Age of Athena II

It is an age of chaos. The once mighty city-states of Greece have become isolated refuges, sanctuaries against the monsters and creatures and bandits and undead that roam beyond their walls, preying upon the weak and ravaging the land. In response, the people cry out for help and beseech the gods of Olympus. Yet only one of their number hears their cries and only a handful of men and women answers her appeal for heroes. She is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic war, handicraft, and the city, the daughter of Zeus who sprang from his head fully formed. They are the Demigods, born of divine and mortal parentage and so granted some of the gifts of the gods and they stand fast, ready to answer the hollering for help, the need to fight the legendary monsters of the age, to protect the innocent and the helpless, and to seek out adventure. This is the set-up for Warriors of Athena, a skirmish scale miniatures wargame from Osprey Games. Written by the designer of the highly regarded Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, it is a game in which a player creates a Warband, consisting of a Hero and several Companions, the number ranging between one and seven (depending upon the number of players, the more players, the fewer the number of Companions in a Warband), and takes them on quests set by Athena. What is notable about Warriors of Athena is that it is not designed to be adversarial, that is, one player or more players playing against each other as is traditional in miniature wargames. Instead, it can be played in one of four modes. First, it can be played in Solo mode against the game itself, with the player controlling his miniatures and the actions of the monsters and other threats as well as when random events taking place being determined by the rules. Second, it can be played co-operatively, with two or more players and their Heroes and Warbands working together to complete a quest. Third, it can be played with an Oracle. This is another player who will control the actions and movement of any threats as a referee. Fourth, the Oracle not only controls the actions and movement of any threats as normal, but also runs scenes in between which do not take place on the table of terrain where all the action happens. Instead, they are run in the theatre of the mind in the same way that a roleplaying game would be run. In the latter mode, Warriors of Athena develops one of the particular aspects of skirmish level miniatures wargaming, which is the strong identification that a player will develop with the members of his Warband. The Hero and his Companions will grow and change as result of their successfully fulfilling Quests and so will a player’s investment in them.

At the core of the game are two books, both needed to play. Warriors of Athena: Heroes gives the core rules for the game, including how to create a Warband consisting of the Hero and his Companions, running combats, and handling campaigns and rewards. Warriors of Athena: Quests explains how to create and run Quests, and provides a bestiary of threats and four ready-to-play multi-scenario campaigns.  In addition to the rules, a player requires miniatures, both to represent his Warband and monsters and creatures, some terrain and buildings such as temples, a pack of ordinary playing cards, a twenty-sided die, and a play area, roughly thirty inches square. Warriors of Athena can be played using any scale miniatures and miniatures from any manufacturer (though North Star Military Figures does manufacture a range of miniatures to support the rules). The introduction explains all of this and a bit more, gently pushing players to play the game with an Oracle to the full effect, whilst still acknowledging that playing Age of Athena as a straightforward wargame without the roleplaying element is perfectly fine too.

Each Quest follows the same format. This includes a summary that gives an overview and lays out what the Heroes are attempting to do, how many scenes there are, a list of the miniatures required and set-up needed, a short narrative passage to be read out by the Oracle, actions that the Heroes can take before the scenario starts, special rules involved, the Challenge Level that be adjusted to make the scenario more difficult, the rewards to be gained if the Heroes are successful, and a narrative in the epilogue if the Heroes are successful. There are also scenes that the Oracle can insert into the scenario to enhance the narrative elements of play. These are of course optional, much more like those in a roleplaying game, and do not actually require the miniatures. The special rules typically involve seeding the playing area with clue markers and then the possible results that can be drawn when a hero moves adjacent and can examine them.

The quests open with ‘The Golden Hives’, designed for beginning Heroes. It introduces them and their players to Athena when she asks the former to exact her revenge against a trio of murderous cyclops, who have killed their father and eaten the honey that would have been paid as tribute to the gods of Olympus. The Heroes will fight through a field of aggressive mythic bees and then face the trio of cyclops. If they find a bloodied stone axe in the first scenario, this can be carried over into the second and will give the hero wielding it an advantage against the cyclops as it was the one they used to kill their father. This adds a nice narrative element to the paythrough of ‘The Golden Hives’, but there is only a small chance of this happening. So, the Oracle might want to increase the chance of the Heroes finding the weapon to enhance the narrative—and if they want to carry on to the next scenarios, perhaps provide it with a permanent ability. If the Heroes fail the first time, the quest allows for a second attempt—as do the other quests—though the Heroes will only earn a limited amount of Experience Points.

In the second quest, ‘The Imprisoned Oceanid’, the Heroes are directed to rescue an Oceanid who has been kidnapped by an evil cult called the Sons of Poseidon. Over the course of three scenarios, the Heroes will fight their way up a steep cliff under a hail of arrows from the cult’s archers and into the flooding caves where is being kept prisoner. The Heroes discover a defiled and pillaged temple dedicated to their patron, Athena, in the third quest, ‘The Rampage’, and chase down the group of marauding centaurs and satyrs. The number of scenarios is increased from three to four and which of the centaur ringleaders appear in which scenario is randomly determined. Those that do not appear in the first three, will all appear in the fourth and final part. The Heroes will chase the marauders over rocky hills, encountering signs of their activity as they cut a swathe of bloody horror across the countryside, ultimately to face the sorceress they serve, deep in the forest, at night, at the witching hour. There a chance that Ares, the God of War, will be attracted to the series of running battles in this quest and the Heroes will have to fight him! The last quest, ‘Tartarus Unbound’, is designed for experienced Heroes. The number of scenarios increases to five and takes the Heroes to the city of Aketra, recently split asunder in anger by the god, Hades, because its king refused honour after the death of his wife. As the city burns, a dragon has slithered up out of the ground and hatched a clutch of eggs and if neither of these are destroyed, it does not bode well for the nearby cities. The Heroes have to fight their way into the city, across a narrow bridge, and through its burning ruins, facing undead along the way (including the king who rejected Hades), to finally face-off against a fire-breathing dragon across building divided by streets flowing with lava! It is a great climatic scene for the end battle and if they do manage to defeat the dragon, the Heroes will be truly worthy of that title.

The last third of Warriors of Athena: Quests consists of advice and content supporting the player (or Oracle) who wants to create his own Quests. This breaks down the elements of a quest and a scenario, examining them in turn in terms of design rather than play. In turn, it discusses the goal of the quest and its structure, scenarios and their structure, but it also talks about the role of recurring characters, how to create an event table, design skill and stat rolls, and more. For the group that wants them, it discusses how to design and create scenes too. The advice is good and worth reading through even if the players have experience of writing content for games like this. Certainly, it will help if they have experience with roleplaying games, but is not wholly necessary.

Mechanically, the support includes a bestiary that covers animals, uncivilised races, undead, gods and goddesses, and monsters. So, boars and bulls, Amazons and Satyrs, skeletal archers and champions, Apollo and Artemis, and Gorgons and Minotaurs. The bestiary includes a list of creature traits too. The book comes to a close with a reference sheet for use during play.

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Quests is much like Warriors of Athena: Heroes. It is an easy read, but there are relatively few shots of the game being played, that is, photographs of miniatures on the table, in the book, in comparison to normal artwork. That artwork is excellent though, often depicting scenes of action and combat that you would want to see enacted on the table. The four quests are well written and easy to understand.

Of course, Warriors of Athena: Quests is only half of Warriors of Athena, that half being the rules in Warriors of Athena: Heroes. If the latter tells you how to play, then Warriors of Athena: Quests shows you not only how to play, but also how to design what you play. Each of the four quests is a mini-campaign in itself, but they are intended to be played in order, the Heroes gaining in experience to face ever tougher foe and more challenging situations. This is more like a roleplaying game than a traditional wargame—even a skirmish one. Whilst the optional addition of scenes and narrative also make the wargame much more like a roleplaying game, even if they are ignored, Warriors of Athena still feels like a roleplaying game in its focus upon individual characters, their growth from scenario to scenario, and in the multi-part structure of the quests. In fact, it would actually be possible to run the quests in Warriors of Athena: Quests without the miniatures as the theatre of the mind of a roleplaying game. That though, is not the point of Warriors of Athena. The point of Warriors of Athena is to present a skirmish wargame with roleplaying elements set in an age of Greek myth and legend when the heroes can become great warriors and figures of the age, and this it does well with rules and content that support both styles of play—wargaming with roleplaying or roleplaying with wargaming.

—oOo—

Osprey Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

Age of Athena

It is an age of chaos. The once mighty city-states of Greece have become isolated refuges, sanctuaries against the monsters and creatures and bandits and undead that roam beyond their walls, preying upon the weak and ravaging the land. In response, the people cry out for help and beseech the gods of Olympus. Yet only one of their number hears their cries and only a handful of men and women answers her appeal for heroes. She is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic war, handicraft, and the city, the daughter of Zeus who sprang from his head fully formed. They are the Demigods, born of divine and mortal parentage and so granted some of the gifts of the gods and they stand fast, ready to answer the hollering for help, the need to fight the legendary monsters of the age, to protect the innocent and the helpless, and to seek out adventure. This is the set-up for Warriors of Athena, a skirmish scale miniatures wargame from Osprey Games. Written by the designer of the highly regarded Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, it is a game in which a player creates a Warband, consisting of a Hero and several Companions, the number ranging between one and seven (depending upon the number of players, the more players, the fewer the number of Companions in a Warband), and takes them on quests set by Athena. What is notable about Warriors of Athena is that it is not designed to be adversarial, that is, one player or more players playing against each other as is traditional in miniature wargames. Instead, it can be played in one of four modes. First, it can be played in Solo mode against the game itself, with the player controlling his miniatures and the actions of the monsters and other threats as well as when random events taking place being determined by the rules. Second, it can be played co-operatively, with two or more players and their Heroes and Warbands working together to complete a quest. Third, it can be played with an Oracle. This is another player who will control the actions and movement of any threats as a referee. Fourth, the Oracle not only controls the actions and movement of any threats as normal, but also runs scenes in between which do not take place on the table of terrain where all the action happens. Instead, they are run in the theatre of the mind in the same way that a roleplaying game would be run. In the latter mode, Warriors of Athena develops one of the particular aspects of skirmish level miniatures wargaming, which is the strong identification that a player will develop with the members of his Warband. The Hero and his Companions will grow and change as result of their successfully fulfilling Quests and so will a player’s investment in them.

At the core of the game are two books, both needed to play. Warriors of Athena: Heroes gives the core rules for the game, including how to create a Warband consisting of the Hero and his Companions, running combats, and handling campaigns and rewards. Warriors of Athena: Quests explains how to create and run Quests, and provides a bestiary of threats and four ready-to-play multi-scenario campaigns. In addition to the rules, a player requires miniatures, both to represent his Warband and monsters and creatures, some terrain and buildings such as temples, a pack of ordinary playing cards, a twenty-sided die, and a play area, roughly thirty inches square. Warriors of Athena can be played using any scale miniatures and miniatures from any manufacturer (though North Star Military Figures does manufacture a range of miniatures to support the rules). If a player is new to wargaming as a hobby, the advice on the set-up and play area might be a bit light, but an experienced player will have no problems.

A Hero has six stats—‘Move’, Fight’, ‘Shoot’, ‘Armour’, ‘Will’, and ‘Health’. He will also have a Parentage, which will determine who his divine parent is and what his Gifts are, as well as potential Weaknesses. Gifts can a Heroic Ability, such as ‘Call Curse’, ‘Limited Flight’, or ‘Lunge’, bonuses to Stats or skills, or a mixture of all three. A Weakness can be an Enemy, Madness, Inhuman Appearance, and so on. Many of the Gods provide multiple different Gifts and Weakness. In Co-operative mode, this means that different Heroes can be half-brothers and sisters as they share the same divine parent, but a different mortal parent means different Gifts. Given the philandering ways of many of the gods, this is perfectly in keeping with Greek myth. All Heroes start off with same values for their stats, a player increasing his Hero’s Fight or Shoot and Will or Health by one each. He then rolls on the ‘Hero Parentage Tables’ to determine his Parentage, Gifts, and possible Weaknesses. He selects another five Gifts (the option is given to roll for them and in-keeping with the setting, let fate decide) and then divides fifteen points between eight skills—Artistry, Athletics, Diplomacy, Hunt, Navigation, Perception, Strength, and Trickery. A player also has some Wealth with which to equip his Hero. Lastly, a Hero has a Fate Pool of Threads which lets his player to reroll any die roll. He starts with two Threads.

A player has a pool of Recruitment Points to spend on purchasing Companions to complete his Hero’s Warband. A Companion has the same Stats as a Hero, though their values will vary wildly. They include warriors such as Archers, Barbarians, and Slingers, other Companions like Hunters, Thieves, and Songmasters, members of uncivilized species such as Centaurs and Satyrs, and even animals like Boars, Raptors, and Weasels!* Not all of a Hero’s Companions are going to accompany him on a Quest, but a player is free to choose which ones he wants to accompany his Hero. This allows a player to build up a stable of Companions he can choose from each time his Hero undertakes a Quest.

* Sorry, but I just want to shout, “Go! Go! Battle-Weasel!”

Name: Dionysodoros
Parentage: Dionysus
Gifts: Burning Eyes, Deadeye, Command Undead, Backswing, Ironskin, Waterlung
Weaknesses: Beauty

STATS
Move 6 Fight +4 Shoot +1 Armour 9 Will +3 Health 19

SKILLS
Artistry +4 Athletics +4 Diplomacy +1 Hunt +1 Navigation +0 Perception +1 Strength +4 Trickery +0

Once a scenario has been set up—and Warriors of Athena: Quests covers that in more detail—a game is played as series of turns. A turn consists of four phases. These are the ‘Hero Phase’, the ‘Creature Phase’, the ‘Companion Phase’, and the ‘Event Phase’. When activated, a miniature can take two actions, a standard action and a simple action. A simple action typically involves movement, whilst standard actions include attacking and any other thing that a Hero might want to do when activated. There are no hard or fast rules on this. Stat or skill checks are made by rolling a twenty-sided die and adding the appropriate Stat or skill, the aim being to roll equal or exceed a given Target Number. A roll of a one is always a failure, whilst a roll of twenty is always a success.

Combat is handled as a series of opposed rolls. Both combatants roll the die and add their Fight Stats, plus any other bonuses, whether from magic, reach, and so on. The combatant who rolls the highest Combat Score is the winner. Damage modifiers, typically from weapons, are added to the winner’s Combat Score and the defender’s Armour value is deducted from it. The resulting value indicates how much damage is inflicted and deducted from the defender’s Health. Some weapons and monsters will multiply this value two or three times. The combat rules also allow for critical hits which do more damage, weapon reach, breaking weapons, and more. Ranged attacks work the same way, but use the Shoot Stat.

One important action that a Hero can do is to activate a Heroic Ability. Every Heroic Ability has a Utilisation score, which a player rolls against to activate the Heroic Ability. Successfully activating a Heroic Ability costs Strain, typically a single point, which is deducted from a Hero’s Health.

If Warriors of Athena is being played with an Oracle, then that player controls the actions of the evil creatures in the scenario. Otherwise, there is a simple chart for determining their actions, typically either to try to attack or move to a target point representing some kind of objective. The advantage of the solo and co-operative modes is that they are easy to set up and play, but the disadvantage is that the player or players will know what the scenario involves and who the enemy are. However, the advantage of playing with an Oracle is that the player or players have no idea what their Warbands are going to be facing. The other advantage is that if the players want to—and Warriors of Athena: Heroes makes it clear that it completely optional—the Oracle can run Scenes in which the players can roleplay their Heroes.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes also covers injury and death—Heroes can suffer permanent injuries, and Experience rewards gains for completing objectives within a scenario. These can apply to both Heroes and Companions, but in terms of Experience, progression and benefits accrue at a slower rate for Companions. During play, a Hero may be searching for and find various types of tokens. These are Food Tokens, Clue Tokens, and Treasure Tokens. Clue Tokens will help progress the scenario, but treasure Tokens allow for a roll for treasure at the end of the scenario. This will typically result in wealth, but magical items, including potions, talismans, arms, armour, and more can be found. Another way gaining a magical item, invariably a talisman of a god, is by making a sacrifice to the gods. Fans of Jason and the Argonauts will be pleased to find included is the Dragon’s Tooth, which can be thrown to the ground and sown to have a warrior grow on the spot!

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Heroes is cleanly and tidily presented. It is an easy read, and everything is well explained. There are surprisingly few shots of the game in play, that is, photographs of miniatures on the table, in the book, in comparison to normal artwork. That artwork is excellent though, often depicting scenes of action and combat that you would want to see enacted on the table.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes is only one half of Warriors of Athena, but the rules its presents are simple, fast-playing, and easy to understand. Its skirmish scale makes it all the more accessible, as does the fact that it draws upon the familiar Greek mythology. Its scale allows for greater investment in the adventures and successes and failures of a player’s Hero and his Warband, but also allows for the possibility of some roleplaying too with the addition of an Oracle. Warriors of Athena can be played a simple skirmish scale miniatures wargame, but with the presence of the Oracle, it becomes a wargame with light roleplaying elements or a very light roleplaying game with strong wargaming elements. Effectively, a roleplaying/war game hybrid.

Figures of Fantasy

Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters is an anthology of monsters and figures from myth, fantasy, and history, all presented for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by EN Publishing, it collects the ninety or so entries in the Mythological Figures column written by Mike Myler, which ran from March 2018 to April 2022. Within its pages, the reader will find gods from a variety of pantheons, creatures from numerous folklore traditions, characters from Shakespeare, heroes and villains from history, and figures from fiction and popular culture. Together, they and the format of the book draw on two older sources in roleplaying. One is the Deities & Demigods supplement to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, which presented a panoply of pantheons, including the gods and heroes of each. So, it is no surprise that James M. Ward, co-author of Deities & Demigods, provides the foreword to Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters. The other is Dragon magazine, which during its early years would publish adaptations of heroes and villains from myth, legend, and popular culture. Just Deities & Demigods and the articles in the pages of Dragon magazine, the entries in Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters are a mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar, from a range of cultures around the world.

Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters divides its entries in to two types—at least mechanically. All of the heroes and villains are designed as if they were Player Characters in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, including characters with multiple Levels in different Classes. For example, the Pirate Queen, Ching Shih, is a Fifth Level Bard, Seventh Level Rogue, and an Eighth Level Fighter, whilst Hercules is an Eighth Level Barbarian and an Eleventh level Fighter. Where possible, the builds for entries favour Feats that grants the characters greater abilities than a flat increase to an ability score would. For example, Robin Hood has the Superb Aim Feat rather than an increase to his Dexterity which would take it above eighteen. Many of the entries use the Warlord archetype, such as George Washington or the Pirate Queen, Ching Shih. This provides a range of Warlord Tactics and Tactical Manoeuvres with which to build the character. The detail of these and the Warlord archetype are given at the front of the book. The book also makes use of Classes from The Masterclass Codex: Sixteen New Character Classes For Your Fifth Edition Campaign. They include the Gunfighter for Billy the Kid, Fatebender for Harry Houdini, Tinkerer for Nikola Tesla, Savant for Sherlock Holmes, and Geomancer for Zhuang Zhou, but the Dungeon Master does not need access to The Masterclass Codex: Sixteen New Character Classes For Your Fifth Edition Campaign to use these characters in Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters.

The other type of entry in Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters are its monsters. They are designed as monsters and thus not designed to be playable, and all have their own fantastical abilities. For example, Baba Yaga has Agonising Cackle which racks that hear it with pain, Dracula has Misty Escape enabling him to transform and escape as a cloud of mist, and Dorian Gray has Regeneration, which grants him a massive bonus of thirty Hit Points at the start of his turn! In Dorian Gray’s case, the latter ability is granted by his Life-Catching Portrait that he famously keeps hidden in his attic. Many of the entries have artefacts and magical weapons and devices, and these too, are included in the write-ups, such as Excalibur for Arthur Pendragon, Baba Yaga’s Broom and Baba Yaga’s Chicken Hut for Baba Yaga, the Somnambulatory Brew and Transforming Wand for Circe, the Wings of Icarus for Daedalus, and so on. Some characters detailed in the book are known for being accompanied by their companions, so these too, are also included. Thus, Sancho Panza is included in the entry for Don Quixote and Doctor John Watson alongside Sherlock Holmes.

Most entries in Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters are given two pages, but some like Genghis Khan or Thor Odinson warrant four pages. Each includes a decent and description alongside the full stats and mechanical details. There are design notes included as necessary and a Background option.

So what of the individual entries in Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters? Well, the most modern historical figure is Harry Houdini, famous escapologist. The most modern monster—and most modern entry in the supplement—is the Mothman, the infamous furry flying cryptid found in West Virginia. Most the entries are of much older figures. Many are drawn from particular pantheons and mythologies. For example, Achilles, Antaeus, Cerberus, Circe, Daedalus, Hercules, Odysseus, and Perseus are all drawn from Greek Myth, whilst Fafnir and Fenrir, Loki, and Thor Odinson come from Greek Myth. Other come from specific stories, such as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza from Miguel de Cervantes’ novel of the same name or Caliban and Prospero from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Others have their own stories which they are drawn from, but together form another story. For example, Allan Quatermain, Dorian Gray, Dracula, The Invisible Man, Jekyll & Hyde, and Nemo all come from works by different authors, but together they lend themselves to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. There is also a lot that will be unfamiliar to readers. They include the aforementioned Pirate Queen, Ching Shih; Droṇa, the Indian warrior and guru who wielded Asi, the sword of Lord Vishnu; Hayreddin Barbarossa, the greatest naval commander of the Ottoman Empire; seventeenth century opera singer and duellist, Julie D’Aubigny; the hero Māui from the Pacific Islands; and Musō Gonnosuke, rival to Miyamoto Musashi, also detailed in the book. Such entries cast light on the unfamiliar and the unknown, entreating the reader to want to find out more.

There are some extras included too, such as the Nautilus for Nemo, the table of Master Alchemist’s Treasures for Jekyll & Hyde and the table of Viking Treasure Hoard for Harald Hardrada, the last Viking! There are also some odd shifts in tone between entries. Thus, the book switches from describing the Easter Bunny to detailing Elizabeth Báthory and from Santa Claus to Sherlock Holmes. This is due to the entries being originally published as columns, so the shift in tone would not have so readily apparent.

So how to use the content of Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters? The monsters are there, of course, the Player Characters to fight and confront, and in turn, for them to plot against the Player Characters. The characters are a mix of archetypes and classic roles, which the players can aspire to for their own characters. The characters can also be threats on their own, for example, the book suggesting an encounter with a time-travelling Billy the Kid, but as archetypes, they can be used as replacement Player Characters or NPCs. All the Dungeon Master need do is change the name. For example, need a peasant thief? Then Aladdin is a good choice. Or a folk hero who is good with a bow? Robin Hood is good for that. Of course, the anthology does not collect all of the entries published in the Mythological Figures column, so there may yet be scope for a second volume.

Physically, Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters is solidly presented and organised. The artwork varies in quality, most of it decent, but not necessarily great. Some entries feel brief, but in most cases, they serve as an introduction to the figure or monster detailed. Rounding out the book is a good index of its entries including their origins, and of their treasures too.

So what is missing from the pages of Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters? What might have been useful is a bibliography, but research is not difficult, so not as much a problem as it could have been. In terms of entries, there are a lot from Greek myth, especially in comparison to Norse myth, so more of the latter would have been welcome. If there is one figure missing from book, it is that of Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Professor James Moriarty.

Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters is a solid sourcebook of the familiar and the unfamiliar, of heroes and villains, of monsters and magical beings. It picks up and continues a grand tradition of presenting figures out of history, myth, and popular culture in way that they can be brought to the table to be fought, interacted with, learned from, emulated, and more, whilst also leaving the reader wanting to find out more about them.

Lost on the Gods

Published by Apollyon Press, LLC, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, On the Shoulders of Giants is a setting sourcebook for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying and other Old School Rennaisance retroclones. It presents an intriguing setting, four new Classes, associated spell-like abilities, a short bestiary of strange beasts, a location ready for adventure, and more, all illustrated by Scrap Princess, the artist whose artwork has graced the pages of other titles for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, most notably the Ennie Award winning Veins of the Earth and Deep Carbon Observatory.

The setting for On the Shoulders of Giants is not the body of one dead god, but twelve. In ages past, the twelve gods of the Greek pantheon—Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysius—warred against each other over the imperfections they saw in one another, and one by one they died at the hands of their fellow gods until only Apollo lived. In anguish at what he had wrought, Apollo stabbed himself in the heart, and he too, died. Their divine caracasses did not remain inviolate however, and from their bodies were born maggots and as these maggots feed upon the godly flesh, they first formed mannish faces, before transforming into men, each with behaviours and attitudes born of their source flesh.

In time these men learned to make their way on the bodies of these gods. They farm the maggots for food and crafting materials; they draw the gods’ blood from their giant veins and distil, filter, and separate into humours for use in draughts and potions; they extract bone marrow and harden it with fire to make arms and armour; they take god-flesh and smelt it into metal or grind it into a paste; and they seek out the organs of the gods for the untold riches they might hold—although the stomach is known to be home to daemons!

On the Shoulders of Giants offers four Classes—the Conspirator, the Corpse Worker, the Prize Fighter, and the Witchdoctor, each of them quite simple. At each Level, the Conspirator gains Planning Points which he can use in an adventure to modify the results of the twenty-sided die, roll twice for damage and take the best result, and reduce damage taken on a point for point basis. When a Planning Point is spent, the player has to explain what he did before the start of the adventure in order to prepare for such a situation. This is a nice and simple mechanic, allowing a player to add to the narrative. The Corpse Worker extracts vital memories, the four humours, and more from the bodies of the dead gods, supplying Witchdoctors with ingredients for their experiments and more. Corpse Workers are skilled in Climbing and Architecture as well as being hardier and having good Saving Throws.

Prize Fighters are bruising fighters and can withstand the Witchdoctor’s ability to graft limbs more easily than others, but they cannot take much in the way of punishment. Witchdoctors research and conduct Experiments using reagents and ingredients mined from the bodies of the gods. Some thirteen Experiments are described in On the Shoulders of Giants, for example, Bloodletting involves humours being sprinkled on an open vein to actually heal someone (though there is the chance it may inflict more damage); Pick Up the Scent requires the use a nose which will twitch in the direction of the intended quarry; and with Viscous Membrane, a phlegm-coated leather scrap can be turned into an impenetrable barrier for a few rounds. It should be made clear that Experiments are not spells, but rather vile tests and procedures using godly ingredients.

By default the only available Race in On the Shoulders of Giants is the Human-like men transformed from maggots born of bodies of dead gods. It is suggested that depending on what body a maggot was born from, certain residues might carry over and influence certain attitudes and behaviours. For example, someone born of Artemis would know great precision and accuracy, but have skin possessing a silvery sheen, whilst those born of Hera are loyal to a fault, but wrathful when betrayed. Oddly, there are no bonuses or penalties provided for these, especially when it would have been easy for the author to provide them. Indeed, the Game Master can easily create them himself. For example, a man born of Hermes, who values and takes great pride in physical prowess, might gain a +1 bonus to physical actions, but a -2 reaction towards anyone who does not.

A few monsters are detailed in On the Shoulders of Giants, such as the stomach-born acidic Daemons who slide out of the noses of the gods to offer binding contracts which exchange baubles and trinkets in return for men’s souls; Flesh-eaters are men who have been transformed into mindless husks after having consumed far too much god-flesh, but who can recover if allowed to gorge on adequate food for days and days—some cults force initiates to undergo this process to prove their devotion; and Sky Squids, tentacular creatures that will convey those who ride inside them to the body of another random god. This is in addition to a set of tables for creating random monsters. In terms of specific settings, the supplement describes ‘The Gray Pools’, an adventure outline. A Gray Pool is a site where a god’s brains have seeped to the surface through his shattered skull, the liquid having a variety of results when consumed, including psychic powers. An NPC or two who possess an interest in controlling such sites are also described as are some adventure ideas. Rounding out On the Shoulders of Giants are appendices providing a bibliography, conversion of the four Classes to The Black Hack, the Maggot Farmer as an NPC Class, and a table of names.

Physically, On the Shoulders of Giants is decently produced, a somewhat thin, if sturdy hardback. The writing is decent, but the artwork is fetchingly grimy and menacing.

Now the idea of adventurers plundering the body of dead gods is nothing new. After all, Malhavoc Press published a supplement devoted to it for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition in 2002, called Requiem for a God. But living on the gods and mining them is an interesting idea and suggests possibilities aplenty. Unfortunately, as intriguing a setting as presented in On the Shoulders of Giants actually is, the supplement fails to do two fundamental things. First, it fails to  answer some very basic questions. Who lives on the bodies of the twelve gods, what peoples, what towns, and so on? What do they do? Where are the bodies of the twelve gods located? How can outsiders get there—a possibility suggested in the text? What do adventurers—or the player characters—do on the bodies of the twelve gods? Second, it sets up some interesting facts and then utterly fails to support them. So if the Conspirator is the brains behind daring heists and organisations, then what heists and what is he stealing, and what organisations? Where does the Prize Fighter fight and what for? If some cults force feed initiates godflesh, what are these cults and what do they want? And more importantly, where is the rest of On the Shoulders of Giants with these answers?

As it stands, this supplement is incomplete or unfinished. Either way, as much as a setting based on the dead bodies of the Greek gods is rife with possibilities, On the Shoulders of Giants fails to flesh out its setting, leaving the Game Master to do the development work and answer some very basic questions that the author should have done. It is a book of ideas rather than the setting it should have been.