Achilles and Ulysses

[Michael Hopcroft]

One could make a case that the first great fantasy writer of the Western tradition was Homer. Although his works were passed down originally by oral tradition (it's unclear whether writing existed as such in Homer's day, and in any event he couldn't have written anything down being blind) and Homer thought he was passing down religious history, but the stories of the siege of Troy and of Ulysses' prolonged efforts to come home from the war have inspired countless fantasists since.

 

Trojan War HERO has its own interesting features as a campaign setting. But the characters of Achilles and Ulysses present unique challenges in a writeup. Achilles is one of the first superheroes (or villains if you happened to be Trojan, but the victors write the history), a man who due to enchantment was invulnerable to all the weapons that existed at the time, except in one of his heels. He was finally felled when struck in that heel. Targeting a target as small as the heel is a challenge when you don't use Hit Location.

 

Then there's Ulysses. I don't quite recall what he did to tick off Zeus and Poseidon among other gods, but they evidently took great delight in torturing the guy with side quest after side quest on his way home to a Greece that wasn't exactly ready to welcome him with open arms. Eventually he was able to overcome all the obstacles placed in his path and reclaim his former position of political power, but none of his shipmates made it home. Being Hunted by the creators of the Universe must be worth a ton of points -- and he would have needed every single one of them!

[Alibear]

Re: Achilles and Ulysses

 

I suppose we have two roads to explore, to options to chose from: A real man, or a something more than that.

 

Well as we're talking legends here he could be written up as a more or less real person with no magical powers but just amazing in a fight.

 

Imagine he was just the greatest HTH combatant of the known world but a mundane man nonetheless. He takes on all comers and succumbs to infection or poison from an arrow strike to his heel.

 

After his death his reputation grows, the stories blossom with every telling he is stronger, faster and in a few generations he is a more than human, he is unkillable, he becomes the Son of a God. We write him up as a powerful hero but he is still in the Heroic range.

 

Or,

 

He really is a being with Godlike powers, we write him up using the superhero rules and he really can only be challenged by other heroic beings and vile monsters.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Achilles and Ulysses

 

One could make a case that the first great fantasy writer of the Western tradition was Homer. Although his works were passed down originally by oral tradition (it's unclear whether writing existed as such in Homer's day' date=' and in any event he couldn't have written anything down being blind) and Homer thought he was passing down religious history, but the stories of the siege of Troy and of Ulysses' prolonged efforts to come home from the war have inspired countless fantasists since.[/quote']

 

Note that there's no historical evidence that Homer was an actual person. Most scholars believe the name is an attribution for the ultimate synthesization of various tales into what we know today as the Iliad and the Odyssey.

 

Trojan War HERO has its own interesting features as a campaign setting. But the characters of Achilles and Ulysses present unique challenges in a writeup. Achilles is one of the first superheroes (or villains if you happened to be Trojan' date=' but the victors write the history), a man who due to enchantment was invulnerable to all the weapons that existed at the time, except in one of his heels. He was finally felled when struck in that heel. Targeting a target as small as the heel is a challenge when you don't use Hit Location.[/quote']

 

Our own John "Proditor" Ivicek Jr. wrote up Fifth Edition versions of Achilles and Heracles for Digital Hero #31. He provided "heroic" and "superheroic" power levels for each of them. The "high end" version of Achilles was offered on the Hero Games website as a free sample, and you can view that here: http://web.archive.org/web/20061116035428/www.herogames.com/digitalHero/Samples/dh31achilles.jsp

 

Then there's Ulysses. I don't quite recall what he did to tick off Zeus and Poseidon among other gods' date=' but they evidently took great delight in torturing the guy with side quest after side quest on his way home to a Greece that wasn't exactly ready to welcome him with open arms. Eventually he was able to overcome all the obstacles placed in his path and reclaim his former position of political power, but none of his shipmates made it home. Being Hunted by the creators of the Universe must be worth a ton of points -- and he would have needed every single one of them![/quote']

 

Ulysses/Odysseus' special Hunter was Poseidon, whom IMHO would be quite bad enough by himself. Do you recall the episode from the Odyssey when Ulysses blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus so he and his crew could escape him? Polyphemus was Poseidon's son.

[Starwolf]

Re: Achilles and Ulysses

 

An interesting match would be between Achilles and Lancelot, if they in fact existed. Two warriors trained in sword play that were never defeated in single HTH combat. Both were believed to have had some measure of divine protection from harm...

[Susano]

Re: Achilles and Ulysses

 

I suppose we have two roads to explore, to options to chose from: A real man, or a something more than that.

 

Well as we're talking legends here he could be written up as a more or less real person with no magical powers but just amazing in a fight.

 

Imagine he was just the greatest HTH combatant of the known world but a mundane man nonetheless. He takes on all comers and succumbs to infection or poison from an arrow strike to his heel.

 

After his death his reputation grows, the stories blossom with every telling he is stronger, faster and in a few generations he is a more than human, he is unkillable, he becomes the Son of a God. We write him up as a powerful hero but he is still in the Heroic range.

 

Or,

 

He really is a being with Godlike powers, we write him up using the superhero rules and he really can only be challenged by other heroic beings and vile monsters.

 

The film Troy goes with road number 1.

[Alibear]

Re: Achilles and Ulysses

 

It's what I would normally go with too but I sure would love to play in a world with real Heroes and sons of Gods that were actually real and had a power schtick. 250 point Supers would be so cool in a Greek mythology campaign.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Achilles and Ulysses

 

Aaron Allston's Mythic Greece source book for first edition Fantasy Hero and Rolemaster was designed to accomodate just that kind of campaign. These days you have to sleuth around the Internet to locate a copy, though.

 

OTOH the Fifth Edition setting book, The Atlantean Age, would handle this very well. It's not exactly mythic Greece but very deliberately evokes its style and flavor. It has actual divinely-sired demigods and world-shaking magic, and NPCs who can threaten any level of hero.

[Susano]

Re: Achilles and Ulysses

 

Aaron Allston's Mythic Greece source book for first edition Fantasy Hero and Rolemaster was designed to accomodate just that kind of campaign. These days you have to sleuth around the Internet to locate a copy' date=' though.[/quote']

 

You can't have my copy!!!