Welcome to the city of Rome! In the Roman... era... or something.
This game is not going to be historically accurate. At all.
Political intrigue abounds. The Emperor is a cranky and impotent old bastard. Various nobles throughout the city - and the empire - seek to knock him off and take over. Rome is on the brink of civil war.
You, my dear players, will take the role of
lowly soldiers members of the Praetorian Guard, the Emperor's elite defenders. It's up to you to decide which sides you're going to take.
You wake up.I'm not going to set a hard limit on the number of players, other than "not too many". If you want to join, post your character sheet and I'll either put you into play or consign you to the depths of the waitlist.
You open your eyes. Sunlight is streaming through the window.For the character sheets, post:
- Your character's name
- A brief description of their appearance
Their stats, with ten points distributed among:
- Strength, defined as the size of your muskles and how many hits you can take.
- Agility, which determines quickness and dexterity and stuff like that.
- Intellect, a measure of how many smarts you have.
- Charisma, an indicator of your attractiveness and force of personality.
You're lying on a straw bed in the Praetorian Barracks. You sit up.When you take an action, I will make a d20 roll to determine your successfulness. Depending on the action, I will add one of your attribute scores (intellect, strength, etc) to the result. This doesn't apply to mundane actions.
If you spend a lot of time beating the snot out of people, I might grant you an extra point of Strength. If you're using a sword, you might also gain a skill bonus to using swords.
Skill bonuses are like attribute bonuses, but only apply in very specific circumstances, such as defenestration or open heart surgery.
The door swings open, and the captain of your division walks in. Everyone around you jumps to attention.This is my first non-minimalist RTD, so please berate me for any crappiness.
That's not right... the captain looks... sheepish?You can take multiple actions per turn, but you'll receive penalties.
A man pushes past the captain. You recognise him immediately. It's Octavius Mutinus, commander of the Praetorian Guard. He opens his mouth to speak."So here's the thing. Emperor Flavius Geraldia is a weak old sod. He can barely protect himself, let alone all of Rome.
Make no mistake. What I am proposing is treason. If we fail, we will be thrown to the lions.
But for the good of Rome - and ourselves - I am calling you now to join me, and remove Geraldia's bony old behind from the seat of power."
The atmosphere is electric. An unnerving silence has filled the room. Then the captain starts talking. He draws himself up to his full height - just over five feet - and begins.""I'm afraid I can't let you do that... sir."
He reaches for his sword. Some of the other Praetorians are also reaching for their weapons. Everyone is standing on a knife edge.What do you do?