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So I have been reading Garden of the Gods and starting on page 14, it talks about some of the background of the island of Lopan and its sister island Phi. In this background story, it mentions the Lopanic Games as a thing that is done everything three years and is joined by nearly every nation and race in the Palladium Fantasy world. So, of course, I want to use this idea already.

I figure that this will be further fleshed out in the upcoming Lopan book that is still upcoming, but given that Palladium announces books then releases them years later, I want to start working on a version of this now.

So, what would something like the Lopanic games look like to you? What games would be invovled? GotG mentions that Empress Jeslynn is the "present" rule of Lopan, so would she be present at the games to "overlook" the whole thing? (I think of Jobba the Hutt in Episode One being present at the podrace) What would be some great adventure ideas that could take place during the Lopanic Games? Would the PCs participate in the games or just do everything they can to keep the games running? Just spitballing to see if I can get people thinking and posting here on this here forum.

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To be honest, I think they could be just about as wide open in scope as you would like.

I would probably use the ancient olympics as the core, with those events being run "no magic allowed". But magic could enable mundane events that wouldn't normally be possible, like being able to have enough warlocks/elementals on hand to flood a track for rowing events or small scale naval competitions as an example, enabling this sort of event to be handled even if it isn't near a convenient coast/river to flood an arena. I would imagine there would also be some events that specifically use magic, either to empower or to hinder the competitors in certain ways..

Beyond that, I would imagine this would be the sort of event that would draw some of the finest crafters around the world to display and sell their wares, take custom orders, and attempt to learn each other's secrets. I could also imagine anyone with some sort of mundane (or magical, I suppose) invention would do well to find a way to display it at an event of this scale to get exposure. This would also be a setting that I imagine would attract a lot of politically influential people around the world into a specific region making it a good place for intrigue and the building and breaking of alliances, trade agreements, etc. And, of course, any of this will bring the underworld sort of attention from gambling (of various fairness and reliability of payout), theft, sabotaging competitors to fix games/bets, and on up to assassinations possibly instigating regional or worldwide conflict. Followed by people who's job during the games will be to attempt to prevent all those sorts of things...

Even discounting the games as something to directly be involved in, they are certainly an environment that would allow players to be exposed to a lot of people, make a lot of contacts, and find plenty of trouble to avoid or in which to become embroiled... if the trouble doesn't find them first.

Eric42 wrote:So I have been reading Garden of the Gods and starting on page 14, it talks about some of the background of the island of Lopan and its sister island Phi. In this background story, it mentions the Lopanic Games as a thing that is done everything three years and is joined by nearly every nation and race in the Palladium Fantasy world. So, of course, I want to use this idea already.

I figure that this will be further fleshed out in the upcoming Lopan book that is still upcoming, but given that Palladium announces books then releases them years later, I want to start working on a version of this now.

So, what would something like the Lopanic games look like to you? What games would be invovled? GotG mentions that Empress Jeslynn is the "present" rule of Lopan, so would she be present at the games to "overlook" the whole thing? (I think of Jobba the Hutt in Episode One being present at the podrace) What would be some great adventure ideas that could take place during the Lopanic Games? Would the PCs participate in the games or just do everything they can to keep the games running? Just spitballing to see if I can get people thinking and posting here on this here forum.

My initial concept was they were no different than the Olympic Games but among the contests there would be other medieval sports like jousting, fencing, juggling, etc. However, it
was decided Lopanic Games would be a separate book from The Island of Lopan so as Travis said I would use Paul Herbert titled: The Lion, The Ditch & The Warlock. I'm hoping my
contribution will remain and that is its impossible to use magic in any fashion to cheat .

Prysus wrote:

Greetings and Salutations. Rifter #59 has an article by Paul Herbert titled: The Lion, The Ditch & The Warlock. This is an adventure that takes place on Lopan during the games. The author loved Palladium Fantasy (and I hope still does, but haven't seen him around for a while) and was a really great guy. He had a manuscript written about the Lopan Games, but not sure it anything more will come of it at this point. Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.

I'm sure Paul will be pleased to hear your kind words! Yes, he still loves PF - we play every week!
Paul's Lopanic Games manuscript covered rules for a whole load of mundane events (and the systems the organisers use to monitor for magic, psionic or ordinary cheating), many of them inspired by original Greek Olympic events, plus some medieval style events like jousting. We spent months developing rules for playing out racing, jumping, throwing, weightlifting and other events using the Palladium system (though I would probably alter a few things now with the benefit of years of hindsight!). Plus there was the "freestyle" games, which was a subset of the Lopanic games consisting of events that involve the use of magic.
He wrote up the history of the games, and the history of sport and leisure on the Palladium World; he had a "Hall of Fame" with adventure-hook info on current champions and past winners; there were details of the ceremonies, awards, gambling and rules of entry; the Lopanic Games Committee, organisers of the event; the Professional Athlete O.C.C.; a detailed write up of the city of Lopania, where the games are held; and a bunch of Hook, Line and Sinkers. Paul also wrote a lot of more general stuff about Lopan and Phi (which I won't go into here).
I might be biased, but I think it was really good. A few years ago it was announced on the website that Lopanic Games would be a separate book from Lopan, so we hoped that might be or at least include some stuff from Paul's submitted manuscript, but he didn't hear anything to indicate Kevin might want to use it, so I guess not.

Prysus wrote:

Greetings and Salutations. Rifter #59 has an article by Paul Herbert titled: The Lion, The Ditch & The Warlock. This is an adventure that takes place on Lopan during the games. The author loved Palladium Fantasy (and I hope still does, but haven't seen him around for a while) and was a really great guy. He had a manuscript written about the Lopan Games, but not sure it anything more will come of it at this point. Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.

Found it going down the rabbit hole looking for the "God Rebuilt" stuff. Sadly, I only have my phone and my data sucks on the weekends so I still have not loaded the stuff for it yet.

The stuff from the Rifter #59 looks great and I'll be reading it along side Garden of the Gods. Thanks for pointing it out though.