Aegean Aegean Aegean Aegean Aegean

BASHBASHBASH FantasyFantasyFantasy PPPLAYERLAYERLAYER’’’SSS GGGUIDEUIDEUIDE TOTO THETO THETHE AAAEGEANEGEANEGEAN By Clint Staples, Michael O. Varhola, and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

Skirmisher Publishing LLC 499 Mystic Parkway Spring Branch, TX 78070

skirmisher.com [email protected]

Editor/Designer: Michael O. Varhola

Artists: Francesca Baerald, Amanda Kahl,

Bradley K. McDevitt, William T. Thrasher

Technical Editor: Brenda Cass

Contents of this book and the combined work over- book is protected under international treaties and the all, regardless of other designation, all rights reserved, copyright laws of the United States of America.

are copyright 20 by Skirmisher Publishing LLC. Mention or reference to any company, product, or 21 These include any and all associated logos and iden- other copyrighted or trademarked material in no way tifying marks, including all Skirmisher Publishing constitutes a challenge to the respective copyright

LLC products and product line names; any and all or trademark concerned. This book is a work of fic-

artwork, designs, depictions, illustrations, maps, like- tion and any resemblance of its contents to actual nesses, symbols, and graphic designs presented in people, organizations, places, or events is purely Sample file the context of this book; and any and all descriptive coincidental.

First Publication: March 2017 text, dialogue, incidents, plots, stories, storylines, the- ; revised April matic elements, and concepts contained herein. This 2021

2 Publishing Information CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ...... 5 MAPS ...... 6 Mediterannean Region ...... 6 Aegean Region ...... 8 Kos Island ...... 10 HUMAN PEOPLES OF THE AEGEAN ...... 13 Catalhoyuk ...... 13 Greater Peloponnese ...... 14 Attica & City State of Athens ...... 14 Republic of Rhodes ...... 15 Kos & the Aegean Isles ...... 16 Kingdom of Lydia ...... 16 Tetrarchy of Anatolia ...... 17 Grand Duchy of Porphyris ...... 18 Abbadonia ...... 18 NON-HUMAN PEOPLES OF THE AEGEAN ...... 21 Antaean ...... 21 • New Advantage: Earth Mother’s Magic ...... 21 • Earth Wardens ...... 22 Arachnean ...... 22 • Arachnean Prophecy ...... 23 Centaur ...... 23 Cynocephalian ...... 24 • Hyperborean Dogmen ...... 25 Cyprian Bull Centaur ...... 26 • Birthright: Taurkhan ...... 27 Dragonkin ...... 27 • Advantage: Draconic Sorcery ...... 28 Dwarf ...... 28 • Equipment Option: Blast Powder Weapons ...... 29 Elf ...... 30 • Half-Elves ...... 30 • Elven Sub-Races ...... 30 • Advantage: Elven Magic ...... 31 • Susceptibility: Sunlight ...... 31 Gnome ...... 31 • Gnome Sub-Races ...... 32 • Gnome Illusionists ...... 32 • New Advantage: Alchemist ...... 33 Halfling ...... 33 Merfolk ...... 34 • Merfolk Advantages & Disadvantages ...... 35 Mymidon ...... 36 Orc ...... 37 • SampleHalf-Orcs ...... file 38 • Advantage Half-Orc Magic ...... 38 Satyr ...... 39 • Satyr Advantages ...... 39

Contents 3 Sample file

4 IntroductionBASH Fantasy Player’s Guide to the Aegean INTRODUCTION

elcome to The BASH: Fantasy Player’s A century earlier, the Titans of Greek mythology Guide to the Aegean! In this sourcebook we rose up in a war that nearly destroyed the world. provide the information you need to create Called the Great Cataclysm, this war changed every- Wcharacters for the Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign thing, returning many monsters to the earth, allow- Setting using the BASH: Fantasy system. ing the dead to roam, sinking islands, shattering cit- We do this by delving into the different playable ies, and upsetting the cosmic balance. As monsters races and backgrounds and provide you with the returned, so too did Elves and Dwarves, Sylphs and details you need to generate a character of that race. Satyrs, Gnomes, Goblins, and Orcs, striding, creep- If there are particular Stats, Powers, Advantages, Dis- ing, skulking, or marching from distant realms or advantages, or Skills necessary to play a particular deep fastnesses to rejoin the world they had left be- character we put those in the Required section. For hind. example, Antaeans are all seven feet tall or more, so Now, people live in the shadow of the Cataclysm. they have the Advantage: Large and a Minimum In some ways life is not so different from the time Brawn of 3 as requirements (there is more to creat- before. Civilization survived intact in many ways. ing and playing an Antaean, but we will let you see Bronze and iron are still worked, walls and cities for yourself in the pages that follow). built, ships still fare the wine-dark sea for trade or We also provide a section called Common. Here war or plunder. Many people live in the same houses we place the Powers, Advantages, Disadvantages, that their ancestors inhabited 100 years before. Skills and other details that are traditional or reason- But there are also many differences. The vener- ably common for that society, culture, or race. For able, advanced Minoan civilization is as much a example, many Arachnaeans have magical ability, memory as its home, the island of Thera obliterated so Magic is a common Advantage, whereas the cul- in an eruption felt throughout the Aegean and be- ture of the Peloponnese places value on service to yond. Tidal waves carried away many coastal towns one’s city as a hoplite soldier, so a common Disad- and ports, swept the sea clear of ships, and heaved vantage is Duty: To One’s City. up new land, and new horrors, from the depths ... We also provide you with options for play, like all of which your heroes may have to contend with! signature spells, or specialties for a particular cul- ture, some information on their common worldview, A Note on Magic gods worshipped, favored weapons, technology, com- It is the understanding in this book that characters panions, likes, and dislikes. with access to magic and spells have the Limitation: Finally, we include exemplar characters that you Casting. Whether spellcasting comes via the study can use as is, or as a springboard for your own ideas. of magic like sorcery, is granted through worship of What we don’t want is for The Players Guide to a god (both of which require Advantage: Magic), or the Aegean to be too weighty. We could provide you is aspected magic available to a particular race with a lot of background material; we’ve got it, and (which require Advantages such as Antaean Earth you can have it too, but here, we want to give you Magic or Merfolk Thallasomancy), does not matter. the stuff that you and the other players need to get a All magic has the “Casting” limitation. This means feel for things and get playing! that spellcasters need to employ hand gestures and incantations to cast spells. If they cannot do so, they Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting either cannot cast spells at all or suffer difficulty do- Before we get into all the things that make cool char- ing so. This assumption means that Casting is not acters for the Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Set- available as a limitation to reduce the cost of a spell, ting, we thought we would give you a thumbnail in the way that a limitation normally would be. It is sketch of the milieu. already “built in” to spellcasting. Spellcasters are The Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting is free to take another limitation on a spell, and for some one of sword and sorcery, of life and adventure, in a Aspected Magic we have provided such limitations re-imagined eastern Mediterranean. Ten centuries for your use. after the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Playing a character from a race with access to Sparta — what in our own world would be the 6th Aspected Magic, like Merfolk Thallasomancy, does century A.D. — the civilization and culture of the not preclude player characters from taking Advan- ancient Greeks lives on as the primary one in the tage: Magic in order to play more traditional wiz- region. In this world, the Roman Empire did not sub- ards, priests, or sorcerers. The aspected style of sume, eclipse, and replace Greek civilization as the magic, however, is probably much more common in model for what came after. The Gods of Olympus that culture. Could someone who is a different race Samplereign, their heroes acting as agents of their will or than that related to the aspectfile use that magic? Sure. exemplars of their glory, as protectors, champions, We put that style where it is for thematic purposes, monster hunters, or even simple adventurers or ne’er- so characters with that “theme” are most likely to do-wells seeking only to line their own pockets. use it, but in theory anyone could. 5 Introduction 5 Sample file Sample file Sample file Sample file