Am I the only one disapointed with Eternal Rome?

[mcrow]

It just seems like its lackings something. I can't quite put a finger on it. I read through it and it looks like they wanted to make a completely historical Roman RPG, but @ the last minute decided "this is really boring, lets throw some magic and mythic mosters in". I think if you are going to publish a Roman based game you need to decide if your doing historical rome or Roman fantasy. It has to be one way or ther other, not a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I like Roman fantasy games like Roma Imperious and from what I have read i like Fulmanata(sp?) (minus gun powder), but Eternal Rome doesn't seem to have an idenity. It also seems to be a little light on fluff and gaming world info as well.

 

[ptolemy18]

It just seems like its lackings something. I can't quite put a finger on it. I read through it and it looks like they wanted to make a completely historical Roman RPG, but @ the last minute decided "this is really boring, lets throw some magic and mythic mosters in". I think if you are going to publish a Roman based game you need to decide if your doing historical rome or Roman fantasy. It has to be one way or ther other, not a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I like Roman fantasy games like Roma Imperious and from what I have read i like Fulmanata(sp?) (minus gun powder), but Eternal Rome doesn't seem to have an idenity. It also seems to be a little light on fluff and gaming world info as well.

Well, I'm going to be buying it no matter what, so I'll throw in my two cents when I pick it up....

Jason

 

[edemaitre]

D20 Eternal Rome

I've been a big fan of Green Ronin's "Mythic Vistas" line, which includes "Hamunaptra," "Trojan War," and "Testament." Compared with Steve Jackson Games' GURPS "Imperial Rome" or "Roma Arcana" settings, the D20 "Eternal Rome" book suffers somewhat in comparison.

I found the history and relatively low-magic setting to be good, but the book lacks a map of the city of Rome, descriptions of daily life in the empire's capital and outskirts, and references to novels or movies in its bibliography. It could also have used more sidebars suggesting adventure seeds or example characters. Statted-out versions of major figures from history and legend would have been nice, as would some skirmish or mass-combat rules. Like the GURPS reference, it could have offered different versions of Roman archetypes, from the idealized centurions of the late republic or early empire to the decadent and often mad rulers, from low magic to high magic to alternate history.

That said, I fully intend to incorporate much of this book into my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" heroic fantasy campaign setting, which has a nation resembling Rome...

 

[mcrow]

I've been a big fan of Green Ronin's "Mythic Vistas" line, which includes "Hamunaptra," "Trojan War," and "Testament." Compared with Steve Jackson Games' GURPS "Imperial Rome" or "Roma Arcana" settings, the D20 "Eternal Rome" book suffers somewhat in comparison.

I found the history and relatively low-magic setting to be good, but the book lacks a map of the city of Rome, descriptions of daily life in the empire's capital and outskirts, and references to novels or movies in its bibliography. It could also have used more sidebars suggesting adventure seeds or example characters. Statted-out versions of major figures from history and legend would have been nice, as would some skirmish or mass-combat rules. Like the GURPS reference, it could have offered different versions of Roman archetypes, from the idealized centurions of the late republic or early empire to the decadent and often mad rulers, from low magic to high magic to alternate history.

That said, I fully intend to incorporate much of this book into my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" heroic fantasy campaign setting, which has a nation resembling Rome...

Yeah, you have it right. This book is totally inadequate for running a Roman rpg all on it's own. You would have to do a lot of research (assuming you are not a history nut) from other source just to come up with an adeveture. It could be good to mine for a roman influenced fantasy game.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Yeah, you have it right. This book is totally inadequate for running a Roman rpg all on it's own. You would have to do a lot of research (assuming you are not a history nut) from other source just to come up with an adeveture. It could be good to mine for a roman influenced fantasy game.

Well, speaking for myself, I prefer a book that lets me play "Roman-flavored D&D," rather than "Historical Rome: The RPG."

Then again, most of you could probably have guessed that, given our design decisions on Hamunaptra.

I have Eternal Rome, but I haven't had the chance to read it yet. If it does a good job of letting me play D&D in a Rome-inspired setting, I'll be satisfied with the purchase.

 

[Crothian]

I agree wit the rat, I perfer D&D style rome. THat makes it easier for my players to understand it and allows me to mopre easily use other d20 books in conjunction with it. Plus I have the Gurps book, so I like to have something of a different focus. I haven't picked this up yet though.

 

[mcrow]

Well, speaking for myself, I prefer a book that lets me play "Roman-flavored D&D," rather than "Historical Rome: The RPG."

Then again, most of you could probably have guessed that, given our design decisions on Hamunaptra.

I have Eternal Rome, but I haven't had the chance to read it yet. If it does a good job of letting me play D&D in a Rome-inspired setting, I'll be satisfied with the purchase.

I didn't mean that I don't like it because it is not historical, but because it lacks focus on the fantasy bits. Like I daid above I think you either go and make it Roman D&D (which is why I like Roma Imperious it's the same deal different system) or you make it historical. Eternal Rome seems to be in limbo between the two without any thing to say it is one or the other. The fantasy elements in it just read like they were an after thought when designing it. OTOH Eternal Rome and Turris Lemurum seem to be 100% compatible so you could just pick up a copy of Turris if you didn't want to do the leg work for an adventure. Maybe I missed something reading through Eternal Rome, but it sure didn't impress me much.

 

[Pinotage]

Well, I hope this is not true when I get my hands on this. I'm a big fan of roman history, and this was a book I was looking forward to getting.

Pinotage

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, I hope this is not true when I get my hands on this. I'm a big fan of roman history, and this was a book I was looking forward to getting.

One can hope a fan of Roman history have access to other books of similar subject, if not a shelf-full of them at home.

Damn, where is that smirking smiley?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I haven't seen the product. How does it deal with magic? Does it have class bonuses to Defense?