Roman RP Campaign (witty name in progress)

[Sulla88]

Introduction

Hi there RTWers! I really want to participate in a role-playing, collaborative campaign so I have decided that the best thing to do is to try to set one up myself. It will be using the classic Rome Total war (I don’t like the new one yet) and will probably use a mod (most likely EB but that is up for discussion). It was a toss-up between Rome and Carthage for which faction to use and I’ve just about sided on the Romans for familiarity.

Now, I don’t want to make the rules too complex and hopefully the first few players can iron out any issues fairly quickly whilst the player base is (hopefully) swelling. As we will be using the Romans there will be offices to gain election to (cursus honorum) in the traditional manner with each office bringing certain benefits and access to actually playing the campaign. Each player will create a fictional character (all Patrician for now) and begin role playing for the following offices:

Quaestor – Administers of state finance and the treasury. This player will do things such as provide reports on the incomings and outgoing and put forward options to benefit the treasury, and set tax rates. (Note I’ve excluded Censors who would have been in charge of taxation)

Aedile – In ancient times these Senators would supervise public places, games and the grain supply. In-game I’m not sure how to pad out this office. It grants a fairly senior speaking position and a bit of weight in the Senate but not so much in actually playing the save.

Praetor – Will serve as a judge in any law courts. Will also assume Consul duties if they are absent from Rome, on campaign for example. Praetors are fairly senior and can convene meetings of the Senate.

Consul - The chief magistrate who leads the meetings of the Senate; initiates legislation and serve as Generals. Initially numbers may be limited but it is paramount that we have two players in this position – one is too much like a King!

Pro-Consul – After the Consulship the Consuls usually manage a province in which they have imperium which is to say that they over-rule junior officials and do not answer to the Senate* Note that actions may have consequences in the law courts upon return…

If we are using a 2 turn per year game then one year per office would be far too quick so I’m willing to use a bit of poetic license here to make it more fun and open it up to office terms of 5 years. That way Pro-Consuls especially have time (ten turns) to make a bit of a splash and a reputation for themselves.

Hopefully the above gives you some idea of the structure of the game. There is naturally a lot of emphasis on working your way to the top through roleplaying, getting yourself elected and such. Even if you hold no office you can still contribute to meetings of the Senate by voting and even speaking but you will have to wait for the more senior Senators to speak first as was the order. Character alliances and such are of course allowed to help get votes for election.

I admit that there is probably going to be a lot of holes in this initial set up but hopefully they can be ironed out with the help of some more experienced players, even if they are not interested in playing

[Dirty Chai]

FYI, there already is a Roman-themed RP being proposed, by the name of YATS (You are the Senate).
While it is being shown in the Coliseum at this moment, it is intended for the RPG section.
Here it is.

While this in no way inhibits one's ability to make RPG's, you may want to jump on that train instead.

[Sulla88]

Thanks for the link Sotha. I'd still like to wait for any classic RTW players to join, but a new YATS may well take all of the Roman players. If this doesn't go ahead I may look into a Medieval Era foray.

[Dirty Chai]

Also, after actually reading your idea there (I skimmed it before), I'm not sure this idea actually fits into the RPG section's category.
While it contains elements of roleplaying, I think it may fit into another section as it entails actual TW gaming.

[Adamat]

This is basically YATS.

[m_1512]

You can actually take over that idea too. I am able to help, but really cannot lead the game.

[Sulla88]

My problem is that my laptop won't run RTW2 on decent settings, large unit sizes etc so I'd be loathe to join a game that I know I couldn't properly play.

It is basically YATS I suppose, but on a much lesser scale. A full size YATS would be far too complicated for me to oversee I'm afraid.

[m_1512]

Uh, not to be offensive. But I was referring to RPG veterans to oversee the game.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Sulla, as a former moderator of The Roman Struggle, which was the successor to the YATS rp, the setting of Rome has been overdone a bit too much. We have already attempted several times this past summer and year to revive The Roman Struggle with no great interest from the community at large. Like GSTK, Rome has just been done too many times. While one of the roleplays that is currently in production (An Elder Scrolls one) has Roman elements in it, we are just giving some settings a break...like England and Rome.

That is my personal opinion as a former moderator of The Roman Struggle.

Also, our big Roman guru, Pontifex Maximus, isn't around to make a glorified and awe-inspiring Rome rpg like he always can. Which makes it harder to do in my views.

Not trying to discourage you, but this is just my statement through personal experience of about 4 years on this forum.

[Pontifex Maximus]

What you're describing sounds more like a hotseat with some RP elements to it. This format is difficult to use because it relies (in my opinion too heavily) on the game itself and the ability to pass a save file around. That by itself isn't too difficult, but adding RP into that could make it too complicated. I recommend finding 2-3 friends to test this out on first before looking to expand it.