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Mercator - Trading Adventures in the Ancient World

M

Mithras

SOC-14 1K
I finished it at last! And I'm not going back to change anything :) :) :) (although the armour prices are too low - its nagging at me already ...) [EDIT: done]

UPDATED LINK TO MERCATOR2 DOWNLOAD SITE (Click & Scroll Down)

It is a complete 56 page rules conversion of the Classic Traveller rules-set, turning it from interstellar trade to trade in the Roman Empire! New career tables allow you to roll up centurions from Rome, thieves from Antioch and even tribunes from Caesarea! Of course there are rules for ancient trade, for sailing and weather and also for encounters and equipment in the Roman Empire. Trade in Aramis for Alexandria, Efate for Ephesus and Kinorb for Corinth!
 
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I was just looking at the incomplete draft in my PDF collection.... this morning... and thinkng, "I wonder If I should ask Paul if he's going to finish it."
 
Well I like Aramis, and I like Alexandria .. but which is best? There's only one way to find out .... FIGHT!
captainjack said:
But what if we like aramis...? :D
Click to expand...

I am lucky enough to get a two week break at Christmas, and I was determined to finish off one of the many incomplete jobs I have started. The others are:

Short 18thC Pirate Game using Basic D&D for 6 school children
STL - My Mongoose Traveller Solar System campaign setting
The Old Wood - Black Forest myths and fairy tales using Basic D&D for children to play
A Battle of Britain RPG (homebrew - not even started)
 
Hey I know (via forums) Matt Amt!! I am also a Roman re-enactor, but a more avid bronze age re-enactor, and I know he is well into the bronze age like me, particularly Villovanian and the Ice Man. We have both recreated Ice Man's artefacts.

Cool!

spinwardpirate said:
You know... I'm going to have to show this to my friend Matthew who runs Legio XX here in the US. I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it, being an old rpger many years ago.
Click to expand...
 
Mithras said:
Hey I know (via forums) Matt Amt!! I am also a Roman re-enactor, but a more avid bronze age re-enactor, and I know he is well into the bronze age like me, particularly Villovanian and the Ice Man. We have both recreated Ice Man's artefacts.

Cool!
Click to expand...

Cool. Small world! Though from looking at your site, I figured there was a good chance you knew him via a forum somewhere (like RAT?).

Matt and I have common reenacting roots. We were both in the same medieval group back in the 80s, and the same Revolutionary War group in the 90s. I even briefly did the Roman thing with Matt and Ed (who was a co-founder of Legio XX) in the late 90s. And just this year I was trying to convince him to reenact Dark Ages with my group of reenacting buddies. Oh, and I did see him in his Bronze Age stuff... I think that was two years ago, at Reenactor Fest in Gettysburg. It was awesome!

That being said, I've never gamed with him. I did have the pleasure of gaming with Ed, and through him I've heard plenty of stories about the games Matt and Ed ran in college together.
 
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OK, this is not optional. Freelance Traveller REQUIRES that someone write a DETAILED review of this product. As soon as possible.

(Well, OK, it IS optional; I can't actually FORCE anyone to write it. But this sort of thing even once per year justifies Freelance Traveller's existence.)

Also, Mithras, I'd like two things from you, specifically. First, Designer's Notes for publication - why you did it, how and why you made the decisions that you did in the process of the conversion, how you came up with the careers and skills and so on. This can go in Doing It My Way, with a link to the review and to the actual product - or, if you like, I can also host the product at Freelance Traveller itself. Second, a brief overview of the product setting - not a review, but the sort of thing that I have in Other Roads on the website

Those items alone would justify an entire issue by themselves. If I get other associated things - character profiles, Roman Traveller artwork, adventure seeds, and so on - I can turn this into the first Freelance Traveller Theme Issue. And I think it'd go over VERY well.

pleasePleasePLEASEPLEEEEEEEEEASE?
 
Having had an evening tolook thru this, I want to take a moment to say "WELL DONE". It's really nice ! As I am a gamer and a history geek there are a few trivial niggles I could make, but they are basically irrelevant given the quality of the whole - not just because this is the final version :)

Thanks, Mithras, many thanks indeed !
 
Hi Captain Jack,

please let me know, here or by PM! I've just noticed one myself regarding Sword skill... ;)

captainjack said:
Having had an evening tolook thru this, I want to take a moment to say "WELL DONE". It's really nice ! As I am a gamer and a history geek there are a few trivial niggles I could make, but they are basically irrelevant given the quality of the whole - not just because this is the final version :)

Thanks, Mithras, many thanks indeed !
Click to expand...
 
This is cool. I'll have to look again to see if I have any suggestions.

Well, except the following: most Roman citizens died in their 40s, right? So, shouldn't all characters begin at about age 14, instead of just barbarians? And shouldn't Daggers do 1d damage, and swords 3d?

And after looking through it, I would play in this setting if you ran a game (not that I'm asking you to run a game, just saying that if you did, I would).
 
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If you don't mind me asking, what program did you use to do the layout? I've been thinking of doing something similar, and helpful hints are always appreciated.
Thanks again!
 
Jame said:
most Roman citizens died in their 40s, right? So, shouldn't all characters begin at about age 14, instead of just barbarians?

And shouldn't Daggers do 1d damage, and swords 3d?
Click to expand...

Interesting! I reasoned the less changed the better. Most games don't have aging rules at all, so I thought I'd leave them be. And the entrance age for the military was generally set at 17, which is as close to 18 as means nothing. I suppose the 14/18 split just mirrors differences between civilized and barbarous :)

On blades, I was going from ed2 of the LLBs, and all the blades in there are 2D. Your version makes more sense, especially dagger 1D, but again, I wanted to change as little as possible ...

Thanks for the feedback.
 
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Mithras said:
Interesting! I reasoned the less changed the better. Most games don't have aging rules at all, so I thought I'd leave them be. And the entrance age for the military was generally set at 17, which is as close to 18 as means nothing. I suppose the 14/18 split just mirrors differences between civilized and barbarous :)

On blades, I was going from ed2 of the LLBs, and all the blades in there are 2D. Your version makes more sense, especially dagger 1D, but again, I wanted to change as little as possible ...

Thanks for the feedback.
Click to expand...

If I ever run this (probably won't, as my group prefers to use Traveller for sci-fi - and I prefer to play), these will be my changes, well aside from using my Commoner career. But I would like to use, or at least play in, it!

(Like I said, if you do run something using this, I'd like to play, but don't run a game unless you want to.)
 
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