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 06-09-2012, 04:22 AM   #21
DanHoward
 
DanHoward's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward View Post
Homer uses linothorex which is a compound noun that just means "armoured in linen".
Correction. It is an adjective (masculine, nominative, singular), not a noun.
DanHoward is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 04:29 AM   #22
Jukkaimaru
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward View Post
Correction. It is an adjective (masculine, nominative, singular), not a noun.
I would have pointed it out, but sadly all I know of Greek is the cool sounding letters and a few amusing word roots. :D

(I considered saying "it's all Greek to me", but nobody deserves a pun that horrible.)
Jukkaimaru is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 04:31 AM   #23
DanHoward
 
DanHoward's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

My point is that people think that Homer calls the armour a "linothorax". He doesn't. It was an invented adjective to fit the meter of the poem. Aias and Amphios were "armoured in linen" not "wearing a linothorax" [2.529, 2.830]

Last edited by DanHoward; 06-09-2012 at 04:34 AM.
DanHoward is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 04:39 AM   #24
Jukkaimaru
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward View Post
My point is that people think that Homer calls the armour a "linothorax". He doesn't. It was an invented adjective to fit the meter of the poem. Aias and Amphios were "armoured in linen" not "wearing a linothorax" [2.529, 2.830]
Yeah. And that could just as easily mean something like a toughened quilted linen shirt as much as it could mean one of those tube and yoke getups.

I can't help but be reminded of all the people who think samurai armor was made of wood, since it's all but impossible to tell an iron plate from a strip of wood once you've given it a good shiny coat of lacquer. XD
Jukkaimaru is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 07:21 AM   #25
Figleaf23
Banned
 
Figleaf23's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jukkaimaru View Post
Okay, I've been working out some costs for specific sorts of armor recently. I just did one for a late 1500s Japanese tosei-gusoku set that came out nicely. I then moved on to try to do Greek hoplite kit. I figured I'd lower the cost nicely by using a linothorax (Medium Layered Cloth) for the torso protection and stick to bronze greaves and helmet.

...Turns out that even with the nice inexpensive linothorax, the total cost of the armor is over 6000 GURPS $ (which is around 2000 more than the cost I ended up with for the Japanese armor)!

This seems...not quite right, to me. How would you, dear friends, deal with this in a game where the players were ancient Greek warriors (and thus at a TL that wouldn't likely give them $6000 to easily spend without heavy investment in Wealth)?
You could make Signature Gear (Basic Hoplite Kit) [X] part of the cultural template of Greek citizens.
Figleaf23 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 07:23 AM   #26
Anders
 
Anders's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Or you could just say "this is a campaign feature" and not charge any points for it. All citizens serve in the military so everyone should have the necessary equipment and the skills to use 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 06-09-2012, 09:37 AM   #27
Lord Carnifex
 
Lord Carnifex's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Quote:
Originally Posted by Asta Kask View Post
Or you could just say "this is a campaign feature" and not charge any points for it. All citizens serve in the military so everyone should have the necessary equipment and the skills to use it.
Yes, but how you served was dependent on what your social class was and therefore what equipment you'd be expected to provide. So, for instance, in Athens, the lowest citizen class served as rowers.
__________________
An ongoing narrative of philosophy, psychology, and semiotics: Et in Arcadia Ego

"To an Irishman, a serious matter is a joke, and a joke is a serious matter."
Lord Carnifex is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 10:12 AM   #28
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex View Post
Yes, but how you served was dependent on what your social class was and therefore what equipment you'd be expected to provide. So, for instance, in Athens, the lowest citizen class served as rowers.
And the people who could afford hoplite kit were at least Wealthy (for full bronze harness) or Comfortable (for harness with a spolas, light helmet, and not much more armour). Look at Solon's laws, and how the hoplite class had an income close to that of the equestrians.

Average and Struggling men were part of the naval mob, or the naked men who shot arrows and hurled javelins and stones, or had their kit provided by friends or the community.
__________________
"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper

This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature
Polydamas is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 02:58 PM   #29
Jukkaimaru
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

Quote:
Originally Posted by Figleaf23 View Post
You could make Signature Gear (Basic Hoplite Kit) [X] part of the cultural template of Greek citizens.
Hm...does Signature Gear stack, though? From reading it, it sounds like the RAI may be that each point in SG only gets you an individual item or set of items worth up to half the starting wealth level for the campaign ($375 for TL 2 Ancient Greece).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Asta Kask View Post
Or you could just say "this is a campaign feature" and not charge any points for it. All citizens serve in the military so everyone should have the necessary equipment and the skills to use it.
That'd be my last ditch ruling were I to run a game set here, I think. Though what Lord Carnifex said is a good point.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas View Post
And the people who could afford hoplite kit were at least Wealthy (for full bronze harness) or Comfortable (for harness with a spolas, light helmet, and not much more armour). Look at Solon's laws, and how the hoplite class had an income close to that of the equestrians.

Average and Struggling men were part of the naval mob, or the naked men who shot arrows and hurled javelins and stones, or had their kit provided by friends or the community.
There's one problem with that. Wealthy in an Iron Age society only gets you $3750, and Comfortable is a paltry $1500 (less than half of what you need to afford the cheap Macedonian gear Dan mentioned)!

Last edited by Jukkaimaru; 06-09-2012 at 03:10 PM. Reason: Correction!
Jukkaimaru is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 07:01 PM   #30
DanHoward
 
DanHoward's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Default Re: Bronze Age Greece On A Shoestring Budget

I'm not sure whether greaves were mandatory. If not, you can halve the cost of the panoply by not wearing them.
DanHoward is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
bronze, greek, helmets, low-tech armor

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 12:48 PM.


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