Anyone else running/ran this? I'm about to start* next week. If so, any thoughts, things to look out for?

I had one player refuse to join the campaign saying it was just a "Gay Primeval Thule"  - another player found that a little Homophobic. AFAICT it's not particularly gay unless you want it to be. 

*game web page https://simonsodysseyofthedragonlords.blogspot.com/2021/08/odyssey-of-dragonlords-5e.html

I picked it up and really badly wanted to play through it.  I wanted a Greek fantasy-type game to play.  As yet, I've not been able to play it.  Please keep us up to date on how your campaign works out.

I bought Odyssey of the Dragonlords, Arkadia, and Mythic Odysseys of Theros; Dragonlords is the one that I haven't been able to force myself to finish reading. Will look forward to seeing what you make of it. (Partially because I'm in London and so always curious what your style is, S'mon.)

Batjon: my current theoretical 5e Greek game would be the gods & races from Theros in a setting more like Arkadia; I'd pull the Dragonlords part of Odyssey into a conventional fantasy setting, and only sample from the rest. My feeling reading through (more than half of) Dragonlords is that it's a not a book about a setting, but a book about a story / adventure that is in a particular setting, and that setting was designed explicitly and only to support the story they expect you to tell. Theros has a very different take about how to build campaigns around the machinations of the gods; it only has a scrap of sample adventure, but has sections for every god with "how would you write a game where this god is the players' primary sponsor? or primary antagonist?" and I find a lot of inspiration lurking in those.

Quote from: Naburimannu on September 10, 2021, 05:26:46 AM
My feeling reading through (more than half of) Dragonlords is that it's a not a book about a setting, but a book about a story / adventure that is in a particular setting, and that setting was designed explicitly and only to support the story they expect you to tell.

The setting definitely exists primarily for the story. The developers were Bioware game developers and it definitely resembles (good) CRPG decision, with main questline, lots of optional side stuff, and space for GM's own stuff. It does detail so many locations, and have pretty comprehensive encounter tables, that it is useable as a setting beyond the scope of the campaign; it is not like a Paizo or WoTC AP. But the campaign is at least 2/3 the value of the book I'd say. They put a ton of effort integrating the Heroic Paths into the campaign.

Quote from: Naburimannu on September 10, 2021, 05:26:46 AM
I bought Odyssey of the Dragonlords, Arkadia, and Mythic Odysseys of Theros; Dragonlords is the one that I haven't been able to force myself to finish reading. Will look forward to seeing what you make of it. (Partially because I'm in London and so always curious what your style is, S'mon.)

Batjon: my current theoretical 5e Greek game would be the gods & races from Theros in a setting more like Arkadia; I'd pull the Dragonlords part of Odyssey into a conventional fantasy setting, and only sample from the rest. My feeling reading through (more than half of) Dragonlords is that it's a not a book about a setting, but a book about a story / adventure that is in a particular setting, and that setting was designed explicitly and only to support the story they expect you to tell. Theros has a very different take about how to build campaigns around the machinations of the gods; it only has a scrap of sample adventure, but has sections for every god with "how would you write a game where this god is the players' primary sponsor? or primary antagonist?" and I find a lot of inspiration lurking in those.

That is exactly the feeling I got from it.  It is more about the adventure path that happens to be set within that setting.  I find it nuts that I cannot find a classical Greek setting that uses the Earthly Greek pantheon.  I really dislike the whole making up a pantheon for the setting.

Batjon: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/368260/Olympia-Campaign-Setting uses the standard Greek gods and is currently on sale for $7.50.

The author has written a bunch of settings & supplements on DTRPG, and I wasn't hugely impressed by their Akhamet, but I suspect it's a reasonable comparison. From the summary page:

QuoteAkhamet is NOT Egypt
Akhamet is not ancient Egypt. The presence of active magic, the presence of different intelligent races, the gods' direct involvement in the world, and the geography are different. Throughout its long history, ancient Egypt was a nation connected to the rest of the world. Akhamet is an insular nation without any neighbors. The gods themselves are named and based on the gods of Egypt. Their portfolios, domains, and attitudes are different.

Akhamet is like Egypt
Akhamet draws upon ancient Egypt: the architecture, appearance of the people, the people's view of the world, the desire for peace, quiet, and stability. These serve as great motivator for the people. Its gods, peoples, legends, cities and stories are quite different. This setting is inspired and draws from its ancient folklore, cosmogony and mythology.

Also, Skirmisher Publishing has Swords of Kos, which does swords-and-sorcery in the Mediterranean with the original Greek gods. I'm curious but got annoyed by their spammy advertising and how many of their products seem to be shovelware, so haven't bought anything from them recently.

Their "In the Footsteps of Hercules" is interesting: at 90 pages, it reads like a GM's notes preparing for a campaign in the northern Peloponnese.

Quote from: Naburimannu on September 12, 2021, 04:36:08 PM
Batjon: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/368260/Olympia-Campaign-Setting uses the standard Greek gods and is currently on sale for $7.50.

The author has written a bunch of settings & supplements on DTRPG, and I wasn't hugely impressed by their Akhamet, but I suspect it's a reasonable comparison. From the summary page:

QuoteAkhamet is NOT Egypt
Akhamet is not ancient Egypt. The presence of active magic, the presence of different intelligent races, the gods' direct involvement in the world, and the geography are different. Throughout its long history, ancient Egypt was a nation connected to the rest of the world. Akhamet is an insular nation without any neighbors. The gods themselves are named and based on the gods of Egypt. Their portfolios, domains, and attitudes are different.

Akhamet is like Egypt
Akhamet draws upon ancient Egypt: the architecture, appearance of the people, the people's view of the world, the desire for peace, quiet, and stability. These serve as great motivator for the people. Its gods, peoples, legends, cities and stories are quite different. This setting is inspired and draws from its ancient folklore, cosmogony and mythology.

Thank you! That looks exactly like what I've been looking for! I wish there was a print option as well.

Quote from: Batjon on September 10, 2021, 02:17:49 AM
I picked it up and really badly wanted to play through it.  I wanted a Greek fantasy-type game to play.  As yet, I've not been able to play it.  Please keep us up to date on how your campaign works out.

First session last night! Just 2.5 hours, with next in a fortnight. The heroes met at the Sour Vintage. Artemis the Centaur flirted with the hunter Taneias, and was doing well until she gave a very horsey whinny. Next dawn they headed out to face the Great Boar. They first encounter was with four thugs menacing a young shepherdess Jenesis & her aged father Rastus. The heroes and their allies (Kyrah the Bard and the hunters Taneias & Javon) killed or drove off the thugs, rescued the shepherds, then headed on into the hills. They found the boar's cave but retreated from the foul stench, camping overnight with alarm snares, which alerted them to the boar's approach in the cold light of dawn. The party offloaded massive attacks on the boar, but though horribly wounded it would not die, until the nymph Aster used magic to send it into magical slumber. Artemis then cut off its head, which spoke to them of fell prophecies. Kyrah revealed to Taneias that he had been fated to die to the boar that day - somehow he had cheated Fate. Was Fate after all not immutable? Aster then took Kyrah the Bard aside for a little chat.... The group then debated which god to sacrifice the boar to, Aster proposed the goddess Kyrah, but Artemis held out for the Mother Goddess Thylea herself, which won the day. After a feast of boar meat and receiving the blessing of Thylea, the heroes then headed for the Oracle's Grotto to learn of their destiny.

OOC the players were absolutely raving about the campaign, the Epic Paths, the whole feel of it. The three fifths of them not sick or exhausted were pretty well delirious with joy. If your group likes more in-depth roleplaying and dramatics this is pretty well the ideal campaign from what I've seen so far. Two of my players (Jack/Aster and Claire/Elpis) are professional actors, and a third (Jelly/Artemis) is much more into the dramatics than the tactical side, but even the more tactical players seemed to really enjoy it. I got one comment how Odyssey's writing, art & production values really made the WoTC campaign hardbacks look pathetic by comparison.

Updated campaign page https://simonsodysseyofthedragonlords.blogspot.com/2021/08/odyssey-of-dragonlords-5e.html with the six heroes - Claire (Elpis) was filming and couldn't make session one. Jack (Aster) did a session account, which I'll publish once it's typed up.

Session account posted https://simonsodysseyofthedragonlords.blogspot.com/2021/09/