Rome: Decline and Fall (Adventure Series)

[Yair]

Very impressive. The level of detail and the accomodation of myth and D&Disms into history is just great.

If I was not embroiled in another campaign right now, I'd pick up this one. Kudos.

 

[Paul Strack]

I apologize for the late reply. I was out of town this weekend.

I must have missed the race mapping in the campaign background, sorry. That sounds good. Did you map the D&D race to the racial geographic location or make the historical cultural inhabitants look like the D&D race or a mixture? Since this might not be entirely clear, as an example, when the PCs meet a dwarf, is he likely to be a beer swilling miner or culturally middle-eastern, just short and bearded?

A little of both. When I portray NPCs I take a mix of what is interesting about both the "classic" D&D race and the culture with which they are associated to produce a more interesting character. I am not terribly interested in real historical accuracy, and borrow heavily from fictional stereotypes and movies for character ideas.

The adventure looks like a lot of fun. Hope you stop by and tell us how the first session goes.

I haven't decide whether I want to post actual play sessions yet, because they would be full of spoilers. I ran the first session back in the beginning of October. I will be running the second session next weekend. After that, I will post the second adventure (which is already written).

BTW, do you have any recomendations on source literature?

I've been assembling the campaign material for a long time, so I no longer remember all my sources. For this pass, though, my primary sources have been:

1) Wikipedia, for basic chronology and "lists" of things (like legions).

2) Gibson's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" for basic history, which also inspired the campaign name.

3) "Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome" by E.M. Berens for basic mythology.

All of the above are available online for free, the last two from the Gutenberg project.

 

[batrok]

Congratulations! it's certainly the best merging between roman history and D&D i have seen so far.

I am seriously considering running this campaign.

If any of you is interested, i started a french translation of the background document for my future players. You can read the description of the Half-elves here : Royal de Geek

Thanks again

i can't wait for the second adventure!

 

[Paul Strack]

Adventure #2

Here is the second adventure in the series. I ran it last Sunday, rather successfully.

I am running the third adventure on Dec 7, and will likely post it a week or so later (around Dec 14).

 

[Vitus]

This is very good campaing material and I do agree - you have made a lot of very good intuitive work to put together the D&D and Roman history.

I also must admit, that in the matter of fact with the basic timeline and the races / human nations mapping any DM can widen the material of game just simply adapting any original ancient common works (Illias, Oddysseia, Aenneas, memories of Ceasar, works of Iosephus Flavius) or using the tons of all-kind-level-&-quality books availiable on the market (from books about the Rome for 7 years old children to really scientific works) or using any related material from modern arts (novels, movies etc.) I must applaud for such transparent idea .

My seven years old son is now deeply in the interest of the Roman history (on his level of understanding) making my wife, me and all relatives to buy him all the Playmobil Roman sets and figures. This campaing setting has given me several ideas, how to try to use his Roman effort to get him to the RPGs and than you for this !

 

[Paul Strack]

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words.

This is the third D&D campaign I've run in this general setting. I ran a 3E campaign set around the reign of Vespasian, a 3.5E campaign set in the reign of Marcus Aurelius and now this 4E campaign set near the millennial anniversary of the founding of Rome.

This version is the "bad Rome" campaign, where the empire is largely corrupt. If you prefer a "good Rome" game, I think the reign of Marcus Aurelius is best for that. He is an admirable man, and there are all sorts of interesting threats to Rome during the period of his rule (Germanic orcs, goblinoid Parthians, the great plague, the antics of his brother Lucius Verus, etc.).

 

[andrewnotandy]

Great

I have had a campaign like this in my head for a long time and you wrote it out clearly and effectively. I applaud you...Please post the next adventure so i get another morsel of this awesomeness

 

[666Sinner666]

I am curious to know how the house rule for HP and healing surges has affected the game. I see there is a good mix of combat and RP challenges but I was just wondering. Also, any thoughts on heal checks from the party members that make a 11-20+ on the roll and carry things like bandages and salves? A natural 20 allows the player to regain up to 2 healing surges , a 20-25+ nets a character one more healing surge, a 15-19 nets a character a few HP maybe 1/5 to a 1/4 of a healing surge, and a 11-14 nets a player 1-2 hp, and to top it off any unmodified rolls below 5 do nothing?

P.S. Being trained in the heal skill is required otherwise add 3-5 to the DC based on the untrained modifier to the heal skill. Also, a +10 is added for any attempt during combat and takes two full rounds to complete with any rolls that would net a player a healing surge, one is all that is allowed during combat even on a natural 20, forcing the use the healing surge immediately on the players turn who was healed and another full round to get back on their feet. The use of any powers being strictly forbidden until back on their feet.

 

[Paul Strack]

I have had a campaign like this in my head for a long time and you wrote it out clearly and effectively. I applaud you...Please post the next adventure so i get another morsel of this awesomeness

I thought interest in this had waned. I've got two more adventures finished (#3 and #4). I will clean them up and post them by this weekend. I will post the fifth adventure sometime in February.

I am curious to know how the house rule for HP and healing surges has affected the game. I see there is a good mix of combat and RP challenges but I was just wondering. Also, any thoughts on heal checks from the party members that make a 11-20+ on the roll and carry things like bandages and salves? A natural 20 allows the player to regain up to 2 healing surges , a 20-25+ nets a character one more healing surge, a 15-19 nets a character a few HP maybe 1/5 to a 1/4 of a healing surge, and a 11-14 nets a player 1-2 hp, and to top it off any unmodified rolls below 5 do nothing?

It hasn't been a issue. I have 2-3 combats per adventure, and none of the PCs have ever run out of healing surges. The worst that happens is that one of the squishy characters gets hit hard in the early fights, then hangs back in later fights. The defenders have more than enough surges to make it through the entire adventure, even if they go to 0 hp a couple times. The players are starting to look into the potions in the Adventurer's Vault as a way of burning excess surges.

Most of the adventures span several days, with maybe one combat per day, so without this house rule the PCs would always have full surges (which is boring).

I am ramping up the opposition levels slowly, to make things tougher on the PCs (at the player's request). My goals is to inflict an average of 2-3 surges worth of damage on the PCs in each fight, without actually killing anyone. That means most of the PCs will finish the adventure with close to no surges left.

 

[andrewnotandy]

Interest wanning? Absolutely not! If I do get a stable group of players going, I will be running this campaign.