Roman Style

[siegfriedliner]

So I am running a pathfinder 2e game inspired by the falco novels and the barbarian TV show set in a Pathfinderized Roman Europe (with added ancesteries and monsters of course).

The premise is that they are merceneries trying to earn sufficient wealth to make equestrian (middle class in Rome) by recovering the Eagle lost in the battle Teuten Forrest.

So what I am basically running is a silly romp through Ancient Germany.

So do you think it would be a good idea to avoid some of the nastier elements of Roman History and society for my romp (normalised slavery, rigid class structure, demagogue, colonization). Or if I was to ignore all of that would end up with something that really didn't meet the Roman flavour I was aiming for.

[Gortle]

Depends who your players are, and the feel you are trying to create.

Personally I find sanitised 2020 values just wrong in historical fantasy. But most people don't have much tolerance for racism and sexism. So you can't be too accurate to the period.

[Seisho]

Talk with your players what they thinkg - it is probably the easiest

Allow them to veto things in the campaign if they go to far for their comfort

another system had a 'veil' and a 'line' card on the table

when something being present is generally okay but a player feels uncomfortable with the detail the would tap on the veil card

if something in itself is too uncomfortable for them they tap on the line card

so you actually know where to stop

[Tabletop Unchained]

A red flag I have seen (and previously been guilty of) in a lot of “historical+fantasy” home brews in the dehumanizing of non-white cultures by wholly representing them with fantasy races. Like Golarion, humans of all cultures should exist, but live alongside fantastical creatures in a sensible way (depending on magic level of your setting).
To introduce a square-rectangle argument, it is ok to have all Tengu be from Japan (ancestrally), but not ok for only Tengu to be in Japan.
Your setting should sidestep many of these issues easily.
The Witcher universe could be a good lower-fantasy model, where monsters/non-humans are mostly outside of and forced into direct opposition with human society. Could make the dark Germanic forests that much scarier, like some brothers Grimm folklore.