D&D 5E Mythic Greek Settings

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Mankcam

Hallowed Be Thy Swo
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I love Mythic Greece and Mythic Greek inspired settings, and generally am pretty happy using some version of BRP to portray the flavour of these settings.
As an adolescent I used Rolemaster's Mythic Greece book and we used Rolemaster. I later just went with RQ3 instead, it seemed to capture it really well.

These days RuneQuest Adventures in Glorantha partly fits the bill (Glorantha is inspired by Mythic Greece in some places), as well as the Ancient Greek-inspired World of Thennela (for use with Mythras). I'm also waiting on the publication of the Mythras book called 'Mythic Greece', which will be a nice companion to Mythras' 'Mythic Rome'. So RQ or Mythras can certainly do the setting justice.

However for my teen sons, as well as friends new to rpgs, I generally find D&D 5E to be a more accessible and welcome entry point to rpgs.
I may like to run a D&D game with more of an Ancient Fantasy flavour than D&D's default High Fantasy flavour.

Of course there is the old free indie game 'Mazes & Minotaurs' which is quite good, it's a D20 game, but I would prefer something that fits contemporary D&D.
Running an Argonauts style game is very appealing to try in D&D 5E, so I'm after suggestions

There doesn't appear to be an actual Mythic Greece setting done for D&D 5E, but in recent times there are a few choices for Mythic Greek-inspired settings for D&D 5E

The ones that I am aware of are:
I'm not sure if there are any others, I am aware Ken Hite may also be producing one down the track - although I am unsure if it will be using D&D 5E or not.
I'm just wondering if any one can give me advice on any of the above products?
What are their strengths and weaknesses, and why one product may be appealing more than another etc

Any advice helpful!
:thumbsup:



(I'll check back in a day or so!)
 
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I worked on Theros so I have some knowledge there (athough my artist copies haven't arrived yet, so I haven't seen the finished work).

Theros is Greek-Inspired, but uses a different set of gods (15 gods, designed around the various colours of M:tG - so gods for each of the 5 colours, and another god for each of the pairings of 2 colours). These are based on the Greek gods (some much more closely than others), but are distinctly different.
 
Despite them all being Greek Mythos inspired 5e settings, the products do differ quite a lot, which will probably be the biggest factor in which one you should get.
  • Arkadia - This is the slimmest of the three, giving just enough PC options and glimpses of the setting to run a Greek Mythos inspired game using 5e. The quality seems good, but it may need more work to expand out what's there.
  • Odyessy of the Dragon Lords - This one has more setting and PC options than Arkadia. But it also has a full 1 -15 level campaign, which looks to be of good quality.
  • Mythic Odyessy of Theeros - This one has less PC options than the other two. It has an emphasis on the gods with almost 2/3rds of the books being devoted to the subject in differing ways. As such, this seems best suited for dropping a D&D5e game into a Greek Mythos inspired setting.
My preference is for Odyessy of the Dragon Lords. It provided the quantity of rules options of Arkadia, but even more tailored to the inspirations, and the full campaign saves me a lot of effort.

If I wanted to create my own campaign I would also look at Arkadia as there is more room to add your own material.

I would look at Theros if I had a D&D game and wanted to give it a Greek Mythos paint job.
 
Dyson Logos Dyson Logos You did the maps for Theros? I haven't gotten the book yet but when I was thumbing through it at B&N I made a point to show my daughter the maps and sad something to the effect of "aren't these great?". I will be buying this.
 
I worked on Theros so I have some knowledge there (athough my artist copies haven't arrived yet, so I haven't seen the finished work).

Theros is Greek-Inspired, but uses a different set of gods (15 gods, designed around the various colours of M:tG - so gods for each of the 5 colours, and another god for each of the pairings of 2 colours). These are based on the Greek gods (some much more closely than others), but are distinctly different.
I'm sure I am using form-fillable D&D 5E character sheets you may have designed. They look like tattered parchment borders etc very classic fantasy
No wonder the Theros map looks really cool :grin:
 
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There were a couple of other Kickstarted ones.

Age of Antiquity, which has a series of different settings including Ancient Greece. Not released yet.
Age of Myth, which has been released and is actually rather nice. It doesn’t really detail too much beyond playable rules, art, and things like Monsters and magic items though.
 
I am aware Ken Hite may also be producing one down the track - although I am unsure if it will be using D&D 5E or not.
it's called Hellenistika apparently, and it seems it will be based on 5e. I am 99% confident that, once released, it will quickly become my favourite:

As of right now Odyssey of the Dragonlords and/or Theros would get my vote if you're after something "out of the box", though I do think Green Ronin's Trojan War is the best treatment to date (albeit for 3rd edition).
 
Despite them all being Greek Mythos inspired 5e settings, the products do differ quite a lot, which will probably be the biggest factor in which one you should get.
  • Arkadia - This is the slimmest of the three, giving just enough PC options and glimpses of the setting to run a Greek Mythos inspired game using 5e. The quality seems good, but it may need more work to expand out what's there.
  • Odyessy of the Dragon Lords - This one has more setting and PC options than Arkadia. But it also has a full 1 -15 level campaign, which looks to be of good quality.
  • Mythic Odyessy of Theeros - This one has less PC options than the other two. It has an emphasis on the gods with almost 2/3rds of the books being devoted to the subject in differing ways. As such, this seems best suited for dropping a D&D5e game into a Greek Mythos inspired setting.
My preference is for Odyessy of the Dragon Lords. It provided the quantity of rules options of Arkadia, but even more tailored to the inspirations, and the full campaign saves me a lot of effort.

If I wanted to create my own campaign I would also look at Arkadia as there is more room to add your own material.

I would look at Theros if I had a D&D game and wanted to give it a Greek Mythos paint job.

The Arkadia folks recently ran a kickstarter for an adventure in their setting, Fate of the Oracle. I got my print copy a few weeks ago, but have only had a chance to skim it, although it looks like it wil be a good intro to the setting. I prefer Arkadia to Odyssey of the Dragon Lords because it seems a little less "fantasic", and more like Ancient Greece with the serial numbers filed off. I haven't checked out Theros.

John
 
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The Arkadia folks recently ran a kickstarter for an adventure in their setting, Fate of the Oracle. I got my print copy a few weeks ago, but have only had a chance to skim it, although it looks like it wil be a good intro to the setting. I prefer Arkadia to Odyssey of the Dragon Lords because it seems a little less "fantasic", and more like Ancient Greece with the serial numbers filed off. I haven't checked out Theros.

Arkadia is good and I agree its slightly less fantastic. I liked the options in Odyssey as they were slightly further removed from D&D, which I preferred.

TBH though the real king hit for me with Odyssey was the campaign. It makes the chance of me running a Greek Mythos inspired campaign with 5e much more likely :smile:
 
I wonder which product would I have a better chance re-skinning for Ancient Greece?

(A mythic version of late Mycenaean/early Hellenic era)

Already having games inspired by the Ancient World, what I am after is actually playing in Ancient Greece as a setting.

I think D&D lends itself to the heroic pulpy flavour of the Greek tales, rather than a more gritty version. If wanting to play something like HBO Rome or the Gladiator film, then I'm good to go with one of my BRP games (Mythras is perfect).

Playing Jason & The Argonaults or The Odyessy feels more like something D&D 5E or 13th Age could do quite well, so I think I will enjoy using it for that. D&D 5E would be my preference if possible.

Perhaps the biggest challenge would be the portrayal of the Olympian Gods within the setting.
Making them up in a BRP game is easy, but I would like to see how that works in D&D beyond just background canvas. I suspect Clerics/Priests (and perhaps other Classes) get different Features based on the Deities, so I wonder how that would port across to reskinning as Olympian Gods?
 
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Perhaps the biggest challenge would be the portrayal of the Olympian Gods within the setting.
Easy as pie! Just take the average 5th edition D&D PC and knock off half the special abilities and hit points and take away most of their magic items and you'll be at about the right level for a Greek god:
Zeus.jpg
Aphrodite.jpg
Ares.jpg
Athena.jpg
Hecate.jpg
 
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Just seeing the gods with HP, I always liked the bit in the Illiad when Aphrodite is attacked by the mortal Diomedes and bleeds ichor. That you can wound gods doesn't come up much after that in Greek myth, but it's a cool little detail.
 
I haven't seen the finished work yet, so I don't know if all my maps made it in (WotC owns six maps of mine that I got paid for but got cut from the books they were drawn for) - but I drew...15 maps for this one I think? One temple or related location for each god.

I honestly lose track of what work I've done for WotC now... I think there are five published books with my maps in them, two WotC released PDF adventures (plus at least one using maps I had already drawn), and there are another three books in the pipe now with my name in the credits.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica
Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Eberron: Rising From the Last War
Mythic Oddyseys of Theros
 
I haven't seen the finished work yet, so I don't know if all my maps made it in (WotC owns six maps of mine that I got paid for but got cut from the books they were drawn for) - but I drew...15 maps for this one I think? One temple or related location for each god.
I can confirm they all made it in... well, unless some or all were replaced at the last minute by someone else's maps I guess... certainly the book features a location with a map for each god, and the maps look to be in your style. Nice work as always (though I do admit to missing colour maps in hardbacks like this).
 
I have collected some off the beaten path Mythic Greece games.
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As well as GURPS and Rolemaster Classic. But I've not played any yet. I was prepping for developing a game set right before the Trojan War.

All those old Green Ronin 'Mythic Vista' books were excellent IMO. I particularly like the 'Testament' (Biblical) book/setting.
 
All those old Green Ronin 'Mythic Vista' books were excellent IMO. I particularly like the 'Testament' (Biblical) book/setting.
Someone once gave me Testament...I may still even have it somewhere...but even more than the fact that I never owned the version of D&D it was written for, the weird choice to put black text on greyish pages made it annoying even to try to read it for anything I might use it for. Did you ever use it for a game?
 
Someone once gave me Testament...I may still even have it somewhere...but even more than the fact that I never owned the version of D&D it was written for, the weird choice to put black text on greyish pages made it annoying even to try to read it for anything I might use it for. Did you ever use it for a game?
Sadly no I never did get to use it, but I did enjoy the idea of that time period and region as a setting. Adding the 'Mesopotamia' setting book by 'Swords & Sorcery' publishing I think it was was also a good combo.
 
This is awesome. Loved the New Argonauts when it was released. By "ye olde patreon" are you talking about the EN5IDER Patreon?

For once I am *not* repping EN5ider. :smile: The Ancient Greece PDF is on my own much tinier Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/mikemyler) although if you want the PDF I'm happy to send it to ya because all my weekly posts on there use your commercial maps. ♥♥♥
 
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