Caligula is here!

[Bedrockgames]

Servants of Gaius, our astounding Roman RPG, has arrived. Bask in its glory: SERVANTS OF GAIUS

 

[the Jester]

Hmm, I am a whore for Rome stuff, so I'm interested. Care to talk a little about it?

Is it more focused on politics or warfare? What period is it set in? Is there a core mechanic, and if so, what? Etc.

I'm just getting ready to take off to go print a bunch of gaming stuff for tonight's game and likely won't be back online until sometime tomorrow, but I'm quite interested in hearing more about this!

 

[Bedrockgames]

Hmm, I am a whore for Rome stuff, so I'm interested. Care to talk a little about it?

Is it more focused on politics or warfare? What period is it set in? Is there a core mechanic, and if so, what? Etc.

I'm just getting ready to take off to go print a bunch of gaming stuff for tonight's game and likely won't be back online until sometime tomorrow, but I'm quite interested in hearing more about this!

The game takes place in the time of Caligula, starting in 38 AD. The central premise is quite simple: the emperor, misread by later historians as mad, is actually divine. Yet his empire is beset by an insidious threat, a mystery cult bent on the destruction of Rome. To battle the cult's minions, he establishes a secret order called the Servants of Gaius (servii gaii). Player characters are members of this organization and find themselves on the frontlines of a war between the emperor and Neptune.

Servants of Gaius can accomodate a range of playstyles, but was designed with investigations, intrigue and adventure in mind. Still we included a number of mechanics to make gladiator combat more exciting, and there is a good deal of information on life in the legions. The book itself is only 117 pages but packed with flavor and content about the Roman Empire in the year 38.

The system is based on the one we used for Terror Network, Crime Network, and Horror Show. However this time around we modified it greatly for the ancient setting. The game is skill-based. Its core mechanic is a d10 dice pool. For a given skill, roll your dice pool and take the single highest result. Compare that to a target number or (in the case of combat) against your opponent's passive defense score. If you meet or beat the number that is a success. If you roll a ten that is a "total success".

Overall the game is designed so that the mechanics play fast and fade into the background, allowing you to focus on play.

 

[the Jester]

Thanks for the info, sounds like a cool game.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Thanks for the info, sounds like a cool game.

No problem. Hope it was helpful.

 

[Odhanan]

Servants of Gaius is a terrific game. Already had some fun playing it (my character is senator of Rome, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, the son of the Piso you see plotting the death of Germanicus and plead for his life to Emperor Tiberius in I, Claudius). The game system is very simple, intuitive. The authors made their homework and the game includes a lot of useful detail about the different levels of life in Rome, the Empire's administration and so on. The supernatural element can be cattered to your particular needs, and makes for an interesting premise where the PCs have a clear goal to get out there and investigate the mysteries surrounding them. It's really good. I hope you guys check it out too.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Servants of Gaius is a terrific game. Already had some fun playing it (my character is senator of Rome, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, the son of the Piso you see plotting the death of Germanicus and plead for his life to Emperor Tiberius in I, Claudius). The game system is very simple, intuitive. The authors made their homework and the game includes a lot of useful detail about the different levels of life in Rome, the Empire's administration and so on. The supernatural element can be cattered to your particular needs, and makes for an interesting premise where the PCs have a clear goal to get out there and investigate the mysteries surrounding them. It's really good. I hope you guys check it out too.

Thanks!

 

[Odhanan]

Thanks!

It's deserved praised in my book. When I don't like something I just say it. I have a lot of Rome material here: Requiem for Rome, the Rome of basic role playing, Cthulhu Invictus to name a few. I think Servants of Gaius is the one I really want to play out of them all, because it focuses on the feel of the Roman period, because its game system is intuitive and because it provides an interesting premise from which comes the actual structure of game play (i.e. the actual servants of Gaius Caligula fighting the various threats to the Empire). I really think this makes for a good role playing game in its own right, whereas the others were more supplements to existing games and experiences, in a way. The Rome of basic role playing was a sourcebook for the system of the same name but sort of assumes you already know what you want to do with the setting and leaves it at that. Requiem for Rome is centered around the theme of the disintegration of the Camarilla and the Vampires' society of those times, obviously. And Cthulhu Invictus is somewhere in between, while being clearly infeoded to Classic CoC.

I think you created something special, and something that in actual play can feel genuinely Roman. It uses what I think of as my favorite Classical period of the Roman world, which is the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and manages to create something unique out of it. Well done, mate.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It's deserved praised in my book. When I don't like something I just say it. I have a lot of Rome material here: Requiem for Rome, the Rome of basic role playing, Cthulhu Invictus to name a few. I think Servants of Gaius is the one I really want to play out of them all, because it focuses on the feel of the Roman period, because its game system is intuitive and because it provides an interesting premise from which comes the actual structure of game play (i.e. the actual servants of Gaius Caligula fighting the various threats to the Empire). I really think this makes for a good role playing game in its own right, whereas the others were more supplements to existing games and experiences, in a way. The Rome of basic role playing was a sourcebook for the system of the same name but sort of assumes you already know what you want to do with the setting and leaves it at that. Requiem for Rome is centered around the theme of the disintegration of the Camarilla and the Vampires' society of those times, obviously. And Cthulhu Invictus is somewhere in between, while being clearly infeoded to Classic CoC.

I think you created something special, and something that in actual play can feel genuinely Roman. It uses what I think of as my favorite Classical period of the Roman world, which is the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and manages to create something unique out of it. Well done, mate.

I appreciate that. I knew I wanted a roman game when I sat down to make Gaius, but the first question I asked myself was "what does Bedrock Games do well and how can I apply it to Rome." That is basically where everything stemmed from. Immediately in the playtests I noticed what you are describing here and I am glad to see it is apparent to those who read the book.

 

[Odhanan]

I appreciate that. I knew I wanted a roman game when I sat down to make Gaius, but the first question I asked myself was "what does Bedrock Games do well and how can I apply it to Rome." That is basically where everything stemmed from. Immediately in the playtests I noticed what you are describing here and I am glad to see it is apparent to those who read the book.

I think that's a key element of your game's design, and you went about it the right way. It's not so much about how you represent Rome in terms of game mechanics or whanot, but first about the game itself and thinking "alright, what do the PCs DO in this game, exactly?" then it meshes with the Roman setting to give something enjoyable in its own right, as a role playing game, instead of yet another aimless emulation exercise.

All the great role playing games share that one thing in that they provide a core game play or structure the new GM can grasp and run with, along with the tools to realize it, to then expand later into other areas and game plays as you get to know the game. The dungeon and wilderness of D&D and its basic premise of exploration come to mind. The investigations of the mysteries of the mythos in CoC, too. The exploration of the "by Night" sandbox in Vampire the Masquerade. And so on.

With Servants of Gaius, you have that in there, clearly, in the premise of the game and the way it choose to go about describing the world to the GM through its setting, explanations, tools and methodologies. There will always be things you look back to and think "well, we could use some fine tuning and refinements here and there", but you managed to get the core of the game's design right, and everything flows from there.