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- Mid-Atlantic
Res Publica: A Quest of Ancient Rome
- Thread starter Telamon
- Start date
- Original Historic
Dark Abstraction
Infrequent Participant
- Location
- United States
[X] Plan Renown
-[X] Mercator
-[X] Titus Gallio
-[X] Maximius
-[X] Write-In: The Chosen Men: the legionnaires who accompanied Mercator in the charge that broke the Samnite resistance outside the town, and those who accompannied Titus Gallio in his effort to fire the buildings.
-[X] The Tablet of Ascargantus
--[X] You took this as a gift for Sertorius
-[X] The Steed of Cassimaius
--[X] You took this for your own purposes
-[X] Write-In: You draft several Samnites from the surrounding towns, deputize them, and task them with hunting down these forces, warning them that betrayal or laxness in their duties will be met with the same fate as Aeclanum. As compensation, you offer a modest bounty for bandit heads.
-[X] Yes, spend some of our XP this turn
--[X] 9 XP
--[X] Combat
-[X] Mercator
-[X] Titus Gallio
-[X] Maximius
-[X] Write-In: The Chosen Men: the legionnaires who accompanied Mercator in the charge that broke the Samnite resistance outside the town, and those who accompannied Titus Gallio in his effort to fire the buildings.
-[X] The Tablet of Ascargantus
--[X] You took this as a gift for Sertorius
-[X] The Steed of Cassimaius
--[X] You took this for your own purposes
-[X] Write-In: You draft several Samnites from the surrounding towns, deputize them, and task them with hunting down these forces, warning them that betrayal or laxness in their duties will be met with the same fate as Aeclanum. As compensation, you offer a modest bounty for bandit heads.
-[X] Yes, spend some of our XP this turn
--[X] 9 XP
--[X] Combat
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- Location
- Central Europe
I would assume that the Plans are supposed to contain all votes this turn. Not just the honors.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Arts, Laurels, and Headhunters
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I will note that cynically, providing a cash incentive for our designated bandit hunters to kill bandits is going to pay off in the long run in reduced Samnite unity.
On the one hand, if they don't produce some dead bandits, they get burned out by the Romans. If they do, they get paid. It is relatively likely that they will find a way to get paid.
However, whether they bring us bandit heads, or whether they bring us non-bandit heads and assert they are bandit heads, either way we have created the beginning of a corps of Samnites who were, under extreme circumstances, willing to take Roman silver to kill other Samnites. From the point of view of someone trying to eventually conquer the Samnites, that's... helpful.
This is an advantage of BOTH my plan ("Arts, Laurels, and Headhunters") AND @Dark Abstraction 's plan ("Renown"), which contain the same write-in option there.
On the one hand, if they don't produce some dead bandits, they get burned out by the Romans. If they do, they get paid. It is relatively likely that they will find a way to get paid.
However, whether they bring us bandit heads, or whether they bring us non-bandit heads and assert they are bandit heads, either way we have created the beginning of a corps of Samnites who were, under extreme circumstances, willing to take Roman silver to kill other Samnites. From the point of view of someone trying to eventually conquer the Samnites, that's... helpful.
This is an advantage of BOTH my plan ("Arts, Laurels, and Headhunters") AND @Dark Abstraction 's plan ("Renown"), which contain the same write-in option there.
Yeah, tying at least a portion of the Samnites into the Roman administration is essentially one of our win conditions here, and blood and silver make for excellent initial bonds. It's the same sort of thinking that had me half considering "rewarding" Visellia for her "assistance," but this seems a much surer bet than trying to convince all of Samnium that Visellia is in bed with Rome.
(There is a slight chance that what happens instead is our Samnite deputies organise and consolidate the bandits into a single force and we have to do this all over again, but I think we've made enough of a point here to discourage that sort of thing. Well worth the (minuscule) gamble in any case.)
Haven't decided which way I'm voting yet, though I'm leaning towards Plan Renown, if for no other reason than claiming the horse has a chance of upsetting Pompey. (And anything that discomfits that half-barbarian Gallic upstart masquerading as a Roman nobleman is like crack to me :lol).
(There is a slight chance that what happens instead is our Samnite deputies organise and consolidate the bandits into a single force and we have to do this all over again, but I think we've made enough of a point here to discourage that sort of thing. Well worth the (minuscule) gamble in any case.)
Haven't decided which way I'm voting yet, though I'm leaning towards Plan Renown, if for no other reason than claiming the horse has a chance of upsetting Pompey. (And anything that discomfits that half-barbarian Gallic upstart masquerading as a Roman nobleman is like crack to me :lol).
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Well, upsetting Pompey is certainly a good reason to do nearly anything. Pardon my ignorance, but why would taking the horse upset Pompey?
Had I known, I would have seriously considered keeping the horse and giving Sertorius the tablet, just as Renown does.
[I couldn't bear to let the tablet be destroyed in the ruins, so the tablet HAS to be one of the two selections, at least for me]
Had I known, I would have seriously considered keeping the horse and giving Sertorius the tablet, just as Renown does.
[I couldn't bear to let the tablet be destroyed in the ruins, so the tablet HAS to be one of the two selections, at least for me]
- Location
- Classified
Picking the table would give us the option of a "collect them all" side ambition. Not likely, but it'd be cool.
The 'descended from Bucephalus' thing. Pompey was really eager to brand himself as a Roman Alexander, to the point where, during his eastern campaign, he looted a cloak that had supposedly belonged to Alexander so he could cosplay. He'll feel at least a twinge of envy every time we ride by.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I'm sold.
[X] Plan Renown
[X] Plan Renown
- Location
- Central Europe
I just fear we would be the laughing stock of the patricians, if we returned to Rome claiming we had found a horse 'descended from Bucephalus' in the provincial backwater that is Samnium.
I can see this horse being a good starting point for a future horsebreeding career. Though TBH I find the thought of going for such a stewardship heavy endavour tedious.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
My advice is that we don't specifically claim the horse is descended from Bucephalus, we just let the rumor mill do it for us, while occasionally telling jokes about it at parties or something in such a way that it's clear we're not fully serious about it.
We can then make the assertion in more earnest at a later time, IF we develop the kind of credibility that would allow us to get away with that shit (e.g. Caesar probably could at his peak).
Well, the nice thing about this is that it's a simple enough business to run on the side, and our capital is, well, a horse. The only way we really lose is if the horse gets stolen; otherwise there's not a lot of potential for us to mismanage the business into the ground. Or for someone untrustworthy to do it to us.
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The horse is explicitly 'descended from the royal stables of Egypt, Greece, and Pontus.' The former owner was evidently a wealthy man, and a wealthy Italian could get anything from around the Mediterranean at this time. Our fellow patricians will know that. Besides, Roman nobles generally allow one another these polite fictions. The Julii are allowed to claim descent from Venus, Marius gets to proclaim that he was promised seven consulships in a prophecy, and no one laughs when the Fabii claim Hercules as an ancestor despite the fact that the family exists only by adoption at this point.
I was also going to say that we don't make the claim, merely wink at it, but @Simon_Jester ninja'd me.
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- Classified
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Woh-PAH!
Also, to be fair, Hercules sounds like the kind of guy who got around a lot, so who knows? Descent from Hercules might actually be pretty common. Like descent from Ghengis Khan is today.
"They tell me the horse is descended from Bucephalus. I don't know; if so, he must have picked up this tendency to bite at people wearing red from somewhere else, because I don't think Alexander would have stood for it."
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Woh-PAH!
Also, to be fair, Hercules sounds like the kind of guy who got around a lot, so who knows? Descent from Hercules might actually be pretty common. Like descent from Ghengis Khan is today.
"They tell me the horse is descended from Bucephalus. I don't know; if so, he must have picked up this tendency to bite at people wearing red from somewhere else, because I don't think Alexander would have stood for it."
I am almost certain one of his legends has Hercules sleep with the fifty daughters of some random king in one night. Yeah, dude got around.
Dark Abstraction
Infrequent Participant
- Location
- United States
Quick tally
- Location
- Central Europe
That whole rumor thing might work. It might not. Meanwhile there we have a nearly legendary tablet ready to be taken into our possession. I just don't see the reason to gamble. Additionally, the whole Pompey / Alexander thing might never come to pass with us interfering in his plots and Marius reigning supreme.
As for the stables. Sure we can delegate, but without at least above average Stewardship we would probably never know, if that person is ripping us off. Yes, we are good at learning but how many skills do we want to keep pushing? We will have to prioritse at some point so as to achieve legendary status in at least one or two of them.
Dark Abstraction
Infrequent Participant
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- United States
Odd that people voting for my plan aren't counted properly in the tally. Formatting error, maybe?
- Location
- Central Europe
You need to
Edit: Sorry, I saw the first point in some other misformated plan.
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Dark Abstraction
Infrequent Participant
- Location
- United States