Ideas for a Pathfinder Game set in Ancient Rome

[Brofessor X]

I've recently been thinking about how awesome a pathfinder game set in ancient Rome could be, assuming magic exists, after reading Rasputin Must Die Anyone have some ideas on plots or even major events in history that would be fun to bring to the gaming table. I've knocked around the idea of Gladiatorial type scenarios but from past experiences those can be monotonous.

My problem is I can create the world but I am at a loss for what a compelling story could be.

[Nalz]

It really depends on what kind of story you want to tell.

Do you want to run a mystery? You could have the PCs investigating the (supposed) murder of Germanicus, the "beloved" adopted son of Tiberius and next in line to be princeps.

Do you want a military campaign? Well there is a wealth of inspiration, but I would suggest either looking at the Second Punic War (if you want a desperate fight in Italy) or one of the many campaigns to conquer Britain (if you want a 'King Maker' style exploration game).

Intrigue? Calligula was murdered by the Praetorian guard, so you could have the characters be conspirators in that affair. Alternatively, if you would rather set your game during the Republic, they could try to bring down the Republic as part of the Catalinarian conspiracy. Heck, if you wanted a good paranoia style political/social navigation game, you could set it during one of the proscriptions that took place during the late Republic.

That is just a couple ideas from the top of my head. I think the first question you want to ask yourself is whether you want to set your game in the 'legendary past' (the time of the Roman kings), the Republic, the Principate, or late Antiquity. Broadly speaking, each of these period will present a very different picture of Rome and what it means to be Roman.

So yeah, sorry for the long(ish) post. I am a graduate student in classics and anytime I get to bring the ancient world into my roleplay I get a little excited...

Edit:

An alternative option for the setting of your game, rather than a specific point in history, is 'generic' (for lack of a better term) Rome . By this, I mean the Rome that exists in the popular imagination. This setting - as opposed to a historical one - means you can pick and choose the aspects of Roman culture and history that you want rather than forcing yourself to conform to one period.

[Koujow]

I'm a huge fan of anything Roman and I wish there was more out there about the subject in all fields of entertainment. More books, movies, games and, as we are talking about now, RPGs. I have long been working on something for my group, so I will share some of my ideas/pains.

1) The 'totally not rome' game - Pathfinder does this already with various countries, such as Minkai totally not being Japan or Osirion totally not being Egypt or Varisians totally not being Gypsies... And it is personally something I suggest thinking about. You can certainly go the route of 'Weird Wars: Rome' (a setting for the Savage Worlds rpg) where players are in Rome, but magic does exist and somehow, no one wrote down that Julius Ceasar totes threw a lightning bolt that one time. I personally dislike that idea and think that going with your own custom setting where the nations and people are similar to those of Roman times is a better idea. I think that allows you to shift your time preparing for the campaign away from mechanics ('how does INSERT MECHANIC HERE work in the real world?') to more creative aspects ('what kind of cool tactics would legionnaires use against a dragon?')

2) Uncle from Jackie Chan's Adventures said it best. "We must do reseaaaarch!" But if you hate all those boring books, then there are plenty of other options, including a handful of decent movies, some really good books and a bunch of not so great games. While they aren't entirely historically accurate, they are more than likely what your players will think of when they think 'Rome'. For movies and shows, HBO's Rome was Game of Thrones before GoT was cool and who doesn't love Gladiator? Caligula (the movie) is suppose to have been really good. Troy and 300, while set in Greece, could be useful too. Books wise, I personally love Imperium and Conspirata by Robert Harris. They are historical fiction (although mostly true) about the Consul Cicero and I loved them. Also, any book by Philip Matyszak is a huge wealth of knowledge. He wrote a series of history books that are kind of sort of not really written from the perspective of Romans. They are an interesting read and they contain a ton of info beyond just straight up history. As for games... I guess God of War, while Greek, has a lot of the mythology and religion that was used in Rome... ish. Kind of?

3) For story lines, there are some major factors I have come into conflict with while designing my own game.
a) Gladiators generally don't work. You already said this, but Gladiators (both the hollywood version we know and the real versions, which were, as they often are, very different) make for poor campaign settings.
b) Legionnaires generally do not work either. Legionnaires sign up for years of service (the exact amount escapes me for the moment) and they were very group oriented. A Legion was a well oiled machine. Unless the PCs are interested in working together in perfect cohesion... which I doubt... then Legionnaires generally make poor characters (One of the first things they did to the Legionnaire characters in the HBO series Rome was get them out of the Legion) Could work if the PCs were Centurions in a war campaign.
c) Politicians only work if the players are super into political intrigue and while I love pathfinder, there are generally systems that do it better.

4) Now that all the 'probably wont work' crap is out of the way, some ideas!
a) Players are working for a Senator. In attempts to gain power so that he might make grabs at positions such as Consul or overthrowing the Emperor (or even the Republic/Empire, depending on time), he might send them on a variety of missions, such as 'deal with those pesky Elven Barbarians before my rival's legions do' or 'capture the monster in my province and unleash it onto my enemies, then slay it so his people will vote for me' or 'keep my rival from arriving at the senate so they can not vote against me... non-violently.'... or violently. Whatevs.
b) Players are just regular adventurers, but in a Roman backdrop. Maybe those pesky Centaur tribes (or those crazy Sun worshippers down in 'not egypt' or those war elephant (war dragon?) riders in 'not Carthage') are pushing into the Empire and they need adventurers to work behind the scenes, infiltrating their bases, stealing their magical crap and killing their leaders, while the Legions fight them on the battlefield.
c) I'm Spartacus! No, I'm Spartacus! Players are slaves forced into gladiatorial combat, and while the EXPs rock, gosh it sucks having the same battlefield map all the time... also, its inhumane and awful. Lets break free and start a rebellion and hopefully not screw it up and all end up crucified by the end of it... (I don't watch the show Spartacus, so if that hasn't happened yet... uh... spoilers?)
d) Players are demigods (but probably not Aasimar or actual demigods) and they go epic adventures like Sam Worthington in Clash of the Titans (crap, thats greek too. Damn.)

[Verteidiger]

I did a Roman setting once, it was a military and politics oriented campaign. Rome was getting served hard core by an Epirus-Boii Alliance and the players had to sabotage the alliance and help a patron family remove inept senators running the Republic into the ground.

You could just use the Roman flavoring during a 'standard' pathfinder campaign. The pcs could work for an influential family, assassinating, spying on, sabotaging rival families. The gods could decide they don't like the world any more and want to syart over, causing the pcs to go on a journey to stop them. You could do anything.

Edit: You can always go the route of having a powerful rival kingdom threatening Rome and the pcs help defeat it. Honestly, it is a miracle Rome survived as long as it did. Carthage, Boii, Epirus, Cimbri, Samnium, Suebi, Marcomanni, all managed to beat up on Rome for a time.

[Nalz]

Koujow wrote:

Stuff about 'totally not Rome'

I strongly support this - it is the same way that I solved the 'how to try to explain Julius Caesar throwing lightning bolts' problem in my home game.

Koujow wrote:

b) Legionnaires generally do not work either. Legionnaires sign up for years of service (the exact amount escapes me for the moment) and they were very group oriented. A Legion was a well oiled machine. Unless the PCs are interested in working together in perfect cohesion... which I doubt... then Legionnaires generally make poor characters (One of the first things they did to the Legionnaire characters in the HBO series Rome was get them out of the Legion) Could work if the PCs were Centurions in a war campaign.

One possible solution to this problem (and to bring them together as a group) is to make them all part of the same contubernium - literally a group of (8?) soldier who shared a tent, but used also for a group of young elite males on their first campaign being educated by a senior magistrate. This would provide a good way to get them into a military situation, give them a mentor figure, and give them a reason not to be only another face in the legion.

[Roger Corbera]

The birth of ancient Rome is an interesting setting, with god-born heroes like Romulus kidnapping their wifes. Magic and heroism was very present. Brutus (first "president" of Rome) used bard-like performance to manipulate the last tyrannic king. Horace Cocles defended a bridge against an entire army, etc.