Book design: Pros: Decent artwork; sturdy-looking binding; familiar format for d20 books (races, skills/feats, magic, monsters in the same general order as other sourcebooks) Cons: Lack of an index; lack of a detailed table of contents listing the major subtopics like races/ethnicities and character classes; lack of rules cheat-sheets for GMs
[My first review, so please comment on the format of my writing as well. Wanted to give the overall pros/cons up front in case people didn't care to read further. I will also attempt to highlight what I found to be interesting or different from d20 D&D, but cannot say for certain whether the ideas might not have been borrowed from other game systems.]
While I would consider myself an enthusiast of western/Eurasian classic myths, I am not an historical buff so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the historical data provided by this book. So as far as a fairly avid d20 player (most of the games I am currently in use this system), and for players with casual knowledge of Greek and Egyptian myths, I think this game is a good source for ideas if not campaigns. You can either play a mythological game with medusae, divine bloodlines and magic, or else a historical game (philosophies would confer different benefits). This book is fun to flip through, and has a lot of good ideas. I'm definitely interested in running a game using this book, and not just pilfering ideas out of it for another fantasy setting.
Content: As far as the d20 rules themselves, the writers have put thought into how they convey the information and summaries of the rules. They didn't pedantically walk through the basics of rpgs, and they try to clarify issues that might even trip up some d20 players (for example, they point out in the skills section that the larger initial number of skill points are only granted at the first _character_ level, not class level if you are multiclassing).
All characters are human in this setting, so variations come from social classes and different countries. Slaves of course have the most difficulty on all fronts, but should be rewarded the most if properly role-played. Nubians get bonuses to strength and will saves, but are penalized for wearing armor, while Phonecians get bonuses to seafaring skills and trading. Since the ancient setting was sexist, female characters are somewhat limited, although fighters would most likely be amazons and spellcasters would be witches. Additionally, Greek characters can choose divine lineage, which grant stat bonii and a choice of other favors (amazing beauty, legendary accuracy, invulnerability) while incurring the wrath of an opposing god, and a major disadvantage (like the tendency to strike friends by "accident", or bad luck that lowers the saving throws of all "allies" within 30' but not yourself). The divine lineage is a great concept and the penalties will make party interaction hilarious for the GM.
The new classes are also varied and appropriate, and non-combat characters (aristocrats, artificers, courtesans, sages, seers and witches) get armor class bonuses for learning to stay out of combat. Aristocrats get resources, slaves and authority; artificers can invent incredible items; courtesans are a female bard-variant -- they have bonuses to get info from and beguile men, get bonuses to aid people, and because of their "extensive" knowledge of male anatomy, eventually get additional damage strikes and assassin death attacks. Egyptian and Greek priests can request miracles, are literate, can cast spells, and have various class skills based on their deity. Noble warriors get troups as well as feats, while simple warriors get the ability to fight in formations (synergy) and can eventually get troops. Sages have access to the same knowledge bases as bards, but also gain extra feats that boost saves or other stats as a trade off to the bards' ability to inspire/charm. Seers learn to speak with animals or living things, augur for divine help, and can pronounce doom on others that effectively make the accursed fail their first roll when the pronouncement comes to pass. Witches are spellcasters, but differ from priests in that they can use herbs to reduce the hit point cost of spells.
New skills include debate; presence (to intimidate or gain attention while orating); rhetoric (converting the great unwashed); and solving conundrums (very important to mythology). Many of the new feats revolve around working (or rather attacking) in a group (imagine, teamwork being suggested in an rpg!) Teamwork is also encouraged in the magic system, as alluded to below.
One innovation to combat is the active defense roll: wearing armor or knowing evasion comprises the basic armor class, or passive defense. Characters also get a chance to use such armor to block damage, and so can roll an active defense check when the attacker beats their armor class (fighters will obviously have better luck at this). While this sounds "realistic" and advantageous to PCs, I can see that it will slow combat down a bit and might get frustrating as well when dealing with very skillful foes. Additionally, they suggest a "grevious wound" threshold: if any one blow deals more damage than your strength and constitution scores, this wound will not heal properly without serious medical attention. And with subtopics such as scars and cauterization (including 'cauterization on an unwilling patient'), you know combat is not something to be entered into on a whim.
As D&D magic was not part of the Greco-Egyptian mythology, this book "accurately" incorporates this fundamental change to their magic system. Kind of like the Deadlands game, priests (both Greek and Egyptian) as well as witches get a number of divine miracles in addition to spellcasting. The difficulty of requesting additional miracles per day increases exponentially, as the gods do have better things to do (like curse mortals or produce demi-offspring). Priests and witches can cast any spell at any level, but the game introduces the concept of imposing additional penalties on characters who have never cast the spell before -- they might understand the fundamentals of what to do and what the result should be, but it's not the same as experiencing it. Some spells damage the caster, and only witches can substitute herbs for hit points. Also, more powerful spells have higher difficulty checks, which makes it nigh impossible for low level characters to cast them on their own since the d20 system limits how high a character's skill can be at lower levels. Which leads to another great concept of synergistic spellcasting -- witches are better able to cast spells in groups of three, as opposed to the priests.
The gods are heavily involved in a mythological setting. You must choose a god and then follow their tenets, or else suffer their wrath (extra fun for the GM). Not all gods are omniscient however, so there is a chance you can do something without the gods notice. Atonement ideas are fairly well detailed. Additionally, the concept of divine favor allows PCs to favorably affect die rolls or situations, and PCs gain more points by seeking divine recognition. Devoting the accomplishment of a task to your god, being watched by both the god and the public, and then succeeding at it might give you extra divine favor points. However, it must be something your god would appreciate, and the other key factor is succeeding at it (getting everyone to watch you, only to fail miserably after invoking your god's name will not gain points with anyone).
Mythology is not the only way to play this game, however. If you want to play an historical game, one can subscribe to philosophies instead of divinities, and can gain particular benefits (skeptics get extra points for sense motive checks for example). Additionally, the book mentions certain ethnicities as being available for play or not depending on when the game is set, since some countries were unfortunately wiped out at one time or another. As mentioned before, I cannot comment on the veracity of the timeline introduced for major Greek, Egyptian and Phonecian events, but I think it gives enough of a big picture to start a campaign with; doubtlessly people choosing the historical setting will all have more detailed knowledge themselves anyway.
Layout: I am imposing heavy penalties on the book (average score) for its lack of an index (a cardinal sin in my mind) and lack of a detailed table of contents. In the age of word processors, you don't need a muse to compile either of these to make things easier on readers. Additionally, to get a game going quickly, there should be a few pages in the back that summarize the rules for the GM to copy and attach to his screen. Especially when there are a fair number of innovative concepts introduced here; it should be treated as a stand-alone rulebook rather than just a supplement to the D&D core books. Art is more of a relative "eye of the beholder" thing in my opinion; as an open-minded art major I found most of the work inside to be pleasant and not unattractive. Maybe not divinely-inspired, but hey. Use of the Greco-Roman chiseled type font was subtle and not overly-used, which I liked. The pages have general topic listings along the side (ancient skills, equipment, combat, etc.) to help you navigate through it. An attractive book overall, and worth adding to your library.
All in all, I'm definitely recommending this book, and look forward to introducing it to my gaming group. The game mechanics should challenge many players by encouraging teamwork, providing more opportunities for non-combat charactesr, and by making combat a lot more dangerous than a regular fantasy world with readily available healing magic and resurrection spells. Using the mythological setting gives the GM a lot of fun opportunities to toy with PCs, and blame it on the gods.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
