In the Footsteps of Hercules

In the Footsteps of Hercules is a system-free sourcebook devoted to a pilgrimage trail that can be used in con­junction with any fantasy role-playing game. This book describes the various sections of the trail and the prevailing terrain and conditions associated with them; how most pilgrims travel them; alternate ways some pilgrims choose to approach the trail overall or specific parts of it; the things they generally hope to accomplish along the way; and things they might encounter on it. 

It contains a detailed entry on the title pilgrimage trail and entries on thirteen other places, communities, or events, including a bathhouse, farm, hermitage, hospital, hostel, monastery, oracle, port, shrine, stables, temple, tournament ground, and trade fair. 

There are many ways this book can be used and en­joyed. One is to simply read it as a work of fantasy fiction inspired by the myths, legends, history, and ge­ography of Greece. Another is to use it as inspiration or a model for pilgrimage trails in your own stories or role-playing game campaigns. Yet another is as a setting for roleplaying game adventures of various sorts. 

This book was created as a specific example of a Pilgrimage Trail, one of the 85 general sorts of places that appear in Skirmisher Publishing's Adamantine-bestselling City Builder: A Guide to Designing Communities. As written, this trail is dedicated to the titular demigod and is set in a Dark Ages fantasy version of the Peloponnesian Peninsula of Greece and located within the company’s Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting. It can easily, however, be dedicated to any other appropriate deity or cause and dropped into virtually any other existing milieu and has deliberately been designed to be compat­ible with any of what Gary Gygax used to refer to as “a traditional fantasy campaign setting.” 

~ TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG) ~

Be sure to check out Skirmisher Publishing's new and already-bestselling TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG)! This improv storytelling game designed for a storyteller and one or more players can easily be played anywhere, from the airport waiting area you are stuck in, to the overnight in some hotel where there is nothing to do (and also, of course, in your own home). All the basic rules fit on one page; no dice are needed; characters have just two stats; and any bookkeeping that might be required can be done on a cocktail napkin with a pen borrowed from a waiter. We have thus far released five compelling scenarios for TSRPG, "On the Plane of Magma," "A Violet Shade of Death," "A Rose for Erato," "Into the Terrorium," "Whiskey in the Jar," and "Temple of the Banished Suns," all of which include pregenerated characters and the basic rules for the game, allowing them to function as quick-starts for it. We have also released TSRPG in a number of other languages, including German (along with an adventure for it, „Auf der Ebene des Magmas“), Spanish, and Ukrainian!