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Revisiting GURPS Greece: Incomes, Status, and Prices

Revisiting GURPS Greece: Incomes, Status, and Prices

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Twenty-plus years ago, when I wrote GURPS Greece, a lot of what went into the Characters chapter was educated guesswork. I had a limited set of sources available, and I hadn’t built up very much skill with the sort of analysis that needs to go into any description of money, prices, wealth, and social status in a game setting. I can do better than that now. The scantiness of primary sources is still a problem, but at least I have access to more of them today, so I can perhaps produce a better quality of guesswork.

A small warning here: among other things, I am going to be discussing the mechanics of slavery in classical Hellas. Those of us who idealize the Hellenes would do well to remember that their civilization was thoroughly founded upon the institution of slavery, with all the brutality, callousness, and injustice that implies. Without exception, every large fortune was based on the labor of slaves. Sometimes a lot of slaves.

In any era, it’s easy to become rich when you arrange things so that you can steal the labor of others with impunity. Something always to bear in mind when we consider the accomplishments of Hellenic civilization. Or our own.

Money and Incomes

Okay, let’s start with a well-established data point. The price of wheat in Athens in the late 4th century BCE fluctuated, but usually hovered close to 6 drachmai per medimnos. A medimnos was roughly a “bushel” of grain, enough to feed a family of five (man, woman, and three children) for about 15 days at the subsistence level. Thus, considering food alone, a laborer’s salary needed to be about 12 drachmai per month.

In ancient times, living at a subsistence level meant that about 50% of your expenses went to food. The rest went to cheap housing, shabby clothing, and what few tools and housewares you would need. That suggests the typical unskilled laborer’s salary needed to be about 24 drachmai per month, and that would cover expenses for himself and a family.

Assuming the unskilled laborer made about a drachma per day on the job, that suggests working about 24 out of every 30 days, which makes sense. As it happens, a drachma a day was so typical for unskilled labor that it’s sometimes thought of as “the standard salary” in classical times. That’s a considerable oversimplification, but for fictional purposes it’s not bad.

Fitting this to the GURPS figures, let’s assume that a typical unskilled laborer is Struggling and at Status -1. Then his cost of living is $300 per month (Characters, p. 265). If we assume this covers his family’s needs as well, that equates one drachma to about $12.50 in GURPS terms. Let’s adjust that figure slightly, to make the other denominations work out to whole numbers, and run with it:

  • 1 chalkos = $0.25
  • 1 obolos = $2 (8 chalkoi = 1 obolos)
  • 1 drachma = $12 (6 oboloi = 1 drachma)
  • 1 tetradrachmon = $48 (4 drachmai = 1 tetradrachmon)
  • 1 mina = $1,200 (100 drachmai = 1 mina)
  • 1 talenton = $72,000 (60 minai = 1 talenton)

Notice that this estimate doubles the purchasing power of all these coins and measures, compared to the estimates I published in GURPS Greece. Here’s an example of how the guesswork has improved; back then, I didn’t work from a basic assumption about the price of staples.

As a cross-check, the $675 given as typical monthly pay for TL2 (Campaigns, p. 517) equates to just over 56 drachmai, which would be about two drachmai a day with almost no days off. In fact, two drachmai per working day was a very typical wage for a skilled laborer, someone who in GURPS terms would be at Average wealth and Status 0, with cost of living of $600 per month. So that fits too.

Of course, most Hellenes would not have worked every day for pay, so a more typical monthly wage would probably be a bit lower. Let’s assume that the typical monthly income for someone at Average wealth and Status 0 will be $600, or $7,200 per year.

Social Classes in Athenian Society

Under the constitution of Solon, the Athenian citizenry was divided into four social classes by their annual income. These were defined in terms of how many medimnoi of wheat they could afford in a year, assuming they purchased nothing but the wheat. This makes sense if we consider that the whole system centered on farmers and land-owners. Such men would produce grain or other agricultural products, and trade some away for whatever else they needed.

In the Solonian system, the baseline income was what we’ve defined as the typical income for Average wealth and Status 0: $7,200 in GURPS terms, 600 drachmai, or 100 medimnoiof wheat per year.

The four classes were as follows:

  • Pentakosiomedimnoi or “five-hundred-bushel men” had incomes equivalent to at least 500 medimnoi of grain per year. This is exactly five times the baseline income we just defined, so status as a pentakosiomedimnos very precisely fits the Wealthy advantage.
  • Hippeis or “knights” had incomes equivalent to at least 300 medimnoi per year. This is exactly three times the baseline income, above the minimum for the Comfortable advantage.
  • Zeugitai or “yoked men” had incomes equivalent to at least 200 medimnoi per year, and so exactly twice the baseline income. Zeugitai are at least Comfortable.
  • Thetes or “serfs” were the rest of the citizen population, those with Average wealth or below. These included small-scale yeoman farmers, as well as craftsmen and others who worked for a wage.

So far, the Athenian system doesn’t seem to consider anyone well above the minimum for pentakosiomedimnos status, what GURPS might define as Very Wealthy, Filthy Rich, or even Multimillionaire. Just how wealthy did Athenians get?

The wealthiest Athenians we know of were the ones who leased large numbers of slaves to the silver mines at Laurion. Xenophon reports that the state paid such slave-brokers an obolos per day per slave, amounting to 60 drachmai per year per slave.

The largest such labor force we know of was provided by our friend Nikias, who maintained about a thousand slaves at the mines. This would have provided an annual income of 10 talents,or $720,000 in GURPS terms. That implies that Nikias qualified almost exactly for the Filthy Rich level of Wealth, but not for Multimillionaire.

Let’s look at another case, and see how it fits in. Some Athenians made modest fortunes by operating small-scale manufacturing enterprises. Usually they would purchase slaves skilled in some trade, then profit from the difference between what the slaves subsisted on and the value of the goods they produced.

Assume that a slave can survive on about one obolos per day. That works out to only 10 medimnoi of wheat per year, but the slave almost certainly doesn’t have anyone but himself to feed, and he doesn’t need to buy his own tools and housing. Throw in two more oboloi per day for tools, raw materials, and any other overhead costs. Then a typical manufacturer could probably make about half a drachma a day of profit per slave. Quite a bit more than Nikias was making, but here we’re considering a trade-off of quality for quantity.

Typical sizes for a large enterprise would be on the order of 60-120 slaves, which would imply 30-60 drachmai per day in profit. Not quite on the same level as Nikias and his fellow plutocrats, but factory-owners could reach into the upper strata of society too.

If we compare all these incomes to the Cost of Living table in the (Fourth Edition) Basic Set, and assume income matches cost of living, it appears Nikias fell somewhere between Status 4 and 5, while other wealthy Athenians often reached Status 4. There just wasn’t much room in classical Hellas for anyone to reach Status 5 or higher. Maybe the tyrants of Syracuse would have made the cut, or an Athenian named Kallias who was known as the wealthiest man in mainland Hellas, but I kind of doubt it even for them. I’m beginning to think that the Status table I developed for GURPS Greece wasn’t quite flat enough.

Consider the following as a replacement, with no Hellene coming in any higher than Status 4:

Status Notes Cost of Living
4 Kings or tyrants of major poleis, Filthy Rich citizens $60,000
3 Kings or tyrants of minor poleis, Very Wealthy citizens $12,000
2 Pentakosiomedimnoi, Wealthy citizens $3,000
1 Zeugitai and hippeis, Comfortable citizens $1,200
0 Thetes, Average citizens, skilled craftsmen $600
-1 Thetes, Struggling citizens, unskilled laborers $300
-2 Slaves $100

I may have to adjust some of the GURPS writeups I’ve already done for prominent Athenians, to bring their Wealth and Status in line with what I’ve worked out here.

The Cost of Slaves and Return on Investment

We know something about the prices of slaves from our primary sources.

  • Xenophon gives the typical range of prices for a slave as being between half a mina ($600) and ten minai ($12,000). The lower end of that range would have been typical for older, weaker, or partially crippled slaves, the kind that might be purchased to work as a household servant. The higher end would represent young, healthy, highly skilled slaves.
  • Xenophon mentions a going price for slaves to work in the silver mines, about 180 drachmai or a little over $2,000. This might be considered typical for a strong but unskilled laborer.
  • The most expensive mine-slave Xenophon mentions is an overseer, for whom Nikias paid a full talent ($72,000). This was clearly a strong, loyal, and highly skilled individual.
  • Another primary source is the orator Demosthenes, who began his career by bringing a lawsuit against the guardians of his father’s estate. At one point he mentions that his father owned two small factories. One of them employed slaves as sword-smiths, who were worth about five or six minai each on the average (between $6,000 and $7,200).
  • The other factory manufactured couches and beds. It employed slaves as cabinet-makers, which the elder Demosthenes acquired for about two minai each ($2,400). There’s some indication that these slaves were acquired as payment for a bad debt, so their actual value might have been higher.

Overall, we can probably assume that a slave purchased for household work could cost as little as $600, a typical unskilled laborer would cost around $2,000, and skilled craftsmen would usually cost two or three times that. A few extraordinary slaves might come at very high prices.

If we assume an unskilled laborer at the silver mines usually cost about 180 drachmai and would return about 60 drachmai per year, that implies about a 33% return per annum. Skilled slaves working in a factory would cost two or three times as much. On the other hand, given our assumptions above they would also make two or three times as much profit, so again the return per annum would be about 33%.

Slaves were apparently a very good investment, if one was interested in making a profit. In GURPS Greece I suggested rates of return of about 30% for slave-leasing, and 40% for factory workers, so I wasn’t too far off. Demosthenes suggests somewhat lower rates of return, though, so we probably need to be cautious. Rates of return in the area of 20% to 30% were probably more typical.

I note that the prices I gave for slaves in GURPS Greece are probably too low by about a factor of two. One could acquire relatively inexpensive slaves for household work, though, so at least some Average-wealth households could probably afford one.

A Check on Prices for Adventuring Gear

Let’s work up one more data point. We know that in classical Athens, anyone of zeugitai status or better was expected to serve in the city’s army as a hoplite. As we saw above, that implies someone of at least Comfortable wealth.

The Basic Set implies (p. 27) that the base starting money for an Average character at TL2 is $750, therefore starting money for a Comfortable character would be $1,500. One-fifth of that is usually considered to be all one can spend for adventuring gear; I suppose it makes sense that no one is going to sink more than 20% of their wealth into a set of armor and weapons they won’t use very often. So, the question arises, can we build a bare-bones set of hoplite gear for no more than about $300?

It turns out that we can. The absolute bare minimum for a hoplite would have been the heavy spear (doru) which is priced in Low-Tech at $90, and the Argive shield (aspis or hoplon) which costs $120. That comes to about $210, or about 17-18 drachmai, less than a month’s wages even for an unskilled laborer. Wealthier citizens would have been able to afford more of the full panoply, including Corinthian helmet, bronze cuirass, bronze greaves, and a shortsword (xiphos). There was not a lot of standardization in the hoplite ranks, and many (if not most) of the soldiers would have been going into battle with very little.

So, at this point I’m confident that my analysis holds together, and that the prices in Low-Tech (and in the Basic Set) aren’t going to be too far out of alignment with the actual state of affairs in classical Hellas. Which doesn’t surprise me – the guys who wrote Low-Tech did their homework too, and I’d be willing to bet some of them looked at the same sources.

(Hah! I just glanced at the title page for Low-Tech and realized I got “Additional Material” credit. I’m sure someone at SJG mentioned that to me at the time, but it slipped my memory. Must have been some of the work I did for GURPS Greece, still showing up in the product line fifteen years later . . .)

Sources

Demosthenes gave several orations Against Aphobus and Against Otenor, as part of his lawsuit against the trustees of his father’s estate, all of which we still have. The figures used above are from Against Aphobus 1.

Xenophon’s Memorabilia and Ways and Means both serve as primary sources for some of the above discussion. It probably shouldn’t surprise us that one of the most stubbornly practical writers of the ancient world would be one of the few to talk about wages and prices at all.

A superb secondary source is William T. Loomis, Wages, Welfare, and Inflation in Classical Athens (University of Michigan Press, 1999). Loomis has painstakingly gone through every single reference to wages in the primary sources, compiling an authoritative overview of the whole question.

Memnon

Memnon

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Something of a departure this time. Most of the characters I’ve drawn up so far have been upper-class Athenians, or people who would naturally have associated with them. This fellow is very much from the lower classes, what the Athenians would have called thetes, “serfs” or poor freemen. When Memnon arrives in Athens as Alexandra’s guardian, both of them poor as church-mice, it’s not nearly as far a fall for him.

Memnon of Danassos (200 points)

Age25; Human; 6′ 2″; 170 lbs.; Tall, brawny man, tanned skin, dark hair and eyes, neatly trimmed beard.

ST 14 [40]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 12 [40]; HT 13 [30].

Damage 1d/2d; BL 39 lbs.; HP 14 [0]; Will 14 [10]; Per 12 [0]; FP 13 [0].

Basic Speed 6.5 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 8 (DX); Dodge 10; Parry 10 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Dorian Greek (Native) [0].

Advantages

Combat Reflexes [15].

Disadvantages

Code of Honor (Soldier’s) [-10]; Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) [-5]; Status (Ordinary craftsman) -1 [-5]; Vow (Always protect Alexandra) (Major) [-10]; Wealth (Poor) [-15].

          Quirks: Dislikes wealthy and arrogant people; Frequently swears “to the crows with it”; Has an unspoken crush on Alexandra; Loves farming and hunting; Proud [-5].

Skills

Area Knowledge (Danassos)-12 (IQ+0) [1]; Armoury/TL2 (Melee Weapons)-11 (IQ-1) [1]; Bow-12 (DX-1) [1]; Brawling-15 (DX+2) [4]; Carousing-13 (HT+0) [1]; Climbing-12 (DX-1) [1]; Cooking-11 (IQ-1) [1]; Farming/TL2-13 (IQ+1) [4]; First Aid/TL2 (Human)-12 (IQ+0) [1]; Hiking-13 (HT+0) [2]; Intimidation-14 (Will+0) [2]; Leadership-12 (IQ+0) [2]; Running-12 (HT-1) [1]; Shield (Shield)-14 (DX+1) [2]; Shortsword-12 (DX-1) [1]; Soldier/TL2-13 (IQ+1) [4]; Spear-14 (DX+1) [4]; Strategy (Land)-10 (IQ-2) [1]; Streetwise-12 (IQ+0) [2]; Survival (Plains)-12 (Per+0) [2]; Swimming-13 (HT+0) [1]; Tactics-12 (IQ+0) [4]; Thrown Weapon (Spear)-15 (DX+2) [4]; Tracking-12 (Per+0) [2]; Weather Sense-12 (IQ+0) [2]; Wrestling-14 (DX+1) [4].

Character notes for Memnon:

  • Since Memnon is a fictional character, I have no imagery for him yet. At some point I’ll need to fire up Daz Studio and see what I can build for him.
  • Memnon’s name is indicative – it means, more or less, “steadfast.” He is that – big, strong, tough,  brilliant but far from stupid, and devoted to protecting his royal charge.
  • Memnon comes from a farming background, and he’s most comfortable seeing to his crops, hunting, or otherwise living off the land. Unlike most thetes, he has seen plenty of military service and has some of the requisite skills. He’s a competent if not exceptional leader, and with some experience could serve as a strategos in any of the Hellenic city-states’ amateur armies.
  • Not a lot of character advantages here – Memnon is quick, rarely caught off-guard, but that’s about it.
  • Memnon most closely resembles Alkibiades as far as character design goes, but the two men are poles apart in personality. I suspect Memnon is not going to get along with Alkibiades when the two of them meet, given how he feels about wealthy aristocrats of any kind. Not to mention what’s likely to happen if the Athenian tries to charm Alexandra’s peplos off . . .
Alexandra

Alexandra

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Okay, having worked up some historical figures, and sketched out the details of the Danassos setting’s magic, I think I can finally put together some of my leading characters. Here’s the protagonist of the first story, as she is just after she arrives in Athens. Back at home, she’s a member of the royal family, a goddess-touched priestess, and a magician of uncommon talent. Once she sets foot in the Piraeus, though, she’s just another young foreign woman without an obolos to her name . . .

Alexandra of Danassos (300 points)

Age 16; Human; 5′ 1″; 115 lbs.; Petite young woman, curly black hair, dark eyes, strong eyebrows, well-groomed but wearing shabby clothing.

ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 12 [20].

Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 16 [10]; Per 14 [0]; FP 12 [0].

Basic Speed 6 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 7 (DX); Dodge 9; Parry 9 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Dorian Greek (Native) [0]; Punic (Accented) [4].

Advantages

Ally (Team of aurai, nymphs of the breeze) (100% of starting points) (12 or less; Group Size (6-10)) [60]; Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Blessed [10]; Clerical Investment [5]; Medium [10]; Rank (Religious) 2 [10]; Ritual Magery (Path/Book) 3 [30]; Ritual Magery 0 [5].

Disadvantages

Enemy (Melissa, usurper of Danassos) (Equal in power to the PC) (6 or less) [-5]; Honesty (12 or less) [-10]; Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) -1 [-5]; Status (Ordinary craftsman) -1 [-5]; Vow (Celibacy until becoming Queen) (Minor) [-5]; Wealth (Poor) [-15].

          Quirks: Broad-Minded; Enjoys intellectual debate; Responsive; Shy around attractive or handsome men [-4].

Skills

Area Knowledge (Danassos)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Greater Hellas)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Dancing-11 (DX-1) [1]; Diplomacy-14 (IQ+0) [4]; Dreaming-14 (Will-2) [1]; Finance-13 (IQ-1) [2]; First Aid/TL2 (Human)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Fortune-Telling (Dream Interpretation)-15 (IQ+1) [4]; Hidden Lore (Spirit Lore)-13 (IQ-1) [1]; History (Danassan)-13 (IQ-1) [2]; Knife-14 (DX+2) [4]; Law (Danassan)-14 (IQ+0) [4]; Literature-12 (IQ-2) [1]; Occultism-14 (IQ+0) [2]; Path of Dreams-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Elements-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Health-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Knowledge-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Protection-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Spirit-16 (IQ+2) [4]; Politics-13 (IQ-1) [1]; Public Speaking-14 (IQ+0) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-14 (IQ+0) [4]; Ritual Magic (Hellenic)-16 (IQ+2) [4]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Singing-12 (HT+0) [1]; Swimming-12 (HT+0) [1]; Theology (Hellenic)-14 (IQ+0) [4].

Some notes about this writeup:

  • No imagery this time, since Alexandra is an entirely fictional character and I haven’t worked up a model for her yet.
  • Alexandra is escorted by a team of six aurai, minor air-spirits built on a base of 300 points each, as defined in the writeup from my last post.
  • Alexandra has no Patron advantage. She has a close relationship with a goddess, but the goddess doesn’t offer help on demand as such. Instead, she has Blessed (representing divine advice on occasion), Clerical Investment (formally making her a priestess), and Ritual Magery (representing the power investiture that permits her to work magic).
  • Alexandra has two levels of Religious Rank, which is about as high as that advantage will go in a Classical Hellenic setting. That makes her the equivalent of the head priest of a large temple. If and when she ever returns to Danassos as Queen, she’ll probably bump up to a third level of Religious Rank.
  • When Alexandra arrives in Athens, she has effective Status -1 and is Poor. Part of the story is going to involve her finding ways to advance in Status and Wealth even in Athenian society. Of course, once she returns home to Danassos and retakes her throne, she’ll reach as high as Status 6 and some level of Multimillionaire . . .
  • With a high IQ, most of Alexandra’s skills are scholarly or social in nature, along with a solid phalanx of ritual-magic skills. Even as a very young woman, she’s a competent diplomat and jurist. She has no skill in Philosophy yet – the Danassan royal family doesn’t go in for tutoring from sophists – although that may change if she spends much time associating with Sokrates.
Danassos: Defining the Magic System

Danassos: Defining the Magic System

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This post is going to be kind of long. In it, I’m going to go over a piece of published fiction in detail, looking for references to the use of magic, and I’m going to see how best to express what we read in GURPS terms. The main wrinkle is that I wrote this piece of fiction, although that was a couple of years ago and I wasn’t explicitly using GURPS as a world-building tool at the time.

The story is my novelette “Harmony’s Choice,” published in the spring of 2016. It’s set in the Mycenaean era, in the city of Thebes, and it involves a contention among heroes for the vacant kingship of the city. The protagonist is a young woman named Megara, who is sent by the city’s ruling Queen to select the most likely candidates. The two men she brings before the throne turn out to be two of the great heroes of Greek myth.

Both Megara and her Queen are magic-users, in the same tradition that will carry over into the Danassos stories I intend to write (the Danassos setting can be considered part of the same historical-fantasy timeline, a few centuries later). They both resemble Alexandra, the protagonist for those stories. All these characters are young women who are highly talented in some system of spirit-based magic, in which they produce effects by interacting with a spirit world and call up specific spirits to serve as allies.

What do Spells Look Like?

Let’s start by examining places in the story where a character can be said to engage in some form of “spell-casting.” I think the system I had in the back of my mind when I wrote “Harmony’s Choice” was the Paths and Books ritual-magic system, as detailed in GURPS Thaumatology (Chapter Five, pages 121-165). Keeping that in mind, I’ll mostly be looking to see whether I wrote anything into the story that can’t easily be framed in that kind of magic system.

“Your brother is safe, and will return to the city by tomorrow,” [Megara’s father] assured her. “The spirits you sent with us watched over him well. He took a cut across his cheek in the last battle, but nothing to threaten his life. He might show a scar once it heals.”

[Megara] snorted in derision. “He’ll like that. The girls will think he’s a great hero.”

“Yes, I believe he’s already thought of that.”

Here, Megara is said to have “sent spirits” to “watch over” her father and her brother during a war. This sounds very much like a protective ritual, most likely Chaperone (p. 152 in Thaumatology) creating protective amulets that Megara’s men could wear in battle.

For a long time, Euryganeia sat in silent thought, one hand reaching out to idly caress Megara’s hair. “I have consulted the omens,” she said at last. “Walked in dreams and spoken with my kin upon Olympos. King Laios is dead.”

Queen Euryganeia (who is both a mortal woman and a vessel for the city’s patron goddess, Harmonia) has apparently used scrying magic based on dreams (oneiromancy) to determine the fate of the city’s king.

This could be the working of an advantage like Blessed or (less likely) Oracle. It could also simply be the use of the Dreaming skill with Fortune-Telling (Dream Interpretation), as described on p. 188 of the Basic Set). It would make sense for such a skill to be supernaturally effective in this setting – the ancient Greeks certainly believed in prophetic dreams. Finally, it could indicate that Euryganeia is using the Dreamwalk ritual (p. 142 in Thaumatology).

I think I’ll go with the latter and assume that magical adepts are likely to have some combination of Dreaming, Fortune-Telling, Ritual Magic, and Path of Dreams skills. Of course, none of that is mutually exclusive with a god-touched individual also having the Blessed advantage, for occasional advice straight from the deity.

Megara moved forward to stand by the central hearth, between the contenders, with as much dignity as she could manage. From there, she administered a terrible oath, invoking both Olympian and chthonic powers. By the time she finished, the divine presence had become so thick in the megaron that she could barely breathe.

This priestly act of oath-taking can also be modeled using GURPS Path and Book magic. This could most likely be implemented as the Doom ritual (p. 152 in Thaumatology) with a starting condition (i.e., “when you break the oath you just swore”).

That’s all the “spell-casting” references in the story. All three can be represented using Path and Book magic, and it’s interesting that two out of three of those came from the Path of Luck. Looking at the other Paths, though, all of them look as if they would fit the setting except for the Path of Gadgets.

I’m going to assume that magic-users will invest in the Ritual Magic skill. I’ll assume the Effect Shaping form of the magic system, with most magicians using Paths, although there may be a few Books (grimoires) written by famed practitioners.

Spirit Allies

Another major component of magic, as it appears in the story, has to do with the service of spirits. Megara has a team of small air-spirits, called aurai (the word is related to the English “aura” and literally means “breeze”). These aurai always linger near her and she can perceive and speak with them. They usually act as spies and message-carriers, but they’re also capable of giving her a little help in dangerous situations. An example:

She heard a great commotion out in the grand courtyard: the sudden rattle of chariot wheels on stone, followed by the clatter of bronze and the hoarse shouts of men.

Eyes wide, Megara sent one of her aurai out through the window to investigate. When the tiny spirit returned to whisper in her ear, she rose to her feet at once.

“News of the war?” wondered Klymenos. “Or is it the king at last?”

“It’s my father,” said Megara.

All of this has several implications. First, Megara almost certainly has the Medium advantage (10 points) so that she can see and speak to spirits. Second, she also has an Ally Group advantage, indicating her command over a personal team of aurai. We’re going to need to stat out the aurai, which means analyzing what their capabilities are.

Again, I wasn’t explicitly using GURPS when I wrote this story, but I can attest I was thinking in terms of the spirit templates developed as far back as GURPS Spirits (2001). I’m fairly certain that the aurai will be easy to set up using something like the Spirit meta-trait on p. 263 of the Basic Set. Let’s do the analysis. I’m going to search for each reference to aurai in the story and make a note of the implications.

Starting with the reference above:

  • Aurai can fly. More precisely, they can use the omnidirectional movement that’s typical of the Insubstantiality advantage.
  • They are quick enough that they can move out of a building, see something, and report back within a few moments. That may suggest a level or so of Enhanced Move.
  • They are also intelligent enough to recognize what they see, for example specifically reporting to Megara that her father (and not some other bronze-armored charioteer) has arrived.

Okay, let’s look for some more data.

Then Megara heard a whisper. Not one of her own aurai. A different voice, cold and accustomed to command.

Oskalos must have seen a shadow in her face. “What is it, little bird?”

She looked up into his eyes, suddenly solemn. “The queen wants to hear your report.”

  • The queen (a woman named Euryganeia) clearly has command of aurai of her own, so Megara isn’t the only character with the requisite traits.
  • Aurai are intelligent enough to carry a message, and even to convey something of the personality of the person who sent a message.

A thought called up her aurai, and sent the spirits soaring around the two of them, silent and invisible. They examined Alkaios, searching out the secrets of his heart and whispering to Megara of what they saw. She compared the man to what she remembered of the boy.

  • This suggests some level of telepathic ability, permitting the aurai to sense Alkaios’s thoughts and intentions. Alkaios doesn’t seem to be aware of the scrutiny or able to mount a Will-based defense of it. That suggests Empathy rather than the more active and intrusive Mind Probe or Mind Reading.
  • The aurai are probably quite intelligent, well above the level of even a smart animal, if they are using Empathy to weigh human souls.
  • I’ve just realized this, but if Megara is using her aurai to assess another character, that probably means she lacks the Empathy advantage herself.

“If you’re a prince, why are you in exile?” Megara silently called up an aura to watch him. “Did you commit a crime?”

“No, potnia, I’m guilty of no crime there.” He tossed his head ruefully. “In fact, I left Korinthos to prevent a terrible crime. I wish it wasn’t necessary. I love my parents very much, but to rest at ease in their palace is not my fate.”

She listened for the spirit’s protest, but it remained silent.

He is telling the truth. Or at least he believes what he is saying.

  • Once again, Megara is using an aura to apply Empathy (and probably the spirit’s Detect Lies skill) while conversing with someone.

Megara barely had an instant to realize what was happening. She pulled out her dagger. Then a man loomed up in front of her in the darkness, all stink and staring eyes, his teeth bared in a snarl. His own knife swept up, ready to tear out her life.

She didn’t have time to think, only to react. She whispered a name. One of her aurai flew forward, half-materializing in the darkness.

Suddenly the man saw not a frightened young woman, but something out of clawed and fanged nightmare, leaping for his throat. He stopped dead, paralyzed with sudden terror, as if he had seen a Gorgon’s face.

  • An aura can apparently materialize for short periods of time. This fits the Spirit meta-trait, with the Insubstantiality advantage carrying the Affect Substantial and Usually On modifiers.
  • When substantial and visible, an aura can seriously frighten a human target. That suggests the Terror advantage.

Megara calculated quickly, and whispered to another spirit. It picked up a heavy load of dust from the street and hurled it into the faces of the men opposing her brother.

  • This doesn’t seem to require much beyond the ability to materialize for a moment and move an object, which seems implicit in the Spirit meta-trait. The aurai don’t seem to be very large or physically strong, otherwise Megara would be calling on them to actually fight for her, instead of engaging in this kind of trickery.

Megara found herself watching Alkaios: jaw set, brows lowered, eyes flashing in anger as he thought hard. The picture of consternation. Her heart went out to him. She felt the sudden temptation to send an aura to whisper in his ear, help him find the answer he needed. Then she quashed the idea, shivering at the thought of what the goddess would do to her, if she tried such a thing under Euryganeia’s watchful eye.

  • At first glance, this doesn’t seem to suggest anything new, but I just now realized that Megara is assuming an aura could whisper to Alkaios and he would hear it. Alkaios is not likely to be a Medium or anything like that, just an ordinary man, so this might require explanation. I had to check the GURPS rules to see that Insubstantial characters are assumed to be able to speak to substantial ones, so that’s okay.

Okay, I think I’ve gathered enough information to draw up a template for aurai, which will serve as basic spirit servants for magic-using characters in the Danassos setting as well.

Aura (300 points)

Age N/A; Spirit; 1′; Negligible weight; Amorphous and diffuse creature, rarely substantial or visible.

ST 4 [-60]; DX 14 [80]; IQ 8 [-40]; HT 10 [0].

Damage 1d-5/1d-4; BL 3.2 lbs.; HP 8 [8]; Will 8 [0]; Per 14 [30]; FP 10 [0].

Basic Speed 6 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 8 (DX); Dodge 9; Parry 10 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Greek (Native) [0].

Advantages

Doesn’t Breathe [20]; Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10]; Doesn’t Sleep [20]; Empathy [15]; Enhanced Move (Air) (1) [20]; Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) [100]; Insubstantiality (Accessibility (Cannot move through solid objects or liquids) (+2); Usually On) [32]; Invisibility (Electromagnetic) (Substantial Only; Usually On) [38]; Resistant (Metabolic Hazards) (Very Common) (Immunity) [30]; Terror (Will-0) [30]; Unaging [15].

Disadvantages

Curious (6 or less) [-10]; Dependency (Open air) (Very Common) (Constantly) [-25]; Invertebrate [-20]; Selfless (12 or less) [-5].

          Quirks: Devoted to its assigned human; Imaginative; Playful and mischievous; Sometimes acts out to get attention [-4].

Skills

Detect Lies-16 (Per+2) [2]; Lip Reading-14 (Per+0) [2]; Observation-15 (Per+1) [4]; Search-15 (Per+1) [4]; Throwing-15 (DX+1) [4].

A few things to note here:

  • An aura has no magical or psionic powers that it can use to affect the substantial world while it remains insubstantial. Even its Terror requires that it be visible and therefore substantial. It can pick up (very small) objects with its ST, but again, only while it’s substantial. I therefore didn’t apply the Affects Substantial modifier to Insubstantiality, as in the Spirit meta-trait on p. 263 of the Basic Set.
  • I kept the Doesn’t Breathe advantage, but I also added another Accessibility limitation to Insubstantiality so that an aura can’t move through walls or other solid objects. It also needs open air as a Dependency – close an aura up in a sealed space, or worse yet a small box, and you’re likely to kill it before long.
  • Aurai are about as intelligent as a human child, but they are very perceptive, and their few skills are almost all Per-based. Their ability to move or manipulate physical objects is very limited due to their low ST, Invertebrate disadvantage, and lack of physical skills aside from Throwing.
  • If aurai come in at 300 points, then a magic-using character with at least that many character points will be able to purchase them as Allies for a base cost of 5 points each. That fits my estimates for the point budget for leading characters in the Danassos stories.

One more item. I’ve mentioned it briefly above, but the character of Queen Euryganeia is a little unusual:

Megara and Euryganeia were the same age. They had grown up together, learning the same lessons, sharing secrets with each other, playing the games that young women of the palace always played. Then Megara’s aunt died, old Queen Iokaste who had ruled for so long, and the goddess of the city chose Euryganeia to be her new vessel. Now Harmonia, the Lady of the Sphinxes, often looked out at the world through the young queen’s eyes. The goddess could be compassionate and wise, but she was also mysterious, and full of holy dread.

This could be implemented through the Spirit Vessel system (pp. 211-214 in Thaumatology), but I think it’s likely to be subtler than that. In the story, Euryganeia’s possession by the goddess doesn’t lead to drastic changes in personality. She spends almost every scene she appears in just sitting on her throne, the “voice of the goddess” becoming more pronounced when she is angry or needs to speak with authority. This can probably be represented by a few advantages (and possibly a point or two of IQ) with the Pact limitation.

So, to summarize:

  • Almost all magic in the Danassos setting (and in my Mycenaean-era stories) is related to interactions with spirits (including gods) and a spirit world.
  • True magic-using characters always carry a priestly function, so all magic is clerical in nature. Even self-employed diviners and magicians are usually initiated as priests of some god (e.g., Hekate).
  • Magic-users will need the Ritual Magery advantage (p. 72 of Thaumatology), with the Path/Book specialization (p. 123 of Thaumatology). This represents an investment in power from a deity, like the Power Investiture advantage from the Basic Set. Magery, as an innate ability to wield magic, doesn’t exist in this setting.
  • Especially god-touched characters will probably have some or all of the following: Blessed, Channeling, Clerical Investment, Medium, and Oracle. Many of these advantages may come with the Pact limitation, if they don’t require behavioral standards by default.
  • Magical effects are produced using Path/Book Magic as described in Thaumatology. All the Paths are available except the Path of Gadgets. Power Investiture acts as a bonus to IQ for the Ritual Magic skill and all Path skills.
  • Magic-using characters are likely to gather teams of spirit allies, such as the aurai detailed above. More individualized spirits, with personal names and specific abilities of their own, are entirely possible. The Ally or Ally Group advantages here are also likely to have a Pact limitation.
  • Very rarely, a character may serve as the “vessel” for a god. This is most often simply a special effect.

Okay, I think I’m now prepared to draw up Alexandra herself, and possibly one or two magic-using antagonists for her. I’ll work on that and see how it comes out later this week.

Nikias

Nikias

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Here’s a character who’s going to play an ambiguous role in the first Danassos story. When Alexandra first arrives in Athens, Nikias is going to be the first Athenian of any importance to give her real help. On the other hand, later in the story he’s going to be one of her opponents, although an honorable one.

Nikias, son of Nikeratos (205 points)

Age 56; Human; 5′ 7″; 140 lbs.; Distinguished-looking middle-aged gentleman, receding grey hair, dark eyes, expensive clothing.

ST 10 [0]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 13 [60]; HT 10 [0].

Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 13 [0]; FP 10 [0].

Basic Speed 5.25 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Block 6 (DX); Dodge 8; Parry 8 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Attic Greek (Native) [0].

Advantages

Reputation (Accomplished diplomat) 2 (All the time; Almost everyone) [10]; Status (Wealthy aristocrat) (+3) [15]; Wealth (Multimillionaire 1) [75].

          Perks: Proxenos (Danassos) [1].

Disadvantages

Code of Honor (Gentleman’s) [-10]; Honesty (12 or less) [-10]; Indecisive (12 or less) [-10]; Sense of Duty (Athens) (Large Group) [-10]; Susceptible to Intestinal Disease -2 [-2].

          Quirks: Careful; Constantly consults omens; Sarcastic when talking to foolish people; Spends lavishly on public duties; Staunch political conservative [-5].

Skills

Accounting-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Administration-13 (IQ+0) [2]; Area Knowledge (Athens)-13 (IQ+0) [1]; Connoisseur (Visual Arts)-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Politics)-14 (IQ+1) [2]; Diplomacy-15 (IQ+2) [12]; Finance-13 (IQ+0) [4]; Hiking-10 (HT+0) [2]; History (Athenian)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Law (Athenian)-13 (IQ+0) [4]; Leadership-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Literature-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Musical Instrument (Lyre)-11 (IQ-2) [1]; Navigation/TL2 (Land)-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Politics-14 (IQ+1) [4]; Public Speaking-13 (IQ+0) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-13 (IQ+0) [4]; Riding (Equines)-11 (DX+0) [2]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-14 (IQ+1) [2]; Shield (Shield)-12 (DX+1) [2]; Shortsword-10 (DX-1) [1]; Singing-10 (HT+0) [1]; Soldier/TL2-13 (IQ+0) [2]; Spear-12 (DX+1) [4]; Strategy (Land)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Tactics-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Theology (Hellenic)-13 (IQ+0) [4]; Wrestling-11 (DX+0) [2].

Nikias is one of the leading statesmen of this time, having been the primary negotiator for the current truce in the ongoing wars between Athens and Sparta. He is a staunchly conservative aristocrat, who dislikes both populist demagogues and the war-hawks of his own class.

At first, his role in the story is as the proxenos of Danassos in Athens – kind of a local advocate who represents a foreign city’s legitimate interests and helps out any citizens of that polis who come to visit. (In our history, Nikias was the proxenos of Syracuse, which was one of the things that pulled him into the debates over the Sicilian Expedition.)

Character notes:

  • In general, Nikias is drawn here as a typical Athenian gentleman, never as outstanding as some of his peers, but solidly competent in his chosen fields of endeavor. His best skill is his Diplomacy, the basis of his foremost accomplishment. He also has high levels of Religious Ritual and Theology, as he was known for extreme piety and a tendency to take the omens before every big decision.
  • As a war-commander, Nikias was cautious and indecisive. He managed to lead a few minor expeditions without serious loss, but it was a complete disaster when the Sicilian Expedition fell into his hands. I also gave him a mild Susceptibility to various intestinal bugs – he’s not a young man any more, and he has a brittle digestion which sometimes knocks him flat at critical moments.
  • One notable element of this character is his extreme wealth – Nikias was one of the dozen or so wealthiest men in Athens at the time, having invested in the extremely profitable business of leasing slaves in bulk to the silver mines at Laurion. Wealthy men often served as proxenoi, since they would often house visitors from their represented city at their own expense. Nikias will be very able to help Alexandra when she turns up on his doorstep.

I’m not done working up characters, but I think I want to build a few of the more supernaturally oriented ones next – which means I’m going to need to define how magic works in this setting.

As it happens, I’ve done some informal work in that direction already – my novelette “Harmony’s Choice” includes a protagonist who uses exactly the kind of magic I want to include in these stories. I think my big project for tomorrow (the one day I’m going to have off for the next week) will be to analyze my own published story and hammer out GURPS references for everything. Look for that soon.

Aspasia

Aspasia

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Here’s another character who’s likely to play a big part in Alexandra’s adventure in Athens.

Aspasia of Miletos (200 points)

Age 50; Human; 5′ even; 115 lbs; Petite middle-aged woman with dark hair and eyes, dresses in modest but very fine clothing.

ST 9 [-10]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 15 [100]; HT 11 [10].

Damage 1d-2/1d-1; BL 16 lbs.; HP 9 [0]; Will 15 [0]; Per 15 [0]; FP 11 [0].

Basic Speed 5.5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Block 6 (DX); Dodge 8; Parry 8 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]; Persian [1]. Languages: Ionian Greek (Native) [0]; Persian (Accented/None) [2].

Advantages

Appearance (Beautiful) [12]; Contact Group (Athenian aristocrats and wealthy businessmen) (Effective Skill 15) (9 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [10]; Status (Average aristocrat) (+3) [15]; Wealth (Wealthy) [20].

Disadvantages

Hard of Hearing [-10]; Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5]; Reputation (Among conservatives, as a foreigner and former prostitute) -3 (All the time; Large class) [-7]; Sense of Duty (Family and close friends) (Small Group) [-5]; Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) [-5].

          Quirks: Always soft-spoken and polite; Likes to flirt with handsome men; Nostalgic for her time with Perikles; Quietly skeptical about the gods; Very careful with money [-5].

Skills

Accounting-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Acting-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Area Knowledge (Athens)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Brawling-11 (DX+0) [1]; Carousing-12 (HT+1) [2]; Connoisseur (Literature)-15 (IQ+0) [2]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Mainland Hellas)-16 (IQ+1) [2]; Dancing-11 (DX+0) [2]; Diplomacy-15 (IQ+0) [4]; Erotic Art (Human)-11 (DX+0) [2]; Expert Skill (Natural Philosophy)-15 (IQ+0) [4]; Fast-Talk-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Finance-14 (IQ-1) [2]; History (Athenian)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; History (Ionian)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Interrogation-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Knife-11 (DX+0) [1]; Law (Athenian)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Literature-15 (IQ+0) [4]; Musical Instrument (Lyre)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Occultism-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Philosophy (Milesian School)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Politics-15 (IQ+0) [2]; Professional Skill (Prostitute)-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Psychology (Human)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Public Speaking (Rhetoric)-16 (IQ+1) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-16 (IQ+1) [2]; Sex Appeal (Human)-14 (HT+3) [1]; Singing-12 (HT+1) [2]; Streetwise-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Swimming-11 (HT+0) [1]; Teaching-14 (IQ-1) [1].

The problem with drawing up Aspasia in GURPS terms is that we know almost nothing about her life. We can be fairly sure that she came from an aristocratic family in the Ionian city of Miletos, that she was very well-educated for a woman of her time, that she may have worked as a hetaira (essentially a high-class prostitute) for a while after coming to Athens, that she had a long-term relationship with the statesman Perikles, and that she was extremely influential in the social circle that grew up around him. The details, unfortunately, are lost under centuries of fiction and outright slander.

I’m working with the assumption that Aspasia was born about 466 BCE, and that she came to Athens as a young woman, accompanying her older sister, and her sister’s aristocratic Athenian husband. As a foreign woman in Athens, beautiful and with a considerable education, she would likely have been able to make a small fortune as a hetaira, but I’m assuming she gave up that life when she took up with Perikles in the middle 440s BCE. This version of Aspasia never ran a brothel, although she has often offered advice and support to other women in the trade, helping them maintain their independence and invest their money.

At present, Aspasia is settling into a comfortable middle-age, married to an Athenian strategos and democratic statesman named Lysikles. From behind the scenes, she is still assisting her son by Perikles as he develops a public career. She maintains the appearance of a very private individual, but she quietly remains in contact with every intellectual and half the aristocrats in Athens. Many people visit the house she shares with Lysikles, seeking advice, hoping to make political or business bargains, or just for quiet conversation. Sokrates and Alkibiades both remain her close associates.

Although, no, this version of Aspasia is not running any world-spanning conspiracies.

Character notes:

  • Aspasia was renowned for her intelligence, wit, and education. Sokrates himself held her in very high esteem, and she and Perikles created a social circle that did much to give Athens its reputation as the center of Greek intellectual accomplishment. I don’t think an IQ score of 15 is at all unreasonable for her.
  • Aspasia is well past her youth at this point, not quite as deft or fit as she once was, and I have her growing hard of hearing with age.
  • I’m assuming that Aspasia, born to a wealthy family in Ionia, would have had opportunity to learn spoken Persian and assimilate something about Persian culture. That might make her a valuable resource for anyone having dealings in Ionia or with the Persian Empire beyond.
  • Aspasia still has some of the skills she picked up as a hetaira, although she hasn’t used them professionally in decades. Instead, she uses them to advise younger women as need arises. She remains a sharp businesswoman, managing her own investments with an iron fist and earning some income by helping others do the same.
  • At this point in her life, Aspasia is primarily a philosopher, with the emphasis on natural philosophy that comes from the Milesian School of her home city. She doesn’t teach or debate in public, nor does she accept pay for teaching like many of the Sophists, but she continues to lead an active intellectual life and maintain a circle of like-minded friends.
Alkibiades

Alkibiades

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Here’s another character who is going to be pivotal to the Danassos stories:

Alkibiades, son of Kleinias (310 points)

Age 33; Human; 5′ 11″; 160 lbs; Tall and handsome, light brown hair, brown eyes, wears rich clothing carelessly.

ST 13 [30]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 13 [60]; HT 13 [30].

Damage 1d/2d-1; BL 34 lbs.; HP 13 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 13 [0]; FP 13 [0].

Basic Speed 6.5 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 7 (DX); Dodge 9; Parry 9 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Attic Greek (Native) [0].

Advantages

Appearance (Handsome) [12]; Charisma 2 [10]; Fit [5]; Status (Wealthy aristocrat) (+4) [20]; Wealth (Filthy Rich) [50].

Disadvantages

Chummy [-5]; Code of Honor (Gentleman’s) [-10]; Lecherousness [-15]; Overconfidence (9 or less) [-7]; Reputation (Among conservatives, as an impious and unruly individual) -2 (All the time; Large class) [-5].

          Quirks: Broad-Minded; Does not take the gods seriously; Enjoys flouting social conventions; Loves to drink and party; Proud [-5].

Skills

Acting-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Animal Handling (Equines)-13 (IQ+0) [2]; Area Knowledge (Athens)-14 (IQ+1) [2]; Carousing-15 (HT+2) [4]; Connoisseur (Wine)-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Mainland Hellas)-14 (IQ+1) [2]; Dancing-12 (DX-1) [1]; Diplomacy-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Fast-Talk-15 (IQ+2) [8]; Hiking-12 (HT-1) [1]; History (Athenian)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Lance-13 (DX+0) [2]; Law (Athenian)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Leadership-14 (IQ+1) [1]; Literature-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Musical Instrument (Lyre)-11 (IQ-2) [1]; Philosophy (Sokratic)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Politics-14 (IQ+1) [4]; Public Speaking-15 (IQ+2) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-11 (IQ-2) [1]; Riding (Equines)-14 (DX+1) [4]; Running-12 (HT-1) [1]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-13 (IQ+0) [1]; Sex Appeal (Human)-16 (HT+3) [1]; Shield (Shield)-14 (DX+1) [2]; Shortsword-12 (DX-1) [1]; Singing-13 (HT+0) [1]; Soldier/TL2-14 (IQ+1) [4]; Spear-14 (DX+1) [4]; Strategy (Land)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Strategy (Naval)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Streetwise-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Survival (Mountain)-12 (Per-1) [1]; Swimming-13 (HT+0) [1]; Tactics-13 (IQ+0) [4]; Teamster (Equines)-14 (IQ+1) [3]; Thrown Weapon (Spear)-14 (DX+1) [2]; Wrestling-13 (DX+0) [2].

Here’s the notorious Athenian rogue, playboy, and statesman, at the height of his powers (although not yet at the height of his influence). He’s a long-time student and friend of Sokrates, but the older man hasn’t managed to impart much in the way of philosophy or sober morals.

A few notes about this writeup:

  • Weighing all the ancient sources closely, it does appear that Alkibiades had the talent to be an all-around paragon without really being world-class in any one area. He was a trained athlete, a gifted but not world-class political and public speaker, and a competent soldier. He managed to sustain an active lifestyle while still indulging in an impressive array of vices. I therefore gave him above-average attributes all around, and was tempted to give him an even higher HT score.
  • Alkibiades was the last of the famous aristocratic clan of the Alkmaionidai, and he inherited a substantial fortune of his own as well as a large dowry from his wife. High Status and Wealth are a given.
  • A fairly long list of psychological disadvantages here. He was apparently gregarious and loved social gatherings, the more raucous the better. He was certainly overconfident to the point of hubris, and got himself in trouble more than once by over-estimating his already considerable talents.
  • Alkibiades was also famous for racking up a long list of lovers of both sexes – Sokrates (who I drew up with very strong will) was one of the few who seems to have consistently eluded his seductive reach. Alkibiades also got himself in trouble more than once by indulging his taste for sex. A full-blown Lecherousness disadvantage seems very appropriate here.
  • Wide range of skills, with the highest being his Carousing, Sex Appeal, and Fast-Talk, as befits his known career. He was also a trained athlete, although he tended not to compete personally, instead investing in horses and chariot teams. He has Strategy (both Land and Naval specializations) and Tactics, but not at master-class levels – few Hellenic statesmen took a systematic approach to war-planning or command.

Alkibiades also seems to establish an upper bound for character point totals in the Danassos stories, as I work with GURPS to write up characters. My protagonist (Alexandra) is likely to be roughly at the same power level – 300 points or so – with the main antagonists being comparable, and most other characters falling somewhere below.

Danassos: A Familiar Character

Danassos: A Familiar Character

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve worked out a timeline for the Danassos setting, through the end of that world’s equivalent of the Peloponnesian Wars. I think I have enough material to sketch out the plot of two complete novels.

Next step is to work out some character details. At this stage in my world-building process, I often make use of the GURPS role-playing game to lay out characters, so I can be consistent about their capabilities while I write. That exercise also helps me define the fantastic elements of the story – what futuristic technology is available, what non-human species might appear, how magic and the supernatural will work. So that’s what I’m going to be working on over the next week or two.

Here’s an example, who will likely be familiar to the audience.

Sokrates, son of Sophroniskos (190 points)

Age 54; Human; 5′ 5″; 155 lbs; Stocky and muscular, bright brown eyes, balding with a fringe of grey hair, long beard, dresses very plainly.

ST 11 [10]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 15 [100]; HT 11 [10].

Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11 [0]; Will 18 [15]; Per 15 [0]; FP 11 [0].

Basic Speed 5.5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Block 6 (DX); Dodge 8; Parry 8 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Attic Greek (Native) [0].

Advantages

Fearlessness 2 [4]; Intuition (Daimonic advice) (Divine) [14]; Reputation (Among intellectuals, as a wise and honest man) 4 (All the time; Small class) [6].

Disadvantages

Appearance (Unattractive) [-4]; Honesty (6 or less) [-20]; Odious Personal Habit (Relentless questioning) -1 [-5]; Overweight [-1]; Reputation (Among conservatives, as a questioner of tradition) -2 (All the time; Large class) [-5]; Wealth (Struggling) [-10].

          Quirks: Dresses very plainly in shabby clothes; Quirky sense of humor; Spends all his time on philosophy; Strong moral principles; Uninterested in money and possessions [-5].

Skills

Area Knowledge (Athens)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Brawling-11 (DX+0) [1]; Carousing-12 (HT+1) [2]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Mainland Hellas)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Dancing-10 (DX-1) [1]; Detect Lies-15 (Per+0) [4]; Diplomacy-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Fast-Talk-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Hiking-11 (HT+0) [2]; History (Athenian)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Law (Athenian)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Literature-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Occultism-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Philosophy (Sokratic)-18 (IQ+3) [16]; Psychology (Human)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Public Speaking-15 (IQ+0) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Shield (Shield)-12 (DX+1) [2]; Shortsword-10 (DX-1) [1]; Singing-11 (HT+0) [1]; Soldier/TL2-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Spear-11 (DX+0) [2]; Streetwise-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Survival (Mountain)-14 (Per-1) [1]; Swimming-12 (HT+1) [1]; Tactics-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Teaching-16 (IQ+1) [4]; Theology (Hellenic)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Wrestling-10 (DX-1) [1].

The starting point here is the character profile I did for Sokrates in GURPS Greece a long time ago (see the sidebar on p. 90 of that book). This version is suitably updated for GURPS Fourth Edition, of course. Some notes:

  • This version of Sokrates is a few years older, in his early fifties, past the time when he would have served as a hoplite solider in the Peloponnesian War. He’s still in decent physical condition, but his DX has declined a bit, and he starting to go a bit soft around the edges.
  • More recent research suggests that Sokrates was probably not a member of the lower class of thetes. If he could serve as a hoplite, then he wasn’t a poor laborer by birth, even if neglect of his finances left him struggling in his later years. This version of Sokrates has Status 0.
  • In this setting, Sokrates doesn’t have the minor Delusion that a daimon occasionally gives him advice. There actually is a daimon that watches over him and gives him advice when he stops to think about things! I’m modeling this as Intuition with the Divine (-10%) power modifier; it’s the only supernatural power he has, but it’s more reliable than the Spirit modifier would indicate. What god has sent his tutelary spirit to him, not even Sokrates knows for sure.
  • The skill list is polished up a bit from the one I wrote up twenty-plus years ago. Most of the skills have been trimmed back, although he still has Philosophy (in his own school) at very high level. He has a good array of knowledge and social skills. One surprise may be the set of Occultism, Religious Ritual, and Theology. We know that Sokrates never served as a formally invested priest, but he was quite knowledgeable about esoteric mysteries and the Hellenic gods, and he taught some of his students (such as Xenophon) the art of divination through omens. He still has some of his old military skills, although those are starting to degrade for lack of use.
  • On the other hand, some of the skills we might expect him to have, he’s operating at the IQ-based default. These include Politics, Masonry, and Sculpture. Sokrates certainly understood politics, and he began his adult life working as a stonecutter and sculptor, but he seems to have refused to develop or use any of those skills.

More to come, as I develop more of the characters that my protagonist will meet in her journey. Not to mention Alexandra herself!

 

An Old Project, Made New

An Old Project, Made New

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The first book I ever had published under my byline was GURPS Greece, a sourcebook on Heroic Age and classical Greek history for Steve Jackson Games . . . first released, good Lord, over twenty years ago (first printing in 1995).

I did a lot of research and reading for that project, which turned a passing interest in ancient Hellenic civilization into a life-long passion. Afterward I moved on to other projects for SJG – that was about when the GURPS Traveller license began, for which I eventually wrote and edited a pile of books. Yet that first book stuck with me, and gave me a concept that I’ve had in the back of my mind ever since.

One result was my first attempt to write an original novel (as an adult, anyway – I did manage to complete one novel as a pre-teenager that will mercifully never escape my dead files). That attempt failed dismally, when I realized that I had an opening and a conclusion and no idea whatsoever what to do in between. So I set the idea on a back shelf and let it gather dust for a couple of decades.

Now, partially because of the time I’ve spent playing the most recent Assassin’s Creed game, I’ve found myself reviving that old idea. Lo and behold, I think all the reading and experience I’ve had since then has given me the ability to approach that story once again. I’ve been working on that notion off and on for the past few weeks, and I think it’s mature enough that I can discuss it here.

It all started with a character, and a setting. The character was a sixteen-year-old girl, heir to the throne of a pseudo-Minoan city-state, who was forced into exile when an older sister proved a little more ruthless than anyone expected. The setting was classical-era Hellas, specifically in the middle phases of the great (Second) Peloponnesian War.

This is alternate-historical fantasy, to be sure. There were no significant Minoan survivals in the classical era of our own history, and I had in mind to bring in a few supernatural elements. My protagonist Alexandra is “goddess-touched,” an oracle who is able to see and command elements of the spirit world. She’s also a petite teenager who would be helpless in a straight-up fight, so she has to think her way out of trouble and make allies before she confronts her enemies.

The first point of divergence here is in the late Bronze Age. After the final collapse of Minoan Crete, I have a small group of survivors who manage to escape from the Mycenaean invaders by sea. They end up in the west, settling on a small island off the coast of what we know as Sicily. There they create the nucleus of a new civilization: Minoan in inspiration, strengthened by the arrival of archaic Greek refugees and colonists, interacting with the barbarian tribes of Sicily and southern Italy. Their capital city is called Danassos, meaning something like “the place of the Goddess,” and it substitutes for the city we know as Syracuse.

The second point of divergence is right around the time of the Persian invasions of Hellas. The presence of Danassos off in the west doesn’t make much difference to events in mainland Greece for a long time. After the Persian Wars, though, interaction between Danassos and Hellas begins to send events slightly off-kilter. There is still a series of Peloponnesian Wars, some of the events echo what happened in the real history, and most of the same people are involved.

Still, by about 420 BCE things are starting to look quite different. That’s when Alexandra gets curb-stomped in her first fight for the Danassan throne, and has to flee into exile. She and a single loyal soldier end up in Athens, where they struggle for a while before they begin to make allies . . . some of whom will be quite familiar to the reader.

How Alexandra gets through that situation, and returns to Danassos to kick her usurping sister back off the throne, should be enough for a complete novel. It’s a novel I think I know how to write, too, now that I’ve spent the last twenty years studying the period in detail. Better yet, the last few weeks have given me enough ideas for a second novel, and maybe the ghost of an opening for a third.

More about that as things develop. In the meantime, the stories I’ve partially developed in a Bronze Age setting could be considered a loose set of prequels here. I’ve already published one of those, and this might give me the motivation I need to finish others.

I will admit, one of my worst handicaps as a writer is that left to myself, I have a hard time finishing one project before I wander off to nibble at another. Let’s see if I can stick to this one long enough to get some stories out the door.

 

Review: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Review: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

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In this iteration of my blog, I’m not in the habit of reviewing things – it’s mostly about my own writing and other creative projects. However, once in a while, something is going to come along and blow me away to such an extent that I have to make an exception.

Case in point, the new video game, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which just came out about a week ago.

The premise behind the Assassin’s Creed series is that there’s an ages-old “secret history” of the world. Unknown to most humans, opposed conspiracies driven by advanced “precursor” technology have been fighting for thousands of years to either enslave humanity, or to protect humanity’s freedom. In most of the games of the series, the protagonist is an Assassin, fighting to defend humanity from its would-be enslavers by surgically removing their human pawns. The “Creed” that the title refers to is that an Assassin will never engage in indiscriminate violence. Instead, he uses stealth and misdirection to reach his target, applying violence only with great precision.

Okay, I’m a sucker for that kind of “secret history” premise. I’ve often used it in my tabletop games and my other writing. Also, of course, it was an idea characteristic of GURPS and other Steve Jackson Games products, back when I was writing and editing for them. So, years ago, I gave the original Assassin’s Creed a try. Unfortunately, I bounced hard. I simply could not figure out the control scheme, and when I hit the end of the tutorial chapter I found myself flatly unable to progress further. I dropped the game and never looked back.

Ten games and eleven years later, I’ve come back to the franchise, and oh my what a difference a decade of polish and development makes.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is interesting in that it’s set in the same “secret history” timeline, but before the Brotherhood of Assassins was established. So, uniquely so far in the series, the protagonist is not an Assassin and isn’t subject to the Creed. As a result, the game is less dominated by stealth mechanics, and big combat scenes are more frequent. But then, that makes sense, because in this case the historical setting is . . .

Classical Greece, specifically in the first years of the Second Peloponnesian War.

Well. Anyone who knows me, or my creative history, knows that classical Greek history is kind of my catnip. The first book I ever wrote for Steve Jackson Games was a GURPS sourcebook covering ancient Hellenic civilization. I’ve spent thousands of hours since then, reading about and researching that era. I’ve even taken a stab at writing original fiction set in the period, and probably will again.

I love the ancient Greeks. Look closely at them, and all the idealization of later centuries drops away. They were hard-scrabble poor, resourceful, hard-working, earthy, short-sighted, quarrelsome, cruel and violent. The great empires and civilizations of the time tended to look down on them, poverty-stricken barbarians clinging to barren islands and promontories on the outer fringes of the true world. Yet in their time, despite their all-too-human nature, they accomplished miracles. It’s no exaggeration to say that our modern civilization is built, in part, upon the foundations that the Greeks put down.

Media adaptations of classical Greek history are vanishingly rare. There are novels by Mary Renault, Harry Turtledove, and others. There’s a fair amount of visual art. On the other hand, most films, video games, and other media have concentrated on mythological stories, or on the time of Alexander and his successors. The classical era, roughly from about 600 BCE to about 360 BCE, has been almost entirely ignored.

Until now.

I bought Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey almost on a whim. I remembered the bad experience I had with the original game. Still, the chance to experience Greece in that era, even under the distorting lens of a video game, was irresistible. I’ll be honest, that was the best gamble I’ve taken in a long time. I’ve been enjoying this game more than any other RPG since Mass Effect.

The gameplay is still oriented toward stealth mechanics and personal combat, although there seem to be more RPG elements than I remember from the original. The protagonist acquires a wide variety of armor, weapons, and gear, and can upgrade those to support several fighting styles. Open combat is much more frequent, and the protagonist can optionally participate in field battles between Athenian and Spartan forces. Sea combat is another integral part of the game; the protagonist gains command of a pentekonter early on, and can engage pirates, merchant ships, or Athenian or Spartan warships.

This is all quite well done. Combat feels smooth and fluid, you get plenty of chances to make tactical decisions, and the whole experience gives you the power-fantasy sense of being slightly superhuman. Fights can also be rather unforgiving, but you never lose more than the time since your last save point (and auto-saves are frequent even if you don’t use the quick-save function).

I really appreciate the quality-of-life features that have become common in games of this kind. For example, every object you can interact with gets a small marker in the interface, and as you approach you’ll get a subtle on-screen prompt as to which key to use. Enemy combatants provide visual cues telling you when to parry or dodge. Another feature I appreciate is that it’s easy to pause gameplay to review the map, rearrange your combat abilities, or just get reminders as to which keystroke does what! All of this is vastly improved over the original game, and it really helps one gain immersion rather than spending all our time struggling with the interface.

There’s a certain amount of linearity to the plot, but this is made up for by the fact that there are really three interwoven main plots going on, plus a ton of sidequests, plus plenty of sandbox content. You can follow the plots closely, or you can take time off to just wander the map and experience things.

And that’s what makes this game such a delight – the chance to experience the setting.

The over-world includes all of mainland Greece, most of the Aegean islands, and Crete. The major missing areas are the Asian coast, and “Greater Hellas” in the west. The scale is certainly compressed, but within the limitations of the game the level of detail is astonishing. One can find historical and mythological landmarks, even quite obscure ones, all over the place. Terrain features, landmarks, villages, and small towns are all in (more or less) the right places. The bigger cities seem to be laid out with remarkable accuracy. I’ve already spent hours wandering around Athens, for example, and everything matches the maps and descriptions I’ve seen of the city in the Periklean era. All of it is simply gorgeous, doubly so since the lighting is constantly changing with the passage of time and weather.

The map sets the tone, and the rest of the game follows suit. The development team have gone to amazing lengths to do their homework and present an authentic experience.

Wandering through the world, you will hear plenty of ambient dialogue in Greek (albeit in the koiné dialect rather than an ancient one, if I’m not mistaken). Cutscene dialogue is in English, but almost every actor has a Greek accent that’s somewhere between fair and perfect. Greek names and bits of vocabulary in dialogue are pronounced correctly; in fact, I’ve probably learned more from this game about the actual pronunciation of Greek than in years of prior reading. I understand the development team worked hard to assemble a voice-acting cast that was almost entirely either native Greek or at least of Greek descent. No lazy “Received Pronunciation to mark ancient peoples” trope here!

The cultural and historical setting are also surprisingly good. As a well-read layman in the period, I can certainly spot any number of details that are wrong:

  • Classical Greek society was profoundly misogynistic, and the possibility of women soldiers, mercenaries, and generally footloose adventurers was just not on the table at the time.
  • The very name applied to the region is odd. Everyone in the game keeps calling it “Greece” and the “Greek world,” and the name Hellas simply never shows up.
  • The story of the actual Peloponnesian War is generally ignored, in favor of an abstract system by which the protagonist can help either Athens or Sparta to dominate specific territories.
  • Land battle scenes are just completely incorrect: wild melees with no organization or formation whatsoever. (Sea battles are somewhat better, although there’s no sign of the authentic tactics there either.)
  • In one important scene, the protagonist attends what is billed as a symposion at the home of Perikles in Athens. The actual scene doesn’t look anything like a genuine symposion, more like a modern social gathering with people gathering in little standing clumps for conversation.

I could go on; no media adaptation of the period is ever going to be completely authentic. To be honest, I don’t have too much trouble with any of those. Having done game design myself, I understand that it’s sometimes necessary to over-simplify or allow some failures of authenticity, in favor of producing a playable and compelling game.

Besides, it’s abundantly clear that the development team knew better in any case. For every detail that isn’t correct, there’s one that they got right. Individual historical figures look like real-people versions of the idealized statuary we have of them. They behave as we know they did from the surviving documents of the time. Even their dialogue seems authentic – characters who later appear in Plato’s or Xenophon’s dialogues sound as they would in a good English translation. (Sokrates is just as insightful, and just as infuriating, as he was reported to be in the primary sources.)

Some of the authenticity reaches down to the level of very obscure details. Every temple or shrine in Hellas has its worshipers, presenting their prayers to the gods in exactly the manner that was used at the time (very different from the way modern people pray). Visit the symposion at the house of Perikles, and you’ll spot a few revelers playing kottabos in the corner; take a moment to watch and everything will look right, down to the way the players are holding their wine-cups. Meet the young Alkibiades in Athens, and some of his dialogue is supremely ironic, given what we know about his future career. Anyone who knows the milieu well will appreciate the eye for detail – not to mention the numerous historical in-jokes!

In short, this is probably the best media adaptation ever done for this specific period of history. Playing the game is certainly no substitute for studying primary sources, but for anyone who has even a passing interest in the reality of the Hellenic world, it’s a superb experience.

For most of my life, I’ve had the hopeless wish to one day walk on the Athenian akropolis, seeing not the haggard ghost surrounded by tourist traps that we have today, but what it was in its time of glory. Now, in a sense, I’ve been there. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is highly recommended for any video-game player who has an interest in the era of classical Greece.