Topic: Is there scope for a Rolemaster Rome Companion?

[PhillipAEllis]

What I have been doing lately is amassing background reading for my Rolemaster Rome campaign & planned supplements. I have over sixty books now, relating either in whole or part to Augustan Rome.

What I was wondering was this: if I find I have enough gaming material to make one or more "Rolemaster Rome Companion(s)", and if graham and Arion Games are interested in considering submissions, how interested would we players and GMs be in considering such proposed companions as sources for campaign materials & details? How would we feel about seeing more stuff to read and/or play with regarding the world, the setting, the regions, people, etcetera?

[Ice Dragon]

Hi

It sounds like a good idee.
I would like a new Rome companionship with elements of fantasy, more like Ars Magica. But I do not know if this is what you want with the new companion


Regards
Ice Dragon

[PhillipAEllis]

There is some scope for that already, however, would you be interested in more of a "generic" fantasy approach, a more "sword and sandal" approach, or more of a "mythological" approach?

[Ice Dragon]

I'm more into mythical Europe/Rome, where sorcerers secretly doing magic and fairys, centaurs exist ...

[PhillipAEllis]

Sounds good. If I get time I may look into exploring that for you.

[Ice Dragon]

Hi

Can you give us any update on the progress of a possible Rome companion?

[PhillipAEllis]

G'day!

I haven't had the time to do more than sketch out ideas & amass some background reading.

For example, I have sketched out an idea for a section of NPCs for the campaign starting date, with a brief list of possibles, but nothing in terms of working out levels, professions, details, etcetera.

[Hurin]

The Augustan Age is good, but have you thought about other ages, either as alternatives or supplements?

The third century or late antiquity would be fun, since you'd have Persians/Parthians on the warpath in the East and Germanic barbarians banging on the gates in the West (I know they did it before this period, but this is when the dam begins to break). The age of invasions would be a lot of fun.

Another possibility would be the late 3rd/early 2nd centuries BCE, with the Punic and Macedonian Wars, with Greeks vs. Romans and even Antiochus and the Celts on the side.

[Ice Dragon]

G'day!

I haven't had the time to do more than sketch out ideas & amass some background reading.

For example, I have sketched out an idea for a section of NPCs for the campaign starting date, with a brief list of possibles, but nothing in terms of working out levels, professions, details, etcetera.

Ok, I hope you get more time looking forward to the results.

[Bruce]

I have always wanted to use Rome and some of the other historical cities like Constantinople (i.e. Istanbul) and Babylon as in game cities. I personally think it would be a really good idea for someone to publish the historical cities as fantasy cities, like in a series. Something like Rome would be a tremendous undertaking, actually they all would be pretty intensive works if done correctly. I myself have tried researching maps of such cities but I haven't been able to find any done in a way that I could print out (in however many pages) and use as a map for a game.
I do have a general idea of what Babylon may have looked like and some ideas as to the whole layout of the city. One of these days I may try and do a fantasy map.....

BTW is there any fantasy city as big as Rome?

Bruce

[Hurin]

For Rome, there is a project to model the ancient city digitally, here: http://romereborn.frischerconsulting.com/

For Babylon, there is a project to recreate it as well: http://www.kadingirra.com/introduction.html

For Constantinople, there is a project to recreate the Roman monuments in the city c. 1200 ce (medieval, of course, but might be of use).

[Chorpa]

I am interested in anything Rome related. Ran a short campaign with BRP Rome with the scenario collection Veni, Vidi, Vici. It started to become one of those campaigns that had their own life. They soon started to have so big plans and getting caught up in their own plans and intrigues and the actual adventure I was running became secondary. But still it was nice to have a the adventures to keep them focused. Some very funny moments like when they became stranded on a small island only inhabited by greek pirates and decided to kill a goat for food. Catching and killing a goat was way harder than they expected.
It is the same adventures short campaign I plan on running but this time converted to Rolemaster Rome. More scenarios like that would be very welcome but I will take anything I can get my hands on. 

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

Wondering about buying the Rome supplement, I'd like to know which period it covers which part of the Empire, if it covers the Empire period. For my part, I'd be mostly interested in the Eastern Roman Empire rather than the Western Roman Empire. Apparently, the supplement covers Augustan Rome, meaning 27 BC-14 AD so it's waaaaaaay earlier than the period of interest to me but... Just to be sure.