A gritty old-school revival SRD5 Tabletop RPG based on Ancient Greek Mythology & the Homeric world of the Trojan War
With new rules & concepts
THE GAME
DESIGNED ON
OGL-SRD5
While maintaining the familiar core of the SRD5 rules we have created new mechanics that enhance and support a gritty, osr-style game in a world of Homeric Mythology
NEW CHARACTER
CLASSES
Faithful to the sources, the mythology and the historical period, we have created unique and original character classes that sometimes blur the lines of what is typically found in most swords & sorcery role-playing games. The characters are rich in flavour and role-playing hooks, but also armed with original abilities and powers.
NEW GAME
MECHANICS
& SPELLS
Aiming to reflect the intense relationship between mortals and Gods and the unique flavour of magic in the Greek cosmos, spells have been re-worked, magic has been tweaked and new rules have been introduced, which bring to life the realities of Greek, Egyptian and Chaldean sorcery and worship.
HUMAN PLAYER
CHARACTERS
Following Greek Mythology and the Homeric tradition our heroes are strictly human. This reflects humanity’s place in the Greek cosmos, and the unique relationship Greeks have with their gods. Humans differ from the world’s other inhabitants in their mortality and their dependence on the favour of the gods. Whereas the land provides for the old races of previous Ages, humanity has to toil the land, sow and harvest, tend the flocks and build high walls in order to have food, shelter and safety. Moreover, humans need to constantly offer sacrifices in order to maintain divine favour. Stepping beyond these enclosures of humanity is crossing the threshold from the normal into the supernatural, from safety into peril, from the mundane into the heroic.
THE HEROIC AGE OF
THE TROJAN WAR
The storyline of the game combines the timeless aspects of the Greek mythological heritage with the heroic legacy of the Trojan War. This is an epic world of magic, journeys to the Underworld, conflicts, and challenges by the Gods and Fate, where every adventurer aspires to attain Heroic status.
THE WORLD
Welcome to the Land of Myth!
Land of Myth: Age of PalacesTM is a fantasy role-playing game set in Mythological Ancient Greece. It is a game setting based on Homer’s great epics (the Iliad and the Odyssey) which take place during Hesiod’s ‘Age of Heroes’. All the great heroes and events that you are familiar with from Greek Mythology (heroes like Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, Achilles, Diomedes, Jason or Bellerophon, who participated in legendary exploits, such as the Argonautic Expedition, the Calydonian Boar Hunt, the War of Thebes and the Trojan War) all come from this unique Age of Heroes.
Throughout our game we have striven to maintain the original flavour of Homeric Greece and to create an epic gaming environment that will bring Homer’s world to life. Our aim has been to remain faithful to Ancient Greek mythology and cosmology in all aspects of the game: character classes; magic, spells and magical artefacts; the weapons, armours and equipment; the environment and the monsters. As a result, even though the world is full of mythical beings, peoples and beasts, there are no elves, dwarves or halflings, neither goblins or orcs, nor many of the typical swords-and-sorcery monster.
Following the tradition of the great stories and quests of the Greeks, the heroes of our game are strictly human. This also reflects the special place humanity holds in the Greek cosmos, and the unique relationship Greeks have with their gods. Throughout Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus meets numerous peoples (e.g. the Cyclopes, the Laestrygones, or the Lotus-Eaters) but none worship the gods, nor do they offer sacrifices to them – one of the key features of human civilization. Humans are different from the other inhabitants of the world in many ways, but most importantly in their mortality and their dependence on the favour of the gods. All the other races come from the previous Ages and their relationship with the gods and the land is very different. The do not need to struggle to survive, because the land provides for them.
This is a world created by the Titan god Cronus, father of Zeus, during the Golden Age. It is a world created for the children of the gods, a garden for the immortals, a world indifferent to the plight of mortal men and women, who struggle to survive. Humans have to toil and fight against an aggressive environment in order to carve out small havens of human civilization. Unlike the other peoples and creatures of the previous Ages (Golden, Silver & Bronze) humans have to toil the land, sow and harvest, tend the flocks and build high walls in order to have food, shelter and safety. Human civilization is defined by agriculture, making wine and eating bread, walled cities, and perhaps most importantly, by the offering of sacrifices. Anyone who steps out of the enclosures of human communities is crossing the thresholds from the normal into the supernatural, from safety into peril, from the mundane into the heroic.
This enchanted and supernatural land is the Wilderness. The Wilderness is both a physical space of flourishing nature, home to countless beings and monsters, as well as a living, sentient organism with the explicit purpose of expanding, growing and providing for it’s inhabitants. The Wilderness is everything: the forests, the desert dunes, the icy tundras, the remotest mountains, and any environment that has remained wild and beyond the influence of human civilization. As a general rule, where human influence ends (typically at the furthest edges of rural settlements and farmlands) that is where the Wilderness begins. However, since the Wilderness is a living organism, it has an innate tendency to reclaim any areas it has lost. Even though it is not necessarily hostile, it is certainly unforgiving and perpetually expansive. This creates a constant tension on the borderlands, where the Wilderness is trying to recover its lands and humans must fight to maintain their farmlands and their settlements.
In a world of intrigue, war and constant struggles against natural and supernatural forces, the heroes leave the safety of their cities and villages in search great adventures. As the player characters progress in the game they gain Glory, which is valued more than anything else in the Age of Palaces, and by serving the gods they also earn Divine Favour. This way the player characters are paving the way to achieving true Heroic status. Becoming a renowned hero, one acknowledged even by the gods, is the ultimate goal of every adventurer in the Land of Myth.
WHO WE ARE
Seven Thebes is a new start-up company dedicated to the development of role-playing games and board games with mythological and historical themes. We are a small team who love gaming and are committed to developing high quality, original games. We conduct historical research to create worlds and games that retain the original flavour of the sources, but are also fun and epic to play.
Our company is named after the Ancient Greek tragic play Seven Against Thebes, by the poet Aeschylus, which relates the events of the War of Thebes, the first of the two great wars of the Age of Heroes (the other being the Trojan War).
