Byzantine Era

[jimstama]

Hi there to all,

I just wondering if anybody is running an RPG set in the Byzantine era say after the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity and the move from Rome to Constantinople (Istanbul) as the Imperial capital.

Also I would like some feedback and advice on the following:

1. Do you believe that I can run an RPG with both fantasy and a set of realism in this world? How?

2. How do I take in the Church (and other religions such as Islam) without offending with the fantasy side of the world?

3. Any other advice you give will be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[Wolf72]

I'd almost remove the modern religious setting and replace with a more generic fantasy one.

but the byzantine era would be a good one ... (I love ancient history stuff ... the older the better, main reason I like ancient china)

 

[Rune]

1. Do you believe that I can run an RPG with both fantasy and a set of realism in this world? How?

Yes. The inhabitants of the world at that time certainly believed in the supernatural; just start thinking along the lines of what implications the truly supernatural would have in the world. You'll probably want to keep the level of magic low, but I would have divine types freely cast, while arcane types might well be shunned.

2. How do I take in the Church (and other religions such as Islam) without offending with the fantasy side of the world?

This is tricky. The tempting option when one is usually confronted with rival religions is to make one diety evil and one good. I wouldn't do that, here. I would personally include seperate dieties for the seperate religions and make them both neutral (which means that their could easily be evil clergy (but not openly evil) casting alongside very good clergy.

Even this might be an offensive route. Really, your approach depends entirely on your players.

3. Any other advice you give will be appreciated.

Good luck. It looks like it'll be quite an interesting campaign!

 

[Agback]

G'day

If I were you I would consider using a recent version (3rd or 4th edition) Chivalry & Sorcery for this project. It is designed to be set in fantasy Europe and to feature fantasy Christianity. And the pbulishers either are working on or have released a supplement covering the Byzantine Empire in great detail.

C&S is very cheap compared to D&D, too.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Aitch Eye]

Guy Gavriel Kay did a very heavily researched fantasy world inspired by the Byzantine Empire around the time of Justinian in his books Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors. He spun the religion off of Roman solar worship; with a doctrinal division between the west, where it focused on a Mithras-like son of the sun god, and the east, where iconoclastic views were taking hold.

So, you could do an alternate history version where Christianity never came on the scene and the dominant religion grew out of the cults of Sol Invictus and Mithras. If you set it early enough, you wouldn't have to worry about Islam either (If you didn't mind the history getting even more alternate, you could do a later Byzantine where Islam never emerged, like Harry Turtledove did in Agent of Byzantium). Zoroastrianism would be the other major religion, and you could still have mystery cults and the various forms of paganism outside the empires; all of which might not clash so much with the fantasy elements, or be as restrictive. Of course, that still leaves Judaism...

You might want to take a look at the dark age Eastern Europe setting in Dragon #290, since there was some contact with the Byzantines.

 

[Ancalagon]

Hello

Yes, read those books, Kay is briliant. I also recomend, by the same author, "the lions of al-rassan" for a briliant treatment of conflict between muslims and christians in the middle age, without demonising either side.

Ancalagon

 

[S'mon]

Avalanche Press publishes a d20 scenario, "The Last Days of Constantinople", you might find useful for a late-Byzantine game. I don't have it but I bought the sequel, "Greenland Saga", which is pretty good.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

I just wondering if anybody is running an RPG set in the Byzantine era say after the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity and the move from Rome to Constantinople (Istanbul) as the Imperial capital.

Aside from the products already mentioned, a soon-to-come d20 game, Earth 1066, will be covering this area. Not sure about the timing at the moment, but I know that Byzantium will be covered. The only drawback is that Earth 1066 is still in production.

1. Do you believe that I can run an RPG with both fantasy and a set of realism in this world? How?

Yes, I do. It may be tricky, but it can be done. Earth 1066 is all about this. It's the main reason why I am so excited about working with them, because I like this style of game a lot.

2. How do I take in the Church (and other religions such as Islam) without offending with the fantasy side of the world?

I have a pet peeve about people who cannot separate gaming from reality, and getting offended over something like this certainly falls within that realm. That aside, all religions of the world are based around universal concepts, with the window dressing being what changes. Take each real-world religion, strip it down to its concepts, and replace the window dressing.

 

[S'mon]

As far as religion goes, if I were you I'd play it straight and use historical medieval Christianity and Islam - in D&D terms, probably both LG-tenet religions (or aspects of the same religion), with plenty of evil adherents. I think this is preferable to having arbitrary 'good' and 'evil' sides in a historical setting - shades of grey is both more accurate and gives more possibilities. If your players can't handle this you probably shouldn't run a historical game.

Of course you _could_ run a fantasy game based on eg the Song of Roland where the Moors worship a graven image of Bafomet and one plate-armoured Frankish chevalier has the strength of 50 heathens, but that's a very different kettle of fish.

 

[Eosin the Red]

1) Yes

2) A previous poster mentioned some of what Kay has done. I think it is actually a fairly well thought out parable.

A) "Christians" believed the divine creator was symbolized by the sun. It was fragmented by various sects that believed or not in the sacrafice of his Apallo like son who used a chariot to fly behind the sun.

B) Islam was symbolized by the followers of the moons (3).

C) Pagan/Heathen was symbolized by the multitude of stars.

It worked quite well - check out the previously mentioned books (Sailing into Sarantium & Lions).

Harlan also writes some decent historical fantasy involving Roman/Byzantine plots. He also wrote a module that I liked in Dungeon that involved the true cross.


In my homebrew which is loose history - the church has been replaced by the Synod, an organization of magic users that closely parallels the nastier aspects of the catholic church. Goverments are forced to pony up a state tax for protection against arcane threats. Wizards may not be tried except by peers. The Synod has deemed all those who pratice magic without the proper training to be heritics, ect.....

A decadent empire in its last throes is staple fantasy - it is fairly easy to adapt from the more often used model of the western to the eastern empire.