CORE · EDITION I
Rulebook & Starter Campaign
Everything you need to begin. One slim rulebook, one four-session campaign, and the tools to run a year.
In the box
- The rulebook — 220 pages, hardcover, smyth-sewn
- The starter campaign, "The Road to Ankyra" — 64 pages
- Six parchment character sheets, pre-rolled and ready to play
- A hand-drawn hex map of the Anatolian frontier
- A fistful of d6 and one d20
- Six lead figurines, cast in Lyon
In the PDF
- The rulebook, fully searchable, with linked table of contents
- The starter campaign
- Printable character sheets (parchment and plain)
- Printable hex map at three scales
- A GM screen layout you can print and fold
How characters advance
No experience points. No levels. Characters accrue Kleos — the bright name — and tick one of four Renown axes: Piety, Cunning, Largesse, Valour. At thresholds they petition the GM for recognition: Spoken for (10) · A trade of your own (20) · A name in the district (40) · Reckoned in the theme (75, with an advanced class or a second archetype on offer). These are the lives of free Romans of the themes — pivotal, but small. An optional shadow ladder (Infamy) runs in parallel for groups who want it.
The same Kleos, the same four axes, and the same petition system are shared with Children of New Rome, our online multiplayer RPG of prose orders and prose results, so a tabletop character who outgrows the theme can carry on into the world of strategoi and the Sacred Palace.