I may not be a classicist, but I am English, (James Frusetta seems to think that is the next best thing).
There seems to be confusion over Bronze age and Classical. The bronze age is the age of heroes, the age of Greek mythology, Hercules, Perseus, the Argonauts, the birth of cities, the Trojan war etc.. Gilgamesh even, though he may be too early. It is the age of the great citadels of Mycenae and Troy and Tyrins (?) (incidently used for the citadels of Balazar in Griffin Mountain). It takes us up to ~ 1000 BC. All the ancient cultures (baring Egypt) are overcome by the dread sea raiders, and other barbarians, and a long dark age follows, until the glimmerings of Classical civilisation (Greece, Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Caesar etc.) starting around 600 - 400 B.C. Confusing the two is like confusing us with the middle ages. Indeed the Greeks of the Trojan wars are completely different to the Greeks of Homer's time, the latter were descended from the barbarian invaders (the Dorians? The ones in the Trojan wars were the Ionians? I begin to forget the names).
Glorantha does seem very much inspired the heroic age. A lot of the stories, people and cultures of Glorantha have that 'being at the very birth of civilisation' feel, when the world is still young and myths, heroes and monsters still abound. Not at all the feel of Malory's Arthurian legends, or a medieval setting. Also in the Heroic age (a term used for the late Bronze age, Troy and all that) you do have lots of very, very different cultures clashing in a very small region of the western Mediterranean. In the middle east, by the Tigris and Euphrates, you have the first city states, already millenia (i.e. from the time of Gilgamesh) old, with countless empires rising to dominate them. To the south the Egyptians, the the west the great civilisation of the Minoans (with the great palaces of Crete e.g. Knossos, and the famous maze) on Crete, and the emerging Greek states (e.g. Mycenae), as well as all the (too complicated to remember) goings on in Anatolia (modern Turkey), and the great sea goers, the Phonecians, trading across the whole Mediterranean, and as far as Cornwall.
Armour
Bronze age armour is very, very different from classical age armour. It also looks very, very silly. Basically a imagine a cylinder for the chest, with big horizontal rings attached below, looking very much like a skirt. You would not get one of my characters in one of those! I prefer to use armour that is more classical (Greek). It looks so much better! I agree that armour points are far too high. One could argue that Homer is full of images of someone piercing armour straight through with a spear (something I find difficult to imagine with iron armour). However, I have lower armour values in my campaign for a different reason. I like fast, quick and exciting combat, and find it boring when people slog it out for hours hiding behind enormous armour, and waiting for the critical to finish it off. If you are interested, contact me by e-mail and I will dig out my (ancient and rather forgotten since my Pendragon days) armour rules. I think it rather too boring for addition here!
Regards to every one,
Stephen Lucek.
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