Actual Play I

In the 2015-2016 school year I started a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with my students during Board Game Club. Called "The Heroic Age," the basic premise was that the players would get to play as the children of Greek Gods. The campaign takes place a few years before the Trojan War.

Dramatis Personae

• Lycaneous. Son of Ares Barbarian. He was the super strong bruiser who would rage and then lay the smack down.
• Creos. Son of Hephaestus Monk. He was an olympic wrestler athlete, most notably blessed by his father with a clockwork arm.  
• Elena. Daughter of Apollo Cleric. She was a peaceful priestess who liked to sing to monsters to calm them, or call upon the radiant arrows of her father Apollo to strike them down. (We reskinned sacred flame to actually be Apollo shooting his golden bow that never misses to her target.)
• Echo. Daughter of Aphrodite Rogue. She was a rogue, but she was more of a charmer who used her good looks to get what she wanted. She was seeking her one true love.
• Saphildur the Blue. Chosen Son of Athena Wizard. One of the only wizards around, he was a philosopher whose understanding of the world was so deep that it gave him magical powers.
• Dardanus. Son of Zeus Cleric. We used the Tempest archetype to give him lightning powers. He eventually left our game to join another campaign in board game club that would later fell apart. Then he came back.
• Kalikilla. Daughter of Hades Rogue. Her pitch was she wanted to be a vampire. So we came up that as daughter of Hades, she was the first vampire. Also, she had never played an RPG before. Sometimes kids end up in board game club even though they have no real interest being there. I still try to draw them in however. It was obvious to me that her name was a reference to Killa Kali, the rapper. However, I chose to ignore that and instead pronounced it as Kuh-LIH-kulla, rhymes with Caligula. For my own amusement. She unfortunately left our school, but her character would return later in the campaign.

The Hunt for the Sickle of Cronus

Kids love this kind of stuff.

Gaia made the Sickle of Cronus, a powerful weapon forged from adamant, to give to her son Cronus. He used it to wound his father Uranus and overthrow him. Eventually, Cronus was overthrown by his son Zeus. Zeus feared the weapon, it was the only thing strong enough to seriously wound a Titan and potentially kill a god. Zeus cast the weapon into the pit of Tartarus where it would be guarded forever.

The goddess of night, Nyx, is an ancient and powerful goddess with many children. She is tired of being relegated to a second class citizen while Zeus and the Olympians live richly on Mount Olympus. She has decided that she will steal the Sickle of Cronus and use it to destroy the Olympians. She will take the throne of Zeus for herself, place her children in command of the cosmos, and cloak all of creation in eternal night.

Hera warned Zeus of Nyx's plot, but her prophecy also states that if any of the Olympians touch the Sickle of Cronus it will lead to their doom. That is why the Olympians have turned to their heroic children for aid.

Trials of the Gods

The players all received visions drawing them together, as well as visions of quests they could go on to retrieve items of great power to aid them in their mission.

• Lycaneous received a vision from Ares to retrieve the first stone used to kill a man from Sparta.
• Helena received a vision from Apollo to retrieve a magical lyre made of a tortoise shell from the cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia.
• Echo received a vision from Aphrodite sending her after the golden apples from the Garden of Hesperides.
• Dardanus received a vision from Zeus to slay a Hydra, and collect its venomous blood.
• Saphildur received a vision from Athena to visit a Cyclops living on an island, who owns a magical ship that can sail to the Underworld.
• Kalikilla received a vision about the location of the Invisible Cap of Hades.

I tried to allow every player to have a trial and quest, but there were seven players at the beginning of the campaign. Board game club only meets twice a week for thirty minutes, this does not give me a lot of time to get through everything. Some of the players did not stay with the campaign to retrieve their items. Thus, I told them that they would have to make choices. They could not do every quest in time before Nyx tries to steal the Sickle.