Welcome to the discussion thread for the SPQR RP. Here are a few guidelines for the game:

1. Wheaton's Law is in full effect. Don't be a dick, but you can play one on TV. Whatever attitude your character has, I expect the players to not act like pricks.
2. The game is freeform and play-by-post. Auto-hitting and god-modding are, as per usual rules, forbidden. I don't expect player vs. player behavior, but if there is some, sort it out amongst yourselves first.
3. I reserve the extraordinary right and privilege to invoke the spirit of many a sadistic GM before me and pull your characters through the wringer. Should you come up with any inspired ideas yourselves, feel free to contact me so we can see to their timely implementation.
4. Really, if there's anything you're dubious about, rules questions you want answered, confusion you need clarified, ask me. I'll answer as quickly as I can.
5. I don't mind people going off-topic in here (and I don't mind having non-players pop in to say hi, ) but if someone wants to go back on topic, please do so as well.
6. Grammar and spelling at the best of your ability, please, even if English is your secondary language. I'm not expecting perfection, but I am expecting effort..
7. I'll try and do a post once every one or two days, regardless of how many people have posted. If I miss one, gimme a poke.
8. Please don’t start any out of character drama. It’s a whole mess :(
9. Have fun. Fun is mandatory.

Current Characters And Players:

• Xiphia, daughter of Ares. - 3of4
• Vulpes, son of Discord. - deathpigeon
• Felix, son of Dionysus. - Imperial Sunlight
• Antonius, son of Summanus. - Nick the Swing
• Laelia, daughter of Apollo. - L Mage
• Dynamene, daughter of Neptune. - Tricksen
• Aetius, son of Mars. - clawthewolf

• Caratacos, son of Ogmios. - Fauxlosophe
• Melissa, daughter of Aristaeus - Nman
• Arishat, daughter of Astarte. - daltar
• Mago, son of Eshmun. - P Blades
• Usi, son of Sekhmet. - Kosjurake

Good to be roleplaying with all of you. I hope to show I have improved in my roleplay style and maturity.

Should be fun. Ancient Rome is one of my favorite settings.

What month is it?

I've read a lot of history up to the early battles to get an idea of where/what Carthage was up to. I'm assuming we're about to cross the Alps but that the plan hasn't been announced.

Though, I'd argue that in that case we really ought to be in Gaul, ready to cross, rather than New Carthage?

If that is the case, can I assume that the crossing of the Rhone occured and the Volcae should be discussed in the past tense?

The idea is for it to be somewhere around August of 218 BC. Hannibal began his march across the Alps somewhere in the beginning of winter (so sometime around late September or October.)

Either way meeting in New Carthage still works, even if I did get my history wrong, since individuals can travel a lot faster than an army, and either way, Hasdrubal stayed behind the defend the Iberian Peninsula. So even if I did get my months horribly wrong, it just means they'll have to travel a bit to meet up with the rest of Hannibal's army at the foot of the Alps.

It's cool. I just want Caratacos to play up the "The Gauls are sick of feeding your sorry asses so you better do something" which would be wierd if, in this universe [accidently or intentionally] the Carthaginian armies haven't left Iberia yet.

Also, re-christening the discussion thread with a brief aside: I was just informed through PM that someone would be interested in joining and balancing the Carthage and Rome scale, but before I agree to that, I just wanted to have a quick poll with everyone to check if that's okay. It won't delay the game or anything.

Well I think its currently 7 to 5, so I'd be fine with another Carthage demigod.

I'm okay with it. Though, weren't the divide suppose to be 5 for Carthage and Rome each, with 2 wildcards?

That's how it is right now. I think I overestimated how many pro-Rome characters were in the game.

Just a question about Romans;

What exactly did they do in this time period as a social event or some such during this portion of history?

Were the famed Roman Bath-Houses a thing yet, or did those come later, as my Western Civ class indicated?

edited 29th Apr '14 2:59:33 PM by NickTheSwing

The bath houses came later - I don't believe the infrastructure was there yet.

The time-honoured tradition of getting sloshed in a tavern was still quite popular back then.

So, I'm going to take this opportunity to talk a bit of world-buildy stuff about the role of demigods themselves. But in order to do that, I'm going to have to talk about a concept important to the Romans: Imperium.

Imperium, as understood by the Romans, was the power placed into the hands of an individual by the state. The higher up on the Roman totem pole, the more imperium you had, which meant that the state had placed more authority with you.

Of course, Rome was, on the surface, a kind of limited meritocracy - the merits of your military prowess were what would catapult you to the senatorial class. But since the military was restricted to men, and, more to the point, property-owning men, it was a very limited pool. Except now you have people around who were almost literally bred for war - and you have absolutely no idea who it might be. Mars might suddenly decide to father a son with (gods forbid) a slave or a non-citizen, and the child might be a WOMAN. Imagine the disaster that would be!

So the Romans, both fearing the demigods' power but also keenly aware that they would be born to be a benefit to Rome, decided to make the demigods into natural citizens of the Republic...of sorts. A demigod who voluntarily agreed to join the Republic would be drafted into a type of service most befitting of their parent - a child of Apollo with the gift of foresight would become a priest or priestess, for example.

Commonly, any demigod with above-average fighting skills is drafted into the Twelfth Legion. Now, the Twelfth actually did exist, and I'd completely forgotten that it had already been used in Heroes of Olympus as a symbol there, too, but in this case, the makeup of this Legion is entirely fictional, and consists entirely of demigods with a Roman deity for a parent. For reasons that will become clear, the Twelfth Legion will be more of a backdrop than a force in the game, however, and even the warlike demigods on the Roman side probably aren't going to be drafted.

The exception to the jobs demigods had access to were any kind of elected political office, which demigods are banned from running and voting for. The political process of Rome must be governed by those who have earned the right, not those who were born with talent for it. However, other than this essential right, demigods enjoyed all the rights of Roman citizenship, and women were (both internally and externally) generally treated with more respect. Again, who's going to argue the inferiority of one of the gods' daughters?

Um, the link you gave us seems to imply that the twelfth was levied for Caesar around 50BC.

Also how common are Demigods? I assumed they were pretty rare but a Legion implies several hundred and that is only the ones fitted for military service under Rome.

It was. It was more a reference to the fact that the XII isn't a complete fabrication and actually does have some historical basis, even if it's over a century after the story being told.

And as far as I'm aware, Legions didn't really *have* names in pre-Marian Rome, since they were drafted for individual campaigns instead of being a professional standing army, but I haven't been able to find an actual source for it, so for now I'm simply using the same naming conventions that the Late Republic and Imperial armies used.

As for the relative rarity of demigods, calling them a Legion is done to emphasize the fact that they have their own praetor and aren't under the direct command of anyone but the consuls of Rome (again, going with the theme of them sort of being a citizen class of their own.) And their numbers vary greatly - in the Second Punic War, there are maybe 300 demigods altogether within Italy (quite a high number which disturbs a lot of augurs,) but they're of varying degrees of power. Two thirds (so around two hundred) serve the Twelfth. Out of a population of roughly 4 million (an estimate before the Second Punic War started fucking with population numbers, as wars tend to do,) that is actually almost absurdly rare.

So if there's any kind of proverbial demigod totem pole, most of the PC's are very high up, whereas the "average" demigod would be much lower - still recognizably superhuman. Achilles versus, say, Theseus.

edited 30th Apr '14 2:18:18 AM by math792d

But Theseus could still bitch-slap a Minotaur like nobody's business and was strong enough to duplicate one of Heracles's labors (Capturing that bull). Are the low-end guys really like that, or maybe more like, well shit, I can't think of a demigod who wasn't at least kinda badass.

Pasiphaë; she was the Daughter of Helios and is mostly notable for giving birth to the Minotaur. And that Minotaur was murdered the second he came up against a decent hero.

Quick wikipedia scan also gives me; Rhesus, Macaria, Helen, Cymopoleia, Aethusa

edited 30th Apr '14 2:46:02 AM by Fauxlosophe

Hmm. I'm going to be supremely geeky here and do a comparison to Scion for a minute, since it inspired parts of the setting.

The average demigod is somewhere around a Hero-level Scion: They're still badass, but they're not invulnerable, and they work best when they cooperate with one another. They're all noticably superhuman, but there are degrees in there, and that power is used best when they work towards a common goal, which is really where the Twelfth derives its strength.

Also, it's rare for them to be deployed in an actual pitched battle. Their job isn't to take the field with the Roman Legions, their job is to make sure Italy is relatively safe from monstrous threats. This is sort of the universal 'balancing act' - demigods don't tend to live very long because even the ones who can't fight might eventually have to.

Additionally, the presence of a high number of demigods usually means something terrible is about to happen. It's sorta like a cosmic warning sign.

edited 30th Apr '14 2:47:15 AM by math792d

"Hey Jupiter, you remember that party with Bacchus we had about 16 years ago? And Venus showed up with that army of young nubile mortals?"

"...Vaguely?"

"Apparently we gave rise to another prophecy of doom."

"Damn. Again?"

For the curious: Fabius served as dictator in 221 BC.

On a scale of 1-Faustian, how binding is the contract?

Good question.

So, are oaths more binding to demigods due to supernatural reasons? Like if a wizard from the Dresden Files swears on his own power sort of thing?

For my guy, his whole power is that he can make Oaths more binding but he also can't lie. I'm pretty sure both your guys are fine.

The oath is entirely personal in this case - sort of a display of conviction for Hannibal's cause. So the oath is symbolic more than magical, in that respect.

edited 30th Apr '14 9:39:38 AM by math792d

Kinda funny that I'm indecisive about how to gives a non-answer.