This is such a cool idea! I was thinking about the druids and wildshape though, I get that Druid doesn't really fit the feel of greek mythology, but Wildshape is something that the Gods used like all.the.time. Especially Zeus, so might be cool to add it to the bloodline chart?
It actually is on the bloodlines chart! Only high up on the divine ancestry table, though, since I've literally only been able to identify one non-god character from mythology capable of shapeshifting like that.
@@MonarchsFactory I know I'm coming in kind of late, but is that character Periclymenus? Because that was the hero that first came to mind for wildshape in mythology
Good example of a similar relationship in a more recent novel series. Tales of the Malazan, Book of the Fallen. Hope you like long series though to see it.
I typically run my games in a Greek focused setting, but I have never thought to make it a Mythology genre. I really loved the ideas. The navigation is perfect as well. Thanks for the content.
"An immunity of stabbing does not equate to immunity of trickery." This was a phrase I would tell people when they'd speak of their characters being extremely difficult to kill or harm. This whole video was really great and I like this "From the Drawing Board" kinda format. Hopefully you'll make more stuff like this! :D I honestly kinda like your navigation idea, might have to steal and modify it for my own system.
Note for the faint of heart; this is long. Sorry! I love the video Dael! Recently, I began work on a D&D setting for my home game inspired by Greek mythology. It is called Ianne, and so far I'm fairly happy with it. But what's important to note that my goal has not been, nor was it ever, to recreate mythological, Hellenistic Greece. The reason is because, as you've outlined in a many marvelous ways, Greek mythology and the type of fantasy that D&D assumes don't always mesh in the cleanest ways. Furthermore, my goal when creating content for D&D is that it is both receptive of as many character types as possible, and that the content could ostensibly work in any D&D setting. For me, this is a core and central tenant. The game comes first, and in my opinion the freedom of player choice is paramount to the game. As such, when I set out to begin work on Ianne, I decided that there were certain things that I felt were core setting beats that needed to be hit in order for the setting to succeed; 1. The Gods are Important and Their Presence is Felt. Clerics often serve as the representatives of the divine in other settings, but on Ianne the gods are a central aspect of life. The fate of a voyage could be decided by whether proper tribute was paid to the goddess of the sea, the blessing of the god of protection may decide the outcome of a city, etc. 2. This World is Not the Oldest. D&D often inspires the desire to delve into ancient ruins and uncover forgotten lore and treasure. The game has a base assumption that the world is old. Luckily, Hellenistic Greece already has a seed for this planted within it, wherein the Greeks already had the idea that they were sort of the 2nd go-around at things, age-wise. As such, incorporating the idea that the stuff of mythic legend not only happens in the here and now, but has happened throughout history. Thus, seeds for adventure are easy to place 3. The City-State is Definitive of How Society is Structured. Hellenistic Greece was broken up into various city-states, and didn't really ever consider itself a single nation and yet certain aesthetic motifs and styles remain somewhat consistent. In D&D terms, this makes it easy to create places with strong identities in their own right that retain a cohesive whole. Recreating the exact system of city-states isn't necessary, but having one gives a lot of creative breathing room. 4. Races/Ancestries Are Varied, and Include All Races from the PHB and More. I felt this was vital to my design ethos, and is probably the thing that most people will disagree with. While one could easily create different "races" for humans to allow for variety, I feel that trying to adhere to a rigid, classical view of what a mythic Greece looks like and has with regards to it's people is both a bit of a waste as well as ill-fitting for the type of game D&D wants one to play. As such, I went in the direction of inclusivity rather than exclusivity. Odyssey of the Dragonlords does something similar, and states that "...you will encounter familiar tropes, monsters, and treasures from Greek mythology-but the rules are different here...the world of Thylea blends high fantasy with the trappings of ancient history." With this mindset, having all the races in the PHB stops being an issue, as well as opens up the doors for all sorts of fun options for ancestries such as gorgons and minotaurs. In conclusion, I'd like to point at Magic: the Gathering's worldbuilding as a good benchmark for where to start, and not just Theros! Though that is the direct comparison, seeing how the game handles worlds that are based on top-down ideas provides a lot of insight into how to have a high-fantasy spin on different places. Theros has krakens in spite of them not originating from Greece because of modern associations that their audience has with Greece. Innistrad's Markov Manor takes more from Castlevania than it does actual Romanesque and Gothic architecture, but it remains distinctly in-flavor with the gothic horror setting. To quote Mike Linnemann on the subject; "How much realism do you want in your fantasy setting?" In this case, I'd argue that less is more, and invoking the feeling of a mythological, Hellenistic Greece is infinitely more important than accurately portraying it.
I'm running a mini campaign of episodic one shots based in the mythic Mediterranean. Great video, I'm going to have my characters make some retainers. Last session I had a near TPK due to some sirens, harpies, and a rocky shore. Having that extra back up will be a great tool. So far I'm really enjoying the simplicity of running a human-centric group with classical myths that I've been reading since child hood. It really makes prep easy and finally all those years of geeking on on the Greeks is paying dividens. Great work on the video!
The navigation minigame sounds really cool! I'm starting a westmarches game soon and I'm seriously considering stealing this, it would work fine on land in an unexplored area. Yeah, I know you wanted to go to the crystal mines, but you screwed up your navigation roll and now you're in a den of ogres. good luck.
Really enjoyed the background music in the video. While it was subtle it still gave the video a really cool feeling, in my opinion. As always thanks for your A+ content.
Watching this, I can't help but notice that Beowulf seems to fit more into the classical hero tropes box than the medieval hero tropes box. It also feels a bit like classical hero teams are a bit like "the Avengers go a viking!", which now that I've written it, would be awesome!
I ran two classical myth campaigns and the players loved them! I didn’t make any special rules apart from an alternate alignment system that bestowed “Glory” and “Shame” on the PCs. Each campaign did have a Druid PC, and just the fact that they could wild shape was so significant that it was often a driving plot point. I’ll scope out the subreddit and share my ideas and experiences.
As one of your regular viewers that watches way more videos than he plays games, I've gotta say I definitely enjoyed the half-baked From the Drawing Board style; I don't _need_ a fleshed-out ready-to-play system because I'm not likely to ever use it, but it was plenty enough to give me the _idea_ of a game I could play using the system and that was a lot of fun and what I tend to come here for anyway, so here's a +1 for vague and evocative!
I love the idea of using Spartoi in D&D, slay a dragon, harvest its teeth (gross), and be able to sow them and summon some dudes to fight along side you for a battle. maybe a D20 roll to see how many are harvested successfully.
I love this! I also think--if someone wanted to do this and wasn't married to using D&D for it--that Earthdawn's system with its focus on "leveling up" by building your legend status would be the perfect one to borrow/modify for this kind of campaign.
As real life finally got out of the way so I can finish watching the video in whole. I would absolutely love this as a full setting and set up. Not enough days in the week to add another game to schedule but will def consider weaving some of this into the next replacement campaign!
Even if I hadn't really enjoyed your thoughts on mythological-style D&D, I'd still give a Like just for talking about fuzzy set theory because that's an idea that I'd had so many half-baked thoughts about and now I have a conceptual framework and a name to put those to. Also, it sounds like your mother is really awesome and I'd love to see her make a guest appearance at some point to talk about something.
One of the legends in one of my campaigns is that there’s this walled city to the east coast that has the ocean on one side and a massive white stone wall on the other. To the west of this city is a swamp area filled with monsters. The idea is that before the wall, there was a massive mountain line. It’s been a while but the legend went that something happened to the mountains so the monsters from the swamp could get it, so that cities main goddess selected a champion to fight them off, and after winning, the champion took the stones from the destroyed mountain range to build the new wall single handily. There was a great story to it that was sort of cryptic and unbelievable yet provided an explanation for something and couldn’t be disproven, which I think fits as a nice blend of typical D&D legends and the sort of story you’d get from a Greek myth
I can't stress how badass this campaign setting is! OMG I legit want to run this! I was already planning a sea adventure around a giant whirlpool that would pull you off course but now I'm torn on this navigation mechanic
The navigation idea is fantastic, because technically each time you leave an island, all of them change. Say you leave the island and go to mid sea. That last island would be 6, and if the closest number to your destination is 6, you can describe it like “the islanders look at the party, befuddled by their reappearance...” or make up how time has passed and a new issue has arisen.
Silliness seems to be a such core concept on this ideas. Really makes me want to give this homebrew "semi-system" a try. Loved the idea of playing with the bloodlines for humans, makes it stand out from plain fantasy and motivate for everyone to start with humans
The way i might deal with druids is give them only one thing they can wildshape into so they're more like werewolves. Or maybe get ride of the druids but take the ability to change specific animal and either give to another class or put it on the bloodline chart
My copy arrived too!! It's so nice! Might get to go back to D&D at some point. I've largely abandoned it in favour of other systems that do what I want better. Anytime someone mentions or I see the Tuatha de Dannan in games my broken brain immediately thinks of the yogourt and chimes in "Mmmm, Dannon!"
You've always been a cartoon cat. We thought you knew. In any case, that navigation thing at the end is pretty brilliant. The GM doesn't have to know where anything is, though. Greek myth geography was so weird, that just giving the target an arbitrary number for it's direction would work. However, what you could do is have a hidden chart showing how close they are to the current quest. And, how close on the clock they roll improves, or moves them away, from their quest goal.
Or, a non-hidden chart. The Players don't know where the Main Objective is, all they know is that when they rolled that 3, they moved slightly closer to the quest goal
Absolutely in love with that navigation system just from that brief description and now I really wanna be in an island hopping campaign with that in use!
Myth as a storytelling genre is something that I had a vague understanding of, but 30 minutes ago I couldn't have articulated what is exclusively within that genre, nor how it is separate from fantasy storytelling. Honestly, this was really well done. Dael was like that cool university professor who is super passionate and knowledgeable about their subject, and is able to give both to those listening. Thank you for taking me to school, Dael!
Running a game of myth isn't exactly a goal of mine but several of those mechanics are amazing and I'm going to work them into my home games. Expand the bloodlines chart d&d style to include an interesting family heirloom, or a latent sorcerous cantrip or wildshape. Also a few random special abilities or skills. Running a firefly style campaign with a larger crew that way would also be pretty amazing. ...now I have some work to do. You always inspire me in the worst way. Stop it. And thank you.
wow, how timely! i have been fixated on this idea since recently rereading the "mythic fantasy" entry in the DMG. with your knowledge and background, i'll bet you could expand this into a whole series of videos. a few ideas i've been MUSING on: all higher CR (like CR 6 and above) creatures are "mythic", only one is known in the world and they are the result of some curse or god-meddling or deep lore event. the gods are more immediate, they are sometimes the questgivers, but can also be called upon by name for small boons (a la guidance or healing surges). this is the first age, all existing ruins/dungeons are of this current civilization (ie. a temple fallen because of the head priestess' hubris) and great swathes of wilderness have never been trod by humanoidkind. there is no codified religious text, but there is a known origin story (oral tradition) that the characters can trace to their current time and situation. i want them to feel a part of the mythos, that THEY are the story that will be told.
To give people their fill of Druid they could play a banished hunter of Artemis, cursed to be a bear or a stag, and only takes human form occasionally or something.
I have been loving your content for years now, since you were still back in high school. I think from nearly the very beginning. I hope you will continue for many years to come. You have a great way of telling a story. I love your artwork. It really adds to the story flavor, and your personality brings it all together to a be a very enjoyable channel. It doesn't hurt that you are beautiful, either.
Yeah. I think I found another Spirit RUclipsr of mine. Currently running a (on the verge of) Bronze Age Collapse campaign just absolutely drenched in the gods being everywhere (Then again, my own setting is also drenched in gods. You can't go three steps without stumbling across one who will absolutely get into your business)
I'm seeing how to do an archipelego hopping map in head which is interesting because we rarely map the sea itself. I can see it being like 'do you go around this island and brave the Maelstrom, or do you go the other way around the island where they say barbaric tritons live. Do you want to go this way around the island which has strong currents and winds which will require rolls to navigate and not capsize, or do you want to go this way around the island which is a dragon turtles hunting ground. Oh Oh a storm is coming, do you want to brave the storm or head back the other way. OK make your nav roll, you failed and the current sweeps you into the straights with the boulder throwing hill giants at the top.
Initially, I had a god system inspired names from Titans, then many campaigns later, we're in a scenario where a 'creator god' for want of a better term, founded the second order aka, the Olympians. Renamed my Celestial realm into Olympus, and so yes, the Greek Gods are deities in my high fantasy setting. I mention to the players that most Greek Myth stories that only involve the gods (no mortal related stories) are cannon (mainly because the amount of NPC's involved would be too vast and include many Greek places that don't feature in my world). I've made it aware to players that the gods will meddle in the affairs of men a lot more (with the hopes I can rope in some of the mortal stories in the future)
I believe that One could incorporate magic in a mythological world if they were to use Arabian or Chinese mythology. This is of course not the essence of this dialogue, but I would advocate for Arabian mythology in particular for groups that want to play spellcasters. The fantastical aspect of magic as a power of nature in the Arabian mythos is so abundant that the appearance of and/or player usage of magic would not breakdown the immersive feeling like it would if set in a Greco-Roman Style.
Periclymenus fought and eventually joined the Argonauts and he is described as fighting like a swarm of bees and having the strength of a bear or whatever. In most depictions of the fight he is literally turning into the animals. Druid
This is awesome. I have a Greek Mythology inspired setting and this has really gave me some ideas. There is stuff I already thought of and found different solutions, some better, some worse; mixed with stuff I encountered as problems and couldn't really solve; mixed with some stuff I hadn't considered. I love this video and would love to see a follow up.
Great video!! I really like the idea of a Blood Line Chart, especially if it could replace the feat that Varient Humans get. Keep up the great work!! 😁
I used a similar navigation system for a rogue trader game. The players got a predominantly blank map, and you use the hexes for movement - 6 faces and 6 corners gives you 12 movement, and I like how it makes distance a bit variable cos sailing. As they get encounters or intel you mark up their map on the fly, so they slowly learn how to move around the world
reminds me a little of the great Pendargon Campaign for the Pendragon RPG, and of course werewolf the apocaplyse where the story if it is done right will end in defeat.
Hey Dale, I have an idea that only you could pull off. What about working a bit with your mom on turning that thesis into a D&D supplement? Like, add stat blocks for creatures mentioned, throw together encounters based on what is said in there, make character descriptions and trap rolls or what have you. Like, all in the margins with the main text centered and in full or lightly edited. Edit out anything meant exclusively for academics, for example, though DMs may still like that. Maybe make section colors representing academic sections vs more directly usable ones? I obviously don't know the content of the thesis, so it may be completely different from what I'm imagining. But I wonder if this wouldn't be just completely amazing! Although with how beefy it is, maybe adding all that would turn it into multiple volumes? It would be a massive project too, so assuming you like this proposition I'd understand if this remains just a cool idea. Or if you don't even see this comment. Lol
In one of the Darkness comics (from Top Cow, of Witchblade fame), Jackie is hunting down evil souls in human bodies & finds an unkillable evil guy, who, even if chopped up, will regrow the parts. He is hiding on an old turkey farm & they catch Jackie & throw him into a deep well filled with old turkey shit. Of course, this triggers his Darkness abilities & he climbs out. He kills the bad guys, chops the limbs off the evil guy & throws him into the shit pit & says he will put a concrete top on it - being immortal or unkillable can be a real curse if your foes are clever -
There's a Batman comic where he puts a similarly unkillable villain into a pod and FIRES HIM INTO SPACE. Yeah. Definitely a curse. In fact, it would fit right in with the Greek tradition of blessings often being curses in disguise.
Really love the idea of the sea navigation. Might have to tinker with it and present it to my gm as a possible idea for the oceanic campaign they're prepping right now.
That navigation idea is really good. I wish I had had that a few months ago when I was running an island-hopping DnD game. I did something like the moves on PbtA instead and that worked out, but this is much more elegant.
Curious to hear what core differences you'd note between the fuzzy sets of Mediterranean mythology and Northern mythology. Off the cuff: more mystery, gods behave more like clans, the same focus on inescapable fate, not really tragic but sometimes senselessly cruel/unfair, way less magic, hrm, what else...
The Dragon lords book she mentioned has some similar ways of dealing with implementing classic myths in D&D. The Discord server is also pretty good for bouncing ideas off of other DMs. One thing about the druid point she brings up- what if the animal shifting were reskinned into a more divine feature? There many accounts of gods and godesses transforming themselves or others into animals (half the time Zeus courts someone he's an animal).
Personally, I'd use the Norse gods for such a setting, not because they fit better than the Greek gods in my mind, but because I feel like I need to have an equal or greater understanding of the gods than my players have in this sort of setting. Assuming a typical D&D playing group with fairly high levels of interest in mythology and fantasy, they'll probably have at least one expert on the Greek gods whose experienced will be ruined by my portrayal of them. Conversely, the Norse gods, I feel confident I could portray quite well with minimal amounts of research to remind me of what I have forgotten.
Interesting question about whether you would use the Greek gods as the D&D gods or not. In some ways, I think it would be cool to explore the canonical D&D gods in a Greek mythological context (Does that make sense?) I'd probably use the D&D gods for this reason, because it would be fun for example to play Kord as an actual NPC, rather than the more subtle way we deal with gods in "regular" campaigns. Active D&D gods would be fun to mess with. Great vid as always, Dael. Definitely going to incorporate the navigation idea into my campaign at some point, simply for the fun of it. (edit) P.S. More of this type of raw ideas video, I say! It was inspiring and neuron-firing.
One thing I immediately thought of in terms of item hoping is using blurbs from the twitter bot @str_voyage as like little bits of detail to have fun little things for the time in between islands
I have used the greek gods as the gods for my last campaign, They lived on a mountain that could be visited, but not accessed. The titans made for really interresting adversaries that wanted to break out of their prison and resume their fight with the olympians. I really liked it, but not all my players felt that it was good. The critique was mainly that some of our group knew more about Greek mythology than others did and felt lectured. Right now I'm using nordic mythology in the same manner with a new group. I think this makes for more realistic polytheistic cultures than many standard d&d mythologies, which frankly seem rather over thought out or like christianity with pantheons.
I think it would go something like this: Act 1 of the campaign: A noble in the local city-state asks the players to travel to a local oracle and get a tea leafe reading. They must face challenges to get to the Oracle. Act 2: They return with the reading. Political factions try to stop them, requiring intrigue and fights. Act 3: Based on the oracles reading the king declares war on an enemy city-state. The party is given a boat,. On the open seas a sea monster of some sort attacks. The party is blown off course. Act 4: The party must island hop home fighting monsters and challenges. act 5: They still have to get to and attack the enemy city-state which is protected by monsters and magic, foruntately they happen to have acquired all of the needed things from their island hopping.
Whenever Dael starts spinning ideas I just sit hear like "I want to play this. I need this to be thing. Where can I get the thing? Why can't I play the thing." And then I am just an awed girl going woah...
As a professional Bible scholar with a penchant for ancient near Eastern myth, I've always wanted to run a campaign set in the fertile crescent in either thr late bronze or early iron ages. This video has given me some good ideas for my own little Gilgamesh-inspired campaign
Im actually playing with the idea boons and banes as well sense in pulling back the high fantasy a bit for my next canpaigne and im giving the players a fate or luck stat (they choose which) and other choose fate they have a destiny and if they choose luck they have superstitions to keep their luck. (Maybe something more interesting for luck might be nice I'll keep cooking the idea). The other thing I'm making for this is the idea of final stand moment Machanic where you can spend your death saves for a heroic death. I thought id share this sense you gave me a good idea as well
Talking about epic artifacts, I once had an idea for something called The Lyre of Orpheus, it did some pretty cool shot, but it was a while ago & I stupidly didn't write it out. It's like the doss lute, but better/different, the abilities were at least partly based on Orpheus. I think one thing it could do was cast calm emotions a month other things
I do think that you should build around your character's powers, but only to highlight the value of the weaker powers like Courage and prevent the characters with powers like Invulnerability from getting complacent or feeling unthreatened by anything.
See if you can get a copy of Funk & Wagnall's "Standard Dictionary of Folklore". It's a MONSTROUS two volume set that covers everything mythology. Greek, Native American, Russian, Chinese, you name it. The text IS dated because you'll run across some language that makes you look sideways a couple times, but it's an amazing treasure trove of knowledge.
I'd probably construct a culture to work from with a host of 7/9/12/21/40 major dieties. Depending on how masochistic I felt whene working on the project. Thene I'd construct a few different city states for the region, separated into "Normal" Athens, Sparta, Tory, Ect. and "Mythic" Atlantis, the Isle of the Amazons, ect. City states that the players can be from. I'd also likely set up some kind of chart to determain what makes each character unique, Demi-God, Champion or Lover of a Diety, Slayer of some Great Beast, ect. I'd also start them getting their quest from a king por god they are not immediately affiliated with.
Interesting idea, love the idea! It'd be easier to work this into the D&D level framework if these things leveled up with your character. So if your "Courageous" character started with advantage on saving throws vs the frightened condition, they might eventually gain straight up immunity to it. And in between, there's a spectrum of benefits your character can accrue. Might also be interesting to give them a heroic flaw keyed to their ability/artifact/etc.
I think there are plenty examples of "druids" in Greek Myth, though they usually take the role of Antagonist or advisor of sorts. assuming you'd label Hags and Witches as being akin to a Druid.
I would love to do that navigations minigame! I honestly can't wait to cook up a homebrew campaign about this! Nitty gritty rules ideas: I would probably allow feats in-game, but only for ASIs starting at level 4. The combat focused ones like Sharpshooter, Great Weapon Master, and Crossbow Expert would probably level-restricted until level 8. I would also replace the Variant Human feat with the whole "bloodline chart" idea, and allow a Vuman three +1s to put anywhere as long as they don't stack 2 or more. I may get rid of standard humans altogether.
Worth knowing y'all, that the Players' Guide to Odyssey (a pdf with some of the stuff in the book Dael contemplated bludgeoning someone with) is FREE on DrivethruRPG!
I think druids would be good for representing the classic mythic archetype of the character who can transform into animals and/or speak with the birds and the beasts due to their wisdom. The Greek gods - and I do think minor or disguised gods would make good PCs - Perdix, Proteus (occasionally referred to as a demigod), Cornix, Melampus, Arion etc; plus in less greco-roman myth you've got figures like Ceridwen and Taliesin, Finn McCool, Merlin, Loki, Sigurd (who also has the dipped-in-liquid-so-invulnerable-except-one-spot thing), Tuan McCairill... My starting point for Achilles/Sigurd-style invulnerability in D&D would be the Tortle armour thing. AC 17 might seem a bit low for "invulnerability", but bear in mind this is a setting where armour is rare and shitty, and it has got gaps (not only is there a "weak spot", but logically the eyes, mouth etc. would also be vulnerable.) Maybe bump it up to 18, to match plate.
This sounds like a neat system, Dael. The portfolios as applied to Greek mythology certainly work. I do wonder about the other aspects of 5e deities, like how deities are omni-dimensional (across all multiverses) and omni-temporal. How would upper echelons work out, like with Ao or (supposedly) the Lady of Pain? Maybe that would just not apply for this setting. (Still, the thought of Zeus under the thumb of some higher power is quite amusing.) I really appreciate your explanation on the fundamental differences between Fantasy settings and Classical settings. All very good food for thought!
Where can I find this bloodlines chart???
Threw some photos of them up onto the subreddit!
Thankyouuu!!✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧
Which Colville vid was this?
@@VestedLemon Birthright, I think?
@Fiona Kriner Check the Reddit comments for the other chart
I was today years old when I realized that MonarchsFactory = KingsMill
Didn't realize that until this comment.
I didn’t realize it until I puzzled over this comment for a minute.
Hey! There goes John Jacob Jingelheimerschmidt.
John Jacob Jingelheimerschmidt First of all, it seems you’re smarter than me. Second, thanks for pointing that out.
@@leem4386 Oh shit, his name is my name too!
very clever of Dael to weather the map to add to its ambience
10:36 - "We must collect the three dinglehoppers from the guards to appease the something-or-other." I would watch that episode and run that campaign.
This is such a cool idea! I was thinking about the druids and wildshape though, I get that Druid doesn't really fit the feel of greek mythology, but Wildshape is something that the Gods used like all.the.time. Especially Zeus, so might be cool to add it to the bloodline chart?
It actually is on the bloodlines chart! Only high up on the divine ancestry table, though, since I've literally only been able to identify one non-god character from mythology capable of shapeshifting like that.
@@MonarchsFactory I know I'm coming in kind of late, but is that character Periclymenus? Because that was the hero that first came to mind for wildshape in mythology
@@jerbear84 The very same! Well done!
A Druid could be reskinned as a priest of Pan, Artemis or Demeter.
I really want my retainer to be a nigh-immortal demigod, stooging around for some loser with a conch shell that predicts the weather.
Good example of a similar relationship in a more recent novel series. Tales of the Malazan, Book of the Fallen. Hope you like long series though to see it.
So a nokia phone.
Wait wait hol' up.
We need your mom to do a guest spot about her favorite story.
I typically run my games in a Greek focused setting, but I have never thought to make it a Mythology genre. I really loved the ideas.
The navigation is perfect as well. Thanks for the content.
"An immunity of stabbing does not equate to immunity of trickery." This was a phrase I would tell people when they'd speak of their characters being extremely difficult to kill or harm. This whole video was really great and I like this "From the Drawing Board" kinda format. Hopefully you'll make more stuff like this! :D
I honestly kinda like your navigation idea, might have to steal and modify it for my own system.
"Birthright" campaign had blood lines, and one could become an legendary animal. Druids fit well into this.
Note for the faint of heart; this is long. Sorry! I love the video Dael!
Recently, I began work on a D&D setting for my home game inspired by Greek mythology. It is called Ianne, and so far I'm fairly happy with it. But what's important to note that my goal has not been, nor was it ever, to recreate mythological, Hellenistic Greece. The reason is because, as you've outlined in a many marvelous ways, Greek mythology and the type of fantasy that D&D assumes don't always mesh in the cleanest ways. Furthermore, my goal when creating content for D&D is that it is both receptive of as many character types as possible, and that the content could ostensibly work in any D&D setting. For me, this is a core and central tenant. The game comes first, and in my opinion the freedom of player choice is paramount to the game.
As such, when I set out to begin work on Ianne, I decided that there were certain things that I felt were core setting beats that needed to be hit in order for the setting to succeed;
1. The Gods are Important and Their Presence is Felt.
Clerics often serve as the representatives of the divine in other settings, but on Ianne the gods are a central aspect of life. The fate of a voyage could be decided by whether proper tribute was paid to the goddess of the sea, the blessing of the god of protection may decide the outcome of a city, etc.
2. This World is Not the Oldest.
D&D often inspires the desire to delve into ancient ruins and uncover forgotten lore and treasure. The game has a base assumption that the world is old. Luckily, Hellenistic Greece already has a seed for this planted within it, wherein the Greeks already had the idea that they were sort of the 2nd go-around at things, age-wise. As such, incorporating the idea that the stuff of mythic legend not only happens in the here and now, but has happened throughout history. Thus, seeds for adventure are easy to place
3. The City-State is Definitive of How Society is Structured.
Hellenistic Greece was broken up into various city-states, and didn't really ever consider itself a single nation and yet certain aesthetic motifs and styles remain somewhat consistent. In D&D terms, this makes it easy to create places with strong identities in their own right that retain a cohesive whole. Recreating the exact system of city-states isn't necessary, but having one gives a lot of creative breathing room.
4. Races/Ancestries Are Varied, and Include All Races from the PHB and More.
I felt this was vital to my design ethos, and is probably the thing that most people will disagree with. While one could easily create different "races" for humans to allow for variety, I feel that trying to adhere to a rigid, classical view of what a mythic Greece looks like and has with regards to it's people is both a bit of a waste as well as ill-fitting for the type of game D&D wants one to play. As such, I went in the direction of inclusivity rather than exclusivity. Odyssey of the Dragonlords does something similar, and states that "...you will encounter familiar tropes, monsters, and treasures from Greek mythology-but the rules are different here...the world of Thylea blends high fantasy with the trappings of ancient history." With this mindset, having all the races in the PHB stops being an issue, as well as opens up the doors for all sorts of fun options for ancestries such as gorgons and minotaurs.
In conclusion, I'd like to point at Magic: the Gathering's worldbuilding as a good benchmark for where to start, and not just Theros! Though that is the direct comparison, seeing how the game handles worlds that are based on top-down ideas provides a lot of insight into how to have a high-fantasy spin on different places. Theros has krakens in spite of them not originating from Greece because of modern associations that their audience has with Greece. Innistrad's Markov Manor takes more from Castlevania than it does actual Romanesque and Gothic architecture, but it remains distinctly in-flavor with the gothic horror setting. To quote Mike Linnemann on the subject; "How much realism do you want in your fantasy setting?" In this case, I'd argue that less is more, and invoking the feeling of a mythological, Hellenistic Greece is infinitely more important than accurately portraying it.
Absolutely feel In love with this odyssey of the dragon Lords!! I feel like it's brings DND back to an old school feel but using 5e.
I'm running a mini campaign of episodic one shots based in the mythic Mediterranean. Great video, I'm going to have my characters make some retainers. Last session I had a near TPK due to some sirens, harpies, and a rocky shore. Having that extra back up will be a great tool. So far I'm really enjoying the simplicity of running a human-centric group with classical myths that I've been reading since child hood. It really makes prep easy and finally all those years of geeking on on the Greeks is paying dividens. Great work on the video!
The navigation minigame sounds really cool! I'm starting a westmarches game soon and I'm seriously considering stealing this, it would work fine on land in an unexplored area. Yeah, I know you wanted to go to the crystal mines, but you screwed up your navigation roll and now you're in a den of ogres. good luck.
Really enjoyed the background music in the video. While it was subtle it still gave the video a really cool feeling, in my opinion. As always thanks for your A+ content.
"Boy wonder booty call" is my new favorite phrase & I'm going to find out how to use it daily
In this video: Dael unknowingly stumbles upon Gygax's original thoughts on heroes in D&D.
Watching this, I can't help but notice that Beowulf seems to fit more into the classical hero tropes box than the medieval hero tropes box. It also feels a bit like classical hero teams are a bit like "the Avengers go a viking!", which now that I've written it, would be awesome!
I ran two classical myth campaigns and the players loved them! I didn’t make any special rules apart from an alternate alignment system that bestowed “Glory” and “Shame” on the PCs. Each campaign did have a Druid PC, and just the fact that they could wild shape was so significant that it was often a driving plot point. I’ll scope out the subreddit and share my ideas and experiences.
Btw, thanks for beating the drum for Odyssey of the Dragonlords Dael. I wouldn't have discovered the kickstarter otherwise and can't wait to Dm it.
As one of your regular viewers that watches way more videos than he plays games, I've gotta say I definitely enjoyed the half-baked From the Drawing Board style; I don't _need_ a fleshed-out ready-to-play system because I'm not likely to ever use it, but it was plenty enough to give me the _idea_ of a game I could play using the system and that was a lot of fun and what I tend to come here for anyway, so here's a +1 for vague and evocative!
I love the idea of using Spartoi in D&D, slay a dragon, harvest its teeth (gross), and be able to sow them and summon some dudes to fight along side you for a battle. maybe a D20 roll to see how many are harvested successfully.
I love this! I also think--if someone wanted to do this and wasn't married to using D&D for it--that Earthdawn's system with its focus on "leveling up" by building your legend status would be the perfect one to borrow/modify for this kind of campaign.
Wow. This is great. I'm most certainly using this. Thanks!
As real life finally got out of the way so I can finish watching the video in whole. I would absolutely love this as a full setting and set up. Not enough days in the week to add another game to schedule but will def consider weaving some of this into the next replacement campaign!
Even if I hadn't really enjoyed your thoughts on mythological-style D&D, I'd still give a Like just for talking about fuzzy set theory because that's an idea that I'd had so many half-baked thoughts about and now I have a conceptual framework and a name to put those to.
Also, it sounds like your mother is really awesome and I'd love to see her make a guest appearance at some point to talk about something.
Yo, this is so perfect. Last night I had my friends roll up now characters and let them pick an epic boon to start with.
One of the legends in one of my campaigns is that there’s this walled city to the east coast that has the ocean on one side and a massive white stone wall on the other. To the west of this city is a swamp area filled with monsters. The idea is that before the wall, there was a massive mountain line. It’s been a while but the legend went that something happened to the mountains so the monsters from the swamp could get it, so that cities main goddess selected a champion to fight them off, and after winning, the champion took the stones from the destroyed mountain range to build the new wall single handily. There was a great story to it that was sort of cryptic and unbelievable yet provided an explanation for something and couldn’t be disproven, which I think fits as a nice blend of typical D&D legends and the sort of story you’d get from a Greek myth
I can't stress how badass this campaign setting is! OMG I legit want to run this!
I was already planning a sea adventure around a giant whirlpool that would pull you off course but now I'm torn on this navigation mechanic
The navigation idea is fantastic, because technically each time you leave an island, all of them change. Say you leave the island and go to mid sea. That last island would be 6, and if the closest number to your destination is 6, you can describe it like “the islanders look at the party, befuddled by their reappearance...” or make up how time has passed and a new issue has arisen.
That minigame is genius I'm using it for overland travel now
I was totally reminded of Wittgenstein's family resemblance theory. You should check that out. amazing video!
Silliness seems to be a such core concept on this ideas. Really makes me want to give this homebrew "semi-system" a try. Loved the idea of playing with the bloodlines for humans, makes it stand out from plain fantasy and motivate for everyone to start with humans
The way i might deal with druids is give them only one thing they can wildshape into so they're more like werewolves. Or maybe get ride of the druids but take the ability to change specific animal and either give to another class or put it on the bloodline chart
Or perhaps be able to turn other people into animals like we see ALOT of the greek gods do
My copy arrived too!! It's so nice! Might get to go back to D&D at some point. I've largely abandoned it in favour of other systems that do what I want better.
Anytime someone mentions or I see the Tuatha de Dannan in games my broken brain immediately thinks of the yogourt and chimes in "Mmmm, Dannon!"
You've always been a cartoon cat. We thought you knew.
In any case, that navigation thing at the end is pretty brilliant. The GM doesn't have to know where anything is, though. Greek myth geography was so weird, that just giving the target an arbitrary number for it's direction would work. However, what you could do is have a hidden chart showing how close they are to the current quest. And, how close on the clock they roll improves, or moves them away, from their quest goal.
Or, a non-hidden chart. The Players don't know where the Main Objective is, all they know is that when they rolled that 3, they moved slightly closer to the quest goal
Absolutely in love with that navigation system just from that brief description and now I really wanna be in an island hopping campaign with that in use!
Myth as a storytelling genre is something that I had a vague understanding of, but 30 minutes ago I couldn't have articulated what is exclusively within that genre, nor how it is separate from fantasy storytelling.
Honestly, this was really well done. Dael was like that cool university professor who is super passionate and knowledgeable about their subject, and is able to give both to those listening.
Thank you for taking me to school, Dael!
Running a game of myth isn't exactly a goal of mine but several of those mechanics are amazing and I'm going to work them into my home games. Expand the bloodlines chart d&d style to include an interesting family heirloom, or a latent sorcerous cantrip or wildshape. Also a few random special abilities or skills. Running a firefly style campaign with a larger crew that way would also be pretty amazing. ...now I have some work to do. You always inspire me in the worst way. Stop it. And thank you.
wow, how timely! i have been fixated on this idea since recently rereading the "mythic fantasy" entry in the DMG. with your knowledge and background, i'll bet you could expand this into a whole series of videos. a few ideas i've been MUSING on:
all higher CR (like CR 6 and above) creatures are "mythic", only one is known in the world and they are the result of some curse or god-meddling or deep lore event.
the gods are more immediate, they are sometimes the questgivers, but can also be called upon by name for small boons (a la guidance or healing surges).
this is the first age, all existing ruins/dungeons are of this current civilization (ie. a temple fallen because of the head priestess' hubris) and great swathes of wilderness have never been trod by humanoidkind.
there is no codified religious text, but there is a known origin story (oral tradition) that the characters can trace to their current time and situation. i want them to feel a part of the mythos, that THEY are the story that will be told.
This was really good! Agree about druids and nonhumans!
To give people their fill of Druid they could play a banished hunter of Artemis, cursed to be a bear or a stag, and only takes human form occasionally or something.
celtic war goddess morrigan could always use the service of a druid without it being out-side plot relevance...
I have been loving your content for years now, since you were still back in high school. I think from nearly the very beginning. I hope you will continue for many years to come. You have a great way of telling a story. I love your artwork. It really adds to the story flavor, and your personality brings it all together to a be a very enjoyable channel.
It doesn't hurt that you are beautiful, either.
Yeah. I think I found another Spirit RUclipsr of mine. Currently running a (on the verge of) Bronze Age Collapse campaign just absolutely drenched in the gods being everywhere
(Then again, my own setting is also drenched in gods. You can't go three steps without stumbling across one who will absolutely get into your business)
I'm seeing how to do an archipelego hopping map in head which is interesting because we rarely map the sea itself. I can see it being like 'do you go around this island and brave the Maelstrom, or do you go the other way around the island where they say barbaric tritons live. Do you want to go this way around the island which has strong currents and winds which will require rolls to navigate and not capsize, or do you want to go this way around the island which is a dragon turtles hunting ground. Oh Oh a storm is coming, do you want to brave the storm or head back the other way. OK make your nav roll, you failed and the current sweeps you into the straights with the boulder throwing hill giants at the top.
I got my book in the mail over a month ago. So good
Initially, I had a god system inspired names from Titans, then many campaigns later, we're in a scenario where a 'creator god' for want of a better term, founded the second order aka, the Olympians. Renamed my Celestial realm into Olympus, and so yes, the Greek Gods are deities in my high fantasy setting. I mention to the players that most Greek Myth stories that only involve the gods (no mortal related stories) are cannon (mainly because the amount of NPC's involved would be too vast and include many Greek places that don't feature in my world).
I've made it aware to players that the gods will meddle in the affairs of men a lot more (with the hopes I can rope in some of the mortal stories in the future)
Very much enjoyed this!
As someone with a classics degree, this makes me mega happy! So cool!
This is amazing. Great job. Your videos have inspired me in my campaign to have "epic" players with "dangerous" bad guys.
I believe that One could incorporate magic in a mythological world if they were to use Arabian or Chinese mythology. This is of course not the essence of this dialogue, but I would advocate for Arabian mythology in particular for groups that want to play spellcasters. The fantastical aspect of magic as a power of nature in the Arabian mythos is so abundant that the appearance of and/or player usage of magic would not breakdown the immersive feeling like it would if set in a Greco-Roman Style.
Periclymenus fought and eventually joined the Argonauts and he is described as fighting like a swarm of bees and having the strength of a bear or whatever. In most depictions of the fight he is literally turning into the animals. Druid
This is such a fantastic blend of myth and fantasy. I love it and am totally inspired to run an island hopping game. Thanks!!!
I would recommend looking into Runequest & Mythras which are made for mythological roleplaying.
I have used Aslan as a God in DND when my kids were younger.
really like the navigate thing
This is awesome. I have a Greek Mythology inspired setting and this has really gave me some ideas. There is stuff I already thought of and found different solutions, some better, some worse; mixed with stuff I encountered as problems and couldn't really solve; mixed with some stuff I hadn't considered. I love this video and would love to see a follow up.
Great video!! I really like the idea of a Blood Line Chart, especially if it could replace the feat that Varient Humans get. Keep up the great work!! 😁
I used a similar navigation system for a rogue trader game. The players got a predominantly blank map, and you use the hexes for movement - 6 faces and 6 corners gives you 12 movement, and I like how it makes distance a bit variable cos sailing.
As they get encounters or intel you mark up their map on the fly, so they slowly learn how to move around the world
reminds me a little of the great Pendargon Campaign for the Pendragon RPG, and of course werewolf the apocaplyse where the story if it is done right will end in defeat.
Hey Dale, I have an idea that only you could pull off. What about working a bit with your mom on turning that thesis into a D&D supplement? Like, add stat blocks for creatures mentioned, throw together encounters based on what is said in there, make character descriptions and trap rolls or what have you. Like, all in the margins with the main text centered and in full or lightly edited. Edit out anything meant exclusively for academics, for example, though DMs may still like that. Maybe make section colors representing academic sections vs more directly usable ones?
I obviously don't know the content of the thesis, so it may be completely different from what I'm imagining. But I wonder if this wouldn't be just completely amazing!
Although with how beefy it is, maybe adding all that would turn it into multiple volumes? It would be a massive project too, so assuming you like this proposition I'd understand if this remains just a cool idea. Or if you don't even see this comment. Lol
In one of the Darkness comics (from Top Cow, of Witchblade fame), Jackie is hunting down evil souls in human bodies & finds an unkillable evil guy, who, even if chopped up, will regrow the parts. He is hiding on an old turkey farm & they catch Jackie & throw him into a deep well filled with old turkey shit. Of course, this triggers his Darkness abilities & he climbs out. He kills the bad guys, chops the limbs off the evil guy & throws him into the shit pit & says he will put a concrete top on it - being immortal or unkillable can be a real curse if your foes are clever -
There's a Batman comic where he puts a similarly unkillable villain into a pod and FIRES HIM INTO SPACE.
Yeah. Definitely a curse. In fact, it would fit right in with the Greek tradition of blessings often being curses in disguise.
The fuzzy genre thing sounds a lot like Wittgenstein's "family resemblance". Good stuff.
Really love the idea of the sea navigation. Might have to tinker with it and present it to my gm as a possible idea for the oceanic campaign they're prepping right now.
That navigation idea is really good. I wish I had had that a few months ago when I was running an island-hopping DnD game. I did something like the moves on PbtA instead and that worked out, but this is much more elegant.
It was neat listening through and hearing how similar this wound up to Agon, another RPG based on Greek myth
Curious to hear what core differences you'd note between the fuzzy sets of Mediterranean mythology and Northern mythology. Off the cuff: more mystery, gods behave more like clans, the same focus on inescapable fate, not really tragic but sometimes senselessly cruel/unfair, way less magic, hrm, what else...
The Dragon lords book she mentioned has some similar ways of dealing with implementing classic myths in D&D. The Discord server is also pretty good for bouncing ideas off of other DMs. One thing about the druid point she brings up- what if the animal shifting were reskinned into a more divine feature? There many accounts of gods and godesses transforming themselves or others into animals (half the time Zeus courts someone he's an animal).
"Perfect, this will save me so much trouble, it actually didn't save me so much trouble."
This just describes my workday in a nutshell.
Personally, I'd use the Norse gods for such a setting, not because they fit better than the Greek gods in my mind, but because I feel like I need to have an equal or greater understanding of the gods than my players have in this sort of setting. Assuming a typical D&D playing group with fairly high levels of interest in mythology and fantasy, they'll probably have at least one expert on the Greek gods whose experienced will be ruined by my portrayal of them. Conversely, the Norse gods, I feel confident I could portray quite well with minimal amounts of research to remind me of what I have forgotten.
Wait is From the Drawing Board a series I didn't recognize as such? Because if so, excellent and good.
Just started DM-ing my own odyssey of the dragonlords campaign, it's freaking awesome
Interesting question about whether you would use the Greek gods as the D&D gods or not. In some ways, I think it would be cool to explore the canonical D&D gods in a Greek mythological context (Does that make sense?)
I'd probably use the D&D gods for this reason, because it would be fun for example to play Kord as an actual NPC, rather than the more subtle way we deal with gods in "regular" campaigns. Active D&D gods would be fun to mess with.
Great vid as always, Dael. Definitely going to incorporate the navigation idea into my campaign at some point, simply for the fun of it.
(edit) P.S. More of this type of raw ideas video, I say! It was inspiring and neuron-firing.
I have no idea what your talking about but there something about your talking that I get hypnotized by.👍😎👍
One thing I immediately thought of in terms of item hoping is using blurbs from the twitter bot @str_voyage as like little bits of detail to have fun little things for the time in between islands
I really like that navigation homebrew, gonna think about adding that into games
Will this be the one that gets me to dive into The Kingsmill Backlog of Mythology videos as compared to strictly D&D videos? Probably.
I have used the greek gods as the gods for my last campaign, They lived on a mountain that could be visited, but not accessed. The titans made for really interresting adversaries that wanted to break out of their prison and resume their fight with the olympians. I really liked it, but not all my players felt that it was good. The critique was mainly that some of our group knew more about Greek mythology than others did and felt lectured. Right now I'm using nordic mythology in the same manner with a new group. I think this makes for more realistic polytheistic cultures than many standard d&d mythologies, which frankly seem rather over thought out or like christianity with pantheons.
Its a grey morning..
RUclips notification...
ITS A DAEL DAY!!!
OK... now we need links to buy your mom's book...
I think it would go something like this: Act 1 of the campaign: A noble in the local city-state asks the players to travel to a local oracle and get a tea leafe reading. They must face challenges to get to the Oracle. Act 2: They return with the reading. Political factions try to stop them, requiring intrigue and fights. Act 3: Based on the oracles reading the king declares war on an enemy city-state. The party is given a boat,. On the open seas a sea monster of some sort attacks. The party is blown off course. Act 4: The party must island hop home fighting monsters and challenges. act 5: They still have to get to and attack the enemy city-state which is protected by monsters and magic, foruntately they happen to have acquired all of the needed things from their island hopping.
Really awesome video, cool topic. Love it when you talk about mythology.
phb has a pantheon listing with celtic/greek entities(appendix b pg 258). not any less table ready than Forgotten realms polytheistic setting
I love the idea of the navigation minigame! Totally going to steal that for a future seafaring campaign (if I remember to!) :)
That was amazing! Please keep up the wonderful content!
Whenever Dael starts spinning ideas I just sit hear like "I want to play this. I need this to be thing. Where can I get the thing? Why can't I play the thing."
And then I am just an awed girl going woah...
As a professional Bible scholar with a penchant for ancient near Eastern myth, I've always wanted to run a campaign set in the fertile crescent in either thr late bronze or early iron ages. This video has given me some good ideas for my own little Gilgamesh-inspired campaign
13th Age would be a very good rule system for a Greek Mythology campaing xD
Using the gods as icons or something
Im actually playing with the idea boons and banes as well sense in pulling back the high fantasy a bit for my next canpaigne and im giving the players a fate or luck stat (they choose which) and other choose fate they have a destiny and if they choose luck they have superstitions to keep their luck. (Maybe something more interesting for luck might be nice I'll keep cooking the idea). The other thing I'm making for this is the idea of final stand moment Machanic where you can spend your death saves for a heroic death. I thought id share this sense you gave me a good idea as well
Talking about epic artifacts, I once had an idea for something called The Lyre of Orpheus, it did some pretty cool shot, but it was a while ago & I stupidly didn't write it out. It's like the doss lute, but better/different, the abilities were at least partly based on Orpheus. I think one thing it could do was cast calm emotions a month other things
I do think that you should build around your character's powers, but only to highlight the value of the weaker powers like Courage and prevent the characters with powers like Invulnerability from getting complacent or feeling unthreatened by anything.
See if you can get a copy of Funk & Wagnall's "Standard Dictionary of Folklore". It's a MONSTROUS two volume set that covers everything mythology. Greek, Native American, Russian, Chinese, you name it. The text IS dated because you'll run across some language that makes you look sideways a couple times, but it's an amazing treasure trove of knowledge.
I can already hear my parents saying "look it up in your funk n wagnalls" carrying in on the wind...
I'd probably construct a culture to work from with a host of 7/9/12/21/40 major dieties. Depending on how masochistic I felt whene working on the project. Thene I'd construct a few different city states for the region, separated into "Normal" Athens, Sparta, Tory, Ect. and "Mythic" Atlantis, the Isle of the Amazons, ect. City states that the players can be from. I'd also likely set up some kind of chart to determain what makes each character unique, Demi-God, Champion or Lover of a Diety, Slayer of some Great Beast, ect. I'd also start them getting their quest from a king por god they are not immediately affiliated with.
Interesting idea, love the idea! It'd be easier to work this into the D&D level framework if these things leveled up with your character. So if your "Courageous" character started with advantage on saving throws vs the frightened condition, they might eventually gain straight up immunity to it. And in between, there's a spectrum of benefits your character can accrue. Might also be interesting to give them a heroic flaw keyed to their ability/artifact/etc.
I think there are plenty examples of "druids" in Greek Myth, though they usually take the role of Antagonist or advisor of sorts. assuming you'd label Hags and Witches as being akin to a Druid.
I would love to do that navigations minigame! I honestly can't wait to cook up a homebrew campaign about this!
Nitty gritty rules ideas:
I would probably allow feats in-game, but only for ASIs starting at level 4. The combat focused ones like Sharpshooter, Great Weapon Master, and Crossbow Expert would probably level-restricted until level 8.
I would also replace the Variant Human feat with the whole "bloodline chart" idea, and allow a Vuman three +1s to put anywhere as long as they don't stack 2 or more. I may get rid of standard humans altogether.
This is amazing!
Worth knowing y'all, that the Players' Guide to Odyssey (a pdf with some of the stuff in the book Dael contemplated bludgeoning someone with) is FREE on DrivethruRPG!
I think druids would be good for representing the classic mythic archetype of the character who can transform into animals and/or speak with the birds and the beasts due to their wisdom. The Greek gods - and I do think minor or disguised gods would make good PCs - Perdix, Proteus (occasionally referred to as a demigod), Cornix, Melampus, Arion etc; plus in less greco-roman myth you've got figures like Ceridwen and Taliesin, Finn McCool, Merlin, Loki, Sigurd (who also has the dipped-in-liquid-so-invulnerable-except-one-spot thing), Tuan McCairill...
My starting point for Achilles/Sigurd-style invulnerability in D&D would be the Tortle armour thing. AC 17 might seem a bit low for "invulnerability", but bear in mind this is a setting where armour is rare and shitty, and it has got gaps (not only is there a "weak spot", but logically the eyes, mouth etc. would also be vulnerable.) Maybe bump it up to 18, to match plate.
This sounds like a neat system, Dael. The portfolios as applied to Greek mythology certainly work. I do wonder about the other aspects of 5e deities, like how deities are omni-dimensional (across all multiverses) and omni-temporal. How would upper echelons work out, like with Ao or (supposedly) the Lady of Pain? Maybe that would just not apply for this setting. (Still, the thought of Zeus under the thumb of some higher power is quite amusing.)
I really appreciate your explanation on the fundamental differences between Fantasy settings and Classical settings.
All very good food for thought!
I know it's not "Mediterranean mythology", but Sun Wukong had wildshape.