Ran a fun Heroes of Hellas game yesterday for my two players. The PCs are an Amazon archer and a Thracian Bard (so, under HoH rules, able to cast magic by singing songs). They are in business with a Minoan sea captain and a Trojan sea captain to sail to Alba (Britain) and buy tin, to break the Phoenician monopoly of this vital commodity. They also have in tow a Greek scholar, who acts as their interpreter – who is unfortunately in love with a beautiful Greek assassin, who they have collectively got involved with.

They started the game at their vineyard on Crete.After a bit of business at the beginning of the game (setting up some ‘fun’ for a later session) where the assassin manages to get accommodation in the palace at the capital of Knossos – a Prince is clearly smitten with her – the PCs went on a voyage to Tyre. They were after covertly gathering information on what they could expect once they sailed past the Pillars of Hercules. The lovelorn scholar got on everyone’s nerves as the team trawled the bars of Tyre, talking to drunk but experienced sailors. This is when they heard about the merchant who possessed a detailed rutter (a detailed sailing manual for voyaging beyond the Pillars).

So ensued a truly ‘seat of the pants’ burglary at the merchant’s mansion – protected by guards, free-roaming panthers, and state of the art locks. It ended up as a triumph of improvisation and luck. The guards and the panthers were lulled to sleep by a magic song – aside from one guard who got an arrow through his skull for resisting sorcery. Opening the strong room was noisy, and woke the merchant. This was useful as the rutter wasn't in the strong room (they filled their sacks with gold and jewels to cover their disappointment). The merchant was persuaded to disclose the rutter’s whereabouts, after which the PCs tried to knock him out – they proved useless at this, so the scholar killed him with a dagger thrust. (He’s love sick, and someone has to pay.)

I’ll not mention the encounter that night with an Egyptian marine patrol (Tyre part of the Egyptian empire) which led to a tense moment as they prepared to sail back to Crete the next day. “Yeah, remind them that you were one street away from the scene of the crime last night.”

They also stole all the merchant’s horses.

Last edited by Gruntfuttock (8/06/2019 9:21 am)

Actually, there is some credit in the Xena advice, as in a slavish adherence to genuine history tends to box the players in too much. However, often if you are looking for plots and NPCs to steal, and general inspiration, then real history beats most fantasy fiction hands down.

This game is very pulpy - a Ray Harryhausen view of Ancient Greece, but with more politics going on. I think I described my successful Egyptian game as 30% real history, 30% Hollywood Ancient Egypt, 30% espionage, and 10% Lovecraftian horror. That works for me when it comes to a Sword & Sorcery game nominally set in a historical period. 

For my swashbuckling game set in the Musketeers genre, it was about 40% espionage/investigation, 30% cinematic Musketeers genre, and 30% real history (although I feel free to move some of the timeline around slightly, for a better game).

Just finishing off my prep for tomorrows Heroes of Hellas game (updated to BoL Mythic). The players will be pitched into the courtly politics of Knossos with the arrival of Theseus and the Athenian sacrifices.

This is the true story of course, not the lies you find in Bullfinch: Theseus is as clever as a sack of dung; King Minos is mad as a box of frogs - kept alive by sorcery of his Snake God priestesses, who are serpent women right out of King Kull; the King's alchemists have cloned extra Minotaurs; his grandsons plot the succession; and King Agamemnon has an agent in place to make sure the succession goes the way he wants.

Someone needs to sort this out - hopefully without getting caught. Guess who? Yes, our two humble barbarians who have set up in the Cretan wine business and just want a quiet life (until next year when they plan to sail off to Britain to buy some tin). If they don't bite for this palace intrigue (as is totally their right) then they can go off to a distant isle to lift a curse on one of their investors.

Hilarity will hopefully ensue.

Last edited by Gruntfuttock (8/17/2019 2:38 am)

I ran another Heroes of Hellas game last weekend, for my two players.

Their associate (friend would not be accurate, as they have discussed killing her) is a beautiful assassin from a distant and obscure Greek kingdom, who is passing herself off as a refugee Princess at the palace of King Minos – she is the new lover of one of his grandsons. The PCs (an Amazon warrior and a Thracian tribesman were delivering trade goods to the palace and looking to get their bill settled, when the assassin introduced them to the King. It was a day for foreign visitors as Prince Theseus of Athens had arrived with the tribute of 7 boys and 7 maids (he seemed OK with this)

For 3 hours real time (2 days game time), the PCs got involved in the affairs of the Minoan court, talking to various movers and shakers and being politely interrogated in turn. (My wife Alison said this was like being pitched into the middle of Game of Thrones without knowing who the different factions were and having no idea what was a stake.) After being invited on the spur of the moment to attend a grand feast (and taking part on an archery contest (the Amazon) and a javelin throwing contest (the Thracian tribesman), Mad King Minos took a shine to them and they were asked to stay at the palace for a picnic and boar hunt on the morrow.

As well as sussing out the two Princes (joint heirs to the kingdom) and trying to discover what the assassin was up too (they failed in that endeavour), the two barbarians shared dinner with the Athenian prince Theseus. The fact that Theseus was clearly thick as a brick didn’t stop the Minoan Princess Ariadne falling head over heels in love with him. But she was clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer either.

The next day Mad King Minos led a deer hunt into the central forests – which were the part of the island of Crete which were the domain of the centaurs. The Amazon spurred ahead of the hunt to meet with the centaurs and get their agreement not to attack the hunters. She now owes the centaurs a debt - which they will call in.

That evening the assassin turned up at the PCs room in the palace in disguise, saying that Prince Theseus was eloping with Princess Ariadne, that the other Minoan Princess was going them, and that Theseus had decided to free the Athenian sacrifices and kill the minotaur. (The sacrifices were being sent into the labyrinth that night.) She begged their help in saving Theseus - interestingly the PCs went along with this without asking why she considered saving Theseus important. The assassin said that the King’s alchemists had somehow grown more Minotaurs (Bronze Age cloning) and that the labyrinth was honeycombed with sound channels leading to the King’s throne room, so he could hear the screams of the sacrifices – so they had to keep quiet to keep their identity secret.

So ensued an hours playing time of blood and thunder in the ill lit labyrinth. Theseus had killed the guards at the entrance, which had just been discovered by more guards as the PCs arrived – so they had a big fight to take out the guards before they entered the labyrinth. The labyrinth had floor and ceiling traps as well as young minotaurs, all of which had to be dealt with. Eventually they saved 6 of the girls (all 7 boys and 1 girl were dead and in the process of being eaten) and finally confronted the original minotaur. He was in the process of killing Theseus when they arrived. He left the Athenian idiot alive to attack the PCs. The Amazon finally killed the minotaur with two magic arrows, but not before the monster nearly accounted for the Thracian – he had him at his mercy and then fluffed the dice roll (not easy rolling dice with hooves).

They bound Theseus’s wounds and got him and the girls out the palace with the princesses, where his retinue were waiting. No one saw or heard them and there were no living witnesses, and Theseus will claim sole credit when he gets back to Athens. The next day King Minos went bonkers and declared war on Athens! The PCs got paid and snuck off to their Cretan vineyard. They have no intention of getting involved in the war.

Things are getting interesting (in the Chinese sense of interesting!)

Last edited by Gruntfuttock (8/21/2019 6:58 am)