The Olympics

Olympic Games in the Titanomachy

**The Olympics are next weekend, July 23rd-25th!** Rhea, the Queen of the Titans, Wife of Cronos, and mother of the elder Olympians, objects to the Gods and Titans interfering with the Olympics held at Olympia by faithful mortals in their honor. So she has made them all **swear a pact and drink deeply** from an enchanted basin. This drink **will limit their godly powers** from sunrise to sunset the days of the games, so they **must win or lose by their own merit**. Of course, some gods are sneakier than others... but the consequences for cheating will be severe. If they get caught.

**Details:** The games will be among the mortals. **Gods may be incognito or in disguise, but most of them have drunk Rhea's potion.** They are still immortal, but they have lost their godly powers, godly strength and speed, etc. **Players are welcome to bring mortal NPCs to the Olympics.** As athletes, as vendors, as artists, antagonists, courtesans, priestesses, etc. Even minor mortal myth characters are options, just check with a mod.

## Scene Summaries

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

## Locations

 **Kladeos Baths** | The baths were built to service the needs of the athletes, since they used them to wash after training or after the Olympic Games. In those days, athletes would rub their body with oil and then throw dust on it during training, in order to improve their performance. This was a time-consuming process, but it was necessary and followed a certain ritual. The cleaning of their body after training sessions and sport competitions was very important for the athletes.First, they used the strigil to scrape the oils and dust off their bodies. Then, they were massaged to soothe the nervous system. The last part was the ‘cleansing’ of the body and soul with water.
 **Tent City** | The tent city is full of dark alcoves, tents for rent or for sale, performers and "performers" of any variety you might prefer. The various *hetairai* (courtesans) and *pornai* (prostitutes) have set up elaborate rooms and, while one might certainly employ them, they also have plenty of gossip, clever fingers, and secret backways through the tent city.
 **The Symposium** | *"The symposium was an important part of ancient Greek culture from the 7th century BCE and was a party held in a private home where Greek males gathered to drink, eat and sing together. Various topics were also discussed such as philosophy, politics, poetry and the issues of the day. The symposium was open only to Greek males and the only women permitted were the hetairai - high class prostitutes trained in music (especially the aulos or flute), dance, gymnastics and high culture."*Gods have an interesting way of getting into any space they so choose, however... This party is being held in a massive series of tents with drink a plenty.
 **The Pankration** | 1. There were only two rules in the pankration – no biting and no gouging.
2. Boxers were urged to avoid attacking the on-display genitals
3. There were no points, no time limits and no weight classifications in the boxing
4. Athletes in the combat sports had to indicate their surrender by raising their index fingers – at times they died before they could do this
5. Boxers who could not be separated could opt for klimax, a system whereby one fighter was granted a free hit and then vice-versa – a toss of a coin decided who went first

## OOC Competition Mechanics

Sign up in advance by posting in #ooc-olympics and tagging @mod . Each race can take 3-4 PC contestants. Please be ready to be present for the whole hour of the race you're competing in.

### **Round order**

There isn't a turn order, but you can't move on to the next step until everyone has completed the prior one.

**Step 1.** Everyone rolls in the dice channel.

**Step 2.** Negotiate any unsportsmanlike behavior in the die roll channel. Either requesting to justify a bad roll ('I rolled for shit, anyone want to distract me?') or offering opt-in shenanigans ('I'm distracting you, here's how, opt in if you like'). This is **opt in**. You are free to say another character's attempt at messing with yours didn't work. Play to lose, play to lift, and have fun with it!

Receiving players decide how well any interference works (if at all) and adjust their running total score accordingly.

Ex: Apollo rolls a 30. Eris throws a golden apple to distract Apollo. His player decides that distraction would work, and reduces his roll for the round to 25 instead.

**Step 3.** Everyone makes RP posts in the RP channel. Your description of actions should be very short - less than 4 sentences. Please include a running total of your score in parenthesis for easy tracking by other players.

Start the next round.

### **Mechanics**

We'll be using the dice bot to resolve the athletic competitions.

!3D10e[10]+0 <--- The bot command you'll need for... everything, just edit the appropriate modifier (see below)

* Chariot/foot races: Each race goes to 100 "meters"
* Pankration (Greek no holds barred martial arts): When you reach 100 points "you've knocked your opponent out"
* Discus/Archery: You make three rolls ("shots" or "throws"), and use the best for your final score.

Roll 3d10 (exploding 10s) each round to figure out how far you've made it. For being a god-playing-mortal, you get +1 to each role. If the event is in your domain, you get +2 to each role instead. (Hermes at Foot Races, Artemis at Archery, etc.)

If you roll a 3-6 total, something has gone very amiss. A 27-30+, something has gone very well.

Roll once, wait for everyone else to roll, then post. Your description of actions should be very short- less than 4 sentences. You should include your rolls so far in parenthesis.

For races and pankration, your post should also contain a running total of your score (22m your first post, you roll 15, 37m your next post, etc. You can do this more easily by adding your prior round's score in your next bot roll like so: !3D10e[10]+1+22 just make sure you don't have any spaces)

For archery and discus, your top score will be a number between 3 and 32. The highest final shot wins. In the case of a tie, do a tie breaking shot!

Pankration (Greek no holds barred martial arts) is resolved the same way except when you reach 100 "you've knocked your opponent out".

Discus/Archery you take three shots, make three rolls, and use the best for your final score.

## **Terminology, Quick Facts, and Resources**

For the research inclined - NOT REQUIRED READING AT ALL

* Foot races:
	+ Athletes ran the running events naked and barefoot on the running track, which was called 'stadion' as well. The surface consisted of sand.
	+ Start and finish were two simple straight lines scratched in the sand.
* Discus:
	+ *Balbis*: Stone slab that marks the line a discus thrower may not cross (and from where the beginning of their distance is measured)
	+ *Semeion*: Small peg used by discus throwers to mark their throw lengths; also used by jumpers, javelin throwers
	+ Discus start position: weight on the right leg (rear leg), hold discus at head level in a vertical position; left hand supports the weight of the discus while the right grasps the top edge.
	+ Not sure if they twisted/ twisted & spun like modern discus throwers (many depictions of twisting & spun motion)
* Chariot Races:
	+ *Hippodrome*: “horse course” was a wide flat surface with 2 turning posts at the ends, 400 years between posts. These were the most dangerous points in the race because everyone wanted to take the inner side of the turn so accidents were most likely to occur here.
	+ *Aphesis*: starting area for all the horse races (400ft long with stalls built into it)
	+ Four horse races consisted of 12 laps around the hippodrome, and the two course race consisted of 8 laps.
	+ To start: bronze eagle statue would fly up, the dolphin would fall, the cord across each stall would fall. The cords would fall staggered (see: starting mechanism)
* Pankration
	+ Combination of wrestling and boxing.
	+ Everything was permitted except biting, gouging (stabbing with your finger in your opponent’s eye, nose or mouth) and attacking the genitals.
	+ Unlike boxing, pankratiasts normally didn’t wear hard gloves.
	+ You could fight on the ground and lost only by submission (vs "upright pankration" used in training where you lost by touching the ground three times)
	+ Signal submission by pointing up their index finger to the umpire.
	+ Umpires stood nearby waiting to act in the case of cheating & punish offenders promptly with a beating of a stick or a whip.
* Listening to a flute player was an essential part of the halma (long jump). A flute player was also present at the javelin but sources are unsure about their actual purpose.
* *Hellanodikai*: The organizers of the games who decided on the admission of the athletes, supervised compulsory training in the month leading up to the games, drew lots to decide which athletes had to contend with each other, and decided on the winner.
* At some games, contests in music and similar arts formed a separate part of the program, on a par with athletic contests.

### **Resources**

* Ancient Olympics: Events & athletes
* Ancient Olympic Events (tufts.edu)
* Ancient Olympic pentathlon (wikipedia)
* Olympia Sports - Discus and Javelin
* Olympia Sports - Foot races
* Olympia Sports - Wrestling and boxing
* Archers in Ancient Greece
* Shooting Methods of Archers in the Ancient Greek World
* Experimental Archeology: Recreating Greek Archery (scroll down and you can read without downloading)