Mediterraneo (1st & 2nd Editions)

Mediterraneo

Summary courtesy of Andrea Angiolillo, used with permission.

Mediterraneo is a Role Playing Game set in Greek/Roman Myth. Players assume the roles of heroes of the classic age and have to face monsters, perils, legends, and capricious deities.

The game system is based on the difference between two 6-sided dice: characteristics range from -5 to +5 and are at the same time the bonus/malus used in checks. The system is taken from the first iItalian gamebook "In Cerca di Fortuna" and used here for the fitrst time for a RPG. It will be later klnown as "Qui comincia l'avventura".

The introductory adventure has a lightly humorous tone.It appeared for the first time as a bonus booklet attached to issue 5 of the bi-monthly Italian game magazine E Giochi, in January 1992. In March 1995 it has been reprinted as the first issue of the collection I Giochi del Duemila, or The Games Of the Two Thousands: a very cheap collection of games (the name "two thousands" refers to the millenium but also to the price of 2000 lire, lately became 1.03 euros) born to promote the activity of the boardgame publisher Qualitygame. The collection will me so succesful to became a regular publications for a few years: it will include RPGs, gamebooks, wargames and sport simulations, reaching the number of 23 booklets for a total of 30 authors.

Mediterraneo has been used not only by regular players looking for something different, but also as an introduction to RPG’s in schools and libraries for kids as young as 7 or 8 years old. But first of all, Mediterraneo has been conceived as a game for players, not for educational use. Anyway, "Mediterraneo" and its spin-off "Orlando Furioso" have been a successful tool for teachers and librarians, and they helped to silence the very few that tried to attract the attention of media upon themselves importing foreign criticisms about supposed dangers of RPGs.