Late Roman RPG - the actual thread

[Barry Goldwater]

Gathering interest, mods and votes for a starting setting here.

Players who have expressed an interest in the game either here, on Discord or over both:
Barry Goldwater
Dirty Chai
Lucius Malfoy
Severus Snape
Gandalfus
Oznerol
General Brewster
Lord Azazel
Chesser
The Mad Skylord
Xion
Trot

Mods so far:
Barry Goldwater
Lucius Malfoy
Gandalfus
Oznerol

Junior volunteer mods:
Chesser
Skylord

And the starts (at least the ones I've thought of)...

364 AD: Julian the Apostate, the last of the Constantinian dynasty, is dead. Ironically, though his progenitor Constantine the Great paved the way for Christianity's spread throughout the Empire and converted to the new religion on his deathbed, Julian himself was an avowed pagan (hence his nickname) and tried to arrest the spread of Christianity; in the end though, he failed - pierced on Persian lances - and his last words were reportedly 'Vicisti, Galilaee': 'you have conquered, Galilean'. Upon his death, what was left of his army elected the obscure Christian officer Jovian to succeed him and get them out of hostile territory, but Jovian too perished (now of illness) after a brief eight months on the throne, his only acts in office being 1) repealing all of Julian's pro-pagan dictates and 2) making significant territorial concessions to the Persians as part of his peace treaty.

With Jovian dead, Julian's cousin Procopius has seized power in the Eastern half of the Empire, while the West teeters on the brink of anarchy. As Jovian's western legions make their way back home, they must raise up a new Emperor quickly, to restore order; keep the barbarians out; and if the time ever comes, to reunite the Roman Empire once more. Religious tension also remains high, as while Christianity isn't an overwhelming majority in the empire yet, it is at least the religion of a plurality or even a narrow majority of Romans, and these Christians are none too happy with the pagans' efforts to discriminate against and marginalize them under Julian.

395 AD: Theodosius the Great has died, and once more the empire he reunited splits - this time, probably permanently. He is survived by two vulnerable young sons, pawns in the hands of the ambitious officials and warlords around them, and the younger Honorius is further saddled by the issue of his half of the Empire (the West) having been especially badly mauled by Theodosius on the latter's quest to reunite the realms ten years earlier. Paganism is also effectively stone-dead in this start, having been finally permanently put down by Theodosius himself at the Battle of the Frigidus and then through his persecutory policies; religious diversity will instead have to come from the new dominant faith, Christianity, and its many heretical sects.

410 AD: Rome has fallen! For the first time in nearly a millennium, the Eternal City was sacked by barbarians. The Visigoths were oddly gentle in their assault - churches and those who took shelter in them were left unharmed, and overall the Goths mostly just looted instead of killing and ravishing Roman citizens - but the psychological blow to the Empire's consciousness is staggering nonetheless. The Roman Emperor Honorius is also one of the notable casualties of the sack, dying heirlessly on an angry Visigoth's spear - and leaving the Western half of the Empire in a power vacuum for his subordinates to fill...

The rules were posted here yesterday: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...t-of-the-rules

Forum structure

Prospective forum/game name: Sunset Over Rome, a Late Antiquity RPG Imperial Capital Aeraria of the Houses Villas of the Great Families Realm of the Empire The Battlefields Archives Mod Forum

[Pontifex Maximus]

Here's a question: are we sticking to historical figures/historical starting location?

[Barry Goldwater]

Here's a question: are we sticking to historical figures/historical starting location?

I prefer to take the YATS-y approach: we can, but we don't have to and won't necessarily have to start at a lower rank or otherwise be penalized for going ahistorical. It's why I thought of those start dates - outside of 395 (where we will have to deal with Theodosius' young children, but they're so powerless they're basically NPCs anyway) there's a power vacuum to serve as our sandbox, where both historical and ahistorical characters start on more or less equal ground.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Ok, so as far as claims go I imagine you probably are going to take a regional/office approach as opposed to having those positions prefilled by their historical occupants.

[Barry Goldwater]

Ok, so as far as claims go I imagine you probably are going to take a regional/office approach as opposed to having those positions prefilled by their historical occupants.

Yeah, I was thinking of having the Emperor be elected by the players to get us started (either voted on before the game begins, or chosen IC in our starting event where the player characters hold a council at the deceased Jovian's camp to hurriedly choose some guy as his replacement) and then this Emperor would be responsible for handing out everyone's initial appointments & duties. Any roles that aren't filled by players, most of which I expect to be governors' slots since there's just so many of them, will of course be filled by an NPC.

[Lucius Malfoy]

From what I have discussed with Barry, it does not seem like historical figures will matter much beyond what's listed above. With the mention of Procopius taking the East in 364, Honorius and Arcadius in 395 and Honorius death in 410. I think Barry wants to go for what TRS/YATS always did and that's people make up characters and families. We won't stop people from taking historical characters, but they shouldn't expect special treatment with them.

Ninja'd

[Pontifex Maximus]

Sounds good to me, though I do see some potential for some weirdness if say someone plays the historical prefect of so.ething and then isn't confirmed in the role. Might lean us more in the direction of creating fictional characters or having some things figured out beforehand. Just an observation, you've probably even already found a solution to it.

edit - nevermind. The sources for this period are so poor that a quick search reveals almost nothing that could be used to base historical characters on. I would be surprised if we could find more than a few historical characters to use and even if we did, we wouldn't know very much about them.

[Iron Aquilifer]

Definitely interested in the 364AD scenario. Would have to see the final script for the others if they are chosen


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[Lord Azazel]

Can someone tell me what the Discord is in a pm or mention it on here ?. would like to join you guys on the discord if possible

Sweet I cant wait for this to start !.

[Lucius Malfoy]

I can send you a PM with the discord link, Az. But it seems I can't private message you.

[Lord Azazel]

I can send you a PM with the discord link, Az. But it seems I can't private message you.

Alright I am sorry about that. I had my private messages off. But its all fixed now so can you can send me a Pm of the Discord link when you get a chance too !

Again sorry about that.

[Lord William]

I have some interesting ideas with this roleplay but it depends if I can do certain things


I am interested though

[Barry Goldwater]

Sounds good to me, though I do see some potential for some weirdness if say someone plays the historical prefect of so.ething and then isn't confirmed in the role. Might lean us more in the direction of creating fictional characters or having some things figured out beforehand. Just an observation, you've probably even already found a solution to it.

edit - nevermind. The sources for this period are so poor that a quick search reveals almost nothing that could be used to base historical characters on. I would be surprised if we could find more than a few historical characters to use and even if we did, we wouldn't know very much about them.

Yeah, the 364 start in particular is pretty short on well-known historical characters. Though that doesn't have to be a bad thing, since it does enable a more sandbox-y atmosphere.

As for those who do roll with the few historical characters we know of from this period, I don't think it's too big of a deal if they end up in different places than what they occupied IRL, it could well be an interesting and yet still plausible divergence from history - given the Empire's multiethnic makeup, tendency to just send dudes from one region to another when needed and the existence of non-Italo-Roman Emperors, I don't see the harm if say, the Pannonian Roman Valentinian doesn't become Emperor right away and ends up governing Gaul or something.

I have some interesting ideas with this roleplay but it depends if I can do certain things


I am interested though

Do tell.

[Lord William]

Well if Rome is going to fall, I’d roleplay something similar to the movie the last legion and carve out my own kingdom in Britannia

[Lucius Malfoy]

We are still about a century from that. The Roman Empire is still strong and flexible in 364 AD. Since we are at the end of Constantinian Dynasty, which revived the Roman Empire pretty well.

You might wanna make sure you have other plans besides that one.

[Barry Goldwater]

Well if Rome is going to fall, I’d roleplay something similar to the movie the last legion and carve out my own kingdom in Britannia

We are still about a century from that. The Roman Empire is still strong and flexible in 364 AD. Since we are at the end of Constantinian Dynasty, which revived the Roman Empire pretty well.

You might wanna make sure you have other plans besides that one.

Pretty much what Lucius said. Britain was historically abandoned about 50 years after the start date that won overwhelmingly, and while there's theoretically a chance for the province to fall or be ditched before that since this game is more of a sandbox than the rigidly historical WOTR, I still wouldn't stake my characters and plans solely on that possibility since it's really up to the players and rolls how the game develops over time - it never hurts to have multiple families and backup ideas in case your first one doesn't pan out.

[Lord William]

Pretty much what Lucius said. Britain was historically abandoned about 50 years after the start date that won overwhelmingly, and while there's theoretically a chance for the province to fall or be ditched before that since this game is more of a sandbox than the rigidly historical WOTR, I still wouldn't stake my characters and plans solely on that possibility since it's really up to the players and rolls how the game develops over time - it never hurts to have multiple families and backup ideas in case your first one doesn't pan out.

ive never been much for multiple families but I will have some back up plans

[Lucius Malfoy]

ive never been much for multiple families but I will have some back up plans

And I would recommend other things than plans for independent kingdoms.

Roman Empire is pretty stable at this point. Unless the players really screw up, there really shouldn't be anyone making plans for independent realms in the near future.

[Pontifex Maximus]

agreed Barry