If you were hoping that Pantheon: Genesis was going to be a historical tabletop RPG set in Mesopotamia and you were disappointed, don’t worry. I have some homebrew recommendations for you! They’re easy to implement, too.
Step 1: No Deity Powers
This is an easy fix off the bat. However, it will drastically reduce the power level of the characters. Also, most healing abilities are from deity abilities so you will be increasing the lethality of the system. Maybe have your players write up a few extra characters just in case – they’ll save time with no deity abilities at least! Note that some classes, like the Mystic and the Priest, will no longer work in such a system. However, there are more than enough options otherwise. Plus, in a historically accurate system, priests would not be in combat scenarios, they would be with kings and court officials.
Step 2: No Faith Points
This one could be a bit brutal, so I might recommend keeping these. However if you are going for a purely historical system with not even a hint of the fantastical, then these get the axe.
Step 3: Keep Weapons of Renown (but modify them)
Keep these, since they are cool, and it is historically accurate for weapons to have names. In fact, many of the weapon titles and modifiers are taken from cuneiform and archaeologist discoveries.
Now, where you might want to go is in removing abilities. Give any player with a named weapon the Fearsome trait. With title modifiers, make it so that enemies get -1 to their willpower checks when testing to see if they resist fear.
Step 4: Remove all fantasy monsters
Demons in my historical tabletop? Don’t think so! This is an obvious one. You’ll be focusing on the human characters so just stick with the citizens and soldiers.
Step 5: Place more focus on politics
Mesopotamia was a world of constantly warring city states fighting over precious resources. When it wasn’t, there were empires struggling to maintain control over their populace.