Ares, Mars to you Latins and War to you souls brought into the later sunken world, has had his three agents in attendance at the planting of your soul in the field of your slave mother’s woe. These fiends pay attention, and harbor jealousy for the best of men. They were there, plotting, when Silver-footed Thesis, dipped her son Achilles in the water of invulnerability, and again to remind Paris where to aim his arrow.

Exceptional warriors are punished by ancestry, Fate, the meddling angels of War, the demons of yore for approaching the peak of human prowess, which narrows the gap between heaven and earth and threatens admittance for the hero, such as Herakles, if this warrior comes so favorably to the attention of The Almighty.

This paragon of a warrior is thence afflicted with one of three manias:

Discord

Fear

Rout

This depends on how out of balance he is with man’s intended low ability. A 4 ability gains a mania point, a 5, 2 mania points, a 6 3 mania points.

Below is the character of Achilles, in Grunt terms.

Name: Achilles

Sire/People: Peleus of the Myrmidons

Body = 18

Strength: 6

Stamina: 6

Agility: 6

Discord = 18 [3 for each 6 as his great superiority makes him the center of jealousy from lesser men like Agamemnon, and of gods even, such as Apollo. In addition he has survived combats in which he was unlucky (rolled a 20, which had to happen as he has been at constant war for some 10 years, taking cities before the 9 year siege of Troy.] at least 10 times. But, there Is a ceiling on mania of 18, just as there is on overall abilities. This person is clinically insane by modern standards. Rolling a 20 and surviving always grants a mania.]

Mind = 14

Knit: 6

Kit: 4

Wit: 4 [See the final chapter of the Iliad. He had taken cities, so had a better than average wit.]

Fear: = 15 [5 + 10 unlucky strokes to equal his 10 lucky ones. For men fear his mental arete, though less than his physical arete, causing them to scheme the more, and also causing Achilles to have a deep fear of losing honor. Alexander was afflicted by this worse, his wit of 6 driving him to commit to battles simply because others thought the operation impossible. He will be sketched at the bottom of this chapter.]

Spirit = 14

Animistic: 6 [Talks to horses and argues with a river.]

Social: 4 [He made a good case before the army.]

Esoteric: 4 [He distrusts the gods.]

Rout = 5 [This quality is the magic of the war LEADER of superior type, that his very presence, his animal magnetism, causes enemies to panic.]

Actions + 10, [100+, the ceiling, divided by 10]

Stamina + 6

Animism + 6

PATHOS = 22

At any point in play, a player of a GM may decide that a hero makes a mania check, Failure, rolling a 20 or simply higher than his mania on 1d20 is punished by heaven. Success, including the miraculous ‘1’ is conversely rewarded. During the career of such men as Achilles, Alexander, Hadratta, Blackbeard, them taking to the front of the battle line brought a mania check, which generally cheered their fellows [granting advantages in game play] and shook their foes [inflicting disadvantages in game play.] Failure of such an action might shake his own men.

Pathos

Pathos is the advantage or initiative enjoyed at the start of a battle, a duel, a council of war, a negotiation for the surrender of a city, a siege, the throwing of a ladder upon a fortress wall by a file of soldiers, etc. Pathos will be present at all times, and is the primary quality of the apex warrior: his presence, his mystique, “the power of his name,” that causes competent enemies to pause in doubt, to squander an action initiative or an advantage. The Game Master decides if there will be initiative, or if the action is simultaneous. If it is not simultaneous, then one pathos roll is made by the most pathological warrior on each side.

[Note, in battles, one side usually goes first, their efforts tested before the other counter attacks. But, in dueling, boxing and other ritual combats, as well as in single fight between men in battle, the action is resolved simultaneously, with a chance that both might slay one another at the same instant. The idea of “a turn’ is more applicable to a mass combat than single combat.]

1D20 is rolled.

The low roll is best in this system.

The result is subtracted from the leader’s pathos with the difference granting the initiative/advantage.

In this system a 1 always succeeds, and with a special consideration or impact, best left up to the GM.

A 20, by contrast, always fails. A 20 fail is not just a failure to achieve something, but brings a doomful penalty, again, left to the creative license of the GM, and discussed further at the bottom of this section.

An advantage is a re-roll of a die result, rolled by the GM or the player. If Sarpedon rolls a 2, subtracted from his 6 pathos, for a 4, against Achilles’ roll of a 14, subtracted from his 22 pathos for a 7, the difference between the results of 4 and 7, in favor of Achilles, is 3. This grants 3 initiative actions or 3 advantage re-rolls, depending on the GMs episodic sense. Perhaps the GM decides that Achilles and his driver each have an initiative action before Sarpedon and his driver do anything, and then Achilles gets a re-roll.

In a duel, I suggest the Pathos player get re-rolls. Other ideas will be presented under dueling in the next chapter.

In a battle situation, perhaps the Pathos leader is granted an initiating action and a re-roll and one re-roll is assigned to his shield bearer, or NCO?

Rolling over one’s pathos score in an interactive check does not bring a penalty, unless a 20 is rolled, triggering mania below. Pathos will be used often, and not just for initiative, or initial advantage determinations.

In firearms combats, such as The Shootout at the OK Corral, the pathos roll might decide the whole thing and turn it into a slaughter. This is how many actions initiated under extreme pathos, especially with modern firearms at close range, unfolded.

Mania & Pathos

Mania, is not just an acquired ability that may be used as described above, it is a quality that goes into pathos and may set the extent to which pathos is effective. Mania will also be used to determine post action state of being in Chapter 8.

The players and GM are encouraged to get creative with mania and pathos. Indeed, in the case of supernatural adventures, such as Orpheus’ or Odysseus’ venture into Hades, Dante’s journey through Hell, or of Bran Mak Morn’s dealings with the Worms of the Earth or Conan’s Phoenix on the Sword dream adventure [Robert E. Howard], then mania and pathos may be the ONLY abilities a player has. These abilities provide the basis for an entire field of supra-physical adventure that have not been fully detailed in Grunt.

Not being a player or belonging to a gaming group, being myself a loser hobo, I have no means of developing Grunt and hence leave that to you, the play-testers and developers.

In action: dueling or battle, skirmishing or hunting, A roll of a 20 triggers a negative manifestation of one of the three manias. A 1 result brings a favorable effect of that power. These apply with pathos and action rolls. The mania score indicates the duration and/or intensity of the effect. This roll result of 20, if survived, will increase that mania—yes, hero, the Furies are out to get you!

So, if, using our example from The Iliad above, Sarpedon, being the lower pathos character, rolls a 1, he gains advantage for a number of rounds equal to his [spirit] Rout mania, +1—this is a blessing, and increases his Rout mania by 1, now. If he has no Rout mania, he gains 1-3 rout mania now, and it is applied in play, now, and kept until his death.

If, however, he rolls a 20, he will suffer a disadvantage for a number of rounds equal to his [mind] Fear mania, +1 laid as a curse/test upon him, increasing that score now and until Death takes him. If he has no Fear mania, he gains 1-3 of insight into his doomed plight, suffers those disadvantages, and, if he survives this misfortune he will be that much more feared by people.

[Note: The mind/fear penalty here afflicts those who overthink combat in progress instead of trusting their powers.]

Any character who survives a mortal combat in which he rolled a 20, gains a point of [body] Discord mania. This adds up.

Surviving a combat in which a character rolled a 1 gains nothing to the body and does not increase Discord mania, as this 1 actual depleted one’s stock of luck!

But, the roll of a 20, was a test, and a warrior who passes War’s test, gains. These are cumulative. If Sarpedon rolls 2 20s during the course of his chariot duel with Achilles, and survives that disaster, he gains 2 Discord mania. Achilles, maxed out on Discord at 18, can gain nothing, for the gods are weary of his rage.

So, when pathos or combat rolls trigger a mania check, a character who rolled a 1: gains 1 [spirit] Rout mania, or, if he had none, gained 1-3

A character who rolled a 20 gains 1, or 1-3 if he had none, [mind] Fear mania

This unlucky character, as the gods show their balancing hand, also gains, a 1 [body] Discord mania, as he learns from the hard school of misfortune more about delaying his inevitable demise. Such survival recommends him for fame and perhaps even immortality.

Grunt is intended to move fast and to permit characters to improve on the field, to be better fighters at the end of a battle than at the beginning, to learn fighting, or perhaps climbing, as they fight or climb, so long as they are not killed in the process. In such hazardous undertakings the thing that almost does you in teaches you the most. That is the reason for the 20 disaster roll increasing mania ability more than the lucky roll.

The mechanics of the various warrior actions, in so far as they may result in character transformation and development in play, have been addressed according to pathos and mania. Pathos and mania will also have uses and effects in various actions, discussed in Chapters 4 & 5.