempered by strong religious faith. Divine casters would be held in high regard, even if they were not part of the Roman's own pantheon. It was very important to the romans to remain on the good side of the gods.


If you're asking how to kit people out for a roman "Military" aesthetic that would be a bit different though lol

Gladii would be shortswords

The standard Lorica Sementata is splint mail.

The iconic Scutum of the legion is a tower shield.

pilum are just javelins.

A "spatha" the iconic dueling sword would be a longsword.

Romans favored slings over bows in much of their early years.

[Maat Mons]

I had a thread a while back that was partially about Greco-Roman orcs. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?623895-Cultural-Surrogates)

[liquidformat]

Blood sports were also very big in Rome, to be honest it was mostly to distract the citizens from failures of government or else to show strength of the army/ a political figure. Still Blood sports were very big.

[weckar]

No Kings: The Romans hated the concept of monarchy to a comical degree, to the point that IIRC the official title of Caesar was "Dictator for life" and/or "First Citizen." Even mentioning the idea of a "king" was grounds for an assassination or exile. Not that Caesar didn't try to get himself crowned on multiple occasions...

I think the prevalence of blood sports is also highly overstated.

Holidays are a big deal. Religiously and politically. The people in power usually got to set the exact dates for any given holiday or festival.

There was also a stark division between political (read: military) power and mercantile power. The former flowed out from Rome to the world, while the latter tended to flow in from the world (mostly italian estates) to Rome. Anyone wielding any form of absolute power had to carefully manage the opinions and needs of both.

To study this era further, I particularly recommend reading up on the era between the first Roman civil war and the death of Caesar. The youtube channel Historia Civilis has a surprisingly thorough series of videos on this time, too.

[Batcathat]

I think the prevalence of blood sports is also highly overstated.

In addition to this, there's also the fact that their blood sports were a lot less deadly than pop culture often makes it seem. Having some prisoners getting eaten by lions or whatever is one thing but a trained gladiator was pretty big investment, so fights to the death was pretty rare (though they obviously happened, whether intentionally or by accident).

[wilphe]

Faith is Important: The Romans were a militaristic people tempered by strong religious faith. Divine casters would be held in high regard, even if they were not part of the Roman's own pantheon. It was very important to the romans to remain on the good side of the gods.


To build on this you've got two different concepts:

1) You absolutely have to keep worshiping the old gods in the old ways. No God left behind.

2) You can bring in new Gods; sometimes they will be absorbed into the existing pantheon, sometimes they will be stand alone. This doesn't always happen (Bacchus cult gets suppressed for being disruptive) but usually it does.

What this means is that there will be some tolerance of evil gods and it's more likely to happen so long as they are traditional and don't get out of hand. If you have always sacrificed two slaves to the cult of Bane every high holiday since time immemorial then fine continue - in fact it would be more impious not to - but don't make it 4 or try to do it more than once a year because that's innovation

[Thistledown]

May be worth looking at Eternal Rome by Green Ronin (https://greenroninstore.com/products/eternal-rome-pdf)