GrayIguana said:
I'm more interested in seeing if other DMs run campaign that are set in a time period more akin to ancient Greece, Egypt, Germania, and early Rome, and if you adjusted things from the PHB to fit this flavor.
Yup... see my Egyptian Adventures thread. I'm doing something like that right now, in fact.
For example, I initially pulled full-plate mail from the available equipment list. This makes sense as nothing like this was available in the ancient world. I allowed breast plate as an equivalent to Roman armor. The problem here is that this starts to limit the fighter classes. I felt that I was taking something away that the players were used to and not adding something of equal benefit.
I pulled Splint Mail, changed the name of Banded Mail to Lorica Segmenta (not a perfect conversion, but it works)- and made Plate and Half-Plate armor into a rarety that is only available enchanted- in other words, a few powerful sorcerers and priests have crafted suits of this armor (with a notably different style than the armor of the middle ages- this stuff has an ancient flavor to it), and some have aquired it from the Atlanteans and Lemurians.
Since it is an ancient world, few cultures actually have the technology to form metal tools. I enjoy creating unique magical items from organic materials. Magical clubs, which are sometimes made of bone, can be found among barbarian tribes. I've also made up different types of organic armor. (The Nyambe campaign setting did a good job on this IMO)
I've seriously got to get a copy of Nyambe. But my D&D money for this week is going into the BoVD.
Some of my fictional cultures have more advanced metallurgy than others. The Impirians, Hellenes, and Elohim are very advanced in those departments- the Khemites, Perineans, and Hyksos less so. The Khemites have always relied on enchantment to make up for their metallurgical weakness, the Perineans aren't a particularly settled people (who acquire most of their equipment from sources in the distant east, or from their legacy of ruined cities and citadels), and the Hyksos, great warriors though they are, have fallen behind the tech curve.
I've taken out races like elves, gnomes, and haflings. There are fairy or fey like creatures, but they are not as prevalent.
I went over this in my Egyptian Adventures thread- the Dwarves became the Elohim, a lawful race of warriors, prophets, and craftsmen who were once slaves to the Khemites and are well known for their obscure religious beliefs and their even more obscure sense of humor, the Elves became the Perineans, a wandering, mystical people of the desert and the steppes who dwell in remote, mysterious cities, and the Gnomes became the Jinn- the commoner caste of the Genies- a creepy race believed to have been responsible for teaching mortals the ways of magic.
I really couldn't find a place for halflings though (never liked the buggers anyway- at least gnomes are good magicians)... so I ditched them. The only notable change I made to the races was a minor one- I changed the free weapon proficiencies that the Perineans recieve from Long Bow, Short Bow, Rapier, and Longsword to Short Bow, Falchion, and Khopesh.
The more cultured civilizations (Roman-like) tend to be anti-arcane magic. Priest of the gods are respected, but controlled. Wizards and sorcerors come from "fringe" groups or cultures.
Sometimes. In most of my civilizations, there isn't really much difference in most people's minds- both are servants of the gods and gather in priesthoods- one group serves out of necessity, and the other out of tradition. Only the Imperians have really recognized the difference between divine and arcane traditions, and they, rather than shunning wizards, have tried to regiment them into a "magical legion" under the direction of the Senate, and have stripped magic down from a convoluted, mystical art (such as the Khemites use) into a very precise, technical practice. I've been using the Mage Slayer and Incantatrix prestige classes to represent members of the Legion.
