Sing of the Man

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns

driven time and again off course, once he had plundered

the hallowed heights of Troy.”

- Odyssey, Book I, trans. Robert Fagles

Sing of the Man is a roleplaying game for 3-6 people inspired by classical stories of great sea voyages, like the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and Jason and the Argonauts. One player takes the role of the Muse, guiding the story, while the others play crew members on the ship captained by a great hero, referred to here as the Man.

The Man was one of the great kings called to fight in the Trojan war, either on the side of the Trojans or the side of the Greeks. He and his army fought for ten long years before the war was decided. With the fighting ended and Troy razed, the Man now sets sail for home, with a crew of those soldiers in his retinue who still survive. But the gods are fickle, and they will send the Man and his crew on a series of adventures through uncharted seas and mysterious lands before they can reach their destination.

This game is in part about gender roles and masculinity in the classical world, so the Man is always just that – a man. Winning glory in war is one of the manliest things a person can do in this world, and the Man excelled on the battlefield. Crew members may be of any gender (before you dismiss this as pure anachronism, recall the powerful female warrior Camila from the Aeneid). Whatever your gender, as a crewmember you should think carefully about your relationship to the heavily masculinized world of classical warfare. What drew you to it? How critical are you of its norms? How has it helped you or harmed you?