Greek Campaign in the Age of Heroes

[USAFguy]

Greece has always been a favorite setting for me. I've spent a lot of time toying with the idea of a Greek Campaign set well before the Trojan War, before or at the same time of Herakles, Bellerophon...before the Golden Fleece.

I think I found a way that I like to represent the characters who choose to be demi-gods, I can't wrap my head around relatively effective healing w/out priests and healers...they really didn't appear in the myth and I'd like to avoid that NPC/character class.

My idea for demigods would be as follows:

Divinity (essentially the same as allegiance):

For every 10 pts, +4 to be distributed to strength, dex, con, int, app....and siz and pow as long as those last 2 top out at 21.

It's a bit wild, granted, but it should result in a character resembling the stats of the demi-god in the BRP book when they approach Divinity (100%).

At various levels, probably 20 or 30, they'd gain a legendary ability or the equivalent to a rune spell to simulate the patronage of a god/godess they most closely align (for example, those devoted to Apollo would gain some of the arrow spirit magic/rune magic spells as they progress; Zeus oriented ones would gain rulership skills/power and/or lightning based powers). They'd probably also gain levels in 'armor(kinetic)' at various points of divinity skill.

(Toying with the idea of side-kick option for characters...they'd still have some benefits; but the big advantage for them would be that they'd rarely, if ever, gain the wrath of gods....something that the demi-gods are prone to incur).

Which goes back to the main request...any suggestions on how to handle periodic miraculous healing w/out formal healers/priests AND still keep a Greek myth feel?

Thanks!

Mark

[Atgxtg]

Which goes back to the main request...any suggestions on how to handle periodic miraculous healing w/out formal healers/priests AND still keep a Greek myth feel?

Thanks!

Mark

I'd say use something like alliegance (divine favor) as the rating (Star at POW%) and let characters earn "brownie points" for thier actions. Then they get to roll against that Divine Favor rating when they want a miracle.

To really give it a Mythic Greek feel, the GM could keep the score a secret, so the players don't know just how well they are regarded by the gods. You could even keep track of their ratings with several deities, and even let the ratings go into negative. A negative rating means that the deity is annoyed with the character. On a successful annoyance roll the deity does something to punish the character.

You could have fumbles result in the deity behaving in a manner contrary to what is expected (they can be fickle, can't they?). For example, a deity might feel that his follower is taking his divine favor for granted and gets angry and punish es the character as a lesson. Or a deity who is annoyed with a character might feel pity and give the character a break.

[rust]

Which goes back to the main request...any suggestions on how to handle periodic miraculous healing w/out formal healers/priests AND still keep a Greek myth feel?

Healing would be the "portfolio" of the demigod Asklepios, a son of Apollon, and his daughters.

Therefore you could use a character's relations with Asklepios (or, more fun, one of the daugh-

ters) as his access to healing, keeping in mind that other deities might interfere and either ask

Asklepios to help or to stop helping - Apollon would probably have the most influence with As-

klepios.

[Guy Hoyle]

I would love to have an ancient Greek BRP campaign, or even a "sword and sandal" campaign. I play RQ3, and used to play Superworld and CoC, but I'm slowly getting into the new BRP.

Guy

[USAFguy]

Guy and rust,

The campaign I have in mind has patrons, but not organized worship. Thus, worship/affiliation of gods/goddesses is not part of the world. None of the ancient heros 'worshipped' a god/goddess...indeed, it was more of a 'plague' by them.... no real RQ-style worship occurred. gods/goddesses had their favorites, the others seemed to favor them to a degree....yet some were offended by some deeds and temporarily set obstructions.

Thus, Atgxtg's comments apply the most as Asklepios and family are not likely to be factors for the heroes/demi-gods.

(BUT a later campaign were cults are established, along w/ gifts and geas of the patrons would be relatively straightforward...just not the world of the early heros where formal worship didn't occur)

My best,

Mark

[rust]

The campaign I have in mind has patrons, but not organized worship.

I was thinking of friendship, not of worship.

In the Age of Heroes, Asklepios is just one of them, the best healer in Greece who happens to

be a relative of one of the gods. To have him - or one of his daughters - as a friend means to

have access to his skills or, if he is not near, to his truly wonderful ointments, potions or sal-

ves.

In fact, with Asklepios around one does not have to worship the gods, begging for their favour

to get some rapid healing - one only has to stay on the good side of the healer and his family

and to avoid trouble with his father Apollon.