Ok, some of this I've already said, but I'm just trying to sum up thoughts and move along conversation.


Divergence begins in 211 BCE after the Battle of the Upper Baetis when Hasdrubal defeats the Romans. Historically he defeated them and killed their commanders, but failed to drive them out of Hispanica, but here a more confident Hasdrubal follows up his victory by completely driving the Romans out of Iberia. Carthage, now working on just one front, is able to send Hasdrubal to reinforce his brother. Together they besiege Rome and force its surrender. Carthage splits up all of Rome except Latium with its Allies. Carthage regains Sardinia and Western Sicily as well as Southern Italy and regions along what is now the southern coast of France. In reward for their support and for enduring a seige from Rome so valiently (it doesn't fall, however, as Roman forces must leave the seige when news of the loss of Spain reaches the province) Syracuse gets Western Sicily. Macedonia remains in control of Illyricum and Greece. The northern Italy states are nominally free, but are effectively client states of Carthage. Publius Scipio the younger is NOT dead and is quite bitter about his father and uncle being killed by Hasdrubal and vows to avenge them. Had he been older Carthage would probably have demanded his expulsion, but as he is a mear youth of 25 he is ignored... perhaps a mistake? Numidia, which had been hostile to Carthage and had flirted with joining with Rome remains part of Carthage, but is far from happy about it. Carthage has a firm control over its traditional territories in Southern Spain as well as the East Coast, but the Inland remains unconquered and apprehensive over Carthaginian intentions. Gallia is unconquered and basically unknown to th Carthaginians.

The pricipal players in Carthage are Hannibal and Hasdrubal who are the Suffetes of Carthage, the Magistrates of Five, the High Priests of Tanit and Baal Hammon, and the Supreme Council of One Hundred (basically anyone in Carthage for RP).

Outside of Carthage Philip V, King of Macedon, fresh from helping defeat Rome, is perhaps the most powerful foreigner. There are also Antiochus III of the Seleucid Kingdom and Ptolemy IV Philopator of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Historically in 211 year Cn. Fulvius Centumalus Maximus and P. Sulpicius Galba Maximus were Consuls, but they are essentially non-entities. The only real Roman of interest is the young, angry, ingenious, and ambitious Publius Scipio. However, Scipio can either be in Rome, busily influencing politics there, or in Carthage, having been taken there following Rome's defeat, he is plotting angrily. In Numidia there are the Princes Syphax, his wife, the pro-Roman Sophonisbe, and Massinissa. It would perhaps be interesting to have these two princes not as foreign powers but as somehow involved in Carthaginian politics, working from the inside to eat away at Carthaginian power and hoping to regain their full independent authority. Another historical character who, alive and well having managed to not be killed by Romans, is Archimedes in Syracuse, the man who had overseen the devious equipment used to defend Syracuse during the Roman seige. Is he just a novelty? Or can, with his brilliance, Syracuse be a stonger power?

There are two major questions that need to be resolved. The first is whether to play right from the POD or to wait a few years for all the pricipal historical figures to die. This is perhaps most important with regards to Hasdrubal and Hannibal, who, should we pick right up from Rome's defeat, would be the dominant forces in Carthaginian politics and MUST either be played by two commited players or else must be kept continuously in mind as two crucial NPCs. The downside to moving ahead is that whose to say what happened during the intermediate years? We can make things up, but then we elimate so much of what would be most interesting to address in RP, for instance, how Rome is dealing with defeat. Perhaps Hasdrubal and Hannibal could, well, have an accident on the boat on the way home from Rome, just to get them out of the way and leave Carthaginian politics wide open?
The other major question is how Carthaginian centered RP should be. Should all PCs be Carthaginian? Or is there room for them in other states? Is this a Carthage-instead-of-Rome, or a What-Happens-Without-Rome? The two are not the same. One concept is, for instance, to have the Celtic Blue Empire mentioned to be RPed in the same scenario. Others are for the actions of the Greek states and Rome to be PCed. In RR and most groups one generally finds Roman PC commanders merrily marching over NPC foreign powers. Perhaps here there could be multiple PC controlled nations expanding and vying for power in a Med. world free of Rome?