Darrin Drader
Explorer
I'm thinking about starting up a second campaign to run in between sessions of my Pathfinder RotRL campaign. What I'm considering is a Castles and Crusades game set at about 1450 BCE.
The campaign starts out at the end of the Minoan civilization. Currently, scholars have no definitive answer for why the Minoans disappeared from Cete. Some believe that it had to do with the eruption of a volcano a hundred years earlier, others believe that it was an invasion by the Mycenaeans. This historical uncertainty presents an intriguing opportunity for roleplaying.
So first off, the ground rules - everything that exists in a normal C&C game exists in this campaign. While magic was most likely not real during that period in Earth's history, that's OK, because in this pseudo-historical setting, magic is real, but it's imparted to people by strange and terrible (Cthulhu-like) gods. Only those on the fringe practiced the dark arts, while the more common form of magic is imparted by the more mainstread gods.
So, moving things along, the campaign begins with the characters native to Crete. There will probably be a short adventure of minor importance to kick things off. Perhapse the characters will take jobs protecting a merchant ship or something of that nature. Somewhere around the third adventure, they end up in Crete when the island is invaded by the Mycenaeans. The city is destroyed, most of the people slaughtered, perhapse I'll have them use some ancient and terrible magics, which literally level the city and either kill or disperse all who are there at the time.
The characters are forced to flee, and since Crete was the hub if trade for the Aegeans, they can literally go anywhere from here. I'm thinking ancient Egypt where they will fall in with a group that wants to plunder a previously undiscovered Pharoah's tomb. This leads to a decent dungeon crawl, however, their involvement is soon discovered by the authorities and they become hunted, possibly captured and enslaved. They'll have to escape from Egypt, at which time the campaign will probably turn to the Mesopotamians.
The idea behind the campaign would be to keep things fairly open-ended, with an emphasis on traveling Afro-Eurasia at the time and getting caught up in a number of local adventures. Actually, the adventures will probably be pulled from the numerous published desert adventures that have Arabian or Egyptian themes, of which there are plenty out there. The characters themselves will develop a reputation over time, and their group will simply be known as "The Minoans."
Some background material can be pulled from history books, OGL Ancients, and Necromancer's Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia.
For the history buffs out there, are there any signifficant events that I'm not considering, which took place roughly at that time? Is there anything important that I should add to this campaign idea?
The one thing I'm fairly certain is that if they end up returning to Crete, it won't be until towards the end of the campaign, at which time they might fight for vengeance, but they certainly won't be able to resurrect the Minoan civilization.
The campaign starts out at the end of the Minoan civilization. Currently, scholars have no definitive answer for why the Minoans disappeared from Cete. Some believe that it had to do with the eruption of a volcano a hundred years earlier, others believe that it was an invasion by the Mycenaeans. This historical uncertainty presents an intriguing opportunity for roleplaying.
So first off, the ground rules - everything that exists in a normal C&C game exists in this campaign. While magic was most likely not real during that period in Earth's history, that's OK, because in this pseudo-historical setting, magic is real, but it's imparted to people by strange and terrible (Cthulhu-like) gods. Only those on the fringe practiced the dark arts, while the more common form of magic is imparted by the more mainstread gods.
So, moving things along, the campaign begins with the characters native to Crete. There will probably be a short adventure of minor importance to kick things off. Perhapse the characters will take jobs protecting a merchant ship or something of that nature. Somewhere around the third adventure, they end up in Crete when the island is invaded by the Mycenaeans. The city is destroyed, most of the people slaughtered, perhapse I'll have them use some ancient and terrible magics, which literally level the city and either kill or disperse all who are there at the time.
The characters are forced to flee, and since Crete was the hub if trade for the Aegeans, they can literally go anywhere from here. I'm thinking ancient Egypt where they will fall in with a group that wants to plunder a previously undiscovered Pharoah's tomb. This leads to a decent dungeon crawl, however, their involvement is soon discovered by the authorities and they become hunted, possibly captured and enslaved. They'll have to escape from Egypt, at which time the campaign will probably turn to the Mesopotamians.
The idea behind the campaign would be to keep things fairly open-ended, with an emphasis on traveling Afro-Eurasia at the time and getting caught up in a number of local adventures. Actually, the adventures will probably be pulled from the numerous published desert adventures that have Arabian or Egyptian themes, of which there are plenty out there. The characters themselves will develop a reputation over time, and their group will simply be known as "The Minoans."
Some background material can be pulled from history books, OGL Ancients, and Necromancer's Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia.
For the history buffs out there, are there any signifficant events that I'm not considering, which took place roughly at that time? Is there anything important that I should add to this campaign idea?
The one thing I'm fairly certain is that if they end up returning to Crete, it won't be until towards the end of the campaign, at which time they might fight for vengeance, but they certainly won't be able to resurrect the Minoan civilization.
