Of Gods and Men (and Monsters)

[kafka47]

I wonder has anyone adapted a mythic cycle into their Traveller campaign? By this I mean taking the myths from different ancient cultures and weaving them into a series of adventures.

Part of my inspiration to do this comes from Hellas, campy Old Doctor Who episodes and a nagging feeling that AD&D** Gods & Demi Heroes were once PCs plus a conversation that I once suggested to Daniel Hammer that he adapt his Iraqi war experiences into a Campaign (and he suggested that indeed from the time of the Odyssey there have been such tales).

**Hope Aramis that I can get an exception for talking about another game system here. And, AD&D - I naturally refer to the First Edition.

 

[fiat_knox]

You mean creatures like Sutekh, the Mara, the legends of King Arthur and Excalibur, the plot of Shakespeare's The Tempest etc.?

 

[kafka47]

You mean creatures like Sutekh, the Mara, the legends of King Arthur and Excalibur, the plot of Shakespeare's The Tempest etc.?

Not sure what your question is...but I think I get the general drift. So, yes. Constructing a campaign around the Arthurian legend would be easy but elegic play is not really compactible with Traveller which is more epic orientated. Although, the thought of adapting Pendragon to MegaTraveller is very appealing. Dulinor as Morden...

For interesting discussion about elegic versus epic check out: http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/01/aur-onnad-meren.html

 

[Spinward Scout]

We already have some of that in Sci-Fi. Star Trek II had a Moby Dick theme running through it (with direct and paraphrased quotes even). The newer Star Wars trilogy was loosely based on Oedipus - even using the name Tyrannus.

Or were you thinking more like The Odessey?

 

[kafka47]

My point is not what is already out there (of which there are realms of the stuff) but who has actually constructed a game/campaign around it?

 

[saundby]

I ran a campaign that was The Iliad, thinly veiled, while in high school. I was sure every hour that we played someone was going to cry out "Hey, this siege is just The Iliad!" but it never happened. I had analogues to all the big fights with battleships in place of individual heros. I even used the names Hector, Ajax, Menelaus and Paris for the ships.

Older races that were behind the scenes took the place of the gods and goddesses, influencing events with technical gifts or intel.

It ran its course, and it was only about three years later one of the plyers came back from college and said "That campaign we played was all Homer, wasn't it?" Apparently he was having the worst case of deja vu while reading Homer for school, and didn't realize why until a few months after the course had ended.

 

[DaveChase]

In my Futura game, you could meet Death, Isis, and a few other 'Gods' if you actually went looking for them. Merlin and a very, very old vampire was around also.

Death was the easiest of the 'gods' to met, and no it was not just because you died. You could be alive and live afterward also. You had to actively seek him, then ask for an audience and the wait and see if he would take the time. He always found the living's request 'interesting' and extremely rarely granted some form of a request.

Time Lords existed also. But they were so busy that they got divided and lost among them selves.

My Futura game had many levels of play for the many players and such.
General play, roll up and do an adventure.
Character play, where developing and seeking character goals were the important part.
Achieving a life goal, different than development adn such. Included several of the above things also.
Major game play, a bit higher character types (think level 20-40 in D&D terms). They could effect, systems, parts of galaxies and make some sweeping changes. Started a few economic wars and such (Kind of like a Birthright of Space.) Also there was 151 active galaxies in my Futura game.
Meta game play, only a few players allowed. They owned megacorps, changed lives of the unknowning masses and one became the most wanted criminal in 17 galaxies and started the first war between 2 galaxies. One's goal was to become a 'God' and actively sent hours searching, trying and researching how to do such. Came very close, but had caused many others to turn against him and though he reached a limited 'god' power state, could no longer effect most of the known universe. (Never, ever brag to and/or embrass the following:
Time Lords, Death, the ruler of one galaxy and destroy a living planet just because it said NO.)

Oh, and the Beserkers existed and was slowly working their way into know space.
There also was a 'deathstar' enitity (1 million miles in diameter) that was actively seeking beings to help it fight the beserkers.

There were also several living worlds (enitities) that were thinking and living enitities.

Dave Chase

 

[aramis]

I once ran tron as a misjump. Players (13-17yo males in the mid 1980's) ate it up.

The Frisbee was Pen = Str/2 (d) range was 30m/50m, damage 1d, damage +1d if throw counted as a melee swing. Block was 8+ at long range, 11+ at short range. Damage dice were not rolled, but were 2d6+Pen-AV+(1d if th made by 3+)-4. Used Frisbee skill, but computer served as half level. (d)

They defeated MCP (FFFFFF Comp 4 Frisbee 4) not with frisbees, but with the last round from their GL....

 

[rancke]

I once worked on a solar system that would be patterned on the Nine Worlds of Norse Mythology. The world in the life zone would be Midgard, of course. Muspellheim would be closer to the sun and Nifflheim the outermost planet. Asgard and Vanaheim would have higher-tech cultures, Utgard a huge population of lower-tech barbarians. Alfheim would be a light-gravity world with slim, elfin people and Svartalfheim would be a world with high gravity where squat, dwarflike heavy-worlders lived. Hel I never really decided on, though I had various ideas.


Hans

 

[Spinward Scout]

I once worked on a solar system that would be patterned on the Nine Worlds of Norse Mythology.

Very cool idea! Hel could always be a penal colony.

 

[Chaos]

How about an Odyssey-themed campaign? I mean, look it at, misjumps practically scream "have a nice odyssey home". And though I don´t know the whole menagerie of Traveller aliens, I´m pretty sure they could cover most of the folks Ulysses met.

 

[saundby]

I had planned on following up my "Iliad" with an Odyssey (though not in the OTU, this was in '79 and I wouldn't have used it even if it had been published.) After we finished burning Ilium (with nukes, this time), our group took a break from Traveller. During that time a couple of our players took off for college and it changed the chemistry of the group.

The remaining players were too squirrelly to sit down for a real campaign, so when we started playing Traveller again we ended up playing "tonight's adventure is..." with the players getting impatient halfway through the hook and just wanting to know when it was time to start lighting off their weapons on bad guys. After a while I let another ref have my night to start running D&D since I wasn't getting what I wanted out of running Traveller.

I'd also had thoughts of running a Jason and the Argonauts campaign that never happened, either.