Séadna
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Did a search and there didn't seem to be a general thread for Mythras. So I thought I'd start this one with a bit of a look at Mythic Constantinople.
The book is divided into the following sections:
This chapter contains a guide to pronouncing Greek and Turkish, Glossary of common terms, scaling the level of Fantasy and a brief comment on a central themes of the book: The conflict between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity and Christianity and Islam. Although overall the book emphasises Orthodox vs Catholic more.
The guide to Greek is pretty well done. Medieval Greek is in some ways easier for an English speaker than modern Greek (e.g. the gh sound), so it's not a strain to keep a reasonably accurate pronunciation and the guide more than suffices.
The bibliography is quite good. However, having read all of them and some other books, "Mythic Constantinople" itself is more than sufficient for running a game.
History, Geography, Culture and the World:
These chapters span essentially break down:
I don't think there is a need for more detail and you really would have to be willing to not only read specialised texts, but actual research papers in some cases if you wanted more.
The final of these chapters details the world around Byzantium and would more be useful as something to dive into for various NPCs (e.g. details on the kingdom of Cyprus). I don't consult it as much and in running a campaign it doesn't need to be as fresh in your head I think.
Also non-human and magical information appear under their own subheadings and are not really interwoven with historical detail.
Note: Inaccuracies really only take four forms:
Char Gen:
Small modifications to Mythras Char Gen for the setting. Mostly just the skills associated with the PC cultures (Greek, Turkic, Frankish, Arab). About two pages is then given over to non-human races. These are flagged under their own heading and magic isn't intrinsic to any human cultures so it is easy to isolate the purely historic part.
Greeks are the "default", presented as cultured and socially stable, but stagnant.
Turks are presented as Islamic Greeks culturally.
Franks are risk taking and more open to change, but trapped under feudalism.
This characterisation is continued in the rest of the book and is a good shorthand for the historical situation. A strong trend in the provided NPCs and some of the adventure hooks is "Unionism of the Churches", so many Franks and Greeks will feel that given the growth of Islam there should be a stronger emphasis on Christianity as a whole. However this is nicely played off by the fact that the Turks are refined, unlike the Franks. So a Greek is more likely to get along with a Turk on a personal level. Turks and Greeks have also suffered raids from crusading Franks, but again this is offset by Turks being invaders in Byzantine territory.
Arabs function more as an outsider group and aren't characterised as strongly in the rest of the book.
Archetypes are presented for all four cultures, e.g. Pharmakopeia (witch apothecary) and Agent of the Dome (Spy) for Greeks.
Passions for each culture follow a Religious, Social Bond and Negative Stereotype format. For example for Franks:
Each culture gets some combat styles.
The Franks get a swashbuckling noble style (Code Duello) and a range of styles reflecting roles in late feudal armies (e.g. firearm user, cavalier, footman).
The Greeks get a martial arts style (Pankration) and a list of military styles that center around defending and holding cities.
Turks and Arabs both have a style based around unprofessional raiding on horse back. Their professional styles center around sword and spear combat from horseback.
One or two combat styles are mythic (e.g. the combat styles of Minotaurs).
Then follows a guide to names, pretty straight forward.
Finally there is a bunch of background events. Quite a few of these center around religious belief and the conflict between the faiths. Some are explicitly fantastical (Minor god was your lover in your youth).
More to come....
The book is divided into the following sections:
- An introduction
- The basic history and geography of the city
- Byzantine culture
- A look at the rest of the Mediterranean
- Char Gen
- Gear
- Magic
- Factions/Groups
- A more detailed look at the city
- Same adventures
- Bestiary
- Fantasy/Mythic elements are easily removed, large sections of the book don't even mention them. However they are historically appropriate and I liked the link with the Ancient Greek past of the peoples.
- There is a pretty interesting "light Mythic" plot included, if you want a bit of fantasy, but not much
- The compromise between complete accuracy and playability is well done. This is more from the book not going into historical monograph level detail rather than inaccuracies.
- Time period chosen for the book is well suited for campaigns, Byzantium still has a distinct culture with traditional institutions still standing, but is under threat (the fall only three years away) and now has a large foreign born population. Earlier periods would have a largely unthreatened and more homogeneous Byzantium. EDIT: Current year is 1450
- The core cultures (Greek, Frank and Turk) have an interesting multilayered conflict.
- The Gear chapter is pretty much all you could ask for (rules for Greek Fire flamethrowers!)
- The chapter that deals with the city in general is exceptionally well done, especially the hooks and the encounter and district generators
This chapter contains a guide to pronouncing Greek and Turkish, Glossary of common terms, scaling the level of Fantasy and a brief comment on a central themes of the book: The conflict between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity and Christianity and Islam. Although overall the book emphasises Orthodox vs Catholic more.
The guide to Greek is pretty well done. Medieval Greek is in some ways easier for an English speaker than modern Greek (e.g. the gh sound), so it's not a strain to keep a reasonably accurate pronunciation and the guide more than suffices.
The bibliography is quite good. However, having read all of them and some other books, "Mythic Constantinople" itself is more than sufficient for running a game.
History, Geography, Culture and the World:
These chapters span essentially break down:
- The history of the empire and the city
- The geographical features of the city
- The political structure of the city
- Foreign groups in the city and attitudes toward them
- Beliefs (both religious and folk)
- Daily Life and Festivities
- Information on bureaucratic organisations in the city
I don't think there is a need for more detail and you really would have to be willing to not only read specialised texts, but actual research papers in some cases if you wanted more.
The final of these chapters details the world around Byzantium and would more be useful as something to dive into for various NPCs (e.g. details on the kingdom of Cyprus). I don't consult it as much and in running a campaign it doesn't need to be as fresh in your head I think.
Also non-human and magical information appear under their own subheadings and are not really interwoven with historical detail.
Note: Inaccuracies really only take four forms:
- Conveniences for the modern reader, e.g. Byzantines being called Greek in the text, even though they would have said Roman. Turkic names using modern Turkish orthography with the Roman alphabet rather than authentic Medieval Turkish spelling and script.
- Conveniences for play, e.g. Imported goods are twice that of the Mythras core, goods from the city 1.5 (to emulate inflation), rather than historically accurate uneven market prices.
- Assuming some details remain the same as sources in neighbouring periods state, e.g. female clothing is only attested in sources about twenty years prior (~1430), so they just take this
- Details filled in where sources are vague or silent, this mostly relates to giving NPCs a bit of personality where they're just a name in historical sources.
Char Gen:
Small modifications to Mythras Char Gen for the setting. Mostly just the skills associated with the PC cultures (Greek, Turkic, Frankish, Arab). About two pages is then given over to non-human races. These are flagged under their own heading and magic isn't intrinsic to any human cultures so it is easy to isolate the purely historic part.
Greeks are the "default", presented as cultured and socially stable, but stagnant.
Turks are presented as Islamic Greeks culturally.
Franks are risk taking and more open to change, but trapped under feudalism.
This characterisation is continued in the rest of the book and is a good shorthand for the historical situation. A strong trend in the provided NPCs and some of the adventure hooks is "Unionism of the Churches", so many Franks and Greeks will feel that given the growth of Islam there should be a stronger emphasis on Christianity as a whole. However this is nicely played off by the fact that the Turks are refined, unlike the Franks. So a Greek is more likely to get along with a Turk on a personal level. Turks and Greeks have also suffered raids from crusading Franks, but again this is offset by Turks being invaders in Byzantine territory.
Arabs function more as an outsider group and aren't characterised as strongly in the rest of the book.
Archetypes are presented for all four cultures, e.g. Pharmakopeia (witch apothecary) and Agent of the Dome (Spy) for Greeks.
Passions for each culture follow a Religious, Social Bond and Negative Stereotype format. For example for Franks:
- Religious passion is basically devotion to the church
- Social Passion is related to feudal structure
- Negative Stereotype is nation specific, e.g. Lust for Women (the French)
Each culture gets some combat styles.
The Franks get a swashbuckling noble style (Code Duello) and a range of styles reflecting roles in late feudal armies (e.g. firearm user, cavalier, footman).
The Greeks get a martial arts style (Pankration) and a list of military styles that center around defending and holding cities.
Turks and Arabs both have a style based around unprofessional raiding on horse back. Their professional styles center around sword and spear combat from horseback.
One or two combat styles are mythic (e.g. the combat styles of Minotaurs).
Then follows a guide to names, pretty straight forward.
Finally there is a bunch of background events. Quite a few of these center around religious belief and the conflict between the faiths. Some are explicitly fantastical (Minor god was your lover in your youth).
More to come....
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