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In the beginning, mankind was great and noble and beautiful. And arrogant. In their arrogance they turned their backs on the gods, causing the gods to wage war against mankind. Seeing the near extinction of the human race, Athena petitioned some of her fellow gods to save a handful of people from Zeus’ wrath. Transported to a new Garden (the term for world in DoH), humanity began to worship the Greek gods once more, and with their new faith and attractive women Zeus’ anger cooled. And so the gods spoke through the Oracle, teaching the Athenians the secrets of space travel, energy weaponry, and so forth. Most importantly, the Oracle spoke of other worlds filled with barbarians that didn’t possess the gods’ blessings due to their lack of faith. The Athenians excitedly set forth on a series of conquests, claiming Garden after Garden until they met the Sakalids. The Sakalids are men, like the Athenians, but they possess a level of culture and technology the Athenians hadn’t faced before. No mere barbarians they. After a long and brutal war, a peace of sorts was established between the Athenians and the Sakalids. It’s unsteady at times, but currently holding. And that’s the history characters know in a nutshell.
But who are the characters? There are essentially three “races” in DoH. The first are the Athenians, strong and attractive humans, from the most advanced culture and possessing an emphasis on physical perfection. Next up the various “barbarians”, cultures that differ from the quasi-Greek Athenians and lack the Athenian technological advantages; the barbarians are presented more as mixtures and variations on real world ethnic groups than simple parodies or “X in space”. Finally we have the Logician, a sub-race of Athenian stock which possesses intellectual abilities on a savant-like level at the cost of being unable to easily relate to non-Logicians. Since this is Savage Worlds, numerous new Edges and Hindrances are provided to create characters in the setting. The majority either allows players to tweak Logician characters down certain paths (e.g. Logician martial artists, who use tie their Fighting Skill to Smarts rather than Agility), create characters that are specialists in Athenian cultural pursuits or combat styles, but a few are useful to games outside of DoH. Rules are also provided for formation fighting, and invoking the gods for favors (and why you should keep your end of any pleading offers made to the deities).
One of the high points for me was probably the history and brief descriptions of the various barbarian civilizations. This is very much a setting where “aliens” are literally nothing more than people who are different from you, and DoH does a pretty good job at giving some basic (if perhaps a bit thin) descriptions of numerous barbarians and their ways. Athenian culture and worlds are also given attention as well, although more details on the various planets and how they differed would have been nice.
In the GM section we learn what’s really going on. I don’t want to spoil anything except to say that the truth reminded me of a blend of Lesser Shades of Evil and Eclipse Phase, which was really exciting for me since I enjoy both of those games. I was also disappointed since the truth really doesn’t get any attention outside of about two and a half pages, and is ignored to make way for more “mundane” stuff about Athenians and their civilization. Make no mistake: this is a game about (essentially) normal people and their heroics, not transhuman gods or post human collectives or the like. In fact, despite being part of the Suzerain setting, the gods have very little to do with things. I imagine that’s partly due to the Suzerain’s gods being very “hands off” in general, but in part I think it was to emphasize the human aspect of the setting as much as possible.
Like most Savage Worlds settings DoH comes complete with a point-plot campaign and several (in this case 20) Savage Tales. To be honest, the campaign was pretty good. Long, complex, with lots of twists and turns and escalation, it’s a good blend of social interactions, politics, intrigue, and good old violence. It’s not perfect, drifting into weird places at times (which I won’t spoil, and admit I may have missed something) and like many Savage Worlds campaigns, it’s hard to escape the plot once it really gets moving. But players who enjoy the setting shouldn’t mind. The Savage Tales are decent as well and fleshed out a bit more than other settings have done. One thing I was impressed with however was that this was possibly the first time I can recall seeing the mass combat rules actually used; it really fits the setting, and adds a nice touch.
Of course it’s not a Greek setting unless there are monsters, and DoH contains stats for Cyclopes, Minotaurs, Centaurs, Harpies, and one or two others back in the Savage Tales section. Since DoH is a game about humans, they are quite rare and encountering these creatures is meant to be an epic deal. As such, they’re all Wild Cards, meaning that a pack of Minotaurs could be very challenging indeed! Sample generic, and specific, NPCs along with stats are also included, ranging from King Telemachos of Athena to generic common citizens. Sample barbarians for many of the listed barbarian tribes are also included, which helps to mechanically distinguish one barbarian from another, and is much appreciated.
Finishing up the book are some gorgeous and detailed full-color maps of the galaxy, Athens, and various other locations. I wish the flow from Athenian to Sakalid space was a bit clearer, I think I can tell by looking where the two meet but I’m not sure, and it would have been handy for some notes as to which map goes with what adventure. Having said that though, the maps really are gorgeous and would probably be useful to players in the setting regardless of these quibbles.
For those who haven’t figured it out yet, Dogs of Hades is essentially “the novel Dune, but with Greeks and without references to Middle Eastern Oil”. The game isn’t about aliens, gods, or magical items, even though it has all of them to various degrees. It’s not about space ships or laser guns, although it has them as well. Instead it’s about larger than life heroes and their adventures, both militarily and socially. It serves as a good homage to both Dune and ancient Greek literature, and it does a pretty good job at it.
Style: Assuming we start with an average of 3, I’ll give DoH a low 4. The art really isn’t all that great, except for the lovely maps. The best pieces are depictions of people that strike me as “generic Greek-themed art”, while the more relevant pieces that show technology or hoplites aren’t as good but aren’t terrible. And there are some weird photo-drawing hybrids that are just bad, where real faces are plastered on drawn bodies and then photoshoped into a noticeably seamed-whole. Or at least that’s how it looks. The writing however is really good; witty when it needs to be, serious otherwise, and well-edited! I’ve seen a lot of books lately with more authors and editors and such attached that don’t turn out half as well. Layout is fine, and attractive, done in the same style as Savage Suzerain.
Substance: I’ll give this one a solid 4. There’s a good deal of information about Athenian culture, diet, and so on. There are also some really good adventures and an impressive campaign included. I wish more information was given on the Sakalid, since they’re the dominant “alien” threat of the setting, but GMs can gather some by reading between the lines here and there in the book. One thing it does fail at though is in connecting itself to the larger Suzerain setting. While both share the same Greek pantheon (I assume anyway), there’s only a sidebar with some setting specific Telesma Edges. That’s it, nothing else. It feels like the author approached the Suzerain folks with an idea, and they just slapped a Suzerain label on it and did the art.
Who Should Get This: I’ll be blunt: if you want a human centric sci-fi game about Greeks in space, DoH is better than Hellas. It is “Dune with Greeks” to Hellas’ “Star Wars with Greeks”. I can’t say it is hard sci-fi or historically accurate or anything, but the feel is much more… mundane, and some people may appreciate that. Also, the adventures are pretty good, and with some work could be adapted to serve as more generic fantasy Greek adventures.
Who Shouldn’t Get This: People looking to expand their Suzerain games will probably be disappointed, as will those who want hard sci-fi or historical accuracy (not that the book ever claims to strive for accuracy either culturally or scientifically). People who like more “fantasy” will also probably be disappointed; while there are monsters and gods and such, they’re secondary at most to the setting, and could probably be removed entirely if one wished.
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