Paul Elliott's
ZENOBIA
ZENOBIA is a fantasy vision of the ancient Near East during the darkest days of the Roman Empire, circa 260 AD. It is not historically accurate. But then, what is historically accurate? Modern scholars still debate matters of truth, context and events.

ZENOBIA takes the familiar and not so familar aspects of the ancient world and puts a fantasy twist on things. It's no longer a strange land, and players can jump straight in wielding a gladius and lounging in the heated baths as if they were born to it.

The game focusses on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, however - giving the gamemaster the advantage of bringing independant kingdoms, tribes and empires into the game. Epic-style conflict - something absent from most of the Roman provinces for centuries - is available here in jarfuls!
Tell Me About the Setting ...
Mirroring the historical reality that it is based on, the world of ZENOBIA is dominated by the Empire, a harsh militaristic tyranny ruled by an unending number of soldier-emperors. Parts of the Empire have split off to form independent kingdoms of great power. The east is dominated by the desert kingdom of Palmyra, ruled from this oasis city by the exotic Queen Zenobia. She is determined to enlarge her kingdom and rule an empire as large as any that have yet existed. Across the desert she faces the fantastic might of the Persian Kingdom, a land of great antiquity and incredible resources. In the west the Gallic Kingdom has emerged as a serious rival to the Empire, and is faced with defending itself from the destructive raids of the northern barbarians. Between and amongst these four great powers are a number of smaller, but no less interesting lands.

Is There Anything New in ZENOBIA?
It's a very rules-light game. A couple of d6, two or three basic attributes, one or two skills each and you're playing. Brought up on Traveller, this is how I like it, space to breath and to GM. The simple d6 system dispenses with the limitations of skill values. It concentrates on only a few abstract stats; on a handful of special skills that indicate acquaintance rather than quantify ability; sim-ultaneous combat resolved by difference in die rolls with effective and speedy abstractions of injury; and the attribute called 'Fate' that acts as a setting-specific device indirectly linking mortals & gods, will & luck, mundane action & magic.

But, within the game I'm most pleased with the basic combat mechanic. Here you roll over your foe's attack, and can 'spend' the points rolled over as various critical hits, or you can save them to be used as 'advantage' in subsequent turns.

No-one is overskilled, everyone has a place in the game.
Roleplaying in the Desert Kingdoms
   Download ZENOBIA

    ZENOBIA - PDF (and ZIPPED)
  
    Persia - PDF - A sourcebook for the Persian
    Empire and culture with new occupations,
    cultural info, Zoroaster, demons and
    treasures.

   Ionia - PDF - A sourcebook for Ionia (ancient
   Greece) with new occupations, treasures,
   locations, magic and monsters. By Gunter
   Dhoogh.

  Index - PDF - For Ionia, created by Gunter  
   Dhoogh

  Ægypt - PDF - A new sourcebook for Ægypt
   with new occupations, myths, places and
   magical artefacts. By Gunter Dhoogh.

   Index - PDF - For Ægypt, created by Gunter
   Dhoogh

   Colour Cover - ZIP.file. Created by Jonny
   Hodgson, with a landscape painting of Dura
   Europus burning, and a desertscape by
   David Hamilton.

   Maps1 - ZIP.file. Hand-drawn JPG Maps of the
   Desert Kingdoms, both geography and
   politcal borders, plus a map of Palmyra
   and Ionia.

    Maps2 - ZIP.file. JPG Map of the central
    Desert Kingdoms created with
    Campaign Cartographer 2, with smaller
    sectional maps, and a Cyprus map.

    Character Sheet - Word.document. Created
    by Günter Dhoogh

    Index - PDF. For Zenobia, created by Günter  
    Dhoogh.

  
   Web Review of Original ZENOBIA for RPG.NET
   Web Review of Revised ZENOBIA for The Free RPG
                           Blog  (Dec 2008)
text copyright Paul Elliott 2008
graphics copyright Jonny Hodgson 2008
Return to ZOZER Games
What is Revised ZENOBIA?
I've finally editted the text properly and added all the races and previous experiences I had initially created. There's also an entire campaign sketched out The Gladiatorial Games. There's also lots more Eastern monsters!