Roman setting / sourcebook / supplement?

[leg1on]

Hi All,
Has anyone written one for anything up to the mid-80s?
Thanks much,
Legion

Edit: I'm especially interested in the early Imperial period, specifically 1st century A.D.
Thanks again,
L

[krusader74]

There's the AD&D2E sourcebook: HR5 Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook by David L. Pulver for sale in PDF at dndclassics dot com.

And Green Ronin has a supplement called "Eternal Rome."

(If I had to pick just one resource for a realistic Roman campaign, I think I'd choose this one) C. J. Carella wrote "GURPS: Imperial Rome." GURPS sourcebooks are largely system neutral. There's lots of detailed setting info that can be used with any version of D&D or any other RPG. The product page has a link to a preview; take a look at the TOC--topics include City Life (City Administration, The Streets, Shops, Important Buildings, Roman Homes, Graffiti, The Police and Fire, Departments, City Hazards, Crucifixion, A Typical Day in Rome, The Roman Calendar, Night Life, Roman Medicines, Roman Poisons, Education, Leisure, Fashion), History, Myth and Religion, the Legions, the Games, etc.

If you want a fantasy-version of Rome, rather than a realistic-version, then there's Aaron Allston's "Dawn of the Emperors: Thyatis and Alphatia" for Basic/Expert D&D. Quoting from the Mystara Wiki:

Conceptually, Thyatis is a mixture of different parts of the various historical Roman empires. It is governed by an Emperor and an Imperial Senate as per the classical Roman Empire, but enfranchises a feudal noble class similar to that of the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor himself is akin to that of the Byzantine Empire (as is the capital city's placement on a major strait). The Imperial Bureaucracy as described in Dawn of the Emperors is clearly inspired by that of the British Empire, as is, at least in name, one branch of the Thyatian Armed Forces, the "Retebius Air Corps" (RAF), which consists of cavalry on flying mounts (Pegasus, Hippogriffs, Griffons, Sphinxs, Rocs, and Dragons).

There's more info about Thyatis over in the Vaults of Pandius.

Noncommercial stuff... There's a discussion about a Roman Empire homebrew campaign setting on the Wizards Community Forums. And another one at ENWorld: "Rome: Decline and Fall (Adventure Series)."

Finally, there's a thread on the same topic here.

[leg1on]

Holy Dinah!

Thanks krusader for that infodump.

[kent]

Apr 4, 2014 1:38:57 GMT -6 krusader74 said:

(If I had to pick just one resource for a realistic Roman campaign, I think I'd choose this one) C. J. Carella wrote "GURPS: Imperial Rome." GURPS sourcebooks are largely system neutral.

Any more interesting and well written GURPS books?

[Finarvyn]

Apr 4, 2014 6:00:04 GMT -6 kent said:

Apr 4, 2014 1:38:57 GMT -6 krusader74 said:

(If I had to pick just one resource for a realistic Roman campaign, I think I'd choose this one) C. J. Carella wrote "GURPS: Imperial Rome." GURPS sourcebooks are largely system neutral.

Any more interesting and well written GURPS books?

I think that most of the GURPS sourcebooks are both interesting and well written. I just don't like GURPS, which is why I got rid of most of my collection.

I liked the Robin Hood and King Arthur ones. The Horror one is pretty good as well. And of course GURPS has the only Horseclans RPG book that I know of.

My problem is that since I don't play GURPS, the books mostly sat around and collected dust. I might read them on occasion, but I just didn't go back often enough to justify the shelf space.

[kent]

I might have a look at Robin Hood and the Horror one then. The best of this kind of supplement I have come across is the Runequest Vikings but nothing else has come close to that.

[skars]

While not OSR, Fvlminata is a great roman themed RPG and would serve as good source material.

rpggeek.com/rpg/1036/fvlminata-armed-with-lightning

[greentongue]

You may find this interesting.
Thread: Hexmap of late Roman Britain, 6m scale
forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?722979-Hexmap-of-late-Roman-Britain-6m-scale
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[kesher]

That's freaking awesome!

[stevemitchell]

Chaosium has several entries for its "Invictus" series. The game stats are for Call of Cthulhu, but the background on the Roman era is useful for any system.

[DungeonDevil]

Mare Hibernia should instead be MARE HIBERNICUM. Otherwise a very nice map indeed!

[leg1on]

greentongue:
Yeah, thanks. That map is Dope!

[krusader74]

Here's an interesting article on The Early Roman Calendar. It begins:

The Romans borrowed parts of their earliest known calendar from the Greeks. The calendar consisted of 10 months in a year of 304 days. The Romans seem to have ignored the remaining 61 days, which fell in the middle of winter. The 10 months were named Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. The last six names were taken from the words for five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Romulus, the legendary first ruler of Rome, is supposed to have introduced this calendar in the 700s B.C.E.

Then it talks about the addition of the months of January and February and the leap month of Mercedinus to better approximate the solar year.

It shows what a Roman calendar (Fasti) looks like. (It links to a more detailed article here.) And how to read a Roman calendar:

Initially, there were no "days of the week". The calendar was based on the lunar cycle. And there were three special markers...

• Kalends --- First day of the month; new moon.
• Nones --- First quarter moon
• Ides --- Full moon

In the fifth century B.C., the calendar was divorced from the lunar cycle, month-lengths were fixed, and Ides became the 15th day of months with 31 days; the 13th day otherwise.

In the Fasti shown above, you can see that the Romans used code letters to indicate religious observance or legal business on specific days of each month. This is explained in the article.

There's a short discussion of this article on Hacker News.

[greentongue]

The Tabula Peutingeriana is a road map showing the road network in the Roman Empire.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Peutingeriana
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[rossik]

i dont play gurps, but i second the gurps rime suplement. also, i was told that the gurps conan is very nice too

[dukeofchutney]

I've ran a campaign using the Gurps Japan supplement, i thought the Russian one was very good too. Less impressed by Cyberpunk though.

I don't think there are many D&D family Rome materials if any. If you want inspiration I'd recommend listing to the history of Rome podcasts (google it) and playing the boardgames; Republic of Rome and Hannibal Rome vs Carthage. If you want to be really hardcore you could look at Pax Romana.

[Deleted]

Being a bit late to the party, but John Maddox Roberts, the writer, might your way to go.

He has written some of the very best historical crime novels, describing the time of the rise of Julius Caesar.

More notably for our usual purposes here are his "Hannibal's Children" novels; they detail an alternate history, in which Carthago won the Punic Wars.

[thorswulf]

Unless your entire group are Roman history enthusiasts, I think more detail is less important than the overall feeling of the campaign. By all means use Latin names for things for flavor, but don't get caught up in the minutiae.

How big is the empire? As far as our legions march!
Who are our enemies? Those who would stand against our might and ways!
What exists beyond our borders? Evil spirits and savages!(After all Romans were very superstitious.)

Being a citizen of Rome, should be something all aspire to, some are born to, and others become through merit.

Ave.