The Trojan War
A d20 campaign setting for the “Mythic Vistas” series
From: Green Ronin Publishing
Previewed / Reviewed by: Marc Shayed
The Iliad, the epic story telling the deeds of ancient heroes, gods and the ill-fated city of Troy is one of the finest stories ever told. Now set as a backdrop for d20 gaming. The Trojan War is a new d20 campaign setting for the “Mythic Vistas” series from Green Ronin Publishing. Here we have a world, with ready-made gods, heroes, villains, and events to help guide or change to course of history. Will you help keep Achilles alive, or will you be the archer that kills the greatest hero of the Achaean army… or perhaps you will hide with Odysseus inside the famous “Trojan Horse” and spring one of the greatest traps in history.
The choices are yours (and your GM’s). Either playing true to the text of the Iliad or using Homer’s story as a guideline for different adventures, the The Trojan War contains enough material to make a memorable and truly epic game.
From the Introduction:
“Vast armies face each other across a broad plain, filling the field with a sea of spear tips, shields, and helmet plumes. Powerful warriors stalk about, marshaling their troops and confronting foes directly, their frames and features almost godlike in grace and strength. From a high tower within the walled city, a woman watches, her beauty the catalyst of all this bloodshed. The gods themselves observe, and frequently intervene. And on the battle rages, day after day, year after year.
Welcome to the Trojan War.”
Without going into detail and retelling the story of the Trojan War, I will say that Green Ronin has gone to great lengths to tell the story, in enough detail that even those who are unfamiliar with the story will learn more than enough to run a game in the setting without any real issues. For those of us who remember reading the Iliad in school, it gives a good refresher to the story. The “who-killed-who’s”, the “who-did-what’s” and the “why’s” are all addressed.
The Trojan War contains lots of information, too much to go into fine details in this review. Suffice to say that like most d20 settings, The Trojan War contains new classes and prestige classes, new feats, a new “statistic”(Piety), new spells, new race (Divine Offspring), money system, weapons and equipment, and a new mass combat system (the Homeric Battlefield Resolution System).
As stated above, the book opens with an excellent ‘primer’ on the war itself. The introduction and the first chapter goes into the pre-war and post-war events as well as what happened during the war on the battlefield and on Mount Olympus. Lists many of the characters and major events, and the motivations behind the war and actions of the characters. Now, of course to get the whole story, you should go pick up a copy of Homer’s Iliad and read it… then the “Odyssey”… and maybe a copy of Virgil’s “Aeneid”. However, for those that don’t either want to read a few thousand pages, or have the time to, the book gives the necessities to understand the world, and run or play in a game in that ancient world.
It is important enough to point out that this game world and setting is designed for players to take on roles of truly heroic characters and to be “movers and shakers” of the war. Playing a merchant, diplomat, or a passive character will seriously limit a player’s enjoyment. Characters are intended to wade into battle, to dive into the fray and to hope that they have their god’s favor so that they can survive.
The second, third, and fourth chapters go into character generation. From choosing a race (human or divine offspring), nationality (Trojan or Achaean), classes, feats and skills and Piety. Like with most setting books we get a lot of new stuff and re-tooling of standard items. Such as the new class “Dedicated Warrior” is this world’s replacement for a Paladin, being a warrior that is ‘dedicated’ to a single god. There are very few surprises in this section… its all good. Well written and balanced to encourage heroic behavior. One to the highlights of the section is the brief description of ‘Piety’.
From the Chapter 2:
“…To reflect the gods’ influence, every Trojan War character has a Piety score. This score reflects a character’s religious devotion tracking the quality and frequency of the character’s religious observances. …”
In many RPGs where religion plays a major role, this is often left up to the GM to quantify, here Green Ronin have come up with a convention to let PCs know how Pious they are, and what their standing is in the eyes of their gods. During the battles of the Trojan War, the gods helped their favorites, punished those they didn’t like, and even did battle in person… If a player keeps his Piety high, there will be benefits, if he lets it drop, then the gods will take notice of that as well. Piety is fully described in chapter eight, but seeing it in the character generation section, let players know that it is a ‘big deal’.
Chapter five brings us to the section on magic. Being the ancient world of “Clash of the Titans” and “Jason and the Argonauts” magic is everywhere, from divine magic of the gods and their priests, to the powers of sorcerers and magicians. Here we have new spells and descriptions of the Arcane and Divine magic as they existed in the world that Homer wrote about. One of the finer parts of this chapter is the discussion of non-overt magic.
In reading the stories, you see very little of people casting spells (yes, there are a few exceptions) but you do see characters doing things like running with speed beyond most men, using superhuman strength, resisting damage as if their skin were armor… and other such abilities. One of the possibilities listed as to how magic is used is that magic is (or tends to be) not directly offensive in nature.
From the Chapter 5:
“…Perhaps, in the Homeric world, most of the magic is self-contained instead—people use magic to make themselves stronger, faster, or more charming, but have no idea how to cast spells on others.”
The idea that most of the great deeds were done by warriors who could cast limited spells on themselves to do great things makes for interesting possibilities… and makes the ‘warrior-mage’ a real possibility for this type of game.
After the many spells being listed, we come to chapter six… detailing equipment, money and weapons of the age. Again, there are no real surprises here. Here they list common items that no warrior should be without, period armor and weapons, and how to use the standard money system to deal with bartering, and a non-standard economy.
From the Chapter 7:
“When they were got together in one place shield clashed with shield and spear with spear in the rage of battle. The bossed shields beat one upon another, and there was a tramp as of a great multitude—death-cry and shout of triumph of slain and slayers, and the earth ran red with blood. As torrents swollen with rain course madly down their deep channels till the angry floods meet in some gorge, and the shepherd on the hillside hears their roaring from afar--even such was the toil and uproar of the hosts as they joined in battle
Homer, The Iliad, Book II”
The Homeric Battlefield Resolution System was created to help in dealing with the types of battles that the heroes fought. Often in the story one hero (such as Achilles) would slay large amounts of men in a single battle, in most d20 games this is difficult to simulate and battles with one against 100 could take literally hours, and hours to play out. The combat system has been developed to make the battles much more in line with the way the Homer described them.
In this system, each combat is effectively put together as a single grouping of stats called a “force” (similar to a character) and taking into account terrain, moral, omens, and utilizing Battlefield Feats the “force” can do battle with other ‘forces’, including heroes. In this method, in combat with a hundred men as in the story, heroes like Achilles, Ajax, Hector, and Odysseus can do battle with many men, and due to their heroic nature and win. In game terms, this means a similar battle that the players fight in won’t take a few days of game time to finish off.
Chapter eight details the gods, their motivations involving the war, and religion. It fully details the use of Piety, religious offerings, sins, and what happens when a character falls out of good graces with a god. There are a lot of good details in this section. Other RPGs should spend as much attention to their religion and gods. Green Ronin did have help in the fact that most of what they wrote about the gods is already commonly known (and just taking it a bit further) from mythology. Since most GMs will have some familiarity with the Greek Pantheon, they will be more comfortable running a game that utilizes that religion. Since the gods play such a major role in the world, it is important at the GM understands them and their motivations.
After chapter nine and beyond is the rest of the story and world… details of the places, geography, characters (such as the heroes), monsters of the world, magic items, and the ins-and-outs of running a game in the world. Here we learn how to make the game ‘feel’ epic… and how to be true to the story. We also get good plot threads on how to put players into the story, missions to run and goals for them to achieve. Such as sneaking in to Troy to steal a relic, to going into the catacombs under Troy to find an escape route into the hills, and seeking the aid of a powerful being living in the woods in the hills.
So… what does Marc really think?
This is an easy one. I like it. I like it a lot.
I am a big fan of historic role-playing… and the Trojan War is a great setting to let your players take on great roles, to fight vast battles that and face the children of gods head on.
With a recent resurgence in historic movies and television shows, I am happy to see more games being designed to allow gamers to role-play in these fantastic worlds of the past.
I highly recommend The Trojan War for gamers and GMs who want to run, play and be a major player in an Epic tale of battle, gods, and adventure.
Above all I suggest you judge for yourselves. Check out Green Ronin Publishing and their new d20 campaign setting The Trojan War for their “Mythic Vistas” series at their website http://www.greenronin.com …and of course at all of your local game stores!
The Trojan War
From: Green Ronin Publishing
Type of Game: d20 supplement (a “Mythic Vistas” campaign setting)
Design: Aaron Rosenberg
Additional Design: Robert J Schwalb (Cerberus, Legendary Animals)
Editing: Christina Stiles
Development: Robert J Schwalb
Art Direction and Graphic Design: Hal Mangold
Cover Art: James Ryman
Executive Producer: Chris Pramas
Green Ronin Staff: Steve Kenson, Nicole Lindroos, Hal Mangold, Chris Pramas, Evan Sass, and Robert J Schwalb
Number of Pages: 160 pages, perfect bound
Retail Price: $ $27.95 (US)
Item Number: GRR1405
IBSN: 1-932442-25-1
Email: custserv@greenronin.com
Website: www.greenronin.com
Review Score: 9 out of 10 points (4.5 stars)
Previewed / Reviewed by: Marc Shayed
Review Editor
http://www.GamingReport.com
