Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Awesomeness of "ROME"

If you don't have HBO and/or didn't catch it while it was on TV, do yourself a favor and Netflix or otherwise rent the series ROME. It is beyond awesomeness. It's filled with violence, sex, intrigue, drama, and at least a small amount of historical accuracy (although not much). One thing the show does have is a good amount of technical accuracy - the clothing, the re-creation of the sets, the daily lives of the people - all of it is amazing and has a high degree of fidelity.

I've always thought that Rome during the age of Julius and Augustus would be a fascinating time and place to do some historical gaming. Just about any kind of character could be worked into the game, since Rome was such an unbelievably cosmopolitan place. This show is essentially a great blueprint for such a campaign, and a goldmine for adventure ideas even if your game isn't set in Rome.

Last but not least, there's Titus Pullo. This man is every badass fighter-type dude distilled down into one mortal (?) being. If you don't like Titus Pullo, I hate you forever. Thirteen!

Here's a brief clip from the show. It's about 2/3rds of the way through the 2nd season, and while it might reveal a little of what could be happening at that point in the show, especially if you're an episode or two away from this, I'd avoid watching it only if you are a total spoiler-fascist. It's just a great two-minute action sequence with a brilliant lead-in:

7 comments:

Sham aka Dave said...

I'm a big fan of ROME as well. We purchased both seasons on DVD, and it was worth every penny. I didn't realize it was a two-season mini-series of sorts, but it told it's story and was finished. I would've enjoyed seeing The Continuing Adventures of Lucius and Titus, for example. Ah well. It's about time I watched it again.

~Sham

Randall said...

My wife and I love ROME. We watch it when Netflix sends us a disk. We had just started the second season before her cancer treatments made watching anything together impossible. With luck we'll see the rest of second season this summer.

The series makes me want to play the never published SPQR (a Roman Empire version of C&S that FGU never got around to publishing) again. I have a nearly complete playtest copy. It's based on second edition C&S so it is actually playable.

Mike D. said...

Yes, Rome was awesome (sometimes I love having HBO), and it would make an excellent campaign location (Rome in general - not just the show). Large urban population, tons of character ideas, good times.

--Mike D.

trollsmyth said...

Ouch! Brutal.

Ok, do I lose all my nerd cred if I admit I haven't seen this show yet? (Actually, I imagine its not having seen any of the new Battlestar Gallactica that ruins my nerd cred.)

I really need to sit down some time with the disks and watch it. Everything I've heard about Rome has been positive and this really drives that point home.

- Brian

Secular Transhumanist said...

I must say I've got reasons for loving "Rome" beyond the fact that it's one of the best TV series made in the last decade. But it is.

Secular Transhumanist said...

Randall, I would love to see those rules more than you can possibly know. I am envious!

Jack Badelaire said...

Some day I'd love to run a Roman game, even if it was some sort of "proto-Rome" in a fantasy setting. But a game in historical Rome would be best - I'd just have to make sure I didn't have a bunch of classical-studies fascists playing, because I can't tolerate over-zealousness with regards to historical accuracy (one of my pet peeves is encountering people who are over-zealous with regards to criticizing historical movies, TV, and books).