Solo Game. My Life As A Legionary.

[Mithras]

Or something like that :)

Its the kind of thing that would suck as a multi-player table-top RPG, but appeals to my love of Roman military history and reminds my of days long past of solo gaming Traveller.

Roll up in simple terms a 17 year old Roman. Everything is random. This game has a goal, and the goal is to climb as high up into the Roman military as possible, to gain a wife, a family and land at the end of your 25 year term. Its a game that will hopefully surprise the player, a historical narrative. You could play it a hundred times and follow the course of 100 very different legionary lives.

In fact I Traveller is my inspiration with those random tables (especialled the Expanded Generation systems) and I think tables and lists would be the way to go.

Randomization. Events. Back-stabbing. Bribery. Corruption. Tough, punishing centurions. Veneral disease. Losing expensive kit and repurchasing it. Travelling across Europe when the legion gets reposted. Making local contacts in the community. Learn a trade. God forbid even fight in a skirmish or major battle. Fight bureaucracy and evil centurions.

I've not even started. Don't know if I ever will. I don't know - this is more like a 'wish someone would write it for me' kind of game.

Sigh.



www.geocities.com/zozergames/interactive.html

[M. J. Young]

It strikes me as reminiscent of the old Pirates video game, in which you were a pirate captain in the Carribean working your way up. But then, there was a lot of combat in that as well, so it was in some ways more like D&D.

Does that put you on any fresh thoughts?

--M. J. Young

[Grex]

I get it, you mean sort of as a mega-lifepath, right?

Have you read Cities or En Garde? They both have something like that, so perhaps they could inspire you... :^)

http://www.midkemia.com/Products.html
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7771

[Callan S.]

Its the kind of thing that would suck as a multi-player table-top RPG, but appeals to my love of Roman military history and reminds my of days long past of solo gaming Traveller.

Why would it suck?

Back-stabbing. Bribery. Corruption. Tough, punishing centurions. Veneral disease. Losing expensive kit and repurchasing it. Travelling across Europe when the legion gets reposted. Making local contacts in the community. Learn a trade.

Possibly you think it would suck because you wouldn't give rewards for this.

The thing is, most of what your describing will harm a PC. This is a penalty and I think that's why you think it'll suck to play in a group. Outside of XP there are plenty of rewards to be had...even down to just getting points for suffering, which have no game effect but are valuable because the player can boast that he collected that much pain with his PC.

I know that a PC getting veneral desease or loosing kit and rebuying it should be an experience that perhaps should be the sole reward itself (a sim reward, me thinks). But I really don't think other reward types will spoil this. Then again, you said you weren't thinking of designing?

[Mithras]

Noon, I do think the idea would suck as a table-top RPG not because the experiences of legionary soldiers aren't interesting or challenging, but because I just think five guys playing the parts of off-duty legionnaries week after week would not be everyone's cup of tea. All those routines, all those orders, those boring duties, tedious jobs to do. Time off, and your stuck in that little village stuck at the front of the fort. As a historical sim it would be neat, but being a member of such a regimentated organisation has its problems as far as dynamic roleplaying goes. All those epic plot-lines are gone for a start.... I mean, I could write a scenario where a group of PC legionaries stumble on a secret that could bring down the legionary commander, and he knows and has them sent on ever risky missions unsupported - they need to find some way to bring him down. Or they could be cavalry scouts that stumble upon tribal shinanegans out on the frontier and must warn the legion ... or the PC legionaries must battle against their own evil centurion ...

But I'm talking about daily life, the (relatively) unadventurous stuff that is mostly personal, not the kind of stuff you could satisfactorily do in a group of 5 or 6 men.

I guess its why there are so few military RPGs around. The structure fights against the 'freedom' that the RPG tends to traditionally offer.

[Callan S.]

Noon, I do think the idea would suck as a table-top RPG not because the experiences of legionary soldiers aren't interesting or challenging, but because I just think five guys playing the parts of off-duty legionnaries week after week would not be everyone's cup of tea. All those routines, all those orders, those boring duties, tedious jobs to do. Time off, and your stuck in that little village stuck at the front of the fort.

Oh, I get what you mean. What I'm talking about are reward mechanisms tied to choice. Well, I'll be kind of gamist here, if that doesn't work for you I'll try some sort of sim answer next.

Now, the first thing to realise is that something like D&D can reward sheerly by color, baring any other type of reward. Walking around in a dungeon that is full of monsters even when none are in sight gives a tensness which feels good and is a reward. I'm sure you'll agree that the small village in front of the fort wont give this.

But that's okay. If you've lost one reward type, pile on another type. Just because something wouldn't be that rewarding to the PC, doesn't mean it can't be to the player. For example; orders: The player can try and bend the nature of the orders (declares he only peels two sacks of potatoes instead of the ordered four). He does this for a classic gamble to reap a reward...say the system will give him points which can buy a 'devil may care' attitude (but at the risk of a whipping, which will reduce health and perhaps lead to an infection on the next march). This will latter help him get that governors daughter, the one he built up his gossip skill and found she liked a bit of a dangerous guy. This player is thinking ahead, as the governors daughter racks up big Z points, which do X (whatever you have designed X to do).

There, I just generated a rough risk/reward mechanism for orders. Now its a matter of going through what you want to explore and design further methods of rewards for them. Granted its not all dragons and save the world crap. But then again there is the raw challenge and true rewards there.

Now, I'm not sure if this sort of design would be your style. Tell me what you think.