Imperium on my mind

Yowza. Pretty mentally drained since the weekend of Intercon and Titus, and have not been productive for days. I think I have finally caught up on sleep enough to get things done again. Still, in my three days of uselessness I had some lovely social time, first recording nennivian* for Tailor, then nice dinners with Plesser and then with niobien* and Ben. At this point my week's entertaining budget for both money and time is exhausted, so it's time to buckle back down to work. I am very nearly done with my screenwriting assignment that is due on Monday, but still have a lot to do for sci fi and fantasy, which is due the following Saturday.

Unfortunately, since going to Intercon and having a blast and having Festival coming swiftly upon us, my resolve to not write larps while I should be writing film and theater is weakening fast. While watching Titus it occurred to me for the first time that Shakespeare did not base the characters or story off of anything historical, which is the same thing I want to do in Imperium, my ancient Roman larp. And while rest assured, I am not going to be including anything like children being baked in a pie or women with their hands and tongues being cut out, I must confess that the show got me thinking about some stuff that I could use as plots in that larp. I've been writing those thoughts down so as to have a record of them for later, but I have not yet actively devoted time or effort to devising this game. Still, I am feeling more inspired on it than I am on other projects right now, so the temptation is strong. Last night I consulted Ben, who is a classics major, on the proper naming for a certain character's son, and on the plausibility for a particular setup in the world's history. So I've got some thoughts going.

Roughly the story will be set in the same scenario as the beginning of I, Claudius-- the civil wars in Rome have just been ended by a man who has just been given the newly-created position of Emperor. But while I will have a number of characters, PC and NPC, who are analogues to the important figures of that time period, I will be changing what they were like or what they did so that people aren't spoiled by their knowledge of history. I would like the game to be on the large side, with at least twenty characters but preferably closer to thirty if I can manage it. I am also endeavoring, despite the social limitations of the period, to generate ideas for lots of interesting active, female characters, which so far I am succeeding with. The game will be largely interpersonal and roleplay based, but I would also like to have a wargame mechanic representing the campaigns that were such a huge part of Roman culture and society. Not sure how it will work yet, that I'll have to do some research and thinking on.

Damn. I think I can't bullshit that I'm not breaking my rule anymore.