SNAZZVLARIS TITVLARIS ROMANVS GAMVS
It is 350AD. Or something like that. The Roman Empire stretches from the Britannia in the North to Egypt in the South, from Hispania in the West to Mesopotamia in the East. It is an empire unparalleled in scope. It holds more land and has lasted longer than any other in memory. Rome's armies are all conquering, her glory without question.
Yet things are not so positive as they might appear.
The past decades have seen Rome as an empire very much in decline. Already the vast burden of administration has necessitated the split of the Empire into East and West. Further internal woes have arisen in the form of rampant corruption and continuous civil war. Outside her borders barbarians and foreigners gather, waiting for the ideal moment to strike and claim their share of Rome's treasures. For now Rome's might has proved their equal. Whether this may still be said in 50, 25, or even 10 years is questionable.
Whatever assessment is made of Rome's problems and their priority, it is clear that the status quo cannot last. Either Rome will overcome her problems, or she will perish and new empires will rise in her place.
The Game
The game itself is essentially historical fiction. I've taken a loose idea of the late Roman word and transcribed it in a way that should give the best gameplay rather than the perfect historically accurate image.
It's very much a work in progress so expect a couple hickups.
Players take the role of a character, either a ruler or a general, from one of the empires present. They play the game until they die, attempting to achieve as much as they can in the time given to them. Exactly what a player's goal is is up to them.
Sign-Ups
If you want to play, simply post in the thread stating your desire. You will need to post a brief application, something like the one below will do, though I'd encourage more original ideas. It is acceptable to do a reserve post and then fill in the details later.

It is 350AD. Or something like that. The Roman Empire stretches from the Britannia in the North to Egypt in the South, from Hispania in the West to Mesopotamia in the East. It is an empire unparalleled in scope. It holds more land and has lasted longer than any other in memory. Rome's armies are all conquering, her glory without question.
Yet things are not so positive as they might appear.
The past decades have seen Rome as an empire very much in decline. Already the vast burden of administration has necessitated the split of the Empire into East and West. Further internal woes have arisen in the form of rampant corruption and continuous civil war. Outside her borders barbarians and foreigners gather, waiting for the ideal moment to strike and claim their share of Rome's treasures. For now Rome's might has proved their equal. Whether this may still be said in 50, 25, or even 10 years is questionable.
Whatever assessment is made of Rome's problems and their priority, it is clear that the status quo cannot last. Either Rome will overcome her problems, or she will perish and new empires will rise in her place.
The Game
The game itself is essentially historical fiction. I've taken a loose idea of the late Roman word and transcribed it in a way that should give the best gameplay rather than the perfect historically accurate image.
It's very much a work in progress so expect a couple hickups.
Players take the role of a character, either a ruler or a general, from one of the empires present. They play the game until they die, attempting to achieve as much as they can in the time given to them. Exactly what a player's goal is is up to them.
Sign-Ups
If you want to play, simply post in the thread stating your desire. You will need to post a brief application, something like the one below will do, though I'd encourage more original ideas. It is acceptable to do a reserve post and then fill in the details later.
Name: Gauis Julius Caesar
Age: 47
Affiliation: Western Roman Empire
Role: Emperor
Short Biography: Likes; wreaths, victory, legions, dice, Ciaran Hinds. Dislikes; daggers, Senators, being stabbed, being stabbed with daggers, being stabbed by Senators, being stabbed by Senators with daggers.
At the start of the game, there are 3 playable empires, the Eastern (Purple) and Western (Red) Roman Empires, and the Sassanids (Light Blue). Every other empire is currently NPC (though I may open the odd one up from time to time).
Once the 3 Ruler slots available have been filled, the remaining people wishing to play have 2 choices.
Firstly, you may sign-up as a General to one of the 3 nations, in which case the Emperor will be obliged to give you command of an army. As each nation has only a limited number of field armies (as explained later), these slots are limited. Essentially each empire will have at maximum between 3 and 4 players, depending on whether the Emperor wishes to lead an army himself. At first the role of a General might seem boring, as it is largely limited to following orders, role-playing, and conferring with your team to decide on a course of action. Yet Generals are free to revolt as they will, starting their own empire or deposing their emperor. Civil War, after all, makes for high grossing movies.
Alternately, players may choose to simply wait in the wings. To do so simply post in the thread stating that you want to play and I'll put you on the waiting list. Then the next time a post comes up it'll be your chance to play. Posts will either open up through the death of previous players or through the appearance of new empires such as various barbarian hordes. Oh, and as some added fun, the more players who let me know I'm waiting, the higher chance of more hordes turning up (it's based on a dice roll).
Game Mechanics
There's some stuff at the back end of a lot of this that I'll explain if people want, but for the moment I'll keep the explanation simple and divide it into two parts. It shouldn't be too hard as I've gone for a less is more approach when designing the rules. Hopefully it should be easily understood by all. If not feel free to ask questions.
Characters and Orders:
Orders are sent to the GM in some manner before the deadline he has declared for the end of the turn. Any orders not in at the deadline will not be accepted.
Orders may be sent in any appropriate manner provided it is on this forum and gives me a record of what you wanted. Acceptable forms might include PM, posting in the thread and tagging me, or writing on my wall.
Orders can be of any length, and can contain any number of points in them. However, note that I will inevitably get bored and stop reading at some point, so keep them short. Also, adding certain stuff not reflected in the game mechanics isn't going to help, because... it's not reflected in the game mechanics.
An example order sheet:
As has been noted, each player plays a character. They may RP the character as they like in the thread, posting to their hearts content.
Depending on a players role they may or may not need to send orders. Strictly speaking only the ruler of each nation needs send the orders for the turn saying what is to be done. However, individual rulers may wish to give their generals more freedom to decide the course of a campaign. Moreover, generals may choose to disobey orders as they wish, and may do so by sending an order stating as such to me.
Economics:Orders are sent to the GM in some manner before the deadline he has declared for the end of the turn. Any orders not in at the deadline will not be accepted.
Orders may be sent in any appropriate manner provided it is on this forum and gives me a record of what you wanted. Acceptable forms might include PM, posting in the thread and tagging me, or writing on my wall.
Orders can be of any length, and can contain any number of points in them. However, note that I will inevitably get bored and stop reading at some point, so keep them short. Also, adding certain stuff not reflected in the game mechanics isn't going to help, because... it's not reflected in the game mechanics.
An example order sheet:
1) Build a Land Unit in Constantinople
2) Build a Naval Unit in the Aeagean
3) Send 10 gold worth of assassins to kill King Haphazard the Unlucky of Accidentostan
4) Invest twice in the economy of Palestine, once in the economy of Epirus
5) Send the Army of the Orient to invade the Sassanids, aiming to destroy their main field army
As has been noted, each player plays a character. They may RP the character as they like in the thread, posting to their hearts content.
Depending on a players role they may or may not need to send orders. Strictly speaking only the ruler of each nation needs send the orders for the turn saying what is to be done. However, individual rulers may wish to give their generals more freedom to decide the course of a campaign. Moreover, generals may choose to disobey orders as they wish, and may do so by sending an order stating as such to me.
The economic aspects of the game are fairly simple. At the heart of it, it is essentially a straight up 'income vs expenditure' addition/subtraction game with very little fancy going on.
Income:
There are four ways to generate income.
The first, and most obvious, is through provincial taxation. This occurs every turn and will account for the majority of your income. Looking at the map you can see that every province has a number in it. This indicates the level of wealth that province contributes. So for example, Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople are all very rich provinces that contribute 9 gold a turn to your treasury. Vast stretches of desert meanwhile are not particularly useful.
The second method is through vassals. These are shown in a slightly lighter colour (note the Bosporan Kingdom and part of Arabia are Eastern Roman vassals) and contributed half their incomes to you each turn. They also avoid the normal upkeep costs required.
The third method is through trade nodes. If you look at the map, you will see that some provinces are coloured blue and are linked with blue lines. These provinces still contributed their normal wealth, but also contribute to a global 'Silk Road' trade value. This is then divided into lots based on how many nodes you control and given as bonus income. Note however, that the flow of goods is East-West, and may be interrupted by warfare (i.e., if a power hostile to everyone controls all the Easternmost nodes, then no trade will flow through at all).
The final method is through player interaction. This is fairly obvious and up to you. You may transfer gold around as you wish in return for what you wish, good will, peace, fabulous nudie pictures of the half elephant pygmy women of old Kaloo (not to be posted in thread).
Yearly Balance:
Before stockpiling the profits of your empire you'll need to pay your yearly running costs. Three things cost money every year. Your army, your navy, and your administration.
The army and navy are fairly self explanatory. Troops need paying and feeding, equipment needs repairing, etc... Each land unit, garrison or field, costs 2.5 gold. Meanwhile, each naval unit costs 6 gold.
Administration needs more explanation. As has been noted, each empire is made up of a number of provinces each generating wealth. But these themselves do not come without cost. Each province in your empire costs a base of 1 gold to maintain per turn, this represents the need to pay bureaucrats, tax collectors, and the like. This in turn is modified by your empire's corruption score. As corruption grows (and it grows every turn) it can make provinces progressively less and less economical, and unless steps are taken to root it out it (more on this later) can actually turn them into a financial burden. This means that a compact but wealthy empire may find itself in a far better situation than a sprawling mass of lower wealth provinces.
All this can add up so that the vast sums of money are reduced to a more limited profit. Part of the skill with this game will be to do with trimming the economic fat.
Be warned that debt spending is not a good idea. If your empire goes into debt it will have a turns grace to rectify the situation before military desertion and other fun stuff takes a hold.
Expenditures:
Now you have money, you have to work out what to do with it. Obviously, one could simply hoard cash for a rainy day. Or to pretend to be a dragon. Rawr.
But there will probably be things you'll want to purchase. These are one off expenses and may be taken an unlimited number of times in a turn so long as you have money. For each a cost and an explanation are given below.
Build Land Unit - 10 Gold - Immediately constructs a Land Unit in the province of your choice. Obviously you must own the province. It may be tasked to join a Field Army, or simply take up residence as a garrison. If you wish to build a bodyguard (explained later) then you do so in the same manner, but make clear that you wish to build a bodyguard not a normal unit.
Build Naval Unit - 20 Gold - As with above, immediately constructs a Naval Unit in the Sea of your choice.
Reduce Corruption - 1 Gold per Province - Reduces your Empire wide corruption level by 0.1, the cost is higher for larger Empires for obvious reason that there are more corrupt officials to root out
Economic Investment - 5 Gold - Targets a province, every 5 Gold invested grants a D6 roll, with every roll of 6 adding 1 to the province's wealth, note that no province may exceed 9 wealth.
Hire Assassins - 10 Gold - Targets a character, doing the obvious of giving a chance to kill them, potentially with a chance of discovery
Military and Warfare:
This should be fairly simple. Each nation has a number of Land and Naval units, divided into garrisons, armies, and fleets.
Armies:
Though for recruitment, maintenance, and combat purposes all Land units are considered to be the same, differences do come about in deployment. There are 3 types of deployment, Field Army, Garrison, and Bodyguard.
Each empire can have a maximum of 3 armies in the field at any one time. These are reflected on the map by golden boxes of your national colour with the appropriate Roman numeral for the number of units. The amount of troops in these armies is up to you. These must have a leader assigned to them. Either the Emperor himself, a human General, or if neither exists, an AI general. Field armies are your main combat units and will likely be called on to meet most large challenges not defeated by garrisons.
Garrisons are the other major contingent, and will probably comprise most of your strength. They are represented on the map by the black castle towers. Garrisons can be transferred around as you like provided they remain within your empire and fight just as well as field troops. They are a necessity for maintaining the borders of your empire, and it is advisable to keep at least 1 in each populated border province.
The final type of unit is the bodyguard. These must be designated as such when built and are assigned to a character. They follow this character everywhere and fight as normal. The only difference is that when a character with a bodyguard receives a hit and may die, the bodyguard takes the first hit instead.
Fleets:
Fleets are handled in the same way as armies, with the obvious exception that they may not garrison provinces and are not bodyguards as they are always out to sea.
Additionally, unopposed fleets in a sea block movement of hostile trade and armies across it. That is to say that if East and West go to war, the Eastern Roman fleets might blockade the Straits of Messian and prevent movement of Western troops across. They might also blockade Rome and close off that trade node.
Combat Mechanics:
When two nations go to war and a garrisoned province invaded, or two armies or fleets come into proximity with each other, a battle will be fought.
Battle is calculated in a fairly simple manner, with each sides units rolling off and the result determining what damage is caused and who wins the combat. There is a bonus granted to the units based on the skill of the general. I will also take into account some other factors (i.e., the suitability of the terrain, so that an army of legionaries isn't doing great if it marches into the middle of a desert against an all cavalry army).
I will then post the result as part of the turn's update. Armies that fight a battle will find their remaining movement limited. Or in other words, a campaign of ravaging down the boot of Italy will be highly successful if it encounters no opposition, but less successful if an enemy army is met at Milan.
Occupied Provinces:
If a Field Army enters a hostile province and defeats all opposition, then the province is considered to be occupied by that Army's Empire. This will reduce the wealth of the province by 1.
Death:
Death can come in many forms, through assassination, battle, or simply old age. Note that characters with bodyguards are less susceptible to some forms of death than others.