Campaign idea: The Sons of Hercules!

[JPL]

The Sons of Hercules! would be an homage to the sword-and-sandals movies that came out of Italy in the late 50s and 60s, usually starring Steve Reeves or another bodybuilder as a Classical Age superhero, smiting evil and posing impressively and speaking in a rich baritone. Since RPGs have an unlimited budget, you could mix in the Harryhausen and some contemporary stuff like 300 and Troy.

In researching the genre, I learned that a lot of these movies were syndicated for American TV under the name “The Sons of Hercules,” with little changes to the English dubbing to reflect that the hero of each of these (unrelated) movies was a son of Hercules.

Now, you read a little more, and you learn that in Greek myth, Hercules actually married the fifty daughters of King Thespius on the same day and impregnated them all on the same night and they all bore him strong sons.

So there’s a convenient hook for an RPG — assume that Thespius fostered his heroic grandsons to various other kings and princes all over the map (knowing that fifty demigods in one kingdom gets kind of crowded). The PCs are some of these brothers reunited after long years apart. Maybe they are competing to prove who is the rightful heir of Hercules; maybe they travel from kingdom to kingdom seeking their other brothers (some of whom are bad, or at least unmanageable); maybe they just smite evil and kill monsters and bed dancing girls. It’s all good.

 

[Ilium]

Best. Idea. EVAR!

Pick a system.

 

[Nifft]

I'd play it.
Conan OGL?

Cheers, -- N

 

[JPL]

I'd play it.
Conan OGL?

Cheers, -- N

I'd kitbash some sort of SAGA influenced D&D 3.5 just for the occasion, probably. Boost most of the starting traits by +4, give everyone Divine Rank 0, and be generous with additional special traits to differentiate the heroes.

Conan would be interesting, although perhaps a bit gritty (although some demigod traits would make the heroes more resilient).

 

[James Heard]

Sounds like Sean K Reynold's The New Argonauts. You can download the PDF for free from DriveThruRPG and RPGNow I think.

 

[JPL]

Sounds like Sean K Reynold's The New Argonauts. You can download the PDF for free from DriveThruRPG and RPGNow I think.

Snagged it yesterday. There's some good stuff in there.

I'm not sure that it's the smartest way to go, but for the purposes of a one-shot, I could see making all of these guys essentially the Steve Reeves Hercules and play off the idea that each of these guys is used to being the World's Strongest Man and the Mightiest Hero in Greece.

So in the course of all the monster-slaying, they are also trying to figure out who the alpha male is, and hopefully they each carve out some sort of niche --- Dynamos is the strongest, but Atlas is as tireless as his namesake, and Leonidas has the greatest skill at arms --- and learn to work together. Maybe the gods are trying to teach them to temper their hubris with a little humility....

 

[Klaus]

Reminds me of Class of the Titans.

And while you're at it, Fiery Dragon released Greek Counters of DOOM!, a tie-in with SKR's New Argonauts, covering heroes, villains and monsters.

 

[Baduin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleidae

"The Heracleidae or Heraclids were the numerous descendants of Heracles (Hercules), especially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira (Hyllus was also sometimes thought of as a son of Melite with Heracles). Other Heracleidae included Macaria, Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus. These Heraclids were a group of Dorian kings who conquered the Peloponnesian kingdoms of Mycenae, Sparta and Argos; according to the literary tradition in Greek mythology, they claimed a right to rule through their ancestor. Since Karl Otfried Müller's Die Dorier (1830, English translation 1839), I. ch. 3, their rise to dominance has been associated with a "Dorian invasion". "

http://people.uncw.edu/deagona/herakles/offspring.htm