we serve elves

Robin Laws, Freelance Game Designer Extraordinary, has just had such a wonderfully evil idea that it is well-worth repeating: http://robin-d-laws.livejournal.com/205202.html The possibilities are just so amusing. Then again, I've always had fairly fully furnished communities on top of theentrances to my "dungeons" that existed to exploit the local resource (adventurers looking to explore the dungeon). Admittedly in one case it developed into a full fairground at the dungeon entrance, including concession stands ("Fairy Floss, Made By Real Fairies"), souvenier booths ("I visited Morgoth Castle and all I got was this lousy T-Tunic"), and even a dwarven-made steam-powered merry-go-round, in addition to the normal pharapenalia of dungeoneering supplies ("Ye Aulde Oeurphentic Donjon Mappes," "The Eleven-Foot Pole Dungeoneering Equipment Supply Store," "Gobbledok da Troll's Vegetarian Restaurant - We Serve Elves," "Dave's Multidimensional Trading Company," and other such merchantile ventures of ill repute. All of which grew fairly organically as people explored the Labyrinth beneath Morgoth Castle. Then again I wasn't the first to ever come up with this idea. When the elves took over Blackmoor Castle in Dave Arneson's Egg of Coot Society campaign (the forerunner of D&D) they installed turnstiles at the entrance (1gp entry) and sold t-shirts. On a more serious note, I recently picked up a copy of Agon, which does quite a good job of capturing the spirit of heroic greek myth in its mechanics and resolution system. At least it does it far better than the various other attempts at the genre, such as Lords of Olympus, Lands of Adventure, and countless D&D variants. Although I do admit that while The Hercules & Xena RPG was fairly true to its source material, it was not exactly a game of mythic proportions. The basis of the game is that players must compete for the glory of completing tasks for the gods, such as slaying the Golden Boar of Ion and taking its tusks. This is then broken down into a number of objectives that must be completed, some of which may be obvious or otherwise known to the players and some of which may need to be discovered. Succeeding in these objectives is resolved as a test against the character's abilities, with a difficulty that is generally dependant upon the player's approach to the problem. It would not even be too difficult to translate to other genres where individual glory is paramount, such as Vikings or Arthurian Knights.