Elevator Pitch: Superheroes set in stylized Ancient Greece. The Long Winded Pitch: around the year 500BC, there was a supernatural event now called the Great Insemination. The terrible God of the Underworld, Hades finally after many years struggling defeated the mighty, but aging hero Heracles (Hercules is also an accepted name), in epic battle, making a spectacle during the first ever Olympic games by striking him down in front of a stadium sized crowd. Hades, having succeeded in felling the bastard son of his greatest nemesis Zeus, wasted no time beginning to gloat, so he didn’t notice when Zeus used his awe inspiring power of lightning to disperse the remains of his son into dust. The dust of Heracles took to the air, and in a well timed wind, spread over the land and cities of Greece, as well as visitors from other lands participating in the Olympics. Years passed. The tales of Heracles started to make their way from actual accounts to retellings, to vague stories, to legends. The Olympics continued each year. The Gods continued to show favor to mortal men. Those who were touched by the Dust continued the time honored tradition of creating children with and alongside everyone else. The Dust passed to a new generation, then another, and spread amongst the seed of men into their progeny. In the year 380BC, the first known child since Heracles was born with supernatural abilities. A baby was born who would appear to vanish from sight from time to time, several times a day, leaving his parents baffled. Some men called him the child of divinity, going so far as to kill his Mother in an attempt to see if her flesh was immortal like the Gods’, yet she and his father appeared to be normal people. As the Greek world began to marvel at the vanishing infant, several other children were born around the region that exhibited portions of Godly power. A girl in Athens was born who could melt sand into glass by touching it. Another in Sparta who appeared to never leave footprints or any trace of his presence in places he went. There were rumors around 381BC that the Oracles at Delphi had sacrificed a child who had gifts similar to theirs to prevent his forseen rise to power. More and more stories of “gifted” children began to spread across the land. A popular traveling musician and storyteller first coined the phrase “Children of Heracles” upon meeting one such child, who was able to use his mind to lift heavy statues. The title stuck, as he retold tales of what he’d seen around the continent. Of course, the children of this generation grew up, as children tend to do. Some perished. Others hid their talents for fear of persecution. Some left, finding lives in other parts of the world. A few tried to rise to political power. Several found themselves being carefully considered in regards to the Olympics, and before 365BC a war started over tension between the people of Crete, who wanted their own Children of Heracles, whom they revered and treated specially, to be allowed to compete, while Athens, where Children of Heracles were treated poorly, and kept away from normal people when possible, refused, and saw such an idea as nothing but a way to ruin the games. Both sides ended up sending superpowered individuals to war, hoping to demonstrate their point (for Athens, that the children were dangerous, for Crete, that they were glorious). It is now 312BC. You are one such Child of Heracles. Now aged somewhere between 18 and 25 years old, you have arrived in Athens to attend a political forum about the Children of Heracles. Whether you are there to speak, or to just listen (or to pickpocket, pillage, meet new people or anything else) is up to you. You are free to set about this land and forge your own destiny. Will you use your fraction of Godly power to shape the world around you? Hide it to try to fit in? Perhaps you were involved in the war or lost a parent to it, and have a vendetta. Maybe you curse the Gods for your supposed Gift, and seek revenge. Do you see your strange abilities as a way to fame in the greatest sports of man? Has your privilidged life led you think you have a destiny among the stars, as an avatar meant to become a new God? Now is the time to make your move. TL:DR Version: Players are about 18 years old in Ancient Greece, and have powers rivaling that of Hercules, living in a population that both reveres and fears those with such powers. What I’m looking for: Players of any level of familiarity with the genre, the system, and roleplaying. Even none. If you’ve never been part of an RPG before, and don’t know where Greece is on a map, you are just as welcome to my game as someone who has played FATE Core and studied ancient Greek culture. It’s all good to me. My knowledge of it is basically the textbook versions of the prime Gods and stories as well as whatever made it into Disney's Hercules cartoon. PCs should be somewhat normal for the time period with a single very highly exaggerated attribute, stat or single ability. You can’t control the weather (for example), but some aspect of it is fine (you can make the wind blow, or create terrifying lightning maybe). You need to be able to justify your supernatural ability in one aspect. Super Strength isn’t the same as Super Endurance, but if you have such, it’s extreme. Super Strength would be enough that you could lift the great pyramids to bench press them. Super Endurance would likely be near immortality and the ability to run around the world without stopping. Super speed is akin to the Flash (> 1500 mph). Your ability is SUPER, but the rest of your character’s story and aspects must make you not much more than a mere mortal. Players must be in a position to participate at the agreed upon time once a week. I’m open to creating a standard operating procedure in the event someone doesn’t show up, but i’m also inclined to cause your allies to suffer if you are absent with little or no warning (ask my current Pathfinder players about the Deck of Punishment). As players, you don’t have to be familiar with more than the basics of the setting (since i made up a lot of it, and borrowed heavily from existing IPs the parts i didn’t), and you don’t have to be familiar with FATE Core either. I’ll work with you on developing the kind of character you want to play. The system is made for narrative storytelling and cinematic consequences to actions, so don’t be afraid to make the kind of character you might see in a movie, rife with a backstory, personal plot ideas, and cool skills. It’s ok, and maybe even preferable to enter a scene by bursting through the door at a dramatic moment, announcing your presence and spouting awesome (or horrible) puns as you fight. PCs are going to be built to standard FATE Core rules, which is to say what I need for your character pitch is just a high concept and a potential trouble aspect to start with, both of which we can alter later if needed. your final character will have 3 to 5 stunts, 3 phase aspects (created with group effort), and 18 skill points. There are 18 skills, and you can assign them values as follows: One Great (+4) skill Two Good (+3) skills Three Fair (+2) skills Four Average (+1) skills Eight Mediocre (+0) skills (the rest)The skills are: Academics Athletics Animal Handling (includes driving) Contacts Deceive Empathy Fight Investigate Knowledge: Geography and Terrain Knowledge: Religion and the Gods Notice Physique Presence (define positive or negative at character creation if > 0. Positive presence is like stage presence. You are not strictly loud, but very flamboyant, and noticeable. People are aware of you, just as they would be a celebrity. Negative presence means you stand out in a crowd, but for the opposite reason, possibly because you are huge/scarred/ugly/smelly or just naturally intimidating) Profession (GM approved choice at character creation if > 0) Resources (ie: wealth) Speechcraft (aka diplomacy. the art of conversing and manipulating through the spoken (or possibly written) word). Stealth Willpower Schedule: I am MST, but I work nights, so this would be a great game for night-owls, or people in timezones far from the US. I arrive home shortly after midnight MST (but could be delayed unexpectedly by work once in a while), and am pretty much available until I go into work about 3:30pm (i can adjust my sleeping schedule on game day without a problem if, let's say, we agree that 5am is a good time). I am available for this schedule Tuesday-Saturday I have a Pathfinder game Monday night while I'm off that sometimes runs into the 1 or 2 am timeslot).