RISUS HEROIC GREECE
©2002, Guy Hoyle
Revised 5/9/2002
The myths of ancient Greece speak of heroes, gods, and monsters,
of mighty quests and tragic fates. It differs from standard fantasy in many
ways,yet much of it has found its way into our books, our movies, even our RPGs.
Fans of the popular "Hercules" and "Xena" TV
series will find much that they recognize here, but many of my interpretations
of various mythological characters will be based more on the myths themselves.
However, "maximum game fun" is my goal, so don't look for a dry, scholastic
dissertation, either.
To use this page you’ll need a copy of Risus: the Anything RPG , (copyright 1993-2001) by S. John Ross. Note: I've often
included variations on the cliches presented below. These can be used as synonyms
for the cliches, although sometimes they might suggest something a little bit
different.
HEROES
Most heroes have a divine patron or parent, and have earned thedispleasure
of some god or another because of the circumstances of his conception (Hera
despises the issue of Zeus' infidelities, for example), something they've done
(such as stealing some god's sacred cattle, or cuckolding them), or something
they didn't do (omitting an important sacrfice, especially if you promised one).
- Lover of Battle:
Slay monster, hew limbs, bash heads, clean
gore off your armor, avenge insults to your honor, have divine patron or parentVariations: Wild Spear-Fighter, Spear-Famed WarriorKing:
Look regal, find compromise, keep factions
happy, rally followers, sense mood of followers, instill pride, find weakness
in argument, negotiateVariations: Leader of Men, Shepherd of the PeopleStalwart Charioteer
: Keep chariot upright, give advice, avoid obstacles, keep chariot out of
danger, repair chariot, get hero to physician, bring back word of the hero’s
deathVariations:
- Sacker of Cities: Besiege city, rally warriors, survive battle,maintain
morale, command authoritatively, break enemy line, recognize valor
Variations: Leader of Battles
Note:
Agamemnon should have had more of this. - Athlete: Flex muscles, oil body, compete for prizes
Variations: Rock-fisted Boxer, Ungrabbable
Wrestler, High-vaulting Bull-leaper, Fleet-footed Runner, Long-armed Javelin-thrower - Godlike
Warrior: Give no quarter, rage against foe, destroy shield,
terrify opponent, delight in slaughter
- Cattle
Raider: Sneak past patrols, quiet cattle, liberate heard,
know lots of rope tricks
- Far-Shooting
Archer: Hit distant target, be calm and steady, keep
people from playing with your bows, make more arrows, object when people say
that archers are cowards
- Child of
a God: Call on Mom or dad for favors, have funky power
(see Signature Abilities, below)
- Antlike
Myrmidons: Fight in formation, work well with your fellow
Myrmidons, obey orders absolutely
- Horse-riding
Amazons: Fight as well as a man (or better),
shoot from horseback, live off the land
COMMON FIGHTERS
These men fight for reasons other than glory: duty to their lord,
personal gain, etc.
- Freeborn
Soldier: Obey superiors, complain about food, stand watch,
complain about superiors, gamble and drink and wench whenever possible
- Gold-Greedy
Pirate: Sail the seas, attack ships, demand ransoms,
climb the rigging, say things like "sink me fer a lubber" and "shiver
me timbers"
- Bandits: ambush passers-by, live off the land, retreat
when overmatched
CRAFTS, PROFESSIONS, CALLINGS
These vocations are primarily practiced by those of non-heroic stature,
but many heroes practice them as well at home or on campaign.
- Pragmatic
Priest: butcher animal, interpret sacrifice, perform
ritual, perform marriage
Variation: Doom-shouting Priest, Devious Manipulative Priest - Blood-Spattered
Chirurgeon: ignore
screams, amputate maimed limb, cauterize stump, stitch wound, tell them "this
won't hurt a bit", bind ribs, splint broken bones
- Gossipy
Midwife: tell old wives’ tales, spot pregnancy, treat
infertility, prescribe contraceptive, terminate pregnancy, tend mother-to-be,
deliver child, save mother
- Doting
Herdsman: keep
herd safe, watch out for predators, run after animal, tend sick animal, butcher
animal, stay awake
- Hard-Working
Farmer: manage farm, plow fields, lift heavy burdens, talk about
crops, complain about weather, fix things
- Fisherman: go fish,
keep quiet, make traps, make nets, swim, know the waters, boating
- Honorless
Thief: skulk
about, slink warily, wait for opportunity, pilfer swag, pocket valuables
Variations: Adorable Street
Urchin - Wide-Faring
Poet: compose
poem, enrapture audiences, sing and play lyre, be welcome anywhere
- Low-Born
Entertainer: entertain audience, sense mood of audience, have
casual fling
Variations: Somber Lyre-player, Slender-waisted Dancer, Sweet-throated
Singer, High-vaulting Acrobat - Craftsman: make things, appraise things, fi d stuff to make things out of
Variations: Meticulous Woodworker,
Finger-stained Leatherworker, Clay-daubed Potter, Wealthy Goldsmith - Broad-Shouldered
Metalsmith: make
things out of bronze, ignore burns,flex muscles impressively, evaluate metal
- Clever-Handed
Engineer: build palace, drain swamp, build fortifications,
build the occasional mechanical bull or strap-on wings
- Swift-Stalking
Hunter: live in the wild, stalk prey, wait patiently,
know nature lore, wise in the chase
- Sun-Darkened
Sailor: man oars, set sail, follow the coastline,know
landmarks, gossip and swear, keep a weather eye out, be superstitious, keep
a girl in every port
- Wing-Worded
Herald: Memorize messages, walk long distances, travel
under the protection of the gods
- Labor-Weary
Slave: bear heavy burden, live on scraps, ignore pain,
go without sleep, work until you drop, endure mistreatment
- Far-Roving
Trader: Evaluate oods, drive hard bargain, protect goods,
organize trading expedition, communicate with stranger
- Battle-Hardened
Medic: Bandage injury, splint broken bone, carry patient,
scream piercingly, dodge attacker, survive battle
- Unwashed
Beggar: Tell sad story, beg for scraps, flatter patron,
show old wound, do amusing trick, swallow pride, sleep anywhere
- Dutiful
Wife: Do chores, run household, prepare meals, welcome
guests, raise children, keep household gods happy
- Grape-Stained
Vintner: Grows grapes, make wine, shake off hangover
- Sleep-Wary
Sentinel: Challenge newcomers, defend wall, remain at post, withstand
pain, go without sleep, stand fast, light beacon, sound alarm
DRAMATIC ROLES
These aren't occupations or nationalities or races, but they're
roles that come up frequently in Greek mythology.
- Calm-browed
Peacemaker: End feud, forge alliance, put down weapons, see
both sides, calm passions, find compromise
- Favored
by Aphrodite: Be mysteriously attractive, caress passionately,
perform under duress, demonstrate ardor, endear with a glance, stay awake,
run from enraged spouse, jump out window
- Wise
Friend: Boost confidence, resolve argument, prevent anger,
sting pride, lift friend's burden, lighten heart
- Steadfast
Companion: Fight to the death for friend, stand loyal, watch
friend's back, avenge friend's honor, talk sense
- Trustworthy
Counsellor: Be impartial, cite precedent, know unseen factors,
sense dissent, find weakness in argument, talk for hours, know traditions,
find compromise, memorize, speak with authority
- Princess Chained to a Rock: Have parents that tick off the gods, get chained to a rock waiting for
a monster to eat you, marry the hero who rescues you, slays the monster, and
kills your parents.
- Wicked King: be paranoid of mysterious visitors, arrange
to have mysterious visitors killed, try and circumvent prophecy that you'll
be killed by a mysterious strangerget killed by mysterious stranger
RACES
There aren’t any elves, dwarves, or orcs in
the myths of the Greeks, but there were plenty of non-human intelligent beings.
- Lustful
Satyrs: Have the legs of a goat, be horny all the time,
try to seduce anything female, shy away from confrontation, play panic song,
play frolicsome tune
Note: Satyrs are always male. - Woman-Stealing
Centaurs: Be part-human/part horse, get rowdy when you
drink wine, be an archer
Note: Centaurs are always male. - Wild-Haired
Wood Nymphs: Live in forest, make friends with forest animals,
know home territory, disdain cities, move easily through forest, etc.
Note: Nymphs are always female.
Different Types of Wood Nymphs:
- Alseids: Sacred groves in the midst of the forest
- Meliads: Ash Trees in particular, but not bound to one
single tree like Hamadryads
- Hamadryads: Live as long as your tree does, protect and
avenge your tree, merge with your tree
- Deep-Dwelling Water Nymphs: Live in river/ocean, speak to fish, know home territory, disdain cities,
swim quickly, breathe in air and water equally well, etc.,
Note: Nymphs are always female.
- Naiads: clear springs and freshwater brooks, often the
daughter of a river-god
- Nereids: live in grottoes and near shore, attend court
of Poseidon.
SIGNATURE ABILITIES
Many heroes have a special ability or quality that marks
them as unique. These abilities are often the result of being the child of
a god, or an object of the god’s special interest. Take the “Child of a God”
cliché above and choose a “signature ability” like the ones below to go with
it (or make up one of your own). Generally, you should only have one signature
ability or a very closely related set of signature abilities (e.g., a special
way with horses: communicating with horses, calling horses to you, a special
healing touch with horses).
- Godlike
speed (run really fast, run over special surfaces e.g. over water, up a wall,
over a field of grain, over the tops of trees, on the wind)
- Godlike
strength (divert rivers, grab boulders, punch out horses)
- Godlike
vitality (spend the night with the 50 daughters of a king)
- Godlike
beauty (be adored by the opposite sex/envied by the same sex)
- Godlike
agility (dodge arrows, leap over chariots)
- Godlike
cunning (think of ways to get an army into a city, think of places to hide
loot in plain sight)
- Battle
frenzy (ignore wounds, fight to the death, inspire terror, face insurmountable
odds)
- Wing-footed
(have wings on your feet or back)
- Weather-wise
(predict weather, read weather-omens)
- Keen-eyed as
Lynceos (notice things too small or distant for others to see, see ghosts)
- Sharp-eared
(Hear words spoken upwind, hear soft or distant sounds, eavesdrop)
- Shapechanger
(any animal, certain types of animals, one animal
only)
- Understand
the speech of animals (all animals, one kind of animal only)
- Diviner (read
entrails, examine livers, interpret dreams)
- Sneaky as Autolycus
(change appearance of stolen objects, fabricate truth)
- Vigilant
as Argus (never sleep on duty, see clearly at night)
- Impenetrable
skin (except for a single vulnerable spot)
- Immortality
(cannot be killed even from a mortal wound, though that may not be much fun)
- Function
normally underwater
- Inflict
blindness (temporarily or permanently)
- Evil
eye (cause illness or misfortune to befall the object of envy or jealousy)
- Prophetic
trance
- Scrying
in a pool of water, a mirror, a pond, etc.
- Great
strength or size when standing barefooted on the unpaved ground
- Invisible
in one type of environment or circumstances (the dark, the deep woods, the
sea, etc.)
- Inflict
emotions (love, hate, disgust, etc.)
- A
non-verbal mental connection to a special person or creature (your twin, a
favored animal, your mother, etc.) The other person knows when you’re badly
hurt, in terrible trouble, dead, and so forth. The bond can be one-way or
two-way..
COMBINING CLICHES
Most of the cliches above can be combined easily. You
can have Cattle-raiding Amazons, a Rock-fisted Sacker of Cities, a Wise Spear-famed
Friend, a Silent-stalking Hunting Nymph, a Wing-footed Centaur Favored by Aphrodite,
a Horse-taming Wife, or any combination agreeable to you and the gamemaster.
TRAITS
These are not cliches in themselves, but may be used in conjunction with them,
e.g.Ssilver-Tongued Counselor, Huge and Mighty Warrior, etc.
- Physical: Mighty-thewed,
strong-limbed, tough, stalwart, Herculean, vigorous, robust, brawny, well-built,
muscular, huge and mighty, of the great war-cry, powerful, tall
- Mental:Clever,
wily, cunning, smart, wise, crafty, resourceful, sly, scheming
- Appearance: Favored by Aphrodite, cow-eyed (F), fair-cheeked (F), white-armed (F),
godlike, fair-haired, flowing-haired
- Behavior: Brutal, reckless, overconfidant, generous, noble, fearless, valiant, proud,
just, great-hearted, eyer of young girls
- Famous: Much-praised, justly famed, renowned, illustrious
- Wealthy: rich in substance
- Eloquence: wing-worded, silver-tongued
SORCERY
(Women only)
Sorceresses are women with divine blood in their ancestry, which enables them
to work magic, often using magic herbs and other substances, words of power,
and special equipment.
Unlike the magicians of most fantasy games, they do not teleport,
cast fireballs or lightning bolts, fly (though they can change into a bird or
summon a flock of them up), visit other planes of existence (except via an entrance
to the Underworld), or become insubstantial. Invisibility is something that
only the gods possess, though sometimes they place it upon an object for use
by mortals. Spells often take some preparation time to cast properly.
Here are some things you might want to provide in your magical ceremony. (It
adds to the atmosphere of the game and it might entertain the gamemaster.) Generally
speaking, the more powerful the spell is, the longer it will take; the more
props and ceremonies you use, the easier it will be to cast.
- A
lead tablet, inscribed with the name of the victim, what was supposed to happen
to them, the names of appropriate (or even inappropriate or foreign) gods
or powerful magicians. The tablet is folded and put where the powers of the
underworld can find it, buried in the grave of someone who died untimely or
down a well. Sometimes a scrap of the victim’s clothing or some of their hair
or a wax doll labeled with their name is folded up inside the tablet.
- Magical
herbs served in food.
- A
wax doll, as above, with hair or clothing scraps attached, pierced with nails
in the portion of the body the spell is supposed to affect.
- An
engraved gem, useful for protective amulets and talismans.
- Names
of powerful magicians and gods (especially foreign gods)
- Special
times (midnight, dawn, twilight, when the moon is full, when the moon is new,
a sacred day for a god, at a solstice or equinox, an anniversary, a holiday)
- Special
places (graveyards, the home of the person you want to cast the spell on,
sacred places, groves, caves, waterfalls, pools, the crest of a hill, the
peak of a mountain)
- Magical
instruments (flutes, drums, chimes, pipes, lyres) and dancing
- An
animal to sacrifice
- Hand
gestures (thumb between forefinger and midfinger, forefinger and midfinger
placed on either side of the nose), facial expressions (the "gorgon face"), etc.
Here are some examples of spells you might be able to cast. The
list is not complete, but it might provide you with a sense of the style of
magic employed.
- Restoring and
causing injuries, illness, blindness
- Casting illusions
(they seem real, but disbelieving them doesn’t make them go away)
- Scrying
(using a mirror, a pool of water, a pond, etc.)
- The
Evil Eye (causing illness or misfortune to the object of your envy or jealousy)
- Protection
from injury on the battlefield or when traveling, malicious sorcery and ghosts
- Illusions,
causing places to seem bright and cheery or cold and gloomy, causing unseen
musicians to play
- Sharpening
or dulling the senses
- Influencing
emotions, particularly love and hate
- Keeping
people from speaking against you
- Taking
the form and abilities of an animal
- Call
nearby creatures to you
- Communicate
with animals or those who don’t speak your language
- Fertility
of people, beasts, and crops
- Calling
forth spirits of the dead, awakening corpses, and banishing the same
HOOKS
There are plenty of great hooks in the Greek myths. Some are fairly
common, while others are rather rare. Here are some ideas you can use when developing
flaws and backstories.
- Most
heroes tended to die on the battlefield or through accident or treachery rather
than old age. Older kings tended to settle down and leave the wars to the
young.
- Passions
tended to run high against the highly competitive warrior-nobles, so you often
hear of them killing someone in a fit of anger. Quite often this would be
a father or a brother, and would lead to exile.
- Quite often, one of the gods is
sufficiently peeved at a character to make his life difficult. Hera did this
to several of Zeus’ illegitimate offspring as well as his paramours. Poseidon
raised storms and sent sea-monsters off the people who committed offenses
against him. Ares tended to aid the enemies of the hero he hated, and hampered
the blows he struck in combat. Aphrodite would interfere in a character’s
love life, perhaps getting him involved in a disastrous affair, breaking up
his marriage, or any number of other disastrous affairs of the heart. Dionysus
can send maenads and forest creatures after victims to drive them mad or tear
them to pieces, or make the crops fail and seduce their women. Most of the
gods don’t want the offending heroes to die, they want them to suffer. Don’t
tick off Apollo or Artemis, though.
- Many
heroes are impulsive, acting without considering the consequences of their
actions (for example, Paris’ abduction of Helen of Troy, Jason’s rashly vowing
to retrieve the Golden Fleece, Odysseus’ revealing his true name to Odysseus).
Stubbornness, lecehery, and jealousy are also common.
- Heroes
often travel incognito, sometimes disguised as a beggar. Since there are no
inns or hostels in Achaea, In spite of Zeus’ command that houseguests are
sacred, there’s a distressing tendency for kings to feel threatened by any
mystery guests in their households, and thus making an attempt to have them
secretly bumped off.
THE GODS
Many times a character will want to contact
a god to ask for help or a favor. Priests can try and contact a god during
a sacrifice. The children of the gods can also appeal to their divine parents,
who might answer if they happen to be looking in on their children. Listed
below are the Gods and some areas they are usually interested in.
- Zeus : weather, sky, lightning, thunder, lightning, protecting
fugitives, oracles
- Hera: women, childbirth
- Apollo: archery, healing, shepherds, music, athletics,
prophecy, plagues
- Artemis: hunting, forests, she-bears, the moon, childbirth
- Ares: uncontrolled war, fear, terror
- Athena:
wisdom, cunning, intelligent warfare, many crafts
- Aphrodite: all aspects of love
- Hephaistos: Metalcraft, beneficial fires, craftsmanship, volcanoes
- Hestia: Hearth, the home
- Hermes: flocks, travelers, profit, gambling, eloquence, thieves, traders, conducting
the dead to the underworld
- Dionysus: wine, vegetation, pleasure, frenzy, madness
- Poseidon: the sea, seafarers, earthquakes, horses
- Demeter:
fertility, growing things
- Helios:
the sun, sight
- Selene:
the moon
- Eos:
The dawn
- Eros:
Capricious love
- Eilythyia:
Childbirth
- Leto:
Darkness and nature, mother of Apollo and Artemis
- Mnemosyne:
Memory
- Nemesis:
Revenge
- Hades: The underworld
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