D&D 3.5e in ancient Greece

I am thinking of doing a 3.5e game based on Greece in the 6th century BC. It will be slightly altered from actual history to allow for magic. I'll be looking for 5-6 players of standard races and classes and starting at first level. Please let me know here if you have any interest.

Being Greek myself, this caught my eye (no smartypants intervening, promise!) but I'll give it some time before applying. Already into a few games, don't wanna overwhelm myself or take spots from others (yet)

This sounds interesting! I'd be up for it.

My bad for posting this at the beginning of the weekend. I would like to keep some sense of history in the game. It's definitely pre-Roman times but certainly iron age rather than bronze age. Primary weapons are Kopis, Xiphos, Gastraphetes, Dory and Sarissa. Most armor is light (leather) because iron armor tends to be very heavy. Some people may wear bronze but that's an AC point less than book value. You can't put any credence on people who like to look like they're wealthy.

Once I see interest from a couple more people, I'll put the game up. I trust that you will enjoy your journey throughout the Mediterranean world.

Sounds fantastic...huge history buff. I'm in (if you'll have me).

Assuming by 'standard races' you mean standard to DnD? If so, curious how you'll handle this given that most of the have their roots in Germanic folklore rather than Greco-Roman, but still sounds really exciting.

As long as you promise not to try to take over the game all by yourself like I've seen from a couple of players on this site. lol You are welcome to join. I will be putting up the game in the next couple of days. And I will try to stay as close to history as I can.

(Already posted above!)

Looking forward to this, hope you'll have me. I'll disclaim that I'm kind of new to this, but I've watched quite a few dnd shows on YouTube so I get the general gist. Also, I previously participated in longer form play by post RP forums in the same general theme (fantasy). I also read the 3.5 handbook when I found this site.

Being new, I'm very conscious not to commit any faux-pas. No power-gaming, rule lawyering, taking over the game, etc...
Will also make sure that what I do is according to the rules so that you don't have to hand-hold me through stuff. :)

I've set up the game. It's called Ode on a Grecian Crate. There is a minor glitch in the game creation process that did not allow me to use the Custom character sheet option for some reason. In fact it didn't allow one cs, but two. I posted both 3.0/3.5 as well as Pathfinder. I may have to go in and fix something because the 3.5 character sheet does not exist. If you have any questions, you can ask them here or send me a pm.

Interesting, there used to be a 3.5 character sheet, but at some point the code behind it was corrupted so it ceased to work. I guess Keleth just removed it.

The early Germanic cultures were descended from Indo-European peoples who entered northern Europe in the 2nd century BC. The Slavic peoples to the south were also descended from the Indo-Europeans but they came a little later than the diaspora into the Germanic countries. If we go back further in time we find an earlier diaspora with three different groups. The Uralic peoples moved into northern Europe to the lands surrounding the Baltic and North Seas. Semitic peoples moved into central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region became the home of the Tyrrhenian people. The latter two peoples came out of the Middle East while the Uralics came from the western Asian mountains now known as the Urals. By the 6th century BC the Tyrrhenian peoples had disappeared, most likely as a result of invasion from the Minoans, also known as the Sea People. So, characters can either be Greeks, descendants of Etruscans or Balto-Slavic people left over from the Semitic diaspora. Certain Balto-Slavic myths may have come from earlier Germanic people.

Hi everyone,

Just catching up with the thread, which I hadn't found earlier.
Thanks for the heads-up on armors and rules and races and classes etc.

I still have a hard time wrapping my head around having elves and hobbits in greek armors, but I'll get used to it, I'm sure.
Saying that, though... how rare are these other races ? What is their relationship to the rest of humankind ? Are they the stuff of fairytales, or are they integrated in the geopolitical set-up, with settlements, even territories, or whole empires ?

Still thinking on which character to build. I have been considering an amazone, javelin throwing type, but also like the idea of a spell caster or a druid (these later two would fit well with the etruscan or balto-slavic background, maybe...).

Anyone else chose a class already ? Share your ideas here and we'll try to have a balanced party.

Looking forward to it !

The demi-human races (Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, gnome) live in fairly remote communities and do not mix often with humans and when they do it's usually local human communities. They are generally easily tolerated most anywhere they go. There are rare individuals who leave their communities and mix easily with the larger human communities. The humanoid races (Orc, Goblin, etc) are not welcome in human or even demi-human communities. The half-races (1/2 elf, 1/2 Orc) are tolerated in some communities, welcome in a few and completely unwelcome in others. Those less tolerant communities are generally found in the south. The northerners are used to slavic, germanic and even the occasional pure Uralic peoples who occasionally come into their towns and cities so they have built up tolerances to people who look different.

Would the gods be those of ancient Greece?

Yes. You will have Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Dionysus, Athena, Hephaestus and Hermes kicking you around as well as some of their lesser friends and allies. If you wish to worship one of them, these are your choices.

How are we doing for maps ?

I had a little look through the historical ones and found this, which seems pretty close to our setting's time period.

Map of greece 700-600 BC

DM, do you think we can use this as reference, or do you have your own maps ?

Also been trying to find more detailed information about the various regions / city states / neigbouring lands: things like their culture, customs etc... anyone here versed in ancient history who could help with that ?

That map can help but it's not large enough. You will be starting NE of Thessaly. I don't want to tell you anymore or it would spoil the game. I have been using Google maps for general directions and positioning. You should be able to find Stagira on a modern day map. I just open google maps, move to Greece and focus in on the area east of Thessaloniki.

Not sure if this is obvious, but which DnD 3.5 books are we allowed to use in character creation?

I have the PHB at hand as well as the Complete Warrior and the Complete Adventurer. I'll look around to see if I have a couple of others. I remember having a couple at one time but who knows where they could have got to in the last 15 years.

We have lost a player before we've even really got started. The game is open for one more player. There were a couple if people who had applied earlier but the game had filled up. If you're still interested, reply here or send me a pm.

i'd be interested