Quote from: AkrasiaOf course, various 'What if the Nazis won' (or at least managed not to lose) WW2 alternative histories are cool as well (for a rather dark RPG).  I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the 'Nazi victory' idea yet.

GURPS's Alternate Earths and Infinite Worlds has a couple of "Nazis victorious" scenarios. One of them, Reich-5, is damned scary.

Quote from: AkrasiaMy idea: the Roman Empire never fell (not 'resurrected' by some other entity).  That was my 'alternative history' idea: a Rome that lasted until the present age (and onwards!) in some recognisable form.

Well, it kinda went through several resurrections only to be reformed as something a bit different.

Crisis of the Third Century replaced the Principate (which still gave lip-service to Republican forms) with the Dominate (where the Emperors became more like royalty, and the city of Rome per se faded in importance).

Theodosian dynasty eliminated state-sanctioned paganism once and for all--and saw the accelerated barbarization of the army, to the point of incorporating entire tribes wholesale.

The period from 476 to the mid-6th century might well have been a minor break, like the 3rd century crisis, had Justinian been a little more successful on the military-diplomatic front, or if his successors not been weakened and then blindsided by wars with Persia and then then the Islamic expansion.

"Rome" in the sense of Constantinople was still the center of the civilized Christian world until the Frankish Carolingian dynasty basically had a run of luck with three successive smart, vigorous leaders whose brothers either died or "retired". Meanwhile the Byzantines were alienating the West over iconoclasm. Whereas both before and after the 8th century, the Franks were too busy fighting brother-against-brother to form an alternate power center. Or during the reign of Charlemagne, there was actually some talk of having him marry the Byzantine Empress.

So basically I think a "modern Rome" would be quite different from the togas-and-gladiators image, and would be more like an evolution of Byzantium--essentially a Christian "eastern despotism"--and also a bit like China, which managed to maintain a sense of unity and cultural identity over millenia of cycles of decay, fragmentation, and barbarian invasion.

What if Julius Caesar wasn't murdered? Would he go to war against Parthia? What would happen to his relationship with Cleopatra?

Quote from: Elliot Wilen... So basically I think a "modern Rome" would be quite different from the togas-and-gladiators image, and would be more like an evolution of Byzantium--essentially a Christian "eastern despotism"--and also a bit like China, which managed to maintain a sense of unity and cultural identity over millenia of cycles of decay, fragmentation, and barbarian invasion.

That would be interesting.

However, I've always found the idea of non-Christian Rome that persisted throughout the ages (in some form) intriguing.  What if Constantine had decided to worship Mithras (sp?  Mitra?) instead?  Or became a Zoroastrian?   Or perhaps Rome would have remained 'officially' pagan, but evolved into a multi-religious society over time.

[I always thought it was a pity that Epicureanism didn't overtake the Empire, but that philosophy (no gods that care about humanity; everything is reducible to matter and motion; no 'souls' and thus no afterlife; etc.) was simply too rational and 'cold' for hoi poloi.]

What if Harald Godwinson had not force-marched to York to defeat Harald Hardrada, but instead had dug in and defeated William the Bastard, then had been defeated by Hardrada instead?