More prep for Aedes Saluto

My Continuum players seemed to be having fun in Rome, so I had it run longer than the one session I'd originally planned. Here's some extra prep work I did for the second Roman session...

• COSTUMES - show them page 20 of Chronicle of Western Fashion
• Chariot Races - at the Circus Maximus, which can seat 250,000 people. Starts filling at dawn.There are 24 races per day, all are free to watch. Food vendors are there, but it’s a good idea to get your food first, or else you’ll be fighting crowds all day. Procession before hand includes musicians, priests carrying banners of all the Gods, and the Senator or Counsellor who will be dropping the start flag. Multiple crashes during the day, including a 4-horse chariot toppling on its side, the driver drops the knife he was to cut himself free with and ends up being drug most of a lap.
• Gladiatorial Games - This is the 14th year of the games at the Amphitheatre that will one day be known as the coloseum. Procession, pantomime, conjurors, circus animals, then fighting. Women sit in the third tier behind a wall that seperates them from men. Wealthy women sometimes pay to have sex with the gladiators after the show.
• Another banquet. 7 courses. And there’s food too gross to say in front of Amy, including Fried Cow’s Udder. Before the meal your feet and hands are washed by slaves.
• Another Play, at a lower class theatre (holds only 3,000 people, unlike the 14,000 occupant theatre from the other night) - The only lines are from the Chorus, the other Actors simply Mime about the Trojan War. It’s quite bawdy have both Genders of performers, with murder, nudity and simulated rape. The subject matter is so controversial, a riot breaks out.
• Roman Fora - Town center, great sight seeing, but very crowded. Statues, shrines, arches. Senate building. Entrance to the Cloacina Maxima under the shrine of Venus Cloacina. Orators on the Rostra. Eternal fire of the Vestal Virgins. Recently completed temple of concord (temple to the peace that has put an end to near-civil war). Black slab of Marble (grave of Romulus). Golden Milestone. Pages 138-139 of visitors guide
• Senate Floor. Proposals currently have to do with the War against Carthage, and with a reassessment of certain middle-tier crimes to determine which are appropriate for incarceration at the first Roman prison, Tullianum. Prior to this, the legal code was very bipolar. Watching for the day gives a unique perspective on Law, +1 clock.
• Boat Trip down the Tiber to Ostia. Pass an Island that’s been landscaped to look like a boat. The medical school is on that island. Also see the man-made reefs of smashed oil jugs.
• A tour of corners. Each fraternity in Rome (from 750 BC to 410 AD) sends a member to greet you and answer questions.
• More Harpastum - only worth 1 clock in athletics now for a game. It’s not an infinite well of clocks.
• Boardgames - due to Mastery of Chess, Lee gets Gaming: Roman Boardgames Novice +1 Clock.

I note from reading all this that memories were a little off. Apparently the riot was intentional on my part, and took place at the second theatrical performance. Also, not everything listed here happened - I played it by ear and skipped things that no one seemed to bite at. I should have done the Fraternal Corner tour, but wasn't quite prepped enough to handle it that session.

departure: May 15th 16:00

Meaning the characters spent around 80 hours in Rome