‘In the Footsteps of Hercules’ Bonus Content
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.”
This page is dedicated to bonus content tying in with Skirmisher Publishing’s bestselling In the Footsteps of Hercules, a system-free sourcebook devoted to a pilgrimage trail that can be used in conjunction with any fantasy role-playing games. This 66-page publication was written by author Michael O. Varhola, includes illustrations by fantasy artist Amanda Kahl and maps by RPG cartographer William T. Thrasher, and is available at the Skirmisher PDF Shop.
++Fiction & System-Free Content++
‘Footsteps of Hercules’/Peloponnese Encounter Table
‘The Most Lamentable Battle of the Nemean Baths’
++D&D 5E Content++
Megalos Ellada: Battling the Mares of Diomedes
Megalos Ellada: Stealing the Apples of the Hesperides
Megalos Ellada: Herding the Cattle of Geryon
Megalos Ellada: Riding the Bulls of Crete
++Actual-Play Game Sessions++
Venture to the Spring of Amymone
Interlude in Nafplion, Across the Wine-Dark Sea, Introduction to Crete
Dancing with the Bulls of Crete
In the Footsteps of Hercules was created as a specific example of a Pilgrimage Trail, one of the 85 general sorts of places that appear in Skirmisher Publishing's Adamantine-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 Greece and located within the company’s Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting.
Shown below are handout versions of three maps by William T. Thrasher, depicting places that appear in “In the Footsteps of Hercules,” the Sanctuary of Ares Stymphalus, the Baths of Nemea, and Megalos Ellada, a large farm near Olympia that has become a popular stop for pilgrims.
