HalWhitewyrm said:
Share your Testament stories. I'd love to hear them as well.
Well, to be honest, I'm using a *heavily* polluted, D&D-ized version of the TESTAMENT setting, so I apologize in advance for tainting this thread which so far has been fairly serious. :/
My original intention was to run a TESTAMENT-EGYPTIAN ADVENTURES-AFRICAN ADVENTURES game (with a little TROJAN WAR thrown in, although that sourcebook isn't quite as good as the others). But obviously, EGYPTIAN ADVENTURES and AFRICAN ADVENTURES are much more "D&D-like" than TESTAMENT, since they have versions of all the "standard" D&D races. So I decided to create a setting which was a little bit between TESTAMENT and, say, AFRICAN ADVENTURES in its absurdity.
Basically, I'm setting the game in about 90 BC, and I've gone back in history and retroactively peppered it with fantasy-ish elements. And, most D&D-ish of all, kept a couple of nonhuman races: half-orcs (and AFRICAN ADVENTURES half-orcs), gnomes, goblinoids, and all the reptilians. I decided that I'd just play it as if half-orcs were just a race of humans (they can breed with humans, after all). For the other races, I decided that I'd just populate the parts of the world where civilization didn't exist yet (like all of Central Asia, Russia, northern Europe) with goblins and lizard men and giants and stuff, instead of humans. So instead of Vandals and Germans attacking Rome, they're orcish Vandals and Germans. And instead of Scythian raiders sweeping down from the Turkey region, they're hobgoblin Scythian raiders. Etc. etc. So that's my ridiculously absurd compromise.
Actually, I think the MOST important element in making it a "realistic" game, so far, has been eliminating alignments. Once everyone behaves purely based on a combination of personal ethics, personal selfishness and nationalism, real "historical" behavior becomes much more possible, and I don't have to wonder about what alignment Baal-worshippers would be....
Jason