The New Argonauts

Adventure in Mythic Greece
by Sean K Reynolds

As of November 1, 2006, this book can be downloaded for free from DriveThruRPG and RPGNow! Sales of the PDF had slowed to a trickle (it's almost two years old). Accounting for these little amounts was a hassle and no longer worth my time. I could have just pulled the book from the "virtual shelves," but I feel that we're all better off if works remain available even after they're not financially viable. So I've released the PDF for free. You can download it for free, make copies for anyone you want, and so on. Enjoy!

   This book by Sean K Reynolds gives you everything you need to run a campaign in mythic Greece. Rather than cramming dwarves, paladins, and otyughs into a Greek setting, The New Argonauts presents a low-magic campaign (but still with a touch of the fantastic and divine) where the focus is on Greek-style heroes, their battles against strange monsters, and great quests. This book gives insights on how a low-magic campaign affects character concepts and game balance, an overview of Greek culture, history, the Olympian pantheon, the original Olympic Games, and advice on running a mythic Greek campaign. Gamers who love crunchy bits can find new feats and spells, a set of heroic powers derived from godly bloodlines, a campaign-themed spellcasting class, simple magic items based on parts from mythic monsters, and over thirty monsters drawn from the Greek myths (many rewritten from the core version to suit a low-magic campaign).

   About the Cover Artist: Brooklyn-based illustrator Gerald Lee went through college thinking his soon-to-be mentor Tony DiTerlizzi was in fact a girl. Fortunately, Tony was amused by this mistake and agreed to take Gerald as an apprentice. Gerald has a certain knack for meeting great artists throughout the industry and applying what he learns from them (through trial and error and a lot of imagination) to his own art. Expect to see a lot more from his drawing board.

   (We'd like to point out something about The New Argonauts. While our goal at Sean K Reynolds Games is to provide quality game material that helps you better understand the rules of the game and important game design concepts, that mission statement congealed when The New Argonauts was about 75% finished. As a result, this book has less of an explanatory aspect than we intend for our future releases--it has some parts that talk to the reader explaining the reasoning for certain game design decisions, but it wasn't always intended for that purpose; don't buy it expecting a comprehensive look at the do's and do-not's of a low-magic campaign. It's not intended to be that and we don't want to disappoint anyone expecting it to be that. It's a sourcebook for a thematic low-magic campaign, with rules catering to that idea, and only secondarily is it a teaching tool for planning other low-magic campaigns. If you're looking for advice on running a low-magic campaign, you'll get some tips from this book but it's not a how-to guide for low-magic campaigns.)

64-page PDF, product number SKR002
Release date: October 31, 2004
Revised version 1.1 (errata, more readable maps) released March 14, 2005
Price: $7 (PDF), $12.95 or $12.00 (print) available from

• DriveThruRPG -- watermarked PDF (FREE, unlimited print/copy/paste)
• RPGnow.com -- print ($12.95) or traditional PDF (FREE, unlimited print/copy/paste)
• Lulu.com -- print ($12.00)

Related Product: Greek Counters of Doom from Fiery Dragon Publishing

Reviews: RPGnow #1, ENworld #1, RPGnow #2, ENworld #2, RPGnow #3, Silven Crossroads, D20zines, RPGnow #4, RPGnow #5, RPGnow #6,