Mod+ Mythic Polynesia

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Loz

Legendary Pubber
Joined
Jun 7, 2018
Messages
294
Reaction score
1,673
Kia orana! May health be with you!

This, the traditional greeting of the Oceanian people, can be heard throughout a region covering a vast triangle with sides measuring over 10,000 kilometres. At the three corners of this triangle lie the Hawai'ian Archipelago in the north, the continental islands of Aotearoa in the south, and mysterious Rapanui in the far east.

Mythic Polynesia describes the people and cultures of the Great Ocean, and is a complete guide to roleplaying in this vast area of myth and legend. Examining the traditions, myths, gods, spirits and creatures of the Great Ocean, the Polynesian islands are brought alive and presented through the Mythras game system.

The book includes an exhaustive overview of Oceanian life, the tribes, their magic, and their complex history and politics. A section on staging Polynesian campaigns offers Games Masters copious guidance on creating compelling Mythic Polynesia adventures at the gaming table. This is part of the Mythic Earth range of sourcebooks for Mythras, and is not a standalone game. Either the Mythras core rules or Mythras Imperative is needed for play.

TDM

Lulu

DTRPG


Softcover: $35.99
Hardcover: $45.99
PDF Only: $22.99
240 Pages, Colour

Poly 1.pngPoly 2.pngPoly 3.png
 
Awesome, just ordered the hardcopy from TDM’s webstore (and already browsed the PDF).

I definitely have some big ideas for a campaign already, based on a D&D 3e campaign that I ran 20 years ago. A bit post apocalyptic fantasy world with Polynesian people, Cambrian sea life, Cretaceous land life, and incredible ancient ruin-islands.

I look forward to reading this book.
 
Woo hoo!

I know I asked this in the other thread, but I may as well ask it here as well: the Lulu version of the print book is superior to the DTRPG version, right?
 
Woo hoo!

I know I asked this in the other thread, but I may as well ask it here as well: the Lulu version of the print book is superior to the DTRPG version, right?
That's been my observation... but I'm not sure how much that varies by location. It also seems to me that stuff I get from Lulu arrives more carefully/securely packaged. Some things I've received from DTRPG have just been bouncing around loose in a box.
 
Picked up the PDF. I haven't had a chance to do much more than skim through it, but it certainly looks awesome.
 
Drawing some inspiration, for sure, but my intent is not historical fantasy. I just really love the idea of a fantasy or sci-fi post apocalyptic campaign in an archipelago setting.
My interest in it is similar. Inspiration more than anything, though I do like the culture/mythology of the RW people... we have a Pacific Islander club here at school that I help with.
 
Let’s start with something interesting. There are 5 pages of surfing rules. There is a new weather system.

I’ve not read all of it yet, but I could see it being used in a. Number of archipelago based games.
 
There are 5 pages of surfing rules.

That's quite interesting, as someone intrigued by more niche systems to represent activities not often covered by RPG systems (hence my recent deepdive into games focused on musical performances). How does the surfing system come across? Would you describe it a fun? diagetic? Simple or complex?
 
Does it discuss the unique navigation system the actual Polynesians use(d)? It's pretty core to how that culture spread.
 
Surprisingly detailed, though I cannot vouch for its accuracy. It does describe in some detail how surfing is done with a paddle (I've never seen this myself)
Each wave has a Difficulty score expressed as a percentage, and as a rough guide, a wave eventually reaches a height of 0.25 metres for each 10% of its Difficulty.
So, as you can see, we have a difficulty now set for the waves and you roll against your Lore or Locale to make sure you picked it right. You can then commit or not. it operates similar to combat, complete with special effects. It's quite full, and maybe only really useful in surfing competitions. Instead of damage, you gain style points based on the size of the wave.

Does it discuss the unique navigation system the actual Polynesians use(d)? It's pretty core to how that culture spread.
Close to 3 pages of discussion of it, outside of the system parts itself. 2 of the 3 subdivisions of cultures have navigation as a professional skill. there is a specific career as a navigator who have a specific power to identify islands. it makes a distinction between wayfinding (known location hopping) and exploration, and has a long distance travel cycle for figuring out encounters, deducting rations, and charting courses. resolution is via navigation rolls for the navigator parts. there is also a pretty reasonable section on long distance exploration, and how navigators trade that knowledge, all based on stars and the like.

Des it have rules for active volcanos (both above and under water)?
yes, there are rules for underwater ones (Fumaroles specifically) as an ocean hazard. active surface volcanoes are considered an island feature. there are no specific rules for erupting ones. I assume the standard athletics check to run is considered enough ;)

obviously, i will continue to answer questions as i can.
 
How extensive is the bestiary? Any really interesting mythical creatures from Polynesian folklore?
Maero
The maero are wild men that live far from mankind on
uninhabited islands or in the wild mountainous interior.

Manavaha
Manavaha (manava-vaha, or ‘belly-mouths’), also called
mango-tangata (‘shark people’, or mano kanaka in the
Northern dialect) are the offspring of a mortal woman
and a shark god.

Menehune and Mu
The Menehune and Mu are a pair of ancient peoples
known for their good luck and their potent magical
powers. They love mischief and bananas.

Moa
The moa is a strange-looking bird.

Moai
The moai are massive stone statues found on Rapanui.

Sharks
Sharks are highly significant in Mythic Polynesia and
Oceanian culture.

Spirit, Weather
Like nature spirits, there is a wide variety of weather
spirits, each one associated with a different type of
weather.

Tanifa
Tanifa are monstrous creatures found throughout
Mythic Polynesia.
Tanifa (Ngarara) (description is missing)
Tanifa ('Ahifa) The 'ahifa is a sea serpent with a long snake-like body
Tanifa (Kurakura) found in shallow coastal waters and lakes. It is sometimes mistaken for an immense shark,
Tanifa (Pouakai) an immense bird or bat. Covered in thin, quill-like scales that rattle and clatter as it moves.
Tanifa (Tuoro) more often felt than seen; this burrowing tanifa can shake the earth in a good semblance of an earthquake

Turehu
The fairies of Mythic Polynesia come in a number of
different types; 'turehu' is the name of the most common
form.

Tupua
Tupua are the offspring of one divine parent and one
human parent
 
How extensive is the bestiary? Any really interesting mythical creatures from Polynesian folklore?
there is a table pointing to creatures from other mythras supplements, as well as some conversion notes and Rank, which is an important concept in the game (I'm not fully versed)

there are 11 different creatures added to the bestiary. they are
  • Maero, a sort of beast-man
  • Manavaha, offspring of a woman and a god who turn into sharks in the water and have shark mouths in their torsos
  • Menehune and mu, soft of halflings/dwarves
  • Moa, a large bird, lacking wings
  • Moai, massive stone statues
  • a very full entry on sharks, broken down by type
  • weather spirits, which is one of the very few examples of a spirit not in the core book
  • tanifa, giant reptilian creatures, similar looking to dragons, but with a wide variety of magical powers
  • tribesmen
  • turehu, a kind of faerie
  • tupua, half human, half god. they have a variety of forms, including dog headed ones. they seem mostly unique. not too far off chaos beastmen, and even offer the chaos features table to augment them.
 
The Manavaha show up in Monster Island’s bestiary.

I’m so looking forward to reading this. Hard copy is on the way (only skimmed the PDF, ‘cause I prefer reading the physical book first).
 
The Manavaha show up in Monster Island’s bestiary.
while there is a shark mouth in the belly guy, it is not names a manavaha. you are thinking of the nanaue. they are virtually identical, however, save the manavaha is a little more fleshed out.
 
The two hard back copies of the book I ordered arrived today, so I've been perusing it ahead of a major
read-through tomorrow evening. So far it looks really well put together with a lot of information packed in a not too overwhelming sized volume.

From my personal experience the setting is more or less unique to what I've seen before in other rpgs and that seems to be emphasised. Specifically a mythic paleofantasy ocean setting.

The bestiary is really cool with plenty of description and context for the entries (and clearly laid out rules of course).

There are a lot of tables and it marks the book out as a functional game-book not just a book of lore.

There is a very nice collection of full colour maps at the back of the book.

On that point my only gripe so far would be that aside from the maps and the cover art all the art is black and white. Appreciating price point and potentially the style of other Mythic books but I think completely black and white art style does a little bit of a disservice to the setting.
 
Last edited:
The two hard back copies of the book I ordered arrived today, so I've been perusing it ahead of a major
read-through tomorrow evening. So far it looks really well put together with a lot of information packed in to a not overwhelming sized volume.

From my personal experience the setting is more or less unique to what I've seen before in other rpgs and that seems to be emphasised. Specifically a mythic paleofantasy ocean setting.

The bestiary is really cool with plenty of description and context for the entries (and clearly laid out rules of course).

There are a lot of tables and it marks the book out as a functional game-book not just a book of lore.

There is a very nice collection of full colour maps at the back of the book.

On that point my only gripe so far would be that aside from the maps and the cover art all the art is black and white. Appreciating price point and potentially the style of other Mythic books but I think completely black and white art style does a little bit of a disservice to the setting.
Ooh your copies arrived? I ordered mine the day this was live on the Design Mechanism store and haven't heard anything. I'll go check the status of my order. Looking forward to getting this in my hands...

edit: SIGH still awaiting fulfillment. Canada sucks.
 
I thought TDM was (at least partially) a Canadian company...
It is, but production and shipping of books is tediously slow. Canada Post has this “arrangement” that everyone gets equal costs and times, no matter how remote. I live near the country’s capital, a few hours drive from Montreal and Toronto, so it naturally takes about as much time to get something here as a small outpost in the Yukon. Nice for those folks, kind of crummy for the rest.
 
It is, but production and shipping of books is tediously slow. Canada Post has this “arrangement” that everyone gets equal costs and times, no matter how remote. I live near the country’s capital, a few hours drive from Montreal and Toronto, so it naturally takes about as much time to get something here as a small outpost in the Yukon. Nice for those folks, kind of crummy for the rest.
Sweet Jesus, Mary & Joseph. That sounded like Soviet-Era joke levels of stupidity to me, but I checked it. Except for the fuel surcharge, it's the same damn price to go down the street as it is to go across the country. WTF?
 
So reading further, there is cumulatively over 20 pages of rules and background on ocean travel and island exploration. This covers everything from ocean craft (including navigation to repair), weather, food and both ocean and island encounters. This doesn't even get into the actually described Islands or the bestiary (which are separate Chapters).

The context of why ocean travel takes place is described. Races, pursuit, raiding, exploration etc.

Helpfully the rules are cut to look at the micro of individual manoeuvres and the macro of long distance travel between Islands along with methods of long distance navigation.

There is also rules for surfing which has to be a first for a rpg book but completly appropriate of course!

Because we are talking about a Mythic setting there are rules for riding on a flying kite.

The rules for each section are nicely laid out and there are enough sub headings for ease of navigation once within a Chapter.

However there is no separate index of tables which for a game book would be nice to have. For example there's no entry for J in the general Index so you'd need to make your own bookmark if you wanted to remember where the Jellyfish Swarm table was. On the plus side there is a Jelly Fish swarm table...

I know this sounds a bit pedantic but it is just a reminder that from a GM perspective the physical versions of rpg books do involve a lot of flicking about. Nothing breaks immersion more than a GM frantically trying to find a random table.

However pedantry aside I think paired with Monster Island Mythic Polynesia is shaping up to almost be an essential book if Paleofantasy exploration is your thing.

Even if you don't want to set a campaign in the Mythic setting described I have no doubt the rules inside will be very helpful.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I used to do performance poetry and at one point I ruthlessly pulled all the poems that weren't getting a decent audience reaction from my set. I'm not sure this is any different tbh.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top