It's hard to beat the Oddysey and Illiad when it comes to poetic carnage, and it's hard to beat Lamentations of the Flame Princess when it comes to DnD. So why not both?
Herewith a few house rules to play LotFP in Mythical Ancient Greece.
- Spears do 1d8, Javelins do 1d6.
- Reskin all other weapons and armor to fit the setting. Art of the period is really helpful in this regard, and it is all over google.
- If the characters are in the army, everybody gets a spear, javelin, shield, helmet (+1 AC) and sidearm (most likely a short sword) by default. See below for other armor.
Demihumans are ok, but they are basically human in appearance and they are reskinned as demigods:
- Elf: one Olympian parent
- Halfling: child of a dryad and a human father
- Dwarf: child of Hephaestos and a human mother.
A "Dwarf" can choose to train in Tinkering instead of Architecture and takes half damage (rounded down) from non-magical heat. Extra style points if you have some kind of physical deformity.
The default body armor is a breastplate (AC 14, counts as an oversized item).
- If you are playing a Human or "Halfling", you have a 1 in 10 chance of owning a breastplate.
- If playing an "Elf", the chances are 3 in 10.
- If playing a "Dwarf", the chances are 8 in 10.
Choose a patron deity (if "Demihuman", this will be your divine parent), an appropriate name, epithet and parentage (I encourage stealing liberally from Homer and his contemporaries) and you are good to go. Sing, flame-haired muse, the miseries of your player characters!
I've put together a small module based on the Illiad that I've used to playtest this hack to many deaths, shits and giggles. I may publish it at some point so it shall remain hush-hush for now, but in the meantime feel free to use these house rules for your own homebrew, your shameless thieving of the Greeks (what are they gonna do, rise from their graves and sue you?), _____ of the Unknown, Bad Myrmidon, you name it.
(If running a multi-session game, you might want to tie XP to Fame in addition to treasure.)
Now go forth and referee until they all fall to the ground, their armor clattering!
This is great. A module would be very cool.
ReplyDeleteCool ideas in here. I love that level of technology.
ReplyDeleteI am super digging this!
ReplyDeleteThis would be great for the LotFP book Isles of the Unknown. Replace all the weird statutes with greek gods.
ReplyDeleteI play in a Mazes & Minotaurs game, which is lots of fun. We are currently going through the Maze of the Bull King (mega?)dungeon, based on the palace of Knossos.
ReplyDeleteI really like the system, although, arguably, it's not mythic/epic Greece, but rather mythic/epic Greece as seen through the lens of movies with Harryhausen monsters :) Which is awesome in its own way.
For a more gritty/historical game, I'd re-skin LotFP too.
Oh and if you run another playtest of the Iliad module, you know where to find me :D
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, Ignacio - I like it! I like the recommendation of merging it with Isle of the Unknown.
ReplyDelete