Saturday Night Roleplay took a sharp turn into unexpected territory when, not quite knowing what to prep, I decided to consult the group. At the end of the session, we had agreed to a new Bronze Age low-fantasy game set in a Greek-inspired realm with monsters to hunt. I’ve got a whole load of prep to do but, by Jove, it’s exciting!

As is usual for me, I had the name “Dykene” stuck in my head when I awoke on Sunday morning. If memory serves, it may be a location in the “Griffin Mountain” campaign for RuneQuest from back in the day. But it sounds suitably Greek and Bronze Age enough to be useable. If I’m right, I might even grab out the old book and see if the map is useful.

We’re going to power this with GURPS and it seems that a half-way position has been agreed in terms of methodology. Players will have character sheets to reference but we’re going to emphasise the descriptive “fiction-first” approach at the table and seek to reduce rules-talk. I think we’ll try using the Foundry VTT so that players have access to sheets and a dice roller.

We’re keen to include a deeply spiritual and pre-scientific mindset in our characters, drawing inspirations from animistic and early cultic religious practices. I think a big inspiration is the sort of stuff that RuneQuest did well, with detailed cults and nature spirits, but set within our own flavour of fantasy.

Overall, this is another new beginning. I’m mining an old setting from back in 2012 for some ideas too – Heroic Mykenaea which was originally played using Rolemaster. It’s weird but somehow all my past interests are being drawn together into a new game. I’m curious to see what emerges.

Game on!