BRP Rome!

[Kloster]

I don't know about Jason's, but my old Pax Romana is available here...

http://basicroleplaying.net/files/Pax%20Romana.pdf

Please remember that it was only designed to be a handout for character generation, and was set in Imperial Rome (rather than pre-Imperial as BRP Rome will be). Forgive the artwork and layout too... it was my first attempt and I had to trawl the web for images!

Yes, Pax Romana is nice. Very good work. I've downloaded a few months ago, and I enjoyed reading it. As I like Rome, I'm sure I will purchase BRP Rome, if it is available in France, that is.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Atgxtg]

I don't know about Jason's, but my old Pax Romana is available here...

http://basicroleplaying.net/files/Pax%20Romana.pdf

Oops. :o

Sorry, you two look so much alike on the board.

Maybe one of you should change Avatars?

BTW, "The Flaming Pigs" would be a great name for a band, either a modern musical one one, or an ancient mercenary one. Perhaps a group that specialized in taking down elephants....

[TRose]

For those who anwered the my question right , there will be all you can eat pork rinds after the battle with Pyrrhus..

And so will I be able to spend skill points in flaming pig then?

But for me I think running a game around the time of the War with Pyrrhus for me would be interesting. Rome powerful but by no means the only power around and you have plenty of mercenary bands running around like the Mamertines ( Good group for the players to join) causing trouble.

[Trifletraxor]

Pete, this might have been answered before, but what's the timeline here? When can we expect BRP Rome?

SGL.

EDIT: Early next year, found it now. I'm in the process of making the news article.

EDIT2: And it's up! :-)

[Simlasa]

I was a big fan of the HBO series and have been gobbling up lots of related fiction since the final episode aired... including grabbing a copy of GURPS Imperial Rome off of Ebay.

That sourcebook was okay but seemed more like an expanded encyclopedia entry than really being a game setting. It either didn't have enough detail or had way to much... but never really came to life. It gave me lots of facts but I didn't come away with any better an idea of what I'd do there... reading fiction based in the period seemed better for that.

I'm hoping BRP Rome will go right where the GURPS book went... the other way.

[Pete Nash]

That sourcebook was okay but seemed more like an expanded encyclopedia entry than really being a game setting. It either didn't have enough detail or had way to much... but never really came to life. It gave me lots of facts but I didn't come away with any better an idea of what I'd do there... reading fiction based in the period seemed better for that.

That sums up the entire difficulty of writing historical source-books. You need to pack in facts and details so that the GM can portray the atmosphere and culture correctly. Since it's impossible to comprehensively cover every aspect of an ancient culture, you must try to concentrate on those specific areas which will be fun to roleplay.

Bringing it to life is the hardest part. In the fantasy or Sci-fi genre it is easier to instill a sense of wonder, and hook the reader. Doing the same thing with a historical setting is very difficult, requiring the author to find the most intriguing and exotic aspects of that period. This is why I'm including so many quotes from the Roman and Greek author's of the time... Their own words can do far more than I to fascinate or amuse the potential purchaser.

How can you beat something like “and they [the rebellious legionaries] killed a centurion, Lucilius, to whom, with soldiers' humour, they had given the name "Bring another," because when he had broken one vine-stick on a man's back, he would call in a loud voice for another and another.”

Tacitus - Annals

Or... “I must not omit here, in reference to painting, a celebrated story that is told about Lepidus. During the Triumvirate, when he was entertained by the magistrates of a certain place, he had lodgings given him in a house that was wholly surrounded with trees. The next day, he complained to them in a threatening tone, that he had been unable to sleep for the singing of the birds there. Accordingly, they had a dragon painted, on pieces of parchment of the greatest length that could possibly be obtained, and surrounded the grove with it; a thing that so terrified the birds, it is said, that they became silent at once; and hence it was that it first became known how this object could be attained.”

Pliny the Elder - Naturalis Historia

Or... “Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men’s behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!”

Anonymous Graffiti

:eek:

I'm hoping BRP Rome will go right where the GURPS book went... the other way.

I hope so too! It'll be a book full of history... but hopefully entertaining and campaign inspiring history!

[Atgxtg]

Yeah, the hardest thing with historical settings is that modern people really don't understand what everyday life was like, and tend to view things in terms that they understand.

Things like roasted, stuffed mouse (tasty), garum (a paste made from rotted fish entrails, Rome's answer to ketchup) and vomitoriums don't translate well.

Likewise, most people tend to look at the Biblical account of sleeping in the stables as subhuman way to live, missing the point. In fact, the stables weren't much different that most homes. It was the idea that one of such high status (The Messiah) would be born in so humble a spot that was the point.

That sort of stuff is hard to convey, but crucial to breathing life into the campaign setting. Otherwise Rome just becomes generic fantasy in skirts.

[TRose]

Yeah, the hardest thing with historical settings is that modern people really don't understand what everyday life was like, and tend to view things in terms that they understand.

Things like roasted, stuffed mouse (tasty), garum (a paste made from rotted fish entrails, Rome's answer to ketchup) and vomitoriums don't translate well.

Likewise, most people tend to look at the Biblical account of sleeping in the stables as subhuman way to live, missing the point. In fact, the stables weren't much different that most homes. It was the idea that one of such high status (The Messiah) would be born in so humble a spot that was the point.

That sort of stuff is hard to convey, but crucial to breathing life into the campaign setting. Otherwise Rome just becomes generic fantasy in skirts.

Well as far as food goes, all I can say there a lot of food my Philippine born wife eats that even after 20 years of marriage I will not touch , such as Balot( A Duck egg almost hatched) or Shrimp paste.. And when she cooks pig intestines I leave the house.

But you are right that most people dont understand how hard life was then. But all one really has to do is look at how life is in many underdeveloped country to get a glimpse of what life was like

I admit I have a hard time understanding why people kill each other over slight differences in ethnic make up or because somebody worship God in a slightly different way,

[Atgxtg]

Well as far as food goes, all I can say there a lot of food my Philippine born wife eats that even after 20 years of marriage I will not touch , such as Balot( A Duck egg almost hatched) or Shrimp paste.. And when she cooks pig intestines I leave the house.

If you want revenge, try cinnamon. That spice has an effect on most people from non-western nations that garlic has on vampires.

[Trifletraxor]

Well as far as food goes, all I can say there a lot of food my Philippine born wife eats that even after 20 years of marriage I will not touch , such as Balot( A Duck egg almost hatched)...

Hehe, I ate that when I was there. Tasted kinda rubbery.

SGL.

[TRose]

If you want revenge, try cinnamon. That spice has an effect on most people from non-western nations that garlic has on vampires.

No revenge needed. She still a cute little thing and makes up for it in other ways:innocent:

[Guest the Bromgrev]

Likewise, most people tend to look at the Biblical account of sleeping in the stables as subhuman way to live, missing the point. In fact, the stables weren't much different that most homes.

Interesting how quickly this sort of thing fades from knowledge. I remember growing up in rural Germany in the 70s, when big farmhouses which combined the stables in the front and the living areas in the rear were still the norm. You'd never really get rid of the smell, but it seemed pretty acceptable (dare I say, cozy) at the time.

[Trifletraxor]

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.

Pax Romana is now to be found in our download section! :happy:

SGL.

[Jason D]

If anyone's interested, I've posted some of the files I created for my recent BRP Rome game in the Download section.

[Atgxtg]

If anyone's interested, I've posted some of the files I created for my recent BRP Rome game in the Download section.

I'm interested. I'm sure other will be too, once they get a chance to stop by.

Jason, any chance that you cost post some more on EBRP?

[Jason D]

Jason, any chance that you cost post some more on EBRP?

EMBRP, or Even More Basic Roleplaying, is my bastardized version of BRP that I use for impromptu gaming.

It differs from regular BRP in that:

- there are only criticals (no specials/impales/etc.) and they're at 1/10 of the skill

- HP are CON+SIZ for PCs, and just equal to CON for everyone else

- The lowest damage bonus is 1d3, not 1d4

- Most skills have a base chance equal a characteristic (either 1/2, the whole characteristic, 2x or characteristic + characteristic), including weapon skills

- Armor is always randomly rolled

- APP is back to CHA

If needed, an NPC's stats are:

- Chump = Characteristics = 10, Skills = 35%

- Competent = Characteristics = 13, Skills = 50%

- Skilled = Characteristics 15, Skills 75%

- Deadly = Characteristics 18, Skills 90%

I can run almost any game featuring humans off the top of my head with this version of the system.

[Atgxtg]

Interesting. I'm especially fond of the damage bonus. One thing I don't like about RQ/BRP is the db progression. Any chance of an upload?

I'd rather see something smother like 1d2/1d4/1d6/1d8 etc. instead of off another D6 every 16 points. Something like a die shift every 5 points seems about right.

Maybe I'll put up parts of my unnamed BRP variant. I did away with hit points and used a wounding system, so I didn't think it would go over well.

[Jason D]

Any chance of an upload?

That was it.

[Atgxtg]

That was it.

Oh.

I must have blinked.

[Mithras]

Hi Puck, My great work is in PDF form, free for download and is called WARLORDS OF ALEXANDER, its the BRP conversion for the years following Alex's death. With new 'subtle' magic system!

When BRP is finally out, I may offer it to RPGNow or something... for free.

Find it at: http://www.balbinus.com/Warlords.pdf

and of course in BRP Central's own Download section: BRP Central - Downloads - Warlords of Alexader

There is a lot going on during those years. I always thought the post- Alexander/Hellenistic period would be a great time to set a campaign in.

[Triff]

Hi Paul! Great to have you aboard!

Free stuff with the quality of Warlords of Alexander is hard to come by! :happy:

SGL.

[Puck]

Hi Puck, My great work is in PDF form, free for download and is called WARLORDS OF ALEXANDER

I recently found it in the download section. Great stuff! :)I have not had the chance to read though it all the way through yet but I am looking forward to it. It just seems the perfect time for good campaigns with the Helenized thoughts and ideas in place and comingled with Eastern and Egyptian thought and culture. Alexanders empire breaking up and Rome and Carthage on the rise in the West. All the major ancient powers seem to be on the stage at that moment. Just the time for adventurers to explore the ancient world. :thumb: Well, right now I am going to finish reading it. Keep up the good work.

[ORtrail]

Hi Puck, My great work is in PDF form, free for download and is called WARLORDS OF ALEXANDER, its the BRP conversion for the years following Alex's death. With new 'subtle' magic system!

When BRP is finally out, I may offer it to RPGNow or something... for free.

Find it at: http://www.balbinus.com/Warlords.pdf

and of course in BRP Central's own Download section: BRP Central - Downloads - Warlords of Alexader

A very cool setting Mithras. WARLORDS, along with a series of books by alternate history author Harry Turtledove (under the name Turtletaub) about two Greek seafaring traders from Rhodes (circa 310 B.C.) have sparked my interest in using this setting for a BRP campaign. I'd base the campaign in Alexandria (Egypt) and focus on them helping build the famous Library (not the actual building of course, but they'd be off to various places across the world to collect scrolls and such). I don't know if I'd play it as "historical" or add some of the classic Greek mythos and various monsters (even if only in rare and distant locales).

Quality settings, like what you wrote, will go a long way toward getting more gamers interested in BRP. Thanks for sharing.

[deleriad]

EMBRP, or Even More Basic Roleplaying, is my bastardized version of BRP that I use for impromptu gaming.

It differs from regular BRP in that:

- there are only criticals (no specials/impales/etc.) and they're at 1/10 of the skill

- HP are CON+SIZ for PCs, and just equal to CON for everyone else

- The lowest damage bonus is 1d3, not 1d4

- Most skills have a base chance equal a characteristic (either 1/2, the whole characteristic, 2x or characteristic + characteristic), including weapon skills

- Armor is always randomly rolled

- APP is back to CHA

What, you mean you run MRQ? :innocent:

[Jason D]

What, you mean you run MRQ? :innocent:

Beats me.

I haven't looked at a copy of MRQ, and would literally give/sell/throw it away unread if it were given to me as a gift.