Soldiers and Warriors
Will in New Haven
impressed by the film "300" and wanted to play a Spartan hoplite.
Players in my games over the years have wanted to play fighting men
with similar backgrounds and have done so. This is understandable and
can lead to some cool characters.
On the other hand, some backgrounds make better individual combatants
than others and hoplites and other kinds of soldiers are much more
impressive in organized warfare than they would be in a typical
adventurer's fight.
Since my campaign depends heavily on a character's background to give
her or him the skills to deal with adventuring, I figured out what an
elite Spartin hoplite would have and, frankly, I wouldn't think it
would be a great character. My players don't mind playing non-optimum
characters and one of them could handle playing a hoplite but it would
be tougher than, say, a barbarian warrior, like a Viking or a
hereditary elite warrior like a Samurai or a knight or an Indian
Shaktria.
A Spartan would have great physical strength, toughness and endurance.
He would be capable of following orders and, if he weren't young,
capable of leadership in tough situations. In most of these
characteristics he would be _better_ than a typical soldier but these
are the virtues of a soldier.
He would be able to march and fight in fairly heavy, for his era,
armor and he would be skilled in fighting in formation with long spear
and shield. Man on man, he would have a great deal of trouble keeping
the distance necessary to use his spear. Anyone with a shorter weapon
who got inside his range would force him to go for his sidearm, a
sword. He would _not_ be all that well-practiced with a sword. He
would be nimble because of a lifetime of wrestling but, frankly, a
typical Spartan versus a warrior, one on one, would be a fool's bet.
An atypical Spartan who survived several fights and applied himself to
remedying his defects would become very good pretty fast.
In non-combat skills, he would have some advantages and a _lot_ of
defects. He would have lots of practice, sneaking around stealing
food. However, he would have been stealing food from peasants who
would be _afraid_ to notice him doing it. I don't know how stealthy he
would be. He would have almost no wilderness skills and those are very
important in some campaigns.
His social skills would be extremely deficient. The first time they
encountered villagers who were not helot-slaves or completely cowed
serfs, he would cause a terrible confrontation by treating him like
shit. The first time he met someone outside his chain of command, he
would have been very uncomfortable.
It would be very hard to play one of these guys successfully. I think
I'll see if one of my players wants to try the next time was start a
campaign.
--
Will in New Haven
Ingo Siekmann
-snip
> Since my campaign depends heavily on a character's background to give
> her or him the skills to deal with adventuring, I figured out what an
> elite Spartin hoplite would have and, frankly, I wouldn't think it
> would be a great character.
--snip
"Gurps All Star Jam 2004" contains -among others- a historical campaign
setting named "The Last Spartan", written by Gene Seabolt.
Exactly what it says, the pcs are Spartan warriors - or better, Spartan
Ronin - around 220 BC, after Sparta lost its independence.
Not very much - 12 pages, two of them rather crude maps -, but a good
starting point. If someone wants to run such a campaing, he should look
up a few history books/TV shows/webpages etc.
Bye
Ingo