Ancient Power Vacuum

An era of ancient history I find endlessly interesting is The Wars of the Diadochi: A time of big battles and even bigger egos. Alexander The Great conquered the known world and then died suddenly and mysteriously, leaving no one in charge. The following decades saw his empire tear itself apart as his Successors pressed their claim to rule. It's a time of skyrocketing ambition, doomed nostalgia, desperate survival, hero-worship and emulation, murderous intrigue and truly massive pitched battles. There's no holds barred. There's everything to play for, everything to lose and, of course, so much is lost.

Alexander Sarcophagus, CC James Carnehan
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/2918/alexander-sarcophagus/

A power vacuum is a great situation for an RPG isn't it? It's volatile, charged with potential energy and possibility for impactful change. Whether it's the main focus or a background element it gives players unprecedented opportunities and interesting choices to make, which is always valuable!

The Wars of The Successors provides some great inspiration for who might step forward when the Ruler of the Realm suddenly drops out of the picture.

I have the Throne

The thing about a seat of power is that, once someone is sitting in it, it's very hard to move them if they don't want to be moved. Antipater had been appointed as Regent of Macedonia And Greece, ruling the home countries while Alexander was off conquering the world. In other words he was sitting in the seat Alexander might have been expected to one day return to. The seat that now had many envious eyes on it.

I have the Right

The members of Alexander's Companion Cavalry (his honour guard) each considered themselves First Among Equals, bearing a sense of entitlement that they might succeed their King. In the case of Perdiccas, this stemmed from his tenure as second in command, having served Alexander since the beginning and been gifted with his signet ring. Surely such a clear favourite had the right to rule?

I have the Heir

Roxana's life as a Persian Princess had already taken a sharp turn when Persia was conquered by Alexander. At the time of his death she was married to him and pregnant with his child. She'd travelled with him on campaign and made both enemies and friends among his Generals, those who now squabbled over the empire. She knew her unborn son could not be ignored.

I have the Body

What better way to cement your claim to the crown than by burying the old King? In one of the more wacky plots of this period, Ptolemy stole Alexander's body to have it brought to him in Egypt for a proper funeral.

I have the Army

The Silver Shields were the veteran infantry, hardened soldiers of Alexander's long campaign of military subjugation. Whoever could call on them wielded not only a fearsome weapon of war, but their famous reputation to match. They were also a liability, being a turbulent bunch who, when it came down to it, valued the treasure they'd won in their 40 years of warfare over any ideas of loyalty (No judgement here, that's a lot of treasure!).

I have the People

I don't have a historical example to point to for this one (maybe it says something about this time period that 'the people' suffering under all this fighting are seldom mentioned? If ever?!) but a people's champion would certainly be an interesting addition to the mix here either as a sympathetic candidate or (another) villainous one!

That's it for now, till next time!

No Hit Points? No Problem!

Following on from the very rough combat playtest I did in April, I’ve been having a think about how to handle Wounds in Legends of Alba. Characters don't have HP in this game, but they can take Wounds! I’m trying to keep the game light (in terms of rules) but it feels just a bit too vague to say a Character has a Major Wound, or a Mortal Wound, and leave it at that. How has the Character been Wounded? Cracked skull? Stabbed in the guts? Lost a finger?

Thinking about how I’d run this, as a referee I think I’d have a hard time improvising something. I’d worry about it feeling vindictive if I interpreted a Mortal Wound at the table as “Your leg is broken, there’s bone sticking out - you need treatment soon and even then you might lose the leg.” I think dire consequences like that should be possible for Mortal Wounds, but personally I’d need a nudge from the game to follow through with it.

The Death of Olaf by Joseph Freely

I thought about Wounds as temporary or permanent Truths e.g. “Your hands tremble” to reflect a traumatic Wound, or “You move slowly and carefully” for a fragile Wound that’s still healing. But these are so specific, I’d need a big table to give a good range of them, and I don’t want Wounds to take up a whole page on their own. I still quite like this idea of Truths applied like this though, I could see using this for unique magic weapons or items.

What I’ve settled on for now is this D12 spark table:

D12	What	Where
1	Torn	Skull
2	Ruptured	Eye
3	Fractured	Jaw or Nose
4	Crushed	Spine
5	Pierced	Ribs
6	Gouged	Gut
7	Cracked	Shoulder
8	Severed	Arm
9	Split	Hand or Finger
10	Maimed	Thigh
11	Bruised	Knee
12	Sliced	Foot or Toe

Now here comes the pain!

Let’s roll up a Minor Wound, a 5 and a 6: Pierced Gut. A close call but the sharp pain quickly subsides, thankfully it’s not too deep and hasn’t punctured anything vital.

For a Major Wound it’s a 4 and a 12: Crushed Foot or Toe. Major Wounds are a bit more severe so let’s crush a foot rather than a toe. It’s not going to kill you but you’re going to have trouble putting any weight on it, and might end up with a permanent limp if you don’t get it seen to to get the bones set and rest up. This would definitely cause a Hindrance for Tests that involve moving quickly or nimbly on foot. There’s of course the opportunity for Characters to mitigate this if they have a mount or something they can use as a crutch.

Lastly a Mortal Wound, a 10 and a 6: Maimed Ribs. Oh dear. This sounds like it’d be an horrific mess. A crippling chest wound that steals away your breath. Probably a Hindrance to most things requiring any sustained physical effort. You might live if you get help but because this is a Mortal Wound we’re going to apply the most unforgiving definition of the maimed result, i.e. an injury so bad that the injured part no longer works properly. So best outcome for this Character might be that they gain a Truth “You struggle to lift heavy items” to represent this wound that never properly healed.

What a grisly affair. I’m happy enough with this for now though, and more than happy to move on from thinking about these horrible things happening to the heroes of Alba for a while!

Till next time!