Knight type class in Roman style game

[tarchon]

Definitely look at the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines _were_ the Roman empire survived into medieval times!

Charlemagne said the same thing about his empire.

 

[rowport]

You might want to take a look at "Relics & Rituals: Excaliber" from S&S. It is admittedly focused more on Camelotesque campaigns, but does include a Knight class and Honor game mechanics that could work pretty well for a honor-bound Centurion or Gladiator.

 

[S'mon]

Charlemagne was lying, though.

 

[KnowTheToe]

If I may suggest this excellent old TSR supplement: GLORY OF ROME campaign sourcebbok. Available in pdf on rpgnow for only 5$. Although for 2e, it has excellent info on the Roman Empire for a D&D campaign setting.

Personally, I think that a knight doesn't fit as a character in a Roman campaign. Your player should read the Glory of Rome setting and choose something else, like a Legionnaire or Gladiator, which have little in common with a mediaval knight.

Well worth the $5. I bought it a few weeks ago. I agree that the PC should try and find a different character concept. The hardest part of playing in Rome is geeting your players to think like Romans. Having players breaking social norms for characterw will only make it more difficult. Some things I am doing for my campaign are:

Skill synergy bonuses for paying tribute to the gods. Each god will have sway over the success of certain tasks. The gods domains will dictate which skills they benefit. If the PCs give tribute to that god, they will get the skill synergy bonus. Tributes will vary from god to god. This will get the players to understand the importnace of gods in the lives of Roamn citizens

No weapons or armor while walking around cities. It is a sign of cowardice and fear. To be Roman is to be a manly man, without fear of others.

Focus on the social classes and require rich PCs to have slaves or be prepared to be looked down upon. They may treat their slaves well, but social status is of extreme importance in Rome.

 

[Desdichado]

As suggested already, knight with the social implications are right out. Knight as a heavy cavalryman, though, right in. The equites or the cataphractoi would be good models.

Many of the heavy cavalrymen in the "Roman" army were not Romans, though, but foederati or other foreign mercenaries.

Of course, if you're advancing the Roman Empire 500 years or more in time (it sounds like you are) it's not hard to explain away further developments beyond what we saw historically; either the Romans finally got their act back together and trained up good, native heavy cavalrymen (and armies in general; the last several hundred years saw very few actual Roman professional soldiers anymore) or the peoples that contributed the cataphracts became pretty thoroughly naturalized over the intervening few hundred years, as the Gauls had been prior to that.

 

[Vigilance]

Heavy cavalry was widely used and widely valued.

Alexander the Great "wrote the book" on heavy cavalry tactics and Romans and Carthaginians and others were still using those tactics for centuries.

As many others have mentioned, you'd just need to Romanize it.

Chuck

 

[TerraDave]

Beaten

As others have mentioned, the equites were the Roman equivalent of knights. Some titles you might consider for a Roman "knight" are Cataphractus and/or Eques Equo Publico (IMC, I feel free to mix Republican and Imperial terms--this is a game, not a history class).

Everybody said it first, on both the western and eastern sides of the empire...

I will add that Equites were a social class, and perhaps one that could be revived. Also, medieval knights did look back on classical times as a model--"Romance" comes from Roman, and used to mean something different then it does today. The typical knight would probably be surprised to learn that he didn't have ancient predacessors

 

[Graybeard]

Excellent suggestions everyone. I will check out Glory of Rome. Thanks very much for the input. These are the best messageboards (imho) available.

Thanks

Chuck

 

[smilinggm]

I would humbly suggest that you try Paradigm Concepts
"Arcanis The World of Shattered Empires". One of the Largest Empires on Onara (The Name of the Main Contant of the World of Arcanis), is the Coryani Empire. The Coryani Empire is essently Imperial Rome, with all of its trapings. An Emperor, a Senate, Legions and Legionnaires. Detailed rules for Lorca Segmentata, Gladius a Legionnaire Feat, A new Core Class called Patrician, and rules for nobility. Slavery is a part of Everyday life and the Battle Cry of Every Legionnaire is "For Duty and Honor".
The Coryani Empire bordereds on the Noble Nation of Milandir. The people of Minandir broke away from the Coryani Empire Genertions ago and formed a kingdom where no man is a slave, The King serves the people and Everyone serves the king. Milandir can be described as Germanic Authorian, With Noble Knights, Ladies in waiting a young King and his Regants. The Milandisian's have perfected body armor and they have crafted wonderfull full suits of fully articulated Plate. And have a large group of Knights leading Pole-arm weilding Freemen, who's battle Cry is "for King and Country."

Arcanis is a richly detailed and growing world. The Coryani Empire and the Kingdom of Milandir are the two larges countries on Onara but they are not the only nations on Onara.

Arcanis is one of the RPGA's Living Campaigns. And through the RPGA (which is free to join) there are currently over 40 modules that are free to download from the RPGA.

There are two main books that are needed to play in the World of Arcnis:
The Codex Arcanis - Softcover 192 pages PCI 1101
The Players Guide to Arcanis - Hardcover 320 pages PCI 1110

I think that all of your players can find something that they like here.