Romans + Druids + Cthulhu

[ssampier]

This is my first campaign setting built from the top down. I want to make sure I am not going overboard. But, at the same time, I am concerned about consistency.

My initial campaign hook is: Romans + Druids + Cthulhu.

I thought a fantasy Roman Britain. I will have a wall similar to Hadrian's Wall. I could even have a bigger wall separating fantasy Scotland (The Antonine Wall). I also thought it would be neat to have a few anachronisms like the Danelaw in Northern England. Of course I would still have a fantasy version of Pictland (Scotland). Eire (Ireland) I am still not sure about. I thought about adding giants there, but maybe not.

So now I have a rough map in my head. What about other regions?

I really like the Mediterranean Sea region. Since that area is so well-known what if I move the map a bit? I would take the countries of Europe, Turkey, and North Africa and rotate them 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

That would be mean the Mediterranean Sea is now North to South, rather than East to West. Also, it totally changes Turkey. Istanbul is now a crossroads to the North Sea. I probably need to reconnect fantasy Europe to fantasy Asia somehow.

Northern Africa I would be neat to borrow J.R.R Tolkein's Harad concept. I haven't decided what to do about Egypt.

Since I'm borrowing ideas, since I have always like Monte Cook's Ptolus, I'll make that fantasy England's London. It's not perfect, so I probably can adjust things as needed.

I really like the Ayleids in the Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion. For those that don't know Ayleids are a proto-Elven race that built wondrous cities. The Ayleids weren't very nice and enslaved people. They were eventually driven out by those enslaved. They are most wiped out and only their trap filled ruins remain.

I was thinking my version of Ayleids could be the Celts. Celts were mostly wiped out or assimilated on the main European continent. There were enclaves hiding in Britain, Ireland, and elsewhere.

My biggest question is how to add the Cthulhu element back in? I am going to steal the idea of New Dawn from Prince Valiant cartoon series. The leader of the New Dawn (Modred) can be a Cthulhu cultist.

I feel like I'm missing something though. Any thoughts?

 

[cdrcjsn]

An ambitious roman general starts expanding more into druidic lands.

The druids feel threatened.

Some renegade druids unleash the Elder Evils they've been keeping at bay for millenia at the Romans.

It gets out of hand.

What are you doing about other fantasy races? Is this going to be a human only campaign? Some races tend to lend themselves well to historical counterparts (orc hordes = mongolian huns, dwarves = vikings in the mountainous north, etc).

 

[ssampier]

Good question.

I toyed with the idea of making elves Zorasterists. That would make them culturally Persian. I liked the Persian myths about Damavand. It reminded me of Meneltarma in Numenor. Whether or not Persian elves makes sense I don't know.
Shooting from hip here:

Gnomes = Germanic tribes?

How could I make humans different? Those from fantasy Gaul (France) would be different than fantasy Iberia (Spain) or fantasy Turkey?

 

[Psychotic Jim]

One thing to consider is how long knowledge and worship of the Old Ones and other Mythos entities has been around. How might that have affected this (alternate) history.

Also, how do they relate to conventional deities that are more fond of mortals? Do cultists join public religious festivals and partake in public sacrifices, for example?

 

[ssampier]

Interesting question. Isn't the assumption that the Old Ones predate Time itself?

I am not really looking to do an alternate earth, but it does give me ideas. How about an Dying Earth planet?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

My advice would be start a BIT smaller. Its tempting to go all the way top down but maybe bite off a smaller piece. Do just Britain. The continent can be someplace the PCs go later. Then you can concentrate on your core elements, romans, druids, and cthulhu.

Maybe something like the Romans have displaced the druids, largely, but there is still plenty of Celtic people around, so kind of 2 cultures with a roman upper class, their legionaries and whatnot and then the Britons and their druids. Maybe the PCs start out thinking of the druids as 'bad guys' of some kind. Later it could turn out they're the ones keeping the gates closed. Then you can work in the continent and all its variety and geography. By then many questions may already answer themselves.

Throw in TOO much stuff at the start and it could turn into a muddle.

 

[humble minion]

If you're going to do Romans, you have to do a Rome of some description. Ptolus is your London, but Roman Britain's London/Londinium is going to be peanuts compared to Rome. What is Rome like? Important question, because the nature of Rome will shape the setting very strongly, and at the higher levels it'll be really the only place that PCs can go to get involved in the REALLY high-stakes political/military sort of plots. What cultural values does Rome push, how tight a hold does it keep on the outer provinces? How much influence does Roman politics have on what goes on in PtolusLondon? Is the province semi-autonomous, or is it tightly controled by the central Roman govt? It's hard to believe that any sort of fantasy Romans wouldn't have leveraged communication magic (if available) to the utmost trying to improve command/coordination between the centre of the empire and the outer provinces, to keep down the possibility of revolt from the local governor once the emperor of the day dies.

Is perhaps Rome itself the witting or unwitting servant of some great old one? Perhaps the Roman aristocrats freely make little deals with horrible things for personal and political power. Perhaps the whole increase of pressure on the Druids is because the entire Roman empire is a catspaw for one individual Great Old One (or an otherworldly species or some sort, like Mi-go) who is acting out the continuance of some incomprehensible war from distant stars and the distant past, against the entities that the druids guard?

 

[ssampier]

I have no desire to argue with the author of the Kitab al-Azif. However, my thought to "fill in the blanks" to populate cities and if a player want to play a fantasy Saxon, Roman or Turk.

I have no desire to map Europe or Anatolia.

 

[ssampier]

I only have one chapter of the big Ptolus book. Rome in Praemal is called Tarsis and was sacked by barbarians about 10 years ago (page 44 of the big book). Most important residents of the Empire live in Ptolus instead of Tarsis.

In real world history Londinium was fairly populated in 140 CE/AD with 45k to 60k residents (Wikipedia). So that's not out of line, considering Ptolus has 75k.

Ptolus is not on an island, though. But in Monte's book, Ptolus gets the lion share of detail and the other regions only exist for PCs and NPCs to come from.

How much I want to use Monte's canon, I don't know yet.

As to your other questions: awesome. I'll address them.

To my armchair historian, Rome was pretty domineering and controlling. I don't see Rome kowtowing to anything a province, like Britain, would want. I would see the Romans maintaining such control with magic and force (numbers and engineering). Of course, the power of Rome has many enemies.

Rome itself would be a magnificent place, of course. The focus is on fantasy Britain, for now, however.

Is perhaps Rome itself the witting or unwitting servant of some great old one?

Cool. Even more insidious if a crazed cultist arranged the sacking of Rome for a perceived misdeed.

 

[ssampier]

What if a small band of cultists are performing the seminal (and dangerous) King of Yellow play somewhere in Londinum/Ptolus?

Many dignitaries are invited. All invited have heard the play is good, but can't recall whom told them that (caused by a poison or spell on the invitations?).

I was thinking it may be interesting to add some tweaks. What if the play only drives people insane if the lines are repeated verbatim? An understudy may be asked to fill in and screws up his lines....