Spartans book?

[daddystabz]

Does anyone know of a sourcebook or anything to play a Spartan centered game for BRP or RuneQuest or OpenQuest?

I would love to play in a Spartan campaign.

[Questbird]

Warlords of Alexander is available for download here at BRP central. I'm not sure if Spartans are in there explicitly but it's in roughly the right time and space...

[tzunder]

RuneQuest itself is a perfect rule system for Classical Greece. So what you need then is a sourcebook for the culture of the Spartans. Frankly I'd start with Wikipedia, and from that you'll probably have enough. You then want a conflict and an enemy and the traditional enemy for Sparta is Athens and the democratic city states. That's another few Wikipedia pages. The big epic conflict between them is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War.

There you go, enough fun and games for a Sparta versus Athens game.

OR you may want to have the Persians as the enemy and Athenians as allies, in which case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Wars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Athens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire

If you want to understand the gear a warrior might wear, always look to Osprey.

Osprey Publishing - The Peloponnesian War 431

Osprey Publishing - Spartan Warrior 735

Since this is Iron Age warfare, a copy of RQII or RQ6, or BRP BGB will allow you to quickly identify which kit is available, which skills, which cultural packages, and also whether you want to make religion a real and active thing or not. Spartan religion, politics and social order are quite different to what you might expect, and you'll have to decide how much to play that up and whether you need to have a view as to it's effects.

[daddystabz]

I wish someone would make a sourcebook for BRP/RuneQuest/OpenQuest that focuses on the Spartans and their allies/enemies.

[rust]

I wish someone would make a sourcebook for BRP/RuneQuest/OpenQuest that focuses on the Spartans and their allies/enemies.

I am not convinced that this would be a good idea. A historical Spartiate had rather

little individual freedom and therefore would not make a very good player character.

There are also some elements of Spartan culture which would be considered quite

repulsive nowadays, like for example the rite of passage which required the murder

of a slave to be accepted as an adult.

[seneschal]

On the other hand, Spartans make great adversaries. They're ruthless, conscienceless killing machines who will sacrifice anything for victory, and ninja-sneaky to boot. Boys thrown into the barracks at an early age weren't given rations. They were expected to steal their food and were punished severely if caught -- not for stealing but for getting caught! Men were permanently separated from their wives except for the procreation necessary to produce the next generation of soldiers and were told by their darling beloveds to either come home with their shields or on them. In other words, win or die trying. Females underwent rigorous physical training so they'd be in shape to be effective child-bearers. Geez, so even the Spartan women and children are scary. They make both the Japanese and the Germans of World War II look like wimps in comparison. Eek!

[rust]

They make both the Japanese and the Germans of World War II look like wimps in comparison. Eek!

The guy who ruled Germany during World War II greatly admired the Spartans and

praised them as a role model for Germany ...