[Mythras] Mythic Babylon Now Available

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Bilharzia said:
Loz Loz Affinity Publisher 1.9+ supports manual bookmarks, with parent/child structures.

I don't want to keep harping on, but the text-rasterising problem affects the whole book, even the header & footer, the slightly-fuzzy text all the way through is maddening. I looked at the Babylon preview from the newsletter and it is perfect.
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We have it all covered Bil.
 
On wow, this latest Mythras book looks cool !!!
Been waiting for Mythic Babylon and Mythic Greece for a while, so at least one of them is hitting the shelves.

I'll probably go the premium edition of DrivethruRPG, although I'm also tossing up whether the standard one with a matte cover (thru Lulu) is just as good
In any case I will have to wait until next paycheck or more, it may be another month away yet

Great to see the enthusiasm for Mythras isn't waning on this board !!! :thumbsup:

Here's a soundtrack perfect for this setting:
 
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It's pandemic time, so no international flights for a while
Yippee, more book buying coming up! :thumbsup:
 
Loz said:
View attachment 32192
... And still at #1...
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I was thinking about their adamantine seller level yesterday. Is there a number of copies you have to hit to get to each level. They say it’s not just a doubling of the previous level. I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone answer this before.
 
And to carry on tooting our own trumpet...


Extremely high praise for Mythic Babylon from Shukamu Press, which publishes the similarly themed 'Babylon On Which Fame and Jubilation Are Bestowed':

"Mythic Babylon earns the highest rating I’ve ever given, well, anything. Excepting my own output, there isn’t any better treatment of the subject available; Mythic Babylon puts to shame all of the other cursory, trope-heavy, low-density and poorly-researched Ancient Near East or “Bronze Age” RPG material currently available."

You can read the full review at:

shukamupress.com

Recommendation: Mythic Babylon

In BFJB-relevant news, I wanted to note the release of The Design Mechanism’s Mythic Babylon for the Mythras System. I’ve spent much of the past 24 hours pouring over the PDF, and I&#82…
shukamupress.com shukamupress.com
 
Endless Flight said:
I was thinking about their adamantine seller level yesterday. Is there a number of copies you have to hit to get to each level. They say it’s not just a doubling of the previous level. I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone answer this before.
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There is. I’ve not seen exact numbers, and only seen allusions to what they are

edit: https://amazing-tales.net/2019/01/27/drivethru-rpg-metal-tiers/ no idea how accurate but only two years old, and feel about right.

edit2: https://onebookshelfpublisherservic...5314-Bestseller-metals-and-how-to-earn-badges recent and authoritative.
 
Wow, that's a lot lower than I would have thought. I remember reading a joke on a blog about how the secondary market for the RPG industry is basically the same 1,000 people buying and selling the same books over and over again on E-Bay . . . maybe that wasn't a joke?
 
The rankings are:

DriveThru RPG Metal Tiers
  • Copper – 50+
  • Silver – 100+
  • Electrum – 250+
  • Gold – 500+
  • Platinum – 1000+
  • Mithril – 2000+
  • Adamantine – 5000+
I think it's easy to overestimate book sales of any kind. Most traditionally published books, including the RPG niche market, sell perhaps 250-300 copies in their first year.

Scribe Media has some salient advice:

For a traditional publisher to think of a nonfiction book as a success, it has to sell more like 10,000 copies over its lifetime.

That’s a lot of failures for the publisher. But for a self-published Author who fully leverages the expertise, credibility, and profound connection that a great book offers, a handful of sales can bring in a lot of business.

Book sales are more of a marathon than a sprint. Sticking around with a decent number of sales week-in and week-out is a lot better than rocketing into the ranks for one day and then plummeting into obscurity.

If you sell 1,000 books in week 1, and then 1 per day after that, you’ll sell:

  • 1,358 books in year 1
  • 365 in year 2 (1,723 total)
  • 365 in year 3 (2,088 total)
BUT, sell only 200 books in week 1 and then 5 per day, and you’ll sell:

  • 1,990 books in year 1
  • 1,825 in year 2 (3,815 total)
  • 1,825 in year 3 (5,640 total)
Authors who worry less about rank and more about consistently reaching the right people—people who will read and love their book—often end up with a much wider reach, and much more lucrative results.
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The highlighted bit is exactly what we see as a small publisher. Our books continue to sell at reasonable numbers, though small, consistently each and every month. New titles alert new customers to the back catalogue, and we usually see some pull through sales as the result of a major new release.
 
Bought it as well, couple hours ago. It might still be downloading...:shade:
But waiting for the deadtree book to arrive would still take longer. So odds are I'm going to read it before the book has arrived:devil:!
 
Akratic Wizardry has a post about the Mythic Babylon release. He's been in the playtest group for it for the past year and has all good things to say. He does bring up the lack of a sample adventure in the book. Loz Loz what plans are there for any adventure supplements?
Just got my tracking number from TDM this morning, so I'm very eager to dig into a setting I know relatively little about.
 
Off topic but does Mythras cover the supers genre?

I liked Runequest (which I guess Mythras is based off) but had a swine of a time convincing my group to play it when they were used to D&D and MERP. Tunels and trolls got even shorter shrift. This thread encouraged me to look at the TDM site (here)and the consistent quality, prolific output and commitment to support the range has me hankering to spend some money.

Anyone play this game via forum/post?
If so, how does combat run (which can make or break such games when there's so much of it in the fantasy genre)?
Anyone run long term campaigns? Does the game zero to hero well?

It's so long since I ran runequest (there was a lady with a chainmail bikini fighting a lizard on the book front when I actually got to run the game. I bought Mongoose RQ 1 + 2 by the bookload and couldn't actually find anyone to run it for and bought a few Legend books too. I'm guessing this Mythras system is an evolution of those games) but lately I've been leaning towards running a Fantasy PbP (in addition to the supers stuff) and am interested to know the thoughts of people who've played it.

(I've also downloaded the freebies to take a look at and first glance it seems very familiar with SIZ/POW and so on. It's been a while though. Like, decades.)
 
Jenx said:
Off topic but does Mythras cover the supers genre?
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it does. there is the adventure Agony and Ecstasy which includes rules for making street level heroes in the back. This year (I believe), Destined, the full superheroes supplement, is coming out. the Mythras Matters podcast has quite a bit of discussion on it.

Jenx said:
Anyone play this game via forum/post?
If so, how does combat run (which can make or break such games when there's so much of it in the fantasy genre)?
Anyone run long term campaigns? Does the game zero to hero well?
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I've been playing in a play by forum post on tavern keeper for several years now. It runs fine, though there is some lag as you are supposed to wait for the defense roll before you roll location and damage. we have plenty of folks who don't and roll them all together. I've found it quite good, and I've been playing in a S&S game on there.

I've run a number of longer (10+ sessions) including an explicitly zero to hero one with red hand of doom. I was using classic fantasy for Mythras, so a bit of a leg up on that - it supports the genre. that having been said, we've also done a varagian guard game that was pretty zero to hero.

IMO, "zero" in mythras has a bit lower starting point than, say, D&D, if you don't make pretty extensive use of cults. A Thennla game will do a good job of getting to about the same power level out of the gate - there are many magic options. Frankly, I think Thennla is a really under appreciated gem in the Mythras line.

Jenx said:
It's so long since I ran runequest (there was a lady with a chainmail bikini fighting a lizard on the book front when I actually got to run the game. I bought Mongoose RQ 1 + 2 by the bookload and couldn't actually find anyone to run it for and bought a few Legend books too. I'm guessing this Mythras system is an evolution of those games) but lately I've been leaning towards running a Fantasy PbP (in addition to the supers stuff) and am interested to know the thoughts of people who've played it.

(I've also downloaded the freebies to take a look at and first glance it seems very familiar with SIZ/POW and so on. It's been a while though. Like, decades.)
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Mythras is a direct descendent of the MRQ/Legend line, which was written by the same folks. Mongoose had the license for RQ, Loz and Pete did the writing, Mongoose lost the license, license went back to Moon Design, RQ6 was published (also Pete and Loz) by The Design Mechanism under license from MD, TDM lost the license, license went to Chaosium, but P&L liked what they had written and went on, calling it Mythras. So, yes, should feel very familiar.
 
Got this nice looking book in today.
Babylon Front.jpg
Babylon 90.jpg
Babylon 248.jpg
Babylon Back.jpg

This is the Lulu print from TDM. The cover is a nice matte. The binding looks a little weak, probably wouldn't hold up to everyday use, but it does lay open well enough. Happy to say that the text is very clear and readable, none of the issues that the initial pdf had.
It's a good looking book. Today's the start of a four day weekend for me, so I'll be digging into Babylon.
 
My book is still travelling due to tricks I play with the shipping to avoid it from getting to a post office:shade:.
 
under_score said:
Got this nice looking book in today.
View attachment 32571
View attachment 32572
View attachment 32573
View attachment 32574

This is the Lulu print from TDM. The cover is a nice matte. The binding looks a little weak, probably wouldn't hold up to everyday use, but it does lay open well enough. Happy to say that the text is very clear and readable, none of the issues that the initial pdf had.
It's a good looking book. Today's the start of a four day weekend for me, so I'll be digging into Babylon.
Click to expand...
Got my Lulu copy. Two things.
1. Like in the photo, the cover image doesn’t cover the whole cover, there’s a white bar at top. Actuall looking inside, the pages look like the text is set too high. The Lammassu wings are maybe 1mm from the top of the page, and the page number circles are...looks like 3/4 of an inch from the bottom of the page.
2. As underscore said, the binding seems weak, like there’s hardly anything holding the covers to the spine.

Other than that, the colour, print, and paper are nice.

Does anyone else have the white line at the top and page set too high?
 
CRKrueger said:
Got my Lulu copy. Two things.
1. Like in the photo, the cover image doesn’t cover the whole cover, there’s a white bar at top. Actuall looking inside, the pages look like the text is set too high. The Lammassu wings are maybe 1mm from the top of the page, and the page number circles are...looks like 3/4 of an inch from the bottom of the page.
2. As underscore said, the binding seems weak, like there’s hardly anything holding the covers to the spine.

Other than that, the colour, print, and paper are nice.

Does anyone else have the white line at the top and page set too high?
Click to expand...
I'm so unobservant sometimes. I registered the white bar on the top, but not the lack of one on bottom, so I guess I thought it was intentional at first, but now it definitely does look like an error to me. As to the pages, they are not just set too high, they're crooked. The lammassu on the left is slightly lower than the lammassu on the right.
 
under_score said:
I'm so unobservant sometimes. I registered the white bar on the top, but not the lack of one on bottom, so I guess I thought it was intentional at first, but now it definitely does look like an error to me. As to the pages, they are not just set too high, they're crooked. The lammassu on the left is slightly lower than the lammassu on the right.
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These are binding issues with Lulu. It's a manufacturing error unfortunately. If you ordered from Lulu directly, then get in touch with their customer service. If you ordered via us, send us an email.
 
under_score said:
Akratic Wizardry has a post about the Mythic Babylon release. He's been in the playtest group for it for the past year and has all good things to say. He does bring up the lack of a sample adventure in the book. Loz Loz what plans are there for any adventure supplements?
Just got my tracking number from TDM this morning, so I'm very eager to dig into a setting I know relatively little about.
Click to expand...
Akrasia and I play in the same campaign: he plays Sin Dannu, a diplomat/soldier while I play Shambari, a necromancer from Urkesh. We don't always see eye to eye.

There will be some form of scenario or support material. Both authors are discussing a strategy.
 
Loz said:
Yes, the file is updated at the TDM site too.
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Dumb question maybe, but how do I find my orders on the TDM site? I've got an email with download links, but they're the same old files, and I cannot find any place on thedesignmechanism.com to login and view orders.
 
under_score said:
Got this nice looking book in today.
View attachment 32571
View attachment 32572
View attachment 32573
View attachment 32574

This is the Lulu print from TDM. The cover is a nice matte. The binding looks a little weak, probably wouldn't hold up to everyday use, but it does lay open well enough. Happy to say that the text is very clear and readable, none of the issues that the initial pdf had.
It's a good looking book. Today's the start of a four day weekend for me, so I'll be digging into Babylon.
Click to expand...
Man. These new books are soo much nicer than the original Mythras rpg core book. I hope they give serious consideration on releasing a new Mythras core book, with an improved font/layout that's easier to read like these newer books. Even if it means two books versus one core book.
 
under_score said:
Dumb question maybe, but how do I find my orders on the TDM site? I've got an email with download links, but they're the same old files, and I cannot find any place on thedesignmechanism.com to login and view orders.
Click to expand...
From thedesignmechanism.com, click on store. On the store page the app is at the bottom. Once you log in, you can look at orders.
 
Acmegamer Acmegamer They've already done the improved font/layout. When they moved from RQ6 the ligature font complaints were noticed and the font changed. Not likely (cost ineffective) to re-layout the whole book again.

I reported the white strip on my Lulu UK copy last Monday.
 
Arcane_Avatar said:
Acmegamer Acmegamer They've already done the improved font/layout. When they moved from RQ6 the ligature font complaints were noticed and the font changed. Not likely (cost ineffective) to re-layout the whole book again.

I reported the white strip on my Lulu UK copy last Monday.
Click to expand...
Not an improvement. The font type/size cause freaking eye strain honestly. I've had numerous conversations including a couple emails over the past three or so years on the Core Mythras book's problems. Also yeah they've made it clear that it wasn't cost effective to correct the issues. Doesn't make me happy. Also they don't list an errata list/pdf like most developers do. Which I criticised on Drivethrurpg with them because it would be really nice to be able to update our physical books with corrections etc that they've done/noted.

I know I should just let it lie, but I am passionate about their mechanics. They've done a good job at improving the BRP mechanics in my opinion. Anyhow I think I'll try to stop pointing out the issues, they're aware of them and that quite a few of us have these issues with the Core book. Since it's not going to change and I don't want to brow beat them over and over, I need to let it go. On the positive side the font type/size layouts are much much better and usable in Lyonesse and it looks like Mythic Babylon. :thumbsup:
 
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