Tollenses Battle: Bronze Age Fantasy Fodder

[Christopher R Taylor]

many skeletons had damages to the shins and feet, showing that the Danish men-at-arms and mercenaries went for the legs to incapacitate the opponent before the kill.

 

That might have more to do with shield wall tactics than anything, though.

[L. Marcus]

That too, but armor for feet and shins seems to have been rare or absent in the material.

[womble]

That too, but armor for feet and shins seems to have been rare or absent in the material.

The Imperial Roman legionary didn't wear greaves as a standard equippage until the Dacian campaigns where they came up against large numbers of Romphaia which are powerful enough to be able to defeat the lower edge of the Scutum and inflict serious wounds. Similarly with Manica (arm protection). When you're a marching army with big shields, greaves are more of an embuggerance than useful protection.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Another interesting aspect of bronze age fantasy is how the magic worked.  We think of magic in terms of blasting things with fireballs and summoning monsters, but for the average bronze age type, magic was a matter of how the world just.... worked.  You said little charms to get your wheel out of the mud, to protect you from crocodiles, to get a good crop. Magic was just the way you interacted with the world when it was outside your immediate control.  When your spell didn't work, well it was a bad spell and that magician has a better one that maybe you can buy.

[womble]

"Magic as Superstition that works" is something I'm including in my Troy Invictus game, using RuneQuest's (1-3rd ed) Spirit Magic. Little things that give you an advantage. Additional stat will be "Magic Points", which acts as an End pool for such cantrips.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I love the concept, and it not only makes magic less dominant, it makes real dangerous magic that much more terrifying when an NPC can use it, always at some horrific personal cost.

 

I just love the idea of a fighter learning a charm to protect himself from snakes after he got bit.  And the "magician' being the guy who has the good spells which he refuses to share or let people know because it reduces his status.

[L. Marcus]

I plan to use magic-as-superstition in Dagrike as baked into all Skill Rolls on a very basic level, inasmuch as if a character chooses not to observe all the little rituals around the task at hand, they get penalized. I haven't chosen a specific value, but -1 to -3 to the roll, or a couple or three dice of Unluck seems to fit nicely.

[Lucius]

Something like this could be part of the standard "cultural package" everyone of a given culture must take, or given free as an "Everyman Power."

 

Common Magic: (Total: 10 Active Cost, 3 Real Cost) +1 with all Non-Combat Skills (10 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), Only to Activate, -3/4), Requires A Roll (16- roll; Jammed, Must be made each Phase/use, ; -1/2), Side Effects (3d6 Unluck; -1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (Real Cost: 3)

 

By observing particular rituals which only take seconds to enact, the character gains a +1 to any task at hand; but any roll of 17 or 18 after observing such rituals means the character is "jinxed" and will suffer bad luck until such time as the jinx may be countered.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Lucky Palindromedary

[Old Man]

Typically I do this more for clerical spells, but I like to force Invisible Power Effects on magic that isn't supposed to be visibly obvious.  That would cover most superstitious charms.  Of course, you would also have to limit effects and side effects as well in order to maintain the effect--no levitation or spontaneous candle lighting, for example.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah Lucius that's the kind of thing I was thinking of.  Other things like some luck, or a few extra defense on an item so it doesn't break, or a minor illusion to make the hostile creature less hostile to you, that kind of thing.  Cheap, small effects that are invisible and that have a side effect, so if you do it wrong, things get worse.

 

And only the magi really know which ones work and which ones are just coincidence or luck.

[Wardsman]

Another interesting aspect of bronze age fantasy is how the magic worked.  We think of magic in terms of blasting things with fireballs and summoning monsters, but for the average bronze age type, magic was a matter of how the world just.... worked.  You said little charms to get your wheel out of the mud, to protect you from crocodiles, to get a good crop. Magic was just the way you interacted with the world when it was outside your immediate control.  When your spell didn't work, well it was a bad spell and that magician has a better one that maybe you can buy.

 

I'm working on converting some ideas from RQ3 to Mythic Egypt. A lot of the RQ ideas would work in Egypt

For magic points I'd use the mana stat that has been  used in past versions of FH

Mana =2XEGO bought like END

MANA REC=  EGO/5 + INT/5  Bought like REC

I'm thinking of importing the spirit combat to learn spirit Magic and making a rule where MANA is treated like stun in Spirit combat.

Or have a rule that loss of mana does stun.

[Doc Democracy]

The Indus valley seems to have been a rather nice place to live during the Bronze Age. Shame that sometin' 'appened to it ...

"Nice valley you have there, would be a shame if something happened to it..." :-)

[L. Marcus]

Dino & Luigi Vercotti: the Bronze Years!

[Doc Democracy]

Bronze Age gods as gangsters....war gods getting protection money from grain goddesses...plus ca change...

 

 

PS: thank you for pushing my likes into 300s! :-)

[L. Marcus]

My plesuare!

[Ninja-Bear]

I know I posted thus on another thread but for Bronze Age goodies I recommend Testement: Age of Bronze Men of Steel! Its also written by Hero favorite Scott Bennie.

[Lucius]

I'm working on converting some ideas from RQ3 to Mythic Egypt. A lot of the RQ ideas would work in Egypt

For magic points I'd use the mana stat that has been  used in past versions of FH

Mana =2XEGO bought like END

MANA REC=  EGO/5 + INT/5  Bought like REC

I'm thinking of importing the spirit combat to learn spirit Magic and making a rule where MANA is treated like stun in Spirit combat.

Or have a rule that loss of mana does stun.

I would make Spirits use the Computer and/or AI rules.

 

Such "characters" have no BOD or STUN and unless bought on a Focus, tied to a Base, etc simply by default can't be engaged in normal combat and destroyed.

 

Here's a take on Spirit Combat

 

Spirit Combat: (Total: 221 Active Cost, 65 Real Cost) Drain OMCV OR DMCV 3d6 (standard effect: 9 points), Simplified: Always either take 1 OMCV or 1 DMCV, target's choice, Alternate Combat Value (uses OMCV against DMCV; +1/4), Cumulative (72 points; +1), Delayed Return Rate (points return at the rate of 5 per 6 Hours; +2) (127 Active Points); Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Whenever attacking, the target gets to use this power for free as a counter attack; -2), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect always occurs whenever the character loses all MCV pts; Destroyed if OMCV or DMCV reduced to zero; -1 1/2), No Range (-1/2), Side Effects (If attack fails, target gets a free mental attack roll to force a task (as per Summon); -1/2) (Real Cost: 23)

<b>plus</b>

Possession (Mind Control Effect Roll 45; Telepathy Effect Roll 30), Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action to reset; Succeeding in spirit combat; +1/2) (94 Active Points); No Memories (-1/2), No Range (-1/2), Restrainable (Only by means other than Grabs and Entangles; -1/4) (Real Cost: 42)

 

 

In Runequest, spirit combat is based on a POW vs POW roll (at least, that's what I remember) and the spirt and target basically are tearing away at one another's POW. So I make it based in Hero on mental combat and Drain. The spirit rolls to take away either one OMCV or one DMCV (target chooses) BUT this means the target gets the same roll vs the spirit with the same consequences. If the spirit is reduced to zero in either trait it is destroyed. Each success by the target gives a chance to force the spirit to some task (such as, teach a spell) and each success by the spirit gives a chance to possess.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary asks if there are any runequestions?