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.”