[Scenario seeds} Adapting Myth: The Iliad and The Odyssey

[soultaker666212]

Whilst reading the Fourth Doctor Sourcebook I was reading in the Underworld section and it mentioned the idea of using other mythological stories inside of a more futuristic setting, then it did strike me why not use the Iliad and The Odyssey as good adventures. Both stores feature many different characters each with a unique personality and backstory that feature in major events and big battles. Doctor Who has done the Trojan War all the way back in the 60s but the idea is to adapt The Trojan War and Odysseus' Odyssey into a space setting. If we had to start it start right at the backstory of the Trojan war and change things to fit the player characters around within it, have them become intertwined within the events before the Trojan War leading to their participation within the war itself in its many space battles and ground battles that occur, only to then end up on not-Odysseus' ship to get back to his home planet but end up aiding him from various threats. You could start it at different points and leave it there, the idea i suggested above would be for a full campaign that could last years if handled well, but could just be adapted to take place at various stages of the entire Trojan War and Aftermath. I would love to work on this and hear ideas! Some ideas include Troy being a planet, the Gods being powerful aliens meddling with the events of the war, campsites could be space stations/spaceships etc.

[Catsmate]

Jul 23, 2022 23:15:06 GMT soultaker666212 said:

Whilst reading the Fourth Doctor Sourcebook I was reading in the Underworld section and it mentioned the idea of using other mythological stories inside of a more futuristic setting, then it did strike me why not use the Iliad and The Odyssey as good adventures. Both stores feature many different characters each with a unique personality and backstory that feature in major events and big battles. Doctor Who has done the Trojan War all the way back in the 60s but the idea is to adapt The Trojan War and Odysseus' Odyssey into a space setting. If we had to start it start right at the backstory of the Trojan war and change things to fit the player characters around within it, have them become intertwined within the events before the Trojan War leading to their participation within the war itself in its many space battles and ground battles that occur, only to then end up on not-Odysseus' ship to get back to his home planet but end up aiding him from various threats. You could start it at different points and leave it there, the idea i suggested above would be for a full campaign that could last years if handled well, but could just be adapted to take place at various stages of the entire Trojan War and Aftermath. I would love to work on this and hear ideas! Some ideas include Troy being a planet, the Gods being powerful aliens meddling with the events of the war, campsites could be space stations/spaceships etc.

My first thought was:

Ulysses, Ulysses,
soaring through all the galaxies,
in search of Earth,
flying in to the night.

Ulysses, Ulysses,
fighting evil and tyranny,
with all his power,
and with all of his might.

but I do realise that not everyone shares my somewhat obsessive interests.....

For those not familiar with Ulysses_31 it was a French/Japanese animated series from 1981 that used an dated form of the Greek mythology of Odysseus/Ulysses to a thirty-first century star-faring setting.

The plot line of the series describes the struggles of Ulysses and his crew against the divine entities that rule the universe, the ancient gods from Greek mythology. The Gods of Olympus are angered when Ulysses, commander of the giant spaceship Odyssey, kills the giant Cyclops to save a group of enslaved children, including his son. Zeus sentences Ulysses to travel the universe with his crew frozen until he finds the Kingdom of Hades, at which point his crew will be revived and he will be able to return to Earth. Along the way they encounter numerous other famous figures from Greek mythology who have been given a futuristic twist.

It's a good starting point for such a campaign.     The full intro is available here.
God-like alien powers (perhaps the Players?). And maybe Ulysses' crew were afflicted by a nano-tech infection that has rendered them insensible.
Don't forget to stat Ulysses' three Gadgets; the flight belt, force shield and sword/pistol.

If you wanted to start with the Trojan war, them maybe the setting has a number of small powers, who ally together to fight the threat of Space!Troy, with the "kidnapping" of Space!Helen as a pretext for the alliance's attack (which probably has an entirely different motivation in reality). Perhaps Space!Troy was so well fortified that an infiltration gambit was the only way for the Space!Greeks to win. A bit like the scheme in Theatre of War.
Are the Greek Gods actually god-like beings? Or merely others powers meddling in matters, and forcing Ulysses to flee.

ETA: some of the character and background from Resnick's Oracle/Soothsayer/Prophet trilogy might fit in to such a setting, the background of the all powerful 'Democracy', the Inner and Outer Frontiers, the Rim and the Spiral Arms. Perhaps Penelope Bailey is Space!Troy's Cassandra?
Blend in characters from the series, like the Gravedancer, the Silicon Kid, the Iceman, the Annointed One and his cult, Faraway Jones, the Whistler, Friday Nellie, Jamal the master thief, Bet-a-World Murphy, Backbreaker Ben Ami, the Marquis of Queensbury, the White Knight, Sally the Blade, the Forever Kid, Catastrophe Baker, the Pearl of Maracaibo, Father Christmas, the One-Armed Bandit the Earth Mother, Lizard Malloy, and Cemetery Smith.

[soultaker666212]

Hmm interesting I am familiar with Ulysses 31 though not too familiar but have heard of it. I was thinking though for the space Greeks they could be The Galactic Federation as seen in the Peladon stories. The idea being that the Galactic Federation is made up of smaller powers uniting in order to fight this greater threat being the equivalent of space troy due to the kidnapping of space Helen which could have been an important Federation diplomat who is said to have been the most beautiful women in the entire Galaxy. If space Troy is so well fortified I could see it being more of a space station or asteroid base that contains various powerful weaponry meaning the infiltration missions.

[soultaker666212]

Using Galactic Federation might work out good if we assume the other faction being well the Trojans as Galaxy 5 the faction that seemed to be at war with The Galactic Federation by the time of Monster of Peladon, this space Troy space station could be their HQ.

[grinch]

Polyphemus the Cyclops could probably remain unchanged. Just substitute his island for an isolated alien planet or asteroid.

While the Land of the Lotus Eaters could also remain the same. With the lotuses which induce a soporific state perhaps only being found on this one planet in the universe? Maybe it also serves a prison planet or dumping ground for criminals and other undesirables. With the lotus being the only food source the prisoners have, it keeps them from trying to escape.

[Catsmate]

Oct 16, 2022 15:10:24 GMT grinch said:

Polyphemus the Cyclops could probably remain unchanged. Just substitute his island for an isolated alien planet or asteroid.

While the Land of the Lotus Eaters could also remain the same. With the lotuses which induce a soporific state perhaps only being found on this one planet in the universe? Maybe it also serves a prison planet or dumping ground for criminals and other undesirables. With the lotus being the only food source the prisoners have, it keeps them from trying to escape.

I do like the idea of adapting the Iliad/Odyssey into some form of campaign quest. Time to go over the source and give it some thought.
Perhaps the Argonauts might be another addition? Either as a base source or referred to during the quest as a previous attempt (as Homer does in the Odyssey).
Which, of course, brings me to The Argonaut Affair, one of Hawke's Time Wars books that featured several groups of time travellers, Hercules, Theseus, Orpheus and the usual Greeks, a giant robot and intersecting parallel universes.

[soultaker666212]

Oct 16, 2022 15:10:24 GMT grinch said:

Polyphemus the Cyclops could probably remain unchanged. Just substitute his island for an isolated alien planet or asteroid.

While the Land of the Lotus Eaters could also remain the same. With the lotuses which induce a soporific state perhaps only being found on this one planet in the universe? Maybe it also serves a prison planet or dumping ground for criminals and other undesirables. With the lotus being the only food source the prisoners have, it keeps them from trying to escape.

I like these ideas! One of my ideas was also to substitute the sirens with satellites that play their song but perhaps something else is lurking to kill them off.

[olegrand]

I've just read an old pulp short story by Edmond Hamilton, which included some fascinating (if undeveloped) variant ideas on the Minotaur of Crete story - including the concept of Minotaurs (plural) as an army of bio-engineered man-beasts and Daedalus' Labyrinth as a maze extending in four dimensions, acting as a time portal...

[soultaker666212]

Oct 20, 2022 4:30:54 GMT olegrand said:

I've just read an old pulp short story by Edmond Hamilton, which included some fascinating (if undeveloped) variant ideas on the Minotaur of Crete story - including the concept of Minotaurs (plural) as an army of bio-engineered man-beasts and Daedalus' Labyrinth as a maze extending in four dimensions, acting as a time portal...

Yes that works too! Perhaps even connect it to the Minotaur in The God Complex and argue that the Labyrinth is actually a spaceship buried under Crete once owned by Daedalus and Icarus.

[Catsmate]

Oct 20, 2022 4:30:54 GMT olegrand said:

I've just read an old pulp short story by Edmond Hamilton, which included some fascinating (if undeveloped) variant ideas on the Minotaur of Crete story - including the concept of Minotaurs (plural) as an army of bio-engineered man-beasts and Daedalus' Labyrinth as a maze extending in four dimensions, acting as a time portal...

Was that story 'Priestess of the Labyrinth'?

[olegrand]

Oct 20, 2022 11:12:57 GMT Catsmate said:

Was that story 'Priestess of the Labyrinth'?

Absolutely!

[Catsmate]

Oct 20, 2022 11:43:58 GMT olegrand said:

Oct 20, 2022 11:12:57 GMT Catsmate said:

Was that story 'Priestess of the Labyrinth'?

Absolutely!

Thanks for the suggestion, I've gotten a copy.

[grinch]

Oct 19, 2022 15:56:52 GMT soultaker666212 said:

Oct 16, 2022 15:10:24 GMT grinch said:

Polyphemus the Cyclops could probably remain unchanged. Just substitute his island for an isolated alien planet or asteroid.

While the Land of the Lotus Eaters could also remain the same. With the lotuses which induce a soporific state perhaps only being found on this one planet in the universe? Maybe it also serves a prison planet or dumping ground for criminals and other undesirables. With the lotus being the only food source the prisoners have, it keeps them from trying to escape.

I like these ideas! One of my ideas was also to substitute the sirens with satellites that play their song but perhaps something else is lurking to kill them off.

You might not even need a predator to pick off travellers.

The group of satellites could be damaged and emitting a frequency which causes visual and auditory hallucinations in the minds of all those starfarers who are unfortunate enough to hear it. Most spaceship crews usually end up killing each other or themselves after spending long enough in this region of space.

[grinch]

When it comes to the Sorceress Circe, I think you could include the likes of the Rani or possibly even adapt the events of ‘The Time Witch’ and use Brimo?

tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Doctor_Who_and_the_Time_Witch_(comic_story)