Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MaxKaladin" data-source="post: 199172" data-attributes="member: 1196">I noticed that so many D&D settings have a very similar general background.  The basic form of it is that there was once a great age of peace, prosperity and powerful magic the likes of which is unknown in the present.  Somehow, this age was brought to an end and all was lost.  Usually through some sort of spectacular war.  The present is a wilder age with little peace and varying degrees of prosperity though not as much as in the ancient age of prosperity.  The magical powers of the past age are now long forgotten secrets which can perhaps be found in forgotten ruins of that ancient age.  I decided to be different.   I chose an age of peace, prosperity, and powerful magic.  Rather than use a medieval base, I used Rome as a model.  My game is set in a vast and ancient empire which survived a period of decline and is now rising to ever greater heights under its young, handsome, dashing and competant emperor.  There are wild areas, but they are very much distinct from properly civilized areas.  There are ruins, but they are remnants of barbaric ages past when wizards jealously guarded their knowledge and sought to keep it for themselves locked away in remote towers and dungeons.  Or they are the remnants of cults fleeing the one true religion of the empire (that being a departure from the general Roman feel) or last hideaways of those defeated and deposed by the empire in it's expansion.  As for 'flavor'...  The wilderness and dungeon expeditions often feel more like some sort of victorian exploratory or archeological expedition than the traditional dungeon crawl right down to the aristocratic priestess insisting on bringing servants along.  Much of the city portion of the game has had a flavor that is a cross of Casablanca, ancient Rome and 'the Godfather' with a dash of Oliver Twist thrown in.  Lots of dealings with spies and various political intrigues along with the local organized crime syndicate and nobody being quite sure who is working for who.</blockquote>

Verification