Libertad
Hero
The style and flair of Ancient Greece can be found in Dungeons & Dragons in various forms. The polytheistic style pantheons and myriad monster types point to its influence in a 'setting neutral' way. But when it comes to worlds explicitly styled after the eras of glorious Athens and the Trojan War, such examples are few and far between. Arkadia and the upcoming Theros by Wizards of the Coast may soon change this, and Odyssey of the Dragonlords numbers among the first wave of potential new settings.
What makes Odyssey stand out is that it is a complete adventure path, and its writers Jesse Sky and James Ohlen have acclaim in the video game industry for designing several of Bioware's greatest hits. As Baldur's Gate and KOTOR drew heavy inspiration from the D&D rulesets in the first place, many were interested enough to see them try their hand at a more traditional form of role-playing.
The Introduction: This section of the book outlines the major history and 'setting pitch.' Odyssey of the Dragonlords takes place on the continent of Thylea, a realm long-isolated from the rest of the world thanks to the eternal vigil of a pantheon of gods known as the titans. Five hundred years ago sailors and refugees from the outside world washed up on Thylea's shores. A war between them and the native races grew to the point that both sides faced certain annihilation. A newer pantheon known as the Five Gods, representing the settlers, signed a peace treaty with the titans and their followers. The campaign takes place on the 500th anniversary of this Oath of Peace, where this divinely-signed pact shall end and Thylea shall be more plunged into war. The PCs are notable individuals called forth by the famous Oracle to find a means of preventing this cataclysmic fate.
We also get descriptions of what makes Thylea stand apart from traditional settings. There are no kingdoms or empires, with city-states and the settlements under their protection being the largest power blocs, with more isolated tribes and villages beyond their reach. Oaths have supernaturally-binding importance, and those who fail to uphold their promises suffer varying kinds of curses. There are two major pantheons, the Titans and the Five Gods, who with one exception are part of the world and live as leaders among mortals. Or in Thylea's case, she is the land itself. The Titans are the more 'natural' gods, and two in particular serve as the setting's major villains: Sydon the Lord of Storms is akin to an Evil Overlord Zeus/Poseidon hybrid, while Lutheria the Lady in Dreams is like a Chaotic Evil Dionysus crossed with Hades. The Five Gods, by contrast, are the new pantheon who represent the more urbanized settlers and include aspects such as craftsmanship, music, and wisdom. The standard PHB assortment of races are present among the settlers, while the native races are derived directly from Greek myth albeit with original spins on their societies in some places. Minotaurs for example, were once human but cursed into their current forms and are an underclass of exploited laborers. My favorites are the sirens, manic-depressive avian humanoids whose sorrowful songs reflect the history of their destroyed homeland that Sydon cruelly sunk beneath the waves.
Odyssey of the Dragonlords also has Epic Paths, which are akin to backgrounds in that they present backstories for characters but tie the character directly into large events during the adventure path. Various new quests can be unlocked, and existing ones resolved differently with the presence of a PC with an appropriate Path. Several of them are good and have an appropriately epic feel, such as the Demi-God being one of Pythor's children or the Gifted One being fated to resurrect the ancient Order of Dragonlords.* Others feel lacking in dramatic resolution or whose quests appear less frequently, such as the Dragonslayer whose archenemy is a minor villain only encountered once and whose legacy has no reverberations later on in the adventure path. The Epic Paths are not just fluff; PCs gain divine boons upon finishing them which are persistent positive effects usually of a defensive nature, while magic items specific to their journey are gained in treasure hordes and as gifts from Thylea's power players.
*the saviors of Thylea's settler races famed for riding dragons.
Overall I like Thylea's novelty, and the Epic Paths are a good means of making players feel invested in the world and its people in a mechanically-relevant way.
The Adventure Path: A little over half of this book is given over to 12 chapters spanning a complete Level 1 to 20 campaign. Like most D&D adventure paths it has a main procession of plot, but in keeping with the writer's Bioware roots there's a surprising amount of options for going off the beaten path. Many such "sidequests" have additional rewards in coin and items beyond Experience gained from fights, so the system rewards parties who take the time to explore rather than barreling through the major plot points.
MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
The campaign as a whole can be split into three major acts. The first act deals with the PCs receiving summons by the Oracle in the inevitable war with the Titans. To prepare for this they must gather famed artifacts across Thylea in quests they can do more or less in whatever order they want. One task includes reigniting the Mithral Forge to craft powerful items in a mine overrun by monsters, another has them brave the Necropolis and retrieve the ancient heirlooms from the Dragonlords' tombs, and the third involves tracking down a stolen vision-granting drinking horn now in the possession of a cult of Lutheria. After completing around 2 of these quests, the PCs will receive a summons from the king of the city-state of Mytros, who can help the party find the legendary ghost ship Ultros. As it is the only one of its kind that can sail the seas without being destroyed by the wrathful Sydon, it is necessary for the second act where the party traverses the various islands of the Cerulean Gulf. And during their time in Mytros, the PCs can explore the city, get tangled up in plots, and even compete in an Olympics-like tournament with prizes. As most of the quests in Mytros are more or less optional, this makes the adventure path feel almost akin to a sandbox yet one with an overarching main plot.
The major weak points of the first act are that most of it takes place at 1st to 4th level. It's presumed that the PCs are already famed heroes with several achievements under their belts, thus why they specifically were summoned by the Oracle. As even the mortal heroes of Greek mythology were tackling some pretty significant opposition, the capabilities of starting-level PCs feel a bit too gritty to be on their level thematically speaking. The adventure does have a 'tutorial' sort of beginning adventure and is a bit generous in giving them chances to avoid certain doom, but it's rather obvious when the PCs are being handheld.
The second act involves sailing among Thylea's major oceans. The first half involves finding the missing piece to the Antikythera, an artifact-compass, in order to chart a magical course to the titan's strongholds. The second half involves sailing around the most remote regions of the sea, with most islands concluding various Epic Paths and 2 are the homes of Sydon and Lutheria's domains of influence. The compass is capable of granting safe passage to various islands, several of which can help PCs on their respective Epic Paths. The Ultros acts as a mobile home base, and depending on their earlier actions the party may have a larger crew of allied NPCs depending on how they resolved various events in the first act. The islands have many novel concepts, ranging from a penal colony of exiles who ask the PCs to be a neutral party in determining a murder to an eerie island of sphinxes where various eras exist simultaneously. All the while, the PCs have a limited time until the Oath of Peace ends, spurring them on to either defeat the titans or (more dangerously) negotiate a renewal of the pact. The strongholds of Sydon and Lutheria, the two major villains of this campaign, are an appropriately thematic lighthouse-fortress and an eerie underworld sea respectively. Both have multiple characters and factions the PCs can use to their advantage in discovering the weaknesses of the titans, which is a good blend of intrigue in addition to the standard dungeon-crawling elements.
I will admit that the adventure starts to get weaker at this point. Although there are allowances for alternate routes, the plot strongly points to the PCs resolving things violently with both Titans, and in the case of Lutheria the myriad means of getting on her good side amount to nothing as her explicitly-unfair terms of renewing the Oath of Peace are non-negotiable. Even worse, it is one I cannot see most gaming groups accepting. Sydon, being the prototypical Lawful Evil Warlord, will have his forces invade Mytros no matter what in a climactic battle. Said invasion is a chapter all on its own, a set of 4-5 major encounters with no rest between them where the PCs must make difficult choices in which citizens and sections of city to prioritize saving. There's a lot of chances for the heroes to perform epic deeds, although the fact that there's no chances for even short rests between the encounters will make things extra-difficult for certain classes such as warlocks. The Battle of Mytros has an extremely-difficult ending where Sydon and Lutheria's father, Kentimane, appears to take revenge on the PCs. He is stronger than even his already-powerful children, and he more or less comes out of nowhere in the narrative which can rob the thematic feeling of defeating the more involved villains that were present through the whole campaign.
The third act was originally not part of the Odyssey of the Dragonlords, instead being a KickStarter stretch goal, and it's pasted-on nature shows. It details the need for a new pantheon of gods after the old ones were killed or rendered powerless, and how a lost sibling of the Five Gods seeks to elevate himself to godhood via the use of three artifacts. There's a heavy assumption that the PCs will seek godhood themselves, and the plot hinges upon their willingness to gather said artifacts for said ritual. The act is much more linear than the previous two, and previously-wise and informative NPCs end up dropping the Idiot Ball by giving the party bad advice which if followed will resolve things in far worse outcomes. One artifact is found in a vampire's barrow mound, but much of the undead opposition is helplessly pinned under millstones which guard no further passages or treasure making much of the dungeon a cakewalk. Another artifact is found in an undersea city, where a forgotten pantheon of empyreans (those one step below true godhood) offer to help the PCs find said artifact in exchange for freeing them. Said empyreans are mostly evil alignment, have no means of concealing said alignment, and will be the main opposition in the next chapter. To make things worse, the NPC who releases them gains Plot Armor against the PCs in order to do so in spite of whatever precautions the party may take.
In summary, Odyssey of the Dragonlords has a promising beginning, an exciting midway point, and a lackluster end that feels hastily put together. Fortunately the endpoint is not enough to ruin the whole adventure, and the Battle of Mytros is an appropriate climax which can serve as a satisfying ending to the campaign (minus the surprise father-titan appearance).
Another weakness of the adventure path which shows up from time to time is a reliance upon sexual violence and predation on the part of the villains. Although never so gauche as to subject the PCs to it, a few of said elements happen onscreen as opposed to being indirect allusions. I feel that the writers were trying to make the villains as unlikeable as possible, but I cannot see the scenes being used as they are for most gaming groups without it coming off as the DM taking the party for a ride in their Magical Realm.
END SPOILERS
The Appendices: Large enough to be chapters on their own, Odyssey of the Dragonlords has around 160 pages worth of player-facing and DM friendly material outside of the adventure path proper. They include six new races derived from Greek myth and 12 new archetypes for classes reflecting cultural archetypes. The PC choices are varied and for the most part feel balanced save for a few exceptions, and several of the races are developed past their mythic origins into proper societies. The class archetypes include rather creative options. One example is the Academy Philosopher, wizards who derive boons from an appropriate ideology and can use mathematics to shape the confines of their area-affecting spells. Another is the Amazonian Conclave of Rangers, a society of women warriors whose class features are derived from Wonder Woman and Xena tropes such as a ricochet chakram attack and a clockwork bird companion who is a good scout and befuddler of enemies.
The section on monsters is both long and highly illustrative, with nearly 30 pieces of beautiful full page artwork. Monsters are organized by theme instead of alphabetically, and include both variations of existence monster stat blocks as well as new ones. For the former, we have entries such as the Euryale Medusa: the eldest among their race who made pacts with fiends, or Centaur Druids and Heroes who are exemplars in specific combat and magic styles. The new monsters vary wildly in Challenge Rating and scale of power, and just about all of them appear at least once in the adventure path. My main criticism is that some of the end-game monsters and NPCs feel a bit weak in areas. The titan Lutheria has several utility spells which she'll be hard-pressed to take advantage of by the time she's encountered and fought in the adventure path, while some ancient monsters like the Behemoth and Scylla have a few one-note major attacks which the PCs can rapidly adapt to or predict as the battle proceeds.
The appendices also include various sections for more specialized tasks the PCs can do during the adventure path. For example, there are outlines and rules for those who wish to resurrect the Order of Dragonlords or become gods themselves, although said sections sadly are bare-bones at best. In the case of godhood, it's something that will only happen at the very end of the adventure path as a post-game epilogue, so the idea of a high-level adventure where the now-immortal PCs are tackling threats beyond the ken of mere mortals is something the DM must provide themselves rather than something featured in the book. My favorite 'mini-game' was a list of craftable magic items at the Mithral Forge, and various unique ingredients required for their creation. As said ingredients can be directly obtained from certain monster parts and treasure hordes as part of the adventure path, it is nicely integrated with the existing material. That several of these items cannot be ordinarily obtained further rewards the group for investing in the forge's use.
We end with player handouts and a section on the "true history" of Thylea, detailing things as they truly are and free of the biased information earlier in the book. While a good idea in practice, it is a bit of additional labor for the DM as said biased sides are even present in the earlier DM-facing histories. The appendix is mostly complete, but fails to cover the truth of certain things which are spelled out in the adventure path's chapters, such as the true reason the titans destroyed the city of sirens.
In Conclusion: Odyssey of the Dragonlords is a bit rough around the edges, but its shining core is well worth the purchase. There's enough material to last for a full campaign, and the crunch is versatile enough to be mined for use in other Dungeons & Dragons settings. Odyssey ranks very highly as far as 3rd party adventures and settings go, and sets a high bar to clear for others of its ilk. It may be the first product by Arcanum Worlds, but I look forward to seeing what else this studio releases in the future.
