Homebrew- what do players need?

[KnowTheToe]

My question comes down to, what backgroud info do you provide players to give them a better feel of your homebrew?



OK, I am in the early stages of putting together a "homebrew" D20 game together that will be set in Roma. I am currently researching what specific area I want to start in. I am planning on taking all of the myths and superstitions and making them real. That will give me the doorway I need for magic in the world.

Here is a brief example of my concept:

What I was thinking of doing was turning all of the Roman fears/superstitions into real things. For instance, if you look at the fall of Pompeii, from my campaign's point of view. The story starts out the disappearance of the Aquarius shortly followed by the failure of the aquaduct. The PC's investigate the murder and will find political intrigue and back stabbing. The slaves sent to work on the aquaduct feared that giants roamed the land and did not like to travel there.

In my campaign giants would live there and destroyed a section of the aquaduct. The PCs either fight or negotiate with the giants, and repair the aquduct. While the Aquduct was down it was the holiday to Volcanis, the god of fire and the roamn people were to throw fish into fires as a sacrafice to volcanis. Since the aquaduct went down during a drought, and the people were already angry over the loss of water, the city officials thought it would be bad news to have a large fire at night. So the officials ban the fire. Well, this angers Volcanis and he sends some greater fire elementals to the volcano (Mt. Vesuvius) to make these unworthy humans pay. The PCs are again sent to discover what the trouble is and have to negotiate and save the city of Pompeii or run for their lives and try to escape the fury of a god. Throw a few thug fights in and I think you get a good balance of RPing and combat.


I figured since social classes form an essential role that will need to be covered
Laws
Religion plays a major role - I am going to tie different god to skills and if you sacrafice etc to that god, you will get a bonus to the skill. I feel this will reflect the importance Romans felt the gods had in their daily lives. I will also cover Omens, as that is a great PRing tool for players and NPCs alike
Description of current era - Short description

What else should I plan to provide?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What else should I plan to provide?

This depends on your players.

If they like volumes of campaign stuff then you could provide them with fictional first-person accounts from a archetypical NPC (noble, guard, commoner). Names of local inns/taverns. Famous NPCs, etc.

Or, if you're worried they might feel overwhelmed, a two or three sentence overview.

Suggestion: if a given player doesn't look like he has the time or inclination to read through campaign stuff, make him an "outsider" (maybe from Crete or whatever). That way he can ligitimataely ask questions during the game and not have to break chracter.

 

[Turanil]

A nice evocative map of the setting.

Another map of the city where they begin.

Basic info on social classes and so on, so they know about daily life in this world.

Each PCs should know a few (around five) PCs personnaly, with typical Roman names and ocupations. The PCs should have plenty of opportunity to interact with these people, so to give flavor to the game.

 

[DragonLancer]

Looks at the Scarred Lands or Greyhawk Gazeteer's. Thats what players should get, something like that.

It should cover the basic history, geography, politics/laws, and gods. It should also detail for them what player races, classes and PrC's are suitable for the world.

 

[Abstraction]

If your players are like my players, give them stuff to look at but not so much to read. We've been playing my game for months and still nobody has shown the slightest interest in my world history, city history, country history or the gods. I don't think they bothered with the flavor text for the races, either. Just got done to the crunch. Note that the histories are only 3 or 4 pages each. It really shouldn't bug me, but it does.

 

[Stormborn]

Yes it depends on the players, but i think no more than 3-4 pages. That would describe what the PC would know about the world, not what you know or what a player might know. That helps in the long run, since you don't write yourself into a corner that way.

I have written big homebrew documents...but found lthat there was ittle that the players really needed.

 

[deltadave]

Basic social info for the culture they are from and a rough idea of the immediatly surrounding area, unless they have reason for having more extensive knowledge. By basic, I mean surrounding major cities and rough directions (ie - follow this road and you will hit Greyhawk in about a week of walking).

last page would be house rules.

probably no more than 3 pages total.