D&D Mythic Odysseys of Theros sourcebook will take your campaign into a world of myth

If you’ve been a reader here for a while, you may remember my post about Odyssey of the Dragonlords, a really very good setting by two ex-Bioware developers with convincing track records. I’ve read through the Player’s Guide and Adventure now (and at 450 pages, it’s really more of a mega-adventure) and I highly recommend it. But I’m not bringing it up just to hype an excellent product but because it was a product set in a mythical land very much inspired by ancient Greece and Greek Mythology. I’m a huge fan of fantasy takes on mythological Greece, to the point where I wrote way too much about Assassins Creed Odyssey last year.

So when I saw that Wizards of the Coast was releasing a setting book called Mythic Odysseys of Theros, my responses were as follows:

1. A second D&D setting with a Greek mythology feel within the past two years? Awesome.
2. Did a bunch of pen and paper game devs play Assassins Creed Odyssey last year and decide they could make a D&D setting out of it? If so, great, I loved that game.
3. This should get the Magic: The Gathering fans excited.

That’s right, just like the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, Mythic Odyssey of Theros is rooted in MTG, it’s a plane in the setting and the 62nd expansion to the game. The Ravnica book was pretty dang good, so I’m feeling good about Theros and its completely different take on Greek mythology. Much like Odyssey of the Dragonlords, Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a very high fantasy approach to bringing themes of Greek myth into a D&D setting — it’s not trying to be strictly faithful to the myths, but to use them as a starting point to build a fantasy world for you to play in. What’s really cool about it is that it embraces the idea that the Gods are present and mortals can interact with them, even threaten them — it’s an idea that comes from the Iliad, where heroes like Achilles and Ajax actually came into direct conflict with beings like Apollo and Ares, even injuring them sometimes. Can any fan of Greek myths forget the Gigantomachy, where the Gods needed the aid of Heracles to defeat the Giants?

If you’re a new player, you may wonder what a campaign sourcebook is and how it’s useful to you. That depends on your DM and the campaign he’s running, but at the very least it will likely have new playable races and new feats and spells you could use to spice up your campaign. Campaign sourcebooks are generally of the most use to a DM who can either start a new game in the setting outlined by the book or can use it to help flesh out their own setting. If you want to run a game in a mythical Greece, or something inspired by it, Mythic Odysseys of Theros will have plenty for you to make use of.

I’m pretty excited by a resurgence of Greek myth-inspired D&D settings. Mythic Odysseys of Theros is slated for a June 2, 2020 release date, so there’s time to get ready to pick it up at your local game store or pre-order it at the Wizards site.