Whence the Romans?

[MaxKaladin]

We've been seeing 3.x products inspired by earth cultures ranging from Africa to the Orient yet I see no d20 Romans. It would seem like Romans are a no-brainer. There is so much great imagry and cool things to do ranging from senatorial and imperial intrigue, exploring new lands only recently conquered by the legions, galdiatorial fighting and so on. Why has nobody done a D&D treatment of ancient Rome?

(I have Fvlminata, GURPS: Imperial Rome and other non-d20 Roman Games, but I'm wondering why the d20 market seems to have given it a pass.)

 

[billd91]

We've been seeing 3.x products inspired by earth cultures ranging from Africa to the Orient yet I see no d20 Romans. It would seem like Romans are a no-brainer. There is so much great imagry and cool things to do ranging from senatorial and imperial intrigue, exploring new lands only recently conquered by the legions, galdiatorial fighting and so on. Why has nobody done a D&D treatment of ancient Rome?

But there is a D&D treatment for Rome, it's in one of the green historical campaign books for 2nd edition. I'd suggest checking it out.
Realistically, since it's going to be a magic-poor campaign in the first place, there's very little that has to be done with game mechanics in d20. Any source on the culture should probably suffice.
I suppose you could come up with a couple of prestige classes, but when keeping with the historical flavor, the powers should be pretty mild anyway. Most core classes would probably do just fine.

 

[trancejeremy]

I strongly suspect that Mongoose will come out with an OGL Rome eventually.

There is also supposed to be a d20 version of Fulminata, though PDF only.

 

[RSKennan]

This might not be very helpful, but the Empire of Brendir in my Golden Age Morningstar setting uses Rome as a primary influence. It's high magic, but you could easily adapt its ideas for lower fantasy.

 

[Tormenet]

See Old One's story hour. It's his own creation but Emor spelled backwards is....

Tormenet

 

[Old One]

Thanks, but...

See Old One's story hour. It's his own creation but Emor spelled backwards is....

Tormenet

Brown-noser...I see through your evil "Return of Quintus and Buttering Up the DM" plan ! And dern you for giving away my secret...hehe.

I think Max is looking for lots o' crunchy bits...and I won't have many of those until a web site is up...

~ Old One

 

[Desdichado]

Somehow I always imagined Old One's setting as more Byzantine, although the distinction may be too technical to matter in some ways. Then again, it's been awhile since I went through it...

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

The Vatican is holding the copyright for Rome-based RPGs, and they're not licensing to d20.

Apparently, their hate of d02 know no limits.

 

[Old One]

Hehe...

The Vatican is holding the copyright for Rome-based RPGs, and they're not licensing to d20.

Apparently, their hate of d02 know no limits.

Soda...out...nose !

~ Old One

 

[scourger]

You can get the AD&D campaign sourcebook The Glory of Rome at rpgnow.com:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=946&

Hopefully, it is as good as Age of Heroes (the one for ancient Greece).