BRP Ancient Greece?

[camazotz]

Just curious if anyone knows of any material for (or plans to do a monograph on) Ancient Greek adventures with BRP? I'm looking at using GURPS Greece right now as an overlay with BRP as the rules, but thought I'd check and see if anyone knew of any additional resources that might be useful. Offhand using the sourcebook for core campaign content plus BRP Creatures, Gamemaster and Magic along with the main book should give me everything I need for easy conversion, I think....but a dedicated resource would still be even handier.

Turning in to a good summer for me....I have two groups, one that is interested in Cthulhu Invictus and another that wants to roll up classic adventurers in Homeric Greece...! Good times.

[rust]

You could take a look at Warlords of Alexander in the forum's download section,

it is quite close to the time period.

[Mysterioso]

Google "Mazes & Minotaurs" for an OD&D homage set in Harryhausen-era Greece.

[HierophantX]

I'm contemplating a BRP/CoC Invictus setting built around ancient Syracuse in the time of the 2nd Punic War (I might play around with the time of the story), with the writings of Archimedes (including plans for amazing devices), are the major McGuffin...

[camazotz]

I had forgotten about Warlords of Alexander....think I have that archived somewhere, will have to investigate. Thanks also for the tip on Mazes & Minotaurs, I hadn't heard of that one before.

[USAFguy]

Dude,

Really wish you were in the Colorado Springs area.

Heroic Greece (Trojan War and the earlier myths) is my favorite roleplaying setting.

My best,

Mark

[seneschal]

I have to second both previous suggestions. Warlords of Alexander is an excellent free supplement detailing the post-empire era. Mazes and Minotaurs (http://storygame.free.fr/MAZES.htm) is a D&D retro-clone, more fantasy-oriented, but provides eight 40- to 80-page magazines worth of fan-created scenarios, monsters, adventure locations, etc., to fuel your campaign regardless of what system you use.

[Thalaba]

Warlords of Alexander is the closest you'll come in BRP. Sadly, there's no Homeric Greek BRP game or document that I've seen. Even Simon's RQ Alternate Earth Group doesn't have one.

Looking outside of BRP, there's Agon (http://www.agon-rpg.com/) which I think is a smashing, light game.

[The Butcher]

I've read somewhere that Mongoose is planning a Mythic Greece sourcebook for MRQII.

Granted, it's not straight BRP, and God knows when/if Mongoose will get this baby out; but if Pete (BRP Rome, MRQII Vikings) Nash is writing, I'm willing to bet it's going to rock.

[hanszurcher]

I've read somewhere that Mongoose is planning a Mythic Greece sourcebook for MRQII.

Granted, it's not straight BRP, and God knows when/if Mongoose will get this baby out; but if Pete (BRP Rome, MRQII Vikings) Nash is writing, I'm willing to bet it's going to rock.

Greetings! I first heard about the planned Greece sourcebook in The State of the Mongoose 2010. Here is an excerpt:

We are also expanding the ‘historical’ range of RuneQuest books, starting with an updated Land of the Samurai, combined with the Price of Honour campaign, giving you everything you need to start playing in mythical Japan. Pete also has a hankering to cover mythical Greece and after his sterling work on Vikings, how could we say no?

I think I also heard mention of an end of year release, but things being what they are...

Edited April 24, 2011 by hanszurcher

[Guest Vile Traveller]

[...] if Pete (BRP Rome, MRQII Vikings) Nash is writing, I'm willing to bet it's going to rock.

Is Pete still writing for Mongoose? It's getting hard to keep track.

[hanszurcher]

Is Pete still writing for Mongoose? It's getting hard to keep track.

Yes. I believe he wrote the upcoming Blood Magic source-book. And Monster Island is back on track as well.

[soltakss]

I'd love to see a writeup of Ancient Greece for BRP.

Why hasn't it appeared on the Alternate Earth RQ Group? Because nobody has written one.

Would you have one supplement covering all the eras or several supplements, each covering one era?

The eras are, to my mind:

1. Mycenean/Heroic Age Greece

Active Gods

Interaction with Mythology

Loads of strange monsters

Magic and cults

Heroic Age Culture (Bronze/Iron Age Barbarians, invading hordes of Greeks, Chieftains and Bands of Warriors)

Epic Campaigns (Iliad, Oddessy, Argonauts, Minotaur)

2. Classical Greece

Age of Reason

Gods don't play a big part

Philosophers and Schools of Philosophy

Wars with Persia

3. Alexandrian

Invaders from Macedonia

Uniting Greece

Gods and Magic don't really play a part

War against Persia and India

What happens if Alexander doesn't die?

4. Post-Alexandrian (Hellenic)

Covered by Age of Alexander

Smaller kingdoms at war

Rise of Rome

Persia becomes less Greek in nature

Wars between Rome and the Hellenic states

Gods play no part

Cults and magic have a minor role to play, at best

My favourite era would be the Mycenean one, as that's more akin to the kind of Greek History that I like

[Agentorange]

It'd be Heroic age Greece for me, think of all the lovely monsters !

[Mysterioso]

IIRC there was a free d20 "New Argonauts" (or something like it) on Drivethrurpg.

[ORtrail]

I think the OP had it right when he planned on "...using GURPS Greece right now as an overlay with BRP as the rules" as SJG makes some pretty solid resource books.

Besides the other resources mentioned so far, I'd add that the Swordbearer RPG had a setting book and Ancient Greece was one of the settings. Pretty vague memories of looking at it, but anyone here remember it?

I'll also put in another nod for Warlords of Alexander (great setting) and my vote for a Mycenean/Heroic Age Greece supplement.

[Mankcam]

I'ld certainly support a Heroic Greece setting, walking the line between Mythical and Classical periods

[camazotz]

I have to second both previous suggestions. Warlords of Alexander is an excellent free supplement detailing the post-empire era. Mazes and Minotaurs (http://storygame.free.fr/MAZES.htm) is a D&D retro-clone, more fantasy-oriented, but provides eight 40- to 80-page magazines worth of fan-created scenarios, monsters, adventure locations, etc., to fuel your campaign regardless of what system you use.

That's pretty cool....thanks for the specific link. Considering how into the OSR scene I am I am surprised I never stumbled across Mazes & Monsters. Hmmm!

[camazotz]

Dude,

Really wish you were in the Colorado Springs area.

Heroic Greece (Trojan War and the earlier myths) is my favorite roleplaying setting.

My best,

Mark

So close yet so far! I'm down here in Albuquerque, NM. if the wife and I ever move up to Colorado I'll let you know (the idea has been tossed around on a couple occasions)

[camazotz]

I've been messing with a few resources now, still absorbing all the Mazes & Minotaurs stuff, as well as a free book I found on rpgnow called The New Argonauts. Of course GURPS Greece is pretty hard to beat, as well.

My current conundrum boils down to: Use Ancient Heroic-Age Greece for the mythology writ large (essentially set the setting in the Homeric vision of Greece), but reinterpreted through the lens of historical and archaeological information on the period. This would be a relatively dark and gritty campaign, where I extrapolate from the actual historical data on the period to reconstruct what it might have looked like in 1600 BCE Mycenae (Mukanai) during the period of conflict when the Pelasgians were (possibly) being displaced by or merging with the invading population of the Achaeans....or possibly even a case in which the local Mycenaeans (as well as the Minoans, who were on the verge of going into decline) were basically stuck between the Pelasgian populations and other Achaean tribes to whom they were related. Of course this is all happening right around the time when Thera was most likely to have erupted, which I think would make for a great story backdrop, and if I wanted to I could integrate some of the prototypes of the Atlantis tale from Plato in to the matter by suggesting that the real Atlantis was, in fact, an outlier colony of Minoans who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the volcano erupted.

I'm also debating how much of Graves and other advocates for the early Greek mythic transitional period to use. If I aim for a sort of quasi-archeo-historical recreation I could toy with the idea that maybe the Pelasgians were characteristic of the matrilineal "White Goddess" concept he espoused, with a society on the cusp of invasion by the Acheaeans and their patrilineal "Dyeus" (Zeus). I've also long thought that the entire myth-cycle of Zeus's triumph over Ouranos and the Titans was characteristic of a sort of relgious coup, in which the invading religion gains triumph over the beliefs of the subjugated by both absorbing and then subjugating the pantheon of local gods, which makes me think it would be interesting to emphasize the idea that many of the Titans might still be worshipped and represented in this period, but the faithful are losing ground to the Achaean invaders and their new system of belief and religion. This could make for great RPG plot fodder, as this being a fantasy setting means that there are real monsters, and the cultists of the Titans could be calling upon the monstrous children of those Titans (such as Echidna and Typhon's hideous brood of beasts like the hydra and the chimera among others) to cause as much strife as they can among the invading Achaeans (and maybe these monsters will be even more frightening and hideous than imagined...basically Greek art and tales do their best to capture the truly horrifying, mythosesque nature of the titanspawn). Of course the Achaean tribes are where all the young heroes spring from, and while noted warriors like Herakles and Perseus are destined to appear, the PCs get to play all the heroes that Homer never knew about (or whose deeds were misattributed to other heroes of the day). Most likely if I set it this far back then I could definitely make Perseus the dominant hero of the day....maybe set it in his waning years, with him ruling over Mycenae proper. This would mean Medusa is dead, but her sisters Stheno and Euryaile are still lurking and plotting the slayer of their sister's downfall.....another plot hook for young heroes.

Being fantasy there may well be some races to interact with. Obviously we have centaurs, satyrs and cyclopes, but the Telchines of Rhodes would make an interesting addition as well...possibly others.

Anyway, that's what I've got so far....

Edited April 27, 2011 by camazotz
typos and additional info

[ORtrail]

Sounds like you are going for more of a historical game then a monsterfest with a Greek mythology cover. I like it.

I'm fuzzy on when certain heroes were around, but it sounds like Herakles followed Persus onto the scene? I don't rememer who, or even where I read it, but a cool idea someone had was for the players to play "sons [or daughters] of Herakles". This made them more human than godlike (in most cases -Herakles did take up with the widow of the ogre Antaeus and fathered Sophax for example) so they could have some high stats and/or powers. The premise was they were banded together both to help one another (lots of enemies were made by dad) and to compete for glory as they sought to "live up to the legend" of their father.

We'll all be interested in what you come up with I'm sure, so feel free to share both BRP stats and gaming notes.

Edited April 27, 2011 by ORtrail

[filbanto]

The Mythic Greece supplement from ICE was very good. It was set just prior to the Trojan War and walked the line between archaeology and "Harryhausen" fantasy strongly leaning to the latter. It included a decent map and gazetteer of places too. We used it as a base for RQ3 and later Gurps games and had quite a blast. Looks like there is a copy available at Noble Knight Games - they are asking $50 for it and I don't know if it is worth that much money... Three copies on e-bay right now for a more reasonable price.

[camazotz]

Sounds like you are going for more of a historical game then a monsterfest with a Greek mythology cover. I like it.

I'm fuzzy on when certain heroes were around, but it sounds like Herakles followed Persus onto the scene? I don't rememer who, or even where I read it, but a cool idea someone had was for the players to play "sons [or daughters] of Herakles". This made them more human than godlike (in most cases -Herakles did take up with the widow of the ogre Antaeus and fathered Sophax for example) so they could have some high stats and/or powers. The premise was they were banded together both to help one another (lots of enemies were made by dad) and to compete for glory as they sought to "live up to the legend" of their father.

We'll all be interested in what you come up with I'm sure, so feel free to share both BRP stats and gaming notes.

That would be a really cool concept; Herakles was generally presented as fairly prolific, even when Hera was testing his sanity with infanticide....so the idea of the PCs being his children or descendents would be a great precedent.

In terms of the mythology's very, very loose order of events it seems like Perseus was first, although Theseus was on a side track with his adventures with the Minotaur, and both came before Jason, Heracles and Achilles, who are sometimes viewed or intimated to be descended from the Perseid blood line...or at least I find various references suggesting as much. I like how GURPS Greece takes the time to review each hero and also suggest what sort of person the mythic figure might have been derived from in a historical context (Heracles could very well have been an extremely prolific mercenary soldier whose company of men really got around, for example). Looked through the lens of the unreliable narrator really allows for some interesting interpretations of the myths, too.

Anyway yeah, as I develop some plots and setting areas (and all the stats!) I'll definitely post them here for anyone who wants to use them for their own games, too.

[camazotz]

The Mythic Greece supplement from ICE was very good. It was set just prior to the Trojan War and walked the line between archaeology and "Harryhausen" fantasy strongly leaning to the latter. It included a decent map and gazetteer of places too. We used it as a base for RQ3 and later Gurps games and had quite a blast. Looks like there is a copy available at Noble Knight Games - they are asking $50 for it and I don't know if it is worth that much money... Three copies on e-bay right now for a more reasonable price.

I remember that one! I had it years ago, been trying to find it on ebay but its really difficult to locate now. The Mythic Egypt one was also pretty decent as I recall.

[HierophantX]

I've been fanatasizing about a "Heroic Age" campaign for some time but tying into current Archaeology, Genetics and Linguistics and perhaps more properly referring to it as a "Invasion of the Sea Peoples Era" campaign . Shiploads of reavers knocking over coastal settlements, looking for a new land to set themselves up. Incorporating the Trojan War into the broader context of the period like the sack of Ugarit and Egypts "troubles" with the Sea People.