Warlords of Alexander

“After the battle (of Ipsos) had been decided ... the victorious kings proceeded to carve up the realm which Antigonus and Demetrius had ruled, like the carcass of some great  slaughtered beast, each of them taking a limb and adding new provinces to those they already posessed.”

                                                                         Plutarch, Life of Demetrius

WARLORDS OF ALEXANDER is a fantasy setting for Chaosium Inc.'s Basic Roleplaying Game. It is not an official product, all copyright belongs to Chaosium. A gamemaster need only have a copy of Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, or Elric!to play. Player characters are tough and rootless mercenaries, or wandering fortune hunters seeking a rich patron or perhaps rumour of a lost treasure hoard. The world they inhabit is dominated by huge and powerful kingdoms, massive fragments of Alexander the Great's short-lived world-spanning empire. His generals spawned a number of dynasties which now make interminable war on one another. All wish to be the next 'Alexander' - and the hoplite armies pay for these fruitless ambitions in blood ...

WARLORDS OF ALEXANDER gives you a way to mix the vividly historical with the monsters and magic of Greek myth. We get both halves of Greece - as long as you enjoy a little 'imaginative interpretation' at the expense of rigorous historical accuracy. The aim of the book is firstly to map out the amendments and rules additions needed to convey the Greek setting. Secondly it is to provide a solid gaming 'hook' taken straight out of classical Greek history that can be used as a foundation for building scenarios and campaigns. The hook I've chosen is the period of the Successor Wars, a violent and bitter struggle in the mid-3rd century BC between the loyal generals of Alexander the Great (and their sons and grandsons) for the remnants of that youthful hero-king's vast empire. It is Classical Greece writ large across the known world, with every mercenary a hoplite, the common language Greek, the Olympian deities worshipped from India to Italy and Greek city comforts (baths, agora, gymnasia, theatres etc.) available in hundreds of cities newly established throughout conquered territories by Alexander himself. This almost universal Greek culture stands in well for the accepted fantasy society that is a prevalent and unwritten standard in many RPGs.