Bronze-Age Homebrew Settings? Non-Glorantha ed.

[HierophantX]

So I was nerding over Hittitology and Hurrian studies on the interwebz and thinking that it might be amusing to convert some actual Late-Bronze Age Collapse-period pantheons to a RQ cult, when it occurred to me to ask...

Has or is anyone doing their own homebrew Bronze-Age setting in one of the versions of RQ? Jackals, which will be among us not soon enough, is OpenQuest, so .. cool, and Warlords is Hellenistic (iron  age), Zenobia likewise, but worse-late Roman (and uses a verzh of Traveller rules). What's out there?

I'm feeling inspired by both Age of Bronze and this Belgian comic series about Hittites.. 

 

 

[g33k]

The Design Mechanism is bringing out some sort of "Mythic Mesopotamian" book soon-ish, I think... maybe @lawrence.whitaker or @Pete Nash could regale us with a few more details ... ?

Or even start a whole new thread over in their Mythras subforum, as this forum is specific to Chaosium editions ...

I know this product is one of the ones I've been most looking forward to!  

 

[lawrence.whitaker]

Mythic Babylon is in layout and art commissioning. There's a very good podcast on Mythras Matters where the book's authors discuss more about the content. https://www.buzzsprout.com/266482/1479823-1-4-by-the-mythras-of-babylon

[g33k]

9 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

Mythic Babylon is in layout and art commissioning. There's a very good podcast on Mythras Matters where the book's authors discuss more about the content. https://www.buzzsprout.com/266482/1479823-1-4-by-the-mythras-of-babylon

That's all well and good for podpeople... castaways... whatever they're called.

Is there any nice text-based descriptions or details?

😇

[Austin]

14 hours ago, HeirophantX said:

So I was nerding over Hittitology and Hurrian studies on the interwebz and thinking that it might be amusing to convert some actual Late-Bronze Age Collapse-period pantheons to a RQ cult, when it occurred to me to ask...

Has or is anyone doing their own homebrew Bronze-Age setting in one of the versions of RQ?

I have a stack of notes for an Iliad/Thucydides-inspired fantasy setting I was fiddling with prior to delving into Glorantha. Gimme a few years and I'm sure I could get it into readable shape...

More seriously, if you do those Hittite writeups, you should definitely post them! I'd love to see the Sun Goddess of Arinna in RQ style (for the life of me, I can't remember her actual name). I feel like she'd be quite different from Yelm.

Another option to check out if you're just looking for options & inspiration would be Thennla, for Mythras. I've been reading The Shores of Korantia lately, and it feels like an interestingly Hellenistic take on Gloranthan themes. Cults dominate cities, lots of colonizing and sea-trading, unified culture but not really a nation-state, etc. I think it's technically Iron Age, but it feels pretty Bronze Age to my subjectivity.

[Bilharzia]

Mythic Babylon - I made some notes a while ago listening to the podcast, but I would recommend giving it a listen, I certainly missed some bits and may be mis-representing some things here.

Mythic Babylon podcast notes.
Set in the land between the rivers - Mesopotamia.
Covers the old Babylonian period 1765 BC and can be used several hundred years from that date.
Originally designed to be historical setting later added Mythical elements
The rise of Babylon under Hammurabi & the clash of great kingdoms - the rivalry between Elam and Mari
Mythic elements - monsters and magic
Originally inspired by Glorantha but through a few years of research into the real bronze age it developed into a true Bronze Age setting.
Was conceived as a BRP monograph, like Classic Fantasy & Mythic Rome.

"Sickle sword & sorcery" 
Can be played purely historically or as a mix of Mythic & Historical setting.

Five New magic systems : (does not use the core Mythras magic)
Sorcery
Incantations (to invoke the gods - similar to Theism)
Divination (find will of the gods)
Liturgical songs
Exorcism (similar to Animism)

Personal Purity
Tying all this together- personal purity - All characters have personal purity
Purity is your ability to relate to the gods
break a taboo, shed blood, cast a sorcery spell, get hit by a sorcery spell, illness

Consequences of low Purity:
You become unable to cast spells
You become socially awkward.
Entering a temple requires a certain level of purity
If purity too low people wont trust you or wont like you.

Purity is a big deal
It's a "bit like sanity" or like the Cthulhu mythos skill
You start with a high purity which then falls
There are ways to restore purity - bathing, some spells restore, make sacrifices to gods 
 

Combat stuff
Weapons - maces, spears, bows, sickle sword, battle nets, throw sticks, fighting stick
Appropriate Combat Styles

The book structure
Historical era, culture, how people lived.
creating PCs
Roleplaying as a Mesopotamian (cf: "what the priest said" - "What the tablet house told me")
City generator - roll tables - size, age, problems, troubles, yearly events.
magical systems
timeline
gazeteer - adventure hooks - historical and mythical
monsters - mythical creatures
eg. forest guardian from Gilgamesh, human/animal creatures, spirits, demons, underworld creatures.

 

[HierophantX]

These both sound great! We’ll see what I get up to this week. I might have something Mitannian or Urartian come through. 

[Dissolv]

I did Ancient Greece run in Fantasy Europe in 3rd Edition.  It was a diversion more than a campaign, but was very popular.  Everyone already knew all the deities, and many of the heroic characters, including Chiron the Centaur.  Most of them learned about the city states and their great rivalries. 

The campaign itself was noteworthy in that the main villain of the piece was actually the stable boy, and he ultimately "won" the campaign, by pinning a crime that he committed on the players, getting them exiled -- presumably to Persia. 

[Wayne's Books]

This is all so interesting. I've been pondering a Late Bronze Age Greece campaign for our house game. I hadn't thought of using the RQ rules set for it, but seems like they'd be a good fit. 

[g33k]

15 minutes ago, Wayne's Books said:

This is all so interesting. I've been pondering a Late Bronze Age Greece campaign for our house game. I hadn't thought of using the RQ rules set for it, but seems like they'd be a good fit. 

Look for "Warlords of Alexander" in the d/l section.  Also an AP of "Diadochi Warlords" (rq6/Mythras) is somewhere on the site, I think.

Or wait for the undoubtedly glorious creation that will be the TDM product!

[g33k]

On 5/25/2020 at 2:32 PM, lawrence.whitaker said:

Mythic Babylon is in layout and art commissioning ...

Mmmm.

Is it early in that process, or late in that process?  😉  Or more "somewhere in the middle"?

[lawrence.whitaker]

Early.

But it looks bloody great.

[g33k]

3 minutes ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

Early.

Thank you!

I mean... damn.  But thank you!  Info is always good to have.

5 minutes ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

... But it looks bloody great.

!#&$@ TEASE!

 

I mean... thank you.  But you're still a tease!

[Bergguy]

I've always loved the pre-columbian history of the Americas and have considered running a RQ game set in those settings. 

There's a variety of mythologies to play with.  Amazonian, patagonian, incan, north-west coast.... just to name the tip of the iceberg. There's clashes between large empires and smaller mini-systems.

Also there were some cool mummy-kings who had way more political power than your average dead. 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/fascinating-afterlife-perus-mummies-180956319/

[HierophantX]

You should definitely read 1491!

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus

 

 

 

 

[Bergguy]

7 hours ago, HeirophantX said:

You should definitely read 1491!

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus

I have! That is a pretty cool book. It's one of those books where it made me want to get some more in depth information on the topic, so I started swimming through the reference list. 

7 hours ago, HeirophantX said: