NEED HELP- Rome Game

[Malivotti]

Lots of good ideas:

*Definitely using rosenkurtz somehow (akin to Illuminati perhaps)
*Vatican/Nazi involvement- interesting, my team would probably enjoy that.
*Mundane organizations- R.C.Church, Roman Curia, Italian Mafia, Zog's Cadre (Albania nationalists), Filiberto's Cadre (Italian Royalist Movement), Italian Govt., Rome's Municipal Govt, and some terrorist organization.  Anyone think of more?
*All of Malivotti's ideas- my team will appreciate religious cynicism and intrigue.  I just don't want to overstress Vatican.  I need more Rome-sans-Vatican ideas.

My guess is that about 2 of them will be spellcasters (the Dresden veteran and the perennial D&D mage), 1 were-wolf, 1 Pure Mortal, 1 .  So a diverse bunch- but that'll lend to a more open set of stories.

Ok less Vatican ideas, if one of your players is running a werewolf then there is the tale of Romulus and Remus how they were nursed by a she-wolf maybe something in Rome aids or harms werewolves, or Rome has pact with werewolves.

More Italian thing but check out the House of Savoy, the last kings of Italy, forever exiled from Italy itself, why? Maybe a curse, maybe a prophesy, maybe just politics but what if a member of the House is a supernatural and wants to come back.

One interesting organization that has taken root in Rome is SMOM, Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Knights of Malta. SMOM is part of the Italian Army as a 'allied' unit. Perhaps the Knights of the Cross are just the most visible, the point of the spear as it will. SMOM, the Knights of Malta are the direct descendants of the Knights Hospitaller, when the Knights Templar were dissolved 1312 the Knights Hospitaller inherited much of Templars holdings and property.

Rome has a modern road around it, almost a perfect circle called Grande Raccordo Anulare, what if it is a magical circle to keep Rome safe, or keep something in? A larger ring road is being planned. Why, is the old circle failing?

The Catacombs of Rome date back to the 200's with Pagans, Jews, and Christians all buried in them, just the place for a necromancer or two.

General things about Rome. VERY BAD TRAFFIC. IIRC there are about 12 taxis for every 10,000 people and only 2 or 3 subway lines, metro and buses are popular but heavily used, the city center of Rome bans cars from 6am to 6pm, other areas due to very active night life have nighttime car bans. Cars are bad, motorbikes are worse, scooters are insane. Forget everything you've ever heard about New York, Boston, Houston, even Paris. Rome is the worse for street size, placement, congestion. People who move to Rome are still afraid to drive after living there for more than 5 years...

[SoulCatcher78]

Ghosts of the past.  Rome has enough history (a large amount of it bloody) to have a huge amount of the restless dead.  The dead can be window dressing or something more exciting (yay, go team Necromancer!) if you need them to be. 

Rome brings people from all over the world so it's possible to do "monster of the week" if you'd want to.  Smuggling things into and out of the city could be a series of events/encounters in and of themselves.

[admiralducksauce]

Ghosts of the past.  Rome has enough history (a large amount of it bloody) to have a huge amount of the restless dead.  The dead can be window dressing or something more exciting (yay, go team Necromancer!) if you need them to be. 

Rome brings people from all over the world so it's possible to do "monster of the week" if you'd want to.  Smuggling things into and out of the city could be a series of events/encounters in and of themselves.

Don't forget Interpol, right?  Surely you could use some not-quite clued-in mortal law enforcement to help or hinder your PCs.

[Katarn]

*Italian King- I have an Italian Royalist Movement, mundane for the most part.  The king's departure could have supernatural components.
*SMOM- interesting, I'll look into it.
*Rome Circle- heh. heh. fun ideas.  mainly involving Greco-Roman gods using said circle....
*catacombs- doh.  should've thought of that one- it's a necro-no-brainer.
*traffic- just to annoy the PCs, diversions (for them and their adversaries)
*ghosts- definitely
*Monster of the week- I will definitely have some minor character cameos (like Forthill visiting Rome), and an occasionally big baddie.
*Interpol- them too.


Lots of great ideas, thanks for loads of help. If you get more ideas throw 'em below.

[Sanctaphrax]

You asked earlier about what sort of generic enemy thugs to use. The appropriate type of thug depends heavily on the sort of campaign you want to run, so please tell us more.

Do you want the thugs to be slaughtered without remorse or do you want moral issues?
How tough are your players and how accurate/powerful are their attacks?
Is there any particular affiliation or emotion that you want your mooks to represent?

[jadecourtflunky]

If you're doing rome, bring in romulus and remulus. Mabye the wolf that suckled them was in fact a spirit or were-form of some kind, and is still alive. Maybe Remulus' spirit still roams Rome. Also, bring in the possibility of a nearby phantom city (the one that remulus was going to create) in the nevernever.

[Katarn]

I'll definitely figure a way to sneak Romulus and Remulus in there.... not sure how yet.

You asked earlier about what sort of generic enemy thugs to use. The appropriate type of thug depends heavily on the sort of campaign you want to run, so please tell us more.

Do you want the thugs to be slaughtered without remorse or do you want moral issues?
How tough are your players and how accurate/powerful are their attacks?
Is there any particular affiliation or emotion that you want your mooks to represent?

At least one will be a religious figure (possibly non-Christian), so I want at least 1 group of questionable foes (like, say, Reinfelds).  I'm looking for some interesting thugs, but also simple hack-n-slash foes as well.
This is going to be Waist or Chest Deep.
Affiliation- I'm open to ideas.  Any good grunt Fae for each court?

[sinker]

It's possible that the fey might stay away from Rome. Christianity and Paganism have never really tolerated each other. Well, Christianity has never tolerated Paganism....

[Katarn]

It's possible that the fey might stay away from Rome. Christianity and Paganism have never really tolerated each other. Well, Christianity has never tolerated Paganism....

I'd lean towards limited.  I don't see Fae as pagan or Christian issues.  They exist- although Lea hints that the White God is sometimes at odds with the Fae, so it could make Rome more interesting?


Other thoughts?  Events in Italy from the past (especially the last century and esp. esp. the last decade) are what I'm looking for.

[Sanctaphrax]

Well, here are my first thoughts on possible mooks for your game. I made sure to only suggest types of mook that have at least one good example in either OW or the Generic NPC thread. Any of these catch your fancy?

Questionable foes:
Red Court infected
Mortals
Lycanthropes

Hack-n-slash foes:
Demons
Zombies
Animals

[Amseriah]

I just went to Rome in August so a lot of it is still fresh in my mind.  Romani, Romani, Romani...there are gypsies in Rome and they are only sort of tolerated.  There is also a LOT of petty theft that occurs there, but rarely anything violent.  A common tactic on the subways is to have someone playing an instrument (normally a kid) who will walk around the subway train while playing distracting you from the person who is picking your pocket.  Maybe one of the mages has a focus item stolen and they have to find a way to get it back.  There are 2 subway lines in Rome, Line A and Line B. 

Don't forget about all of the ruins in Rome, the Colliseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, etc.  They aren't associated with the Vatican at all, and have a ton of history.  Maybe there is a "Warlock" there who is breaking the law about playing with the dead so that he can channel the Great Masters of the art world because he wants to be an artist but lacks the skill. There is a huge draw for art thieves in Rome if you don't mind doing investigation games. 

There are also street gangs, like in most very large cities, but the vandalism of the buildings is truly awful...there isn't much violence but it wouldn't really be a stretch for them to become that way if you wanted to use them as mooks.  Rome is a HUGE tourist hotspot so there is a huge opportunity to throw in innocents that need to be protected or could be whipped up into a mob.  There is a lot of cultural info floating around in my head that I could tell you, but I don't think that it is that pertinent to a game.

[Amseriah]

Oh!  I completely forgot, Italy is sort of unique in that while it is predominately Catholic the people are also very well known for their passion and promiscuity.  Rome is the seat for a lot of power, money, scandal, and also houses many passionate people...it is a perfect seat of power for certain White Court Vamps.

[Steppenwolf]

Don't forget about all of the ruins in Rome, the Colliseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, etc.  They aren't associated with the Vatican at all, and have a ton of history.

Actually Trevi Fountain is not a ruin and every piece of art in Rome which is not (ancient) Roman, was made by artists for the Vatican.

Another fact to be considered is firearms cannot be bought by people, unless for hunt or special purposes. And using a firearm can bring also a policeman to a trial.

BTW the promiscuity is not so diffused