Ancient Rome interest check

[Kayrax]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering whether there'd be any interest in a game taking place during the Ancient Rome period. It could be either historically based or just using the general setting of that particular time frame. Note that even if history route is chosen, no extensive knowledge would be required however - the point is ultimately to have fun and not to waste time studying (which is rather terrible advice in most other circumstances).

The Roman Empire (regardless of its government form: monarchy, republic or actual empire) was one of the world's largest powers, one that managed to hold its own for about a thousand years or so. That in turn translates into a rich history, a rich culture and generally a whole bunch of things that folks could easily write about. For those enjoying interesting plots there would be plenty of opportunities to consider such as conquering new provinces, defending previously conquered provinces, ruling (either a small city or even an important family), intrigue (political or otherwise) or just plain flaunting of status and wealth. And for those enjoying smut above all else I pose but this very simple question - did you know that Romans used to have more than 20 different names for prostitutes based on where and when they were encountered and also based on the type of services they offered? If that's not enough to paint a clear enough picture then how about other considerations such as the existence of slavery (which oftentimes led to sexual exploitation) or the throwing of eccentric parties that plenty of times turned into large orgies? Still not enough? Then how about the fact that they were also fairly damn uninhibited? The typical family implied the presence of both a man and a woman but as far as illicit lovers were concerned, genders didn't really matter all that much.

If you're reading this then you'll definitely notice how it's a really bare bones check. This is in fact intentional because I figured it would be more time efficient to first see whether there would be others willing to play in such a setting, then see what they would like to focus on and only afterward end up building a world and a generic plot so as to support all those desires. It's also for this reason that I would require more than a simple "sure, I'm interested" or "yeah, sounds fun" type of reply. Instead I would like those showing an interest in such a game to answer a few simple questions first.

The first such question is whether you'd like such a game to be historically accurate or to just use inspiration from such a setting. And assuming you're a history buff and pick the former, then I'd also like to know whether you have any preference as far as the government form goes.

The second question is in regards to the type of game this would be - system based, free form or hybrid. A subsequent question, assuming you'd like something involving numbers, is whether you had a particular system in mind? The answer to these questions would also determine the sort of character sheets we might end up using.

Third question should be an easy one, given that I'm essentially curious as to what sort of character concept you had in mind for such a game? Also what sort of goals would they have? A few examples would be: a rich and influential citizen wishing to raise his family's status, a military officer trying to prove himself, a magistrate trying to avoid any more assassination attempts, a merchant wanting to expand his already considerable wealth, an entertainer trying to get noticed by some rich patron, a gladiator thirsting for both blood and freedom, a slave that finally gave up on the notion of escape, etc.

That last one is fairly important as it would directly affect whether the game would be more plot oriented or instead more smut oriented, not to mention the fact that it would determine its scale and also number (and types) of NPCs involved. If for instance most players will end up showing a preference for positions of power then the main location would likely become Rome itself, as a hub helping to bring all those powerful folks together. If instead a preference towards military characters or rebels would prevail then it makes more sense to instead build the game around a campaign or a series of campaigns to conquer some territory or subjugate some revolt. If instead folks would like a more smut focused game then it would make more sense to instead focus the action on a single household or business.

Please let me know what everyone thinks and if you'd like to ask anything yourselves then by all means do so.

[Foxy DeVille]

Interested!

Answers!

1. Not really worried about super accuracy, I always feel the setting should accommodate the characters rather than constrain them.

2. Not really sure about a system unless people wanna do a lot of combat.

3. A female slave that has reached a pretty cushy position and will do anything to keep it.

4. Well, my character idea can fit any of those ideas. Definitely some smuttiness with her since again she'll do anything to keep her position.

[ElayneTrakand]

Definitely planting a flag of interest on this one!
Personally I do not know to much of the history but will happily do accurate if that is what people want to do. While I do usually enjoy system we should see what makes sense for the story we are trying to tell. I would like to play as a young woman captured as part of military conquest sold as a sex slave. And like Foxy's post this will fit nicely into whatever scope we decide to go with.

[Kayrax]

*happily collects the interest flags* Thank you!

I agree with Foxy Oni's view in regards to characters. Heck, it's practically the reason I chose to first see whether there'd be enough players interested and the sort of characters they'd be interested in playing so as to create a believable world that can actually revolve around those very same characters rather than provide a pre-established setting that might not have really appealed to everyone... at least not as much.

The reason I'm providing historical accuracy as an alternative is because things were somewhat different back then. One major example would be the calendar itself, that could either have 10 months or later 12. But even so the Romans actually had fewer days during most months, leading to fewer days per year. The fact that their weeks also contained 8 (or maybe 9 - I'd have to double check) days for a while similarly doesn't simplify things. Back then religion, or rather the worshiping of various gods, was also a big deal and certain celebrations or different routines would occur on some of those days or at certain times during the day. Such changes could in turn affect the pacing of the story or even provide new events for everyone to deal with. I do not expect players to remember all these little things, let alone know them beforehand, but if I am going to take on the role of GM for this game then odds are I will nonetheless provide such details in a world building thread. By all means let me know if you think it's overkill but past experience roleplaying has taught me that it's generally better to err on the side of more rather than less.

Regardless of what will get chosen by the players, I should probably mention that I'm kind of hoping that the general pacing and atmosphere of this game will be more along the lines of Gladiator, Rome or Spartacus rather than I, Claudius, Caligula or Roman Empire. Caligula does nail a couple of awesome scenes though, just in case anyone is interested in a few extra ideas.

I agree that system games in general are better suited for situations involving lots of conflict but some of those systems do have the added benefit of providing some rather decent character creation guidelines. Even if the number crunching won't feature heavily (or even at all), the added options to choose from could potentially help some players come up with better concepts or it could provide everyone with a sense of fairness and equality. Not saying it will be needed though and even if we go with a purely free form alternative then odds are I might still provide a quick guide containing examples of personality traits, skills, professions and the like.

It's somewhat interesting seeing how the first two concepts for this game involve slaves :P I'm certainly not complaining and you are correct thinking that slaves could easily be integrated in whichever situation a plot might require of them. There wouldn't technically be any sex slaves though as the Roman laws would allow their masters to use them for such a purpose unimpeded - maybe some small limitations in public actually. Particularly gorgeous slaves would of course fetch a higher price though precisely because sex would be considered prior to the actual purchase. Oh and once the Empire would rise from the ashes of the Republic, slaves would actually gain a few more rights and small liberties. There's also the very slim possibility of maybe earning their freedom should their masters feel particularly generous for whatever reason... Incidentally, I'm considering some manner of magistrate for a character. I figure that should provide plenty of opportunities to interact with other players no matter what sort of characters they choose.

[Malkavian]

Loving what I've seen so far.

As a random question: has anyone here read the RPG Lex Arcana? It's a Roman-focused RPG, though it does have a supernatural bent, so I'm not sure if that's what you'd be interested in considering.

[pendarious]

I will plant a flag of interest as well.

1. I could swing either way though regardless of which way it is I will probably throw in a bit of historically accurate concepts


2. I have a preference for Free form but I will use a system if it's what everyone else votes

3.The type of character I would play would be a Military officer from an influential family who is being pushed into politics by his subordinate's in order to improve things for everyone.

[Amarlo]

I'm intrigued >.>

1. Personally? I'd like perhaps a mixture here. I like historical settings to feel fittingly oppressive? It's just not as fun if everyone is super progressive and as open minded as most of us on E really are. Although I know that under some circumstances Rome was more open to a lot of things in comparison to other ancient civilizations. However, the idea that they held orgies all the time is a common misconception. I just don't like when games devolve into orgy games, personally.

2. I'd prefer something more freeform or hybrid. But I honestly could do any.

3. The type of character I'd be interested in playing would largely have to do with the overall setting, in all honesty. I definitely like cooperating with other players to build my character along side. That way I can entrust that I will have others to work with, rather than making whatever random thing that comes to my mind and getting no interest from anyone to play. So I'm open to pretty much any of these settings. I'm pretty flexible. ;D I can play anything from a slave to an Empress.

4. I lean more towards story over smuttiness in general. I definitely enjoy smut, but to keep me interested long term I need other things involved.

[Kayrax]

Haven't read Lex Arcana yet, though I already considered going through it and a couple of two more games to further expand my knowledge of the lore and to possibly gain some new ideas as to what sort of alterations might be fun to make or what sort of adventures I could suggest for the other players. To that end I did already go through Invictus and Rome: Life and Death of the Republic... and I've only started Imperial Rome the other day.

Romans were fairly superstitious and rather religious too, regardless of which particular god or gods they happened to worship, so if anyone wants a bit of supernatural elements thrown in then I'm not opposed to that. Then again they also happened to give thanks or blame the gods for a good many deal of things regardless of whether or not the gods were actually involved... so there is that too.

*adds more flags to the collection* Nice!

By having players answer a short questionnaire I'm hoping to get as many of their individual preferences so that in turn I could make the sort of decisions that would lead to the fewest possible compromises. Say for instance that 6 players show interest - 5 want freeform and 1 wants a system game. Sadly, the compromise would have to be in the favor of freeform in such a case. But say the same 6 players instead wish something like 3 freeform, 2 hybrid, 1 system. In that case either freeform might win once more or I could try coming up with an incredibly easy to use system that would require only a minimal input from everyone else and then I'd likely do some rolls behind the scenes so as not to bother everyone else with such things.

If a somewhat more oppressive setting is desired then we could possibly move the action from Rome to one of its provinces. The Romans would still be in control but because the local populace wouldn't be fully assimilated yet there would be patrols on the streets, propaganda to join the greatest Empire in the world and generally a fairly big divide between the rich Romans settling in and being offered territory there and whoever happened to rule those lands previously. Also, I at least never claimed that Romans held big orgies all the time. Those were somewhat rare as they generally required important people to join so as to fully enjoy themselves. There were also financial concerns as well - many important people meant a good deal of entertainment, not to mention lots of food and drink. And to that end those same Romans also enjoyed filling themselves like pigs only to then puke everything back out, take a short break and start all over again. The latter is still being debated though and I doubt many players would be interested in pursuing such activities anyway...

Assuming there's only a limited number of players interested in such a game and similarly assuming they would actually like to try out different things then I wouldn't be opposed to allowing maybe 2, 3 at the most, characters per player. If anyone feels they're active enough and can handle the extra workload then just ask if something like this would be of interest.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Yeah, kinda interested! Definitely would be good to see what develops of this.

Historically accurate would be NICE, but I'm not so well-versed in historic Rome that I would be able to list the names of things in Latin or be able to tell with certainty if the classical social strata I'm describing would have been present in Rome or if I'm thinking ancient Greece or if I've smattered a bit of something else in there by mistake or coincidence. Alternatively, I'm not keen on the idea of aliens landing in the Mall and Roman emperors playing with Smartphones, so somewhere in between the two would be nice. Closer to the first, maybe, but I'm not picky.

As for system, I'm a fan of hybrid for games that might involve combat (this is the age of the Coliseum, after all, not to mention the expansion and warfare needed to classify an empire) but tend to flow more freeform in every other aspect. And there's just so much more to explore in the Roman empire than just combat. That said, I'm alright any which way it goes.

I would love to create a priestess or acolyte of Athena, maybe, or a gladiator, or perhaps a slave trader? Or possibly an insurrectionist. Or a foreign citizen visiting the empire (I'm thinking a Celtic or Pictish delegation, possibly) There are so many options to choose from, honestly. Rome was one of the few times in history that such a wide variety of cultures and histories and backgrounds were found in the normal day-to-day functionality of the empire and its locales. There's so much open space to play with.

I'm definitely going to want the option for smut, but it's not going to be the central focus. I'd rather some adventure, sure, and some good, strong plot, but I'm probably not going to be focusing primarily on military campaigns, or such. They are more a reality of the world that would likely influence various character backgrounds.

So I guess my own question is, how many characters would you be looking for the players to be controlling at any given time? For instance, in Aetherpunk, I've got five characters on the go,but it's a rather involved game. In others, one or two characters is preferable, but it's a very mobile group needing to stay coordinated.

[Kayrax]

If you're interested in Latin names for items, jobs, actions, etc. then Rome: Life and Death of the Republic mentions a lot of those things. Oh, and I wouldn't worry too much about aliens or smartphones - we'll just blame it on AT&T not having sufficient cell towers in the region :P

Since you already warned everyone of possible confusions between Roman and Greek worlds, I'll just discreetly point out that Athena would be a Greek goddess rather than a Roman one. Minerva would be the closest Roman alternative, though Juno or Vesta seem to have more details as far as their priestesses and rituals are concerned. A member of a foreign delegation would work but they wouldn't be called citizens however. If it's a delegation from a state (or rather just a large territory in some cases) that has yet to be conquered then they'd be guests of sorts. And if they'd come from a state that was already conquered yet not fully assimilated then their citizenship would be limited - having similar rights and liberties as freed slaves would. Since you do mention Celts and Picts though, a good province to possibly involve those would be Britannia. It would also fit in with Amarlo's desire for something a bit oppressive and would generally allow for a good degree of independence, military conflicts (the tribes to the north were never brought under control), not to mention social and cultural clashes too.

To answer your question, I'm looking for folks to control the one character they'd start out with. The reason I wouldn't mind them having more is because the setting would provide ample opportunities to play as all manner of things. If for instance someone is torn between a centurion concept and a gladiator concept then I wouldn't mind them trying them both out. Likewise if someone wanted to play both a ruler and a slave, or a musician and a thief, and so on and so forth. So if a player thinks he's active enough and has the time to care for more than a single character then by all means go for a second one or even a third one. I wouldn't want any more than that because various things can happen and should such a player require a break or even decide to drop out for whatever reason then his/hers sudden absence might negatively affect more plots and thus more players. So a limit of three characters per player feels like a good enough compromise.

[Malkavian]

Best of luck with this guys! Sure the resultant game will be awesome. :D

[BlackStone]

Bowing out, thank you for consideration

[Vergil Tanner]

So roughly what time period are we looking at? Republican? Immediately after Caesar? Augustus? Further down the line with Vespasian, or even perhaps moving into the 2nd or 3rd centuries with Trajan or Caracella?

Personally, I would love it if it was set around the middle of the 2nd century CE, since I had a concept in my head for a Spartan warrior-turned-Gladiator, and the Roman conquest of Greece wasn't until 146ce. I could make the concept work from an earlier timeframe, but him being captured in the aftermath of that war would be easiest. xD


1) I'm a history buff, so I'd want it to at least be within spitting distance of historically accurate xD

2) I would personally prefer Freeform.

3) My general concept is captured / disgraced / depends on time period ex-Spartan warrior-turned-Gladiator who has a real problem with authority and is just angry all the time. xD Possible goals could be escape, or winning his freedom. I could certainly see a PC owning him as a slave, though we'd need pretty heavy coordination to make that work xD I have a friend who would likely want to play as his eventual sweetheart, so his end goal would probably be getting his freedom and finding a way to settle down with her. Maybe there could be drama if a PC Female decides that she likes the hunky gladiator and being a Noblewoman, well...he can't say no, even if he wants to. Though that would be a source of drama that everybody involved would have to be ok with, since I don't see him consenting easily.

4) No reason why we can't have both! Smut and story in equal measure is all good to me! It's Rome, let the wine, the blood and the other bodily fluids flow freely! :P :P No reason why each player can't pick how much or how little of each they wanna do :P

[PentheWonderful]

Interested party here!

An RP set in an ancient setting is exactly what I never knew I needed.

For the questions...

1 & 2. I don't mind either way. This could go one way or the other, and I would still go along with it. Although, I suppose given I have close to no-prerequisite knowledge on the history of Ancient Rome, anything that demands pre-reading is admittedly a bit intimidating XD

3. The character I have in mind is a princess from a fallen kingdom from Southeast Asia, who was then taken as a prize by the opposition and then sold off into the trade market, switching hands until she eventually ended up in Rome. Given her previous status, exotic looks, and various skills (including cooking, first aid, knowledge of medicinal plants and herbal remedies) she became a prized slave and was tasked to be the handmaiden of her Master's wife as a sign of their wealth and status. I'd love for a PC to be her Mistress and discuss other connections. P.S. I am the friend Vergil Tanner mentioned whose character would become his character's sweetheart, so having a happy ending for the two of them would be the ultimate goal. Perhaps a chance for them to run away and live in peace together. <3

4. I am looking to be in a game that has more smut, but the story always comes first for me. So having a moving plot is definitely a must.

[Foxy DeVille]

I'm all for more slave characters for mine to bully and undermine mentor and nurture. >:)

I see mine as being from a once-affluent family that sold her as a child to cover debts. So she is educated and good with numbers, which makes her useful in keeping track of her master's accounts. She plans on buying her freedom but doesn't want to end up with nothing after achieving that so she wants to immaculate enough money so she can be both free and comfortable. Not being as young as she used to be, she feels the grains of time trickling down. This has her on the lookout for schemes that will be very profitable as well as fueling her jealously toward younger slaves that she thinks threaten her current position as well as her future plans.

[Kayrax]

I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post. If I could, I would've provided you with a TLDR at the end but the things I'm talking about are varied enough that even such a summary would've been fairly large.

It's lovely seeing the amount of interest this has garnered and I believe I can slowly start narrowing down the scope of the game, as well as providing a clearer picture as to what everyone can hopefully expect. New players or new characters are always welcome to join in at any given time (even after the game will have its proper start) given that it shouldn't be too difficult to just pick a concept and just hop on in with it... but for the time being at least I believe the ones already having shown an interest have helped with some of the decision making.

I asked firstly whether folks would prefer a more accurate setting or something more relaxed and merely Roman inspired (such as alternate universes, regular medieval settings with a bit of a twist or possibly even low fantasy ones if supernatural elements were desired). Considering all of the received answers I'm leaning towards realistically accurate but with a somewhat loose approach. But what does that actually mean? Well, it simply means that in the world building thread I'll eventually provide, there will be a section explaining some of the major events in the Empire's history, some important details concerning the region we'll focus on, and also some other information regarding neighbors and worldly events.

You won't actually be required to read though that, or most other sections in that future thread, as its purpose won't be to limit player creativity and choices but rather to provide additional details and flavor that will hopefully help improve the game's atmosphere. It also means that if you have a character concept based on historical facts then odds are it will already be good for use without the need of further tweaking.

The choice I'm currently considering as far as space and time are concerned would be: Britain, 43-410 AD. I will further restrict the area and years after I finish a bit more research on the subject. Please let me know if this is agreeable with everyone, if you've got a problem with it or if you actually have any suggestions to help further limit those constraints. I already noted Vergil Tanner's suggestion for anything 146+. If so, that would mean Hadrian's Wall would be already finished and the Antonine Wall would either be still in the process of constructing or possibly finished as well.

In regards to my second question, the one about this being either a systems game or freeform, everyone seems to be leaning towards freeform, with numbers possibly making an appearance should combat be involved. If this is the case then odds are the character sheets will be quite generic and very easy to use (assume the sort of tags you'd normally expect in most other RPGs: age, appearance, personality, bit of backstory, maybe short/long term goals as well). I have a somewhat simplified system in mind for situations involving combat and in case two players might want to solve a particular situation with the help of a roll rather than the need of a compromise or a third party's ruling. It will (probably) involve a single roll of dice (6d6, extra 6, TN1=2, TN2=6). For those with some experience involving systems games, that means a total of 6 six sided dice, with rolls of 1 (critical failures) counting as 0 (and thus dismissed), rolls of 2-5 counting as 1 and rolls of 6 (critical successes) counting as 2 and re-rolled. Highest count wins and whatever action was attempted succeeds. Don't worry if it sounds confusing - it involves Elliquiy's very own Dicebot and I'll be posting a screenshot to showcase which fields would require filling and with what numbers. You can either make the roll yourselves or if you prefer not dealing with such things then I'll make the roll on your behalf and inform you of the results.

Status effects and equipment (if we're considering situations concerning gladiators or soldiers) might add or lower those numbers but such things will likely come into effect much rarely. As a rule, playable characters will always have a slight advantage over NPCs. I was also considering two further additions. The first would come in the form of Inspiration points. Those familiar with D&D games should already be familiar with the concept. Essentially I would be handing out such points over time for participation in certain scenes (essentially for being active and playing the game really) and possibly (and much more infrequently) for achieving certain goals or results (think a mixture of quantity and quality of writing being slowly rewarded over time). What would those points be good for? Well if you're not concerned with rolls then they really wouldn't affect you in any way really. If you are however using such rolls then you would be able to further improve the end results by adding in those points to the results. The other thing I was considering was to actually turn that previously mentioned advantage over NPCs into something more flexible and random straight from character creation. It would involve a fairly simple roll (6d3) that again players could either roll themselves or have me roll on their behalf. The resulting 1-3 variable would next be used as a modifier to affect all subsequent rolls. Think 1 as above average, 2 as very good and 3 as exceptional. Ultimately though this would merely be a modifier so don't stress out if you fail to get a 3.

I will point out again though just to be on the safe side - this entire system involving rolls would only come into effect should two players choose to make use of it rather than rely on compromises or 3rd party rulings. So if you have no interest in it or if you're cool with whatever someone else might decide then by all means feel free to disregard its existence. It will however be there for whoever wishes to make use of it.

In terms of character concepts discussed so far I'll be providing a brief summary to maybe help folks plan ahead or get a better idea of where everyone else stands (my own thoughts, questions or suggestions in red):
Foxy Oni - a female slave that has reached a pretty cushy position and will do anything to keep it. By cushy position I assume an above average level of trust with her masters to the point where she'd be known by name rather than just a generic slave and might as a result have a bit more pull with the other slaves? I was also going to ask whether you'd prefer a master or a mistress but currently there don't appear to be any PC dominas...
ElayneTrakand - a young woman captured as part of military conquest sold as a sex slave. Any preference as to where exactly she might hail from? Also just a suggestion on my part but if you happen to join the same household owning Foxy's character then the two of them might end up dealing with some plots revolving around abuse, power play, jealousy... cat fights. Feel free to ignore this though as it was merely an idea thrown out there.
pendarious - a military officer from an influential family who is being pushed into politics by his subordinates in order to improve things for everyone. Usually it's family members or superiors that might want to get more political backing rather than the subordinates. Especially since "improving things" would realistically be a very hard goal to pull off given the need to be in a very high position to attempt it and then the subsequent need to wallow through all the bureaucracy to actually make it happen. There's nothing wrong with your idea but realistically the odds of it coming to pass would be fairly slim.
Amarlo - anything from a slave to an Empress. Things still aren't fully set in stone yet but a less vague location and time frame have already been mentioned above and the concepts that other folks considered are neatly grouped here to make it easier to get an idea of what everyone would likely be doing during the game. Feel free to take your time some more as there's really no rush at this time, but do consider all these elements in case you're able to restrict your own character concept to something more specific.
Fury Aphrodisia - a priestess or acolyte of Athena / a gladiator / a slave trader / an insurrectionist / a foreign citizen visiting the Empire. My previous comment regarding goddesses still apply (Athena = Minerva... and Juno or Vesta being better documented).
BlackStone - a Senator with diverse business holdings from salt mines to gladiator house / a popular and successful legion commander disgraced and made into a gladiator. If we'll end up playing during the Empire days then the Senate would actually have little power left to them. Especially if we play in a province rather than Rome itself, so I would suggest a wealthy merchant or some other sort of influential citizen.
Vergil Tanner - captured/disgraced ex-Spartan warrior-turned-Gladiator who has a real problem with authority and is just angry all the time. Would he feel better if everyone dug up a big bottomless pit so people could kick each other in it? :P
PentheWonderful - a princess from a fallen kingdom from Southeast Asia that became a prized slave and was tasked to be the handmaiden of her Master's wife as a sign of their wealth and status. Given the goal is to eventually get close to Vergil's character, I will assume that the you'll want to be part of the same household owning him? Opportunities for slaves to engage one another would otherwise be much more difficult to properly set up, though still not impossible to make happen.
Kayrax - wealthy/influential citizen that has both slaves and gladiators / maybe a gladiator as well.

To summarize for everyone's benefit, we have 3 female slaves, 3 male influential citizens, a handful of gladiators either as first choices or secondary choices... and a few others that either don't fit those categories or require a bit more time to choose something else. Personally I would prefer a start where we do not spread ourselves too thin and where we can actually have our characters affect each other or at the very least interact with one another on a more regular basis rather than specific social events or chance encounters. Especially since slaves (including gladiators) wouldn't really be free to move around all that much...

So I am considering the following to start with:

• a central plaza - fairly large and generally a good place to meet various people. Also the place where merchants might peddle some wares and where slave auctions would be performed.
• a government building of sorts - think the equivalent of a town hall, where local leadership would assemble and discuss important things, and also where law and justice(?) would be provided
• some military center, such as a local garrison - its presence would ensure the Roman citizens would not be bothered and that any revolts or surprise attacks would hopefully be quashed in a timely manner
• either a temple to some Roman deity or otherwise a bunch of shrines to more such deities - it would work to either spread their culture and to every once in a while perform some rituals or sacrifices
• an arena - given the interest in gladiators it makes sense for them to have a place to perform for the public, and it might also be used by the military for running drills or training exercises
• Kayrax estate - placeholder name aside, it would essentially be my character's home and would provide room for his family, some guards, slaves and also gladiators too
• BlackStone estate - pretty much the same as above if I'm not mistaken. Regardless if our two characters are friends or enemies (or even appear as such), they would likely be rivals given shared interests
• pendarious estate - this can either be another separate mansion much like with the above (maybe lacking gladiators) or the character could instead be part of either my character's or BlackStone character's extended family assuming everyone agrees to it
• various other places - that will be filled out as planning stage or story progresses

Things could obviously still change depending on what others might choose or if anyone has a change of heart and decides to pick something different, but assuming that's not really the case then I'd like to know whether the above arrangement is something everyone would be more or less okay with. If anyone prefers playing with NPCs and interacting with other PCs on a more infrequent basis then by all means pursue such a game style, but in my experience most people prefer interacting with each other and for that reason I figured it would maybe make more sense to get everyone in 2 or 3 locations at most given times. Alternatively we could shrink things even more by instead making a larger Roman family living in a very large mansion, with a lot of servants, guards and gladiators. Larger family could involve brothers, cousins or even fathers if age isn't that big of a deal. Would this be something people might be interested in pursuing?

It might make things more lively seeing as everyone would have the most chances to interact with one another. It would most likely increase the odds of smut content and also turn the plots more personal as well. Especially if the masters of the house wouldn't necessarily be all that happy to share their wealth with one another and might try to backstab one another. In which case we'd essentially have 3 masters, 3 slaves, 2-4 gladiators and possibly guests that might be anything else not fitting those categories.

I never actually made a 4th question as the preference for smut would have always been in the hands of the players, but since pretty much everyone agreed with the presence of sexy times in the game let me then ask something more specific instead - do you have any particular pairings in mind or any specific kinks you'd like to see, or on the contrary to avoid? It's the sort of information that will likely become part of your character sheets as well, but more importantly it will help decide whether this should be played in the Bondage, NC or Extreme sections of the forum.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Would not a better parallel between the goddesses be Juno/Hera and Athena/Demeter? In any case, you're right, since Rome would encourage the gods being absorbed by Roman tradition, rather than existing separately.

If we're doing a singular family, that will help with character decisions, too, because there would be less chance of an Acolyte of most sorts to be in a private home. A disciple or priestess might be caught there on a visit, but not for long. An insurrectionist might, but that would still leave me some room to figure out what other features he/she/they would have. But since we have slave traders and gladiators aplenty, I think I'll leave that behind. So, insurrectionist or foreign visitor. Or both. Or maybe one in the same? Who knows.

Would be interested in plotting to break people out of slavery and away to safety either way, but until I have some concrete idea of who is playing what characters, I can't really say who individually I might be interested in.

Where we start otherwise isn't bothersome to me. Just choose what you're going to choose and I'll make myself fit wherever I need to.

[Kayrax]

Juno (Roman) = Hera (Greek) is correct. Both Athena and Demeter are Greek goddesses and it's generally assumed that Athena (Greek) = Minerva (Roman). I only mentioned Juno or Vesta as alternatives to Minerva because they seemed to be more popular and some of their priestesses and rituals are better documented as a result. At the end of the day you're free to pick whichever one you like though. Being caught praying to "pagan" gods though might lead to a rather violent outcome.

Other than a few elite priestesses that were controlled and protected to a greater extent by the state - mostly to ensure they remained chaste till they were 30, no real care or concerned would've been given to the regular ones. To this end she could be either a distant family member or a friend of the family and as such her visit could potentially last for longer. Or her order might not have sufficient assets in the area and might've as such come to an agreement with a willing party to house her for the duration. Basically one extra mouth to feed in exchange for their family's exploits and piety being sung every now and then in certain parts of the Empire. Or she might have been part of the family, ended up in a messy marriage and likely following a messy divorce or some other scandal, took up vows to escape the shame and public eye and now she might want to return home, especially if nobody would really know about her past in the new province. There are all sorts of ways that this concept could still work regardless of other choices and limitations so don't be discouraged just yet.

I actually wanted to ask previously as well but what exactly do you mean by an insurrectionist? A slave planning a revolt? A regular citizen displeased with the way things are and speaking out against the local rulers? An important individual that dares question the decision making of the Emperor?

Foreign visitor would probably work if they're either some manner of emissary or perhaps a merchant. Merchant of sorts will likely allow you more chances to meet up with everyone. That's because such a character could be selling various natural resources, buying trinkets or finished products and at the same time also inform the Roman hotshots in the region as to the movements and attitudes of their neighbors. The general disposition of most individuals might also improve as a result, whereas being an emissary would pretty much entail the representative of another nation/tribe/whatever and so folks would likely be more guarded.

Freeing slaves is a noble goal... if perhaps suicidal as well. You are quite free, and somewhat even encouraged, to pursue it since it might lead to fun/interested outcomes but do keep in mind that the age of a bunch of freed slaves wouldn't quite be upon them yet, and that in outlying provinces slaves would generally be more carefully watched and more swiftly/harshly reprimanded. Also the fact that an open rebellion would lead to lots of casualties and should too much of the populace start running for the woods then the remaining ones might end up suffering a whole lot more as a result. As far as I'm concerned these would be fun and interested outcomes though, especially since they might affect some of our characters as well - hence why I'm not in the least opposed to you trying this out.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Either way, I think I'm backing away from the Priestess angle. Mostly, it was chosen as a point that was going to eventually compliment the character's personality, less so the ease of access.

That said, if I do go dignitary, or any other foreign character, I would probably still have them worshiping "pagan" gods either way. I understand that might cause some issues.

The point of the priestess character would have been to have been steeped in the insular culture of the temple. While I know that there were some orders that were completely isolated, it doesn't look like that concept was going to work out, either way.

As far as insurrectionist, those would all be possibilities.

I'm not sure I would be going with merchant or anything of the like, since the area I'm speaking of was a much more bartered system and would not have had merchants as such, more than just tradesmen. Emissary would be a grey area. I'm not interested in playing something stuffy and politically-focused. It would be a character more active and wholly uninterested in playing by Roman rules. Would take a great deal of pleasure in flying in the face of Roman custom and sense of propriety. Most of my characters will be somehow contrary to Roman control. I'm not going to be playing a pro-state character, at least under this banner.

In fact, other than slave traders, I would assume that most of my characters would be Roman-negative.

[Foxy DeVille]

Foxy Oni - a female slave that has reached a pretty cushy position and will do anything to keep it. By cushy position I assume an above average level of trust with her masters to the point where she'd be known by name rather than just a generic slave and might as a result have a bit more pull with the other slaves? I was also going to ask whether you'd prefer a master or a mistress but currently there don't appear to be any PC dominas...

Nailed it. She'll have been with her master for quite some time now and has proven to be an asset in both business and the bedroom. So she's held in some regard and has a bit of stroke over the other slaves.

So I am considering the following to start with:

All the setting stuff work for me. I'm not too concerned with specific era for my character, I can adapt.

I never actually made a 4th question as the preference for smut would have always been in the hands of the players, but since pretty much everyone agreed with the presence of sexy times in the game let me then ask something more specific instead - do you have any particular pairings in mind or any specific kinks you'd like to see, or on the contrary to avoid? It's the sort of information that will likely become part of your character sheets as well, but more importantly it will help decide whether this should be played in the Bondage, NC or Extreme sections of the forum.

I'm kinky AF and my gal will be very accommodating. She's become quite the exhibitionist and submissive over the years. I'd prefer Extreme so my sexy slave could get up to all kinds of freakishness with a willing partner while giving a heads up to any reader via content tags.

[Kayrax]

@Fury Aphrodisia it would only cause issues if she'd be found out while in the act of praying, chanting, offering sacrifices to unknown idols or possibly dancing naked in the woods. The latter might not lead to religious assumptions but would probably lead to the questioning of her sanity... and possibly rape scenes. But yeah, so long as she wouldn't be found out all would be good potentially.

And yeah, that's the sort of merchant I considered in the first place. Basically taking various natural resources or raw ingredients from the "savages" up north, selling them to the civilized folks beyond the big wall(s) and then using the currency to buy worthless trinkets or a few fancy items to take back north in exchange for more pelts, plants, possibly salt or whatever else of worth that region might have and the Romans might have an interest in. And like I said, information might be worth a pretty coin as well.

Also, there could be plenty of reasons to hate Romans. If we're talking locals then they'd hate them as invaders first and foremost. But if we're talking other Romans then you could actually take the opposite outlook on living in a province. Much of the land there would be awarded by the Emperor to either deserving generals or to rich families that wanted to expand their wealth and possibly their status. Especially since Rome itself might prove too cutthroat to make the same attempt. But a newly acquired province? That held untapped potential and plenty of opportunities for those who wished to pursue them. At the same time however it meant moving away from the center of civilized world. Many facilities and benefits that might've been available in Rome would no longer be present in the boonies and plenty of people might hate that. It was also a common practice to remove one's rivals to such places by offering "promotions" and "gifts" of land and positions of power. And since refusing wouldn't really be a valid option... And there are plenty of other reasons to hate Romans even if Roman oneself.

@Foxy Oni it would depend on who your master is but you could potentially end up having plenty of control in a household, especially if the wife is either fairly naive/submissive or was otherwise married out of convenience in the first place. Just an idea to possibly consider. The presence of schemes and backstabbing or even double-backstabbing for potentially even greater rewards would definitely be nice to see though. Especially if it's decided to huddle up in one large mansion, in which case she could either play the intrigues and protect her master's interests or might instead decide to finally abandon him and try working with whoever might propose some vile plans instead... Oh, the juicy possibilities out there!

On that note, a question for everyone - how do you feel about potential character deaths? Cool? Not cool? Maybe if certain conditions are met?

[Foxy DeVille]

@Foxy Oni it would depend on who your master is but you could potentially end up having plenty of control in a household, especially if the wife is either fairly naive/submissive or was otherwise married out of convenience in the first place. Just an idea to possibly consider. The presence of schemes and backstabbing or even double-backstabbing for potentially even greater rewards would definitely be nice to see though. Especially if it's decided to huddle up in one large mansion, in which case she could either play the intrigues and protect her master's interests or might instead decide to finally abandon him and try working with whoever might propose some vile plans instead... Oh, the juicy possibilities out there!

On that note, a question for everyone - how do you feel about potential character deaths? Cool? Not cool? Maybe if certain conditions are met?

Oh she's all about the intrigue and it'll be cool to see what sort of world she'll get to operate in.

I'm cool with character death as long as it makes narrative sense and is treated properly.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Well, I wasn't going to make religion out to be a big part of the life of whomever might be an outsider, but I think my tendency to be full of spite makes me want to actively make a character to fly in the face of Rome. The worst they can do it kill the person, and it's no loss to me. Druidic priest it is!

Merchants are not anything I'm remotely interested in. If someone wants to be a merchant, that's completely their own to choose, I just have no interest in it. I can't have any fun playing a character like that. There's plenty of ways to get information, if that's what I was after, but honestly it's probably not.

There's plenty of reasons to hold a grudge against Romans, even now in this day and age. But no, now I'm definitely set against playing a Pro-Roman character. Whoever it is is going to exist to fuck some shit up.

As far as I'm concerned, all the characters are expendable, barring player objection of course. It was Rome. Religion and war provided enough justification to kill just about anybody at any time for no reason at all. Provided the player of the character in question was okay with the thing - and please take this to mean I am okay with all that is not entirely nonsensical - kill them. Him or her. They are there to push buttons. A monolithic empire like Rome? Yeah, people are going to be drawn to it just to fuck shit up.

I am that hero.

[Kayrax]

For some reason the druid standing against Rome and fucking crap up made me think of Merlin in the first half of King Arthur (2004). Then again talk of religion and death also made me think of Jesus as well - the crucifixion bit in particular. So I guess... good luck being a hero and stirring up crap. And if you happen to become a martyr instead, well at least everyone will probably get to see a fancy (and potentially gruesome) execution. There should be plenty of fun to be had either way :P

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Precisely! Although, I'm not sure they'd be a martyr so much as just a dumb, contrary individual with more pride and general fuckery than they have survival instinct.

[Vergil Tanner]

Right, so, a lot to unpack!


Setting:

Honestly, when I read the original opening post, I was imagining literally being in Rome. You know, surrounded by the wealth and the power and the politics, Blood & Sand style. I have no real issues with going to Britain, though I would need to find a very bloody good reason for my Spartan dude to be all the way on the fringes, but I suppose I could justify it. We know that there were gladiators in Britain thanks to recent archaeological evidence, but given that there weren't that many Roman cities in Britain with dedicated arenas (EG, London and Chester), that would narrow down our options significantly. It would depend on which specific time period, since if we're talking mid-50's CE, Britain is a new province with a few hamlets. In the 2nd century, though, there were a LOT more Roman "comforts" in the big cities, so that would change the landscape of the setting drastically xD


System:

Eeeeeh...I don't think I would want to use that system. The problem I have with simple systems like that is that they ignore so many variables, it's no longer fun. EG, if I'm playing as a Gladiator and he gets into a fight with a slave who serves drinks, that kind of overly simplistic system completely ignores that the gladiator would have a massive advantage over the wait-staff slave. There's no modifiers for skill or ability, there's no consideration for equipment...hell, you yourself said that such modifiers for having a sword would be rare. Basically, it comes down to dumb luck and there's Jack Shit I can do to boost my characters numbers. I hate overly simplified systems like that, since I don't think that equality of outcome is necessarily fair if you've got a character who's supposed to be super awesome in a fight and he has the exact same numbers as somebody who first picked up a dagger that morning. Vice versa, the gladiator shouldn't be as skilled with - say - dancing or acrobatics as a slave dedicated to that kind of entertainment. So that system? I already have a kind of visceral dislike for something that simple and I wouldn't want to use it.

Maybe we could use a "Pip System" where you can allocate points to certain stats or skills and those pips give you bonuses when rolling dice? Make the characters feel more distinct and give the people who should have advantages in certain situations a bit of a reward for having a character concept who fits that situation.


Interaction:

I think that centering the game around one specific family could be very interesting, though it might lack the juicier conflicts that Roman politics are known for. What if we center the story around two rival households? So you have internal interactions, and you have interactions when they go up against each other or vie for position? That could add another layer of fun to the game, assuming we have enough players to make it work! Though that would also mean that there are some slave characters who would likely never interact. So maybe instead...it could be following one family, and a PC plays the master or mistress (or both) of the House, and then another PC plays a character who is maybe the son of the master of the house or a "loyal" subservient noble who was adopted into the house or something like that, and s/he wants to take over the house so is working from the inside and getting into that Roman politics game. Gives everybody a chance to interact, but also gives us some of that juicy Roman intrigue?

Personally, I would want my character in a household with a dominant and powerful Domina rather than a submissive and naive one. One of the ideas I had bouncing in my heads was that MC and Pen's character got into a forbidden relationship, but MC was also the Domina's favourite "Toy" to play with when her husband was away. Add a layer of forbidden drama and put him in a very difficult position :P And that doesn't work with a submissive or naive Domina in charge xD


Smut:

I think we could put it in Extreme. That way, people can all do whatever they want, as long as they Tag it properly with their Headers. Personally, I'm envisaging BDSM, Non-Con Roughplay and Roleplay with my character, but I'm also kinky enough to know that some people would also like to go a little deeper into the depraved pool. So Extreme could be a good place that gives us wiggle room if we need it.


Character Death:

Eeeeh...personally, in this setting, I'm not a fan. Some settings you go into and go "Yeah, my character might die," but given that as a gladiator my character would be at greater risk of that, and that I actually wanna tell a story? I don't want my character dying. I want to get to the end of his story xD I might be convinced to let him die if it was in the "right" way and handled well, but I'm not really into Game of Thrones style stories where a character can die without warning and fuck you tough. So I'd rather keep Elias out of the "Death Lane," if it's all the same to you fine folks.


That's just my 1.6 pence, though. ^_^

[PentheWonderful]

This all sounds good to me, and Vergil has pretty much covered all the grounds I was concerned with, mainly that the slave characters would have difficulty interacting with each other. But, I'm happy with how things are panning out thus far.

Did you have any more questions to ask me?

[Fury Aphrodisia]

As expected from Vergil, he has brought up some thoroughly insightful points. While I might actually prefer the Britain angle due to the one character's history, my initial thought had been, also, that we would be working from Rome itself. Roman soldiers in a distant barracks is one thing, but Rome as the capitol and so forth, that's another thing entirely. I don't really have a preference,but I can work in both realms, and if it comes down to it, I think where people might prefer would be something more stereotypically Roman.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

System:

Eeeeeh...I don't think I would want to use that system. The problem I have with simple systems like that is that they ignore so many variables, it's no longer fun. EG, if I'm playing as a Gladiator and he gets into a fight with a slave who serves drinks, that kind of overly simplistic system completely ignores that the gladiator would have a massive advantage over the wait-staff slave. There's no modifiers for skill or ability, there's no consideration for equipment...hell, you yourself said that such modifiers for having a sword would be rare. Basically, it comes down to dumb luck and there's Jack Shit I can do to boost my characters numbers. I hate overly simplified systems like that, since I don't think that equality of outcome is necessarily fair if you've got a character who's supposed to be super awesome in a fight and he has the exact same numbers as somebody who first picked up a dagger that morning. Vice versa, the gladiator shouldn't be as skilled with - say - dancing or acrobatics as a slave dedicated to that kind of entertainment. So that system? I already have a kind of visceral dislike for something that simple and I wouldn't want to use it.

Maybe we could use a "Pip System" where you can allocate points to certain stats or skills and those pips give you bonuses when rolling dice? Make the characters feel more distinct and give the people who should have advantages in certain situations a bit of a reward for having a character concept who fits that situation.

He almost lost me here, I'll admit. I tend to like pretty uncomplicated systems, myself, but he makes a good point as to the gladiator vs. the busboy - I dunno, it just seemed like he was pissed off as a busboy to me, I'm going with it - and it not really accounting for things that, especially gladiatorial characters will be putting a lot of writing time into building for their stories. While I get that this is mostly meant to be in pitting two people against each other from similar strengths, it might not have the flexibility to deviate from that stricture should the need arise. I think the idea of being able to put investment into different 'skills' so to speak would be a great way to have bonuses apply in instances that are a little closer to reality.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Interaction:

I think that centering the game around one specific family could be very interesting, though it might lack the juicier conflicts that Roman politics are known for. What if we center the story around two rival households? So you have internal interactions, and you have interactions when they go up against each other or vie for position? That could add another layer of fun to the game, assuming we have enough players to make it work! Though that would also mean that there are some slave characters who would likely never interact. So maybe instead...it could be following one family, and a PC plays the master or mistress (or both) of the House, and then another PC plays a character who is maybe the son of the master of the house or a "loyal" subservient noble who was adopted into the house or something like that, and s/he wants to take over the house so is working from the inside and getting into that Roman politics game. Gives everybody a chance to interact, but also gives us some of that juicy Roman intrigue?

Personally, I would want my character in a household with a dominant and powerful Domina rather than a submissive and naive one. One of the ideas I had bouncing in my heads was that MC and Pen's character got into a forbidden relationship, but MC was also the Domina's favourite "Toy" to play with when her husband was away. Add a layer of forbidden drama and put him in a very difficult position :P And that doesn't work with a submissive or naive Domina in charge xD

While I'm not invested in what sort of a person the Domina might be, I can see some real value in having the competing households, which might be interesting given my concept of the insurrectionists seeing as how "escape" might just be helping that forbidden romance make it out of one house and into another, smuggling people back and forth across or sabotaging the houses somehow to keep them distracted while another operative sabotages a senator or something across the way in order to weaken Rome's governing body for future attacks or something.

Honestly, I might just end up rolling them into a single character. A Pictish Gaul from the war council who is basically on the surface John Bender and is interested in sabotaging Rome while they're there. Having two houses opens up a lot of options. And if the houses are all of the same strata, then having the slaves interact might be as easy as having them accompany their masters/mistresses to places, being a show of pride at a social gathering, maybe the two houses competing are trying to maintain the illusion of friendship? Feasts to honour Rome's other powerful might need to invite their rival household, who would have slaves to attend them, also? Lots of ways you could influence them meeting across lines. And it would be small enough to ensure that characters meet or have license to meet whenever they feel it fits their stories.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Smut:

I think we could put it in Extreme. That way, people can all do whatever they want, as long as they Tag it properly with their Headers. Personally, I'm envisaging BDSM, Non-Con Roughplay and Roleplay with my character, but I'm also kinky enough to know that some people would also like to go a little deeper into the depraved pool. So Extreme could be a good place that gives us wiggle room if we need it.

I agree here. I might not be planning to go too extreme myself, but I'd like the room to be able to be 300-style bloody and Pornhub-Style raunchy wherever I like. I'm alright if other characters wanna do that, too.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Character Death:

Eeeeh...personally, in this setting, I'm not a fan. Some settings you go into and go "Yeah, my character might die," but given that as a gladiator my character would be at greater risk of that, and that I actually wanna tell a story? I don't want my character dying. I want to get to the end of his story xD I might be convinced to let him die if it was in the "right" way and handled well, but I'm not really into Game of Thrones style stories where a character can die without warning and fuck you tough. So I'd rather keep Elias out of the "Death Lane," if it's all the same to you fine folks.

This is basically what I would have been saying about Player approval in this instance. So, let's say my savage druid anarchist wants to have a go at Russel Crowe. Let's even say that for whatever reason, I beat him. I would then ask him how he felt about this. Should this character die? I'm not a huge fan of the GOT way of life, when you can't invest in a character. So, should he say yes, I'd ask him to help me plan it for best effect. If he says no, then we come up with a reason or a way that his character doesn't get killed. Even if that means my character decides to act a little uncharacteristically. His character, his choice, I guess you could say.

[Vergil Tanner]

As expected from Vergil, he has brought up some thoroughly insightful points. While I might actually prefer the Britain angle due to the one character's history, my initial thought had been, also, that we would be working from Rome itself. Roman soldiers in a distant barracks is one thing, but Rome as the capitol and so forth, that's another thing entirely. I don't really have a preference,but I can work in both realms, and if it comes down to it, I think where people might prefer would be something more stereotypically Roman.

I can work in Britain, I was just assuming it would be somewhere more - as you say - stereotypically Roman, haha.
And by the way, thank you for the compliment! I'll try not to disappoint in future xD
Also also, thanks for getting my name right. A lot of people spell it with two "i's" for some reason. I blame - funnily enough - the Romans. :P

He almost lost me here, I'll admit. I tend to like pretty uncomplicated systems, myself, but he makes a good point as to the gladiator vs. the busboy - I dunno, it just seemed like he was pissed off as a busboy to me, I'm going with it - and it not really accounting for things that, especially gladiatorial characters will be putting a lot of writing time into building for their stories. While I get that this is mostly meant to be in pitting two people against each other from similar strengths, it might not have the flexibility to deviate from that stricture should the need arise. I think the idea of being able to put investment into different 'skills' so to speak would be a great way to have bonuses apply in instances that are a little closer to reality.

Oh, I completely understand the need for simplicity to make it accessible. And by no means am I saying that a System has to be compulsory, I like the idea of it being Opt-In as a way to settle things when talking it out can't resolve matters. I was just saying, as you correctly pointed out, that the system lacks flexibility or the ability to customise characters and what they can and can't do. ^_^ The last thing I want is for a system to alienate people! :D

And if the houses are all of the same strata, then having the slaves interact might be as easy as having them accompany their masters/mistresses to places, being a show of pride at a social gathering, maybe the two houses competing are trying to maintain the illusion of friendship? Feasts to honour Rome's other powerful might need to invite their rival household, who would have slaves to attend them, also? Lots of ways you could influence them meeting across lines. And it would be small enough to ensure that characters meet or have license to meet whenever they feel it fits their stories.

Oooh, I do like that last idea in particular! It's true to Roman politics where if two houses didn't like each other, they would definitely try to keep each other close if they were equals. All the better to slide the knife in. xD Roman politics, they never came at you head on. They always came at you sideways. It's how they moved, how they thought. Sidle up and smile, then hit you where you're weak.

This is basically what I would have been saying about Player approval in this instance. So, let's say my savage druid anarchist wants to have a go at Russel Crowe. Let's even say that for whatever reason, I beat him. I would then ask him how he felt about this. Should this character die? I'm not a huge fan of the GOT way of life, when you can't invest in a character. So, should he say yes, I'd ask him to help me plan it for best effect. If he says no, then we come up with a reason or a way that his character doesn't get killed. Even if that means my character decides to act a little uncharacteristically. His character, his choice, I guess you could say.

Exactly! In my mind, in a game like this, if you can't resolve things amicably like adults, why are you writing such a contentious time period? xD I would personally only use the system if the player and I couldn't come up with a chain of events that we're both happy with. ^_^

[Fury Aphrodisia]

And by the way, thank you for the compliment! I'll try not to disappoint in future xD

You've never done in the past, darling, I don't expect you to start now.

Also also, thanks for getting my name right. A lot of people spell it with two "i's" for some reason. I blame - funnily enough - the Romans. :P

Here, here!

Oooh, I do like that last idea in particular! It's true to Roman politics where if two houses didn't like each other, they would definitely try to keep each other close if they were equals. All the better to slide the knife in. xD Roman politics, they never came at you head on. They always came at you sideways. It's how they moved, how they thought. Sidle up and smile, then hit you where you're weak.

I know what you're going for there, but all I could think of was

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

RIP Ron Glass, though.

[Kayrax]

@Vergil Tanner My initial assumption was similarly that it would be played out in Rome and it's not technically off the table yet assuming most folks would instead prefer that. However based on the posts I reviewed so far, people either don't have much of a preference or what preference or details they did mention sort of made me think provinces in general and possibly Britain in particular. Picking some point close to the fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire would allow for more flavor elements to be introduced. I was actually considering Chester myself (Deva Victrix fort would've helped with a player's military background and the nearby Minerva Shrine might've possibly helped out with another's religious background) though technically speaking the lack of ruins found in other places doesn't necessarily mean that there were no such constructions elsewhere. There could've been and said ruins might either be still undiscovered or might not have survived the passage of time in the first place. Less likely but not necessarily impossible.

I also took your previously stated preference into account and came up with something close to the date you referenced (middle of 2nd century CE). And it would've worked out more or less well if the Greeks had been taken over in 146 CE like you mentioned. In such a case the recently captured warriors would've been enslaved and sold off and it wouldn't have been that difficult to assume that one or two might've reached the ends of the Empire if only to show that they had talent from all over the place. Trouble is that the Greeks fell in 146 BCE, after they lost the battle of Corinth. So that would be roughly 300 years prior. As you can see it's not space that would be too difficult to explain but rather time. Then again given that Fury Aphrodisia abandoned her acolyte idea and also seeing how BlackStone apparently snuck out without a peep, maybe the setting could be further analyzed and changed to something else.

So just to clarify, Sparta became part of the Achaean League in 192 BCE, and the Achaean League was defeated by the Romans in 146 BCE. If they only could've held on for another half a century or so it would've been great as we could've entered Caesar's era. As things stand currently however, what would be your preferred time frame to play this out? Min, max and ideal as you previously mentioned would be ideal considering you were the only one I believe to try and provide actual numbers, which I actually find rather helpful as it helps limit my own search.

I get where you're coming from with the concerns for the overly simplified system. Your suggestion to add in a point-buy system at creation (because that's what it would really be) is well received as far as I'm concerned. Heck, I don't mind the classical attributes, abilities, traits and backgrounds but seeing how most of those present leaned towards freeform I kinda worried that adding too many of those might scare them away. Alright, how about this then? Rather than a bunch of attributes and individual skills to keep track of, how about we at least try and keep things simple? Say we add some fairly large skills that players will be able to use a set amount of points to buy upon character creation. Examples of such skills would be: perception (awareness, intuition, observation, that sort of thing), combat (unarmed, armored, with various weapon types), entertainment (poetry, dancing, painting, singing, etc.), crafting (woodwork, stonework, metalwork, etc.), communication (persuading, deceiving, manipulating, etc.), sex (doubt it actually needs explanations) and possibly a couple more. The names might change and like I said, a few more might possibly pop up, but essentially a player might be able to use those extra points to modify rolls - and again I repeat, that's only if they should be interested in using such a system in the first place. Would that work for everyone?

The focus on a single family was actually the alternative to instead focusing on 2 or 3 such houses represented by myself, BlackStone and pendarious - as we were the only ones to have expressed a clear interest in a position of power. I would've been and still am quite fine with any outcome really. And yes, the reason I afterward suggested a single family instead was precisely to add in the possibility of everyone possibly interacting with one another. Because slaves or gladiators held by rivals would rarely have a chance to mingle outside of certain brief occasions such as participating in an event, a brief visit or a short fight or training session maybe. And as far as your idea concerning possible plots for a single household - that was pretty much what I suggested as well. That's why I invited the other two to possibly discuss the possibility of an extended family, yet made subtle implications afterward that they could either be a merry family or they might each have their own agendas and might not have many qualms trying to cheat or even kill one another.

Sadly there have been no players interested in a domina, perhaps because back in Ancient Rome such a woman would've still been expected to obey her husband. Then again nobody mentioned anything about a submissive domina being part of any household. I did indeed make such a suggestion but it was nothing more than that. I'd still like to hear from pendarious as far as some of these discussions are concerned, but lacking such a reply I would provisionally mention that I would be fine playing a wife character for my main master of the house. And if you want her to be on the dominant side then all the better as far as I'm concerned. I've a dominant nature anyway so that might actually come easier to me if anything else.

As far as smut is concerned, yes some players do happen to be rather kinky and depraved *blushes a bit :P*. And as far as character death is concerned - that's precisely why I asked. I actually think that most mature roleplayers in general lean on the "maybe, assuming X conditions are met".

@PentheWonderful No questions other than what I previously highlighted in red - which revolved about YC and Vergil's character being part of the same household as otherwise interactions might be more difficult. Which was partly the reason I initially provided the alternative of focusing on a single household, with possibly more brothers/cousins living under the same roof.

@Fury Aphrodisia If we had the player numbers then two rival households would be nice yes, but meetings between slaves wouldn't actually be that easy to arrange that way. Supposedly they'd all be busy doing their own things after all. We could possibly try and fix this by providing different threads to reply - one for each family and one for public places maybe - but that would be somewhat messy because timelines might not be kept as clear in that fashion. It would be nowhere near as messy as having such attempts in a single thread though - say that masters of House A are entertaining guests and so all their slaves are on lockdown, meant to either serve and stare, provide entertainment and possibly be abused in the process, or possibly interacting among themselves. At the same time however the masters of House B are a horny bunch and they choose to have a good fun, while also "inviting" some of the slaves. Trouble is that the guests in House A might leave after 1-2 rounds of posting but the fuckers in House B might want to keep up the fun for 8+ rounds. Or the players on one camp might be hyper active and post daily, whereas the ones in the other camp might only manage 3-4 on average with plenty of weekly pauses as well.

You also mentioned taking the slaves out with the masters but not every occasion would warrant that. And definitely not all the slaves could be brought along all the time - maybe just one or two and during such occasions odds are they would be expected to silently stand by their master's side and either serve them in some manner or otherwise just look pretty (if female slaves) or fierce (if male slaves, especially gladiators). So even if they could maybe see one another, it's not like they'd actually have much time to introduce themselves, talk about stuff or try to do anything together... Fancy gatherings would also leave out the gladiators and training sessions or arena fights might similarly limit the number of regular slaves. With two groups of players such issues could eventually be overcome somewhat - though slaves from either camp would still rarely if ever interact with one another, but currently we don't really have the manpower to go full throttle on two separate fronts. It's sad but also true. It's also the reason I opened up the possibility of secondary or even tertiary characters in the first place.

[Vergil Tanner]

Picking some point close to the fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire would allow for more flavor elements to be introduced. I was actually considering Chester myself (Deva Victrix fort would've helped with a player's military background and the nearby Minerva Shrine might've possibly helped out with another's religious background) though technically speaking the lack of ruins found in other places doesn't necessarily mean that there were no such constructions elsewhere. There could've been and said ruins might either be still undiscovered or might not have survived the passage of time in the first place. Less likely but not necessarily impossible.

True, just saying that when you say that you're considering an Ancient Rome game, people are probably thinking of Rome rather than a far-flung province that they never really had total control over. xD It's like saying "We're gonna have a game in Ancient Greece...in the north of Macedon." That isn't really where people imagine "Greece" to be when you say "Ancient Greece." I don't really mind, just saying that that's where people's minds likely went :P It was definitely where mine went.

Also, true, it's not impossible. Though Britain isn't a big place, and our local archaeology is pretty robust (I'm a Brit xD)

I also took your previously stated preference into account and came up with something close to the date you referenced (middle of 2nd century CE). And it would've worked out more or less well if the Greeks had been taken over in 146 CE like you mentioned. In such a case the recently captured warriors would've been enslaved and sold off and it wouldn't have been that difficult to assume that one or two might've reached the ends of the Empire if only to show that they had talent from all over the place. Trouble is that the Greeks fell in 146 BCE, after they lost the battle of Corinth. So that would be roughly 300 years prior.

...you're right, and I knew that. So why the fuck did I say CE? I blame my sleepiness. xD Sorry, I got muddled up, I got confused between BCE and CE somehow. Duh the Romans would have conquered Greece before Britain, what the fuck was I thinking? xD
Yeah, I got muddled. In which case, any time post 146 BCE is fine by me, since I can explain why my boy is in slavery pretty easily. Though I might change him from a Spartan, given that their military dominance was pretty much dead after 371. Either way, he'll be Greek, and from a warrior culture. xD

Min, max and ideal as you previously mentioned would be ideal considering you were the only one I believe to try and provide actual numbers, which I actually find rather helpful as it helps limit my own search.

Anyway, personally, I would prefer it to be post-146 BCE, and suggest somewhere between 100 BCE - 100 CE. That kind of timeframe, politics between nobles was still cut-throat and vicious. If we want to go all in on politics, we'll want to be in Republican Rome, since that was when politics were at their most bloodthirsty, what with the Senate ruling things. Post-100CE, things calmed down because...well, the Emperor was in charge, and he was the one who was getting stabbed most of the time xD Maybe the dying days of the Republic would be fun to play through, pre-but-in-the-same-lifetime-as Caesar?

Alright, how about this then? Rather than a bunch of attributes and individual skills to keep track of, how about we at least try and keep things simple? Say we add some fairly large skills that players will be able to use a set amount of points to buy upon character creation. Examples of such skills would be: perception (awareness, intuition, observation, that sort of thing), combat (unarmed, armored, with various weapon types), entertainment (poetry, dancing, painting, singing, etc.), crafting (woodwork, stonework, metalwork, etc.), communication (persuading, deceiving, manipulating, etc.), sex (doubt it actually needs explanations) and possibly a couple more. The names might change and like I said, a few more might possibly pop up, but essentially a player might be able to use those extra points to modify rolls - and again I repeat, that's only if they should be interested in using such a system in the first place. Would that work for everyone?

Yeah, something simple like that. So we could boil it down to:

Perception (Looking For Shit)
Social Awareness (Talking Shit)
Intrigue (Getting Up To Shit)
Combat (Hitting Shit)
Toughness (Taking Shit)

And people get X amount of points to spend on those. Within that small list of skills, you have "Specialisations," which give you an extra bonus. So say, for example...

You start with 1 in each category. You then have 10 points to allocate among those skills. For every 2 points you put in a category, you get to choose a specialisation, which gives you an extra bonus. So for example, a Gladiator might look like:

Perception (Looking For Shit): 3
Social Awareness (Talking Shit): 1
Intrigue (Getting Up To Shit): 1
Combat (Hitting Shit): 5
Toughness (Taking Shit): 5

And they get to choose 2 Specialisations for Combat and Toughness, and 1 for Perception. This is freeform, so they come up with a specialisation on their own that they think could apply to the umbrella term, and get it approved by the GM. So instead of picking from a list, it's a more "Narrative" skill system. So they might choose....

Perception (Looking For Shit): 3 [Battlefield Reflexes (Used when spotting or reacting to things in a fight)]
Social Awareness (Talking Shit): 1
Intrigue (Getting Up To Shit): 1
Combat (Hitting Shit): 5 [Spear Combat (Bonus to hit when using a spear), Shield Combat (Gains a chance to roll a dice to deflect an attack with a shield)]
Toughness (Taking Shit): 5 ['Tis But A Fleshwound (Small chance to ignore a wound), I Can Do This All Day (A bonus to attempt to outlast an opponent)]

And each Specialisation would add a different bonus in this basic system. I think that's simple, flexible and offers a lot of customisation options for those who want to use it, though if a player wants to opt out of using it entirely, they're more than free to do so.
Obviously this is an off-the-top-of-my-head spitball, so this might not work long term, but it's an example of the KIND of thing I think COULD work without being too restrictive or intimidating.

The focus on a single family was actually the alternative to instead focusing on 2 or 3 such houses represented by myself, BlackStone and pendarious - as we were the only ones to have expressed a clear interest in a position of power. I would've been and still am quite fine with any outcome really. And yes, the reason I afterward suggested a single family instead was precisely to add in the possibility of everyone possibly interacting with one another. Because slaves or gladiators held by rivals would rarely have a chance to mingle outside of certain brief occasions such as participating in an event, a brief visit or a short fight or training session maybe. And as far as your idea concerning possible plots for a single household - that was pretty much what I suggested as well. That's why I invited the other two to possibly discuss the possibility of an extended family, yet made subtle implications afterward that they could either be a merry family or they might each have their own agendas and might not have many qualms trying to cheat or even kill one another.

I think given the current climate of the people involved, a single family with a snake in the grass driving conflict would be easier to accomplish and sustain, yeah.

Sadly there have been no players interested in a domina, perhaps because back in Ancient Rome such a woman would've still been expected to obey her husband. Then again nobody mentioned anything about a submissive domina being part of any household. I did indeed make such a suggestion but it was nothing more than that. I'd still like to hear from pendarious as far as some of these discussions are concerned, but lacking such a reply I would provisionally mention that I would be fine playing a wife character for my main master of the house. And if you want her to be on the dominant side then all the better as far as I'm concerned. I've a dominant nature anyway so that might actually come easier to me if anything else.

Well, that might be what they pretended to assume, but they still recognised the old adage, "Happy Wife, Happy Life." :P It just meant that they had to be sneakier about how they exercised their feminine power :P
As it is, I would be happy whoever decided to take that Domina spot, as long as somebody did :P :P

As far as smut is concerned, yes some players do happen to be rather kinky and depraved *blushes a bit :P*.

Oh, I expect any Domina dominating my boy to enjoy being on top...and bending him over with a certain wooden sex toy. :P I love me some pegging

I previously highlighted in red - which revolved about YC and Vergil's character being part of the same household as otherwise interactions might be more difficult.

Our idea was indeed that they would be part of the same household ^_^





@Fury:

D'awww shucks. *Blush*

Also, yeah. RIP Ron Glass :-(

[BennyQ]

Hello there! I like to plant my flag of interest for this and add my two cents to all the wonderful plotting that’s been going on, if I may.

As for the original questions asked in the first post,

1. I’m all for historical accuracy, though I don’t mind if some things aren’t “spot on” correct. Enough to be feasible is good enough for me. Also, any era of Roman history, or any location within its accepted boundaries, is entirely fine with me as well. Overall, I’m happy to go with the flow in this case.

2. I have zero experience or knowledge with system based games. Freeform would be my vote. Though, if it’s an easy to use system, I’m willing to learn because system based games seem fun and I would love to try.

3. I wouldn’t mind playing a handful of characters. A wealthy Roman family for one, but not Patrician or Senatorial rank, as Rome generally frowned upon its political elite engaging in commerce, which my Roman family will be involved in. So they would rather buy political influence than wield it, if that makes sense. I’m considering playing both the patriarch and male heir of this family and am open to accepting female family members and household slaves by other players. If we are instead going with one family, I wouldn’t mind playing a son, the heir or a younger sibling.

My other character, location/setting dependent, would also be one of two ideas. One, simply, a gladiator sort, a Persian, captured and enslaved after any of the numerous Rome-Persia border wars (unless we go early Republic) and condemned to the arena. Or two, still a Persian, but one who declares a life debt sort of system with a Roman soldier who nobly and selflessly saved the Persian’s life, who in turn declares himself indebted to the Roman as payment for such a deed. Sort of like a Star Wars Han Solo-Chewbacca affair, if any Roman military characters are interested. I imagine it would be a comedic duo in the style of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. 

I hope these character concepts are acceptable by the group?

4. Honestly, in group games, I don’t usually aim for smut interactions, as I join group games for the story and the possibility of being involved in a creative backdrop involving the work of many amazing writers. That’s my kink. Though I won’t say no to any of my characters finding love or passion, I also have no preference on how y’all want to go about it.

My two cents so far. I hope I haven’t stepped on any toes. If we do go with multiple Roman families, I would say I’m not a fan of the whole rivalries thing. I know it was huge in Roman politics but with these sort of things, there has to be a winner and a loser and I’m sure no one wants to be the losing side. I do like the idea of them working towards a common threat, external or otherwise, as a better alternative. But I’ll generally go with the flow with what everyone else decides. Loving all the wonderful input so far. 

[Fury Aphrodisia]

My shit, this exchange is priceless. You are all such beautiful humans.

Kayrax-

Yeah, you're probably right. It's worth noting that not everyone is going to be able to be (or even necessarily want to be) involved in every event and storyline, either, but we need to be able to provide as many opportunities as possible. We definitely have a wide range of social strata involved here, so a single household could be a thing, but it'll eventually have to stray outside of that, given that some of the characters won't necessarily have as much to do in a single household as they would with more venues available. But I get that it's a really tough balance to pinpoint, particularly when you're not sure of the final number of applicants and who will be sticking around at what speeds and the like.

Of course, slaves can be sent to run errands, carry messages, buy supplies, some might be loaned out for occasions... So finding an excuse to get a slave to, for instance, carry a favour or some boon or weapon to a gladiator might be a thing, to protect an investment with medicinal knowledge, to have some religious figure offer blessings... But we also can't depend wholly on that to carry the storylines of others.

No matter the group game, though, you're never going to have all people able to interact all the time without some having to fiddle around. Even within a household, servants and gladiators might not intermingle any more than they would from other households.

In the end, I'm alright going with whatever people decide on. I can tweak my character concept to pretty much anything, as far as Roman elements go.


Vergil -

Yeah, something simple like that. So we could boil it down to:

Perception (Looking For Shit)
Social Awareness (Talking Shit)
Intrigue (Getting Up To Shit)
Combat (Hitting Shit)
Toughness (Taking Shit)


Oh wow, that made me laugh so hard. Reminds me of the tomato example.

Str - How hard you can throw a tomato
Con - How hard you can get hit by a tomato
Dex - Being able to dodge a tomato
Int - Knowing that a tomato is a fruit
Wis - Knowing enough not to put tomato in your fruit salad
Cha - Being able to properly brand salsa

Thanks  for that.


I think given the current climate of the people involved, a single family with a snake in the grass driving conflict would be easier to accomplish and sustain, yeah.


Ooooh, maybe that's how my character manages to make herself relevant? That's how she's sent to fuck with Rome? She is sent to one of these houses, looks for the cracks and then just disturbs shit until they tear each other apart? I mean, it'll be nice if some survive unscathed, but I'm not worried. Nero fiddled, but I figure she'll just be eating an apple. Or a tomato.

If we end up stuck for a dominant Domina, I could spend a second character on that. A Domina who bows to her husband out of necessity, but is bored and bitter and likes to take it out on the help in various different ways. Maybe she even manages to influence her husband every so often, though I expect it would likely be pretty small and infrequently with any overwhelming success. Not gonna go full Cersei, for instance.

[Vergil Tanner]

My shit, this exchange is priceless. You are all such beautiful humans.

I prefer the term Fabulous~
:P

It's worth noting that not everyone is going to be able to be (or even necessarily want to be) involved in every event and storyline, either, but we need to be able to provide as many opportunities as possible.

Nothing to say here besides +100 ^_^

Of course, slaves can be sent to run errands, carry messages, buy supplies, some might be loaned out for occasions... So finding an excuse to get a slave to, for instance, carry a favour or some boon or weapon to a gladiator might be a thing, to protect an investment with medicinal knowledge, to have some religious figure offer blessings... But we also can't depend wholly on that to carry the storylines of others.

It's also worth noting that slaves are slaves. They can be sent to do whatever the fuck their master wants, so that makes it easy to handwave sometimes xD

Oh wow, that made me laugh so hard. Reminds me of the tomato example.

Str - How hard you can throw a tomato
Con - How hard you can get hit by a tomato
Dex - Being able to dodge a tomato
Int - Knowing that a tomato is a fruit
Wis - Knowing enough not to put tomato in your fruit salad
Cha - Being able to properly brand salsa

Thanks  for that.

I aim to please <3
And LOL, yeah, I've used that analogy to introduce new players to those stats before. xD When I was teaching my younger sisters to play Pathfinder, I used one of them instead. "Strength is how far I can throw Oldest Sister. Dexterity is how easily she can avoid being thrown." xD

Ooooh, maybe that's how my character manages to make herself relevant? That's how she's sent to fuck with Rome? She is sent to one of these houses, looks for the cracks and then just disturbs shit until they tear each other apart? I mean, it'll be nice if some survive unscathed, but I'm not worried. Nero fiddled, but I figure she'll just be eating an apple. Or a tomato.

Indeed! If there were two snakes in the grass, you get Gambit Pileup, where one Snake is trying to off the master of the household to take control, and another snake is trying to tear the whole thing down. We're gonna have a proper Lannister-like Skullduggery here, ain't we? xD

If we end up stuck for a dominant Domina, I could spend a second character on that. A Domina who bows to her husband out of necessity, but is bored and bitter and likes to take it out on the help in various different ways. Maybe she even manages to influence her husband every so often, though I expect it would likely be pretty small and infrequently with any overwhelming success. Not gonna go full Cersei, for instance.

Mmmf, yes please. She bows to her husband out of necessity, but she has a certain exotic gladiator she likes to play with because she can exercise power, and he's hot. I love me Gladiator x Noblewoman play, even if my character doesn't really wanna be there xD Bonus points if YC likes to peg him :P
And now I'm tempted to make a second character who actually enjoys being the Domina's toy, just so I can scratch that itch xD

[PentheWonderful]

I get where you're coming from with the concerns for the overly simplified system. Your suggestion to add in a point-buy system at creation (because that's what it would really be) is well received as far as I'm concerned. Heck, I don't mind the classical attributes, abilities, traits and backgrounds but seeing how most of those present leaned towards freeform I kinda worried that adding too many of those might scare them away. Alright, how about this then? Rather than a bunch of attributes and individual skills to keep track of, how about we at least try and keep things simple? Say we add some fairly large skills that players will be able to use a set amount of points to buy upon character creation. Examples of such skills would be: perception (awareness, intuition, observation, that sort of thing), combat (unarmed, armored, with various weapon types), entertainment (poetry, dancing, painting, singing, etc.), crafting (woodwork, stonework, metalwork, etc.), communication (persuading, deceiving, manipulating, etc.), sex (doubt it actually needs explanations) and possibly a couple more. The names might change and like I said, a few more might possibly pop up, but essentially a player might be able to use those extra points to modify rolls - and again I repeat, that's only if they should be interested in using such a system in the first place. Would that work for everyone?

I agree with this system. I think it would be good to have specific attributes applied to the characters in case of confrontational or competitive situations, which I don't doubt will come around.

The focus on a single family was actually the alternative to instead focusing on 2 or 3 such houses represented by myself, BlackStone and pendarious - as we were the only ones to have expressed a clear interest in a position of power. I would've been and still am quite fine with any outcome really. And yes, the reason I afterward suggested a single family instead was precisely to add in the possibility of everyone possibly interacting with one another. Because slaves or gladiators held by rivals would rarely have a chance to mingle outside of certain brief occasions such as participating in an event, a brief visit or a short fight or training session maybe. And as far as your idea concerning possible plots for a single household - that was pretty much what I suggested as well. That's why I invited the other two to possibly discuss the possibility of an extended family, yet made subtle implications afterward that they could either be a merry family or they might each have their own agendas and might not have many qualms trying to cheat or even kill one another.[/b]

I prefer there being multiple households we can choose instead of one big family. I feel that builds the world more as well. It's still possible for slaves to interact with each other even though they belong to a separate household if there are events like festivals and such that happen where the masters could meet and bring their slaves along, but as you've said, that isn't the end-all-be-all solution. I feel you should do what you think is best.

@PentheWonderful No questions other than what I previously highlighted in red - which revolved about YC and Vergil's character being part of the same household as otherwise interactions might be more difficult. Which was partly the reason I initially provided the alternative of focusing on a single household, with possibly more brothers/cousins living under the same roof.

Yes, MC and Vergil's character will definitely be part of the same household. As for whether it's one big household or not, as I've stated it might be best left to the others. I don't have any qualms one way or another.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Fabulous it is!

And LOL, yeah, I've used that analogy to introduce new players to those stats before. xD When I was teaching my younger sisters to play Pathfinder, I used one of them instead. "Strength is how far I can throw Oldest Sister. Dexterity is how easily she can avoid being thrown." xD

I did that with my then-5yo, teaching him 5e. Then again with Neverwinter when he started during Quarantine. He's tried to modify it to wolves - it's a weakness we share - but he's still working on solidifying all possible examples in his mind, bless him.

Indeed! If there were two snakes in the grass, you get Gambit Pileup, where one Snake is trying to off the master of the household to take control, and another snake is trying to tear the whole thing down. We're gonna have a proper Lannister-like Skullduggery here, ain't we? xD


Mmmf, yes please. She bows to her husband out of necessity, but she has a certain exotic gladiator she likes to play with because she can exercise power, and he's hot. I love me Gladiator x Noblewoman play, even if my character doesn't really wanna be there xD Bonus points if YC likes to peg him :P
And now I'm tempted to make a second character who actually enjoys being the Domina's toy, just so I can scratch that itch xD

I was gonna say high school,but the Lannisters are a little bit like that, so yeah.

I have this image of her pegging him and being like "Hrm, so this must be what it feels like to fuck a bitch." Just because she's pissed off with her station in life and wants to be hurtful.

[Kayrax]

@Vergil Tanner You can't really compare Rome to Greece that way if you want to get specific though. Rome's technically a city and Greece a country. Britain is the farthest they ever reached so I agree that would count as the boonies for them but when one generally thinks Roman Empire they typically assume most of the southern areas of Europe or at the very least the whole of Italy rather than just the capital. Although so much cool shit happened in that capital. Access to all the trading goods in the known world, decisions that affected the power balance on a continental level and all the smart and wealthy people too... So, who wants to shift to Rome instead? :P

100 BCE to 100 CE would be good enough for me as it's essentially the shift between Republic to Empire and that's what I previously mentioned would make a great time to be in, with plenty of opportunities and lots of politics and crap going about. And if you're okay with being a regular Greek that likely hailed from some Spartan further up his genealogy tree then that actually makes things easier for me. Heck, feel free to claim a direct lineage to Leonidas if you're into that sort of thing - odds are people would either believe it to be true or dismiss it as delusions of grandeur that either him or some ancestor came up with.

Why complicate things with the extra specializations? At most they'd provide a +1 modifier and given the way min/maxing players generally play RPGs it stands to reason that everyone will try to balance things out in their favor. So if two gladiators were to fight and one would be a specialist in spears whereas the other would be a master swordsman it's quite likely they'd each be equipping their proficient weapons, making those modifiers nill. I'd rather keep things at the large skills level, and maybe add in a section for Strengths and one for Weaknesses in the character sheets. Whether someone chooses to fill those in or not is their choice entirely though as I won't be forcing people to have things like 3/5 strengths and weaknesses. I dislike such systems because they get abused too many times. The GMs are usually nice and accommodating, most players pick harmless things just to get them filled and then there are almost always cases when certain folks pick some really great strengths and very conditional weaknesses or even go as far as masking some strengths into supposed weaknesses by shifting attention to a potentially debilitating effect - on the off chance that said effect will ever come into play (which is quite unlikely). So if people want to make a character with 30 strengths and 0 weaknesses I'm honestly okay with that. And if someone has a problem with such a character then that's where rolls might possibly come in, at which point all those strengths will amount to absolutely nothing.

@BennyQ You certainly may, my good man :-) Characters sound perfectly viable, yes.

@Fury Aphrodisia I never claimed it was a perfect solution, but at the very least it should be a viable one. Like most things in life, having lots of players could fix pretty much all of these issues but since that's not the case we should instead make do with what we can realistically use to the fullest effect. I know for instance that even a single household wouldn't necessarily allow as many opportunities to freely interact with one another, especially in the case of players playing slaves (regular variety or gladiators). Such interactions might even be discouraged or even punished IC but in my opinion it should still be better to have more such opportunities and choose to skip them and pursue other goals rather than want them and be unable to make them happen.

@Vergil Tanner Slaves are slaves, but it wouldn't make sense to send important slaves to run trivial errands. Just as it wouldn't necessarily make sense to send a female slave to carry out some task involving heavy lifting. It also wouldn't quite feel right to send a recently purchased slave meant for pleasure on any errands without some manner of supervision. So if we were to compare an ancient household to a hotel, it essentially boils down to how it wouldn't maybe make a lot of sense to send the girl cleaning the rooms on errands when you have bus boys or other staff that could do that instead.

Also, all hail the Lannister's lions!

[Fury Aphrodisia]

I'm gonna pretend i didn't hear that last part. :P

But yeah, I agree with you overall. Like I said, I could see it being done either way and it certainly allows me the freedom I need to do what I'm gonna do anyway, so I'm not too worried. I've got my two character ideas on lock, now, a saboteur and a Domina. That should be enough for me for now. They're set no matter what the setting and most time frames.

[Kayrax]

What would the saboteur be though? I mean publicly, as far as the rest of the world would be concerned...

[Vergil Tanner]

@Kayrax:

@Vergil Tanner You can't really compare Rome to Greece that way if you want to get specific though. Rome's technically a city and Greece a country. Britain is the farthest they ever reached so I agree that would count as the boonies for them but when one generally thinks Roman Empire they typically assume most of the southern areas of Europe or at the very least the whole of Italy rather than just the capital.

It was good enough for a general comparison :P My point still stands :P

So, who wants to shift to Rome instead? :P

That's where I thought this was going when I waded on in, so I would like to be in Rome, but if everybody else prefers Britain or Gaul or somewhere else, I'm ok to play wherever :D

And if you're okay with being a regular Greek that likely hailed from some Spartan further up his genealogy tree then that actually makes things easier for me. Heck, feel free to claim a direct lineage to Leonidas if you're into that sort of thing - odds are people would either believe it to be true or dismiss it as delusions of grandeur that either him or some ancestor came up with.

Well, since Sparta was technically a free city by Roman standards, my idea was for him to have been disgraced and sold into slavery in some way. Spartans were known to be drafted into specific cohorts throughout Roman history, so it's not unbelievable that he was somehow disgraced and laid low due to some skullduggery or other. So I was imagining him literally being a Spartan of some kind. Hell, I could even see his story being a fall from grace; he's a big dude, so they could have thought that he was going to represent a "return to the ideal Spartan man" before Life Fucked Him Over.

Why complicate things with the extra specializations? At most they'd provide a +1 modifier and given the way min/maxing players generally play RPGs it stands to reason that everyone will try to balance things out in their favor. So if two gladiators were to fight and one would be a specialist in spears whereas the other would be a master swordsman it's quite likely they'd each be equipping their proficient weapons, making those modifiers nill.

True, but what happens if he gets disarmed? Whoops, his favoured weapon is gone, he is now at a disadvantage. The Specialisations allow you to take those into account. And on the more social side of things, some people might be better at being charismatic, whilst other people might be more skilled at spotting deception. The Specialisations allow a certain degree of "We're both social animals, but we're better at different things," or "We're both big and tough, but our endurance is in different ways." It's just a way to represent that yes, two people might be "Strong," but there are different types of strength. And I don't think the addition of one extra mini-layer is all that complicated, but as I said, it was just a brainstorm idea. :P

I'd rather keep things at the large skills level, and maybe add in a section for Strengths and one for Weaknesses in the character sheets. Whether someone chooses to fill those in or not is their choice entirely though as I won't be forcing people to have things like 3/5 strengths and weaknesses. I dislike such systems because they get abused too many times. The GMs are usually nice and accommodating, most players pick harmless things just to get them filled and then there are almost always cases when certain folks pick some really great strengths and very conditional weaknesses or even go as far as masking some strengths into supposed weaknesses by shifting attention to a potentially debilitating effect - on the off chance that said effect will ever come into play (which is quite unlikely). So if people want to make a character with 30 strengths and 0 weaknesses I'm honestly okay with that. And if someone has a problem with such a character then that's where rolls might possibly come in, at which point all those strengths will amount to absolutely nothing.

I agree, but I think it's important to add a flexible layer wherever possible, or the system breaks down and fails at what it's supposed to do in the first place. At least with the Skills / Specialisations, you can see at a glance what everybody is "best" at and you have a general idea of where scenes could go. But again, it was just a brainstorm off the top of my head idea xD I'm not married to it or anything :P

Just as it wouldn't necessarily make sense to send a female slave to carry out some task involving heavy lifting.

Unless it's a punishment, or you're just an asshole who likes to watch people suffer :P





Fury:

Fabulous it is!

*Flips Hair*

I did that with my then-5yo, teaching him 5e. Then again with Neverwinter when he started during Quarantine. He's tried to modify it to wolves - it's a weakness we share - but he's still working on solidifying all possible examples in his mind, bless him.

Goddamnit, now you have me thinking about it xD

I have this image of her pegging him and being like "Hrm, so this must be what it feels like to fuck a bitch." Just because she's pissed off with her station in life and wants to be hurtful.

Gawd that's hot >.>

Ok, yeah, if you make that character, I'll be making a character who enjoys her abuse and actively wants more of it because fuuuuck that's hot and scratches so many of my itches xD

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Okay, with some more understanding of where the game is coming from, I offer up this.

A Pictish Gaul (Gaul = Gael) who was sent as part of a delegation of the tribes to negotiate terms for the cooperation of their clans and tribes. That's their goal on the surface at least. Beneath the surface, each member of the delegation was told to find ways to sabotage the talks so that the Romans, known for their infighting, would be weaker. Each of them assumes they will be caught at some point. When they were split up to lodge with different houses (because having them all together was both a risk and an opportunity for whomever housed them), they resolved as a group to each work on bringing down the said house, so conveniently marked for them as targets of influence. She intends to make "observations" and make comments and reveal whatever secrets she can get away with, but she's also highly unaccustomed to Roman ways. Some she'll eschew just to spite them, but others she will probably take to, if clumsily. Like warm baths and food she doesn't have to be responsible for killing and of course, the gladiatorial shows.

Personality-wise, a little bit of Merrida, a little bit of Roughnut and a more than healthy dose of John Bender, with a little Kiera Knightley in just about everything she's done.


The Domina is ... unremarkable, in many aspects. She's young, but her aging has begun and it's showing around the edges. She has children who are of an age now where their peers are competitive to her current beauty as she was to her predecessors, once upon a time. She wasn't THE most sought-after, in her prime, but her husband was still fortunate to have gotten her then. Only diamonds retain their shine, though, and lines, childbirth, sleepless nights, frustration and various forms of depression and fatigue have taken their toll. She once had a good heart, perhaps still found in distant memories, but now she languishes in a pointless existence that causes her to have to develop new skills constantly in order to retain her position. The best she can hope for is more of the same.

While her husband enjoys himself with girls young enough to be her daughters, or with the affairs of the house, she wanders idly through marble halls, gazing on all the beautiful decor. Sometimes, she wants to break it and sometimes she wants to break it in and a growing temper makes which she'll choose as much a gamble as anything else. Sometimes, she'll act out for her husband's attention - she did, after all, once count herself fortunate to have him, as well. Sometimes, when things are good, she can convince him to show his appreciation in little ways. A new slave, something pretty to wear, destroying the family of some young sop who insinuated she was showing her age. It's all quite petty, though worth noting that she might be convinced to use her powers for good if the right pretty face knows it's place - on it's knees in front and begging in the sweet, teary strains that soothe her neglected rage.

[Vergil Tanner]

Looks like I'll need to find a good pretty face who's good at begging :P

If my Spartan boi is a Gladiator...well, I wouldn't want to make two gladiators, that would be boring. Perhaps an entertainer of some kind? A male slave who was bought for his ability to entertain? A singer, or a dancer perhaps? *Contemplative face*

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Yeah, if she's got one gladiator, she doesn't need to indulge with a second. An entertainer would be nice. A storyteller, musician, poet, maybe? Some kind of an artist. I envision her becoming jealous if and when he creates something and she wants it to be about her, but it's not, so she gets mad and punishes him all the more for it, because she's dysfunctional and doesn't know how to pass notes like a regular child.

[Vergil Tanner]

I love your terminology xD

But yeah, I was thinking about a Bard-like character. A dancer and orator, perhaps dabbling with music as well. He'd definitely prefer dancing, but he would have been trained in all the classic "Arts" so as to better entertain and enrapture his audience. And of course, I love that idea >:) I'm a sucker (heh) for discipline and punishment, and he should know better than to dare to dedicate a piece to anybody besides his Goddess, eh? :P

[Kayrax]

@Vergil Tanner I am an asshole that likes to see people suffer, hence why my idea of a punishment would involve me actually doing the punishing >:)

And if telling at a glance what a person might be good or bad at was the end goal then strengths/weaknesses should achieve the same thing, only without the added numerical values. Just fill those in however you like and ideally in a way that would make sense given your character concept. And as far as combat is concerned - if it's conducted in freeform then everyone should already know how to write a violent post, right? And if it's conducted by using rolls then I assume it will follow the general move+act+react formula that most systems allow. It's also usually rare for two players to roll identical dice, meaning that most of the time it would still be the luck of the roll to actually determine the success or failure of an action. Modifiers might at times change a result but for the most part it will be the number of 1s and especially 6s that a person rolls that will actually change things. And if anyone doesn't want to risk playing with numbers then freeform is always a choice. The way I envision this to work is maybe having the Combat skill max out at possibly a modifier of 6. But if you're lucky and roll a 6 and then get the chance to roll another 6, then that modifier is already countered. Which is why I would suggest for people to build their characters the way they'd like to roleplay them rather than hoping to min/maxing their chances in a single field. Not saying it won't pan out a good deal of the time, but the fact remains that every once in a while it would still be luck to determine an outcome. And it's that uncertainty that typically makes roleplaying with systems fun.

@Fury Aphrodisia By cooperation you mean unconditional surrender right? :P Also, members of delegations would generally be watched fairly closely - supposedly for their own safety - so it's not like they'd have an easy time moving about undetected.

Oh, and I like the bard idea the two of you came up with. Would it be a slave or possibly part of the regular staff though? Cause lowly Roman citizens could work for the wealthier ones. They also got paid somewhat fairly as well. Male slave works just as well, but figured I'd provide alternatives if they might interest you.

[Vergil Tanner]

True, but my thinking was just that it helped differentiate each characters skills within that stat. But the Specialisations can be removed, and it would just be a simple "Strength" roll or a "Toughness" roll, modified by how many "Pips" they have in that stat. That works too, I was just brainstorming xD

And yeah, I was thinking he would be a slave. Possibly a "higher class" than the Gladiator, but a slave nonetheless.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Uh, I think I like the idea of her supposed to have full control over him and instead he gets under her skin. I think dancing and poetry and music would be the best way to go about it. That seems to have made our minds up pretty clear on this, eh?

And yeah, Kayrax, there would be room for interpretation on "cooperation". Initially, that was what Boudica was expecting, after all, and it turned out her discovered reality was a little less than fulfilling in that case.

Yeah, any foreign individual staying in a Roman house is going to have a lot of trouble being able to do a lot of the things most would take for granted. Essentially, she'd be a prisoner under guard at all times, expected to remain on the estate unless there was some official necessity for her, etc. Not that she'd comply very smoothly, but it would make it hard for her to accomplish much physically. And with the contending households idea being scrapped, there's little need for her to actually try to physically move people to anything in particular, which is why she'd have to be a bit more of Judd Nelson there than anything else. Although, messing with the guards could be a lot of fun, too.

I'm starting to think that her concept might be taking a serious back seat, though. I think you're right, frustrating as reality can be, that she would be very limited in what she could accomplish, and she wasn't meant for subtle intrigue. It's like trying to fit a Garou into Elysium, it's gonna be a quick, bright, muffled bang and a pile of ashes on someone's carpet. I might need to either rethink her entirely or find a different way for her to be involved in a Roman house at all.

[Vergil Tanner]

Well, Picts and Celts and the like weren't all roaring tribal warriors, were they? That was how the Romans saw them, but that was unlikely to be the case. I think you can salvage her idea, if you shift focus a little. Rome did sometimes ally with countries outside of their borders (though granted, not for long), so it's possible that she was sent by one of these allies into the heart of Rome as part of a delegation. Maybe this House does something important for the Empire / Republic. Maybe it controls a large amount of farmland, or has ties to the treasury, or something similarly vital, which makes it a target for sabotage. She gets herself invited as a long term guest of honour, and whilst she's watched, she's also from a supposed ally so they don't treat her as if she was a member of a defeated "Ally." I mean, the Numidians and Palmyrans for example started as seeking Rome's allegiance before Rome subjugated them more formally. It's entirely believable that she could be from a state or peoples not yet at war with Rome, who see Rome in the cards. If you rethink her, you could always redesign her to be a little like The Faceless Men or something. A more subtle, subterfuge-focused character. :-)


And yeah, I think the concept works best when she's supposed to have complete control of him but he unexpectedly turns the tables a little. I like the idea of an Entertainment Slave who ends up showing her just how "Entertaining" he can really be :P

[Kayrax]

@Fury Aphrodisia No, no killing the vampire master race! :'(

Could be a guest if some previous affiliation had previously been achieved. Maybe a business partner? Or some important person in an allied country like say Egypt? That could explain the reason she's different (looks and beliefs) but would still not likely work out too well for the sabotaging angle though.

@Vergil Tanner A guest of the state would likely be invited in to stay with some representative of Rome so that stately matters could thus be discussed. We could possibly make that kind of household but then the presence of gladiators wouldn't make as much sense as those would typically be held by lesser individuals. The bigwigs would certainly pay for them and use them in fights honoring themselves or their ancestors but they wouldn't really bother actually keeping them. There's also the matter of what would technically constitute an important guest. Someone from Egypt? Sure. Someone from Persia? Sure. Someone from any other country with a decent enough infrastructure and military might? Yeah, sure. What would the Celts have though? Small hamlets separated by miles of forests? Maybe a few roadblocks and wooden fortifications? The northern part of Britain wasn't conquered because shit always kept popping up all over the Empire, forcing the bigwigs to reassign Legions from one end of the world to the other. Had they done a better job decimating the conquered populations then maybe their conquering days would've lasted more ::)

[Vergil Tanner]

Hmmm. Rather than being the important representative, Fury's character could be the "Handmaiden" of said important representative, giving her more freedom to wander around without being dragged into meetings, and giving her plausible deniability. "Why are you here?"
"My Mistress asked me to fetch the wine." Etc etc. It would also mean that Nobles are more likely to ignore her, since who actually pays attention to the help? :P

[Fury Aphrodisia]

@ Vergil -

They were as varied as any other cross-section of people, really. I just had a very particular character in mind. Her name, her face, the expressions she uses, her clothing, her mannerisms, why she was chosen for delegation, even what she had to go through to get there. All mostly solidified. That said, yeah, there's about a thousand different ways that I could tweak her for setting, station, external situations, the only problem I have is that intrigue alone bores me. The idea of having to "tiptoe through the tulips with these assholes" and how any wrong step leads to execution is less intriguing to me than "We're gonna run full-tilt and drunk through this maze. We're gonna be bruised. We're going to have broken bones. Duggan, you're probably going to end up on fire. And at the end, I'm making s'mores!"

I don't know what the Faceless Men are, I'm afraid. That said, I chose the Gauls because I was more familiar with them than I am with Roma, and indeed much of what I know of Rome I only know because of Gaelic and family histories.

I think I'm gonna have to retool Ranae a little bit. Slow-game political maneuvering makes me impatient. I dunno yet. She didn't really have a solid connection to any other character really, either, and that might have effected my interest in playing her down the line. I'll have to keep her as an idea for some other game.



@Kayrax Bleh, first the Romans, then the Lannisters and now the leeches? JFC, man. Next you're gonna tell me you're a cat person, or worse, snakes.

Yeah, the more I think about her, the less she seems to make sense for where the game is headed. Still, I'm gonna want a character that is less chess-like than the Domina. She's about as close as I'm going to want to come to courtly intrigue, and even this only by special request. I can't even remember what I'd initially said, though. Insurrectionist, foreign delegate were the ideas I used for her.....

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Dude, I'm already a mother to boys, why would I be motivated to play ANOTHER female in history who has to clean up men's messes? I'm good, thanks. :P

[Vergil Tanner]

Hey, I resemble that remark! :P

But yeah, I get what you mean. If this is gonna be more urban-based, that sorta character might not work so well.
You could always make a character who was like Lord Flashheart from Blackadder :P Everybody else is prancing around and playing tiptoe and she kicks down the door like "DON'T WORRY TELL THE EMPEROR TO STOP BLUBBING, I'M HERE!" xD

In all seriousness, though.... *Thinky Face* I'm trying to help you brainstorm. You don't like slow Chessmaster characters...so what about the complete opposite? Somebody low down who is always brashly creating petty problems and acting out in nearly unnoticable ways. She sees herself as a revolutionary, but at worst, the problems she causes are just vaguely annoying? :P "Haha! I poured out the coffee beans and fed them to the pigs! Now those bourgeois oafs will have no hot drinks and their house will smell of pigfarts! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!" :P

Ok, no, I said I would be serious xD

Hmmm. I'll have a think and let you know if I have any good serious ideas xD

[Fury Aphrodisia]

I'm afraid Blackadder is something I've missed, too.

I like how your revolutionary is apparently french. I could live with that, too! But the wrong timeframe. Makes me crave a Musketeers RP now, though, thanks.

A rebellious daughter, maybe? Though, that archetype already fits the Domina pretty well. And servants are a whole mess, there's already a lot of gladiators. A performer like yours would be neat, someone who has more spunk and attitude than would be mortally healthy if they weren't so talented. Someone who is around for the parties and the like, hearing secrets and passing them on, revealing them in song or secreting them away in stories and allegory, spoiling plots all over the place? Would give them the ability to stir up shit along the way, not have to wait on the slow-moving politics to do the damage, and not require me to be skulking in the shadows of everyone else's posts. And it might give me more opportunities to actually move around and interact with people rather than being a beast in a marble cage.

[Vergil Tanner]

Blackadder is a 1980's British historical Sitcom which revolves around wordplay, irony and witty back and forth.

Except when Rick Mayall's "Flashheart" is around, that is xD

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKfbSHW9uGA

Oh, we can make it work! There was Gaul, which was KIND of French :P


But oooh, I like that idea! A more spunky minstrel of sorts :P Maybe she and my character are frenemies? Old Bard-like rivals who wound up in the same house, always trying to one up each other? xD

[ElayneTrakand]

Oh good heavens you lot have been busy while I was away!

Not having time to comment on everything I would like I will just tough on the key points.

System - I am a fan of Vergil's stat block idea but do have to give it to Kayrax that the specialty system is easily abusable and ultimately washes out. For the instance of a slave you could put two points in Toughness and take a specialty in resisting beatings, which is probably the biggest thing they need it for.

Kinks/Limits - I will start with getting out of the way that I am fine with character death. One thing that I would like to see, not necessarily for my own sake, just as consideration of others is if we put a content warning section in the header. That said if we all decide we don't need one I am cool with that as well. Now onto the kinks! I am a huge fan of public nudity, forced nudity and bondage in particular. At the least I would kind of like to be in non-con if we are all cool with that. I would like to play around with 'rape' though it legally wouldn't be considered though. Limits, none that I think need go here, eg, I don't think I need to worry about bestiality.

History questions - I forget when exactly we were looking for but I have a few general questions. At the current point, what laws are in place protecting slaves? What peoples are the the Romans are invading for my character to have been captured from. Also, given my character is not originally from Rome does she know Latin?

Character thoughts - Building up my slave girl idea I have a few musings. Would anyone be interested in playing through my character getting captured in a raid and then going through being auctioned off? Also, I am musing between a couple of skill sets and I want input on historically what could make sense for combining them and building up backstory elements such as where she is originally from and her old social class. Skill ideas include medical skill, dancing, singing, perhaps other art forms and as much of an education as possible for women.

[Foxy DeVille]

I kinda like the idea of specialization. Like mine could be specialized in catfighting to help her push around slave girls she's jealous of.  >:)

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Oh, we can make it work! There was Gaul, which was KIND of French :P

Oh, just for that, your artist shall SUFFER.

[Vergil Tanner]

*Whines* but it's true! Rome called Western-Europe (around the France / Germany / Austria area) "Gaul!"

*Secretly looking forward to sexy sufferings*

[Fury Aphrodisia]

[Fury Aphrodisia]

It's true, though, that Rome did use "Gaul" to refer to a wide range of places that retained pagan influences and resisted Roman control. They also assumed that hte scattered tribes were all a singular people, which is why I made sure to differentiate between Picts and other Gaulish tribes.

[Vergil Tanner]

Oh yeah, anybody not Roman was "Those Barbarian Peoples who look roughly the same if we squint at a distance who the fuck cares let's just kill 'em and be done with it." I was making a funny and trying to antagonise you into a paddling. Mission accomplished! :P

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Yeah, some aspects of humanity haven't really evolved that much through the intervening years, sadly.

[Kayrax]

@Fury Aphrodisia What can I say? I like siding with the winning side rather than betting on the underdog. And yeah, I do like the larger felines typically locked up in zoos. Maybe some of the gladiators will actually fight overgrown kittens like that - tigers, cheetahs, jaguars... Maybe not the PC ones though ::)

As for the motivation you mentioned... Just picture this: a nice home, dead eyed servants moving about, a panicky husband entering the scene and bitching about screwing up about some small thing that will undoubtedly cause a big war and then the wife finishes her drink, contacts her book study group and gears up to get shit fixed - Ladies, it's time to do what we do best: clean another man's fuck-ups! How could this not be enough? How could it possibly fail to motivate you? :P

@ElayneTrakand Not sure if Toughness will become a separate skill on its own or whether it will become part of Combat - I kind of want skills that are active and that require at least some degree of effort to pull off. I'm currently shoveling through all my RPGs, noting down the essentials of their systems and writing down all their skills so that when I'm done I'll have a large enough pool of them to consider and try to mix into super-skills. I'm actually hoping there won't be more than 6-12 such skills in the end. And those are the ones that players will end up putting points into.

As far as kinks and limits are concerned, I personally don't need warnings as I'll end up reading everything anyway (not just in this game but in general). I know that I'm likely in the minority however so unless everyone else present is similarly... open minded? uninhibited? thick skinned? then odds are we'll follow the general norm and use warning tags in the headers. Might be particularly cruel to warn about something like "the following post contains death by evisceration, savage rape and consumption of human flesh and innards... but you'll never guess the order unless you continue reading!" A few of the other folks expressed a preference for Extreme and since that can include NC elements, odds are it will end up in there instead.

Who said you don't have to worry about bestiality? I believe it was in Rome that one of the main characters fled the capital and went in search of allies and when he found such potential allies, all the guys wanted was to see a woman screw some animal (donkey? horse? ape?) because they heard that such things happened in Rome all the time. The protagonist next tries explaining that such events are rare, usually reserved for eccentric parties but ultimately fails to enlighten the potential ally. There was also a scene in Caligula where during a feast the mad emperor dresses up as a wolf and doggy styles some captured princess dressed as a sheep. I know it's not the same thing but apparently Romans were into kinky shit like that. Why did I bring this up? Because bestiality could apparently happen, but realistically it would only happen to few unlucky slaves and only during certain occasions. If you don't want anything to do with it then be sure to note as such in the character sheet - there will be a section at the very end for just such things.

Laws protecting slaves? What manner of blasphemy is this? In the eyes of the law, a slave is nothing. They have no name, no ancestors, no rights, no liberties and their testimonies also cannot be accepted. Some masters would be kind enough to grant freedom to their slaves in their wills, meaning it wouldn't come to pass till they'd be dead... or they might instead grant such a freedom after a long time of deserving service. In about two centuries from where we'll start there will be some reforms, including some laws preventing a master from killing his slaves without a reason and as the general perception would change, some of the slaves would also start bitching about cruel and inhumane conditions that the courts would slowly start to take into consideration. But in the point of time we'll be starting out slaves would have no such luck. They would be, for all intents and purposes, mere property and nothing more. Particularly skilled or useful slaves might receive small wages but the amount would usually be low enough to ensure that the beneficiaries would be unable to buy their freedoms until they'd be fairly old - at which point they'd go free and the master would use the sum of money to buy a brand new slave instead.

I'll provide a list of recently acquired provinces as well as any other hot spots where battles would still be ongoing. For a somewhat vague reference at this time though I can say that they'll have at least as much territory as the left image shows and at most as much as the one on the right shows:

If you have a specific area in mind then let me know about it and maybe I'll be able to fast forward to a time where the Romans might be attacking such a place. And if it's an area that wouldn't have direct contact with the Romans then you could still technically explain her becoming a slave. You'd just need to come up with a different set of folks to have enslaved her in the first place. And then she'd possibly be sold or traded from one slave trader/owner to another until she'd finally make it to some auction block in Rome and from there getting purchased by one of our characters.

As far as language is concerned - it's really your choice. It sort of depends on how much time she already spent around Romans or other Roman slaves that did know the language. You could play her having learned most of it on her own by listening to others speak or possibly being helped by some other slaves, you could play her with only a minor understanding likely revolving around basic commands (stay, leave, kneel, undress, pour drink, etc.) or you could start her off as a total savage in which case you might expect some abuse at the start. Because ignorance is not an excuse >:)

I wouldn't mind RPing the auction scene if you're interested. Heck, I wouldn't really mind RPing her getting caught in the first place by some nameless individuals but such action would either have to be reduced to 1-2 posts or possibly a lot more if we'll do it as a flashback sequence and use a different thread for it.

To that end, has everyone decided somewhat if we'll go with single family focus or if you're instead willing to try two separate ones? And assuming we go with the former then I'll have to talk with both pendarious and BennyQ and discuss family structure. Need to know if I'll be making a son, father, brother, cousin character.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

@Fury Aphrodisia What can I say? I like siding with the winning side rather than betting on the underdog. And yeah, I do like the larger felines typically locked up in zoos. Maybe some of the gladiators will actually fight overgrown kittens like that - tigers, cheetahs, jaguars... Maybe not the PC ones though ::)

As for the motivation you mentioned... Just picture this: a nice home, dead eyed servants moving about, a panicky husband entering the scene and bitching about screwing up about some small thing that will undoubtedly cause a big war and then the wife finishes her drink, contacts her book study group and gears up to get shit fixed - Ladies, it's time to do what we do best: clean another man's fuck-ups! How could this not be enough? How could it possibly fail to motivate you? :P

Okay, first of all, Gehenna's coming for your ass too, Leech! :P

Secondly, it actually just exhausts me. This is literally my day to day life over the spread of home with sons and the finer points of multiple jobs and it just sounds like so much work for something I'm not personally invested in. I'm more the "naw, let it burn."

Also, from the way you describe it, it doesn't sound like she's got a lot to save anyways. Sounds very depressing.  :-[

[Vergil Tanner]

Well, to give an indication, I separated Toughness and Combat because you can be good at throwing a punch but have a glass jaw, right? You can be a tough SOB but not actually be any good in a fight. Like in D&D, Strength and Constitution are related, but different. So Combat would be physical prowess and applying your strength to a fight, and "Toughness" would be things like stamina, endurance, how healthy you are, how much alcohol you can drink, that sorta thing.

[Kayrax]

@Fury Aphrodisia Not if my Sabbat brethren can do anything to stop it! ;)

@Vergil Tanner I know what you're saying but at the end of the day the two would still essentially only be used in combat scenarios. And I'd prefer a single modifier affecting most situations of any given sort. Take combat for instance and assume we have both Combat and Toughness. If both will be used for both attack and defense then there's really no point not combining them into a single modifier. But you could also argue that Combat is a sort of offense and Toughness is a sort of defense. In which case one person would modify their roll with the former on attacks and the latter would use Toughness on reactions and then switch. It's not a bad deal but if anyone wants to make a pure fighter character then it stands to reason that both skills would end up maxed out, in which case the two would essentially cancel each other out in a fight between arena titans, leaving luck the only factor to actually matter.

I shuffled through various system books, as well as wiki sites and the like and I came up with the following set of skills:

• Academics - knowledge of various subjects (history, geography, religion). Investing points in this essentially makes a person look very, very smart.
• Combat - weapon and armor proficiencies, offensive and defensive skills, special attacks. Investing points in this makes you a stronger fighter than most.
• Communication - persuasion, intimidation, deception, manipulation, etiquette. Invest points here if you want a sharp/gold tongue.
• Crafting - woodworking, stoneworking, metalworking, repairing. Invest here if you basically want an artisan.
• Economics - identifying goods, bartering, having trade connections and generally getting discounts. Invest here if you want to spend less and earn more.
• Entertainment - storytelling, poetry, singing, dancing. Invest here if you want the extra attention and the chance to impress some bigwigs.
• Perception - observation, awareness, intuition. Invest here to maybe catch the sort of details that others might dismiss or even miss out on entirely.
• Sex - knowledge of what/when/how to touch, various positions and techniques as well as endurance. Invest here for all kinds of pleasure.
• Stealth - ability to stay out of sight, blend in and possibly do a bit of stealing on the side. Invest here if you hope to go unseen and unheard.
• Survival - ability to stay healthy, live off the land, recognize/make/treat poisons, treat some wounds or diseases. Invest here if you want to avoid an untimely death.

There are a total of four tiers for all these skills:

• ○○○ - You have no knowledge or experience.
• ●○○ - You have the basics down.
• ●●○ - You're rather good at it.
• ●●● - You are positively exceptional.

		○○○		●○○		●●○		●●●
Academics		Ehm... what now?		The world is round!		Teacher		Walking Wikipedia
Combat		How do you hold this?		Stab others, don't get stabbed yourself		Only two of you? Bring it!		Arena champion
Communication		I am Groot!		Know when to shut up		Make plans with others		Win most debates and arguments
Crafting		Cut a finger in the attempt		Don't break anything		Handy repairman/woman		Master craftsman
Economics		I traded everything for a magic bean		Probably won't be cheated		Enjoy the discount		Get paid for financial advice
Entertainment		Tone deaf		Can keep a rhythm		Suitable for a relaxing evening		Encore! Encore!
Perception		Damn hole appeared out of nowhere		There are six trees in the backyard		Eavesdropper		That pouch is missing 2 coins
Sex		Dead fish / Premature ejaculator		Forgettable		Everyone is quite happy		Sex god(dess)
Stealth		I'll shove my head in the ground		I need a disguise		Pickpocket		Ninja
Survival		Sun rises either in the East or West		Maker of wild fire		Hermit/Hunter		Medic

Everyone will have 20 points to distribute however they deem fit. The first dot costs 1 point, the second dot costs 2 points and the third one (surprise, surprise) costs 3 points. So if you want to max out a skill, that would require a total of 6 points. The modifiers would similarly represent these costs - if you have no points invested in a skill then you need to rely entirely on luck. If you have a single dot then you'll add 1 to the total you rolled. Two dots means you add 3. Three dots means you add a grand total of 6. I already mentioned in an earlier post the way that rolls would work out and I will explain everything all over again before I have everyone hand over the filled in character sheets. Feel free to ask any questions you may have or come up with any tweaks or suggestions you think might work out better.

There was something else I wished to ask. Assuming these skills will ever be used then for most part a single roll and counter-roll would be enough to determine the result of any conflict. The one exception would likely be combat where theoretically rolls should be made for individual actions. What I wanted to ask was whether folks might instead be interested in simplyfing that bit as well by rolling/counter-rolling once at the start of combat, and based on the difference between the two rolls to more or less know the end results.

I'll clarify what I mean in a bit but first I should mention that I rolled 10 consecutive times without adding in any modifier. The average roll for me ended up being 6,8. I then repeated the experiment 10 more times, but this time around I assumed a maxxed out modifier. The average roll ended up being 13,8. Results will of course vary but in this particular case the second number is almost twice as large as the first one.

And now for the clarification I previously mentioned. Say we have two PC gladiators having to fight one another. The two could decide on the outcome ahead of time and RP however they want in order to reach said outcome... or they could instead rely on rolls to determine their fates. Under normal circumsntaces player A would roll for an action, then player B would roll for the same action and depending on who would win the roll, the action in question would either succeed or fail. And then it would be player B's turn to roll for a different action, player A's turn to counter and the chain would keep going until somewhere down the line a win condition would possibly be met. This is how most RPGs work, regardless of system used, and for the most part I wouldn't mind this course of action.

At the same time however these sort of systems are better suited for LARP sessions or at least sessions where everyone plays live and all the back and forth can generally be resolved in a matter of minutes at the most. In play-by-post settings things are delayed by various factors - availability, mood, other RPs, time zones, etc. What I am proposing is for the same players to instead make a single roll each and depending on the results, the two would already know how their conflict should more or less finish up. Which in turn would allow them to just roleplay in such a way that would make said result happen in a believable, intriguing and possibly even dramatic manner. It would certainly help to improve the suspense and dramatic build-up if the two would no longer be restricted by single actions after all.

How would that work though? Well if the difference between whatever A and B roll is between 0-3 then the end result will be a draw/stalemate, with possibly one player having a tiny edge over the other one but not really enough to push things over the edge. If the difference is between 4-6 then one player will win a hard fought victory. So plenty of fatigue and some resulting injuries maybe. If the difference is between 7-9 then one player will have a fairly easy win, maybe just getting a few scratches or shallow slashes in the process. A difference between 10-12 would lead to a flawless victory in which the winner would effortlessly dispatch his contender. And on the off chance that the difference ends up larger than 13 (yes, it is technically possible if one player has no modifier and rolls very badly and the other has a maxed modifier and rolls a few 6s as well) then the victory would be achieved in a spectacular fashion. Think one hit, one kill sort of deal - regardless of whether or not the strike is actually fatal. Or if showmanship is desired instead think about throwing away any arms and armor pieces, tying a blindfold around his eyes and then defeating the target with one hand kept behind their back.

[Foxy DeVille]

Coooooool... got mine figured out.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Well, at least it's not Camarilla.

What do you think about the bardic foil?

[Kayrax]

And here is a first draft for a character template:

Code Select Expand

[float=right][img height=300 padding=5]https://www.nomadfoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/placeholder-1-e1533569576673-960x960.png[/img][br][center][color=navy][b][i][font=comic sans ms][size=12pt]Inspiration points = 1 (spent = 0)[/size][/font][/i][/b][/color][/center][/float]
[b]Played by:[/b] [url=][/url]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Language(s):[/b]
[b]Role:[/b]
[center][table][tr][td][center][b]Academics[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Combat[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Communication[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Crafting[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Economics[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][center][b]Entertainment[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Perception[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Sex[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Stealth[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Survival[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][/tr][/table][/center]
[b]Strengths:[/b]
[b]Weaknesses:[/b]

[b]Sexual preference:[/b]
[b]Sexual behavior:[/b]
[b]Turn-ons:[/b]
[b]Turn-offs:[/b]
[b]Death:[/b]

[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Goals:[/b]
[b]Background:[/b]
[b]Miscellaneous:[/b]
[center][spoiler=More pictures][img height=300 padding=5]https://www.nomadfoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/placeholder-1-e1533569576673-960x960.png[/img][/spoiler][/center]

I assume pretty much everyone already knows the drill for the most part but I'll go through the whole thing just in case there are newbs among us:

• You'll need to replace the placeholder's link with a faceclaim of your own choosing. Something that looks 16+ so we can be in accordance with site rules. I would prefer actual photos rather than drawings and no, I'm not really interested in the faceclaim's name or occupation. It's a first come first served sort of deal so make sure not to use the same model that someone else might've picked - though honestly that very rarely happens in the first place.
• You might notice that I've added something called Inspiration points under the picture's location. For those having played D&D in the recent years, you already know what those are and for those of you who are in the dark, essentially those are points awarded by a GM for various reasons which happen to often be somewhat subjective. I'll be awarding them on a regular basis for activity, occasionally for quantity/quality of writing and possibly (meaning it might not happen after all) for various other reasons that are likely to be somewhat subjective. There will be no limit to how many such points a player can have at any given time. As to what they'll be useful for in this particular game? Basically the chance to ignore a previously made roll and the attempt of a brand new one.
• If you know how to modify the Played by tag yourself then by all means go ahead, but if you're uncertain as to how you should do that just skip it and I'll sort it out on your behalf. Initially I wasn't going to add this tag but I figured that if anyone was to disappear or leave altogether, then I'd end up taking over such characters if they are vital to any ongoing plots.
• Name should be self explanatory though maybe not as easy to figure out if you want to be accurate. You might want to take a look at this if you're building a Roman character. They basically have First_name Family_name Weird_name. If we're going for a single family then that one will end up used by a few characters so let me know if you have any good suggestions for it. If you're a slave (regular variety or gladiator) then either your first name might've stuck if you're lucky or the owners might've changed it to something they could remember more easily. So if your original name differs from whatever you're being called presently just use the present name and add in parenthesis your old one.
• Age is entirely your choice so long as it's 16+, so as to fit with the site's rules.
• I added Language(s) because barriers might pop up. Roman citizens would naturally know Latin. The well educated ones might also know Greek. And if someone spent a good deal of time on some campaign then odds are they might've picked up a bit of whatever language the enemies were using too. If you're a captured slave then you likely have a native language and possibly (though not mandatory) Latin as well. I suppose it would depend on whether they might've learned at some point, or might've just picked it up after having spent enough time in the company of Romans.
• Role is more or less your character concept, ideally with a bit of flourishing if you can manage it. What do I mean by that? Basically your character's role in the Empire - things like senator, general, merchant, slave, gladiator... then your character's role within the household they are part of - such as father to X, husband to Y, brother to Z, cousin to U if we're talking masters of the house or something along the lines of - general slave, or personal slave to master/mistress X, bath slave, kitchen slave, pleasure slave (that could easily become pain slave), gladiator, etc.
• Here's a filled dot - ● - for you to copy/paste and replace in the skill section of the CS. Like I said, there are 10 skills, the first dot costs 1 point, the second dot costs 2, the third costs 3 and everyone has 20 points in total to fill out however they choose.
• You are free to either fill in the Strengths and Weaknesses sections or possibly leave them empty. I'm not limiting the number you can add or enforce any ratio either. If you do choose to fill these in then these S/W could reflect the above skills or might reflect their personalities or backgrounds.
• Next is the sex & death section and the first thing on that list is the Sexual preference tag. Normally this might be called orientation but if you happen to be a slave then you don't honestly have a lot of choice in the matter. And since it was already agreed to play this out in the Extreme section of the forum, that means NC elements can and possibly will occur, including the possibility of forced gay/lesbian interactions. Ideally these should still be okayed OOC or at least discussed beforehand but assuming everyone's okay with the risks involved then maybe such surprises would be more fun to instead just see them pop up somewhat unexpectedly (though hopefully not without any reason at all though). Anyways, the correct answers for this section should be either a) men, b) women, c) no preference.
• Sexual behavior should be likewise fairly easy to determine. Basically it's a choice between the classic: a) dominant b) submissive c) switch, though you are free to possibly add in a few extra details after establishing that. Things like cruelty, getting off on inflicting or receiving pain, the release of control, etc.
• Turn-ons/offs are essentially your ONs and OFFs. Fill these out with whatever kinks you want to see and experience and whatever kinks you'd rather avoid instead. If sexy times (consensual or NC) are about to start I would recommend those involved to possibly click the links in the headers and take a quick gander over these sections first. I'd rather avoid OOC drama rather than waste time and effort trying to fix it so please be considerate of each other's tastes and especially their limits!
• Death refers to the possibility of permanently losing a character. Fill it in with yes if you don't have a problem with it, with no if you don't want it to happen no matter what or with maybe in case you're open to the possibility should it first be discussed with you and consent would be provided afterward. I already mentioned there will be a maximum limit of 3 characters per player. These characters can either be retired or killed off at which point you'd be free to come up with a different concept, apply a new character sheet and after receiving the go ahead you'd be free to hop right back in.
• The next section is entirely your choice how you fill out. Personality is somewhat important so ideally I'd like at least 5-6 key words to describe the character. You can either just mention those or you could instead take the time to clarify some of the things by writing the details in paragraph form.
• Goals is somewhat optional but I would like to see at least one short term goal and one long term goal. Could be more of course...
• Background, backstory, origin, history - whatever you want to call it. I'd like at least three paragraphs describing some of the character's life up until the point he/she joins the game. Focus on whatever you like - childhood, teenage years, personal connections, friends and family, feats and exploits, capture (if we're talking slaves), marriage (whether applicable and regardless of whether or not the spouse might still live or not), traumas, etc. Assuming you have a somewhat strong character concept in mind then I honestly don't think that 3 paragraphs minimum should pose that big of a problem.
• Miscellaneous is for whatever extra bit of information you might want filled in that doesn't quite make sense in other sections of the sheet. Maybe you want to mention hobbies, astrological signs and all manner of random crap that might nonetheless prove even mildly useful later on.
• Oh and the More pictures spoiler is in case you want to find and then add more pics of your character. That is entirely optional so if you're not interested in that, or you simply can't find such pics then feel free to remove the spoiler line entirely.

If anyone has any questions or wants to add anything in then I'm always ready to listen...

@Fury Aphrodisia A foil? By the looks of your latest image I thought it was a paddle :P But if you were refering to the concept you and Vergil talked about then that sounds okay. Just to clarify, would she also be a slave then? If yes then I assume she'd be sleeping with the other slaves. But assuming she'd be a poor citizen trying to make an honest coin then odds are she'd be kicked out shortly before everyone would turn in for the night.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Well, now that's a question, isn't it?

Hrm. I think I'd want her to have the freedom to move about, but also some patron that would keep her from getting gitched for telling the wrong story at the wrong time. being a slave would be reasonable, but I think I would make her a slave bought by an agency of sorts. One that specializes in hiring out performers. I'm not entirely sure, I'll have to check with Vergil, make sure we have a plan that suits both our bardic characters. Thanks for the thought process!

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Uhm, so I also got stalled up.

At this point, I would love to write a character sheet. I'd love to chat with my friends on how we want to coordinate our characters. But we can't yet.

Kayrax, sweetie, I'm afraid it's crunch time. We need a definite ruling on timeframe and place and whether we're doing one family or a whole bunch. I need to know if I'm working with a Dominus among our roster or if I'm having her part of her own household. We need to know if there's going to be more than one family so I'll know if having my performer a slave to someone else would be reasonable or if it's easier to have her just part of the family unit?

I know we've all had a say - or at least had a chance to have it - but now the GM has to make the final decision. If it helps you at all, my preferences are for Rome proper, later in time and multiple households, but I'm not married to any of those choices. I make them because if I'm forced to go right or left I'll choose. I'm hoping that will make it easier for you to make the call, because we're going to need one before we can submit characters.

[Vergil Tanner]

I think it could be fun if she's a Free Citizen who's like a wandering minstrel / bard; she goes between patrons, as artists sometimes do, but she can also move around the Empire if she wants. That could add a fun dimension of "My rival is a slave! A SLAVE! The shame!" xD
As for my character, I imagine that he's not part of an "Agency." I think he WAS, once upon a time; he belonged to a master who liked to try and "breed" his slaves and trained them for specific purposes, and he was trained to be an "Entertainment Slave." He rented him out before he was bought by a Noble who was enamoured by him, but that house fell on hard times and he ended up being sold, and from there, he was passed around a lot before finally coming to Rome and being bought as a birthday present for a certain Domina :P

As for the sheet, I don't see nothin' objectionable there! :D I think I have my characters pips worked out.

Gladiator:

Academics -- ●○○
Combat -- ●●●
Communication -- ○○○
Crafting -- ●●○
Economics -- ○○○
Entertainment -- ○○○
Perception -- ●●○
Sex -- ●●○
Stealth -- ●○○
Survival -- ●●○


Toy Entertainer:

Academics -- ●○○
Combat -- ○○○
Communication -- ●●○
Crafting -- ○○○
Economics -- ●○○
Entertainment -- ●●●
Perception -- ●●○
Sex -- ●●●
Stealth -- ○○○
Survival -- ○○○



Hmmm, after playing with it a bit, might I suggest upping the point value a little? 20 seems a little low given how much everything costs. Maybe raising it to 22-ish would be better? Gives us a little more wiggle room? :-)





And yeah, I agree with Fury. I think Interest has well and truly been shown, so now it's time to get down to biz-i-ness before interest peters out and RL gives us a quick kick up the behind. We can't write our sheets without knowing the location, the time period, the setting, etc.

If I had to choose,

Rome Proper, 1st Century CE, Single Household, Domina / Dominus PC.

Again, not married to any of these options, this is just how I would go if a gun was put to my head and I was forced to choose :-)

[Kayrax]

I would've honestly preferred 2-3 more days to maybe see what some of the others had to say but if I'm to make a choice right now, based on initial posts and subsequent discussions with those that chipped in during these past few days... well here's what I'd currently have to say:

Location will be Rome, the actual city I mean, because as everyone already pointed out - that's where the cool shit happens.

Time period will start between 55-44 BCE, and I'm somewhat leaning closer to the former. Why this particular starting point? Several reasons that I'll try going over shortly. For those not sure of the significance of this period, it's essentially a couple of years before Caesar tries conquering Britain and finishes conquering Gaul. It's also only a few years before the start of the Civil War and that will mean plenty of intrigue, politics and all manner of opportunities in general back in Rome. So essentially I'm trying to capture a bit of "before", "silence before the storm", "the actual shitstorm" and then "the eye of the storm" moments when Caesar would eventually make his triumphant return. There is another reason I chose to play during the final years of the Republic rather than the emerging years of the Empire. Most of the politics and lovely intrigues would require some degree of status and wealth to actually be a part of in any capacity really. But only two classes of Romans would technically have real chances to be part of all that goodness - the senators of course and also the equites.

Trouble with the senators is that they are prohibited from dealing with commerce. And the buying, renting or selling of gladiators (which there are several characters) would rather fall under those restrictions. So a senator's house is out. The equites on the other hand, aka the 2nd level of Roman aristocracy under senators, can however freely conduct such business deals. And because they are not mere lanisti, that also means they don't have to deal with social stigma because of their occupation. Trouble with the equites however is that shortly after the Empire is established, its members are forced to relinquish some of their privileges and means of making disturbing amounts of profit and are instead forced into somewhat important or even very important military positions throughout the whole Empire. What does this translate into? You got it - provinces! They can be hotshots all around the Empire, but not so much in Rome or even Italy.

Number of initial households would have to be one at this time. I'm not actually sure that's okay with everyone but since only a few of you guys provided feedback in these past few days, I'd rather make such a decision based on facts, gut feeling and lots of hopefully unneeded caution. If four separate players decide to have a separate household (whether with their only character or with a secondary one) then I'm all for that. Not all the slaves/gladiators need to have necessarily been with the initial family for too long, and some might actually prefer to RP getting purchased in the first place. If such is the case then those with vague histories or otherwise easily edited one could possibly get the chance to switch sides. And later in the game it will also be possible to buy/sell/trade slaves from one side to the other. It will rarely happen though, especially if we're going for a rival plot.

Similarly, it might be possible for the other members of the household to branch out on their own and in so doing drag some of the slaves with them. I took all of these things in consideration, as well as pendarious's initial concept to possibly end up pushed into politics (in which case the other brothers/cousins or whatever we are to him will help bribe the way to a magistrate's position from which he'd be expected to serve for 1 year and then the Senate's doors would open for him) and also BennyQ's ideas which pretty much should fit his vision unless I'm terribly mistaken. The latter previously mentioned being okay with a single household as either a son or a sibling, and again... should he decide to branch out on his own then some of the slaves could potentially go with him. Say he ends up getting married and so wants to put down roots of his own if a reason would be needed - though family wealth might allow him to move out even without such reasons. I do recall him mentioning not being too keen on rival plots so maybe instead the two brothers or father/son combo might instead join forces in order to achieve even more power and wealth.

Now as far as the initial household is concerned, I already mentioned they'd be equites working as publicans. I'll likely need to provide a Glossary at some point but long story short equites would more or less translate into knights and would be the second most powerful layer of Roman aristocracy... and publicans would essentially be public contractors that happened to also oversee tax collecting. And need I tell anyone how lucrative tax collecting could be? Senators might've wielded the most political power at this point in time but it would be the equites that would have the wealth to make many things happen - including bribery of some senators. Unless anyone comes with a better name, I figured Furius (from gens Furia) would sound rather nice. Assuming nobody objects or can produce a better sounding alternative then the men of this household would be named X Furius Z, with X being their given name and Z acting as a sort of nickname apparently.

Were there other questions or concerns aside from the above? Or possibly pertaining to the above actually?

[Vergil Tanner]

That all sounds fine to me! :D I can work with all of that.

As far as a name, I've always liked the Latin name "Valerius" myself. :P But that's just me, I won't be playing a Family member, so it's not my call :P

[Kayrax]

Don't think I reached it... I started scrolling through here, got bored halfway and decided to go with one of the top choices I made by that point. Like I said, the decision's not final and should be an easy enough edit at any point prior to actually getting the game started.

And speaking of getting the game started, I was thinking to maybe finish up (and actually post) the world building thread, then PM everyone to link over there and at the same time to ask for more character sheets, give folks a couple of days or so to maybe fill them in and then possibly start the fun by the end of the week maybe.

[Vergil Tanner]

What do you mean by "Worldbuilding Thread?" Do you mean the recruitment thread, or an actual thread in the Worldbuilding section of E?

[Kayrax]

I was considering the latter - basically open up a thread, maybe provide some general information as far as historical events are concerned, then provide various details as far as Roman (and also their slaves) lives are concerned, add in some manner of history for the starting house and possibly also a description of the mansion so everyone has some idea of what layout to expect, likely also provide a few NPCs that might or might not be freely available for everyone to use as they seem fit and towards the end to get all the character sheets in one place. Also transfer over some of the information in this thread as well while I'm at it. The goal being to pretty much have everything folks might need in a single thread and on a single page.

Terminating this thread and opening up a recruitment thread linking to both WB thread and IC thread afterward was the next logical step. Maybe monthly bumping it in case we might get fresh blood along the way.

Why did you ask?

[Vergil Tanner]

Ah, ok. It's just not an approach I've seen before. In my experience, all of that information goes on the Recruitment Thread, since that's where people are going to be entering the game first so having that information front and center makes it easier for people to get a handle on the game and what character they might wanna play. Feels a bit redundant to have a recruitment thread and then have them open up another page to get all the information they need to make a character, especially if the aim is to have all of that information in only one thread. Personally, it feels like you're adding in an unnecessary second step? But that's just me. :P I don't mind if that's how you do it, I was just asking because it feels like an odd way to do it in my personal experience so I wanted to make sure I was understanding correctly xD

[Kayrax]

The reason I'd rather keep things separate is because WB thread would contain just the relevant information and could as such remain clean and easily manageable by me should I wish to expand in some fashion or create a new section - things like that. I'll likely provide a table of contents linking to everything but at the same time I'd also like to for instance keep the CS posted individually in order to link them easier and also to provide me with an easier time should the system ever require alterations or should new points be awarded further down the line for example.

If I were to try the same thing with a thread supposedly also acting as a recruitment hub then that would imply new posts popping in - things like bumps, questions, answers, different versions of the same CS... And I'd rather both be transparent about such things and also not having to discuss the same issue over and over again.

And to answer your previous question, I picked 20 points for everyone to use because I previously mentioned how I generally view PCs as having a slight edge over NPCs. Initially I was going to have everyone start with a bought tier in all the skills and then provide an extra 10 points to distribute however people might've liked. The easiest choice would've been to get 5 of those skills to tier 2. The specialized choice would've been to get 2 of those skills to tier 3. The other alternative would've probably been 1 maxed out skill, 2 improved to 2nd tier and 1 point wasted away - which is actually the sort of decision making that most RPG systems force players to make by encouraging either jacks of all trades or specialized builds. But then I figured some characters will never really use some of those skills. And it might also be strange to give a potential virgin a dot in sex or some savage warrior knowledge of academics and crafts. So I removed the first tiered points from all skills and instead raised player flexibility by allowing them to choose exactly what they wanted and in what measure. I might hand out more of these points as the game progresses or possibly allow those Inspiration points to be converted in skill points instead.

I might be biased since it was my idea but that does actually sound like a good compromise. It would still favor the players since a permanent modifier typically outweighs a conditional second chance but given the system's optional in the first place I'm not actually against this.

So to anyone interested in this trade - switch Inspiration Points to 0, put 1 in spent and you're free to use one extra blip however you like (so 21 points instead of 20). If one point doesn't really help you then you can always just wait for some later time when you might get more. If you'll ever want to use those points either to buy skills or to re-roll just send me a PM. You won't need my blessing or anything like that - it's just so I can actually apply the changes to your CS.

[Vergil Tanner]

What do you mean by "switch inspiration points to 0?" You've kind of lost me there.

[Kayrax]

The current template lists the following bit in the line following the faceclaim: Inspiration points = 1 (spent = 0). Just switch the 1 with the 0 making it Inspiration points = 0 (spent = 1) if you want to use the extra point right from character creation.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Okay, that's a lot of information I don't really have the context to digest...

Do we have a Dominus for the family, yet? I'll be honest, I haven't looked back over everything that people have expressed interest in, and I can't recall what anyone else was planning to do. I'm gonna need to touch base with anyone we might have for that role, otherwise... I guess... as Domina, there's some stuff I'm going to have to set the tone for?

[Vergil Tanner]

Ok...what else are Inspiration Points used for? Do we get more of them?

[Kayrax]

@Fury Aphrodisia And after I even went to the trouble to color that particular post in red... :P

pendarious - a military officer from an influential family who is being pushed into politics by his subordinates in order to improve things for everyone
BlackStone - a Senator with diverse business holdings from salt mines to gladiator house
Kayrax - a wealthy/influential citizen that has both slaves and gladiators
BennyQ - considering playing both the patriarch and male heir of this family and am open to accepting female family members and household slaves by other players. If we are instead going with one family, I wouldn’t mind playing a son, the heir or a younger sibling

So you got three choices basically.

@Vergil Tanner

You might notice that I've added something called Inspiration points under the picture's location. For those having played D&D in the recent years, you already know what those are and for those of you who are in the dark, essentially those are points awarded by a GM for various reasons which happen to often be somewhat subjective. I'll be awarding them on a regular basis for activity, occasionally for quantity/quality of writing and possibly (meaning it might not happen after all) for various other reasons that are likely to be somewhat subjective. There will be no limit to how many such points a player can have at any given time. As to what they'll be useful for in this particular game? Basically the chance to ignore a previously made roll and the attempt of a brand new one.

[Vergil Tanner]

Ah, ok. In my defence, I first read that post when I rolled over from waking up this morning, so I must have missed it xD

[Kayrax]

Not a problem... ;)

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Red...? The... the maps, you mean?

Yeah, I've gotten in touch with Blackstone, Vergil and BennyQ for plots and talkings already, but is any one of them going to be playing my husband, or Benny and I have a contingency plan sorted, for the most part. I guess the question is whether Pandarius is going to be playing the older brother or the husband? Or you, I guess, are you that wealthy/influential husband, or someone else associated with the house?

Also, why am I choosing? Ooh, are we birds of paradise?



(Psst... The one in front is Vergil.)

[Vergil Tanner]

I'm not sure if that's a compliment or if I should feel affronted. I'll go with my gut and say...how...dare...you? :P

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Well, it's one of your yous, then.

[PentheWonderful]

I don't know if anyone has asked this already, but, will we be using real FCs for our characters, or illustrations?

[Vergil Tanner]

I'm assuming RLFC, but I've been wrong before xD

[Fury Aphrodisia]

I assume pretty much everyone already knows the drill for the most part but I'll go through the whole thing just in case there are newbs among us:

• You'll need to replace the placeholder's link with a faceclaim of your own choosing. Something that looks 16+ so we can be in accordance with site rules. I would prefer actual photos rather than drawings and no, I'm not really interested in the faceclaim's name or occupation. It's a first come first served sort of deal so make sure not to use the same model that someone else might've picked - though honestly that very rarely happens in the first place.

[ElayneTrakand]

I made us a point buy calculator!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/143TrPBIE6PQLG0uTdhRl5gA2irNizgZN/view?usp=sharing

[PentheWonderful]

I made us a point buy calculator!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/143TrPBIE6PQLG0uTdhRl5gA2irNizgZN/view?usp=sharing

Ooooooooooooh very nice!!!

[Vergil Tanner]

I'm calling dibs on Lucas Bloms and Alex Prange as FC's!

[ElayneTrakand]

Ok, time for more character musings.

I am thinking my character is a Celtic Briton and she was part of an expedition sent to greet the incoming Romans. However, rather than peace talks the Roman scouting party simply siezed the convoy instead. Hopefully by saying it was a scouting party we can skirt any issues with it being a couple years to early for the full on concurring of Briton. Similar this has the added benefit of explaining how I have at least some knowledge of Latin. That said I am having a lot of difficulty finding reliable information on that society as well, the Roman's concurred them and didn't take good notes on their society. Any recommendations on where to start for names and the like? Similar question for religion. And on a slightly different note, any recommendations on how to find character art/ pictures for this one?

Not all the slaves/gladiators need to have necessarily been with the initial family for too long, and some might actually prefer to RP getting purchased in the first place.

Yes! Definitely this! And maybe getting captured as well if it is not to much hassle. That said starting with just before auction would probably be easier. Anyone looking at playing a soldier type to aid in this plan?

[PentheWonderful]

I'd like to call dibs on Liza Soberano please ^^

[Foxy DeVille]

I'll be using Aria Giovanni... might not wanna Google her if you're at work.  >:)

[Kayrax]

@Fury Aphrodisia Further back, on the first page I think - big chunk of text with a good deal of it in italics and red script to draw attention to own suggestions over player concepts.

That's why I previously said I'd need to talk to these folks myself, to figure out the relation between our characters. Probably family members but whether father/son(s), brothers, cousins or some combination of these... Reason I asked you to choose is that 1. I don't want people to assume I'm going for the family's patriarch position just because I'm setting things up - I enjoy the abuse of power in stories, but try to avoid it for real situations... 2. Your character would still be Domina of the house regardless of whom she'd marry. Granted she might not be the only one or possibly the highest ranked one if folks go for father/sons relationship or cousins but assuming siblings route is chosen then it won't really make that much of a difference who'd be the older or younger sibling. It would matter outside the house as far as the brothers are concerned but the wives shouldn't really be bothered by such distinctions. So like I said, feel free to marry your character off to whomever you'd like if you have a preference. I'm going to shortly send a PM to these other guys and try to get things clarified with them as well - and then post the results here once I have them.

@ElayneTrakand Was curious about the calculator so I tried downloading it but it seems to require some extra software for me. Anyways, a quick way to keep track of things is that ●○○ is 1, ●●○ is 3 and ●●● is 6. That's how I quickly check everything if it's in working order.

In regards to your character concept I should point out that in the very year we'd start off in (55 BCE) Caesar would move his troops into Britain and mess up a few villages on the coastline. He would then return to Gaul and stay for the winter, try again to invade the following year and make a good deal more headway but when Gaul revolts would start he'd be forced to abandon Britain yet again. So a character captured during those very first raids would be quite feasible after all. Not sure if peace talks would've been attempted since Caesar crossed their land because he thought they were helping the Gauls and came over to teach them a lesson. Then again if the Britons didn't know as much maybe peace attempts might've been made after all. But with or without the premise of peace talks, she could've easily been captured during one of the village raids so consider that possibility as well if you want her to have been something else or be taken entirely against her will (emissaries do technically run the risk of getting whacked upon reaching their destinations :P).

You mean the Briton society at the time? I'd suggest maybe try this for starters? It's not terribly descriptive but does provide some generic guidelines for a few of the generally considered topics of discussion. Ancient Celtic names for girls are indeed very rare - save for Boudica and very few others. Maybe try going for a regular Celtic name that just sounds fairly old? For religion you can find a very brief summary in the link already provided but if you want more: here you go.

Pictures don't need to necessarily show the characters doing whatever they were doing before or are doing currently. So it's not really mandatory for a gladiator's picture to show a guy holding a sword and standing over a dead body for instance. Similar for a regular slave - it's hardly expected to see pictures of naked women with heavy iron collars around their necks. If you want to try your luck with something looking authentic maybe try a combination of search terms like Briton, Celtic, woman, cosplay, witch, druidess. Otherwise maybe try finding a picture of someone wearing a Roman toga or posing as a slave (there is a bit more variety there) and just say that's what she looked after her Roman life began. If all else fails though, just pick a face you are comfortable with and regardless of make-up, earrings, necklaces and fancy dresses the rest of us will just picture the same face on a scantly an appropriately dressed Roman slave.

Regarding capture scenario I suggest one of the following: we could have you in Britain and captured at the same time that the story would start but given there's a good deal of distance between Britain and Rome, her travel back would take weeks likely. So you would actually need to start at a point in time likely a few weeks (maybe months) back. Meaning you'd also have nobody to interact with save the NPCs and the person controlling them (me?). Then we could keep on skipping ahead, maybe with some scenes along the way back to Rome, until finally she'd reach the present day and likely get herself auctioned off. That's option 1 and assuming you don't want more than a half a dozen exchanges or so it might be easier to pull of like this. If you would prefer something larger scale and with more attention to detail then we could instead RP her capture and trip in more detail by using a separate thread and having that as a sort of flashback for her. This would be option 2. Let me know which you'd prefer.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Oh that.

Yeah, but that was back when my primary thought for a character was a priestess. A lot has changed since then.

If you're going to talk to them, go ahead. I just assumed having a character sheet meant we were ready to aubmit characters, so I had set myself to the task of doing that. Just have a few more details to fill out and my sheets are done, really.

I don't... Know what siblings have to so with it? I'm lost on this one. Not aure how to reapons.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Oooh, Elayne, you're about to fall down the Tuatha de Danaan rabbit hole!

I took a bit of Irish Gaelic studies as St. Of X when I lived in Halifax. This was absolutely one of my favourite elements from the study. Between that and the overall study of various superstitious and mythological elements, the Geilge were master inventors of a system that was highly involved more in storytelling than in structure, so remember that whatever your impresaion of the gods, you're right ao long as you can tell a decent story with it.

The Irish: so drunk we'll let you tell us what our gods are.

[Kayrax]

One of 'em fellows hasn't been online since back then though so he's likely unaware of all the changes. Hence why I PMed him a little earlier.

Oh, and I wasn't actually in any rush. The reason I provided the system was because I'd finished it for the most part. And since that was taken care of, I figured I might as well do something else which the players might find useful - hence the character template. It was meant to help people focus on what they wanted or possibly get some new ideas even, rather than put pressure on them.

I'll probably start working on my own CS too, likely leaving age, personality and background open till I learn of my exact position within the family.

Not sure what confused you about the siblings... Since we have three players that want to play male Roman citizens and since we are going to play in the same household it rather makes sense for those three to be related in some way. They could technically be friends of the family or important guests but eventually they would need to get their asses out. But assuming they are family after all then odds are they'd likely be father/son(s), siblings, cousins - or some such combination. So why is that confusing?

Assuming we go down the sibling route then YC could either marry one of those or you could technically play as a sister that they're trying to get rid of and marry off for some extra wealth or political gain :P

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Yeah, I'm definitely self-voting me most likely to be putting pressure on people to work faster since I'm impatient. I just have to discipline myself.

Okay, so, I wasn't sure if you meant the siblings of the Dominus, or the children thereof or... what have you. I guess I'm just stuck right now, because not knowing what the household structure will be, who the Dominus will be (I'm not choosing the Dominus, I never wanted to be in charge of anything in the first place. You'll recall my first few ideas were a hermit priestess and a Pictish saboteur, and all for a good reason)... Trying to put together a character sheet is showing me how little information is set in stone at this point. Nobody's fault, it's just the loss of momentum, is all. Got all excited and raring to go, and then gotta sit. It's that adulting thing, again. I work with dogs for a reason.

What Benny, Vergil and I have sorted out so far is that my Domina is the mother of Benny's character, at the least. Her husband may not be neglectful, necessarily, but for some reason disappoints her. She's in a position with enough power to have a reputation, and for that reputation to cause lesser-status individuals to attempt placating her rather than full-out rivalry. While I admit I had always envisioned her as being the female head of house, I have to also admit that there's nothing in particular that precludes any of the other options.

[Hob]

Following out of interest.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB!

[ElayneTrakand]

@ElayneTrakand Was curious about the calculator so I tried downloading it but it seems to require some extra software for me. Anyways, a quick way to keep track of things is that ●○○ is 1, ●●○ is 3 and ●●● is 6. That's how I quickly check everything if it's in working order.

Dang, oh well. First I wrote in in Matlab realized I could not figure out how to package it to not need MatLab. So then I wrote it in LabView since I knew there was a concede to .exe button. However it would appear that does not remove the dependency on LabView. Unfortunately I don't know any of the base languages that come with computers, well Python might...

[ElayneTrakand]

Oooh, Elayne, you're about to fall down the Tuatha de Danaan rabbit hole!

I took a bit of Irish Gaelic studies as St. Of X when I lived in Halifax. This was absolutely one of my favourite elements from the study. Between that and the overall study of various superstitious and mythological elements, the Geilge were master inventors of a system that was highly involved more in storytelling than in structure, so remember that whatever your impresaion of the gods, you're right ao long as you can tell a decent story with it.

The Irish: so drunk we'll let you tell us what our gods are.

Oh, I know, it is a fantacy novel I know so it is not super accurate, but I adore The Mists of Avalon. It is a fantastic retelling of Arthurian legend from Morgana le Fey's perspective and her fighting the Christian invasion and trying to keep her own religion alive. Course, all of my Wicca friends adore that series, so many musings have been had on the subject.  Similarly I have some friends who are into Irish dance and I find it super fascinating and just all around I love Irish culture, both contemporary and things that have evolved off of there history. So yeah, huge rabbit hole I know. That said this is definitely the earliest I have tried digging around in.

[Hob]

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB!

FUUUUUUUUUUUURY!!!

I’m thinking possibly someone in one of the Vigiles Urbani cohorts. But I am at my mother’s this weekend, and won’t have much time to look further into it until after the weekend. (I’m also working on something for a certain someone..)

[ElayneTrakand]

In regards to your character concept I should point out that in the very year we'd start off in (55 BCE) Caesar would move his troops into Britain and mess up a few villages on the coastline. He would then return to Gaul and stay for the winter, try again to invade the following year and make a good deal more headway but when Gaul revolts would start he'd be forced to abandon Britain yet again. So a character captured during those very first raids would be quite feasible after all. Not sure if peace talks would've been attempted since Caesar crossed their land because he thought they were helping the Gauls and came over to teach them a lesson. Then again if the Britons didn't know as much maybe peace attempts might've been made after all. But with or without the premise of peace talks, she could've easily been captured during one of the village raids so consider that possibility as well if you want her to have been something else or be taken entirely against her will (emissaries do technically run the risk of getting whacked upon reaching their destinations :P).

Cool, I was thinking that we were starting a year or two before these initial raids. In that case I like the idea of hanging around a village. Perhaps my husband is a druid? Thus plausible explanation of how I picked up a little Latin.

You mean the Briton society at the time? I'd suggest maybe try this for starters? It's not terribly descriptive but does provide some generic guidelines for a few of the generally considered topics of discussion. Ancient Celtic names for girls are indeed very rare - save for Boudica and very few others. Maybe try going for a regular Celtic name that just sounds fairly old? For religion you can find a very brief summary in the link already provided but if you want more: here you go.

Cool, I will have to hunt down a name and also, if her master wants to rename her later fine by me!

Pictures don't need to necessarily show the characters doing whatever they were doing before or are doing currently. So it's not really mandatory for a gladiator's picture to show a guy holding a sword and standing over a dead body for instance. Similar for a regular slave - it's hardly expected to see pictures of naked women with heavy iron collars around their necks. If you want to try your luck with something looking authentic maybe try a combination of search terms like Briton, Celtic, woman, cosplay, witch, druidess. Otherwise maybe try finding a picture of someone wearing a Roman toga or posing as a slave (there is a bit more variety there) and just say that's what she looked after her Roman life began. If all else fails though, just pick a face you are comfortable with and regardless of make-up, earrings, necklaces and fancy dresses the rest of us will just picture the same face on a scantly an appropriately dressed Roman slave.

Sounds good, and yeah I know we don't have to find an exact match I just personally like to get close.

Regarding capture scenario I suggest one of the following: we could have you in Britain and captured at the same time that the story would start but given there's a good deal of distance between Britain and Rome, her travel back would take weeks likely. So you would actually need to start at a point in time likely a few weeks (maybe months) back. Meaning you'd also have nobody to interact with save the NPCs and the person controlling them (me?). Then we could keep on skipping ahead, maybe with some scenes along the way back to Rome, until finally she'd reach the present day and likely get herself auctioned off. That's option 1 and assuming you don't want more than a half a dozen exchanges or so it might be easier to pull of like this. If you would prefer something larger scale and with more attention to detail then we could instead RP her capture and trip in more detail by using a separate thread and having that as a sort of flashback for her. This would be option 2. Let me know which you'd prefer.

I am partial to the first option. I mostly care about the actual capture, maybe one thing in the middle and then starting with however the morning of the auction starts.

[Kayrax]

@Fury Aphrodisia Some pressure is occasionally useful though ;)

Got a reply from pendarious a little earlier and he mentioned being fine with either a brother or a cousin, so as not to take the lead roll in case of a sudden absence. Based on what you're saying about Benny's own preference on the matter I guess that leaves me holding DA POWAH! *waits for outstanding echoes to die down a bit*

So MC will be the one leading the household forward. pendarious shall be either an older brother, younger brother or cousin depending on how exactly he'll want to pursue his own agenda - something that might require a certain minimum age that I briefly explained in my reply to him. YC will apparently be MC's wife and the two have BennyQ's character as a son then? I already approved Foxy Oni's sheet as well (whether she'll make a few additions to the backstory or not) so her character would've been a slave of mine for like 20 years or thereabout. And since everyone else is mostly a slave in some capacity then you're free to either RP having been with the family for an unknown amount of time or if you prefer getting bought instead then just have your backstory detail their life up until they step on the actual auctioning block.

Which brings me to the following two issues: lower classes brownnosing and currying favor makes perfect sense. They no doubt hope to either get our hard extorted money or possibly hope for an increase in their own status and importance. It is quite a Roman thing to do mind you ;) The second issue was how could my character, which I haven't even created yet, possibly disappoint her? It's outrageous! You know what? I'm gonna' keep the son I never knew I had until just now and I'm getting a divorce! :P In all seriousness though, let me in on some of the schemes you and everyone else have already concocted. I'm going to ask first whether you or Benny have any ideas in regards to your ages. I was personally considering mid thirties to maybe early forties for myself. While I work on that character, also let me know if you've got any questions I might help you out with.

@ElayneTrakand Like I said, not really a problem. I'll check everything I receive and should the numbers not add up I'll mention things then. From what I've seen so far that was not the case though. Probably because I made it so simple to understand ;D

It's your choice as far as character concept goes. But as previously mentioned, Caesar would end up briefly crossing into Britain with a small force, attack some of the nearby villages as a show of force and then return to Gaul and wait out the winter. He would return later with a larger force and do a bit more serious damage but if you're okay with being taken during those initial raids then yeah, pick whatever you want. Oh and apparently druids often married priestesses or warrior nobles. Does that help? If not I suppose exceptions were occasionally made...

Before you start thinking of renaming her you should instead begin hoping that she gets noticed enough so a name might even be asked or provided for her. Other slaves will likely ask about such things but the ones holding her leash might take a while. Then again it would depend on what sort of personalities everyone comes up with.

And okay, in this case feel free to make your first post with some label along the lines of "a few weeks (or if you prefer months) earlier" and then describe a supposedly normal day for the village/tribe. Or possibly have them be rather worried about the recent invasion of Roman soldiers on their lands. Before long the attack will happen. Let me know if you want it slow paced or fast paced, the graphical level of the violence and possibly the sexy times afterward (will have to check whether there's any indication on Caesar's personal opinion on the matter else I'll just go with the way that most other legions operated) and generally whatever else you think might be useful or necessary. Also feel free to ask questions or provide suggestions if you have any.

@Hob Hey there. Vigiles Urbani guys seem to have been made by Augustus but for now Caesar is still alive and beating up the Gauls :P

[BennyQ]

Got a reply from pendarious a little earlier and he mentioned being fine with either a brother or a cousin, so as not to take the lead roll in case of a sudden absence. Based on what you're saying about Benny's own preference on the matter I guess that leaves me holding DA POWAH! *waits for outstanding echoes to die down a bit*

So MC will be the one leading the household forward. pendarious shall be either an older brother, younger brother or cousin depending on how exactly he'll want to pursue his own agenda - something that might require a certain minimum age that I briefly explained in my reply to him. YC will apparently be MC's wife and the two have BennyQ's character as a son then?

This is totally fine by me then! I'll have a character sheet up hopefully in the next day or two.

[ElayneTrakand]

Is it alright if I don't have a singular face claim and more just have a general look that my character has and others are free to infringe on it as I don't have a claim? I have found a pile of pictures that I like. You are also free to give feed back on any of them you like!

NSFW pictures to follow

And in other news I have most of my character sheet done, so I will post it wherever they go!

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Yeah, I was gonna make my character about 32/33. Old enough to have a full-grown son, which seems reasonable to me? But that would mean that the eldest son is twenty or less. If this is a problem, let me know and I'll work through adjustment.

Kayrax, I'll shuffle you into a group PM meant for plotting.

[Kayrax]

@ElayneTrakand Yeah, that's fine. Just be sure to put the main one - as in the one you actually want your character to look like (blonde, redhead, brunette, etc.) - in the faceclaim slot. The ones usually going there are either portraits or otherwise clothed (if scantly) pics so I actually had to boot up a different browser and check whether or not non-members had access to any sections these pictures might end up being found in. And it turns out they wouldn't have such access, meaning you're probably not infringing on any rules.

That being said, I'm fairly certain that I can already guess a couple or so kinks you'll likely list in that sheet :P

And in even more news, I ended up working on my gladiator idea even though I actually started out plotting for the Roman character. Weird things like that do happen fairly often however. I'll use Zach Mcgowan's likeness to make it all happen 8-)

@Fury Aphrodisia I talked with Benny as well a little earlier but in the PM he sent me there was talk of a brother character, similarly aged 30 or so. And I know he wants another gladiator character as well. My question is... does he want that son character as a third one or is one of you assuming a different age? Like either you think he'll be in his late teens or he might assume you'll be in mid fifties or so? You also just mentioned eldest son so does that mean there are more? I wouldn't mind by the way. At the same time I would also consider a daughter while on the subject - plotting and arranging whom she should marry... and possibly for how long too. Also in case incest is a desired kink - not necessarily mine for dad/daughter but possibly for uncle/niece or brother/daughter. I guess it's times like these where seeing character sheets or a list of everyone's ons/offs would be helpful. Oh well, such details can always be discussed a bit further, likely after getting the majority of CS for everyone.

Also... you're just going to shuffle me in? Like a piece of meat? I feel so... so used :P

[BennyQ]

Yeah the age differences might make my initial plotting with Fury about a shared household a little more difficult. Or I alter my characters age to a more minor state, 19 or 20, perhaps on a furlong from the frontiers and visiting his family while on leave. Overall, I have nothing set in stone so don't let my ideas force a deep edit of anything. I'll adjust accordingly. Y'all do your thing.

[Kayrax]

If you go 19/20 (20 being the minimum required for a military tribune) then you could instead shift your focus from going into politics to possibly going into the military. It would definitely ruin the whole "doing it for the subordinates" angle as it is much more likely at that point to be doing it for himself given that he wouldn't have served at all or only very briefly.

And like I previously mentioned - I would much rather shift and move things around so that as many players as possible could enjoy their ideas without having to make too many compromises (and ideally any at all).

[BennyQ]

Could definitely work for a younger brother of the family. And there can still be politics involved about his impending military assignment? Is he going somewhere cushy like Hispania or somewhere deadly like the Rhineland, etc. Who does the family have to influence to make such a decision and all. Maybe we can go an avenue like that for my character.

[Kayrax]

Now I'm confused... Is he a son or a brother after all? Cause brother would make Aphrodisia's character his sister-in-law. There will probably be some debates on that subject - cushy job would obviously keep him safe but potentially dangerous job (like say close to Caesar or another such hotshot that is clearly going places) could be worth exploring as well. And there could always be the blind luck of the draw if no further bribes would be offered beyond actually getting him selected for the position.

[Fury Aphrodisia]

Uh.....


Fuck, I dunno. People keep changing their minds super quick on everything, I can't keep up.

You guys figure out what you're going to do and loop me in when you've made a choice, please.

[BennyQ]

In terms of the character concept I've been discussing, I only decreased his age by some years. Still the same individual, a son of the family, just younger than what we may have plotted previously.

EDIT: I see where I fucked up. Bad choice of wording. My bad and my apologies. Younger brother of the family, I meant a younger child.

[Kayrax]

So to clarify for everyone's benefit...

MC would be leading the house. He would have a brother or a cousin (pendarious) staying with them. He would also be married to Aphrodisia's character. The two would have at least one son (BennyQ). And there would be lots of slaves and gladiators around them doing their own things.

Is that clear for everyone? And even more importantly, is it agreeable with everyone?

[Foxy DeVille]

Yep and yep!

[BennyQ]

That sits well with me.

Also @Foxy Oni, looking forward to the Aria Giovanni face claim. Always a classic.

[PentheWonderful]

Looks good to me. :)

[ElayneTrakand]

Work in progress

Inspiration points = 0 (spent = 1)

Played by: Elayne Trakand
Name: Arieen Eirales
Age: 18
Language(s): Common Brittonic, passable Latin and a little of many others
Role: Bandrúi (Druid) --> Slave

Academics

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Combat

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Communication

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Crafting

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Economics

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Entertainment

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Perception

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Sex

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Stealth

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Survival

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Strengths: Arieen is really good at giving public speeches and giving performances to people. Up until recently she has been given performances and telling stories to her people explaining the stories of Aengus and Danu amongst the host of other figures in their mythos. She is well versed in herbology and how to tend to wounds. She is remarkably well caught up on the goings on of modern science and goings on in the world between her and her husbands training as druids. Similarly, due to having engaged in many sacred rites she was quite skilled in pleasuring the flesh.
Weaknesses: Arieen is not physically strong as she has long been a place of honor in her people and has not had to do much manual labor. She is ok at crafting but has little talents outside of weaving in the subject. She also has a tendency to speak her mind after a long being sought after for advice, which could be a problem in her future.

Sexual preference: No preference
Sexual behavior: Would like to be dominant… but submissive
Turn-ons: (Forced) (Public) Nudity, Bondage, Non-Con, Sensuality
Turn-offs: Beastiality, Scat (though urine is fine), Consensual Anal
Death: Yes

Personality:

• Curious: Arieen has always been interested in learning the hidden mysteries of the world around her. Whether by exploring new areas, learning of herb lore or keeping track of the on goings of the world.
• Risk taker: Arieen was always getting into trouble doing things she probably shouldn't have been. From climbing trees as a little girl to deciding that it was a good idea to jump off 60 ft cliffs into the water below. Similarly she has a tendency to be more confrontational than strictly advisable.
• Compassionate: Arieen has always been one to take care of those around her. Whether it is a simple smile are well timed compliment to one who needs it. Or bigger things, like inviting those in need into her home for a much needed meal and a place to sleep.

Goals: Ratted by the sudden change in her reality she wants to so some combination of the following depending what she can achieve.

• Escape/Gaining her freedom (I don’t want this)
• Trying to ensure the best for Briton during the impending invasion, stop it if possible
• Make the best of her new life try to find some degree of comfort and control

Background: Arieen’s parents were killed in a skirmish between tribes when she was a little girl and she been taken in by the order of druids and was trained to become a bandrúi. In this training she was taught all manner of skills ranging from how to make use of local plants in medicine to the political state of the world. She was taught various languages or at least bits of them.

While she was in training she was regularly going out running into the woods alone or with a couple of her friends and getting into all manor of outdoorsy activities from climbing to rafting hollowed out canoes. She often got told off for sneaking out and putting herself in danger but she did not care much as the out doors were so exciting. One evening while she was sneaking out she bumped into another trainee as she stripped to go skinny dipping in the near by lake. The other trainee's name turned out to be Tadg and after a while they struck up a friendship.

As their training continued they were taught various rights and rituals that were part of their religion. They were pleased when they were both selected to preform the spring fertility rite. Soon after she married Tadg and she was raised to the order of bandrúi. Then she began to instruct her people of their religion and tended to the people’s physical and spiritual needs. She began to take place in spring fertility rights. Arieen and Tadg traveled from town to town filling what needs the people had and telling preforming their histories as narratives.

In the past few months, the Romans have started invading her people and raiding the area. She was in a small little village near the boarder when a sudden raid swept in through the area. Tadg was killed during the raid and she was captured. Soon enough she wing shipped back to Rome and was set to be sold as a slave.
Miscellaneous:

More (NSFW) pictures

[Kayrax]

Hey, looks good so far.

I notice you chose to exchange inspiration for skills, meaning you still have 3 points you can allocate. My guess in Communication based on your Strengths?

Just making sure but the Forced and Public turn-ons are in parenthesis because they're supposed to be conditionals for Nudity?

As a woman, much so a slave, the odds of her stopping the invasion of Britannia is nothing short of a pipe dream. It's somewhat endearing if she thinks it's actually possible though :D

[ElayneTrakand]

I mean depends who she is bought by. A letter lost here a (bad) forgery there she can try (and fail).

As for the parentheses before nudity, written out I would mean
Nudity,  but in particular forced and or public nudity.

[Hob]

I think I may have come too late to this party.

[Kayrax]

@ElayneTrakand Yup, that's what I thought too - nudity would be fine, forced and/or public nudity would be better essentially.

@Hob You're not technically late since things haven't actually started yet but I do confess I'm at a loss as to what I might even suggest as a similar alternative. Aside from the fact that Vigiles Urbani wouldn't be formed till the reign of Augustus, even after they were formed the members would pretty much patrol at night and put off fires and possibly act as cops of sorts. Was there something in particular about that idea that initially drew you towards it?

[Vergil Tanner]

After some consideration, PentheWonderful and I have decided to withdraw our interest due to personal and creative differences with the GM.

I wish everybody still involved in the game the very best. Have fun, guys!

[Hob]

The Vigiles Urbani were really the first organized firefighter/police in Western history, so there was great appeal there in terms o role playing out its creation and formation. Yes, in their official capacity their duties were originally carried out at night; it would be the perfect time to look for escaped slaves, observe illicit rendezvous, and carry on a little action of their own on the side. There also remains that they did still have time of their own. There would be plenty of daylight for other scenes to take place outside of watching for fires and catching miscreants. Not to mention clashing with the Pratorean Guard.

But the reason I say that I’m too late to the party is that every time I come up with an idea... the nature of the RP changes. Originally, it was to be set in Britain, in which case I was all set to do a centurion. I even have an idea in my O/O thread about a Roman Officer and a Pictish warrior. Then it got changed to Rome itself. Then there was the but about not having to be overly historically accurate, which was fine by me... to then have my other idea shot down because it was just a little off the timeline.

I could add more, but the point is that I can’t keep up. I’m online (actively) about once a day at best. So it’s difficult for me to provide any meaningful input while staying abreast of the changes.
Thus... I am too late for this party.

Best of luck!

[pendarious]

ok sorry I'm late to checking in. I'm fine with the family set up on the previous page and to both Vergil Tanner and Penthewonderful I hope you both have fun in whatever endeavors you get into ^_^

[Kayrax]

@Hob The first considered setting was indeed Britain, in which case I'm curious why didn't you make your presence and interest known at that time. The second setting did change for Rome but there were no real changes after that however, let alone the sort that might occur on a daily basis. By not being overly accurate I meant reach a point that would force players to deal with too much extra knowledge of the time and customs... not so much altering the timeline. There was actually an alternative to the Vigiles Urbani in the form of Triumviri Nocturni that operated during Caesar's time but I figured they wouldn't interest you on account of them being slaves themselves, meant to deal with fires and possibly let their masters know of any juicy scoops they might stumble across. Good luck to you as well though!

And as far as everyone else is considered, I'm almost done with a post that will better explain the setting and what you might expect in the game. Should be up maybe today or tomorrow. I also finished my gladiator's CS if anyone's interested. The other one's still a work in progress, though I suspect I might be able to reveal it with the previously mentioned post.

My gladiator's CS

Inspiration points = 0 (spent = 1)

Played by: Kayrax
Name: Draco (Scorys)
Age: 34
Language(s): Latin, Dacian/Thracian
Role: Indulging gladiator

Academics

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Combat

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Communication

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Crafting

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Economics

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Entertainment

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Perception

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Sex

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Stealth

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Survival

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Strengths: Badass, Can read and please a crowd
Weaknesses: Arrogant, Self-absorbed

Sexual preference: Screw the women / Humiliate the men
Sexual behavior: Sadistic dominant
Turn-ons: Cruelty, Fear, Pain, Torture, Humiliation
Turn-offs: None
Death: Maybe

Personality: Easy to figure out given his skills (bashing heads and slashing throats) and interests (good wine and even better women). Not necessarily the silent, brooding type but definitely not much of a conversationalist. His performance in the arena is typically violent, raw and savage - moreso than even typically expected - and his bedroom behavior isn't much different. Greatly enjoys the fear, respect and adulation he instills into others. Despises the Romans for conquering the world around them yet secretly envies their numbers, their might and most of all their predilection for self-indulgence and excess.
Goals: Continue winning and improving his popularity / Continue enjoying the attention and all the rewards that come with it
Background: Born in 89 BCE, Scorys spent his childhood and teen years learning, surviving and taming the Carpathian Mountains which proudly stood as his home. Living was generally harsh, food was scarce and the risk of getting mauled by wild beasts or freezing during long winters was always present. And if such perils weren't enough, various other tribes continuously attempted to invade the natural fortress in order to acquire the large deposits of valuable ores. But the Dacian people, of which Scorys himself was part of, were not mere shepherds or hunters. They were warriors and they had been living and defending themselves for whole centuries, for as long as their ancestors could remember.

So when the new king Burebista successfully brought all Dacian tribes under his crown and made it clear that his intentions were to defeat all nearby enemies and in so doing conquering more territory to possibly try and live free and in peace, Scorys heeded the man's call to arms. He joined the ranks of the disorganized yet determined army that the new king assembled and before long he found himself fighting and killing for the promise of a better life. Boii, Taurisci, Scordisci - they all tried invading his own people in the past and he was all too happy to turn the tables on them and to be on the attacking side rather than forced to defend that which he held dear. As the body count left in his wake kept increasing, the man himself slowly forgot just what exactly he was fighting for. He just knew he had to fight and in any fight there could be only two outcomes - kill or be killed. And he for one wasn't yet ready to return by the Father Sky's side.

Eventually though they ran out of people to kill or invade. Their own territory had expanded to the point where it could no longer be easily defended against outside threats. And that is when Burebista, in his infinite wisdom, looked to the south-west and realized that sooner or later they would have to fight another enemy. An enemy that was unlike anything they faced before. An enemy that they did not fully comprehend, let alone try and prepare against. That enemy was Rome. And even though the Romans made no clear indication that they were going to invade, Burebista could tell that it was only a matter of time before the eyes of that hungry beast would turn towards their own hard-won lands.

Some preparations would of course be attempted - a period of peace would be required so that families could be brought back together and so that some of their numbers could thus be replenished. Also some training was in order and of course the crafting of plenty new weapons too. And at certain strategic locations mighty reinforcements would be built so as to ensure their safety. And yet all those preparations didn't feel like they'd be enough. Tales of the Roman legions conquering new and unheard of territories did reach even their ears and so the wisest among them worried that there might have been more to the large Republic than simply met the eyes. A plan was thus set in motion - to send scouts and spies throughout its ever expanding territory and learn as much of this future threat as they possibly could.

Scorys was among those chosen for the task. He was by no means particularly subtle or discreet and yet the many battles he fought did earn him the respect of his brothers-in-arms. None of them doubted he was a valuable warrior and so figured he could take care of himself no matter what. He departed the lands he came to know and love and made his way south, towards the nation that Burebista assured them they'd end up fighting some day. Learning their language was rather difficult but it wasn't that which proved the most difficult thing for Scorys to deal with. Rather it was their lifestyle and strange customs. Those were almost alien as far as the Dacian warrior was concerned. They had nobles and commoners back home as well yet they never kept slaves. Those who surrendered in battles were kept for a while but usually they'd either be ransomed back or possibly allowed a chance to switch sides provided they showed themselves worthy enough. They lived freely and yet they were not supposed to pursue other women save the one they chose to make theirs. And then it was their job to protect her till death. That wasn't all though, for they also had foods the likes he never dreamed before, wines that were sweeter and richer than anything he previously tasted and there were also the stone roads and the bathhouses too, and that was naming only a few. Back home they occasionally bathed in mountain streams or other bodies of water that were nearby, on rare occasions even using nothing but the rain...

The cultural shock was immense and it actually took Scorys months to get his head around all those changes. And by the time he did so, the once proud Dacian warrior found himself slowly losing himself in the new world. At least until a brothel brawl got out of hand and Scorys ended up maiming the pimp running it and also killing two of the latter's bouncers. He escaped easily enough but was ultimately apprehended a few days later as he was attempting to make his return home. He had only a small dagger to defend himself against several fully armed soldiers and knew that he probably could take a few of them with him - his final kills before he would no doubt be put down himself. Scorys even considered making that last stance and proudly going to meet his maker and yet the little knowledge he learned of the Romans told him that as a slave there may yet come other opportunities to get free. So he instead surrendered, allowing himself to be captured and sent to a Roman quarry where he was supposed to extract marble for a period of ten years. Essentially a slow death sentence given that there were only a handful of condemned criminals that ever managed to serve their time and make it out alive, though severely weakened and with difficulty breathing and moving about.

The captured warrior tried playing the role of a good prisoner for a few days, hoping to find some opening he might exploit and make an escape. When he found no such thing he realized the error he had made. Next morning he offered one final prayer to Father Sky and by noon he was pummeling down on a Roman guard. He disfigured the man but much to his disappointment failed to either escape or die in the attempt. Instead he was locked back up and before he knew it, the Dacian captive was ushered in a medium sized arena and told to put on some resistance so that the crowd wouldn't be too disappointed with the show. He had actually seen a couple of gladiators fighting once before but this time around himself and a bunch of other criminals armed with only wooden swords were supposed to stand up against gladiators half their size yet armed with proper weapons. Outrageous... and yet the man figured that was his god's way of allowing him to die in battle, as befitting a true warrior. What followed was pretty much the one sided massacre that everyone came to expect, save for a couple of gladiator casualties.

By allowing a couple of other criminals act as decoys, Scorys did succeed in disarming one of his opponents - swiftly snapping the man's neck and using the spear he acquired to fend off against the remaining three opponents. The odds were still against him but when the other criminals rallied behind him the tides actually turned and through some miracle both himself and two other slaves were left standing. There was a long silence following such an outcome and by the time everyone snapped out of it Scorys could already see the Roman guards preparing their bows. The crowd noticed too and it was at that point that they finally reacted - loud cheers followed and the expected arrows never came.

After that particular display Scorys found himself sold to a lowly lanista. It was only after winning a couple more matches in a different arena that his new master became curious enough to ask him whether he had a name. When no answer was given Leo was suggested by the lanista, supposedly because the Dacian fought like an enraged lion. It was then that Scorys scoffed and told his owner that he was a dragon - the same symbol that Burebista chose for their people. The same symbol that gave them strength. That made their blood heat up and that always reminded them that there was an assured place for them by the side of their deity that lived beyond the clouds. The lanista merely laughed and walked away but the next time that Scorys fought in the arena he was actually introduced as Draco, which was Latin for dragon...

Over the years that followed he managed to acquire some amount of fame and recognition - not to mention plenty of scars as well. He was also traded and bought by three other masters, the last of which actually rewarded his more important victories with either fine wine or slaves and prostitutes to help deal with his other urges too. Although the gladiator never fully forgot his mission, the Dacian did learn to slowly get used to his new life. He told himself that if he kept on killing enough opponents and making a good show of it then maybe the Romans would think twice to attack a people of similar warriors. It was something he occasionally told himself before important battles, yet each time the words felt more and more hollow...

More pictures

[Kayrax]

Game description

The game will be set primarily around the city of Rome and its outskirts, with occasional mentions, flashbacks or even traveling to other locations. The starting year will be 55 BCE, a time during which Rome was still a Republic, albeit one slowly fading and getting replaced by a different type of government. The Triumvirate - consisting of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus - was still going strong and each of the three leaders tried expanding the glory of Rome, not to mention their own. Caesar himself was rather busy at the time trying to conquer Gaul, though did manage to find the time and cross the English Channel with 2 legions boarding 100 ships. The journey was not uneventful and a few of those ships did sink during a violent storm, but the majority of Caesar's forces managed to land and even push their way deeper inland. Given their fairly limited numbers, the Roman invaders chose to focus on raiding parties, the sort that were meant to help them scout the terrain, while at the same time also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the natives. Having completed that forced reconnaissance, Caesar and his his legionaries retreated back into Gaul, planning to first subjugate that region before returning in full strength to add Britannia as well to his growing list of conquests.

Events such as the above will occasionally be featured throughout the game, although poetic license will be taken on occasion - not too frequently and nothing too major however. Besides, what the game will focus on is not the retelling of Roman history but rather the untold tales of a fictional household within that great city. Enter the Visellia family, of equestrian rank - placing them just below those of senatorial rank while still being counted as aristocracy. Like most other families sharing the same rank, the Visellii too were previously focused on long serving military careers... at least until commerce restrictions were laid on the senatorial class, but not also on the equites (think Medieval knights). It was the point where power and wealth saw a bit of a divide, with the former remaining in the hands of senators but the latter being slowly diverted towards the only other Roman nobles. And like a good deal of other such families, the Visellii similarly turned their focus towards tax collecting - which was without doubt the single most profitable venue during those particular times. Public contracts to collect such taxes would periodically be offered, the winner of such an auction earning the right to keep all the extra profit for themselves. And there was usually plenty of such profit to be had - particularly when bribes and other fraudulent methods were employed... which was most of the time.

Something that the Ancient Romans were well known for was their extremely patriarchal society. Only male citizens were allowed to vote or hold any meaningful positions and jobs, with women expected - or forced at times - to obey either their fathers or their husbands. The former head of the Visellia family was Titus Visellius Varro, a well known and generally well liked publican (public contractor). The man died unexpectedly a few years back, making his eldest son - Lucius Visellius Varro - the new master of the house. Currently the household keeps a dozen guards, placed at the mansion's entrances and tasked to guard the gladiatorial stock they have on hand. They also maintain about as many slaves, including a specialized cook and gardner, with the other ones expected to handle more general tasks such as cleaning, serving food and drinks, running the occasional errand and of course sex if so desired. More importantly is that they recently started keeping a few gladiators on site, usually between six and twelve - definitely no more as there would be no more secured cells to keep them in however. The revolts that previously plagued the Romans some fifteen years prior weren't fully forgotten of course, but enough time since then had passed to once more make such violent shows a desired form of entertainment - a rather profitable one as well. Especially when it was suggested that gladiators could have their uses even outside the sand of the arenas...

OOC concerns

I find it impossible for a single person to fully anticipate all the questions that other people might have about anything and this particular game is no different. I will try to mention a few issues that have a higher chance of being inquired about but if the answers you seek aren't listed in what will follow then just ask me directly. Same thing if you instead want some more clarifications or perhaps some examples. So short story - if ever in doubt then just ask.

Most people writing on Elliquiy are either veteran roleplayers or at the very least have some experience roleplaying. Assume as such that things that generally stand true for most other RPs will be similarly true for this one as well. You should also use regular common sense whenever possible as that's going to be the leading principle as we push forward. There might possibly be some instances where modern common sense would perhaps need to be replaced by the historic climate but generally such cases should be fairly rare I believe.

This particular game will be played in the Extreme section of the site, meaning that each player is free to take things as far as they are comfortable. At least when involving nothing but NPCs. I would ask that if two or more players decide to plot something extreme on their own, that they first discuss some of those details among themselves and ensure everyone understands what is desired and also expected of them. By its very nature the game already features a slavery theme but please make the distinction between characters (potential master-slave shenanigans) and players (actual people with equal rights, including the right to decline any ideas they're uncomfortable with). To try and facilitate communication and pairings, but also to attempt to prevent such cases in the first place, I'll request that all players make use of a heading in all their posts. Please tag whether the scene you're part of (or starting up) is supposed to be closed, open for all or possibly open for just a certain player or players. Similarly provide any warnings you feel might be approppriate. Said headers will also link to the approved character sheets and I suggest visiting said page(s) and checking for potential conflicts as far as ONs and OFFs are concerned.

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[hr]

Though the game is based on historic events and facts, players aren't actually expected to know the details of that time period, the Roman society, culture, laws and traditions. It'd be great if they would of course, as that would add to the authenticity and flavor but like I said, no extensive research will actually be forced upon anyone. If however there will be a problem involving such issues, well that's what I'm here for I suppose. Since I've already done a bit of research on the subject, it may be possible that I already have a useful link or two in case anyone will require explanations or clarifications on a specific subject.

This isn't the sort of game where posting order is required - not at this stage at any rate. As far as frequency is concerned, I would prefer at least a weekly reply from folks though am aware that life can get hectic at times. If you know a rough patch is coming up for you then just let me know if you're able. Likewise if you feel the need for a break or otherwise decide to abandon altogether. If that's not the case, then by all means feel free to post as often as you'd like and are able to - provided at least that doing so wouldn't move time too quickly for anyone else that might be present in a particular scene. And as for post lengths - I won't actually force any limits one way or the other but I would like for posts in general to move either the main story or their individual plots ahead in some manner. It is generally accepted that "more is better" in case there was any doubt on that matter.

Each player can have up to three separate characters at a time. Minor NPCs can be introduced and played around with however you desire. Major NPCs as well for the most part, though possibly ask first if those are meant to be played a certain way or are otherwise kept around for some specific plots. Character death may or may not also appear in this game, but it's generally a matter of choice rather than it being forced down on anyone's throat. To that end, even if a player has listed a certain character as "free to kill", it might still be a good idea to ask them if you have such thoughts in mind. Besides, it is sort of the polite thing to do...

The game can either be played entirely freeform or, if it's so desired, the attached simplistic skills system can be used instead. I will occasionally make certain rolls behind the scenes to determine various outcomes because I find a certain element of surprise and randomness rather thrilling as opposed to forcing everyone to follow my vision of events or otherwise going with majority decisions each and every single time. Should conflicts occur between two players (not necessarily the violent sort) then it's possible for said players to either decide on a mutually agreed upon result, have me as GM decide on one instead... or for full transparency we could use the Dicebot and roll for such an outcome instead. All of this will be decided entirely by player choice however.

Assuming dice rolls are however desired, then they'll work in the following fashion: 6d6, extra=6, add=? (where ? is based on skill - 0-6 depending on the number of filled dots: 0=0, 1=1, 2=3, 3=6 - and any other modifiers that would maybe make sense such as equipment, number of NPCs present, status effects, etc.), TN1=2, TN2=6. For those with some experience involving systems games, that means a total of 6 six sided dice, with rolls of 1 (critical failures) counting as 0 (and thus dismissed), rolls of 2-5 counting as 1 and rolls of 6 (critical successes) counting as 2 and getting re-rolled. A single such roll will be required from either two or more participating players, or possibly from a player and the GM assuming NPCs are involved. The latter won't happen too frequently as for the most part PCs will win against NPC no matter what action is attempted. In particularly exciting situations however (either dangerous or holding the potential to vastly change things as a result) such rolls might be required though - or at least they will happen behind the scenes. Players can either make the actual rolls themselves or ask me to roll on their behalf. The results would then be compared and should they only have a difference between 0-3 points then the result will be a draw/stalemate, with possibly one player having a tiny edge over the other one but not really enough to push things over the edge. If the difference is between 4-6 then one player will be rewarded with a hard fought victory. If the difference is between 7-9 then one player will have a fairly easy win. A difference between 10-12 would lead to a flawless victory and on the off chance that the difference ends up larger than 13 then the victory would be achieved in a positively spectacular fashion... as if the gods themselves might've been involved.

I shuffled through various system books, as well as wiki sites and the like and I came up with the following set of skills:

• Academics - knowledge of various subjects (history, geography, religion). Investing points in this essentially makes a person look very, very smart.
• Combat - weapon and armor proficiencies, offensive and defensive skills, special attacks. Investing points in this makes you a stronger fighter than most.
• Communication - persuasion, intimidation, deception, manipulation, etiquette. Invest points here if you want a sharp/gold tongue.
• Crafting - woodworking, stoneworking, metalworking, repairing. Invest here if you basically want an artisan.
• Economics - identifying goods, bartering, having trade connections and generally getting discounts. Invest here if you want to spend less and earn more.
• Entertainment - storytelling, poetry, singing, dancing, rousing a crowd. Invest here if you want the extra attention and the chance to impress some bigwigs.
• Perception - observation, awareness, intuition. Invest here to maybe catch the sort of details that others might dismiss or even miss out on entirely.
• Sex - knowledge of what/when/how to touch, various positions and techniques as well as endurance. Invest here for all kinds of pleasure.
• Stealth - ability to stay out of sight, blend in and possibly do a bit of stealing on the side. Invest here if you hope to go unseen and unheard.
• Survival - ability to stay healthy, live off the land, recognize/make/treat poisons, treat some wounds or diseases. Invest here if you want to avoid an untimely death.

There are a total of four tiers for all these skills:

• ○○○ - You have no knowledge or experience (modifier=0).
• ●○○ - You have the basics down (modifier=1).
• ●●○ - You're rather good at it (modifier=3).
• ●●● - You are positively exceptional (modifier=6).

		○○○		●○○		●●○		●●●
Academics		Ehm... what now?		The world is round!		Teacher		Walking Wikipedia
Combat		How do you hold this?		Stab others, don't get stabbed yourself		Only two of you? Bring it!		Arena champion
Communication		I am Groot!		Know when to shut up		Make plans with others		Win most debates and arguments
Crafting		Cut a finger in the attempt		Don't break anything		Handy repairman/woman		Master craftsman
Economics		I traded everything for a magic bean		Probably won't be cheated		Enjoy the discount		Get paid for financial advice
Entertainment		Tone deaf		Can keep a rhythm		Suitable for a relaxing evening		Encore! Encore!
Perception		Damn hole appeared out of nowhere		Elliquiy is an 8 letters word		Eavesdropper		That pouch is missing 2 coins
Sex		Dead fish / Premature ejaculator		Forgettable		Everyone is quite happy		Sex god(dess)
Stealth		I'll shove my head in the ground		I need a disguise		Pickpocket		Ninja
Survival		Sun rises either in the East or West		Maker of wild fire		Hermit/Hunter		Medic

Everyone will have 20 points to distribute however they deem fit. The first dot costs 1 point, the second dot costs 2 points and the third one (surprise, surprise) costs 3 points. So if you want to max out a skill, that would require a total of 6 points. The modifiers would similarly represent these costs - if you have no points invested in a skill then you need to rely entirely on luck. If you have a single dot then you'll add 1 to the total you rolled. Two dots means you add 3. Three dots means you add a grand total of 6. It's also possible to exchange Inspiration Points for skill points. Normally the latter can be used for a chance to re-roll at anytime so it's up to you whether you'd rather hang on to a potential "get out of jail" card or if you instead wish to further improve on a skill.

Character template

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[float=right][img height=300 padding=5]https://www.nomadfoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/placeholder-1-e1533569576673-960x960.png[/img][br][center][color=navy][b][i][font=comic sans ms][size=12pt]Inspiration points = 1 (spent = 0)[/size][/font][/i][/b][/color][/center][/float]
[b]Played by:[/b] [url=][/url]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Language(s):[/b]
[b]Role:[/b]
[center][table][tr][td][center][b]Academics[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Combat[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Communication[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Crafting[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Economics[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][center][b]Entertainment[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Perception[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Sex[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Stealth[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][td]      [/td]
[td][center][b]Survival[/b][/center][/td][td]      [/td][td]○○○[/td][/tr][/table][/center]
[b]Strengths:[/b]
[b]Weaknesses:[/b]

[b]Sexual preference:[/b]
[b]Sexual behavior:[/b]
[b]Turn-ons:[/b]
[b]Turn-offs:[/b]
[b]Death:[/b]

[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Goals:[/b]
[b]Background:[/b]
[b]Miscellaneous:[/b]
[center][spoiler=More pictures][img height=300 padding=5]https://www.nomadfoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/placeholder-1-e1533569576673-960x960.png[/img][/spoiler][/center]

Above is the code required for any submitted character sheets and following are a few guidelines meant to help everyone figure out how they ought to fill those empty spaces:

• You'll need to replace the placeholder's link with a faceclaim of your own choosing. Something that looks 16+ so we can be in accordance with site rules. I would prefer actual photos rather than drawings and no, I'm not really interested in the faceclaim's name or occupation. It's a first come first served sort of deal so make sure not to use the same model that someone else might've picked - though honestly that very rarely happens in the first place.
• You might notice that I've added something called Inspiration points under the picture's location. For those having played D&D in the recent years, you already know what those are and for those of you who are in the dark, essentially those are points awarded by a GM for various reasons which happen to often be somewhat subjective. I'll be awarding them on a regular basis for activity, occasionally for quantity/quality of writing and possibly (meaning it might not happen after all) for various other reasons that are likely to be somewhat subjective. There will be no limit to how many such points a player can have at any given time. As to what they'll be useful for in this particular game? Basically the chance to ignore a previously made roll and the attempt of a brand new one... or if you prefer, the option to exchange those points for skill points at a 1:1 exchange ratio. More on skills below...
• If you know how to modify the Played by tag yourself then by all means go ahead, but if you're uncertain as to how you should do that just skip it and I'll sort it out on your behalf. Initially I wasn't going to add this tag but I figured that if anyone was to disappear or leave altogether, then I'd end up taking over such characters if they are vital to any ongoing plots. This is meant to serve as a temporary fix so if you get back and want to rejoin the game with that same character just send me a PM and I'll hand back the ownership.
• Name should be self explanatory though maybe not as easy to figure out if you want to be accurate. You might want to take a look at this or even this if you're building a Roman character. They basically have First_name Family_name Weird_name - you're probably already familiar with how the first two work but the third one is trickier as it's generally used only by the aristocracy or if it is awarded as a sort of nickname. In formal speech or official situations the first two, or possibly all three might be used. In informal situations, like say a meeting among friends, generally only the third one would be used instead. That's true as far as the Roman male population is concerned. For Roman women, their First_name became the feminine form of their father's Family_name. Assuming there were more girls in a family then their nicknames would actually reveal the order in which they were born - "older" and "younger" or "the first", "the second", ..., "the sixth", etc. If you are a male member of the main family then you should pick something whatever you like for your First_Name, stick to Visellius for Family_name, and pick something you like for Weird_name... or maybe go with Varro which would be a cognomen typically associated with the family. If however you wish to play as a female descendant of that family then you would be forced to go with Visellia as your first name and possibly Major, Minor, Prima, Secunda, etc. as your second. In public such a character would be addressed by either Visellia Varris if still unmarried or Visellia Husband_Cognomen+is if married. It can get somewhat messy so either read through those links for a bit or just ask me more details in private if you're having trouble deciding. If you're a slave however, of regular variety or a gladiator, then either your first name might've stuck if you're lucky or the owners might've changed it to something they could remember more easily. So if your original name differs from whatever you're being called presently just use the present name and add in parenthesis your old one. Depending on locations, these names could contain one, two, three or possibly more words. Check conventions for whichever culture you're going for or just ask me for help is you're uncertain.
• Age is entirely your choice so long as it's 16+, so as to fit with the site's rules.
• I added Language(s) because barriers might pop up. Roman citizens would naturally know Latin. The well educated ones might also know Greek. And if someone spent a good deal of time on some campaign then odds are they might've picked up a bit of whatever language the natives were using as well. If you're a captured slave then you likely have a native language and possibly (though not mandatory) Latin as well. I suppose it would depend on whether they might've learned at some point, or might've just picked it up after having spent enough time in the company of Romans.
• Role is more or less your character concept, ideally with a bit of flourishing if you can manage it. What do I mean by that? Basically your character's role in the Empire - things like senator, general, merchant, slave, gladiator... then your character's role within the household they are part of - such as father to X, husband to Y, brother to Z, cousin to U if we're talking masters of the house or something along the lines of - general slave, or personal slave to master/mistress X, bath slave, kitchen slave, pleasure slave (that could easily become pain slave), etc.
• Here's a filled dot - ● - for you to copy/paste and replace in the skill section of the CS. Like I said, there are 10 skills, the first dot costs 1 point, the second dot costs 2, the third costs 3 and everyone has 20 points in total to fill out however they choose. Keep in mind that the entire system is optional to use and also that you can spend Inspiration points to get more of these skill points. At character creation you only have 1 so you might possibly spend that and get 21 points instead if you're going for a particular starting build.
• You are free to either fill in the Strengths and Weaknesses sections or possibly leave them empty - in which case just remove them altogether. I'm not limiting the number you can add or enforce any ratio either. If you do choose to fill these in then these S/W could reflect the above skills or might reflect their personalities or backgrounds.
• Next is the sex & death section and the first thing on that list is the Sexual preference tag. Normally this might be called orientation but if you happen to be a slave then you don't honestly have a lot of choice in the matter. And since it was already agreed to play this out in the Extreme section of the forum, that means NC elements can and possibly will occur, including the possibility of forced gay/lesbian interactions. Ideally these should still be okayed OOC or at least discussed beforehand but assuming everyone's okay with the risks involved then maybe it would be more entertaining for such surprises to just pop up somewhat unexpectedly (though hopefully not without any reason at all though). Anyways, the correct answers for this section should be either a) men, b) women, c) no preference.
• Sexual behavior should be likewise fairly easy to determine. Basically it's a choice between the classic: a) dominant b) submissive c) switch, though you are free to possibly add in a few extra details after establishing that. Things like getting off on inflicting or receiving pain, the release of control, exhibitionism, voyeurism, etc.
• Turn-ons/offs are essentially your ONs and OFFs. Fill these out with whatever kinks you want to see and experience and whatever kinks you'd rather avoid instead. If sexy times (consensual or NC) are about to start I would recommend those involved to possibly click the links in the headers and take a quick gander over these sections first. I'd rather avoid OOC drama rather than waste time and effort trying to fix it so please be considerate of each other's tastes and especially each other's limits!
• Death refers to the possibility of permanently losing a character. Fill it in with Yes if you don't have a problem with it, with No if you don't want it to happen no matter what or with Maybe in case you're open to the possibility should it first be discussed with you and consent would be provided afterward. I already mentioned there will be a maximum limit of 3 characters per player. These characters can either be retired or killed off at which point you'd be free to come up with a different concept, apply a new character sheet and after receiving the go ahead you'd be free to hop right back in.
• The next section is entirely your choice how you fill out. Personality is somewhat important so ideally I'd like at least 5-6 key words to describe the character. You can either just mention those or you could instead take the time to clarify some of the things by writing the details in paragraph form.
• Goals is somewhat optional but I would like to see at least one short term goal and one long term goal. Could be more of course...
• Background, backstory, origin, history - whatever you want to call it. I'd like at least three paragraphs describing some of the character's life up until the point he/she joins the game. Focus on whatever you like - childhood, teenage years, personal connections, friends and family, feats and exploits, capture (if we're talking slaves), marriage (whether applicable and regardless of whether or not the spouse might still live or not), traumas, etc. Assuming you have a somewhat strong character concept in mind then I honestly don't think that 3 paragraphs minimum should pose that big of a problem.
• Miscellaneous is for whatever extra bit of information you might want filled in that doesn't quite make sense in other sections of the sheet. Maybe you want to mention hobbies, astrological signs and all manner of random stuff that might nonetheless prove even mildly useful later on. If you have nothing to add then feel free to remove this tag instead.
• Oh and the More pictures spoiler is in case you want to find and then add more pics of your character. That is entirely optional so if you're not interested in that, or you simply can't find such pics then feel free to remove the spoiler line entirely.

The above is more or less a summary of what a person can expect going forward, any expectations and possible systems to consider. If others are interested by this, then the game shall remain free to join at any time. Meanwhile though I'd like to get the whole thing actually started and I was thinking maybe this weekend would be a great time to do just that. To that end I would like all remaining participants to please send me your finalized character sheets. I myself still need to submit the Dominus character (Lucius Visellius Varro, 35), it's up to Foxy whether she wants to add any more info in her background as otherwise her CS is already completed, ElayneTrakand still needs to finish hers and I've actually received no other CS from anyone else. Be sure to ask if you need any assistance or information for such a goal.