Table of Contents:
Introduction (Upload 7)
A basic overview of the purpose and thinking behind the guide
What Not to Do (Upload 6)
Mistakes to avoid
The Starting Gate (Upload 5)
Early pitfalls and how to avoid a stillborn campaign
Bronze Age Powers (Upload 4)
Some real-life Bronze Age nations
Adaptation Hickups (Upload 3)
The ups and downs of adopting mirrors of real-life nations into your campaign
And he cast his stone... (Upload 2)
A word about religion in the campaign
Bibliography for additional sources used only in this product (Upload 1)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Product upload 7: Introduction to project (revised from previous posting)
Introduction
Dungeons and Dragons is traditionally set in a world with superficial similarities to the world of Medieval Europe. However, it is common and popular to create campaign nations or worlds with cultural and technological similarities to other periods, such as Feudal Japan, China, or the Levant during the Crusades. Other, less common adaptations include a world with technological similarity to the Enlightenment period, the distant future, or a dystopian present. Some settings mirror the Classical age of Rome and Greece.
Each of these adaptations poses unique challenges and joys: change in terminology, behavior, enemies, politics, and rules that can be difficult to implement systemically. However, the 3.5 edition of Dungeons and Dragons is well built to accommodate modification and experimentation, with Oriental and Arabian campaigns being particularly easy to create and mainstream in culture.
Some adaptations are not as easily made as others. Among the hardest is an adaptation to the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age is a term used to denote the period in history when Bronze was the predominant metal in use for tools and succeeds the earlier “stone ages”. Like all sweeping categorizations, the Bronze Age is a loose term, with Bronze seeing varied levels of actual use and craftsmanship. During this time, Europe, the continent on whose Medieval culture much of D&D is based, had few great nations, and notwithstanding achievements such as Stonehenge, only the 'Grecosphere' can really be called civilization. Organized, hierarchical states were at this time still clearly clustered around Mesopotamia, the location of the first known civilizations, and the Middle and Near East are generally the center of life and activity from this point. Even more ferociously than in Europe in the Middle Ages, nations and cities raged against each other for dominance of habitable land in a region surrounded by deserts.
The Bronze Age gave civilization some of the most enduring stories that shape our lives. The Iliad and Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Book of Exodus all tell stories about events or ideas that came about during the Bronze Age. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Exodus relate to the fiery and mysterious end of the “Late Bronze Age” between 1200 and 1100 before the common era (BCE). The native civilization of Crete is called the “Minoan” civilization in honor of the story of King Minos, a mythological Cretan king whose son the Minotaur was fed virgin sacrifices in Minos' Labyrinth until a hero vanquished the beast. The Minoans in real life profoundly influenced the art and culture of the inhabitants of Bronze Age Greece, the Mycenaeans, who worshiped the same gods and spoke more or less the same language as the Classical Greeks that would succeed them.
Adapting this complicated time into a roleplaying game is difficult. Technological changes, cultural differences, and the difficulty of combining the truth about the Bronze Age with the myths about it (and the myths about if from the myths created during it) require DM fiat and a vision for a campaign. A strictly historical game is probably impossible to anyone not possessing a Ph.D in Archeology, large amounts of patience, and unlimited free time. This is not the purpose of this guide, however, as D&D is not a strictly historical game; indeed, D&D is littered with historical mismatches and inaccuracies and is fundamentally and wonderfully a fantasy. However, the truth about the Bronze Age can still provide a useful base for adaptation. Add to this the many legends and myths that are associated with this time and the fantasy and artistic license of the D&D game itself and it is possible to create a D&D game with Bronze Age themes, feel, and items.
Dungeons and Dragons is traditionally set in a world with superficial similarities to the world of Medieval Europe. However, it is common and popular to create campaign nations or worlds with cultural and technological similarities to other periods, such as Feudal Japan, China, or the Levant during the Crusades. Other, less common adaptations include a world with technological similarity to the Enlightenment period, the distant future, or a dystopian present. Some settings mirror the Classical age of Rome and Greece.
Each of these adaptations poses unique challenges and joys: change in terminology, behavior, enemies, politics, and rules that can be difficult to implement systemically. However, the 3.5 edition of Dungeons and Dragons is well built to accommodate modification and experimentation, with Oriental and Arabian campaigns being particularly easy to create and mainstream in culture.
Some adaptations are not as easily made as others. Among the hardest is an adaptation to the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age is a term used to denote the period in history when Bronze was the predominant metal in use for tools and succeeds the earlier “stone ages”. Like all sweeping categorizations, the Bronze Age is a loose term, with Bronze seeing varied levels of actual use and craftsmanship. During this time, Europe, the continent on whose Medieval culture much of D&D is based, had few great nations, and notwithstanding achievements such as Stonehenge, only the 'Grecosphere' can really be called civilization. Organized, hierarchical states were at this time still clearly clustered around Mesopotamia, the location of the first known civilizations, and the Middle and Near East are generally the center of life and activity from this point. Even more ferociously than in Europe in the Middle Ages, nations and cities raged against each other for dominance of habitable land in a region surrounded by deserts.
The Bronze Age gave civilization some of the most enduring stories that shape our lives. The Iliad and Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Book of Exodus all tell stories about events or ideas that came about during the Bronze Age. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Exodus relate to the fiery and mysterious end of the “Late Bronze Age” between 1200 and 1100 before the common era (BCE). The native civilization of Crete is called the “Minoan” civilization in honor of the story of King Minos, a mythological Cretan king whose son the Minotaur was fed virgin sacrifices in Minos' Labyrinth until a hero vanquished the beast. The Minoans in real life profoundly influenced the art and culture of the inhabitants of Bronze Age Greece, the Mycenaeans, who worshiped the same gods and spoke more or less the same language as the Classical Greeks that would succeed them.
Adapting this complicated time into a roleplaying game is difficult. Technological changes, cultural differences, and the difficulty of combining the truth about the Bronze Age with the myths about it (and the myths about if from the myths created during it) require DM fiat and a vision for a campaign. A strictly historical game is probably impossible to anyone not possessing a Ph.D in Archeology, large amounts of patience, and unlimited free time. This is not the purpose of this guide, however, as D&D is not a strictly historical game; indeed, D&D is littered with historical mismatches and inaccuracies and is fundamentally and wonderfully a fantasy. However, the truth about the Bronze Age can still provide a useful base for adaptation. Add to this the many legends and myths that are associated with this time and the fantasy and artistic license of the D&D game itself and it is possible to create a D&D game with Bronze Age themes, feel, and items.
Product upload 6: Mistakes
Section 1: What not to do
Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game. The common campaign settings of Dungeons and Dragons imagine a universe with more or less nonfunctional laws of physics (or at least, very complicated and illogical ones), implausible biology, and sometimes a flat Earth. The 3.5 weapon, “Longsword”, is a 1-handed weapon more akin to an Arming Sword than a true Longsword, which the game renders by the alternate name, “Bastard Sword”. Tridents and nets a la Gladiatorial equipment are available alongside Gurisarmes, Zweihanders (rendered as “Greatsword”), Rapiers, Scimitars, and Falchions. It includes suits of armor made from Dragon Scales, Mithral, and Adamantine. It features spellcasters who, by virtue of knowing more, can survive an arrow to the throat (Longbow critical max damage = 24, well below the health of any character with 5-10 levels). For that matter, it includes spellcasters.
What a DM should always remember in the creation of a game: Dungeons and Dragons is not based on reality in an accurate or precise fashion. If you are trying to create a game to be a truly historically accurate recreation of Bronze Age life, you should not use D&D as your source. Rules systems such as d20 Modern and d20 historical exist precisely to make paper and pencil reliving of real events happen. If you want your characters to ride by Ramses against the Hittites at Kadesh, D&D is probably not the rules system you want to use. If you desire a fantasy experience, you can try describing the historical battle in a hallucination, prophecy, or dream that relates to your D&D campaign. However, for your characters to actually move in a fully accurate Bronze Age is impossible in D&D. For that matter, it's probably impossible, period – there is simply too much that has been forgotten irrevocably to safely say 'daily life in Mycenae was like this' and create new classes and completely remodel the D&D world. Some specific cultures and roles are well known-about, but constricting your campaign to, say, the Hittite Empire and the New Kingdom of Egypt will probably become stifling and certainly won't give a complete picture of the “Bronze Age”.
Even if a DM had the material and fortitude to create a D&D setting with purely historical roots, why would one want to? The Bronze Age was a complicated, confusing period about which many people know nothing and whose main cultural legacies are not necessarily precise pictures of the Bronze Age. The Iliad and related poems were written by Homer at the end of the Greek Dark Age, 500 years after the supposed war at Troy, during which there was no writing and stories would have been passed down (and revised) orally. Similar processes doubtless occur in the even older Epic of Gilgamesh, and the enormous controversy over the historicity and dating of the Old Testament (especially Exodus, which would have occurred at some point in the Late Bronze) mean that the predominant images of the Bronze Age that players will carry into the campaign will be different from the fact. When I conceived of my project, I envisioned educating people about the real story, replacing “the Greeks” with “a hierarchical confederation of Mycenaean city states whose ancestors invaded Greece ca. 2000 BCE”. Dungeons and Dragons is a medium dependent on the imagination of the player, and to an extent therefore about the player's cultural preconceptions. The game can – if well-crafted – be an excellent medium to change or challenge such preconceptions, but radically redesigning the rules and the underlying (High Fantasy) assumptions behind the game is unnecessary when non-fantasy rulesets are can be modified more easily.
A Bronze Age D&D campaign should then not shun mythology, but nor should it avoid the history of the Bronze Age. Few myths give a good idea of what weapons were available in what numbers, as modern research has done; or the true diversity of political ideas, ethnic groups, and economic models in existence during this period. Nor do myths provide a complete vision of what life among the commoners was like, or the boring accounts of bookeeping, accounting, and legal work provided in bulk in Hittite, Mycenaenan, and Minoan tablets. It is up to the creator of a campaign setting to determine the specifics of the setting: how prominently will myth and history play against one another and against the default assumptions of the D&D game? From which cultural areas will the campaign be mostly based?
To describe my point above, I will provide brief descriptions of possible campaigns:
A “Greco” world based heavily on the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeniad, and historical information about Mycenaean pottery and weaponry. Classes are reworked, along with feats, spells, skill lists, and existing equipment
A “Greco” world based primarily on other Greek legends, and relying more heavily on the normal D&D rules for spells and filling in the cracks. Weapons are taken from history but the campaign isn't overly fussy about categorizing things like “This is a Type A Mycenaen sword, not a Type C Minoan from Knossos, and therefore has a -1 penatly to.....”
An “Aegean” world based on real history between the Myceaneans, their colonies on Anatolia, and the Anatolians themselves. It could feature real-world geography, inclusion of the Hittite Empire, and complicated diplomatic, linguistic, and legal minefields for players to navigate. Such a world would borrow heavily on History and might only use magic in small, “special” quantities, or to fill in the gaps where cultural information is lacking
The same exact cultural theme – Mycenaean and Minoan Aegean culture – create in the space of 5 minutes 3 radically different campaign adaptations. This doesn't take into account larger settings featuring more themes; or hotspots like Assyria and Canaan, where constant war, shifting borders, and high population density give rise to endless possibilities for a campaign. For some groups, such as the Sea People that unmade the Mycenaeans, Hittites, and indirectly Egyptians, history remains very mysterious and the things about them – both in the known and unknown – provoke endless possible scenarios pitting the party with or against them. For this reason, the options available to a DM wanting to create a campaign are more or less limitless but require choice and fiat. In creating a world, a balance must be struck or decided on at the beginning to establish the role of the core rules, myths, and history in creating the campaign. The campaign will not be a perfect image of the greater Bronze Age, nor will it cover every tribe and subculture, nor will it cover every myth and tale (try getting Gilgamesh and the Iliad together, I dare you) and it shouldn't. Your players may lose some insight into the breadth of Bronze Age history but you will keep your sanity and your players will ultimately learn more by covering less breadth and more depth. If the idea catches, you can try out other Bronze Age campaigns and eventually weave them together. Even then, however: this will be D&D Bronze Age, not a curriculum.
In short, the main hurdle that will make or break a campaign before ever it is played is whether the creator knows not to overreach. Ambition is important, but best when it can be fulfilled.
Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game. The common campaign settings of Dungeons and Dragons imagine a universe with more or less nonfunctional laws of physics (or at least, very complicated and illogical ones), implausible biology, and sometimes a flat Earth. The 3.5 weapon, “Longsword”, is a 1-handed weapon more akin to an Arming Sword than a true Longsword, which the game renders by the alternate name, “Bastard Sword”. Tridents and nets a la Gladiatorial equipment are available alongside Gurisarmes, Zweihanders (rendered as “Greatsword”), Rapiers, Scimitars, and Falchions. It includes suits of armor made from Dragon Scales, Mithral, and Adamantine. It features spellcasters who, by virtue of knowing more, can survive an arrow to the throat (Longbow critical max damage = 24, well below the health of any character with 5-10 levels). For that matter, it includes spellcasters.
What a DM should always remember in the creation of a game: Dungeons and Dragons is not based on reality in an accurate or precise fashion. If you are trying to create a game to be a truly historically accurate recreation of Bronze Age life, you should not use D&D as your source. Rules systems such as d20 Modern and d20 historical exist precisely to make paper and pencil reliving of real events happen. If you want your characters to ride by Ramses against the Hittites at Kadesh, D&D is probably not the rules system you want to use. If you desire a fantasy experience, you can try describing the historical battle in a hallucination, prophecy, or dream that relates to your D&D campaign. However, for your characters to actually move in a fully accurate Bronze Age is impossible in D&D. For that matter, it's probably impossible, period – there is simply too much that has been forgotten irrevocably to safely say 'daily life in Mycenae was like this' and create new classes and completely remodel the D&D world. Some specific cultures and roles are well known-about, but constricting your campaign to, say, the Hittite Empire and the New Kingdom of Egypt will probably become stifling and certainly won't give a complete picture of the “Bronze Age”.
Even if a DM had the material and fortitude to create a D&D setting with purely historical roots, why would one want to? The Bronze Age was a complicated, confusing period about which many people know nothing and whose main cultural legacies are not necessarily precise pictures of the Bronze Age. The Iliad and related poems were written by Homer at the end of the Greek Dark Age, 500 years after the supposed war at Troy, during which there was no writing and stories would have been passed down (and revised) orally. Similar processes doubtless occur in the even older Epic of Gilgamesh, and the enormous controversy over the historicity and dating of the Old Testament (especially Exodus, which would have occurred at some point in the Late Bronze) mean that the predominant images of the Bronze Age that players will carry into the campaign will be different from the fact. When I conceived of my project, I envisioned educating people about the real story, replacing “the Greeks” with “a hierarchical confederation of Mycenaean city states whose ancestors invaded Greece ca. 2000 BCE”. Dungeons and Dragons is a medium dependent on the imagination of the player, and to an extent therefore about the player's cultural preconceptions. The game can – if well-crafted – be an excellent medium to change or challenge such preconceptions, but radically redesigning the rules and the underlying (High Fantasy) assumptions behind the game is unnecessary when non-fantasy rulesets are can be modified more easily.
A Bronze Age D&D campaign should then not shun mythology, but nor should it avoid the history of the Bronze Age. Few myths give a good idea of what weapons were available in what numbers, as modern research has done; or the true diversity of political ideas, ethnic groups, and economic models in existence during this period. Nor do myths provide a complete vision of what life among the commoners was like, or the boring accounts of bookeeping, accounting, and legal work provided in bulk in Hittite, Mycenaenan, and Minoan tablets. It is up to the creator of a campaign setting to determine the specifics of the setting: how prominently will myth and history play against one another and against the default assumptions of the D&D game? From which cultural areas will the campaign be mostly based?
To describe my point above, I will provide brief descriptions of possible campaigns:
A “Greco” world based heavily on the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeniad, and historical information about Mycenaean pottery and weaponry. Classes are reworked, along with feats, spells, skill lists, and existing equipment
A “Greco” world based primarily on other Greek legends, and relying more heavily on the normal D&D rules for spells and filling in the cracks. Weapons are taken from history but the campaign isn't overly fussy about categorizing things like “This is a Type A Mycenaen sword, not a Type C Minoan from Knossos, and therefore has a -1 penatly to.....”
An “Aegean” world based on real history between the Myceaneans, their colonies on Anatolia, and the Anatolians themselves. It could feature real-world geography, inclusion of the Hittite Empire, and complicated diplomatic, linguistic, and legal minefields for players to navigate. Such a world would borrow heavily on History and might only use magic in small, “special” quantities, or to fill in the gaps where cultural information is lacking
The same exact cultural theme – Mycenaean and Minoan Aegean culture – create in the space of 5 minutes 3 radically different campaign adaptations. This doesn't take into account larger settings featuring more themes; or hotspots like Assyria and Canaan, where constant war, shifting borders, and high population density give rise to endless possibilities for a campaign. For some groups, such as the Sea People that unmade the Mycenaeans, Hittites, and indirectly Egyptians, history remains very mysterious and the things about them – both in the known and unknown – provoke endless possible scenarios pitting the party with or against them. For this reason, the options available to a DM wanting to create a campaign are more or less limitless but require choice and fiat. In creating a world, a balance must be struck or decided on at the beginning to establish the role of the core rules, myths, and history in creating the campaign. The campaign will not be a perfect image of the greater Bronze Age, nor will it cover every tribe and subculture, nor will it cover every myth and tale (try getting Gilgamesh and the Iliad together, I dare you) and it shouldn't. Your players may lose some insight into the breadth of Bronze Age history but you will keep your sanity and your players will ultimately learn more by covering less breadth and more depth. If the idea catches, you can try out other Bronze Age campaigns and eventually weave them together. Even then, however: this will be D&D Bronze Age, not a curriculum.
In short, the main hurdle that will make or break a campaign before ever it is played is whether the creator knows not to overreach. Ambition is important, but best when it can be fulfilled.
Product upload 5: Starting
Section 2: The Starting Gate
Dungeon Masters familiar with creating different or radical campaign worlds may not be intimidated by the choices and potential pitfalls I outlayed above. This is a very good thing for them, however, as a DM with some experience under my belt myself, I would like to relate that creating a Bronze Age style campaign hit me hard in the face. Among the many problems I immediately encountered was the problem of the starting gate, indeed, I didn't get much farther than it in my own attempt at a campaign.
The D&D game incorporates a generous and bizarre list of weapons and equipment whose economics are never very easy to understand. Though illogical and incongruous, the weapons list allows characters to easily hail from a diverse list of nations or cultures: Scimitars and Falchions for Middle Eastern themes, Rapier for a Renaissance theme, Bolas for a wild hunt, that net and trident for a Gladiatorial battle, and the Dungeon Master's Guide presents a wonderful list of minor tweaks and additions to create weapons for an Asian campaign, including the Katana, Wakizashi, Blowgun, and Kusari-Gama (the standard weapons table itself provides for a number of “Monk weapons” with a generally Asian feel). Sample statistics for Renaissance weapons, Modern weapons, and science fiction weapons are also listed alongside the Asian ones (DMG 145-146). This information, as well as the written discussions of it, do much of the heavy lifting of the inventory changes that may need to be made for a potential campaign. The guide also provides a short blurb on stone and bronze weapons, yet the text in the book suggests simply blanket penalties to players for using these non-steel resources. Furthermore, it focuses more on the theme of “survival” which would be appropriate to a Stone Age or early Bronze Age campaign but is hardly appropriate in the developed societies which were present and increasingly dominant in the middle and late Bronze Age. When there is no steel available and with weapon types restricted by decreased variety, it hardly seems logical to punish players by making Bronze start with a penalty.
As I've mentioned, the eclectic equipment in D&D borrows from many sources. I recommend taking a reasonably accurate approach to actual bronze age equipment, and am including my own table of weapons from my modification, but be warned: creation of your own equipment set (or revision of my 1-draft attempt which ended in an aborted playtest) will be taxing. You will have to work hard just to get to a place that is, for other campaign worlds, square one.
In addition to weapons, armor available was completely different. Many soldiers in Egyptian and Mesopotamian depiction or almost entirely unarmored, and the most notable suit of armor the found, the Dendra suit, is believed to be more of a unique individual piece than a common, practical defense. With differences in the likelihood of meeting heavily armored opponents, the technique of combat changes from the Medieval standard which is itself very poorly implemented in Dungeons and Dragons.
Equipment available to the party will be more sparse and probably poorer in every measurable level: quality, quantity, utility, and availability. You will have to be responsible to how much you are willing to revise the Equipment table beyond normal.
Mundane equipment, however, is just one of your worries. Magical equipment and magic items are another. The problems with magic and the Bronze Age campaign become obvious almost immediately, and there are multiple ones. To begin with, Wizards and their feat, “Scribe Scroll” are in an awkward position as the powers of the earth wrote on clay tablets and stelae during the Bronze Age.
This presents interesting opportunities to reform the magic system or add in new content, but it is also one paradox you will have to answer before somebody asks why it is you're still using spellbooks. It's work to do to get your campaign back to square one.
Beyond tablets and lack of writing are the magic items presented in the SRD. Some systems, like the rules governing the creation of magic weapons or armor, shouldn't cause too much trouble. However, deciding on what rings, potions, wands, staves, rods, and wondrous items have to go and making your own to fill in potential setting problems is a monumental concern. This is also where you should take care: your decisions here will affect your final spell list and vice verse. Don't hesitate! I discovered the hard way the this process needs multiple tests. You should allow your Magic Item process to influence how you treat spells and magic itself, and as you revise one, revise the latter was well.
This approach applies to more than just magic items and spells. At every point along your creation efforts, you will find yourself frustrated by obstacles that seem to prevent each other from being solved. Plow on ahead and then revise your results after feedback or looking at what you have.
Section 3: Prominent Bronze Age Powers
In section 1, I provided examples of themes influenced by an Aegean-influenced campaign. I based these potential campaigns off of background information about mythology and history paired with a significant amount of research from multiple angles and sources. In the course of this research I uncovered just the tip of the iceberg I wanted to find, but I did pick up good information about multiple countries in the Bronze Age world that might make good models for countries in a Bronze Age campaign.
The Hittite Empire
Based in Central Anatolia, the Hittites were an almost 'American' people, with a multiracial, multilingual kingdom ruled by a dynasty bearing Indo-European influence yet over a mostly native Anatolian populace. Notable about the Hittites was their compensatory justice system, which is passably analyzed in Trevor Bryce's Life and Society in the Hittite World. This empire grew increasingly powerful towards the end of the Bronze Age, challenging Egypt and pushing them back from the Euphrates. Bryce writes that the Hittite dynasties then founded in the newly conquered Syrian territories continued the mid-700s BCE.
The Hittite dynasty saw a fascinating share of intrigues and dramas relating to succession, including usurpation of the throne. However, nearly all records try to keep the Kings faceless and in good standing: Hittite Kings sometimes butchered each other to take the throne but never criticized the royal policies of predecessors.
The Hittites had a large force of charioteers who rode in a somewhat heavier chariot than the standard Egyptian design. Bryce observed in Life and Society that charioteers would have been by nature professional, full-time soldiers, and furthermore that the Hittite kingdom probably had a full-time infantry cohort as well, to defend the kingdom.
The Hittite kingdom did also use a feudal system to help manage the kingdom, with land being granted in exchange for loyalty. However, the Hittite king was almost always very strong and firmly in command of the direction of the Kingdom.
The Mycenaean Greeks
invaded Greece ca. 2000 or earlier. They were a culturally and technologically homogenous confederation of independent city-states ruled by kings in their palaces. Borrowing from earlier Minoan design, the Mycenaean palace was the center of commerce, record-keeping, etc., as well as the seat of political power. Religious activity may also have been centered in the palace. The Mycenaeans were in this way both extremely centralized and decentralized: many small local capitals with complete dominance over small kingdoms makes the Mycenaean government an interesting contrast the the ultra-centralized Hittite and Egyptian empires. The various nations, as well as the islands in the Aegean (and eventually Rhodes, Crete, and much of Cyprus) all shared virtually identical pottery with little local styling for much of their history, which indicates an extremely integrated and intraconnected economy between the varied peoples. As the Mycenaean civilization disintegrated, localization of styles appeared, showing that at least part of the collapse of their people was a loss of economic and physical interconnection.
Known for their prowess in warfare, Mycenaean Greece was a center for the production of weapons. Ships carrying copper from Cyprus and elsewhere have been found, bound for ports in the Aegean. Similarly, ships leaving Greece and Crete often carry large amounts of well-crafted bronze swords.
For most of the Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans were part of the pan-European heroic tradition, a common tendency to fight in disorganized, loose groups of individuals, not a common corps of troops. However, they were active raiders and warriors in spite of this.
The Greeks valued the sword above other weapons, and pictures typically show agile, unarmored swordsmen defeating a various enemies: armored spearmen, beasts, etc., A favorite tactic was the downward thrust at the neck, depicted on pottery in The Ancient World at War and identifiable in the early fight scenes of the (generally inaccurate) film Troy
Towards the end of the Bronze age, the Mycenaeans showed an awareness of a need for group-based war. At this time, bronze armor similar to the later Greek armors would be developed, and groups are depicted fighting in hoplite style.
Assyrians, Mesopotamians, and allies
Iraq is known as the cradle of civilization for a reason. Mesopotamia is widely accepted as the site of the first cities and nations of the world. The Epic of Gilgamesh dates from a very old legend about a king of Uruk, a Mesopotamian city-state, and his beloved friend. Various city-states would rise over their peers only to fall again to other influences: the Assyrians had multiple periods of ascendency and decline, with one such rising period helping weaken the Hittite and Egyptian kingdoms to the point of conquest. The Babylonians, Sumerians, and others also had moments of glory and power. The above information is based on background knowledge, not research.
Egypt
Egyptian history is divided (somewhat arbitrarily) into 3 “kingdoms” (Old, Middle, and New) as well as “Intermediate Periods” that generally saw a more prosperous people, decreased centralization, and increased power of local authorities or religious figures over the Pharoh. Egyptian civilization is generally viewed as at the pinnacle of power during the New Kingdom, when their empire reached all through the Levant, part of Syria, and to the Euphrates river; as well as south into Nubia and the African continent.
Egypt is nominally a Bronze Age civilization. However, most of their soldiers (particularly in the early period) would probably have carried flint spears, stone maces, and cowhide shields. Later, stone maces were phased out for Bronze axes, which the Egyptians used extensively, but the Egyptians are generally mentioned as being poor in metals and relying on copper and lower-quality gear. However, the Egyptians did perfect their form of Composite Bow which was both widely available and powerful.
Egyptians used chariots extensively. Theirs was a light wooden chariot that was emphatically not used to engage in close combat: rather, chariots served exclusively as a platform for mobile archers.
The Egyptians also used a type of sickle-sword that had become popular in Assyria, Theirs, called a khepesh or khopesh, is somewhat ambiguous in that different finds appear to show the cutting edge on either the inside or the outside of the curve. (The standard Near Eastern sickle-sword had the blade on the outside of the curve, like a scimitar)
The New Kingdom population is estimated at 3,000,000 (3 million), which gives an idea of the population of the world and of large and powerful nations at this point in history.
Canaan
The Levant began the tradition of passing in bloody conquest from one nation to another during the Bronze Age. Pre-Israelite Canaan is believed to have been divided into small local rulers who were usually made vassals of different countries. It is known the that Philistines who appear in the Bible were among the Sea People that plagued the Hittites, Mycenaeans, and Egyptians, and that they settled in Palestine following the end of hostilities. Canaan itself had a pantheon of gods from which many common names, such as Michael, are derived. I'd recommend The Bible's Buried Secrets, a Nova PBS production, for background information and insight into late Canaan and Israel.
The Sea People
The Sea People are among the most mysterious elements of the Late Bronze Age. Towards the year 1200, the a series of cities were burned to the ground throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, moving in a generally southward direction. Frantic communiques from Mycenaean cities are provided in The Mycenaeans in History by Alan E. Samuel speaking of “watching the shoreline”, reinforcing defenses, and trying to get help. The Egyptians labeled the invaders “Sea People” as they swept south. It is clear from Egyptian records that the Sea People were a diverse lot, from multiple regions and probably lacking strong central direction. The Egyptians name the member tribes: Ekwesh, Shekelsh, Tjeker, Weshesh, Teresh, Sherden, Lukka, and Denyon. There are many theories as to who these tribes were: Denyon to Danoai (Homeric term for the Mycenaeans), Sardinians for the Sherden, West Anatolians for the Lukka, Sicilians for Shekelsh. The true nature of the Sea People or Peoples is unclear. What is known is that among the Sea Peoples that attacked Egypt, which repulsed them under Ramses III, were Libyans and people who “schemed on their islands”. Given that Exodus and the Iliad both describe incidents that, if they occurred, occurred around 1200 BCE, the identity of the Sea People provokes a great deal of thought an can be an excellent source for inspiration. There is no universal acceptance of any identification of tribes of the Sea People save that of their Libyan allied and the Philistines, who are mentioned in other texts and who themselves have a bizarre culture with clear Aegean elements. Some sources speculate that the migration or series of migrations may have been caused by climate cooling in the north, while the Ancient World at War floats the concept of a long-running cold war among the Mycenaean kings turning hot. The relationship between the disintegration of society in this time and the ascendency of the Assyrians is unclear.
The Philistines are identified in Egyptian texts as Peleset. The Egyptians, usually a very boastful kingdom, claim that “no land could stand before [the Sea Peoples]
Some regions, such as Cyprus, underwent multiple razings. Others, such as the city of Mycenae for which the Greeks of this time are named, survived an initial attack thanks to ferocious defenses but succumbed to another attack almost a century later.
Troy was a real city that was destroyed many times. One of the most total razings did occur about this time.
The Sea People are associated with the precipitous decline of the Hittites, who by year 1000 were a husk of their former empire. Though some successors dynasties survived in Syria, the Hittite kingdom was effective eliminated by the turn of the millennium.
The Egyptians under Ramses III defeated the Sea People in naval and land battles, repulsing them. However, the Egyptian state itself was collapsing, and succeeding kings grew weaker and weaker until they succumbed to invasion. The loss of the extended empire in the Levant was immediate, of course, as shown by the settlement of the Philistines in Palestine
In section 1, I provided examples of themes influenced by an Aegean-influenced campaign. I based these potential campaigns off of background information about mythology and history paired with a significant amount of research from multiple angles and sources. In the course of this research I uncovered just the tip of the iceberg I wanted to find, but I did pick up good information about multiple countries in the Bronze Age world that might make good models for countries in a Bronze Age campaign.
The Hittite Empire
Based in Central Anatolia, the Hittites were an almost 'American' people, with a multiracial, multilingual kingdom ruled by a dynasty bearing Indo-European influence yet over a mostly native Anatolian populace. Notable about the Hittites was their compensatory justice system, which is passably analyzed in Trevor Bryce's Life and Society in the Hittite World. This empire grew increasingly powerful towards the end of the Bronze Age, challenging Egypt and pushing them back from the Euphrates. Bryce writes that the Hittite dynasties then founded in the newly conquered Syrian territories continued the mid-700s BCE.
The Hittite dynasty saw a fascinating share of intrigues and dramas relating to succession, including usurpation of the throne. However, nearly all records try to keep the Kings faceless and in good standing: Hittite Kings sometimes butchered each other to take the throne but never criticized the royal policies of predecessors.
The Hittites had a large force of charioteers who rode in a somewhat heavier chariot than the standard Egyptian design. Bryce observed in Life and Society that charioteers would have been by nature professional, full-time soldiers, and furthermore that the Hittite kingdom probably had a full-time infantry cohort as well, to defend the kingdom.
The Hittite kingdom did also use a feudal system to help manage the kingdom, with land being granted in exchange for loyalty. However, the Hittite king was almost always very strong and firmly in command of the direction of the Kingdom.
The Mycenaean Greeks
invaded Greece ca. 2000 or earlier. They were a culturally and technologically homogenous confederation of independent city-states ruled by kings in their palaces. Borrowing from earlier Minoan design, the Mycenaean palace was the center of commerce, record-keeping, etc., as well as the seat of political power. Religious activity may also have been centered in the palace. The Mycenaeans were in this way both extremely centralized and decentralized: many small local capitals with complete dominance over small kingdoms makes the Mycenaean government an interesting contrast the the ultra-centralized Hittite and Egyptian empires. The various nations, as well as the islands in the Aegean (and eventually Rhodes, Crete, and much of Cyprus) all shared virtually identical pottery with little local styling for much of their history, which indicates an extremely integrated and intraconnected economy between the varied peoples. As the Mycenaean civilization disintegrated, localization of styles appeared, showing that at least part of the collapse of their people was a loss of economic and physical interconnection.
Known for their prowess in warfare, Mycenaean Greece was a center for the production of weapons. Ships carrying copper from Cyprus and elsewhere have been found, bound for ports in the Aegean. Similarly, ships leaving Greece and Crete often carry large amounts of well-crafted bronze swords.
For most of the Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans were part of the pan-European heroic tradition, a common tendency to fight in disorganized, loose groups of individuals, not a common corps of troops. However, they were active raiders and warriors in spite of this.
The Greeks valued the sword above other weapons, and pictures typically show agile, unarmored swordsmen defeating a various enemies: armored spearmen, beasts, etc., A favorite tactic was the downward thrust at the neck, depicted on pottery in The Ancient World at War and identifiable in the early fight scenes of the (generally inaccurate) film Troy
Towards the end of the Bronze age, the Mycenaeans showed an awareness of a need for group-based war. At this time, bronze armor similar to the later Greek armors would be developed, and groups are depicted fighting in hoplite style.
Assyrians, Mesopotamians, and allies
Iraq is known as the cradle of civilization for a reason. Mesopotamia is widely accepted as the site of the first cities and nations of the world. The Epic of Gilgamesh dates from a very old legend about a king of Uruk, a Mesopotamian city-state, and his beloved friend. Various city-states would rise over their peers only to fall again to other influences: the Assyrians had multiple periods of ascendency and decline, with one such rising period helping weaken the Hittite and Egyptian kingdoms to the point of conquest. The Babylonians, Sumerians, and others also had moments of glory and power. The above information is based on background knowledge, not research.
Egypt
Egyptian history is divided (somewhat arbitrarily) into 3 “kingdoms” (Old, Middle, and New) as well as “Intermediate Periods” that generally saw a more prosperous people, decreased centralization, and increased power of local authorities or religious figures over the Pharoh. Egyptian civilization is generally viewed as at the pinnacle of power during the New Kingdom, when their empire reached all through the Levant, part of Syria, and to the Euphrates river; as well as south into Nubia and the African continent.
Egypt is nominally a Bronze Age civilization. However, most of their soldiers (particularly in the early period) would probably have carried flint spears, stone maces, and cowhide shields. Later, stone maces were phased out for Bronze axes, which the Egyptians used extensively, but the Egyptians are generally mentioned as being poor in metals and relying on copper and lower-quality gear. However, the Egyptians did perfect their form of Composite Bow which was both widely available and powerful.
Egyptians used chariots extensively. Theirs was a light wooden chariot that was emphatically not used to engage in close combat: rather, chariots served exclusively as a platform for mobile archers.
The Egyptians also used a type of sickle-sword that had become popular in Assyria, Theirs, called a khepesh or khopesh, is somewhat ambiguous in that different finds appear to show the cutting edge on either the inside or the outside of the curve. (The standard Near Eastern sickle-sword had the blade on the outside of the curve, like a scimitar)
The New Kingdom population is estimated at 3,000,000 (3 million), which gives an idea of the population of the world and of large and powerful nations at this point in history.
Canaan
The Levant began the tradition of passing in bloody conquest from one nation to another during the Bronze Age. Pre-Israelite Canaan is believed to have been divided into small local rulers who were usually made vassals of different countries. It is known the that Philistines who appear in the Bible were among the Sea People that plagued the Hittites, Mycenaeans, and Egyptians, and that they settled in Palestine following the end of hostilities. Canaan itself had a pantheon of gods from which many common names, such as Michael, are derived. I'd recommend The Bible's Buried Secrets, a Nova PBS production, for background information and insight into late Canaan and Israel.
The Sea People
The Sea People are among the most mysterious elements of the Late Bronze Age. Towards the year 1200, the a series of cities were burned to the ground throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, moving in a generally southward direction. Frantic communiques from Mycenaean cities are provided in The Mycenaeans in History by Alan E. Samuel speaking of “watching the shoreline”, reinforcing defenses, and trying to get help. The Egyptians labeled the invaders “Sea People” as they swept south. It is clear from Egyptian records that the Sea People were a diverse lot, from multiple regions and probably lacking strong central direction. The Egyptians name the member tribes: Ekwesh, Shekelsh, Tjeker, Weshesh, Teresh, Sherden, Lukka, and Denyon. There are many theories as to who these tribes were: Denyon to Danoai (Homeric term for the Mycenaeans), Sardinians for the Sherden, West Anatolians for the Lukka, Sicilians for Shekelsh. The true nature of the Sea People or Peoples is unclear. What is known is that among the Sea Peoples that attacked Egypt, which repulsed them under Ramses III, were Libyans and people who “schemed on their islands”. Given that Exodus and the Iliad both describe incidents that, if they occurred, occurred around 1200 BCE, the identity of the Sea People provokes a great deal of thought an can be an excellent source for inspiration. There is no universal acceptance of any identification of tribes of the Sea People save that of their Libyan allied and the Philistines, who are mentioned in other texts and who themselves have a bizarre culture with clear Aegean elements. Some sources speculate that the migration or series of migrations may have been caused by climate cooling in the north, while the Ancient World at War floats the concept of a long-running cold war among the Mycenaean kings turning hot. The relationship between the disintegration of society in this time and the ascendency of the Assyrians is unclear.
The Philistines are identified in Egyptian texts as Peleset. The Egyptians, usually a very boastful kingdom, claim that “no land could stand before [the Sea Peoples]
Some regions, such as Cyprus, underwent multiple razings. Others, such as the city of Mycenae for which the Greeks of this time are named, survived an initial attack thanks to ferocious defenses but succumbed to another attack almost a century later.
Troy was a real city that was destroyed many times. One of the most total razings did occur about this time.
The Sea People are associated with the precipitous decline of the Hittites, who by year 1000 were a husk of their former empire. Though some successors dynasties survived in Syria, the Hittite kingdom was effective eliminated by the turn of the millennium.
The Egyptians under Ramses III defeated the Sea People in naval and land battles, repulsing them. However, the Egyptian state itself was collapsing, and succeeding kings grew weaker and weaker until they succumbed to invasion. The loss of the extended empire in the Levant was immediate, of course, as shown by the settlement of the Philistines in Palestine
Product upload 3: Potention source nations
Section 4: Adaptation hickups
As you research and draw inspiration from Bronze Age powers for your campaign world, you should consider what kind of campaign you want to run. Just as in the medieval setting, different nations and societies will lead to different play-styles. The culturally uniform yet politically divided world of Greece will require players to be careful in different ways than culturally diverse yet politically united Anatolia, and the massed warfare style of the Eastern nations will mandate a less brazen attitude toward the law than might be permissible in tribal continental Europe.
Hittites
A campaign modeled after the 'Land of Hatti' (Hittite Kingdom proper) would pose unique blessings and challenges, but is probably the closest to standard D&D. The monarchy, strong and established, is the source of most power and is very much involved with the administration of the kingdom. At the same time, the monarchs are physically isolated almost entirely from their subjects and their time is spent traveling on religious pilgrimages, to war, and the respites in the palace are occupied by recreation. The many intrigues and royal plots in such a kingdom could offer a political game, while service for the king could lead the party into dangerous tribal areas. If an analogue to the powerful Egyptians or later Assyrians exists, a plot arc featuring battle and war-related service could be attempted, potentially bringing the party close to the king. Another possible campaign is as police: under Hittite law, if a crime such as murder was committed and the person responsible could not be captured, then the community was held responsible for the crime and made to collectively pay reparations. A plot arc featuring an unsolved murder would be an excellent way to start a campaign. However, with all Hittite-influenced campaign arcs, be very careful about vigilantism. The Hittite Kingdom was powerful and well-federated: delegating to locals when possible but thoroughly in command from the top (Local rule but central suzerainty is arguably the strongest and least invasive form of government). The Kingdom should be relatively stable, law-abiding, and prosperous. Though not as ostentatious as their rivals and successors, the Hittites were a strong people in every sense of the word and an adventure based on lawlessness or a lack of accountability should be not without serious risks to undertake in a Hittite-influence campaign.
Mycenaean Greece
A campaign world modeled after Mycenae offers greater freedom, which is a double-edge sword. With the extensive mythology of Mycenaean actions (Troy) and the actual facts of Mycenaean life itself, judgment about the role of fact vs. fiction is even more of a priority. The unusual fighting styles of Greece at this time may require some new feats to duplicate, and once shown images, you may have an entire party clamoring for Dendra armor. The openness of markets, the massive arms stockpiles and exports, and the uniformity of culture make a nation drawing primarily off of Greek elements attractive. However, it is important to remember that a key feature of the Greek culture was that it was not one nation but many, and the nature of their relations is not completely discerned. With the large stockpiles of weapons, warrior culture, lack of a dominant power, and possibility of civil war raised in The Ancient World at War, you have the leeway to make a Greece-influenced realm hard to navigate for the party. Try to avoid too much of a Classical influence on your nation, however: while myths and Pegasi and Minotaurs are excellent for this nation regardless of roots, the Mycenaean culture was not necessarily like that of Athenians, Spartans, or Macedonians. Your nation is based off of their forerunners, not them.
Mesopotamia
A campaign in Mesopotamia will encounter the problem of being even more foreign to the standard D&D world than one from other places. Given the sheer length and immensity of Mesopotamian history, significant research and a planned plot beforehand should guide your creation of campaign mechanics. In general, characters will probably want to have more fantastic backgrounds than normal D&D players – creatures created by gods, kings, and monsters – will better fit with a world based the place that created the original Epics. Urban settings will blend with a hot existence, a fertile but dangerous land, and an ever-volatile climate.
Egypt
A world or nation grounded in Egyptian influence has the advantage of being the most easily imagined Bronze Age society. With a hot desert climate, booby-trapped pyramids and necropoli, thousands of years of history, Biblical references, a distinctive religion, multiple periods as a conquering nation and multiple periods as a conquered one, Egypt offers perhaps the broadest rein to a Dungeon Master in creating a campaign. However, basing a nation off of Egypt requires at least one thing: adherence to the cycle of the Nile. Egypt is a desert, and would be infertile and barren were it not for the flooding of the Nile, on whose crops the entire kingdom lived or starved. Some similar pulse will add life and vibrancy to your nation, which, if lacking a life-source of it's own, may feel artificial or already ancient. Your party should feel the age of the societies your base your nations on, but also the life: Egypt survived so long not just because of human institutions but because it had a way of life that had enduring power, rhythm, and bounty. Your kingdom will benefit from a sense not only of hardship but also of prosperity.
Egypt, like the Hittite Kingdom, was usually centrally controlled. However, during intermediate or conquered periods, the Double Crown was weak, and a lawless campaign is doable. If your Kingdom is not based on such a time in Egyptian history, your party should take the same heed as in a Hittite campaign not to step on the Pharoh's toes too much. If they become a true nuisance, the army can always chase them into the desert until the logistical strength of the army (to put bluntly, the ability, with a supply chain, to survive an extended desert stay) prevails and the party is either saved or perishes.
Canaan
A Levantine campaign incorporating nations influenced by Canaanite culture as well as Syro-Lebanese culture would be a diverse and difficult campaign to set up, but the rewards of the Canaanite theme are obvious. At the center of multiple powerful empires, the birthplace of some of the most influential religious ideas of all time, and a culture that is both very familiar and alien, Canaan has the potential to be an old-school rough-and-tumble D&D campaign, with both powerful kings and local lords. However, there is a problem of information: good all-around information on the Canaanite society may be hard to come by, and the failure to develop a strong independent state until the later Israelite times means that sources rely much on the records of other nations (The Hittites, Egypt, Mesopotamians) to corroborate each other and the Bible. A Canaanite campaign will force you to use neighboring nations for further influence, which is both a blessing and a curse.
Sea People
A campaign centered around an mirror to the Sea People can take 3 basic forms: A campaign set with the invasions of the 1200s BCE as a backdrop, a campaign set with the party fleeing or resisting the Sea People, and a campaign staring the party as part of the Sea People. All campaigns will require you to create or further draw from historical nations for the Sea People analogue to predate upon. Setting a campaign against a backdrop provides an opportunity for an exploration of the Sea People from multiple perspectives and will force your campaign into a true story form, with the individual lives of the party forefront yet inextricably tied to the events of the world around them. Actively participating can be introduced for one side or both in this campaign strategy. However, you can also theme campaigns strictly about fleeing from and fighting against Sea People invaders, which will put the party in the interesting position of being frequently on the run and require guerrilla tactics on the part of your players. Setting a campaign with the party associated with or members of the Sea People mirror tribes may illicit cries of “railroading” and which may take the initiative of the players away from them, however, it offers a chance of plunder, moral dilemma, travel, and progressively greater risks and rewards.
Product upload 2: Section 5 (Religion)
Section 5: And he cast his stone....
Religion is a big part of the D&D world, with fake gods provided and free reign for a DM to create his own. A setting based off of a historical Bronze Age society may want to have a pantheon inspired by or relevant to the real pantheons of the Bronze Age. Here, you are mercifully lucky, as the pantheons of several of the most influential kingdoms are well known.
The Mycenaean Greeks were Greeks, and worshiped the same core gods as their classical successors. The fuzzy line between Mycenaean myths and later myths means that you can probably feel free to incorporate as much of it as needed for your campaign. Alternately, you can create a new pantheon of your own choosing and work it in...Mycenaean Greece is old enough and alien enough that a fantasy pantheon won't break suspension of disbelief, especially in a campaign where the names of societies are changed from those they are influenced by (and hopefully that will be all campaigns: keeping the names kills the mystery of the campaign and needlessly confines your artistic license).
The Egyptian religion is a bit more tricky, but again we catch a break. The period of Egyptian history actually thought of as “Egyptian” is almost entirely Bronze Age, and the changes in Egyptian religion are probably not too difficult to understand. You can use the later Egyptian pantheon with familiar figures- Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Horus, etc.,. If you with to create an older atmosphere or the Egyptian pantheon is unappealing to you, consider the older gods of Aten, Amun-Re, and the cult of the Pharoh himself. Saving the Sphinx is a Nova PBS production that includes among other things fascinating information about a truly archaic religious symbol of Egypt, which could be useful if you want to take your campaign in a more primitive direction than the Late Bronze Age.
Canaanite religion had it's own pantheon, with powerful El at the head. You are mostly on your own when it comes to the pre-Israelite religion (though information exists and should not be too difficult to come by). The 1st Millennium BCE saw an amazing change in Canaan: a minor southern storm god, Yahu, was elevated through the ranks as principal god. Over the course of centuries, a battle was fought to elevate Yahu – believed to be now called Yahweh – above even this. The struggle to establish monotheism, a religion of one supreme god above all others, culminated in the conquest of Jerusalem by the ascendent Babylon and the rest, as they say, is history. This information is courtesy of the aforementioned Nova program, the Bible's Buried Secrets, along with other information. A similar struggle would make an excellent campaign backdrop.
Mesopotamia has a pantheon of their own as well, mostly relating to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Sadly, I have no research and no background knowledge of Mesopotamian religion beyond Gilgamesh and you will have to make your own decision about how to integrate such religions into your campaign.
The Hittite empire is trickier still. The King was head of the religion and appointed servant of the gods. I didn't reach this point in the book, but a significant amount of information exists in Life and Society in the Hittite World.
Religion plays a complex role in history. As a cultural binding agent, moral force, and deeply personal relationship with a being or beings beyond this world, it escapes easy definition and can play a nuanced role in your campaign. However, you should decide in advance whether you are going to continue the traditional D&D practice of treating gods as apparently real and active in the world through granting of spells and the like, or, as on Earth, the actions of God or gods will be subject to dispute and questioning.
Religion is a big part of the D&D world, with fake gods provided and free reign for a DM to create his own. A setting based off of a historical Bronze Age society may want to have a pantheon inspired by or relevant to the real pantheons of the Bronze Age. Here, you are mercifully lucky, as the pantheons of several of the most influential kingdoms are well known.
The Mycenaean Greeks were Greeks, and worshiped the same core gods as their classical successors. The fuzzy line between Mycenaean myths and later myths means that you can probably feel free to incorporate as much of it as needed for your campaign. Alternately, you can create a new pantheon of your own choosing and work it in...Mycenaean Greece is old enough and alien enough that a fantasy pantheon won't break suspension of disbelief, especially in a campaign where the names of societies are changed from those they are influenced by (and hopefully that will be all campaigns: keeping the names kills the mystery of the campaign and needlessly confines your artistic license).
The Egyptian religion is a bit more tricky, but again we catch a break. The period of Egyptian history actually thought of as “Egyptian” is almost entirely Bronze Age, and the changes in Egyptian religion are probably not too difficult to understand. You can use the later Egyptian pantheon with familiar figures- Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Horus, etc.,. If you with to create an older atmosphere or the Egyptian pantheon is unappealing to you, consider the older gods of Aten, Amun-Re, and the cult of the Pharoh himself. Saving the Sphinx is a Nova PBS production that includes among other things fascinating information about a truly archaic religious symbol of Egypt, which could be useful if you want to take your campaign in a more primitive direction than the Late Bronze Age.
Canaanite religion had it's own pantheon, with powerful El at the head. You are mostly on your own when it comes to the pre-Israelite religion (though information exists and should not be too difficult to come by). The 1st Millennium BCE saw an amazing change in Canaan: a minor southern storm god, Yahu, was elevated through the ranks as principal god. Over the course of centuries, a battle was fought to elevate Yahu – believed to be now called Yahweh – above even this. The struggle to establish monotheism, a religion of one supreme god above all others, culminated in the conquest of Jerusalem by the ascendent Babylon and the rest, as they say, is history. This information is courtesy of the aforementioned Nova program, the Bible's Buried Secrets, along with other information. A similar struggle would make an excellent campaign backdrop.
Mesopotamia has a pantheon of their own as well, mostly relating to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Sadly, I have no research and no background knowledge of Mesopotamian religion beyond Gilgamesh and you will have to make your own decision about how to integrate such religions into your campaign.
The Hittite empire is trickier still. The King was head of the religion and appointed servant of the gods. I didn't reach this point in the book, but a significant amount of information exists in Life and Society in the Hittite World.
Religion plays a complex role in history. As a cultural binding agent, moral force, and deeply personal relationship with a being or beings beyond this world, it escapes easy definition and can play a nuanced role in your campaign. However, you should decide in advance whether you are going to continue the traditional D&D practice of treating gods as apparently real and active in the world through granting of spells and the like, or, as on Earth, the actions of God or gods will be subject to dispute and questioning.
Product upload 1: Bibliography
(Exclusively sources used in the product)
Bibliography
Bibliography
In addition to all the work cited in my research, several additional sources which are mentioned or used exclusively for this production need to be credited.
Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams. Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide:
Core Rulebook II. 3.5 ed. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003. Print.
Glassman, Gary. "Riddles of the Sphinx." Nova. PBS. WGBH, Boston. Television.
Glassman, Gary. "The Bible's Buried Secrets." Nova. PBS. WGBH, Boston. Television.
Full product upload imminent
Over the course of the day (at worst, next few days), I will be uploading the current, full version of my product onto the blog. I will trim Appendix A, which shows my attemps at rules changes, and remove Appendix B, which is a transcript of this blog up to a few posts ago.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Post-Exhibition Night 2 update
Yesterday evening, seniors gathered in the gym with trifold science-fair boards and spoke about their projects to interested community members. In my customary fashion, I was last-minute about my poster and forgot to invite the people I'd wanted to invite. However, I felt leaving the night that it was a success, and my feedback confirmed it, glowingly. There was the first public unveiling of my approach to product - essentially, a small handbook of tips for making a Bronze Age campaign after trying myself unsuccessfully. The product discussion, containing as it did an intrinsic discussion of the process and experience of my project (and my failures), proved quite popular and highly reviewed. Now, as I review my feedback, I'm asking myself: where do I go next?
I don't mean about my research revisions, which I know need to get done. And I'm not sure I really mean the product in the full sense, or even a benefit (my current concept of a benefit is posting this advice online on this ruleset and maybe on the Wizards of the Coast forums). I'm talking about my own personal development of the project. Life and Society in the Hittite World came in last Friday, and I aim to collect it today. I'm interested in reading it for my own personal satisfaction and enrichment. I'm not too sure I'm interested at all in annotating it. Likewise, I would like to incorporate my Bronze Age campaign progress into a campaign, but I'm not sure I want to accept the mental restrictions on accuracy I place by making it a project. I'll have to think on it....
I don't mean about my research revisions, which I know need to get done. And I'm not sure I really mean the product in the full sense, or even a benefit (my current concept of a benefit is posting this advice online on this ruleset and maybe on the Wizards of the Coast forums). I'm talking about my own personal development of the project. Life and Society in the Hittite World came in last Friday, and I aim to collect it today. I'm interested in reading it for my own personal satisfaction and enrichment. I'm not too sure I'm interested at all in annotating it. Likewise, I would like to incorporate my Bronze Age campaign progress into a campaign, but I'm not sure I want to accept the mental restrictions on accuracy I place by making it a project. I'll have to think on it....
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Product Part 1?
The DM's Guide to the Bronze Age
Dungeons and Dragons is traditionally set in a world with superficial similarities to the world of Medieval Europe. However, it is common and popular to create campaign nations or worlds with cultural and technological similarities to other cultures, such as Feudal Japan, China, or the Levant during the Crusades. Other, less common adaptations include a world with technological similarity to the Enlightenment period, the distant future, or a dystopian present. Some settings mirror the Classical age of Rome and Greece.
Each of these adaptations poses unique challenges and joys: change in terminology, behavior, enemies, and politics that can be difficult to implement systemically. However, the 3.5 edition of Dungeons and Dragons is well built to accommodate modification and experimentation, with Oriental and Arabian campaigns being fairly easy to create and mainstream in culture.
Some adaptations are not as easily made as others. Among the hardest is a true adaptation to the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age is a term used to denote the period in history when Bronze was the predominant metal in use for tools and succeeds the earlier “stone ages”. Like all sweeping categorizations, the Bronze Age is a loose term: for example, the ancient Egyptians, perhaps the best known Bronze Age people, often used copper and in the early days of the empire most soldiers would have carried nothing more than a cowhide shield, stone mace, and flint spear; with Bronze never reaching the level of prominence that it would in Mycenaean Greece, which was a hub of Bronze Age arms manufacture. Europe, the continent on whose Medieval culture much of D&D is based, had few great nations, and notwithstanding achievements such as Stonehenge, only the 'Grecosphere' was truly a civilization. Organized, hierarchical states were at this time still clearly clustered around Mesopotamia, the location of the first known civilizations, and the Middle and Near East are generally the center of life and activity from this point. Even more ferociously than in Europe in the Middle Ages, nations and cities raged against each other for dominance of habitable land in a region surrounded by deserts.
The Bronze Age gave civilization some of the most enduring stories that shape our lives. The Iliad and Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Book of Exodus all tell stories about events or ideas that came about during the Bronze Age. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Exodus relate to the fiery and mysterious end of the “Late Bronze Age” between 1200 and 1100 before the common era. The native civilization of Crete is called the “Minoan” civilization in honor of the story of King Minos, a mythological Cretan king whose son the Minotaur was fed virgin sacrifices in Minos' Labyrinth until a brave hero vanquished the beast. The Minoans in real life profoundly influenced the art and culture of the final inhabitants of Bronze Age Greece, the Mycenaeans, who worshiped the same gods and spoke more or less the same language as the Classical Greeks that would succeed them.
Adapting this complicated time into a roleplaying game is difficult. Technological changes, cultural differences, and the difficulty of combining the truth about the Bronze Age with the myths about it (and the myths about if from the myths created during it). A strictly historical game is probably impossible to anyone not possessing a Ph.D in Archeology, large amounts of patience, and unlimited free time. This is not the purpose of this guide, however, as D&D is not a strictly historical game; indeed, D&D is littered with historical mismatches and inaccuracies and is fundamentally and wonderfully a fantasy. However, the truth about the Bronze Age can still provide a useful base for adaptation. Add to this the many legends and myths that are associated with this time and the fantasy and artistic license of the D&D game itself and it is possible to create a D&D game with Bronze Age themes, feel, and items.
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