Bronze Age Fantasy

[JeffB]

I found my copy of the quick start as well. It looks like the company no longer offers it for some reason so I didn't want to post it as an attachment here.

I've got a hankering to run it- I'm digging the system mechanics.


For those who may be curious about the game

You have an Score for each Ability and a Rating. Roll 2d6 (min 3) for the Score.

So lets say your Strength Score ends up being a 10- you also get a Strength Rating of 3 (simple chart)

Active attempts to accomplish something are a small d6 pool system based on your Ability Rating and/or Skill Rating- You roll as many D6 as you have for an Ability (or Skill) Rating. So for that Strength check I would roll 3d6. A 5 or 6 is a success. One success is necessary, and additional successes boost the outcome (or unlock some better effects for skills/feats)

Reactions (Saving Throws) are D20 based and you need to roll under the Ability Score- So If I had to make a Strength Save because a rock fell on me and I wanted to react by catching the rock, I would need to roll a 10 or less on D20.

The Classes get some feat/Skill type abilities to start-just a few and you can pick new ones and/or unlock new features/effects as your character levels up.

The combat system is pretty gritty- You declare your combat "Action"

I want to cut off my foes sword hand...
or blind the foe
or disarm the foe
or XYZ

If you succeed defender can can either accept the stunt outcome, OR decline and take the rolled damage.

Better to have one hand than be dead

Armor has a Score like Abilities do. This is the amount of Damage it will soak. You can either let your armor take the full brunt of the damage on a hit , or just take it off your Endurance (HP). IF you let the armor take the brunt of the damage ou must make a Save for the Armor- = to or under the Armor rating/score, the armor holds AND soaks damage up to it's rating/score. Roll higher than the rating/score- Armor takes the damage but is broken- you will need to fix (some crafting skills) or replace. If you fumble (roll a 20) the armor breaks and doesn't soak either.

I also read about the game there is a "tribute" type mechanic where you have allegiances to Gods/Factions/Cults or you can forego picking a specific one and pay tribute (monetary) to appease/get help/have the faction turn a blind eye, etc.


I'm going to pick up the full game (which is only 64 or so LBB sized pages) on my next DTRPG mega purchase.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I'm not sure about "there is a significant risk of snapping if they are used as swinging weapon" really? Then why was the swinging & slashing & hacking weapon like a khopesh so common? This idea that the weapons are likely to snap isn't supported by the evidence.

Yes, actually.

Steel has much better shear, yield, and tensile strength than bronze. Furthermore, the more you strike bronze the harder it gets. Eventually you need to anneal the bronze or it will shatter.

The khopesh was, as I recall, the longest of the bronze weapons. What made it different was that it really wasn't a "sword", it was more of an axe. That allowed the primary shock of impact to be on the curved edge which you would want to be hard. The straight section was allowed to receive less shock, so it stayed more ductile.

Also, if you look at bronze axes, you'll notice that they are much longer than broad. This trend reverses when you have axes made out of steel.

You don't really see anything longer than a gladius or saex until iron / steel comes into use.

 

[Warder]

I would like to add something out of the left field. Namely a video crpg inspiration. Im pointing to Tyranny rpg. It is bronze age with fantasy and its pretty brutal while also fairly original.

 

[pemerton]

@Aldarc, I may have mentioned In A Wicked Age in the other thread. The elements of the fiction are established by drawing playing cards which correspond to "The Oracles" - a list of 208 (52 cards * 4 broad themes - A Nest of Vipers, The Unquiet Past, God-kings of War, Blood & Sex). The characters (both PC and NPC) and the situation are all established by references to these oracles.

The themes are broadly swords & sorcery, so not uniquely or necessarily distinctively Bronze Age, but on the whole suitable for that. There are nobles, slaves, wizards, wandering magic-users, strange cultic sites and artefacts, soldiers and generals, nomads, cities, merchants, etc.

 

[Arimathean]

A year after this discussion, Osprey published Jackals: Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying. I'm reading the basic rules now, and it's making me want to play - or even run - this game.

 

[Tonguez]

I’d say that for all intents and purposes Sword & Scorcery is essentially Fantasy Bronze Age (though often verging on Iron Age). Its got raiding barbarian tribes, warring city-states, eldricht scorcerers and unfettered monsters.
Of course lots of anachronisms creep into stuff like Conan, but thats where the fantasy comes in

 

[Tonguez]

Doubled

 

[Carnun]

Zenobia by Paul Elliott is my all-time favorite in this category. Or the more updated version, 43 AD (I know, not technically Bronze Age, but captures the spear and sandal feeling exquisitely, and it's the same system).

It's a rules-lite, gritty 2D6 + modifier game. Character stats are Might (self-explanatory), Learning (literacy and education), Craft (craftsmanship and manual labor), and Fate (luck and the will of the Gods). You also roll culture of origin and social class. You acquire skills but they don't add to rolls, you just do them. They're kind of like feats, but lo-fi, like "Fire-starting" or "Horsemanship." Some combat skills are activated with a Fate point.

How the writer does Fate in this game is ingenious to me. It's an attribute but also a spendable pool. As an attribute it's like a catch-all 'Save' (determined by the will of the Gods). But you can spend points of Fate (lowering your overall score) to achieve automatic successes on rolls, or to fuel powerful combat skills. You replenish Fate by entreating the Gods and making sacrifices to them.

Combat it brutal. There are rules for saving up your margin of success to spend on your next successful attack to inflict a truly gory wound. There are neat little tables for this too.

Paul Elliott is also a writer of historical fiction and I've read Zenobia and 43 AD just for the historical information alone.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that these games include rules for priests, witches, and druids -and their curses and blessings too.

 

[jdrakeh]

I realize that I am three years late to this thread, but let me recommend The Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze (now available as a PWYW PDF at Itch). It's an excellent game of Bronze Age fantasy. It took me a couple of reads to wrap my head around it, but once it clicked, it was AMAZING.

 

[gamerprinter]

not the realities of 5th-Century sub-Roman Britain.

Actually the only Bronze Age-ish setting I'm interested is in something like Dal Riata - the Irish kingdom that crosses the sea, in pre-Roman Britain, and the realities of late pre-Christian centuries like 5th century BC. Though I may never get time to develop that.