Introducing the Byzantine Game...

Greetings all...

Years ago, I purchased the first collection of Ken Hite's Pyramid column, Suppressed Transmission. Therein, you will find an article called "Justinian and Arthur: High Historical Fantasy."

Now, let me just say now that I already regarded Suppressed Transmission to be required reading for aspiring game masters -- it's full of weird and funky ideas that, frankly, make me incredibly jealous of the author. Anyway, this article, which put together a campaign idea combining Arthurian legend (and an offhand mention of a battle on Britain's border with the Roman Empire) with a document published by a secretary to Belisarius, who when he wasn't praising Justinian in his official histories, slandered him with accusations of demonic influence and evil conspiracies in another. I'd tried running it before, using D&D 3.0, but some people issues sidetracked it. Now, I attempt it again in 3.5, with all the world as an audience.

And so, in 550 AD, a motley group of adventurers are gathered by Merlin to perform a secret mission for King Arthur -- make their way across the continent to Byzantium, discover the truth behind rumors of war, plague, and evil influence in the remnant of the Roman Empire, and report their news back to Camelot. Merlin cannot scry into the area, and even the Pope, in having to deal with the Monophysite heresy so popular in the Eastern Empire, has been drawn into the web.

So join an Elven emissary, a Nordic barbarian, a Welsh Halfling druid, a North African fighter/monk (rules representative only), an Arabic rogue, and soon a cleric in their quest for the truth of the Byzantine Game...