Lessons from Reading: October's Thirty RPG Reviews

Taking Stock
So I managed to get done 30 rpg reviews in October; about four of those ended up below 1000 words-- most hit between 1100 and 1200. Here's my original plan and review bias statement. In doing the reviews this month, I picked up a few things and made a couple of decisions.

1. Changeling's Better Than the Rules
I reread all of my Changeling the Lost material. It was interesting to spot how many things I'd missed on the first read-through and how much had stuck in my head without my realizing it. I'd dropped a few plot threads into the campaign that I knew had come from somewhere, but I couldn't place where. Going through the sourcebooks, I spotted them. I also recognized how much cooler Changeling is as a concept, as background material, as fluff, as story within those books...than it actually is when you bear down and look at the mechanics. Those rules seem written to impose restraints and require look-ups for anything interesting. All of the individual clauses of the contracts have distinct mechanics and effects for the differing levels of success. That's emblematic of the game's basic problems with its engine.

I'm a little surprised that White Wolf went in such a crunch direction with the material for the new World of Darkness. I wonder what would have happened if they did a much more narrative-focus version of their game. I bet they'd have a harder time coming up with all of the splat books. There's a certain market push to having specific numbers and details- rules which each player has to buy.

All that being said, I think just based on ideas, Changeling the Lost's one of the best pre-made settings and concepts out there.

2. Building a Rome
If I end up running Rome, I suspect I'll have to approach through from a back door. It will have to be Roman-inspired fantasy. I mentioned my two ideas for a campaign early on and I suspect the Lunar one, borrowing from Glorantha will be the most likely.

Some people who write game materials have an unexpected approach. When I'm reading, I'm looking for how this material will look at the table. Some sourcebooks end up spending too much time providing the logic and the backdrop. As a GM I do want to have a good hold on the background so that I can logically and consistently improvise at the table. But I also want things which will directly affect play and provide plots and stories for my players. It think there's a balance which has to be struck. It's common sense but sourcebooks which cover a narrower period or aspect of history do a better job at coverage and accuracy. I think covering a classic period and then providing a section discussing differences in a few others might be a reasonable compromise. And most importantly the authors need to recognize they're writing a book for a game which will be played, and likely not be played by people with a serious grounding in the history.

Gene's provided me with an outline for a particularly interesting Roman period which has some appeal. If I did do a Alt History version of Rome, I'd probably borrow most from Cthulhu Invictus and Fulminata- perhaps with more steampunk or archaic tech to it. I don't know.

3. Should I Marry Gumshoe?
I still really like Gumshoe, despite the negative reaction of our group to the standard action resolution system. I'll probably go back to tweak that before we play next; perhaps hunt around for some other people's reactions. I want to make sure I've handled that system correctly. There's a ton of great stuff there and if I go to run Cthulhu or horror again, I know I'm going to have to use The Armitage Files. That concepts just too good to pass up.

I also have in my head at least one big new campaign frame using Gumshoe. I like the Quade diagram from Mutant City Blues and I'd like to consider how it might be applied to a game with magic. I can't settle on a frame yet however. The distinct flavors of different cultures might mean that it could work for a Roman game; or I could do something Victoriana like the Lord Darcy but with magic being a little more present; or I could go even more classic and have the PCs as city guard having to investigate cases. I like the idea of a spell-slinging version of the 87th Precinct novels.

4. Too Many Games
There are a lot of good games that I'd like to run as one offs, mini-campaigns or what we call “portals”. Time & Temp and Fiasco are probably at the top of that list. Nameless Streets does offer a way to play out Heroquest which I really want to try. I like the Edge of Midnight as well and I want to track down hard copies of those books. It reminds me a little of the old White Wolf Orpheus series. You could easily run that as a one-year juicy campaign with a pretty cool wrap up/reveal at the end. Too many games and not enough sessions...

5. What I Missed
I didn't get to everything I wanted to. I started working on notes for reading review of some of the Vincent Baker games, but I realized I'd need play those before actually saying anything about them. They're really interesting and certainly spark ideas for me. I missed a few others I'd hoped to write about: some freebie games, Summerland, Zorcerer of Zo, and the above-mentioned Orpheus for example. I also wanted to do a Castle Falkenstein overview, but didn't get to that.

What Next?
So October is done, and I'll move back to a three a week schedule, probably MWF since the numbers drop off on the weekends. I'm going to try to do a review a week, probably on Friday. I'll certainly entertain ideas for topic or things to review as people might have them (unlikely as its a pretty small blog). My other project is going to be a variation on NoWriPro or whatever it is called. Besides my other work, I'm going to set myself a goal of 1000 words new or 2000 words revised each day for our homebrew Action Cards. I really want to have a fully developed version of 3.0 of this by the end of the year.

Games I Reviewed in October (with Links)
GUMSHOE
Mutant City Blues
The Hard Helix
Trail of Cthulhu
Shadows Over Filmland
Rough Magics
The Armitage Files

Changeling the Lost
Changeling the Lost
Autumn Nightmares
Winter Masques
Rites of Spring
Lords of Summer
Dancers in the Dusk
Swords at Dawn
Goblin Markets

"Building Rome" Reviews
Roman Name Tables
Cthulhu Invictus
Eternal Rome
GURPS Imperial Rome 2e
Rome: The Life and Death of the Republic
Roma Imperious
Fvlmiinata: Armed with Lightning

The Edge of Midnight rpg
The Edge of Midnight
Warlocks and Detectives
Ghouls and the Underworld
The Naked City

Other Games
Nameless Streets
Time & Temp
The Day After Ragnarok
Fiasco
De Profundis

FVLMINATA: Armed with Lightning: A "Building Rome" Review

What Is It?
Alternate-history Rome setting based on the early discovery of gunpowder.

Preface
This is the last of these “Building Rome” reviews I have planned for October. Eventually I hope to do a few more. I've hit a lot of the big games available, but I've missed a few as well. I didn't get to any of the additional free Cthulhu Invictus material available on the Chaosium website; plus there's the promise of an upcoming supplement for that. I didn't cover adventures, though there are a number of them available. Probably the biggest thing I missed was White Wolf's Requiem for Rome line. When it came out I heard it was pretty deeply Vampire based rather than a useful Rome sourcebook, so I skipped it. I think it is OOP now, but eventually I may hunt down a pdf-- or perhaps they'll have their POD established by that point. In looking through Chad Bowser's Geeklist “Greek and Roman RPGs” I spotted a few other major English-language books: Pax Gladius and the classic TSR The Glory of Rome. It looks like there are a couple of foreign language games, but I'm a little surprised that the only Asterix games seem to be solo adventure play ones.

From the Ashes
Fulminata presents a simple change, with a survivor of Pompeii's destruction turning his obsession into the discovery of gunpowder. Hence the name Fulminata, from the phrase Terra Fulminata or 'earth armed with lightning'. As the author notes, while the Romans did not innovate greatly, they were experts at applying existing discoveries. The game sets its date at 248 AD, exactly 1000 years after the founding of Rome. The game uses the AUC dating scheme, making this year 1000 in the game. That's a little easier to track, but I still prefer using the conventional dates. Fulminata contains both the setting material and a game system. It clocks in at 236 pages, cleanly laid out with an open text design that invites browsing. The illustrations are simple and effective- with an excellent and evocative cover. With many of these supplements being simply Dover clip art, it is nice to see fresh and consistent artwork. I should note that I'm reviewing the second edition of the game. If you hunt for this game online note it may be listed under Fulminata and/or FVLMINATA.

The Grinding Gears
I don't want to talk too much about the system except where it impacts on a reader who is looking to borrow elements. In brief it is a low-detail, high-trust role-playing game, using d8's, which are called Talli. These dice have two I's, two III's, two IV's and two VI's. The rules suggest putting stickers on standard d8's. The simple resolution system encourages less rolling-- most task can be completed if the character has sufficient skill. Rolls are done by rolling Skill + Attribute + 4 Talli against a target number. The mechanics are simple enough they could be extracted and replaced. There's some interesting flavor there however with details like the special dice and skills being organized around the appropriate patron god. About 55 pages of the book are given over the character creation, task resolution and combat which seems pretty modest and tight.

Accessibility
Fulminata's one of the best examples I've seen of how to write a setting material. It's smartly written with an understanding that readers may find this kind of alt history overwhelming. The authors lay out the essential counterfactual scenario right away. They follow that with an explanation of their narrative approach, favoring play and believability over accuracy and minutiae. As an example, in the introduction Fulminata goes over the Roman Virtues, something I've seen elsewhere. But here it contrasts those with modern values and then walks through each virtue and how it might apply to situations. That's a nice step to provide at the outset-- giving players and GMs a descriptive rather than prescriptive framework for play.

The background material is uniformly strong-- with an emphasis on accessibility and playability. That can be seen most clearly in the treatment of women. Though the restricted status of women in Roman society is touched upon, the character (called persona) examples include several females in non-traditional occupations. Alternate history aside, there's a lot of excellent background material here. Not as in depth as some other resources, but useful and solid. The overviews provide enough for a GM to frame scenes and ideas. Throughout the authors tie in even the mechanical systems to the themes of the setting. We get chapters devoted to history, society, the military, games, and so on. Taken alone the background material would serve someone assembling a Roman campaign well.

Alternatives
This being an alternate history sourcebook, there's a focus on what's different. In this Fulminata demonstrates a slight contradiction. The big change advertised is the existence of gunpowder, called Fulminata. My expectation going in was that this might lead to a more Steam, Diesel or Powderpunk game with lots of weird technology based off of that. Perhaps it would be like a DiVinci-esque set or weapons or maybe reclaiming lost Greek technology of batteries or a fire that burns eternally for some strange engine. Nope. The Romans have gunpowder, they've managed to use it for weapons and that's allowed them to expand and sustain their influence. Only three pages are explicitly dedicated to the concept- but it appears throughout the history, carefully thought out, considered and subtle. While it feels a little odd in that the concept seems to be the selling point (and the name of the game), the authors seem to be going for a slightly shifted history.

Or not. There's another big change in this setting that gets a less attention, with only passing mention on the back cover and in the introduction. Fulminata also includes a pretty substantial and detailed system for magic. Or should I say magics as it offers several different flavors ranging from Magi to Mithraic Priests to Etruscan Diviners to other Magicians and Witches. That takes up 35 pages of the book. The details and interesting and unusual. For GMs hoping to build an evocative Roman magic system it offers an excellent starting template. It does not, however, provide as much discussion of the implications of magic's existence on Roman history-- GMs will have to do some improvisation on that.

The book closes with an adventure and a number of useful appendices (names and so on). There's a glossary and a really full index. My reservation here would be that I'd like to have more material sketching out some campaign frames. What kinds of campaigns would make use of the settings particular details? At the very least a set of adventure seeds would have been nice.

Overall
I enjoyed reading Fulminata. It has many good ideas backed by solid writing. As a general Roman resource it has a lot to offer. As a model for how one might make tweets to history or add in fantastic elements, it does a good job. It doesn't have the mad jumble feeling that Roma Imperious does. Instead it takes a more tightly controlled approach that still leaves plenty of room for cool stuff.

Probably the biggest disappointment about this game is that it appears to be out of print. The website's still up, but the last updates mention the year 2008. It doesn’t look like the games available through pdf distribution either, at least so far as I can tell. Apparently a supplement called Insulae Britannicae: The British Isles had been in the works. There's some sample art from that and the last Live Journal entries mention editing being done on it. Then nothing else. If you spot a copy, I recommend picking it up. I hope that this will be reprinted someday.

Roma Imperious: A "Building Rome" Review

What Is It?
Alternate Imperial Rome rpg with magic.

In the Beginning
As I said when I began this series of reviews, I wanted to assess existing Rome rpg material for what they might offer a gamemaster wanting to run a “Rome” campaign. By that I meant not necessarily a historically accurate game, but one which took on that atmosphere. For my part, I expect when I finally run an Ancient Rome game it will include a great deal of the fantastic. But I want to be able to provide a consistent and interesting backdrop for the players.

With that in mind I came to Roma Imperious, one of the two significant “Alternate Romes” I planned to review. I don't include Cthulhu Invictus in this category as it doesn't posit a major historical change. Roma Imperious, on the other hand, takes place in a world with present magic and fantastic creatures. The Roman Empire has remained and has some magic operating within it. I had some high hopes for this supplement-- to see how they integrated fantasy and wizardry into the lives and history of the Roman world. In the end I was pretty disappointed.

Iridium Verison
I should mention that I'm reviewing the version using HinterWelt's Iridium system. There's also a True20 version which, as I understand, includes some new setting material. I'm not going to deal with the system mechanics for Iridium. The last 40% or so of this 338 page (in pdf) book presents Iridium as adapted to this setting; it seems pretty basic. You have classes, levels, attributes, a focus on skills, and a D&D-like spell list. But I want to concentrate on what a GM might be able to borrow or lift from this- how useful the approach to the history and setting is.

In the Details
The premise is fairly simple- Constantine sets up a group to research magic as utilized by the Druids. That bureau makes discoveries and Rome now has access to magic. The current game year is 708 A.D

It says something about the organization that it took me several minutes to actually figure out what the setting date is for this game. The historic overview ends, but doesn't suggest what's going on now. There's the odd choice to use Roman dating from the founding of Rome, in 753 BC-- so the actual game year is 1461 A.U.C. I understand going for a kind of authenticity, but I think you first owe your readers to make things clear. That's a small detail, but I think one that's reflective of the larger approach of this book. Throughout we get a lot of information, but there's little done to make it accessible to the reader. If you're throwing many new concepts around you need to provide signposts. Roma Imperious moves from section to section here without a clear sense of what's being laid out. It is many pages in before we really get a sense of what the game world might actually look like in play. That needs to come up front to sell potential players, before you info-dump all of the cool history you've built. I used to write this kind of thing and give it out to the players- elaborate historical documents that didn't have connection or purpose, just rich tasty history. And that did little or nothing to help them play at the table.

Neat Stuff Sewn Loosely
A couple of general setting things bother me- mostly the choice to set the game so late in Roman history. I understand that Constantine's an interesting figure, but having him be the spark which starts this raises some questions. In some modern fantasy the author has to resolve about why everyone doesn't know about magic. It just feels odd to have that magic appear and grow so late-- the book does tie that into the monster section with all of the magical creatures having been created or summoned by mages. That's a kind of retcon of the mythology that feels a little off to me. There are some interesting ideas but they get lost. A bigger question comes in the sense of worship. Some of the sections suggest that at least some cults have power-- so why only in the modern (to the game) era do those appear. I found myself having to go back to check or cross-check details and going "huh?" many times.

The lateness of the setting does have a couple of effects-- the game can move forward the technological level, allowing for other advances. It also allows for the creation of adversarial block empires like the Jade Kingdom (Chinese based on another whole system of magic) and Skandia as a kind of Viking/Norse analogue. It feels very patchwork-- like someone tossing together all of the cool ideas of the ancient world-- a Gamma World version of history. The actual background for the setting is only about 85 pages of the 338 page book, we then get classes for about 40 pages, and 56 pages of monsters (with stats and mechanics eating up about half of that). Then comes the Iridium rules.

After all of that, the book only provides four pages of suggestions for campaign play, plots and gamemastering. The irritating thing is that early on there's the suggestion that this book will serve as a resource for people wanting to build an alternate branching system at various times in Roman history. The logic of the setting doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Reading through I don't get the sense of magic in the setting, more the feeling that a classic D&D sense of wizards and ended up tacked on to an interesting but undeveloped riff on Roman ideas. The game wants to have all of the cool: “you can play a Praetorian Magus or an Oriental Monk or...” but doesn't really sell the setting beyond that. It feels threadbare.

Overall
I wouldn't be hard to port another system into this setting. I think I'd want something to retool the magic system. Certainly that they were able to move it over to True20 suggests that's possible. But the question would be why you would want to do that? I think the systems less of a concern then the setting as established.

I think the idea of a Roman campaign with magic as a factor is a great one. But just as some of the straight historical Rome rpg books take on too much history, Roma Imperious takes on too much chrome. There might be a few ideas to borrow-- such as how the Empire makes use of the magical technology, but those details are few and far between. Purely for a stand-point of someone looking for resources and references to help in crafting their own game, I think this is a weak choice. It isn't to be avoided-- there's some fun ideas here- but there are other first-buy choices out there.

Rome: The Life & Death of the Republic: A "Building Rome" Review

What is it?
A Roman sourcebook covering the period from the founding to the end of the Republic.

To begin: if you're thinking about running a campaign set in ancient Rome, you should buy this book.

Rome: The Life and Death of the Republic is a 220-page sourcebook for Basic Role-Playing. This comes from Alephetar Games who also did Nameless Streets for HeroQuest which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. The layout's clean and the book mostly uses classic illustrations rather than too much original art. Based on these books, I'm going to put some of their other books Stupor Mundi, Merrie England, and Dragon Lines on my wishlist.

Pick Your Rome
It's interesting to consider how Rome has appeared in various media-- there's definitely a “sexier” part of that history. Most cinematic adaptations cover the period just at end of the Republic era or after- from Julius Caesar on. Spartacus would be an exception. Certainly on television that's the case as well: I, Claudius; Rome; AD, and so on. Historical fiction tends to follow suit-- all of the Roman historical mysteries take place after the Republic has become a memory: Roberts, Rowe, Saylor, Wishaert, Downie. So its worthwhile risk for someone do produce a sourcebook which covers not that period, but an earlier one.

Like Cthulhu Invictus, Life and Death of the Republic, concerns itself with a portion of Rome's history. However, where Cthulhu Invictus cut a reasonably-sized slice for itself, Life and Death simply splits the meal in half. It still takes on a huge swath of history, something it admits to right up front. But it also provides a comprehensive overview. We get from the founding of Rome as a monarchy up through the Civil War and the collapse of the Republic. This Rome isn't a timeless abstract-- the book discusses the evolution and changes of cultural details. Eternal Rome and GURPS Imperial Rome took on all of Roman history and, with the exception of the historical timeline, treated everything as static across that entire time period, Life and Death provides some details and options about how things looked in different phases of Rome's development. It breaks those explicitly down into The Monarchy, Early Republic, Middle Republic and Late Republic. It's worth noting that last period does get more attention (in terms of quotations and citation) but that makes sense.

Life and Death makes another unusual decision in focusing attention on what we classically think of as “Rome.” That is we stay in the heartland. Little attention is given to other countries within the Empire. Rome itself stands as a model for other cities in the Empire. That's a striking approach for material like this. On the one hand it means that the authors have room to deal with the core topics of their focus: Roman life, society and history. On the other hand, it does mean that GMs desiring a campaign that moves outside the confines of the Italian Peninsula will have to do some work. Some of the other Roman rpg resources might be useful, but GMs will be forgiven for feeling a little spoiled after having been given the depth of material here.

The Divisions
The book breaks down into fourteen chapters of varying length. While there are some sidebars and notes, we don't really get to any extensive mechanics and campaigns material until about page 120. In that first set of chapters we get coverage of Roman Society (20p.), Roman Culture (20p.), the city of Rome (25p.), The Games (12p.), The Army (18p.), and Philosophy and Religion (15p). Throughout the author provides extensive and interesting quotations from primary sources. Most chapters provide some ideas for player and adventures seeds in boxed text. All of these sections are well written and interesting. The section of the games is especially interesting-- showing how they grew out of other rituals and evolved from funerary rites. The discussion of other kinds of games and how those might be used in play is good. I also liked seeing the details on the changes in weapons, armor and service over time in the section on the army. Author Pete Nash also stops to discuss philosophies of the empire, an important factor. I could go on-- suffice as to say that the material is rich and covers a great deal of ground.

I should stop off an mention the tone and approach of this material; some may find it a little off-putting. Life and Death aims at achieving a kind of accuracy-- providing material so GMs can run a more realistic game. The focus isn't on verisimilitude, but simulation. The material talks about the kinds of attitudes, approaches, and mores which we in the modern world might find objectionable (especially on the issues of familial authority, women and slaves). It suggests that players will have to adjust to that. I think that's easier said than done. The book takes an authoritative approach-- providing facts and details, but with less on the topic of how that might get shown in play. Mind you the writing is strong enough to support that rigid approach. And there are some scenario suggestions for a few entry points.

Basic Role-Playing is a fairly simple system, so that material doesn't get in the way too much. Even once we get to the chapter on characters-- there's still more descriptive text than BRP rules. The section which follows on Roman Magic takes an interesting and open approach-- showing how the Romans spoke about magic and then how those ideas could be used in one of several approaches. GMs can pick from games which have no magic, psychological magic, or true magic. The guidelines given will take some work to put into practice, but the author gives the GM some excellent tools. Fifteen pages on creatures and monsters do provide stats but also some notes on use.

The material on campaigns will be generally useful to anyone thinking about a Roman campaign. It suggests several frames and talks about the kinds of details necessary to them. There's some discussion of alternate campaigns but these are more tidbit than meal. The lists of ten scenario ideas for different topics (Charioteering, Animals, Disasters) is excellent and I would have loved a few more pages of those. We also get some NPCs statted out and notable persons described. Interestingly the book waits until one of the last chapter to actually break out the historical timeline and walk through the 700 years. That's a good choice and one that reinforces earlier material and keeps it from being overwhelming. That's done as a table with events described in four areas (War, Politics & Law, Religion, the City). The book wraps up with a series of useful appendices as well as excellent maps.

Overall
This is a book for history buffs-- those who like a serious approach. But it is also incredibly rich for anyone wanting to carry off the spirit of Rome in a campaign. It doesn't do some things like a sense of the Empire or an approach to the supernatural which other books (like Cthulhu Invictus) do. But it is the most comprehensive, well-done and rich historical sourcebooks I've ever read. I can only how we might see more from this publisher, perhaps covering Rome under the Emperors or a book providing a look at the other parts of the Empire in this period.

Eternal Rome: A "Building Rome" Review

What Is It?
Ambitious attempt to fit all of Roman history into the d20 system.

All Hail the d20 Revolution?
Say what you like about d20 and the explosion of “supplements” that came from it, it did encourage designers to create interesting and ambitious projects that might not otherwise have seen the light of day. In some cases that was good, in others bad. So my Building Rome series (details here) I'll be skipping a lot of Roman-esque d20 materials. I'll leave out the various Legionary/Gladiator class-based microbooks with new feats, the generic historical materials for OGL, fantasy Roman analogues, and even some interesting stuff like Mongoose's Gladiator book.

Green Ronin's Eternal Rome fits into their Mythic Vistas line. That includes Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era; Trojan War: Roleplaying in the Age of Homeric Adventure; and Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra. Eternal Rome explicitly mentions the first of those two as compatible, though bringing them together might be a stretch historically speaking. As a side note, the Mythic Vistas label seems to have been really odd and arbitrary, especially when you consider it also included Damnation Decade and The Red Star Campaign Setting. Eternal Rome presents material to allow d20 GMs to run a “Roman” campaign-- and my air quotes are deliberate there.

This is a Green Ronin product- well done in terms of layout and presentation. There's a great deal of material here with a fairly tight and small-font book design. While I'm not fond of the cover on close inspection, interior art-wise I do love me some Kent Burles.

We're Going to Need a Bigger Book
So let's begin with the big criticism. Eternal Rome tries to cover everything from the founding of Rome to the Fall of the Empire. That's a pretty huge span to deal with. It means the details get filed off in many places. Even the monumental rpg supplement Rome: Life and Death of the Republic “restricts” itself to the period of the founding to the end of the Republic. Eternal Rome opens by mentioning and glossing the historical periods in just two pages. That's an interesting approach and one which echoes the way RPG source materials tend to deal with history. It does suggest that the GM who wants to run a Rome campaign will be angling for verisimilitude over accuracy or simulation.

The d20 Catch
d20 materials tend to be a crapshoot for me. I'm not a d20 player but I suspect even if I was, I would quickly burn out on the tiny variant takes on the same material over and over again. Having looked at a number of “revolutionary” treatments of martial arts in d20, I can pretty quickly identify which ground they're retilling. As a non d20 GM then, I hope that the mechanical material will be minimal, flavorful or at the very least transparent. On that count Eternal Rome does pretty well- I rarely found myself having to skip over large chunk of text because it devolved into mechanics or stat blocks. Even where it provides system relevant discussion, those usually had some interesting ideas- useful for consideration when converting.

Classical Structures
Eternal Rome opens with the usual character creation material-- and a reasonable discussion of various cultures. We get the usual addition of new standard classes, examination of old ones, and outlines of prestige classes. These end up worth reading as the provide insight into the culture-- a discussion of culture-specific Bards, the Gladiator class and sub-classes, the Crime Boss, Pankretiast, Soothsayer, Vigil, the Orator, etc.-- there''s mechanics there but also some good background. We get some sidebar useful digressions and heavy attention paid to the military details. Between cultures, classes, skills and new feats this material takes up forty+ pages of the 160 page softcover. Following that we get eight pages of equipment and then a section on magic. Roman magics mostly handled through some shifts of domain. The rules do introduce new setting-specific spells for flavor tor to support the new mechanics introduced (such as the Celebrity spell). The Roman specific magic items are a nice touch.

My favorite section here deals with the concept of Fame as a trackable trait. PCs can undertake actions and adventures to build up their Fame and increase their social position. It's a nice piece of mechanics and provides a set of considerations I hadn't yet seen elsewhere. The author makes an explicit parallel between in that the “Fame” stat of this setting and the Piety of Trojan War and Testament. That in itself is an interesting comment on the culture. Fame in the game has practical and mechanical applications and the rules also suggest costs and requirements for keeping it.

Other sections do a pretty standard job. The Bestiary provides useful suggestions for standard creatures by region. Previously appearing SRD (I assume) creatures originally drawn from Ancient World mythologies get some context comments. A few get notes on how to shift them closer to their original sources (Basilisk, Lemure). We get four pages of new monsters with stat blocks and a Races section tries tries to connect some of the legendary races and present them as PC types.

Back to Background
Late in Eternal Rome we come back to an overview of the Roman world. The whole of the Empire gets a more comprehensive treatment, but still only in eleven pages. That's enough to give flavor, but not enough to provide a real campaign background. It could help GMs sort out where they might locate a campaign and point to future research. The author provides adventure and campaign hooks for each area, something I like. Next we get twenty-four pages providing the history of the Empire- spanning 1200 years. As with the quick national survey, this can only provide a modest tour. Depending on the campaign, such details might be used for background and color. It could help a GM choose a particular time period, but they'd still have to do the heavy lifting of research on that specific period (or remain more distant and vague).

Probably the most generally useful materials will be the fourteen pages on Roman culture and seven pages on religion. Again both sections take a timeless stance--despite the massive changes which occurred in both over the millennium plus of the Empire's history. Still if you're trying to capture the flavor of Rome you could do worse than this. It ties into the earlier discussion of fame, with a good explanation of the patron-client relationship as well as various offices of the Empire. It's condensed, but squarely aimed at a GM and how they can provide a reasonable backdrop for the players. The religion section waves between that approach and giving the mechanical d20 connections for cleric-types in a campaign like this.

Eternal Rome wraps up with a nine-page scenario with some additional historical detail. We get a two-page bibliography of materials, fairly comprehensive. While that's interesting it isn't as useful as it could be. This isn't a book report-- instead this list ought to help potential GMs find new resources. A few comments or at least putting an * by really useful texts would have helped. On the other hand, Eternal Rome does provide a two-page index something which ought to be standard in dense books like these.

Overall
Eternal Rome manages to keep up an illusion of comprehensiveness-- there's a ton of stuff and details about an idealized and timeless Rome. That's a decent resource for a GM thumbing through and looking for chrome or details to throw at the players. Some sections have a great depth-- the ideas on fame, gladiator sub-types, the Evil Eye-- but they stand out given the thinness of other sections. This book works as a decent introduction and overview, but those familiar with Roman history will be more picky about what they find useful here or be bothered by the level of glossing over.

Cthulhu Invictus: A "Building Rome" Review

This is the second in my series considering Roman rpg materials and how a GM wanting to run a Rome campaign might use them. Cthulhu Invictus (CI) is a recent supplement providing material for a Call of Cthulhu game set in Ancient Rome. For a discussion of the purpose of these reviews, you can see here.

Shadows and Rumors
Cthulhu Invictus provides an interesting frame for any kind of Roman Game. Historically Rome took in many foreign and strange cultures. Though there are others, Robert Turcan's Cults of the Roman Empire does a nice job of surveying them and their syncretism within the Empire. I like the idea of many of these being at once unsettling and alluring to Imperial citizens. Those dealing with outsider cultures frequently would craft all kinds of stories about their practices. The treatment of the Cthulhu Mythos, rumors about strange practices, the lurking fears could serves as an model for what people's suspicions might look like. Especially in a game where the players aren't sure if the supernatural is real, such hints and suggestions could create a great sense of unease.

Surveying the Empire
The book opens with twelve pages on Rome itself and life there as a general model. Cthulhu Invictus compliments that with a timeline of Roman History and a map. Smartly, CI restricts itself to the first century CE, an approach which allows it to provide a snapshot (although still a fairly broad one) of Rome and of the Empire. Forty pages follow providing an overview of the Empire as a whole in that period. There's a nice two-page map- and that's complimented by a larger pull-out version at glued in at the end. The maps are useful and well-presented, though at least in my copy the double-page version of the city map overlaps where the pages meet. The central 1/4-1/2 inch of the map vanishes completely into the fold.

The survey of the world does an excellent job of covering the Empire. Most regions get an extensive treatment, with sub-regions and major cities discussed. The first-century focus allows the authors to provide relevant details and context. What's covered in those entries varies. This is a Cthulhu supplement so we get mention of strange practices, holy sites, libraries and the like. However that isn't presented to the exclusion of other material. In fact I'm of two minds about this. As a GM thinking about a general Roman game I find this useful. As a Cthulhu resource there's good stuff, but I'm a little surprised we don't see specific scenario hooks associated with regions- but that's a particular fetish of mine. We do get a quick list of associated cults and monsters but how much that's connected in the text varies from entry to entry. Sidebars and boxed entries add additional details such as NPCs, special societies and items.

System Specific
The Character Creation and Skills chapters cover the basics: naming,education, minor mechanical BRP tweaks, and so on. The occupation breakdown provides a rounded set of ready-made roles for PCs. These could be used as a starting point for generating NPCs. I like the discussion of the skills since they put those in the context of existing knowledge and culture. The Equipment and Combat sections provide enough details- and lists for GMs who enjoy that kind of thing. It also says something about the setting that we get several pages devoted to Roman siege weaponry-- evoking the image of a desperate legion trying to drive back Shub-Niggurath with a ballistae. There's treatment of sanity, with the consideration that violence is an engrained part of Roman life. Hence potential sanity losses for witnessing such acts should be reduced or even eliminated.

The Magic Stuff
The Grimoire section talks a little about Roman religion, followed by a treatment of Auguries. There's some discussion of the place of magicians or spell-casters within the Empire followed by some suggested spells. Some are nice, fitting with the particular setting while others are more general. A list of tomes (and things that function as tomes) follows. That's an important detail as many of the classic Lovecraftian tomes have yet to be written in this period. Most of the material here could be co-opted for GMs running a non-Mythos supernatural game. Surprisingly various Mythos gods only get a brief mention and comment in a couple of pages list.

We get some Cthulhu connections in the bestiary section, but overall the entries would fit any Roman game with supernatural elements. Charybdis, Lamia, Centaurs, and Sirens among appear here. Stats and likely territories are provided for each of the 55+ entries. Depending on the creature, the accompanying text provides excellent description, tactics, history, cultic nature, attacks or behavior. There's a nice neutral approach here which doesn't try to shoehorn all of the mythic elements into the Mythos. Instead the material is presented to stand on its won, with a mechanical interpretation of some well-known bits plus a host of obscure monstrosities.

Most of the heavily lifting regarding connections between more classic Roman mythic figures and the Cthulhu Mythos comes in the chapter on Cults and Secret Societies. These fourteen pages provide interesting adversaries or at the very least plot instigators. Here the Vestal Virgins serve a darker purpose, the Argonauts survive as a far-reaching mercenary company, and Olympians owe their origins to sacrificial magics. The material is useful and wide-ranging-- meaning that GMs will find something to fit the scope and ethos of their campaign.

The book finishes out with a discussion of the Roman Legions, a thirteen-page complete adventure, a page of scenario seeds, suggested reading and a nice tight index.

Overall/Portability
I think Cthulhu Invictus is strongest as a Cthulhu supplement. In that respect it supplies the Keeper with enough material to easily build an interesting campaign. But the book also serves well as a general supplement on Rome-- especially those who want to add a darker mythic or supernatural feel. The rules have some mechanics, but it leans to source and background material making it adaptable for other systems. The cover's one of my favorite and the art inside serves the text. If I have any significant criticism it would be that I wanted to see more in some sections, perhaps some campaign frame suggestions, more adventure seeds, specific plots tied to places described. Of course that would necessitate a much larger book, so we'll simply hope for follow-up supplements.