Okay so. This is gonna be a long one. About a year ago in June, I decided to run a Percy Jackson based dnd game with my friend Shammy, just a 1 on 1 thing, since he'd never read the series before. The books were my favorite thing growing up as a kid, so I was pretty nervous about messing it up. So I laid out some ground rules in my worldbuilding.
- No Canonical Characters: Percy, Annabeth, Nico, every named character that was in the books doesn't exist. Aside of course from people who have to be there, Chiron, Mr. D, as well as the rest of the gods, though their personalities would differ. The only other named characters are Thalia, who's still a tree, and Will Solace, more so of a joke than anything.
- The Books Are Not Modules: I wouldn't just run the game as if the books were modules, I'd come up with my own adventures and stories to tell within the world.
- The Books Are Not Canon: Any relationships between the gods or alignments of the gods don't remain the same. As I'll get to later, this allowed me to make certain gods the villains, like Eros or Heracles.
So, I guess we can start with Book 1. The Black Sun.
In the beginning, our story started off with just me and my friend Shammy, as I stated before, our first two sessions were just that, me and him. His character, Xander Waller, a child of Nemesis, was living his normal life in Manhattan going to school. His best friend was a girl named Amanda. We got to see Xander get bullied by this dude named Clyde and his little posse. It wasn't until P.E that day where things got weird. Xander noticed the Clyde was looking weird, his face wasn't as clear as it was. As they started to play dodgeball, Xander noticed Clyde and his friend's throws were insane. Nearly cracking the walls of the gym as the nearly missed him. It was then when the monsters revealed themselves. Clyde and his friends dropped their disguises, showing their true forms as cyclopes. It was then when Amanda intervened, kicking off her shoes, revealing cloven hooves. Xander was super freaking out, especially after getting smacked by an entire bleacher seat that Clyde ripped off. Luckily, with a pencil, Xander managed to stab Clyde in the eye and escape with Amanda. She tried to explain everything about Camp Half-Blood. Soon after they were attacked by harpies and landed in a car crash. Xander woke up a few days later within camp, where he met a bunch of new characters. Chiron gave him the brief tour, and said his godly parent would claim him soon enough. At the next capture the flag, Xander faced off against Duncan, one of the strongest Ares kids at camp, and with a surge of necrotic energy that filled him, he managed to defeat Duncan, with the symbol of Nemesis floating above his head.
Around this time, Shammy was having so much fun with the game, he started telling our other friends about it. Friends who actually knew the series. And a lot of them asked to join. I thought it could be fun and I was also enjoying the game, so I agreed. Our party grew to four, Asher, a child of Aphrodite, Ken, a child of Athena, and Jemma, a half-nymph. The party went on and after joining forces in my made up Half-Blood Games, they became known as Group 13. It was then when Xander was given a prophecy and a quest to travel to Seattle, to destroy a weapon known as the Astral Blade, in order to stop the Titan Hyperion from destroying the sun and moon.
Child of Nemesis, you are to fight one who seeks revenge.
Go west, before the daughter of the sun brings it to an end.
Two weeks, before the gods of the stars fall, one by one.
Destroy the astral blade, before the day of Black Sun.
The party shuttled off, blowing up their first bus getting attacked by a hag and her hellhounds, and found themselves in Nashville. It was there where they met two new friends, Prisma, a child of Iris and Lore, a child of Hephaestus. Now with a party of 6, they headed for Seattle on their quest. Eventually when they arrived, they learned that what they thought was the Astral Blade, a cool meteorite sword called the Orion's Blade, was in fact not the Astral Blade mention in the prophecy. Instead, the prophecy was referring to the Space Needle. As a storm ravaged Seattle, the party made for the top of the Needle, where they found not a titan, but a lone goddess. She revealed herself to be Eos, goddess of dawn. She was sick and tired of absolutely no one knowing who she was, only pushed by the party also not knowing who she was, and my players who ruled her out as a possible villain in their theories. She had impersonated her father, Hyperion to get the god's attention, she had kidnapped Artemis and Apollo to create an eclipse, where she would then use the Space Needle as a weapon to destroy them both, along with her siblings Selene and Helios. So that no one would be left, leaving her the Goddess of Twilight. Of course the party then kicked her ass, not before defeating Python, the snake Apollo had killed way back when, who's body was coiled around the Space Needle, which he took with him as he died. As the party fell to their deaths, Xander managed to grab the amulet containing Apollo and Artemis, and eventually landed the finishing blow on Eos, as they impacted the asphalt hundreds of feet down.
I wanted the future books to follow a similar format to the original series, and so I'd stated that while very different, our game would mirror the original books, while maintaining a new approach. For example, the first book was a journey from the east coast to the west coast, in an attempt to defeat a villain who turned out to not actually be involved, and ended with a fight against a rogue god. As such, the second book was a nautical adventure, like the Sea of Monsters.
Book 2, The Isle of Darkness, found the party trying to reseal Pandora's Pithos, whose power had been unleashed, causing Thalia's tree to weaken, lowering the barrier, and natural disasters to strike the world. When they set sail for the pacific islands, they get into all sorts of trouble, sinking a cruise ship while fighting a giant sea monster, riding dolphins all the way to Hawaii, robbing a vending machine, stealing the U.S.S Missouri from Pearl Harbor, and then sinking it as they arrived at the Isle of Darkness. And island created by the Pithos itself, pulling strange pieces from across the world to create a mishmash of all sorts of people and environments. Their quest would consist of finding all the pieces of the pithos, now scattered across the island. And each conveniently guarded by a Greek figure relating to Heracles. The giant Antaeus, the Amazons, the Nemean Lion, all that jazz. The party also encounters the Erotes, servants to Eros, the god of love, who've all turned into an edgy boy band. Wearing all black with lots of leather, the Erotes picked and poked at the party's insecurities in their dreams, insulting them and their loved ones. Except for the child of Aphrodite, AsherLorento. He was greeted by Eros himself, no ridicule, no insults. But an offer. Betray the party, and they could become a god, and destroy their mother, Aphrodite. And Asher agreed. You see, Asher's backstory had given him quite the reason to totally hate his mother. But he would come to realize everything wasn't as it seemed. After collecting all the pieces and reassemblingthe pithos, Asher took off with it to deliver it to Eros. The party soon followed, leading to the final showdown on a mountain top. There, chained to a large pillar was a man holding the weight of the world. But it was not Atlas, it instead was Heracles. Eros led an NPC the party had brought with them, Duncan, the Ares kid, up with them. Like Clarisse in the original series, Duncan was actually given the prophecy this time. The last line of which, he had kept from everyone, as to not endanger Asher, who he had grown closer to.
You shall journey to the lands of the western sea.
Find the isle of darkness, and other terrors that seek.
Doomed to fail, without others to guide you.
When all hope is lost, Olympus will be lost too.
When the world falls to another, prosper, will the daemons of love.
Chains of the damned, only broken by the boar, and the dove.
Asher and Duncan broke Heracles' chains, freeing him. He then immediately threw Duncan underneath the pillar, forcing the weight onto him. It was now that the rest of the party arrived, and a battle ensued. Heracles was an insane powerhouse that wrecked the party. And the entire fight Asher was battling with which side he was really on. When Eros revealed that Asher's Tragic Backstory™ was actually his doing, forcing Asher to reconsider everything he's done. After hearing this, Duncan became enraged, as an astral form of a warrior held up the sky as Duncan personally kicked Eros' ass. After Eros was beaten pretty badly, he teleported himself and Heracles off the island, leaving the party to deal with the island, which was now destroying itself, now that the pithos was back in one piece. Once Duncan's astral form faded, Asher had to hold up the weight, leaving both of them with that classic white streak. However the rest of the party held up the sky as well, it a total power of friendship moment. Then an NPC they had met earlier, Eurytion, who had revealed he had mentored Heracles way back when, took the weight, and allowed the party to escape. Climbing into a submarine that Lore had seen in her dreams, they escaped the island and made it back home.
Book 3, which we're currently on, The Cage of Silver. This one is a doozy. We're only about halfway through it, but so far it's revolving around Artemis, who had her memories altered by the Titan BBEG along with Eros and Heracles. In an effort to release the titan's from their prison, starting a new war. The party is super torn in conflicts after the events of Isle of Darkness, with Asher's temporary betrayal.
However, in this time, I also started another small campaign. This one set in modern day Brooklyn, in a secret underground magician school known as the Arcane Hollows Society. This was my taken on the Kane Chronicles series, but with my own original spin from a story I tried to write a long time ago. The campaign centers around three characters, Remy, Salem, and Wilson, as they tackle college along with a new world of spirits and demons they have to face to keep their streets safe. Known as Magicians, the party learned about the school and the kind of monsters they have to face. After being chosen by three strange artifacts thought to be dormant from the times of ancient Egypt. At the end of the first arc, I mentioned the characters seeing the destruction of the Space Needle on TV, confirming my player's hope and belief that the two campaigns shared a universe. At the time it was more of a fun nod, but a crossover session or two would be a great and fun change of pace.
However, inspired byGuillermo del Toro's Tales From Arcadia franchise, I knew there needed to be a third party. And so I started thinking about what possible third thing could exist. Taking some inspiration from Season 2 of Dimension 20, The Unsleeping City, I originally thought of a sort of monk monastery on Staten Island. Trying to find a name, I came up with the Monastery of The Crystal Stars. This led to me thinking of just the team name of The Crystal Stars. And then it hit me.
Once every 100 years, a large star falls from the sky, landing exactly where it needs to. Where upon three chosen girls would find it. These three girls were Tabatha, Maggie, and Agnes, who discovered the fallen star one night. It then split into three pieces, one for each of them. These were The Crystal Stars, magical gems that gave them powers to fight against evil shadow creatures called Umbras, from an in-between dimension called The Darklands. The Crystal Stars allowed them to transform into cool matching outfits with magical items and spells. Making the third group in this universe, Magical Girls. The campaign itself was a teen drama with classic magical girl tropes, as well as other magic based tv shows.
We just had the first session in our crossover campaign, The Guardians of New York. In which the Crystal Stars meet the Magicians. It's still got a lot to go, but I have multiple cross over events planned later as well as the rest of the two smaller campaigns as well. I've mapped out a Marvel Producer level timeline for these with the in-game time they should take place.
Sorry if this post dragged on for too long, I just really wanted to get this story out there. If you've read this long, have a nice day, and happy rolling!
