Favorite "Homeric" RPG or Setting

[schneeland]

You missed out Mythic Babylon bruv!

To add to this, Mythras has many, many settings books, covering Mythic Earth settings, and outside of that.

You are right, I missed Mythic Babylon (I left the Mythras space after Mythic Constatinople). But for bronze age setting books that it, isn't it? Or did I forget about anything else?
(I'm aware there's more beyond that, most notably Mythic Britain, but I don't think they fit what the OP was looking for)

 

[Bilharzia]

You are right, I missed Mythic Babylon (I left the Mythras space after Mythic Constatinople). But for bronze age setting books that it, isn't it? Or did I forget about anything else?
(I'm aware there's more beyond that, most notably Mythic Britain, but I don't think they fit what the OP was looking for)

Mythic Constantinople isn't remotely Bronze Age, it is set in 1450 CE, there are firearms and cannons detailed in the setting ... Neither for that matter is Mythic Rome, Mythic Britain, Mythic Logres those are all Iron Age.

Mediterraneo Mitico is a Spanish language Mediterranean setting which is closer to Bronze Age but is actually more Classical Aegean.

The forthcoming Mythic Greece will be Mycenaean, and so, Bronze Age, but as yet no release date.

 

[Bilharzia]

You are right, I missed Mythic Babylon (I left the Mythras space after Mythic Constatinople). But for bronze age setting books that it, isn't it? Or did I forget about anything else?
(I'm aware there's more beyond that, most notably Mythic Britain, but I don't think they fit what the OP was looking for)

My point about missing Mythic Babylon is that it's the only Bronze Age setting so far released for Mythras. It is also very faithful to the setting and very well researched. Most other RPGs bastardise or fictionalise the setting significantly.

 

[pemerton]

Another answer of Agon 2nd ed.

Character generation is quick. It uses Homeric-style epithets - like lion-hearted Achilles - as free descriptors that add to the dice pool. Like @hawkeyefan mentioned, play involves washing up on different strife-plagued islands. Resolution itself is quick and colourful, and involves the gods directly in the fictional situation.

 

[Aldarc]

@Reynard, as reminded by all this Mythras discussion, I think that another important question to answer for delivering a Mythic "Homeric" RPG or Setting pertains to which Illiad/Odyssey you want:

"Do you want the Bronze Age Mycenaean setting that forms the historical backdrop of Homer's epics?"

OR

"Do you want the Homer's Early Iron Age Greece that he projects back onto the Bronze Age?"

For a classic example of this difference: It's pretty clear that while Homer and his audience knew that his Mycenaean forebearers used chariots, they didn't know how they were used. So in the Illiad, chariots are used to transport the heroes to the front line like taxi cabs and then they jump off to fight like dragoons in single combat or some such. But what we know of chariot combat in Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Egypt around this time suggests that they were used more like tanks, archery platforms, or mobile shock troopers.

I also find that most "Bronze Age fantasy" roleplaying games as well as art tend to be EXCEEDINGLY MORE Iron Age in their orientation than Bronze Age. So again, an Iron Age vision of Greece that is projected back onto the Bronze Age. For example, Jackals calls itself "Bronze Age Roleplaying," but the "Greek" on the cover art is firmly an Iron Age or Classical Greek design.

That's fine, but it is something that you may want to be aware of, if you are not already.

 

[Reynard]

@Reynard, as reminded by all this Mythras discussion, I think that another important question to answer for delivering a Mythic "Homeric" RPG or Setting pertains to which Illiad/Odyssey you want:

"Do you want the Bronze Age Mycenaean setting that forms the historical backdrop of Homer's epics?"

OR

"Do you want the Homer's Early Iron Age Greece that he projects back onto the Bronze Age?"

I suppose closer to the latter because the real answer is something like: "Emulate the epic passions, violence and wonder of Homer, in a world that looks and feels like Homer's mythic Bronze Age, with or without Greek myth specifically. "

 

[pemerton]

I suppose closer to the latter because the real answer is something like: "Emulate the epic passions, violence and wonder of Homer, in a world that looks and feels like Homer's mythic Bronze Age, with or without Greek myth specifically. "

If you haven't tried Agon I strongly suggest you look at it. It is exactly what you're describing here.

 

[Reynard]

If you haven't tried Agon I strongly suggest you look at it. It is exactly what you're describing here.

I will for sure.

 

[SJB]

Hear me out on this one:

The key Homeric elements are:

1. Heroic warrior culture.
2. Civilisation based on city states (points of light).
3. Society based on maritime interchange, including violent plundering.
4. Immanent deity.

If one is willing to do some reskinning then Handiwork Games’s Beowulf would do the job. Heorot would have to go on steroids to become Argos, admittedly, in 3. For even more heroism one could import some Scarlet Heroes rules.

The above is only relevant if the preferred system is d20 - but this is ENWorld.

Also, Lawful Evil is a very useful alignment.

Odysseus tied the cable of a dark-prowed ship to a great pillar and flung it round the dome, stretching it on high that none might reach the ground with her feet … the women held their heads in a row, and round the necks of all nooses were laid, that they might die most piteously. And they writhed a little while with their feet, but not long.

 

[Reynard]

Hear me out on this one:

The key Homeric elements are:

1. Heroic warrior culture.
2. Civilisation based on city states (points of light).
3. Society based on maritime interchange, including violent plundering.
4. Immanent deity.

If one is willing to do some reskinning then Handiwork Games’s Beowulf would do the job. Heorot would have to go on steroids to become Argos, admittedly, in 3. For even more heroism one could import some Scarlet Heroes rules.

The above is only relevant if the preferred system is d20 - but this is ENWorld.

Also, Lawful Evil is a very useful alignment.

Odysseus tied the cable of a dark-prowed ship to a great pillar and flung it round the dome, stretching it on high that none might reach the ground with her feet … the women held their heads in a row, and round the necks of all nooses were laid, that they might die most piteously. And they writhed a little while with their feet, but not long.

Yeah, D&D alignment isn't really a thing we can apply to Honeric gods and heroes.