Quote:
Originally Posted by Trifletraxor
Okay Pete, tell us more about your project!  |
Well, it originally started off as a player's handout called
Pax Romana written for an adventure set in Nero's Rome. I'd designed (what I considered then) a comprehensive booklet for Roman character generation, seeded with little snippets of cultural info. The scenario actually took some real historical events of the time, and wove in a lovecraftian horror plot. The players had a blast, especially looking up the history and finding out that everything was based on reality.
Anyway, a friend decided that the handout was so good that he sent it to Lynn at Chaosium. Lynn liked what he read and asked if I'd be willing to expand it into a fully fledged supplement. Of course I foolishly said yes...
Inspired by the first HBO ROME series which was just being broadcast over here in Sweden, we agreed that it should be a historical campaign setting covering the period of Rome's beginning in 753 BC to the end of the Republic in 27ish BC (and none of that Cthulhu mythos neither!)... a period of Rome's history previously not covered by RPG's, and full of exciting possibilities due to its early mythology, and later political chaos.
Thus I started work and soon realised what I thought I
knew about Roman history... culture, society, law, etc was all based on
Imperial Rome. Thus followed many, many months of reading and research... which led to a dramatic increase in the size of my library and DVD collection.
So what is the state of BRP Rome now?
My current draft covers the following roughly defined subjects... (I can't and won't give a fully defined list, since I want to leave a large number of surprises in the final book
)
Character Generation - professions, income, price lists etc.
Society - social classes, family, virtues, politics, law, education, death, etc.
Culture - leisure (from bathing to sports), art, fashion, food and drink, etc.
The City of Rome - foundations of, different buildings (from bridges to forums to villas), crime, disasters (conflagrations to plagues), etc.
The Games - religious festivals, chariot racing, ludi, animal stats, etc.
The Legions - evolution of the army from the monarchy to the late republic, enemies of Rome, legion punishments, decorations, rewards, ovations and triumphs, etc.
Religion - gods and spirits, the priesthood, festivals and their dates, superstition, sacrifices, human sacrifices etc.
Magic & Mythology - divination, curses, divine blessings,
Roman mythological creatures, etc.
Historical Timeline - An attempt to condense 700 years of vibrant events into a handful of pages <sigh!>
Scenarios - Several dozen interwoven plot seeds with a pre-generated dramatis personae, to replace the traditional - and usually tedious - linear scenario.
Appendices - Roman name lists, minor deity lists, vulgar latin - or how to swear with proper foulness, the laws of the twelve tablets, etc.
Throughout the entire manuscript are inserted quotes from dozens of Republican (and some Augustan) authors which illuminate Roman life of that era in the voices of those alive at the time. They are not only interesting or even comic in their own right, but will hopefully inspire the reader to locate an English translation of the original text and read the entire thing properly!
As of today, I am over two thirds of the way through the project in terms of chapters done. Fortunately most of the detailed historical stuff is written, and I'm currently working on Religions. Its been a bit slow, but although it is destined to be a roleplaying supplement, I also want the facts contained within to be as reliable as possible. Soon I'll just be left with the purely game mechanic and scenario chapters, which will be churned out far faster... Hmm, perhaps churned isn't the right word...