Dammit, RPGPub: Mythras Edition

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Cowboy Duck

Cowboy Duck

Formerly MattyHelms
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So, I have shied away from Mythras over my time here at the Pub. Despite people whose opinions I respect here loving it, despite the fact that it is built off of my favorite system, despite what I hear about the quality of its books...

It's too granular, I reasoned. It's too tied to low-power fantasy. Action points? Hit locations? I kept turning away.

Well, Mythras kept coming up here at the Pub. Then in the thread about the new BRP book, Mankcam Mankcam talked about Mythras and how it works for him... So that prompts me to take another look...

And I see this:
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And I turn into this:
awe_baby_research.jpg

I ran in circles, possibly squealing. Next thing I know, I'm reading the PDFs of the core book and Worlds United and the hardcopies are on order.

Now, I'm heading into a few intense work weeks that'll head directly into a freelance gig that'll require quick turnaround... And every second until Mythras and Worlds United hit my table, I'll be dreaming about dinosaurs and d100 skill rolls.

So, dammit, RPGPub. You've done it again.
 
If you recall, when the new mods were announced I speculated that it was us - all of us - getting maneuvered into checkmate while we thought we were playing mere checkers. We were distracted by the false flag of geese, thread drifted to talk about food and metal music, and never saw Mythras coming.
 
I started with RQ2 back in late 1985 as a teen and although I've been involved with numerous rpgs since that time, I often find myself returning to some version of BRP.

Mythras isn't even my main game just at present
I'm likely to be bouncing between Numenera/Cypher, WFRP 4E, and Vaesen for some time

however...

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Welcome to the Pub Inner Circle Mythras Club Cowboy Duck Cowboy Duck, grab a drink and enjoy the party :thumbsup:
 
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Cowboy Duck said:
If you recall, when the new mods were announced I speculated that it was us - all of us - getting maneuvered into checkmate while we thought we were playing mere checkers. We were distracted by the false flag of geese, thread drifted to talk about food and metal music, and never saw Mythras coming.
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Come on. We made Raleel Raleel a mod. I don't know how we could have foreshadowed this move any more heavily than that.
 
Bunch said:
I've only printed and read a few pages of Mythras. My heart is at the other end of the spectrum with Talislanta. My body is with D&D.

But I support RQ 2e!
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Well I love Talislanta as well, and backing the current slipcase new edition.
Is TSL the other end of the spectrum to Mythras?
I think its kinda in the same bag as RQ, RM, etc
I’m getting confused…
 
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Worlds United is indeed a fine book. I wish it had more (or any) supporting product, though there's plenty of inspiration to be had in 2000AD.

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I've been reading Mythras for about 3-4 years now, on and off. Never seem to be able to keep any of it in my head. Made my first characters a few days ago and then got my group to make characters. I think they were bored by the end of the process (one player wanted an older character until he realized he had yet more build points to spend) and we did manage to get some stuff wrong. Still, I'm hopeful of jumping to Mythras at least as an interim system. Dragon Age is really starting to wear thin on the group these days.
 
Very eager to start up my Mythras campaign again. The rules sang for me, although I ditched the granularity for NPCs (making them only a few stats). The players never noticed.

I love the flexibility of the system.
 
Worlds United is an unsung hero in the Mythras line, imo. The second book to use Snead’s system of powers, which provided a clear mechanism towards modularity and a point buy that was somewhat GURPSian in nature, but not nearly as overwhelming. Since it’s the same system as After the Vampire wars, that’s completely interchangeable, and with a bit more looking, it provides a way to hook in Luther Arkwright.

It’s also the only book in the Mythras line with an unusual 3 column format. I remember Loz saying it played havoc with the bookmarks, which are pretty egregious, so it might be worth redoing those.

if you like the dinosaurs, Monster Island is a perfect stand-in for Venus, as mentioned in the book. My own campaign, “Lost Samar in Time” is coming at it from the other end - ww2 shoved onto monster island - and I expect I will tap into WU quite a bit. I might even make them move to WU at the start and they don’t know it. Who knows.

I’d love to see more books from Snead, but I think he has completely moved on from Mythras
 
Raleel said:
Worlds United is an unsung hero in the Mythras line, imo. The second book to use Snead’s system of powers, which provided a clear mechanism towards modularity and a point buy that was somewhat GURPSian in nature, but not nearly as overwhelming. Since it’s the same system as After the Vampire wars, that’s completely interchangeable, and with a bit more looking, it provides a way to hook in Luther Arkwright.

It’s also the only book in the Mythras line with an unusual 3 column format. I remember Loz saying it played havoc with the bookmarks, which are pretty egregious, so it might be worth redoing those.

if you like the dinosaurs, Monster Island is a perfect stand-in for Venus, as mentioned in the book. My own campaign, “Lost Samar in Time” is coming at it from the other end - ww2 shoved onto monster island - and I expect I will tap into WU quite a bit. I might even make them move to WU at the start and they don’t know it. Who knows.

I’d love to see more books from Snead, but I think he has completely moved on from Mythras
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My birthday is in a week. The only response to "What do you want for your birthday?" will now be "Monster Island!"

It's practically a rom-com how oblivious I was to Mythras when it's been there, perfect for me, all along! :smile:
 
Cowboy Duck said:
My birthday is in a week. The only response to "What do you want for your birthday?" will now be "Monster Island!"

It's practically a rom-com how oblivious I was to Mythras when it's been there, perfect for me, all along! :smile:
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Well, you found it, so now you can be happy:thumbsup:!

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thanks for reminding me about WU. I've added a slightly altered version of the gifts table to my Lost Samar in Time campaign. i'm not including psy or mysticisms, but otherwise all there. Ophidian Chemistry will make the serpentmen even more interesting. Looking forward to Tire Pollen!
 
Mythras is awesome! As a player, it's been my main game since ~2011 (when it was still MRQII). I'm in my fourth campaign now.

(First: Young Kingdoms [MRQII]; Second: Mythic Britain [RQ6]; Third: Mythic Babylon [Mythras]; Fourth: Mountains of Madness [Mythras]; plus some one-shots and short campaigns over the years [Saxons; Luther Arkwright].)
 
Despite playing a lot of Mythras over the years, I've never run it myself. If I were to do so, my first choice would by Lyonesse (since I'm a huge Jack Vance fan). Some day...
 
Over the years I've bought a lot of Mythras (or Mythras related): MRQ2, RQ6, Mythras itself, Mythic Britain and supplements, Worlds United; Mythical Babylon and probably more.

Then I realised that the font and especially the size of the font (post RQ6) kept the games off the table and I stopped buying.
I appreciate the desire to put more text in the books. Unfortunately for my aging eyes, the text is too small.
I can read and enjoy the books at a well-lit table at an optimal reading distance or on the screen at 125% - but I have trouble using them in a gaming situation. :weep:

So keep up the good work – when Mythras takes over the world, there will no doubt be a Large Print version as well. :smile:
 
Mankcam said:
Well I love Talislanta as well, and backing the current slipcase new edition.
Is TSL the other end of the spectrum to Mythras?
I think its kinda in the same bag as RQ, RM, etc
I’m getting confused…
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Talislanta, despite being a solidly trad game, feels a bit lighter and more narrative despite the fact that it can go deeper with tactical options and the like. While I wouldn't see it as the other end of the spectrum, I do think it's further in that direction than any BRP game is. I'm guessing that's where the initial statement was going with that (I haven't read further yet so don't know if this was already addressed).
 
Soykaf Barista said:
Over the years I've bought a lot of Mythras (or Mythras related): MRQ2, RQ6, Mythras itself, Mythic Britain and supplements, Worlds United; Mythical Babylon and probably more.

Then I realised that the font and especially the size of the font (post RQ6) kept the games off the table and I stopped buying.
I appreciate the desire to put more text in the books. Unfortunately for my aging eyes, the text is too small.
I can read and enjoy the books at a well-lit table at an optimal reading distance or on the screen at 125% - but I have trouble using them in a gaming situation. :weep:

So keep up the good work – when Mythras takes over the world, there will no doubt be a Large Print version as well. :smile:
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while i suffer less from this, I suffer more from all of the people wanting it and it not existing :smile:
 
Endless Flight said:
Lyonesse to me is far and away TDM’s greatest product. It checks all the boxes for a great low-fantasy RPG and even the font isn’t that small.
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I'm pretty fond of Monster Island, of course, but I think that Destined is within a hair of being the perfect Mythras book. I think literally the only thing I would change is the base font, and it's not even that small.
 
The font is one of my favourite things about Mythras. It’s easy to replicate the look with a simple word processor.
 
Mythras may take over the world, and maybe I'll be the last remaining soul committed to the original 1978 1st edition RuneQuest.

The last year of gaming has made it crystal clear to me that 1st edition RQ used to run a Glorantha campaign wandering between Dragon Pass and Prax, and maybe sneaking off to Balazar or other nearby locations is what works for me. Trying other stuff is just a waste of my time.

I'm still trying to find traction for Cold Iron as it's a system that would absolutely hold long term interest for me, but I need a solid setting that can become as comfortable as Glorantha as just described. And then I need to figure out how to appeal to enough players to have a sustainable group.

I think Mythras has some good ideas, but based on my recent experience, it doesn't make sense to me to make the effort of converting to using Mythras to run Glorantha. I would have to import too much stuff from RQ. That doesn't mean there might not be some benefit to browsing Mythras for ideas to port back to RQ1, on the other hand, I see a lot of value to minimizing house rules but maybe the rules on critical hits and such would be worth looking at since I already have critical hit house rules.
 
ffilz said:
I think Mythras has some good ideas, but based on my recent experience, it doesn't make sense to me to make the effort of converting to using Mythras to run Glorantha. I would have to import too much stuff from RQ.
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if you are still using RQ1 at this point, i would see no point for you to change either, though Hannu did all the conversion work for his game :smile: play what makes you happy!
 
Raleel said:
I'm pretty fond of Monster Island, of course, but I think that Destined is within a hair of being the perfect Mythras book. I think literally the only thing I would change is the base font, and it's not even that small.
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Agreed, although I really don’t like the style of this one artist in Destined. So many lines and they all have the same weight so each illustration looks like a rectangle of dense squiggly lines. I kind of want to tape them over with some printouts of my favorite comic panels.
 
Necrozius said:
Agreed, although I really don’t like the style of this one artist in Destined. So many lines and they all have the same weight so each illustration looks like a rectangle of dense squiggly lines. I kind of want to tape them over with some printouts of my favorite comic panels.
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I've gotten in the habit of putting together my own rules documents for games I run. One of the best parts is being able to use whatever art I want.
 
I'm patiently waiting for the day when one of you guys tries Legends of the Wulin...but until then I'd settle for the document for Destined:shade:!
 
Raleel said:
This is what I do as well. A lot of cut and paste, and put something together that’s easy for the players to digest
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I find rewriting in my own words to often be better than cutting and pasting. Not only does it allow you to cut down on waffle and make something easier to quickly reference, but I think the process cements the rules in my memory much better than just reading them.
 
SmallbutVicious said:
I find rewriting in my own words to often be better than cutting and pasting. Not only does it allow you to cut down on waffle and make something easier to quickly reference, but I think the process cements the rules in my memory much better than just reading them.
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Ah! You are well on the path to your first retroclone, then! That's how it always starts.
 
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