Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-22-2017, 02:01 PM   #21
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
Huh. Dubious assertion in 1177 BC.
Lets ask Aeneas.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2017, 10:13 PM   #22
Badmash
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Falls Church, VA
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

Depending on how closely you want to model your setting on, you may want to consider some of these books as sources. 1177 is a good place to start.

The best book I've seen for the theory of a new type is Robert Drews' book, The End of the Bronze Age.

A good book concerning the Mycenaean place age is The Mycenaean World, by Frank Chadwick (who helped Ventris translate Linear B). One of the major surprises (and disappointments to the folks hoping to read of heroic swashbuckling derring-do in the original language) was that the documents revealed an extremely centralized, bureaucratic society.

Sing Goddess, of the stores of Achilles; Four chariots, six ingots of bronze, four helmets... Homer's version is more entertaining.

One thing to consider is that the scribes vital to the palace system. The palaces shouldn't function without them, and conversely, the scribes couldn't endure without the palaces.

Another book you should consider is Michael Wood's book In Search of the Trojan War. The book was originally written as a companion to a BBC series by the same name. If you can find the series on DVD, you may find that interesting as well. The book has been through several revisions through the years as new information has come to light.

Dan Howard, whose name you'll likely recognize, has a book, Bronze Age Military Equipment.
Badmash is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2017, 10:25 PM   #23
Purple Haze
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

In Search of the Trojan War is on Youtube, six one hour episodes IIRC.
Purple Haze is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2017, 11:09 PM   #24
Badmash
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Falls Church, VA
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

That sounds about right. I got the DVD set from Amazon a few years ago, but it seems to have gone out of print.

If it's on You Tube, I would recommend watching at least the first episode to see if you like it. The opening credit is very much a product of its time, but the episodes themselves have held up a lot better than I had expected.
Badmash is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2017, 02:54 AM   #25
Mailanka
 
Mailanka's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
I forget, was this the same era that had the Sea People roaming and raiding across the eastern Mediterranean?
Yes. It's also around the time of the Trojan war. Exciting times!
__________________
My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars.
Mailanka is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2017, 03:39 AM   #26
The Colonel
 
The Colonel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

Saw a video documentary on this not long ago - suggested that "the sea peoples" didn't have a fixed identity but were a mixed bag of displaced people, including those whose cities had been destroyed in raids by early sea-peoples.
Also suggested that the first sea-people raiders might have been light infantrymen, originally trained for chariot support and then made redundant in an outbreak of peace immediately before the collapse started.
Although it would be interesting to see a detailed comparison between this period and the age of migrations around the fall of Rome ... almost a millennium apart.
The Colonel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2017, 04:14 AM   #27
DanHoward
 
DanHoward's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

The so-called drought at the time was limited and the famine was no more severe than countless other famines over the centuries. There is no evidence of mass migrations; the people and cultures in various regions before the alleged Dark Age are exactly the same as those after the Dark Age. The so-called barbarian invasion never occurred; there was limited raiding on some coastal areas and that is all. To summarise: there was no "collapse" and there was no "Dark Age". The Dark Age is an artificial construction to compensate for the fact that the chronology we are currently using is wrong.

1177 is not a good reference to start with. Start with "End of the Bronze Age" by Robert Drews. Then read "Centuries of Darkness" by Peter James et al. My book uses the latest research to summarise military equipment and warfare at the time.
https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Age-Mi.../dp/1848842937
__________________
Compact Castles gives the gamer an instant portfolio of genuine, real-world castle floorplans to use in any historical, low-tech, or fantasy game setting.

Last edited by DanHoward; 01-23-2017 at 04:27 AM.
DanHoward is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2017, 09:46 AM   #28
Anders
 
Anders's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward View Post
The so-called drought at the time was limited and the famine was no more severe than countless other famines over the centuries. There is no evidence of mass migrations; the people and cultures in various regions before the alleged Dark Age are exactly the same as those after the Dark Age. The so-called barbarian invasion never occurred; there was limited raiding on some coastal areas and that is all. To summarise: there was no "collapse" and there was no "Dark Age". The Dark Age is an artificial construction to compensate for the fact that the chronology we are currently using is wrong.

1177 is not a good reference to start with. Start with "End of the Bronze Age" by Robert Drews. Then read "Centuries of Darkness" by Peter James et al. My book uses the latest research to summarise military equipment and warfare at the time.
https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Age-Mi.../dp/1848842937
Spoilsport. :o)

I have your book, and I like it.
__________________
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius
Anders is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2017, 10:01 AM   #29
Kraydak
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward View Post
The so-called drought at the time was limited and the famine was no more severe than countless other famines over the centuries. There is no evidence of mass migrations; the people and cultures in various regions before the alleged Dark Age are exactly the same as those after the Dark Age. The so-called barbarian invasion never occurred; there was limited raiding on some coastal areas and that is all. To summarise: there was no "collapse" and there was no "Dark Age". The Dark Age is an artificial construction to compensate for the fact that the chronology we are currently using is wrong.

1177 is not a good reference to start with. Start with "End of the Bronze Age" by Robert Drews. Then read "Centuries of Darkness" by Peter James et al. My book uses the latest research to summarise military equipment and warfare at the time.
https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Age-Mi.../dp/1848842937
If you aren't in a field, it can be quite hard to distinguish between well supported but disruptive arguments, and well spoken cranks. Is there a good even-handed (which can come down hard on one side if that is the evidence...), independent repository of chronology arguments out there that isn't behind a pay-wall?
Kraydak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2017, 07:07 PM   #30
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Apocalypse 1177 BC

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraydak View Post
If you aren't in a field, it can be quite hard to distinguish between well supported but disruptive arguments, and well spoken cranks. Is there a good even-handed (which can come down hard on one side if that is the evidence...), independent repository of chronology arguments out there that isn't behind a pay-wall?
The Twentieth Century is pretty obviously a Dark Age in Poland and a Golden Age in America. You can always find enough to justify stuff depending on which perspective you are starting from when you look. But hairy smelly people trampling through a place leaving famine, plague, crime, internal feuding, and general lawlessness behind them is always a dark age for the locals even if those same hairy smelly people go home to sell their loot, build grand palaces full of viands, and concubines, and fan-waving slaves and poets chanting of their deeds.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
bronze age, campaign, egypt

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:09 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.