[LFP] Roleplay heavy game based on Ancient Greek Mythology

Greetings! I am looking for 1-3 additional players for a game I am running inspired by Ancient Greek Mythology. We have had three sessions and one of my players had to drop out due to work schedule. Time: We play on as many Sunday mornings as we can around 10:00 CEST (I live in Germany). My other two players are located in Asia, so it can be difficult to accommodate U.S. time zones. Setting: As I said, this is a setting based off of Ancient Greek mythology and history. I am sort of trying to branch away from typical medieval fantasy in favor of something a little different. I am trying to really make this setting authentic and believable and not just cosmetically different. For example, most cultures utilize slavery, some cultures have more progressive attitudes towards women, some cultures are hostile towards magic, and some are ruled by republics and democracy. However, this is still very much fantasy. There are monsters, wizards, and everything else you could expect from other fantasy settings. System: I am using my own homebrew system. I know that can sometimes be a tough sell because it requires players to take a chance and step into the unknown. I have been writing this game for nearly five years and actively playing it for about one. I am still adding stuff and changing things, but so far it has been working great. Pretty much any character architype you could imagine in D&D could be brought into the mechanics. In fact, I would say my game allows for additional play types. I would love to have a character play as a doctor, apothecary, alchemist, armorer, weaponsmith, or artist. To be honest, I would also love for someone to try and roleplay a priest using Greek Polytheism. I am obviously happy to teach and provide all the materials you will need. Overall, I would say that in this system, your character isn’t a “hero”. You are, at least in the beginning, an ordinary person. You attain the status of “hero” or “villain” through roleplaying and your deeds. Plot: The overall plot, so far, has been about a man named Nikostratos son of Menelaus (yes, the one from the Trojan War). Nikostratos was cursed by Zeus to endure an eternity of punishment for killing his brother Megapenthes. After nearly a thousand years of having his skin flayed and eaten by a sphynx, he has broken free and is seeking revenge. His plan is to awaken Typhon, an old enemy of Zeus, and plunge the world into a war between the Gods, monsters, and men. The party consisted of a warrior from Therapne (basically Sparta), a fire sorcerer from Akkad (basically Persia), and a philosopher from Herakleia (basically Athens). They learned of this plot by Nikostratos when the lands surrounding the city of Therapne was attacked by a tribe of centaurs. After this setup, the party decided to go on an expedition to Mt. Olympus and the Temple of the Pythia (basically the Oracle of Delphi). They are still on their way. They are currently at an Asklepieion, which is a healing sanctuary dedicated to the God Asklepios. My plan is to have this conflict between Nikostratos, Typhon, and Zeus to ask as a backdrop for years of adventuring. Players can choose to become directly involved in it, or pursue their own goals in this world affected by it. Anyway, if this sounds like something you are interested in, let me know.

Is your system based on another existing system? On which? What is listed in a character sheet? Could you give an example of a roll and how it's solved/interpreted?

So, I just made a custom character sheet yesterday (it is just a start...but I am pretty excited about it) and I am playing with macros to make everything really fluid. The system is based off of Harnmaster, 7th Sea, and Alternity. I sort of borrowed features from each of those games. It is a d100 based system with pools of exploding 1d10's as modifiers. Depending on Attributes (Strength, Dexterity,etc) and Ranks in skills (Climbing, Shield (defend), etc), a basic percentage of success is determined. That basic chance of success is further divided into Good success and Critical success. Once a level of success is determined, the GM and player decides what that success and failure means.  For example: Mikronides of Ambrakia is leading a party of three other adventurers and they are climbing up a cliff face. Mikronides has better than average attributes for climbing (a potential of 15) and 4 ranks in the Climbing Skill. So, his chance of a proficient success is 60% (skill potential [15]*skill ranks [4]) The base 60% is divided into Good success 30% (60/2), and Critical success 15% (60/4). This is written on the character sheet as 60/30/15. The GM determines that this particular cliff face has abundant hand holds, so he grants a 2d10 bonus for anyone climbing it (bonuses subtract from the 1d100, penalties add). So, Mikronides rolls 1d100-2d10! (modifiers explode) and rolls a 23. Great, he got a good success, so at the very least he climbs the cliff. But since he rolled a Good Success, he gets a bonus feature added to it. Perhaps he climbs it faster. But in this case, since Mikronides is leading a party of adventurers which may not be the best climbers, he decides that anyone following him gains and additional 1d10 bonus to their rolls, as Mikronidas shows his followers the best rout up the cliff.  Combat gets a little more complicated (as RPG combat always does), but stays with this basic formula. Attacks are skills. Where things get a bit more complicated is in this game you don't have hitpoints, instead you log wounds onto you character sheet and each wound has a chance of knocking you out, killing you, or giving penalties to actions. I like this because sustaining an injury is much more memorable. If the villain hits you in the face with a sword, you log it and you keep it on your character sheet until it is healed. Most players turn important wounds into lasting scars. Also, most combats don't end in death, most often a character suffers so many injuries that they are unable to effectively fight. Thus, players and NPCs are encouraged to surrender or retreat if the combat turns sour. I would say this is pretty authentic as, most people who die in combat don't die on the battlefield, they die in the following moments. Also, this game has no classes. So their is no real arbitrary reason why you cant tailor your character exactly to your wants.  

The rolling is not simple per se, but I understand it, and I think it will flow smoothly. What about the contents of a character sheet? Are skills and the success level the only thing written in it? Are there existing things like advantages and disadvantages (as they do in 7th sea)? I personally have difficulty creating characters that I like and that I find original if I don't have some sorts of advantages and disadvantages to pick from to guide me and inspire me.

Yah, actually the parks and flaws system is something I sort of lifted from from 7th Sea 1st ed. Also, my attempt with combat was to have the flow of actions similar to 7th Sea. So it isn't an attack that weight to be attacked system. You have a certain amount of actions per round and you budget them for offensive and defensive actions.  The character sheet simplifies most of the character creation process, however, I am not totally sure how to write the code to do EVERYTHING I want. Like I said, it is a good start, but isn't perfect. I made an excel spreadsheet character sheet a long time ago and it can calculate everything. The problem with that is that is that it is difficult to share information in online play if the character is in excel. I have been doing google sheets in the meantime, however, I have gotten sick of having five applications open every time I am running a game. Right now, I make all my NPCs on my excel sheet and transfer the more complex math onto the roll20 character sheet. By complex math, I mean vlookup formulas in excel. I am not sure how to do something like that in html. Characters are very customize able and encourage detail over mechanics. As a GM, I care more about how many siblings your character has than how good in initiative rolls are.  But I designed the game so that you can roll a lot of stuff randomly, (social class, family birth order, and profession) or pick and choose. Personally, I like my background to at least have a random skeleton. I am more interested in roleplaying a farmer learning how to be a knight than another first level fighter.      Personally, I think the discussion on simple vs complex mechanics has sort of become stagnated into "simple=good and complex=bad." I just don't see it that way. Complexities are important so long as they add something to the game experience. Flipping a coin for every instance of chance in an RPG would be "simple", but awfully binary. Some how we decided that rolling a d20 instead of flipping a coin was the golden rule. I am not sure why. I like my system because it is easy to put in modifiers which can be negligible (you roll a 1 on the 1d10 modifier) or it can be catastrophic (you roll a 10 which explodes into another 10, and that explodes into a 8) A also like the levels of success because it can potentiality add layers of detail. You get a good success in making a sword, what does that mean? Perhaps it is extra decorative, perhaps it has a keener edge, maybe you were so efficient in making it, you have enough supplies left over to make a twin dagger to go with it. A success vs. failure mechanic isn't all that different than flipping a coin. Both these issues are things I borrowed from Alternity. So my rule for making this game was complex is fine so long as it is easy to use. Complexity doesn't need to be cumbersome. 

So I am considering opening this game up for a West Matches style of play. That way I can be a little more flexible with session times. This would also provide the opportunity for fleshing out the setting and exploring. I would hope to run a game at least once a week, but that time might vary falling between Friday evenings to Sunday afternoon. Let me know if you are interested? 

Still looking.

I am very interested in this concept! I love Greek mythology and the story sounds interesting. Please message me!