Eridu: An ancient Sumerian Campaign Premise and Scenario for Mythras, BRP and other Suitable RPGs

 I originally used this with Mythras a few years ago for a short campaign. One of many things I have not posted to the blog before as far as I can tell! 

   When I originally ran this it was before Mythic Babylon had been announced for Mythras. This campaign takes place roughly around 2400-2300 BCE so it can stand on its own, as the Mythic Babylon book handles a more "contemporary" era during the height of Babylonian power, and this mini campaign is about Sumeria during its heady early days of power-jockeying city-states. 

   Though I used Mythras at the time (and it works well for such), I would probably just use BRP 5th Edition for it today. As written this is a "notational" overview and I also had a lot of book references at hand. Some especially handy tomes include "Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City" by Leick (Amazon), and "Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" by Black (Amazon), a nice categorical reference. One of the more useful online resources I like is located here (Facts and Details), that site alone is practically a campaign guide unto itself. Many of the details below come from one or more of these sources. 

The Eridu Campaign

We'll start with a discussion on the pantheon of gods and then move on to the regional gazetteer.

Mesopotamian Gods of Note

Enki – god of Eridu

Deity of the rivers and men, giver of life and protector, civic deity. Eridu is described as a god who walked from the waters and brought civilization to men. His temple at Eridu, the Abzu, has rested for thousands of years.

Enlil – God of Magic

A ghost and demon to some, wizened sage to others, Enlil is the god who will one day seek to wipe humanity from the earth. Both wizened and capricious, Enki keeps him at bay. He is the purvue of sorcerers and maddened shamans in the desert.

Inanna – Goddess of Uruk

The three-fold goddess of birth, fertility and death, she manifests as three different images in life from the whore, the mother and the crone. She is the patron goddess of Uruk where she has given birth to a pantheon of goddesses and gods who are her children. Her temple is magnificent.

Nanna – god of Ur

The goddess of the moon, night cycles, women’s  menstrual cycles, bulls, male fertility and astronomy also is valued by navigators. Ur, resting on the mouth of the Euphrates, is home to fishermen and sailor alike who count on his guidance. He is also associated with change…including lycanthropic change.

Utu – God of the Sun

Revered everywhere but noted for his temple as Ashur, Utu is the god of the sun and the deserts, a wizened and ancient man who is the seat of power of the very universe itself.

Nisaba – Goddess of Writing

As the mother of Enlil she is given special prominence in the lands of the world, but she is also seen as the goddess of most importance to record keepers and the budding community of scholars who have become so important to the records of the kings, priests and their gods.

Assur – god of the northlands

This deity is revered in the north among the nomads and settlers in the region, a rowdy and wild lot known for their capricious and mercenary ways.

Ninkasi – goddess of beer

The goddess who is patron of brewing has a profoundly quiet but respected cult among the brewers of the land.

Nergal – god of war and death, Lord of Kutha

With the aspect of fire, war and death his to command Nergal rules the underworld with his wife Ereshkigal. He is revered in the remote city of Kutha, which bows before none. Rumor is there is a direct gate to the underworld in Kutha, the domain of Irkalla.

Demons of Mesopotamia

Anzu

The bird-demon is a ferocious beast, a god in its own right, and it seeks to steal the Tablets of Destiny from Ninlil. The tablets are kept in Enlil’s temple in Uruk.

Lilitu

The serpentine demon goddess who harries men and reflect the darker aspects of women. Known to steal babies and seduce men, sometimes kidnapping or murdering them.

Pazuzu

Demon king of the wind, bearer of storms and draught.

Asakku

Vicious spirit demons which kill by plaguing the head with fevers.

Asag

A demon so terrifying it boils the rivers where it wades. Accompanied by rock demons.

Edimmu

Restless dead, ghostly spirits who possess the living and make them commit criminal acts if not appeased.

Lamashtu

A goddess demon with the head of a lioness, a hairy body, donkey’s teeth and ears and eagle claws. She is served by the lilitu, and steals children in childbirth.

Kur

Serpentine dragons which plague the land.

Lammasu and Shedu

The animal-spirit protectors of men and their households, with the bodies of bulls, heads of men and wings of eagles. They are benevolent spirits and good magi can call upon them.

Rabisu

Vampiric spirits, these malevolent demons are sometimes men transformed, or perhaps fallen divinities. The Rabisu can be repelled with sea salt, or trapped in inverted magic bowls with sacred inscriptions written within. The Rabisu are violent and very dangerous vampires otherwise.

Humbaba

A great giant, after whom other giants are also named, who guards the celestial guardian of the gods.

The Major Cities of Mesopotamia (ca. 2,900 BCE, give or take)

Eridu

Ruled by Alulim, Eridu is the center of power and the other cities in the region either are perpetually at war with Eridu or seek to buy it off by tribute. Alulim is said to be tens of thousands of years old, and possibly given immortality by Enki himself. The temple Abzu is here, dedicated to Enki. The city is largely content with its prosperity but a local noble named Alalngar is among those who have been plotting wasy to overthrow Alulim, after a discovery they believe proves he sacrifices innocents to extend his life. Eridu is also considered to have the finest magi and healers in the land.

Kish

Ruled by Aga, who is at times friend and enemy to Lugalbanda.

Ur

A coastal port, ruled by Mesh-Ana-pada, a wizened sage and priest-king of Nanna.

Uruk

The great city of Innana, and the home of King Lugalbanda, father of Gilgamesh, who’s decades have shined as the servant of the goddess Ninsun, who walks as his mortal wife.

Kutha

Ruled by Naram-Sin, this city is reverent to the gateway to the dead.

Sippar

Western and Eastern Sippar are two united cities on the banks of the Euphrates, ruled by En-men-dur-ana, a benevolent lord deducated to Utu, the god of the sun.

 

Other Regions

Assur, to the north

These nomadic barbarians in the north are constant trouble for the region.

Elam, beyond the Zagros Mountains

Beyond Zagros are nomadic tribes who call themselves the Elam. The Elam are nomads who revere three great kings in Ansham, Eawn and Shumaski. The largest capital is Susa, along the river Karun, which pays tribute to Kish. Susa worships Insusinak, the god of the city (Lord of Oaths, Judge of the Dead, Symbol of the Serpent). Other gods worshipped included Ismekarab (the infernal goddess of oaths), Lagamal (the goddess of no mercy, the judge), Humban (god of the sky), Pinigir (goddess of heaven) and Manzat (The Great Lady).

Ebla is the western empire and the men of that region are effectively civilized but the Canaan are barbarian the coastal tribes who worship Dagan. (Yes, that Dagan, alias Dagon). Whether he's really an early proto-semitic god of grain and fertility or a vile fish god from the deeps is up for you all to find out.

Dilmun

Distant trade empire to the east. Beyond them is Indus, which has no direct contact with Sumer. It may be the home of the immortal Ut-Napishtim, and is a major source of copper trade. In some regards, Dilmun supplies Sumer with the metal needed to wage war. Dilmun is located on an isle deep in the great Abzu Sea.

Egypt (Khemit)

Ruled by Pharaoh Qa’a, Egypt is a remote land but hostile to foreigners.

Magan

This distant kingdom is located in the region of contemporary Oman. Little is known of it, but they are a major supplier of copper.

Meluhha

This may be the most distant kingdom known, and is one name for distant Indus. The closest trade port is Sutkagen Dor.

Kassu in the Zagros Mountains

The men of Zagros, the Kassu, who are raiders and dislike the Elam and Sumer of Ubaid alike, are difficult to deal with. The bandit warlord culture of the Kassu make travel through the mountains dangerous.

West of the Two Rivers: Hamoukar of Canaan and Ebla

The region of the Levant is prehistoric at this time and influenced by the local nomads and the Sumer-influenced cities of Hamoukar and Ebla. Hamoukar was known for its obsidian quarries while Ebla was known for its limestone quarries and aggressive trade network. Both provided coastal trade routes to the western sea. Ebla is ruled by Hakume, a shrewd and dour king. Other settlements in the area include the township of Chagar Bazar, Nagar and Arbid, all along the Khabur River Basin.

Hamoukar is also known for its weird local cult to the “God of a Thousand Eyes,” and is known to produce eye effigies in his worship. This worship is considered profane by the men of Uruk and they have sieged and razed the city at least once in historic memory….but the cult always retuns. Hamoukar is preliterate and does not use any writing system.

Amartu

The nomads of the west are distinct in their uncouth and simple nature as pastoral herders with limited grasp of civilization. The Amartu will one day grow strong but in this era they are a nuisance to the western deserts, raiders who seek to take the riches of Ubaid for their own.

Player Guide

Barbarians can come from Assur to the north. Nomads would come from Elam to the east of the Zagros Mountains (though civilized Elam dwell in Susa), and the Elam do have their own developing language with simple writing inspired by the Sumer. You will also find barbarians in the Zagros Mountains: the Kassu, a rough and simple folk prone to raiding. 

You could have a civilized foreigner visiting from Dilmun, as well. Dilmun was East of Elam, along a trade route to Indus.

Languages you can learn (spoken, not written): Sumer, Assur, Elam, Dilmun, Egyptian, and Kassite

Character Generation: Use the 80 point build.

Cultures:  Barbarian, Nomadic, Civilized and Primitive are all fine, but there's almost no written language at this time....written systems are basic counting and markers, and have little recognizable language structure as we think of it. Cuneiform is in an early developmental stage at this time....and paper does not exist. Clay tablets and clay balls with beads, counters and figurines are how information is conveyed. So one "Language (Cuneiform) skill will suffice to understand all writing known to men in this region of the world.

Humans can be from Eridu, the capitol city of the kingdom of Ubaid. If you're from one of the rival city-states at Kish, Uruk, or Ur you will need to be a responsible profession with a trade appreciated abroad to justify your presence, or have a decent social class....wanderers of little means or skill are looked at as thieves and robbers.

If you are from Eridu you at least pay lip service to Enki, the god of the kingdom and benefactor of men. If you are from Uruk you respect Innana, goddess of life. If from Ur then you revere Nanna, god of the moon and bulls.

For magic: folk magic is "sorcery" as men think of it in this age and a magus would know the art, but common men rarely do....and if you know the art, then you are no common man. Magi also know of animism. Sorcery is so rare no one can start with it and only those who figure out dark pacts which teach them the marks of power have a shot at it. Mysticism is possible to those who pursue it....in this age when some men claim to be divine in origin, mysticism is possible. Theism is practiced by the cults of Enki, Innana and the other gods, but like other magic it is very rare and only a few prominent priests know of any theistic miracles.

Also...if you want to play a barbarian (like all out) but want to be a wanderer type who's visiting Ubaid (but Not to officially siege a city and take it's stuff), Assur to the north is a good choice, as is Amartu to the west, or coastal Canaan. Ebla is the western empire and the men of that region are effectively civilized but the Canaan are barbarian the coastal tribes who worship Dagan. (Yes, that Dagan, alias Dagon). Whether he's really an early proto-semitic god of grain and fertility or a vile fish god from the deeps is up for you all to find out.

And don't forget the men of Zagros, the Kassu, who are raiders and dislike the Elam and Sumer of Ubaid alike. 

Silver as Coinage: (the below is quoted but I forget the source, might be from this useful site: here)

In Mesopotamia, silver became the standard of value sometime between 3100 B.C. and 2500 B.C. along with barley. Silver was used because it was a prized decorative material, it was portable and the supply of it was relatively constant and predictable from year to year.

 Sometime before 2500 B.C. a shekel of silver became the standard currency. Tablets listed the price of timber and grains in shekels of silver. A shekel was equal to about one third of an ounce, or little more than three pennies in terms of weight. One month of labor was worth 1 shekel. A liter of barley sold for 3/100ths of shekel. A slave sold for between 10 and 20 shekels.

 

Adventures in Ubaid:

 

Part I: The Witch and the Heart

Ur-Nisu has a son who died in battle, and his loss drove him to a greater evil. He hires an adventurer group to go with Ur-Nisu (or on his behalf) to find the witch and take his son’s heart back. Then paid to take the heart and his daughter to Haiadi to see if he can put the heart to rest!

 

The Witch’s Lair: located in a small encampment of huts deep in the Red Desert where loyal nomads seek her out for healing and seances, Emiska is in fact protected by her followers but also by the lilitu demon which she has struck a pact with. Having his heart, she can also summon the vampiric rabasu Hamattu and call upon him for protection….wise heroes will know sea salt, purified, will drive him back.

 

Emiska will negotiate with the heroes if they try to reason with her. She will offer the heart in exchange for a deed: go to the high mountains of Zagros and bring her a different heart, that of the warlord of the Kassu named Ninhadda. Kill Ninhadda, bring her his heart, and she will exchange it for Hamattu’s.

 

If the heroes try to take her out, she is protected by the lilitu, which initially manifests as a spirit seeking to possess….Emiska’s followers willingly supplicate and the demon will take control, transforming them as it does (use the Lamia stats). Even if Emiska is slain the lilitu will seek to stay, not wanting to let go of it’s host, and will seek to kill all witnesses.

 

Emiska will also call upon the power of the heart……but even if she does, Hamattu will not come if it is daylight, or if the adventurers thought to consecrate the hut with sea salt. If they did not and it is dark, he will arrive but reluctantly….he cannot face his father if he is there. If not, he will attack with a vengeance, but will recoil from fire.

 

Warlord Ninhadda: if the PCs cooperate with the witch, that takes them thirty miles in to the western mountains where a warrior who spurned the witch’s advances works with his small army in a long series of dug-out caves in the mountains. He plots to siege Hadoukar and become king of Ebla. A year ago he went to the witch and ask her to speak of his omen, to learn if he would be king. She said payment was his infidelity, and that she wanted his seed for a child. He was deeply offended, being loyal to his single wife Atane, and he rebuffed the witch. Emiska was enraged. She sent an assassin to poison him but he killed the assassin and sent the body to her village with the warning that if she tried again he would raze her village to the ground.

 

Going to Ninhadda is a huge risk, actually…he is a tough fighter and well protected. But if the PCs tell him what they were asked, he will agree to raze the village and give them the heart. If they try to substitute a heart of someone else, the witch will know and then curse them before summoning the vampire to hunt them. If the group somehow does kill Ninhadda, it creates a power vacuum among the Kassu tribes.

 

Part II: Journey to Susa

Ur-Nisu needs men willing to take a shipment of goods into the Zagros Mountain Highlands. He needs the goods taken to Susa, to a merchant prince named Haiadi, and for the hired men to escort back the payment. Ur-Nisu is too frail to make the journey which is close to 100 miles distant and requires transport by river boat for much of it. The journey will take the hired crew from Eridu to the gulf, to the river passage to Susa…..not difficult, but the possibility of river pirates is a risk.

 

Ur-Nisu promises 1,000 silvers to the group in exchange for this service, no questions asked….the adventurers were previously hired by him to go to the Red Desert and take the reliquary from the witch Emiska then he will hire them based on loyalty. For those who did not… He tells them that they are not to listen to his daughter, that she has had maddened ravings since being exposed to the malignance of a Asakku demon who came to her in the night when she was serving as a temple priestess to Inanna.

 

The goods it turns out include six clay vases filled with copper ingots, a large layered clay pot (a cold-storing pot from Meluhha) sealed in wax that contains a blackened, beating heart. Finally there is Ur-Nisu’s daughter, Ur-Erishti. She is seventeen and appears to be very unhappy with this journey, or the fact that (if pried later) she reveals she is to be gifted to Haiadi, and she will tell the adventurers that she think Haiadi is actually a necromancer who worships Nergal. She claims her father has saved the heart of his eldest son, Hamattu, who fell in battle last year during a siege in Ebla. His body was returned, and her father purchased a substance….a black tar like substance from the Red Desert sold to him by a witch, to coat on his son’s body. His son is now kept in a cool subterranean chamber, but her brother’s heart has been taken out and is to be transported to Haiadi for a ritual to retore him to life. 

 

The stories are all half true……Hamattu did die, and his body was preserved, but the story her father told her is not quite the reality. The witch in the Red Desert, named Emiska, called upon Erishkigal for the power to revive his son, but his son returned instead as an insatiable vampiric Rabisu. She removed the heart, which beats blackly, and kept it for her own purposes. Adventurers who aided him in this task in Part I will know how that all went down.

 

Pursuit of the Rabisu: Hamattu is growing increasingly corrupted, a vampire in truest form, as he descends into madness and darkness driven by Ereshkigal’s curse. As the crew makes its way on the river barge each night evidence of the vampire is present, as he shapeshift’s in to a demonic lion and follows the barge along the waterline, or turn in to an eagle and follow by air. During the day he can only manifest as an eagle, or sometimes as a vaguely humanoid shape in the recessed shadows along the river bank. He unerringly can appear in shadow near the region of his heart no matter what.

 

The journey is going to take about a week upriver to travel 100 miles. So long as the heroes stay on water the rabisu will remain at bay. If the river raft stops at one of the many villages along the way, it gives the rabisu a chance to board. Once aboard, he will seek to slay everyone and then coerce a risen dead to take the heart to a remote location in the desert for safe-keeping. Each slain foe will rise as a zombie to aid him.

 

River Pirates: during the fifth and sixth nights river pirates will try to take the ship. Led by a bandit named Unhaka, they have been told by a rival merchant that a valuable bride and wealth rests on the boat. Hidden inside the copper ingots of the hold is silver….lots of it. They will try to board the boat, about 16 men in total, during the night using river boats to steal aboard. If they capture the boat (and they will take prisoners for ransom to sort it all out later) then when they dock that is when the rabisu attacks. Each foe slain by the rabasu will rise as a zombie to aid him.

 

Arrival at Susa: assuming the group survives travel (done easily by warding the boat with sea salt) then arrival at Susa requires bribing guards at the docks with good coin to allow safe passage in to the city. Here they can find the Black Tower of Haiadi, located adjacent to a dour temple to Nergal, which allegedly holds a capstone to one of many passages to the underworld.

 

Haiadi will perform a ritual to lift the curse of the heart. Unknown to Haiadi he is doomed from the get-go…unbeknownst to all, Hamattu had prior to his battle at Ebla a year before gone to the witch Emiska for magical aid, and she gave him protection from all weapons in exchange for his seed. He gave this to her, promising to return and even take care of the child with her…..but he lied, and after sleeping with the witch he beat her soundly until she miscarried, then went to battle. So it was that he survived all weapons, unblemishing his skin, until he was doused in burning oil and died (ergo the blackened heart).

 

Now his evils have caught up to him….as Haiadi beseeches the Annunaki of the underworld to restore him in the name of the evil of the witch, winged demons erupt from the ground and take the black heart….and the vampire if he is present….dragging them in to the darkness of Irkalla. As this happens the chamber is filled with terrifying death spirits….any who star upon them must make a contested POW roll or succumb, souls ripped away to the afterworld.

 

When all is done Haiaidi….warded against such contingencies….flees in madness to the temple of Nergal to beg forgiveness. The merchant’s daughter Ur-Erishti has a profound revelation in her madness and flees to seek out the cult of the infernal goddess of oaths, Ismekarab, and to renounce her evil family.

 

The adventurers are left with an empty urn, and possibly a lot of silver that Haiadi has abandonded. When they return to Eridu they find that Ur-Nisu’s house mysteriously burned down the same night of the ceremony, and his body as not found.

The 2023 Death Bat Year in Gaming and Looking to 2024

 What a weird year it has been for me. I spent a lot of this year overworked and with less free time for fun than I would like, but on the plus side I got a bit better at managing what free time I did have. My son, who is now 12, monopolizes a fair amount of that, but he's also very into D&D now and plays in a school group as well as my Wednesday night group....which doesn't play D&D as often anymore, but hey, we're starting a new campaign this week, so there ya' go.

This year kicked off with Wizards of the Coast annihilating trust in their shepherding of Dungeons & Dragons through the OGL, resulting in numerous spin-off games appearing under a creative commons or new license (ORC) through Paizo, including the revamped Pathfinder 2E v2, and the imminent Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press. It's a boost for existing products like level Up! A5E RPG, though honestly Morrus and his ENWorld crew are not really the sort to dramatically capitalize on the negative hype aimed at WotC, and they continue to do their own thing. 

I spent a lot of time this year deep diving into the alternative and indie RPG market that I dub "zinerpgs" because most of these seem to have spun out of the zine scene where small publishers and authors (usually one and the same) along with their art-generating college buddies create elaborate, minimalist, starkly artistic and utterly weird entries into the market. I stalled out a bit on that project of reviewing all I had found but need to get back to it. Maybe 2024 will be a slower year for me....sheeya right!

This year I did manage the following:

First and best, I got the Wednesday group back to live nightly gaming again. This has been a welcome relief, as I tend to associate facetime on web events with work; it is not fun for me. My Saturday game remains on Roll20 out of necessity, but even then I am thinking about making Roll20 a bi-weekly deal and interposing a live event every other week.

As a player I got actual action in this year. I played in a campaign of Pathfinder 2E run by a friend; found that being a player in this edition is more frustrating and unfun (imo) than being a GM. Another friend in Seattle has managed to run a lot of Victorian Gaslight Call of Cthulhu for much of this year until unfortunate circumstances led to that group collapsing (temporarily; three of us wish to resume it in January). He has also run a fun bi=weekly D&D 5E game I have played in for the better part of the year using the Kobold Press Southlands campaign.

I have run live games this year of BRP in a near-future hard SF/Cyberpunk setting, Pathfinder for Savage Worlds, D&D 5E at very high levels (levels 15-20), a couple D&D mini-campaigns on Roll20, an aborted Pathfinder game (what I like to call "the one that made me gun-shy over Pathfinder"), Vaesen (a game I'd describe better as Dark Fantasy and less horror), Call of Cthulhu (both modern day and Cthulhu Dark ages, using the 6th Edition of the Dark Ages rules), Mork Borg (which was a blast but I have not been sure what to do with it next; it is most decidedly a beer & pretzels dark metal RPG), and at the start of the year we had a 1st edition Gamma World holiday campaign wrap up. Fun stuff! I may have blogged less this year, but at least I kept the gaming up. There might have been a game or two I forgot about....OSE maybe? I think I ran that all last year, though.

Of those games I ran, I came away a bit cool on Vaesen (fun but hard for me to get in to, which is damning if you're the GM), happy that Mork Borg was so fun (but also realizing it is best used sparingly), excited for the Call of Cthulhu games, but also realizing I need to give it a rest a bit so my idea engine can recharge, and for BRP I am now intrigued at the idea of exploring how many oddball genres I can get out of it. I really enjoyed the Savage Worlds Fantasy and Pathfinder adaptations, but I am not 100% sure my group did as when I suggested returning to it they all seemed "m'eh" so I think the joyful simplicity of Savage Worlds may not be as endearing to them as it is to me. As for Pathfinder.....man, I want to, but I've had some issues and bad experiences with running it now and that is proving tough for me to get over. D&D remains viable and my energy to play it is recharged, thankfully, but I plan to ditch it entirely for Tales of the Valiant unless whatever WotC pumps out for new editions next year knocks my socks off. My suspicion is it will be a product aimed to steer me toward their online platform, and that will be a no deal situation. Meanwhile, Kobold Press is more or less continuously making smart and fun books and their grip on Shard Tabletop is where I'll put my online money. I am confident the Kobolds won't forget their analog wood-grain table crowd.

My biggest issue this year has been wrestling with GM burnout. Playing more helped a bit, but I have never been very good as a player (I know too much how the cheese is made, so it can be tough to feel invested unless the GM is shockingly good at running things). I got pretty tired of D&D for a bit, but I feel more interested now, especially as I did get a chance to explore other games there, and that, if anything, helped hammer home that the grass is not greener on the other side, and what really makes things fun is what I put in to it more than what system I am using. Getting to play D&D 5E for once was a godsend, and my friend Mike runs a mean, tight game in the Southlands, loads of fun.

For 2024, I hope to run a good long fun D&D 5E game in my Pergerron setting. I think the Roll20 Saturday group would like to do part 2 to an older Pathfinder campaign in Oman'Hakat, and I may be up for that. I have strong plans for a Traveller campaign, maybe before we do D&D or Pathfinder on Saturday, especially now that it seems they finally have some real character sheet support. The 2022-2024 revisions of Traveller have been great books, not really necessary but welcome nonetheless, and I may even use them to continue the campaign concepts I started in the BRP campaign earlier this year. 

Beyond that, I have some hopes of experimenting with Dragonbane, which I almost ran but never quite got to this year, as well as Mutant Year Zero. I'm hopeful that Friday Knight Games finally coughs up the gigantic Kickstarted boxed set of Mothership 1E this year so I can resume running that. Steve Jackson Games is making a big monster book for The Fantasy Trip, too, and I am thinking about what sort of logistics it would take to give TFT a spin. And, of course, Mork Borg and its evil cousins Death in Space, Vast Grimm, Pirate Borg and Cy_Borg call for my attention the next time I have a week with nothing better going on. 

I'll try to do more blogging, too! I have found lots of RPG bloggers on Substack, may forge a new blog over there as well to see how it goes, but I am reluctant to abandon this one as I have so many years behind it now. We'll see, who knows.

Back to Thinking About an Ancient Egypt Campaign

 I've been stewing on this for close to two years now, but I have a surprising ally in my slow-burning quest to eventually start some archaic old-world gaming set in as close to a historical setting as I can possibly manage, with the first planned campaign arc to take place in ancient Egypt. That ally would be my son! He became quite interested in Egypt after playing Assassin's Creed: Origins which, despite being a single player game, he and I played borderline competitively just to see who could level up the fastest and do the most quests. Say what you will about video games, but the level of authenticity that Ubisoft put into trying to make a fun but also reasonably informative historical setting out of late Ptolemaic Egypt really caught my son's attention, and he has proceeded to move beyond just the game, reading books and pursuing questions. We even let him play in our ongoing Call of Cthulhu Delta Green campaign not long ago, in which he played an expat marine named Bayek who had retired from the rough life in Cairo, and who secretly heard voices in his head from Anubis. 

This is a short way of saying that I see two opportunities here: one is to spring an Egypt campaign on my group that is legitimately aimed at close historical authenticity (but likely at times with supernatural elements because those are always fun), with at least one player (Marcus) as an advocate. The secondary opportunity is it lets me run historical games which can (hah! surprise!) impart more history lessons disguised as actual good old fun. Sneaky!

The trick is determining what game system to use. I have a number of systems which could get the job done, but with the caveat that the system needs to skew close to realism as a baseline (so supernatural elements may exist, but the characters are going to have the veneer of historical verisimilitude as the goal). Want to play an Egyptian warrior loyal to his Pharaoh who thwarts assassination attempts while secretly believing he communes with Anubis or Sobek in his dreams? Sure! Want to play Anubis, or a Set-beast or something weird like that? Nope, not the goal here. 

The best book I have found so far, outside of simply doing my own research, is GURPS Egypt. It's got that "surprising amount of information packed into a short book" GURPS quality that was so amazing with GURPS 3rd edition era resources from the 90's. It's only downside is its statted for 3rd ediiton, which is no big deal for a GURPS Fan to translate to 4th edition, but a bit of a headache explaining to GURPS noobs. Indeed, the single biggest hurtle I can see if that I think a lot of players feel GURPS is a tough system to master not because of its complexity (it's really not that complex) but because of its freedom of choice in design....the decision paralysis can be thick.

So some alternatives include the BRP family of games, including but not limited to Call of Cthulhu 7E with the archaic era guidelines turned on; the BRP Gold Book; the Mythras rules (arguably quite suited to this, but requiring me to think hard about the combat system which I have issues with) and Open Quest 3, which I am leaning towards right now. I am evaluating how easy it would be to modify OQ3 to work. 

Of the BRP games above, I'd probably eliminate Mythras (the combat is too simulationist for the group  I am aiming at). It does have a great module (Temple of Set) which could be adapted to an Egyptian setting, maybe. 

BRP could work fine, but Open Quest 3 is a more streamlined and easier to use edition of the system, and I've been itching for an excuse to use it anyway. But if I went with a period-set Call of Cthulhu (maybe sans Cthulhu stuff, maybe not) I know that everyone would handle that variation of the system just fine.

Other systems include True20, which recently returned to print as a POD product. I like it, but the key issue is (similar to GURPS) getting buy-in and then getting everyone up to speed. It's not really that complex a system, either, and may be an easier sell. Does it have enough support material to make adapting it to a quasi-historical Egyptian setting work? I think so.

Cypher System is a fine generic system but its also inherently suited to gonzo/creative endeavors. Yes, historical setting are discussed in Cypher, but I think it would be doing the system a disservice to run something aiming for a baseline of realistic and low-key with an emphasis on historical accuracy. If I were going to run something in which everyone, for a random example, played actual Egyptian demigods or something then I think Cypher would be extremely well suited to such a game. Maybe in the near future!

I thought about D&D/Pathfinder for a bit. Unfortunately the current iterations of both Pathfinder and D&D are really hardwired to the D&Disms of their default/implied settings, so the result would be "D&D or Pathfinder, but with a shiny veneer of Egypt." I've technically been running that for two years now with Pathfinder at least in my Egyptian/Roman Republic inspired Oman'Hakat campaign. D&D style changes the feel, and as a good example of the extremes one might go through just to make it work I would showcase the old Historical Reference books TSR published for AD&D back in the day, or the many third party products that came out for D&D 3.5. 

Indeed, there are several Egyptian sourcebooks for D&D (and both Pathfinder and Castles & Crusades) out there, but all of them are distinctly "D&D fantasy, with Egyptian style" rather than more authentic historical treatments. That said, these tomes might have some useful content. Codex Egyptium for C&C has an interesting take on Egypt, and is mostly aimed at a historical representation laden with a heavy treatise on many, many gods. That alone is useful, though I wish the book provided a bibliography of the resources used by the author, which makes it difficult for me to do more research and reconcile variances in this book with other research I have done.

Likewise, the two main Egyptian themed books I have access to that bear mentioning is Necromancer Games' Necropolis (the 3.5 edition; the 5E Kickstarted edition appears to be in shipping hell right now); and the Hamunaptra boxed set from Green Ronin. Both are decidedly "D&D fantasy, now with more Egyptian stuff"...think "Like going to Egypt, but you visit the Luxor Casino instead" type stuff, but the actual adventures and content can be mined for some ideas.

The best overall resource remains GURPS Egypt, though, along with GURPS Places of Mystery and GURPS Low-Tech. Those are likely the only three game-related books I need at the table along with my library of actual books of Egyptian Archaeology, magic and warfare.

So....for the moment, I think I have to decide on using Open Quest 3, True20, or GURPS as the best overall choices. I think if I take some time to prep the 3rd edition GURPS content for 4th edition templates it will help, a lot. But...Open Quest 3 looks to provide a sound experience, and is easily quite familiar to the group. True20 less so, but I think once people see how it works and how character generation flows it will prove quite easy. 

The big decider will probably be, "which of these games have the best character sheet setup in Roll20" though. I guess I should look there first!

UPDATE: Roll20 has  GURPS character sheet, which looks overly complete and scary, especially for largely new players. If I go that route, I may need to make an opening game that is a shorter introduction and do some pregens. True20 has representation, which is good. Open Quest 3, much to my disappointment, does not have a character sheet on Roll20, though. 

Despite what I said above, I may peruse the "historical" stuff in Cypher a bit more, and think about it. I should not dismiss Cypher out of hand just because the goal is "historical realism." Stay tuned....

Too Much Mythras Coolness: Mythic Babylon, Odd Soot, Rubble & Ruin, and M-Space Companion

Mythras is doing really well, almost a renaissance of really cool and useful new content to fill the void left by BRP's quiet return to being an engine for Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. Mythras has only grown increasingly versatile and accessible thanks to the condensed Mythras Imperative rules, various genres popping up powered by Mythras, and a wealth of third party publishers taking Mythras in interesting directions. Anyway....here are four books you as a Mythras fan should not be missing right now:

Mythic Babylon

This released today, and I am perusing the impressive PDF this afternoon but can already tell its going to be a book I must run. The Design Mechanism has been knocking historical sourcebooks with mythical elements out of the park, filling a void not properly covered anywhere else save by GURPS. I'll post more on this as I read in more depth, but wanted to get word out that the book is now live while I wait for my print copy. I also ordered a copy of Fioracitta from TDM, a book which a friend of mine grabbed and looks like a fascinating take on a fantasy alt-Italy.

Odd Soot

While investigating my plans for M-Space campaigning in the near future I noticed this oddity on Frostbyte's storefront and decided to take a leap even though it sounded like it might be part of one of my least favorite genres (retro SF in which the SF is rooted in the golden age of science fiction and ignores the benefits of hindsight). Instead, it turns out this is an amazingly weird and unique take on doing an alternate history science fiction setting in a 1920's universe, but it defies the stereotypes of this sort of genre completely in favor of something weird and new and extremely compelling. You need to read it to see that it is unique and worthy of being a cult classic.

Rubble & Ruin

I was a fan of the original BRP monograph for post-apocalyptic roleplaying even though it needed more depth of design, and was surprised to discover quite by accident that it's been revamped (with two modules as well) for Mythras as a stand alone system. Rubble & Ruin provides all the rules and more for rough post-apocalypse gaming in a package that looks like it's not wanting for any content. I'll also be writing on this one more soon.

M-Space Companion

M-Space, despite my gripes with the very basic equipment and weapons list in the core rulebook, is still by far the best SF adaptation of BRP I've found on the market. It's only gotten better thanks to the M-Space Companion, which adds in some much needed SF content, most notably rules for cybernetic augmentations (good rules!), rules on playing robots as characters (also good rules!) and an expanded culture/background system that adds some randomized elements to character backgrounds. Well worth the asking price to provide useful additional content to M-Space. 

Speaking of M-Space, if you did not know, a quality color edition of the rulebook is available on DrivethruRPG now here. Previously you had to order it from Europe at prohibitive cost, or get a cheap copy in black and white off Lulu. Get it now before the cost of color printing skyrockets for POD in July!

 

How to Run Historical Games

Last week I talked about criteria for the best type of RPG for historical gaming. For the "best of the best" I identified GURPS, followed to lesser degrees by Mythras, BRP and Call of Cthulhu. The latter of these four works best when you are going to "historical, but with mythos" of course, but the key takeaway was that for good historical gaming you want a system which sticks to a "realistic" baseline, emphasizes interesting ordinary traits in characters, does not require redacting significant content that impacts the game experience (e.g. removing a magic system core to the game's themes) and has support material. GURPS is hands-down the winner here, but Mythras comes in a close second along with BRP and CoC.

Remember it's a Group Venture

This time around I thought I'd talk about some of my experiences running actual historical games. A key problem with historical gaming is that it can mean different things to different people, so the first and foremost bit of advice I can offer up is: talk to your players about your ideas, and make sure that they are both on board with the concept and excited about it. There is nothing that kills a game faster than a GM who's grand vision for an esoteric deep-dive into historical tales around Roman General Riothamus are thwarted by a group of players who were expecting T.H. White's King Arthur. Likewise, a group of players who feel like they are being forced to experience a historical re-enactment of either actual events or the GM's personal fan fiction on a historical moment will lead to inevitable disappointment and campaign collapse. 

Put another way: the motto of any GM, regardless of intent, should always be to remember that it's a group venture and the group should as a whole be having fun. This doesn't mean that if your regular group is not in to what you plan to do that you should ditch it, but it does mean if you are married to an idea for a campaign you should seek out the time, place and players who will find it worth their time to explore the idea in question.

Establishing Familiarity and the Economy of Information

Taking to the players about their expectations for an historical campaign is a good idea. Looking in to your own heart about what speaks to you about the particular historical setting is also a good idea. I once played in a campaign set in an era of feudal Japan, but the GM, despite having a great internal vision of the campaign, wasn't that good at conveying details or explaining the "why" of things to the players. As a result, we had a really shallow experience with the game, unclear as to why some things were happening or what we were expected to do. We persevered because we enjoyed gaming together, but it was a short lived game as the vision was neither conveyed nor understood.

If you decide to go for a historical period in which you are very familiar, figure out how familiar your players are with that time and work out some plans around their familiarity or lack thereof. Take one of these strategies based on your players, which is already assuming that regardless of their understanding of the historical period they have already expressed interest in your pitch:

Players Not Familiar: this means you will need to think about your setting's relevant details and focus on the things which will be interesting or important (preferably both). If you know your players are keen on learning about the historical period as part of the experience great, but otherwise try to avoid narrating it like you're a National Geographic Special or in an academic reading; the same rules with actual fictional worlds apply: details that don't matter really do not matter, and details which the characters would never know the players also would not need to know. If you have some great bit you want to talk about on the historical backdrop that isn't relevant, save it for the after-game talk, but keep it out of the actual play experience.

Players Familiar: everything above counts, twice as much, but with two caveats: the reason you don't wax philosophical on the historical details that don't matter to the plot is because they could derail the game if you get into a discussion of irrelevant minutiae with another scholar of the period. The second caveat is: that player at the table who is familiar is now a valuable resource, so use him or her. If they have some information that might help clarify the moment, take advantage of that so long as it doesn't violate the need for an economy of information (use only that which is relevant). 

On rare occasion you might run something set in a time period for which a player is far more familiar with and vocal than you might want them to be. In these cases try to establish proactively that extraneous details are best kept for the after-game chat. That said, still take advantage of their familiarity with details that lend to the moment, but (to take a totally random example that happened to me in college) ask them to refrain from elaborate lessons on how Vikings saddled their horses (unless your group is like really in to that).

Narrating Detail as a Story Aspect for Entertainment First, Enlightenment Optional

Part of good historical gaming is setting the theme and mood for something exotic and also established in the real world, or it's recollection of such. Much of what I previously mentioned is aimed at the idea of extraneous, irrelevant or unnecessary information; it is not helpful to the story of the moment, or it is packaged in a manner which brings the narrative or gameplay to a standstill. That said, lots of such content when relevant or important to the moment should be presented. Just make sure you do it in a manner consistent with the goals of "presenting useful information" and "establishing the flavor of the scene."

For example: if I set a game that takes place in an early dynastic Egyptian court,  I will want to include information and descriptions which establish for the players useful images and data on the situation. If they are playing Egyptian characters then they will need some basic groundwork on what the court etiquette is, if it's relevant. Establishing customs and practices in this context might be useful, but it works best if you incorporate it into the description of events as part of the story rather than a break out lecture. You might be tempted to send this information to the players beforehand, but I don't advise it unless they request such; too much info sent from a GM without request is not fun, it's homework. I strongly believe in the axiom of "show, don't tell" though since RPGs require a narration you are in fact narrating the "show" part. 

You can use skills to gatekeep info, of course. Players who have no etiquette training or courtly graces experience can be told information from the perspective of those who find what they see as unfamiliar and intimidating; nobility engaging in practices which they find awe inspiring or terrifying to simple commoners. But if the group consists of nobility then the information should be imparted in a manner which helps them set the scene and also understand that what is happening is familiar to their characters, if not them.

In my experience, asking players to tell you what they do in situations like this is often counter-productive. The players who did their homework or have the interest will likely volunteer such data. Others may welcome a GM who doesn't force them to explain in precise detail how to saddle a horse. I experienced that as a player once...it was an ironic moment, as I grew up on a ranch in real life and could saddle and ride a horse, but could not satisfactorily explain it to the GM, so my character (who should have such knowledge regardless of the player) failed at the task. Giant Lose on that scenario.

Using Actual Historical Events as Underpinnings vs. Springboards

There are two thoughts on how to handle documented history: it's written in stone, or it's not. Your players can either find a way to kill Hitler, or Hitler and Eva are destined to be found dead in a bunker. How you choose to do this is important to your initial story pitch. I, for example, lose a metric ton of interest in a historical game that is about to dump the actual historical underpinnings; if I wanted to play an alternative history game then I'd look to something like GURPS Infinite Worlds; if I want historical, I want it with all the gorgeous depth and details of actual history. For this purpose, we will assume that for actual historical gaming we stick to actual historical events.

This poses a problem though: what if your players try to kill Hitler? Well, there are a few ways to handle this: first and simplest is, if they can figure out how to do it, let them. The game stops being historical after that point, but it's still a fun experience. The one thing I feel you don't want to do is impede them. If you've created a scenario where they have the will and the way to accomplish something, it is ultimately better to recognize that you made a scenario which allowed it and proceed accordingly; literally anything else you do that stops the action will feel like GM intervention or rail-roading.

The better solution is to think carefully about scenarios that would prove interesting that don't deal directly with historical lynchpins and allow the players as much agency as possible within that context. For example, rather than design a scenario where the players feel they have the will, means and need to find and murder Hitler in 1938 instead look at other scenarios that deviate from such trains of thought. There are no shortage of lesser historical characters and plenty of "closely similar" personalities you can populate a setting with that will allow for an interesting story while letting the established historical backdrop play out in the background.

Another approach is to look for hotspots in history it is not as clear exactly who did what and how it all specifically went down. I actually think World War II is a terrible genre for actual gaming because you have to slice it very thin to find moments in which PCs can do things not already well established. You can still find moments, though: a campaign centered around D-Day and Operation Overlord can lead to some great fun, all while using the historical record as a backdrop. 

Other historical periods can explode with wide open opportunities for an historical experience that explores the gaps in our understanding. The case of the real King Arthur is a fine example: you could set an entire campaign around the sparse but insightful details of Riomanthus and run a campaign which strive for historical authenticity while also diving into a "what if" of that time period with little effort; the GM who finds creative ways to reference later legends of Arthur by weaving the campaign around the origins of such references gets bonus points. If Riomanthus was the inspiration for Arthur, then who was the inspiration for Merlin, Nimue, Lancelot, Morgan le Fay and the rest? Historical analogs for all of these characters could exist in such a telling, and would manage to walk a fine line between historical setting and creative extrapolation without going over any particular line. 

The key thing to remember is that the further back you go the more your historical context will rely on interpretations of the material available, extrapolations from the pieces of the picture, and the less it will be structured around well established facts. The campaign I am working on now, for example, will be focused on a narrow time period during the reign of King Akhenaten, chiefly because it is both a really interesting period in Egyptian history, but also because thanks to the discovery of the Amarna Letters, which were missives to and from neighboring polities over a few decades, we have a remarkable (but rough) picture of the political goings-ons during a hotbed of activity during the rise and fall of an extremely contentious Pharaoh who attempted to replace an entire belief system with a new, highly abstract form of monotheism. 

This gets to the last key point:

History as Backdrop

Alluded to above, this distinction is important: when you design an historical adventure or campaign, think carefully about whether the subject of the campaign will interweave with historical elements, or whether the historical context will be a backdrop for adventures driven entirely by the players and "local, possibly unrelated" events. 

A friend of mine ran a fantastic historical campaign set roughly around 1,000 AD during the Crusades. It's driver was a macguffin: a piece of wood allegedly believed to be a piece of Christ's cross, a holy relic of incredible worth if it is truly what it is claimed to be. The characters we played were mostly survivors in one form or another, the sorts of characters that would find cause to take interest in the relic, either out of belief or profit. It was a great game, and it provided an elaborate setting backdrop grounded in historical verisimilitude without either overwhelming us with detail or derailing with any actual historical details from the time. It felt like a thing that could have happened but no one wrote it down so it was lost to time, in essence.

When you design games like this, you do so with an eye often toward the more common people of a given period. Not all ideas for historical scenarios will work like this, but if you want your players to have the greatest agency this is the best way to do it.

Guidance to Players: Pregens and Player Guides

One thing you can do, particularly if this is a short campaign or single session event, is provide pregenerated characters. This has a few benefits: it saves time for the players, gives them a range of choices that the GM has pre-vetted as relevant to the intended campaign, and ideally you as GM should have twice as many pregens rolled up as there are players so they still have some agency in picking and choosing from the various backgrounds and personality types to suit to taste. 

If your campaign is geared to be longer (more than 5 sessions) and your players are of sufficient creative mindsets then you will probably want to provide a campaign precis instead. This is not quite the same as sending them a bunch of character homework; more like a quick summary of advised guidelines on character generation, including some basic guidance on character types you allow/recommend and where to look up more information if they want it. GURPS is great in this regard, because you can usually point them to the relevant sourcebook and tell them to follow the guidelines there. Failing that, something which provides some design focus is helpful, and be ready to elaborate on request. For example, in my planned "Fall of Aten" campaign sett around 1338-1333 BC, I might offer up that they can collectively choose to be with one of these factions, but that the players as a whole must belong to the same faction once decided on: 

Syrians (belonging to the powerful northern cluster of Syrian states which stand in opposition to Egypt)

Habiru (rebels and raiders in the southern client states, sponsored by the Syrians to undermine Egyptian rule)

Men of Amurru (servants of king Aziru, who find themselves embroiled in betrayal as AZiru journeys to meet with Pharaoh Akhenaten in the new capitol of Akhetaten, only to be held as a political prisoner; later released and betrayed by his own kin)

Egyptians (either aligned with or against the divisive Pharaoh Akhenaten, either working with him to secure long unattained power in a new administration and form of governance, or quietly aligned against him and seeking ways to bring back the old forms of power)

...and if I'm feeling like something different, they could be optionally part of the Shardana, one of the sea people groups who were early coastal raiders in the region, plaguing Syrian and Egyptian ports alike. That's not a good fit for the direction I want to go so I'd exclude it, but any of the first four options above make an excellent basis for campaigns.

They key here is to find out what the players find most interesting....and go with that. But if you as GM only find certain ways to be interesting or work for your vision, make sure you restrict it to what you know and can do; if I for example felt I did not have enough context to run a campaign that might not make it out of Syria then I shouldn't put that option on the table; or alternatively, if my vision really involved exploring the delicate balance of Egyptian court in a social and religious upheaval, then my player guide should narrow down to more specific details, focusing on social station and factions within that kingdom alone.

Secondarily, some guidance on what systems are in place for the game you are using is also relevant. If I use GURPS but allow a low level of magic and will let players choose from Ritual and Path magic only, they need to know that. The more divergent your ruleset is from the baseline discussed in the prior article, the more work you have cut out for you. For example, if you were to use D&D for historical gaming you'd need to provide a long list of exclusions and maybe design some new thematic archetypes and backgrounds appropriate to the setting. Doable, sure....but in this day and age, there's a game for every flavor and that's easier for me to work with.

Ultimately, running an historical campaign or scenario is going to take more work than using fictional settings, as you can't just start inventing stuff without context. A good historical setting requires some effort and research, but it's payoff when executed well is amazingly fun. The last thing can advise is: do not get too caught up in the details if it is not relevant to the fun of the moment! The ultimate objective is still to have a good time, and you can do so without necessarily getting every little fact straight. If something does end up being anachronistic or historically out of context, but your players don't notice it, that's a perfect "after the game" topic for conversation. Keeping track of every tiny historical detail can be hell at times, and it's inevitable you might screw up....but roll with it, and figure out a way to retcon later if needed.

If you're going to do some historical gaming, I also recommend that you secure a copy of GURPS Low-Tech, and use it (regardless of what system you use), it's a great game-focused resource.

Okay, that's all for now! Maybe a Part II if I think of more things to write about.

(edit: fixed a date issue, apparently had a 2 where I needed a 1 and did not notice!) 

Historical Gaming - Best Traits in a Game System

In this 46th year of role-playing games as a formal hobby we've got all sorts of fine tuned, precision level gaming engines out there for all sorts of things. Recently though I've been really getting back in to a deep dive on historical readings and the thought of running historical games has become all consuming. I've got campaign ideas ranging from revisiting my Mesopotamian campaign set around 2330 BC to a deep dive into England around 650 AD on up to my particularly strong obsession: the rise and fall of the rule of Akhenaten in Egypt from 1351 to 1334 BC. This is an especially interesting time period since a vast trove of diplomatic missives called the Amarna Letters exist, and these include a great deal of interesting insight into what was going on in this particular period of time. Never mind the revolutionary...some might say heretical....upheaval in religious tradition that Akhenaten implemented; there are all kinds of interesting stuff going on in this period in history.

Anyway, when I want to play something that involves exploring dark holes in the ground while fighting monsters both D&D 5E and Pathfinder 2nd Edition work really well for that. When I want even more cinematic excitement in that same vein 13th Age is a good choice. When I want science fiction Traveller is a basic default. So what is the best default for historical gaming?

A key element of a good ruleset for a specific genre must be that it supports what you want out of it. If the rulesystem provides only nominal coverage toward the genre then you may find yourself missing elements you crave. For my purposes, I define the historical genre like this:

Verisimilitude is Critical

Historical settings and themes work best out of necessity when the game system's underlying mechanics support the ideas of the real world. There are many systems which support cinematic or literary storytelling, but a suitable historical experience must at least feel like it is grounded in reality. Some systems let you take historical themes but are not really providing an historical experience in this manner (Cypher System and Savage Worlds are both examples of this). The obvious game systems for this sort of experience are: Mythras, BRP, Call of Cthulhu and GURPS. Each provide a mechanical framework for an experience steeped in "realistic" interpretations of things such as injuries, pragmatic human limits and physics.

Emphasis on the Mundane over the Fantastical

The "realism" must be supported well and in larger proportion to fantastical elements. If the system or setting of necessity feels like you're missing out if you exclude magic from the setting then it may not be an ideal system for historical gaming. The ability to define characters in terms of the mundane and make them feel relevant is critical; it does mean, for example, that the ability of a character to be interesting because the system provides rules for more in-depth skills is preferable to one where skills are less relevant. Combat abilities may focus in greater depth on what actually happens in real combat, and eschews fantastical or cinematic maneuvers; being good at blocking and parrying (and those being part of the process) will help with the historical realism; whirlwind attacks and fantasy parkour not so much.

Magic is of necessity either optional or irrelevant in these systems. The ability to provide for a form of magic that feels more like the way magic was perceived to work in the real world is helpful; the ability of the system to feel robust with no magic at all is even better. Whether you include magic or not, though, it's got to be with a system that does not overshadow the historical underpinnings such that it negates the intended value of the experience as you want it. 

Of systems previously mentioned it  is safe to say the Mythras, BRP/CoC and GURPS all cater to this. However, of these GURPS provides the most robust means by which you can provide for elaborate characters and avoid magic entirely if desired. Alternatively when armed with GURPS Thaumaturgy you can pick and choose from a range of magical traditions designed to feel like the sorts of magic which our ancestors believed in (as well as others of more literary tradition). Mythras provides four types of magic, which often dovetail well with our modern interpretation of how magic might have been perceived to work, but also tends toward a more mythic and literary reimagining of such. Likewise, BRP is simply the original system from which Mythras evolved, and Call of Cthulhu is very much steeped in providing a historical experience tinged with the mythos, a literary construct. 

Resources!

Researching a game on your own dime and time can and is fun for those who want to do it, and historical gamers tend to fit that bill just fine. That said, the more ready-made content a system can offer you to help the process the better. It is almost redundant to point out that GURPS is the be-all and end-all for this sort of thing, thanks to a spate of almost two hundred historically themed books in the 80's and 90's. They moved away from such resources in print with GURPS 4th Edition, but still occasionally offer some useful content (Crusades, Silk Road) while keeping all the classic 3rd edition books in print....and the conversion work required is essentially non-existent, thankfully. Heck, many people use GURPS resources for other game systems as well.

Mythras also provides some historical resources, and you can find other systems out there that make varying efforts to do so, including some that engage in elaborate, fantastical depictions of historical periods such as Aquellare, a tome which must be truly experienced to be appreciated (or reviled, you pick).

Historical Gaming =/= Wargaming

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that a good RPG for this is not the same as a wargame by any stretch, nor should it be construed as such. For many, the most interesting elements of historical gaming are in the details of ordinary everyday living, experiencing a slice of time in an interesting historical period, and figuring out the many strange mysteries left for us in our own historical and archaeological records. Combat and military actions are just one piece of the pie, and a system which handles all desired elements may well suit those with such tastes the most.

For me, GURPS stands out as the system I can count on to provide the kind of historical gaming experience I want, especially if I want to keep it as far away from too much of the fantastical or literary/cinematic as possible. BRP is a close second along with Mythras, and Call of Cthulhu of course is excellent so long as you want to look at history through a sickly green Cthulhu lens (nothing at all wrong with that of course). Meanwhile certain very specific games out there provide some compelling historical experiences on their own...Aquellare is my most recent discovery, but there are others. What games might I have missed that fit this bill?