‘City Builder’ Platinum Edition Update #55: ‘Footsteps of Hercules’ Expanded & More!
In the Footsteps of Hercules is an 86-page system-free sourcebook devoted to a pilgrimage trail that can be used in conjunction with any fantasy role-playing game. This book describes the various sections of the trail and the prevailing terrain and conditions associated with them; how most pilgrims travel them; alternate ways some pilgrims choose to approach the trail overall or specific parts of it; the things they generally hope to accomplish along the way; and things they might encounter on it.
There are many ways this book can be used and enjoyed. One is to simply read it as a work of fantasy fiction inspired by the myths, legends, history, and geography of Greece. Another is to use it as inspiration or a model for pilgrimage trails in your own stories or role-playing game campaigns. Yet another is as a setting for roleplaying game adventures of various sorts.
In the Footsteps of Hercules is a fully-supported product and we have been developing a wide variety of support material for it, to include D&D 5E game content, fiction, and actual-play game sessions. We have created at d-Infinity Online game magazine a special In the Footsteps of Hercules Bonus Content page with links to all of this material and will regularly update it, so keep an eye on it for new additions.
This book was created as a specific example of a Pilgrimage Trail, one of the 85 general sorts of places that appear in Skirmisher Publishing's bestselling City Builder: A Guide to Designing Communities. As written, this trail is dedicated to the titular demigod and is set in a Dark Ages fantasy version of the Peloponnesian Peninsula of Greece and located within the company’s Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting. It can easily, however, be dedicated to any other appropriate deity or cause and dropped into virtually any other existing milieu and has deliberately been designed to be compatible with any of what Gary Gygax used to refer to as “a traditional fantasy campaign setting.”
Skirmisher Publishing is pleased to announce that we have once again expanded the In the Footsteps of Hercules companion book to City Builder! We have also added more D&D 5E game content and other material tying in with this title to the special In the Footsteps of Hercules Bonus Content page at d-Infinity Online game magazine.
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* We have made a number of additions, changes, and improvements to In the Footsteps of Hercules, to include increasing it in length from 44 to 54 pages; adding two new specific places, the winemaking Iraxte Monastery and the seaport city of Nafplion; adding a new custom image by fantasy artist Amanda Kahl; and adding an encounter area map by game cartographer William T. Thrasher for the Megalos Ellada farm. We very much hope that you will now enjoy it even more!
++ In the Footsteps of Hercules is a system-free sourcebook that is a specific example of a Pilgrimage Trail, one of the 85 general sorts of places that appear in City Builder, that can be used in conjunction with any fantasy role-playing game. It currently contains a detailed entry on the title pilgrimage trail and entries on nine other places, specific examples of a Bathhouse, Farm, Hospital, Monastery, Oracle, Port, Shrine, Stables, and Temple.
++ Moving ahead, we will be adding four more entries devoted to specific places; nearly a dozen more maps/floorplans by William T. Thrasher; and several more custom illustrations by Amanda Kahl. We estimate it will ultimately be as much as 100 pages in length.
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* In the Footsteps of Hercules is a fully-supported product and we have been developing a wide variety of support material for it, to include D&D 5E game content, fiction, and actual-play game sessions. We have created at d-Infinity Online game magazine a special In the Footsteps of Hercules Bonus Content page with links to all of this material and will regularly update it, so keep an eye on it for new additions.
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Thank you! We very much hope you are enjoying City Builder and In the Footsteps of Hercules. We would also love to hear about things in either book that you particularly like or find to be especially useful and how you draw upon them in the creation of your own settings, scenarios, and places. We also hope you will check out and take advantage of our biggest sale yet and know you will find some things you will love!