How should I flesh out my Roman campaign setting?

How should I flesh out my Roman campaign setting?

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pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti from Pompeii.htm
twitter.com/AnonBabble

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How gay is it? Not gay enough.

Read Roman history? I mean, when you make a question as vague as OP that's the best answer

Just watch Showtimes Spartacus series. It doesn't matter how in/correct the show is, that's what your players will be expecting

Watch Rome.

No user, its too magical realmy, yours players doesnt need your fetishes into the game.

Who/what have they conquered recently? Are the survivors slaves or assimilated? Who is making moves in the Senate? Who is the hot new stand-up philosoher shitting in his barrel in the town square? What new spice has been discovered?

It is not gay so long you are the dominant partner. Still a degenerate Greek custom, but hey!

Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men’s behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!

Theophilus, don’t perform oral sex on girls against the city wall like a dog!

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To the one defecating here. Beware of the curse. If you look down on this curse, may you have an angry Jupiter for an enemy.

Speak with the honey words of Quintus Lentulus Batiatus.

Carthago delenda est.

What's with the same literal faggot shitposting his faggotry here?

Include the conflict of strict traditionalism (mos maiorum, aurea aetas) vs the rise of decadence.

Read something about the different political systems of Rome, how they were perceived and how they perceived themselves in the light of history. Especially interesting is the time of Octavian and how he used poetry, architecture, art and history to protect his position as Emperor as the Romans actually despised kings and monarchs since they had expelled the etruscan kings several hundred years ago.

Also add some pretty roman titles for your NPCs like Praefectus, Nuntius, Princeps..., that's the thing players will notice and associate with Rome first

>birds
What? How's that work even?

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pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti from Pompeii.htm

Anything written about Rome from 1950-2000 should be effectively discarded. There is no contemporary evidence of most of this shit.

That is not a bird

>enter your credit card information
Wizards is really going all out, huh?

Play up the motherwolf origin, the aristocracy are werewolves.

That's actually a neat idea.

What about the Plebians?

Mostly normal humans, but being adopted into an aristocratic family means getting he gift of the wolf mother, You could also play it along with the dichotomy of the rise of decadence vs strict traditionalism.

This. It's basically Jews trying to make western history sound horrifying and inhumane.

That and the butthurt cristians before Constantine got them on his side.

Well. I don't know about Jews, but it's a trend I noticed. It was popular among American and German 'historians' who have Roman history as their principal area of study. Thankfully it's diminishing recently.

Read Ovid.

>American and German 'historians'
Yup, Jews.

Is that one of those google translate Magic cards?

Rome was decadent to be sure, and the Christian accounts of that decadence are mostly factually correct. It's a matter of degrees though. Christian accounts of Roman sex parties among the elites or gluttonous feasts are factual and backed up by existing and reputable non-christian sources. By Christian standards, Rome was decadent. But those same Christians would say the same about Vegas, or Amsterdam.

It's the sheer absurdity of some of the more modern claims, often drawing bizarre claims on Roman social norms from a single poem or mosaic.

I like my explanation better: Butthurt due to lion bites.