Editing Tyche's Favourites/Chargen (section)

=Chapter 3: Equipment=


==Coins and Money (p39)==

All economies are based on the silver standard. Halve all values quoted (or alternatively multiply all quoted gold piece values by 5) to arrive at a roughly accurate value in silver drachmae for all goods, services and living costs.

In ancient Greece, these were the main currencies:<br>
8 chalkoi = 1 obolus<br>
6 oboloi = 1 drachma<br>
100 drachmae = 1 mina (or mnai)<br>
60 minae = 1 Athenian Talent<br>

1 Athenian talent is about 60lb of silver. In ACKS, there are 100 coins per pound, so 1 Athenian talent is 6000 coins. There are (100 x 60) 6,000 drachma per Athenian talent. Gold is worth ten times as much as silver (it was as much as 27 times as much, but the glut of Persian gold in the market has devalued it).

The only gold coins in wide circulation at this time are Persian gold darics, which are about four times the size of a silver drachma. Thus each one is worth 40 drachmae. Gold staters are twice the size of a silver drachma (thus are worth 20 each), and are beginning to be minted.


'''Standard of living – Income and investments'''

Assume that any investment of a lump sum generates on average a 3% monthly return. This assumes something relatively low risk like land, providing a steady stream of rents and a share of harvests. For riskier investments random return is d10%-d4%.


''Design note: Conversion of money to the silver standard and period-appropriate coinage, based on discussion with Alex Macris.''


==Armour (p41)==

The following items are removed from the table on p41: Chain Barding and Plate Barding.

The table is reworked as follows:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!AC
!Armour
!Cost
|-
|1
|Hides, linen corselet, bronze pectoral
|50dr 
|-
|2
|Leather, quilted linen
|100dr
|-
|3
|Lamellar/scale corselet
|150dr
|-
|4
|Celtic mail
|400dr
|-
|5
|Full lamellar/scale, hoplite panoply
|250dr
|-
|6
|Hoplite panoply with thigh and arm plates
|300dr
|-
| +1
|Greaves and metal helm for lighter armour
|25dr
|} 


Greaves and a metal helm can be added to anything lighter than mail and count as two Items in calculating Encumbrance.


''Design note: Rejigging the armour to fit what was available in the period. Mail was not common at all outside of a handful of rich Keltoi warlords and possibly some wealthy Etruscans.''


==Shields==

Shields are amended as follows:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Item
!Defense Bonus
!Athletics Penalty
!Cost
!Enc
|-
|Cloak-wrapped forearm
| +1AC vs one-handed melee
|
|
|
|-
|Buckler 
| +1AC vs melee and thrown
|
|5dr
|Item
|-
|Small shield
| +1AC vs melee and thrown, 2AC vs missiles
|
|10dr
|1 stone
|-
|Medium shield
| +2AC vs melee and thrown, 3 AC vs missiles
| -1 
|50dr
|2 stone
|-
|Large shield
| +3AC vs melee and thrown, 5AC vs missiles
| -2
|100dr
|3 stone
|}

The Persian ''cheires'' functions as a buckler.

In mass combat, small/medium shields give +1AC and large shields +2AC. When closing up, in addition to the usual +2AC in melee and +4AC vs missiles, troops uniformly armed with an aspis get an additional +1AC.


''Design note: This is a major change from the flat +1AC shields usually give. In this period the shield was much more important than armour as a pieces defensive equipment. Traditional notions of Greek honour were attached to retaining your shield. Lots of warriors had little more than a shield, armour being both expensive and fatiguing to wear for long periods (heat especially). Bigger shields like the bronze-faced Greek aspis covered a warrior from eye to knee with a mobile barrier, making them all but immune to arrows and slings from the front. In close formation these gave coverage to the man to the left as well as their wielder. D&D is based in a lot of medieval assumptions, and in that period armour was more important and shields almost disposable. Thus shields aren't very effective where in antiquity they were.''


==Weapons (p41)==

The following items are removed from the table: Arbalest, Morning Star, Silver Dagger, Two-handed Sword, Warhammer.

The following items are amended: Sling – damage 1d6.


''Design note: Minor changes, removing weapons that didn't exist and increasing the damage of the sling, which was a much deadlier weapon than D&D implies. If a stone is used rather than a cast bullet, use the old damage/range stats.''


==Encumbrance (p48)== 

Increase (or decrease) Encumbrance values by the lower of a character’s Strength or Constitution.


''Design note: I wanted to give stronger, fitter characters a boost here, but making it the lower of the two stops it becoming a free-for-all where having high Strength is a no-brainer for a warrior-type and having decent Constitution matters as well. Even with this change, you don't get full, unencumbered movement in the heaviest armour with Str 18 and Con 18.''


==Mercenary Troop Types (p52)==

The following table replaces that on p52:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Unit
!Drachmae/month
!Availability
|-
|Light Infantry (javelins, dagger, small shield)                                                                     
|30
|
|-
|Slingers (sling, dagger, buckler)                                                                                 
|30
|
|-
|Archers (shortbow, dagger)                                                                                              
|30
|As Bowmen
|-
|Medium Infantry (javelins, spear/shortsword, leather, medium shield)   
|45
|As Bowmen
|-
|Heavy Infantry (pike/spear, shortsword, leather, small/large shield) 
|60
|
|-
|Elite Archers (composite bow, shortsword, leather, buckler) 
|75
|As Longbowmen
|-
|Light Cavalry (lance/javelins, sword, medium shield, light warhorse)    
|150
|
|-
|Horse Archers (composite bow, shortsword, hide, light warhorse)   
|225
|
|-
|Medium Cavalry (lance/javelins, sword, leather, medium shield, medium warhorse)     
|225
|
|-
|Heavy Cavalry (lance, sword, hoplite armour, medium shield, medium warhorse)  
|300
|
|-
|Cataphract Cavalry (lance, sword, composite bow, full scale, scale barded heavy warhorse) 
|375
|
|}


Unless otherwise specified, Availability is the same as their equivalent type in the book.


''Design note: Mine is a much simpler table than the standard, since there's only humans. But I also needed to augment for the period and its assumptions about arms and armour. There's a much more detailed version for mass combat [http://www.autarch.co/comment/12398#comment-12398 here].''