Just got the Olympians

[Dr. MID-Nite]

I thought the writeups were a tad on the underpowered side. What did others think of this module? How would you toughen up the characters within....or would you?

Rob

[Hermit]

I think I'd diversify them a little. They seemed a bit... lacking, in breadth of ability as well as power.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Yeah, I kind of thought the same thing myself. One thing I disliked was having Aphrodite's seduction power through a focus. I'd remove the focus and let her affect both sexes.(She can shape change after all.). I'd probably re do the Olympian package deal, which was WAY too expensive for what it did.

Rob

[Agent X]

They were under-powered all right - and boringly constructed. I probably would just start from scratch before using that as inspiration. Heracles/Hercules should have a higher strength!

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Yeah...pretty bland...I'm thinking 600-800 points each for the lesser gods and goddesses and 1000+ for the majors(Hades, Zeus, Poseidon). I know they were all around this much in the module, but, as you said, poorly constructed. And given what I'ved seen in 5th editon, you better believe the top tier gods are going to be tougher(or at least as tough as) the likes of Dark Seraph.

Rob

[Agent X]

I would go ahead and put Herc up there among the majors. He is such a popular figure in Classical Myth and he is explained as having ascended from Demi-god Status to God Status with his death.

Some of my quibbles:
Don't forget to give him oratory and some professional skills in poetry and music (and a high intelligence). Also, he was a great archer. I would give him archer-fu martial arts and a multipower that requires a bow he doesn't actually have in his possession. He also would have a psych lim against using the bow because of the tragedy he associates with it. However, a mind-controlled Herc might just pick up his bow. The Nemean Lion Hide is really a neat artifact but it also looks silly when worn. Since he ascended he might be tough enough to leave it behind. He has strength enough to match a titan and that has to be considerable and this was before he ascended. I would put him up there at least with Gargantua who is the biggest guy in CKC with a strength of 100.

Philosopher
Poet
Athlete
Wrestler
Probably Pankrationist
Warrior
Archer
Public Speaker
Clever Conversationalist
Berserker

[Crimson Arrow]

I couldn't agree more about the Olympians being bland. When I wanted to create characters with ties to the Greek gods, I dug out this supplement, scanned it for 5 minutes, realised that most of the points on almost every character had gone on the package deal and put it back.

I think that some of the 4th Ed. stuff tended to "cookie cutter" characters. This largely died out towards the second half of the 4th Ed. supplements run, although it got replaced with "let's make almost every character much more powerful than a starting hero".

In both cases this is a bit of an exaggeration; some of the earlier supplements were great (3D, Kingdom of Champions, Champions of the North) and some of the later ones had some reasonably balanced characters (can't recall any specific supplements off the top of my head - I read the earlier ones more often and in greater detail).

[djday38]

I wonder how soon we will get a supplement for the new CU that covers a race of gods/hidden immortal race.

I have seen on other threads a book called (I think off the top of my head) "Hidden Lands" which will cover races such as the Empyreans and the Lemurians.

These races are I think the CU version of gods, i see them as a New gods/ Eternals/Olympians mixture which could be really fun.

I don't know how many characters a book like that would cover, but anything has got to be better than the 4th edition Olympians supplement.


rgds
Dean

[Klytus]

I agree that the write-ups are a tad on the dull side - but at least they are a solid inspiration for the kinds of powers and abilities the gods should have. I mean, Zeus' Thunderbolts [7d6 RKA] are nothing to sneeze at!

[Tech]

Originally posted by Klytus
I agree that the write-ups are a tad on the dull side - but at least they are a solid inspiration for the kinds of powers and abilities the gods should have. I mean, Zeus' Thunderbolts [7d6 RKA] are nothing to sneeze at!

Unless I'm mistaken, don't forget about his 15d6 AP EB.

[Lord Liaden]

What I enjoyed most about The Olympians was the descriptions of the personalities of the various gods, and their activities in the modern world: Aphrodite becoming a supermodel, Ares forming a mercenary supervillain team, Dionysus hitting the international party scene, Zeus disguising himself as famous movie stars to seduce women, etc.

OTOH, I agree that the gods are underpowered considering that the book specifies that gods in comic-books are typically among the more powerful characters running around. Particularly annoying was that the writeups for several of the gods did not allow for abilities that they display in the myths, including ones that Olympians cites in their writeups - Transform, Growth, Shrinking, Summon, etc.

I found that the easiest fix to the characters in that book was to give them each a Variable Power Pool. Besides filling in all the powers that the mythic gods should have, a VPP could also add Active Points to the abilities that are already in the gods' writeups.

BTW Dr. MID-Nite, there are versions of the myths of Aphrodite that do attribute her particular power to control men (beyond her physical charms) to the magical Cestus created for her by Hephaestus. YMMV as to which version you prefer, of course.

BTW2, Conquerors, Killers and Crooks has writeups for a couple of Chinese gods which you can use for comparison purposes; likewise the major Demon Lords in the Bestiary.

[Klytus]

As far as the under-powered thing goes, IIRC, it said that the Olympians were far below their normal power levels because they had just broken back through to the mortal plane. This leaves plenty of room for them to grow back to their "normal" power levels.

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Klytus
As far as the under-powered thing goes, IIRC, it said that the Olympians were far below their normal power levels because they had just broken back through to the mortal plane. This leaves plenty of room for them to grow back to their "normal" power levels. Could have given us the real stats and a the list of powers weakened

[BlackCobra]

I rather liked the supplement, but did find that most of them didn't fare too well in my 500-pt multidimensional campaign (as I'm sure you can imagine).

However, having said that, and for those of you with the book, picture Hades with the Thunderbolts backed up by Aphrodite. They gave my hellishly high-powered superheroes a run for their money.

[Enforcer84]

Ive taken a whack at them. Although it might be sacriligeous, I loved Palladium Games "Pantheons of the Megaverse" Suppliment. The idea of a "Fake" Olympian pantheon appealed to me and I ended up using a rather epic Millenia spanning "War of the Gods" storyline for a campaign that never got off the drawing board. I have posted Vulcan somewhere on the list but alas he and Hercules are the only ones I have written up.