At 05:10 PM 2/20/2007 +0100, you wrote:
>spoilerspace for anyone playing in my de ludis campain
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>All happens in Rome around 90 AD
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>The pcs are Gladiators and one Auriga
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>The story i have in mind: Spurius Vergilius Ranaeveius, a roman patrician
>has high gambling debts. He figures he will be never able to pay them
>back, and therefore decides to run. When he runs from his creditors
>anyway he figures he can do the whole nine yards and also borrows as much
>money as he still can, picks up anything easily sellable or moveable he
>can get his hands on (including the jewelry of his wife, money of his
>family, his wifes family and the treasury and assorted cultic relics of
>his mystery cult), sells some real estate he does not own, buys a new
>sex-slave (just because he is on the run does not mean he has to miss
>comfort), naturally on credit, puts up some wrong leads and leaves Rome.
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>The mystery cult will ask the pcs for help.
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>The long term goals of that adventure is to have a reason for a book of
>magic to change hands and to give the pcs a possiblity to meet a
>moneylender as potential allies or otherwise on friendly terms.
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>The pcs will not be able to travel after Ranaeveius and it is not planned
>that they actually physically catch him. I'd like them to find some clues
>about his whereabouts though, that they might trade or otherwise use.
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>Now does anybody have ideas on clues that they might find, where it is not
>excessive stupidity on other searching parties that they don't and where
>not excessive luck is neccessary?
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>And does sombody has further ideas what else Ranaeveius could have stolen
>to increase his travelling budget or comfort.
Hi Johannes,
The best I can offer you is that you may want to do some
"mini-roleplaying" in the guise of Ranaeveius. There are two ways to do
this - first, do it yourself as if you were Ranaevius. Another would be to
task that job to someone else within the list - sort of a GM helper. Me?
I task out some NPC's as EPC's. Email player characters are great in that
you give the email player only the information that the NPC would have at
his/her fingertips. They in turn respond via email (during the down time
from gaming) what they think the NPC would do. You in turn, then play the
EPC as an NPC during game play. Then if neccessary, you report back to the
person on the internet playing the EPC and let them know what they should
in character know.
Let us take Ranaeneius as a case in point. So far, you're portraying the
guy as a greedy self-centered Hedonist. If it were me playing him, I'd be
thinking "Ok, I can move from this province to another one - but sooner or
later my creditors are going to find me if they try hard enough. I need to
find someplace SAFE. Hmmm. Perhaps a provincial governor at the furthest
end of the provinces of Rome. Egypt? Greece? Africa? Britian? And how
will I replenish the money I stole? Hmmm. Perhaps follow a legion with my
sex slave with intent to earn money off of her? Hmmm. Perhaps find an
enemy of Rome who would be willing to pay for my services as an advisor?
I must have my creature comforts! Where will I find them while I'm on the
run? Clearly I am going to have to find a good winesellar, and if my sex
slave "wears" on me, I can always sell her and buy a new one. I probably
should keep some jewelry for later sales in case I start running out of
easy cash and I'm running low on spendable moneies. Hmmmm.
Now in this case? You have the potential for something showing up in the
market place months after the guy has flown the coop that are readily
identifiable as belonging to the cult (especially if they use specific
jewelry for their rituals). Or perhaps a slaver talks about the sale he
made on a slave to a shifty Roman citizen who was slumming it wearing badly
used clothing, yet demanding that he provide the best slaves - and being
able to PAY for it too! Since these are gladiators, it might not be too
far fetched to presume that our shifty friend might attempt to gamble in
the outer provinces and meeting up with the gladiators at one of their
matches. Granted, they might only see him as he collects his winnings - or
maybe he follows them on a circuit because it is easy money and he KNOWS
the gladiators or something to that effect.
One thing to keep in mind is that this individual is going to be stealing
on a constant basis once he figures out that he can get away with it -
until he can't get away with it. It would perhaps be ironic if the man was
sentenced to the gladiator pits because he wouldn't identify himself
properly and he was caught stealing. Condemned to die a criminal's death,
he's given a slim chance to survive by being armed with a dagger against a
Bear (or some such creature). There are other possibilities that might
suggest themselves to you I'm sure ;)
Hal
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