4 replies to this topic

[Paladin Anthony]

Part I
Era: AD 117
Location: Modern Day Iraq (The farthest expanse of the Roman Empire)
Genre: Historical-Fiction, Humanity
Source: Your own world. Grab a history book.
Characters: Main: Roman Consul and his soldiers. (I'll have the consul) A group of roughly 5 Chinese fighters or Japanese mercenaries.

Part II
At the height of the Roman Empire their conquests carried them from the English Isles the the north, North Africa, all the way to the Persian Gulf in the east. This empire influenced culture of all Europe and a majority of the world and still can be seen clearly today.

However, At the same time there was another great empire. The Han Empire in China was nearly equal in land mass and population, stretching from the current eastern Chinese border, along the silk road to modern day Afghanistan. Their culture may have spread, had they spread farther before the Europian colonialism.

The Chinese did hear of another grand empire in the west, as did the Romans of the Empire in the east. They began to try trading, however the Chinese found the Roman gifts not at all interesting, and ceased trying to make contact.

But what if things had changed? What if the Han dynasty had spread its culture instead of the Romans.

In this timeline, Emporer Wudi sends a small group west, to investigate and begin destruction on whatever scale possible, while sending reports back reports. His motive is completely for the pride of the Han. After the attempted trade, a prophet told that the Romans were not equal and would taint their lands. The invading group's mission is to last 2 years. In this time, they send as much information back as possible while weakening defenses. At the end of this period, the Han army is to arrive and began putting down the Romans.

This will be a tester RPG to make sure I have the time, and others the interest, to carry on further RPG's. I don't forsee this getting quite as far as the end of the 2 year term, but that would be the maximum range.

Part III
This is mostly historic in essence. No Magic, no advanced weaponry, no miracle medical breakthroughs.

Keep it as close as possible to true history, especially at first. If you're not willing to do a little research (and trust me, this stuff is on the net) then don't bother joining.

Try #1... of I'm sure many, lol. Have fun ripping it apart DJ.

[Chikara Nadir]

Sorry to disappoint you- but DJ's on hiatus (family's moving to a new house), so you'll be stuck with me for now. I don't have nearly the experience that he does with submissions and it's been a while since I've had the chance to try my hand at it- but I'll try. I expect and accept any interruptions he gives, if procedures look different from how he'd like them.

Of course, I'm here in his place because we always want to have a backup- for you to always receive a prompt response! In other words...sorry I haven't gotten to this until now. Coming up is the last week of college before Finals. (I love finding things to blame)

That in mind...my rustiness will probably lead to me only asking the questions that come to mind somewhat immediately- I may have more later. Read through all the muck I have below before getting too freaked out by my requests- thus far I mostly have yes/no questions that may or may not need to actually be addressed in your revision.

First...I sincerely wish you good luck on it lasting two years- and if it does, good luck on getting much to happen during that time!

I'd like it very much to hear about other potential characters and their owners- and you will need to begin working on the submission of your Consul character as soon as possible. It would also help incredibly to add to the detail of your background if a little more information about his role and the roles of the soldiers were added to (though I expect to see most everything in your actual character submission). Why were they chosen? Are they from the center of the Chinese or Mongol worlds? Are they specially trained, or did they happen to just wander into the right place, at which point those in the center of operations decided to give them this mission?

Do you plan on having any actual character interaction between themselves and those who run things back East- or will all interactions outside of their group be Non-Player Characters? For that matter, do you plan on having any characters on the opposing side- that of the Romans, or the formidable residents of the area where this RP is to take place? This was about 450 years before the birth of Muhammad, of course- the entire area was considered to be absorbed into the Roman Empire, and there were also ready supply lines to the Roman troops from Africa.

Thinking about natural geography, your guys would be incredibly smart to want control of the 'Cradle of Life', with the major rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates on the south-east end and the Levant (the area that's now Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, etc) to the north-west- but above (Turkey) and to the east of Iraq (Iran and Afghanistan) are many, many mountains, besides a few deserts...obviously. http://www.suite101....4/files/map.jpg

Even more if this includes any of their trek through the northern tip of the Himalayas. http://www.weecheng....s2/asia-map.jpg

The only issue that brings for me is this: Where do they start, and how hard will their journey likely be to get to where the enemies are (both because of geography and limited resources from home)? As soon as resources run low, will these be the type of people to openly steal and kill from innocents to survive, or will their leader, morals, or honor prevent them from harming anyone who isn't a threat? I don't want everything mapped out, and I know that each character will have a different (and sometimes unpredictable or hidden) personality, but as a whole I'd like to know what the group is going to act like and what they'll be forced to deal with- for public information for any who would like to be part of your RP.

Back to the Romans and locals- it's one thing to have an RP full of fighting and negotiating with non-existent NPC's, but how will you force your characters to work harder without obvious competition? It could be very smart to add in the idea of long-run enemies played by real individuals, or characters with no serious initial affiliation to the Chinese or the Romans who have gotten caught up in this, simply to spice things up. I consider emotion, whether anger and hatred, excitement and anticipation, or pure sadness to be very important in RP, especially when so many lives are being affected by war or being overrun by foreigners without any say. If this gets as far as a huge Han attack, will you want any other real characters to participate who are directly tied to the larger army, rather than just the small group?

I understand that initially the mission is to conquer, but do you have plans of them making an attempt to spread the Chinese culture along the way? Or do you really plan for minimal fighting to take place until the greater battle?




I don't expect you to answer every question I gave (we want this to be a nice, smooth description, not a conversation between the two of us), but it'd be nice if you tried to work in any of the above ideas and whatnot you consider applicable. Most of all...I just want more detail at this point, more emotion. Good war and battle movies/stories will have strong themes of emotion in them- and great ones have strong enemies or especially long-term villains (if opposition feels at all like an option). It couldn't hurt to try at giving as much detail as possible about the history of this area at the time (and whatever made up details you wanna add), because it hasn't been the center of focus for the history classes many of us have taken. We can always look up information about the time period and area on Wikipedia- but what about that time period and area will be most important and most relevant to this RP? I would really like to know what physical boundaries they'll be overcoming during the course of the story and the extent of the Roman Empire in the focus area by the time they get there, because of the emotional weariness - or anxious aggression - the characters may show depending on what they'll be dealing with.

As said before, I may have more questions later. Parts 1 and 3 I have no objections to (except the lack of any really defined characters at this point), but 2 feels too skimpy, too cut and dry to be an invigorating experience for those who participate- and we want everyone to have fun. Don't give away the details you'd want to keep in the story, but don't be afraid to ramble a little! As DJ put it in the RP Submission Rules- Impress me, make me care, tell me all about the effects this will have on the surrounding world and especially the characters stuck in the middle.

Until then- please don't feel discouraged, because you've put it together very nicely, and I'm pretty easy to please. I'm not looking for a novel, just whatever you feel capable of adding in. Sorry for typing enough to make you go blind, and:

Good luck!

[Paladin Anthony]

Gonna touch up on a little more research, especially for my characters. So expect big changes there.

Basic answers though... I plan on them starting as they reach Roman borders.

As for the control of territory, this first group is only to weaken and research. Control will be a later issue.

Interaction between the group and leaders back home will be very little. No more than letters going east, nothing returned. So interaction as far as that will be all NPC.

Supplies and group actions will again be fleshed out with my character research (hold that thought, lol)

A lot of the beginning will be a general sentiment of overestimation on the part of the Han group. In this time the Romans had JUST captured the area known as mesopotamia... and didn't hold it long do to uprisings literally behind the soldiers who had just fought to capture the area. That will be a lot of the motivation for the Roman Consul, soldiers, and newly admitted citizens. From the Han point of view however, they will get an idea that this invasion will go easily due to the Roman's inability to control its people. Again more details soon.

However it is nearly 6 AM. This post is simply to answer the basic questions... and let you know I'm working on this. Thanks Chik for your comments, they have helped me answer questions I had be struggling with in my own mind.

[Chikara Nadir]

Thank you for just reassuring me that perhaps I wasn't just rambling. I anticipate your actual reworking of the submission soon, in the required format. Again, good luck.

[Paladin Anthony]

Gah, this'll have to wait till mid-spring break (middle of next week)

All my professors are trying to cram as many tests into this week as possible. I should have the edit up no later than next friday the 18th.