Pyramid Pick
FVLMINATA: Earth Armed With Lightning RPG (Second Edition)
Published by Thyrsus Games
Written by Jason E. Roberts and Michael S. Miller
Cover by Christopher Shy
Illustrated by Jeremy Leach
236-page perfect bound b&w book; $29.95
Most historical RPGs usually combine their backgrounds with an "other" or "alien" element. Classic examples include the transfer of 19th century colonial imperialism and all of its attitudes to the surfaces of Mars and Venus in GDW's Space 1889 (recently reprinted by Heliograph Inc.), World War II and Pulp Horror in Pinnacle Entertainment Groups Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine, and the politics of magic in 13th Century Europe in Atlas Games' Ars Magica. FVLMINATA - Armed with Lightning follows this trend, but forgoes the popular Victorian period for this type of game, adding not one but two of the alien elements to its setting. As the title hints, that setting is the Roman Empire, and its other ingredients are magic and gunpowder.
RPGs set in the ancient world are relatively uncommon, and most of them, such as Yaquinto's Man Myth and Magic and FGU's Odyssey, are now relegated to comfortable places on collector's shelves. More common are rules supplements for a particular game system, especially when it comes to ancient Rome, such as TSR's The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook for AD&D Second Edition and Steve Jackson Games' GURPS Imperial Rome, recently released in a second edition. FVLMINATA - Armed with Lightning, also recently in a second edition, . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: January 24, 2003
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