The new Mythras Imperative is now available!

I recently mentioned that a new version of Mythras Imperative was in the works. Well … it’s here!

The Design Mechanism’s announcement (at the RPG Pub):

The new, revised, expanded, ORC-licensed edition of Mythras Imperative is now available – just in time for Christmas.

While the game and mechanics are fundamentally the same, we've tweaked a few rules, made errata corrections, and fully integrated rules for firearms, vehicles, new character creation options, and sample creatures (with a complete list of traits to make them worthy opponents).

Most important of all, Mythras Imperative is licensed under ORC, meaning that 3rd party creators can freely use, adapt and build upon the Mythras Imperative foundation for their own unique d100 games, supplements and adventures. Combine Mythras Imperative with its sister book, Classic Fantasy Imperative, or any other ORC-licensed open gaming system.

So whether you want gritty fantasy or mythic historical, Pulp-era spies or cinematic superheroes, Mythras Imperative has you covered. Simple to learn, simple to play, but with a surprising depth that is the result of many, many years of refinement.

The PDF version is free to download. The Print on Demand version is $24.99 (black and white, softcover, 80 pages). A POD version for Drivethru customers will follow later.

TDM Store

Lulu Store

DTRPG

As I’ve mentioned many times before at this blog, Mythras is the game that I’ve played the most over the past dozen years (I include its immediate ancestors, RuneQuest 6 and Mongoose Runequest II, within the ‘Mythras’ category, as they’re all essentially the same game, written by the same people). I don’t write about it as much as I do some other games, primarily because I don’t run (“Game Master”) Mythras. I tend to write more about games that I’ve run in the past, am running currently, or plan to run in the future. But if I wasn’t so fortunate as to belong to a group with a couple of excellent Mythras GMs – one of whom is the co-author of the system, the other the co-author of the Mythic Babylon book – I’d definitely be running Mythras myself. 

Anyhow, if you’re still unfamiliar with Mythras, I recommend checking out Mythras Imperative, as it’s a nice, lean presentation of the system, easily readable within an afternoon.

Classic Fantasy Imperative coming soon

Above is the cover for the Design Mechanism’s forthcoming Classic Fantasy Imperative. (Classic Fantasy is a supplement for Mythras that gives the game a strong “first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” flavour, while retaining most of what makes Mythras a great system.) Classic Fantasy Imperative (CFI ) will be released under the “ORC” license, which was created in reaction to WotC’s (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to change the OGL back in January.

Here is Loz’s description of the book (from this post):  

Classic Fantasy Imperative is actually pretty extensive. It's a complete rule-set, but we have redacted some classes, races, spells, and other things from Classic Fantasy to retain the utility of the core book (and the upcoming Unearthed Companion). However, CFI does take characters up to Rank 5, and offers a great deal of material to allow you to see and play the game to its full extent without necessarily needing the Unearthed Companion or the core rules. What you won't find in CFI are extended spell descriptions, monster stats, additional classes or races, and a great deal of cool extended material.

Classic Fantasy Imperative has two aims: introduce new players to Mythras and d100 gaming using familiar tropes and concepts from D&D and Pathfinder; and give third party creators a solid, comprehensive, open system to build their own games, and merge Classic Fantasy and Mythras material with other ORC-powered sources (like the fresh edition of BRP). In short, we're opening up Mythras, and starting that journey with Classic Fantasy. Mythras Imperative will also be licensed under ORC too, to ensure full consistency across our range. However, the core rules - Mythras Core, CF core, will not be ORC. If people want to license material found in our full rulebooks, we'll still have the Mythras Gateway to allow access in much the same way we do now (although we'll be relaxing some of the conditions).

If you have Classic Fantasy and Mythras already, you don't need CFI - however, there's still enough material in there to provide old hands with some additional, free information. It also makes a great intro for new players, so it'll be worth picking up. The SRD and PDF versions (the latter will receive layout treatment; the former will be a Word document) will be free, so no reason for you not to have a copy. 

I have Classic Fantasy and think it’s very cool. I’m definitely getting CFI when it comes out. If I wasn’t already playing in a Mythras campaign (as a player, I’ve participated primarily in Mythras campaigns over the past dozen years), I’d be tempted to use Classic Fantasy for my next campaign. 

Forthcoming Mythras loot

  

The wheels keep turning over at the Design Mechanism. There are some cool things coming out for Mythras later this year or early 2023. Among them:

 

Mythic Polynesia: the latest addition to the Mythic Earth range, and a comprehensive guide to the peoples of Polynesia, their way of life, myths, unique culture, and dozens of seeds for adventure.

Mythras Factions: a short supplement dealing with factions of all kinds in Mythras. From gangs to guilds, ambitious families to multinational cartels. The supplement includes unique rules for creating your faction, and guidance on how they can achieve their goals.

Mythic Britain: Gwynedd. A supplement for Mythic Britain, this mix of short campaign setting and adventures focuses on Gwynedd and Ynys Mon, a kingdom fraught with strife, and on the edge of implosion as old scores are settled between the sprawling families and clans.

Book of Schemes (expected early 2023): Welcome to Guelden, a city-state ruled by intrigue, guilds, feuding families, and a lust for power. This complete setting is in a similar vein to the popular Fioracitta, and details both Guelden and its immediate surroundings. The city can be dropped into any existing campaign, or used as the foundation for a new one, and is highly compatible with other books in the Mythras range.

 

  

Mythras is my favourite new RPG of the current century (as I’ve said many times here before). It’s certainly the one that I’ve played the most over the past dozen years (if its immediate predecessors, Mongoose RuneQuest II and RuneQuest 6 are included). So it’s great news that more interesting material will be available for it in the near future!

 

Also forthcoming are some items for Lyonesse: a scenario and a supplement focusing on “Rogues, Vagabonds, Thieves, and Miscreants.”

 

Mournblade soon available in English

It’s been about a decade since the last official Elric-based roleplaying game went out of print in the English-speaking world: the excellent Elric of Melniboné (EoM) supplements written for Mongoose’s RuneQuest II (MRQII).

 

(More information about this line is available here. I had the good fortune to play in a MRQII EoM campaign with one of the line’s primary authors, Lawrence Whitaker; the first two-thirds of that campaign are described here. Since Mythras is a direct descendant of MRQII, it should be easy to use the EoM books with Mythras, should you be able to track them down. Tragically, the books are not available even in PDF anymore.)

 

In France, however, there is an Elric FRPG that has remained in print during this time: Mournblade from Le Département. (A brief overview is available here. Interestingly, Mournblade seems to draw quite a bit on Whitaker’s “flavour” work for EoM, that is, material on the history, cultures, etc., of the Young Kingdoms.)

 

I’ve long been intrigued by Mournblade and would’ve liked to read it. Alas, my Ontario high-school-mandated French proficiency has atrophied far too badly over the decades for such an endeavour to be viable.

 

Fortunately, an English version of the Mournblade “starter set” will soon be available in PDF as part of the Kickstarter campaign by Le Département for their boardgame Elric: Rise of the Young Kingdoms. You can “support” the KS for €10 and get the entire Mournblade set but nothing having to do with the boardgame. (This strikes me as quite odd, something I’ve never encountered before. But since I don’t want the boardgame—it looks beautiful, but I doubt I’d ever be able to play it—but I do want the FRPG starter set, I’m happy for this option.)

 

Here's what you get with the starter set (all digital):

 

• A 56-page rulebook containing core rules, a bit of sorcery, and equipment needed to fight in the Young Kingdoms.
• A 30-page quest book Dangerous Games. This quest is an introduction to the world of Mournbalde. While alternating between action and combat, players will be able to explore the fundamentals of the game.
• 6 pre-generated characters to choose from, including a sorcerer from Pan Tang, a brave Captain of the Purple Towns and a sellsword from Lormyr.
• An HD original map of the Young Kingdoms

 

Apparently the complete Mournblade line will be released in English eventually, so this is a relatively low-cost way to check out what the game is like.

 

Michael Moorcock’s “Eternal Champion” setting—especially the stories concerning Corum and Elric—remain one of my favourites, especially for role-playing campaigns. So I’ll be getting this Starter Set.

 

Blood and Souls for Arioch!

 

Mythras News: Supes and Polynesia

There’s a new member of the Mythras RPG family: the superhero role-playing game Destined. It’s available now at the Design Mechanism’s new home store, and will become available at Lulu and DrivethruRPG on the 23^rd of April.

 

Also, another Mythic Earth setting book is in production: Mythic Polynesia. I don’t know when it’ll be available, but the cover looks rather cool:

 

 

I’ve probably played more Mythras (including its predecessors RQ6 and MRQII) than any other role-playing game over the past eleven years. (By coincidence, I vaguely recall meeting Loz in early spring 2011…) I’ve played in the Young Kingdoms (Elric’s world), Mythic Britain, the Luther Arkwright multiverse, and (currently) Mythic Babylon. Soon I’ll be taking part in a Mountains of Madness campaign (converted to Mythras). I can’t recommend the game highly enough!

Mythras and Against the Darkmaster News

I thought that I would pass along some news concerning two of my favourite role-playing games and the companies that produce them.

 

First, The Design Mechanism – publisher of the Mythras game and many excellent settings for it, including the delightful Lyonesse (which actually includes all of the necessary rules as well as the setting) – has a new online store. 

If you bought any PDFs at the old DM store it may be a good idea to download them before the end of April. 

 

The second bit of news concerns Against the Darkmaster, published by Open Ended Games.

There are a number of Against the Darkmaster things in the works, as outlined here. Of special note: a reprint of the core rules and a Player’s Handbook version of the rules. Given the overwhelming length (and weight!) of the core book, a volume with only the rules needed by players should be very helpful. Thankfully, the “VsD PHB” will be available in both PDF and print at DrivethruRPG.

Cheers!

OpenQuest SRD now available from D101 Games

OpenQuest is the "rules light-ish" sibling of Mythras (and both are descendants of RuneQuest and Basic Role-playing). It's a great system, one that I've played in the past and would be happy to do so again in the future (although I haven't been able to read the 3rd edition version yet). Based on my experience with it, I highly recommend OQ for anyone who wants a simpler d100 fantasy system alternative to Mythras.

And now D101 has made available for all the OpenQuest SRD. Enjoy!

 

 

My three favourite RPG books from 2021

I’ve cut back way back on my RPG purchases in recent years. For the most part I try to buy only products that I think I’ll likely actually use at some point in the near-ish future, or products that I have a strong intrinsic interest in (as, say, they concern a setting, subject, or game of which I’ve long been a fan). Nonetheless, I still buy more RPGs products than I should. But there are a few every year that do not fall into the “taking-up-space-on-my-shelf-until-I-donate-them-or-retire” category. Here are three from 2021 (in no particular order):

 

 

I’ll start with something I haven’t mentioned before at this blog: Goodman Games’ Original Adventures Reincarnated #6: The Temple of Elemental Evil. In addition to including scans of multiple printings of the original 1^st edition AD&D Village of Hommlet module, as well as the subsequent Temple of Elemental Evil mega-module, this two-volume set provides an expanded version of the module with 5^th edition D&D stats. I rank the original Village of Hommlet module as one of the all-time classics for AD&D.

 

I hope to resurrect my (sadly-still-on-hiatus) Greyhawk campaign (which uses 5e D&D with Gygax’s version of the World of Greyhawk) in the new year. Once the characters wrap up their current adventure, I hope to have them travel to Hommlet and go through this campaign. Afterwards, I plan to run some more classic modules in Greyhawk for my players, including White Plume Mountain (converted to 5e in Tales from the Yawning Portal), Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (another member of Goodman Games’ “Original Adventures Reincarnated” series), the “Against the Giants” trilogy (also in Tales), and perhaps even the Tomb of Horrors (yet another one in Tales). At least that’s my tentative plan for the future. (Heh ... hope springs eternal.)

 

 

Then there’s Against the Darkmaster. (I’m cheating a bit here as I got the PDF in 2020. But I don’t feel like I “really” own a book or game until I get the physical version.) I’ve mentioned this excellent game before here. I really want to run this sometime – perhaps using it with a heavily modified version of the amazing classic campaign module Ardor by Terry Amthor (RIP). Even if I don’t use Against the Darkmaster in the near future, though, my long-abiding love for MERP makes this a purchase that I don’t regret at all. I thrill just flipping through this massive, gorgeous book, appreciating the wonderful art, and reading bits of the rules.

 

 

Last – but certainly not least – there’s Mythic Babylon, which I’ve also mentioned previously here. Since I’ve been playing in a Mythic Babylon campaign since summer 2020 (run by the book’s co-author, Chris Gilmore), in a way I’ve been using this book for even longer than I’ve owned it! It’s a really wonderful work from the always excellent Design Mechanism.

 

Okay, that's it for 2021. Best wishes, gentle readers, for 2022!

Mythic Babylon unleashed

I’ve been part of a Mythic Babylon campaign as a play-tester for about a year now (meeting roughly twice a month). The campaign is being run by one of the book’s co-authors (Chris Gilmore). It took me a while to get myself oriented in the setting. Bronze Age Mesopotamia is far less familiar to me than, say, Dark Ages Britain or Imperial Rome. And while I certainly would not claim to have a clear grasp of the setting even now, a year later, it does not feel quite as alien as it did at first. It’s an interesting place, and I’ve been enjoying the campaign enormously in recent months. 

Now everyone can enjoy this excellent setting for themselves: Mythic Babylon has been on sale to the public for over a week now.

Here is the description of the setting from the Design Mechanism site:

What is Mythic Babylon?

Mythic Babylon is a role-playing supplement for the Mythras game system. It provides everything you need to take your Mythras game back to the 18th century BC and enter a world of cut-throat diplomacy, Machiavellian politics, and ecstatic prophets. Within these covers you'll find information on the society, culture, religion, trade, laws, and beliefs of Old Babylon and the surrounding lands. The setting is presented as a sand-box with a wide-ranging gazetteer of places to explore, each loaded with plot hooks. For those who like to play against the backdrop of history, we provide a timeline of past and near future events. A bestiary and a chapter for game masters rounds out the end of the book.

This book contains everything you need to create adventures in the lands of Sumer, Akkad, and Subartu from the low lying Eden to the Cedar Mountains and even into the Underworld. Follow in the steps of kings like Gilgameš, Kubaba, or Hammurabi in this mythological and historical setting that was nearly 4000 years in the making.

Where is Mythic Babylon?

Mythic Babylon is set in what will later be called Mesopotamia by the Greeks, which means 'The Land Between the Rivers', referring to the Tigris and Euphrates. At the time our book is set, there is no one name for the whole region. Instead, the southern plain is called Sumer and the central plain is called Akkad. Together, these will one day be called Babylonia after the city of Babylon. The northern plain is called Subartu, but will one day come to be called Assyria after the city of Aššur.

This book focuses on Sumer, Akkad, and Subartu. Peripheral regions such as ancient Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Bahrain are given a more cursory treatment.

Mythic Babylon is expertly illustrated by James Turpin, and is an exceptional addition to the Mythic Earth range for Mythras. It comes as a hardcover book, 322 pages, and the PDF price is included in the hardcover price, along with an additional PDF file containing additional maps.

Initial reviews are very positive. This is no surprise to me. I can confirm that it’s a great setting and that a lot of serious research went into it. My only quibble is that there is no sample scenario included. I generally think such scenarios are helpful so that players can “test out” a setting or game without too much difficulty. This especially is the case for settings that likely will be unfamiliar to many players. But this, obviously, is a very minor thing. 

What impresses me the most about this book, like the others for Mythras with which I am familiar, is how successful it is in translating a difficult setting into something suitable for a game, that is, in rendering the world playable. Hats off to Chris Gilmore and Paul Mitchner on producing such a fine work.

For an interesting discussion of the importance of lists in ancient Mesopotamia, and their application to world-building in role-playing games, check out this post by Chris at The Many Coloured House. 

After years of waiting Mythic Babylon is finally available to the masses. Praise Marduk!

[A Mušhuššu (Babylonian dragon) – my character beheaded one of these pests!]

Mythras Bundle of Holding

I thought that I would mention that there are four days left to pick up the Mythras Settings Bundles (PDFs): the “Starter Collection” (which includes the Mythras core rulebook, the Mythras Companion, two combat adventures, the Monster Island setting, and the Monster Island Companion) and the “Bonus Collection” (which includes the excellent Lyonesse role-playing game and setting, two Lyonesse adventures, the Luther Arkwright setting book, and Parallel Lines, a book of adventures for Luther Arkwright).

 

As I’ve mentioned before here, Mythras is an excellent role-playing game, my favourite of the past two decades, and has the best combat system ever designed. And Lyonesse is brilliant setting, certainly one that belongs in the collection of any fan of Jack Vance’s fiction.

 

More information here.

Praise for Lyonesse

Mythras is my favourite FRPG of the 21^st Century and Lyonesse is one of my favourite trilogies of the 20^th Century—so naturally I’m a great fan of Design Mechanism’s new Lyonesse FRPG, which artfully combines these two things!

For the edification of all, I recommend the fine review of this excellent book at the blog “Reviews from R’lyeh.” Reviewer Pookie’s conclusion:

“Lyonesse: Fantasy Roleplaying Based on the Novels by Jack Vance is fantastic and thorough, almost compendium-like adaptation of a classic fantastical setting, one that is likely to feel almost familiar to many gamers, because even if they have not read the novels, they will have encountered its influence on Dungeons & Dragons. This provides an opportunity for roleplayers old and new, unaware of them or not, to visit the Elder Isles, the setting of that influence, and explore it in all of its glory and grit, its whimsy and wonder, its manners and machinations, its delights and its dangers, in this well designed, well researched roleplaying game.”

Happy 2021 everyone! Hopefully things will get better in the new year.

 

My Favourite Games these days

In case anyone is curious, here are my current favourite role-playing games (in no particular order):

Mythras (including Lyonesse). 

I’m playing in a Mythic Babylon campaign right now, and look forward to digging into the (very thick) Lyonesse tome over the next couple of months. I have some ideas for a Lyonesse campaign that I might sketch here. (I should also mention that one of the best campaigns in which I ever played used the Mongoose RuneQuest II system, which is an earlier incarnation of Mythras [very similar in terms of core rules]. Here is my log of about two-thirds of that campaign.)

Crypts and Things. 

This excellent game draws upon my Swords & Wizardry house-rules.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (and OSRIC).

The old reliable warhorse.

Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition (including the Adventures in Middle-earth variant system). 

I hope to return to my Greyhawk campaign using D&D 5e soon, as well as finish up the log of my recent epic Middle-earth campaign.

Against the Darkmaster. 

This is a quasi-clone of MERP, ICE’s old Middle-earth Roleplaying game. It has been shorn of MERP’s explicit Tolkien references, and introduces some rather cool refinements and additions to the system. I plan to write something about this exciting new game very soon!

Call of Cthulhu. 

Yeah, “old reliable.” My favourite system for one shots and short campaigns. Alas, I haven’t played it in over two years. I would like to run either a Cthulhu Invictus or a Dreamlands campaign someday.  

(I’ll add a new section on the right with links to these games in the next day or two.)

New Lyonesse and Mythras adventures

The good people at the Design Mechanism have released a couple of new adventures for Lyonesse and Mythras: 'In High Dudgeon', and 'Meeros Doomed'.

Below are the adventure descriptions.

In High Dudgeon:

Games Without Frontiers...
Every year, the villages of High and Low Dudgeon meet for the midsummer games. Every year for the past 10 years, Low Dudgeon has lost. The villagers are suspicious; what is High Dudgeon's secret? Could it be magic? Could it be some secret training technique? Is it outright cheating? Enter the intrepid characters, visiting the villages to enjoy the games, but drawn into the intrigue of Low Dudgeon's misfortune. And if the true source of High Dudgeon's success isn't found before the current games end -- well, things could get ugly.
In High Dudgeon is a Lyonesse scenario for 2-6 characters, and involves a high degree of investigation and social interaction. The adventure is complete with maps, and a plethora of colourful non-player characters. Also included are four pre-generated characters -- Madam Neneveh's Festive Fellows -- designed for use with the adventure.

Meeros Doomed:

The City State of Meeros lies broken. Queen Herathos wants the renegade priestess, Kara, brought to justice to atone for her treachery. The characters are tasked with venturing to distant Kopash, and charged with making her arrest.
But is all as it seems? Powerful forces are plotting to destroy Meeros completely, and those who have protected the city may well be the ones who secure its doom.
The characters must uncover traitors, travel into monster-infested swamps, confront sorcerous fiends, and perhaps even ally themselves with Meeros' ancient foes, the Badoshi Warlords, if they are to avenge the Doom that has come to Meeros!
This mini-campaign follows on directly from events found in the Mythras core rules, and the scenarios Sarinaya's Curse, and Meeros Falling, although it can also be played stand-alone.

I’ll be getting both of these. My hope is that once a few more adventures come out for Lyonesse I can string them together—and add some of my own—to run a campaign later this year (or possibly early 2021). 

Speaking of Lyonesse, I finally picked up my printed copy of the rules, which had been languishing in my post office box for several weeks. It’s a beautiful volume. And it is thick (almost 4 centimeters / 1.5 inches)! 

I’m really looking forward to reading this tome properly over the next couple of weeks. I already have the PDF, which I’ve dipped into occasionally over the past month, but I generally find that I need a proper physical book to read something like this from cover to cover. E-books and PDFs are helpful and convenient, but they can’t replace proper paper.

Sail to Lyonesse today!

The Lyonesse role-playing game is now available! The system is based upon Mythras, adapted to Jack Vance’s classic fantasy setting.

I’ve mentioned this book a number of times before in this blog. It combines one of my favourite role-playing systems (Mythras) with one my favourite fantasy settings (Vance’s ‘Elder Isles’) –- so it’s pretty much the ‘Reese’s Cup’ game for me. I’m really looking forward to digging into it over the summer.

Here is the official announcement from the Design Mechanism:

We're delighted to announce that Lyonesse, the roleplaying game based on Jack Vance's award-winning trilogy (Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, and Madouc) is available to buy from our DrivethruRPG store in Print+PDF versions.

We're offering the game in hardcover and softcover formats. The softcover is slightly cheaper than the hardcover (and yes the prices really are meant to be that close - one of the quirks of POD publishing), and both formats are Print On Demand, largely because in these uncertain times, we do not know how long it will take our regular printer to get back to normal operations, and our distributor, Alliance, is still closed for business.

The book costs $79.99 (hard cover), $74.99 (soft), or $25 (PDF only). You also received a free download of the main interior maps at full size, regardless of the format you buy.

Based on the award winning fantasy trilogy by one of Science Fiction and Fantasy's greatest wordsmiths, Lyonesse transports you to the Elder Isles, where King Casmir plots to seize control of the Ten Kingdoms, assassinate his foes, and prevent a disturbing prophecy from being fulfilled. Elsewhere, the magicians Shimrod, Murgen, and Tamurello are locked in a private battle of wit, will and magical intrigue. All the while, the brutal, disdainful Ska are drawing their own plans of conquest.
And in the immense Forest of Tantrevalles, the secretive fairies watch all that happens with wry amusement, and occasionally meddle in mortal affairs for reasons of their own.

Players in Lyonesse take on the roles of adventurers of the Elder Isles, seeking fame, glory, profit, magic, or simply the promise of a good meal and a soft bed for the night. Characters can be mercenaries or spies in the service of one (or several) kingdoms; oath-sworn knights eager to do battle with their lord's enemies; thieves, tricksters or even honest merchants, out to make a just living (sometimes). Perhaps characters are aspiring magicians, keen to emulate the likes of Shimrod, Tamurello, or even the mighty Murgen himself.

Lyonesse is a complete roleplaying game. This book contains everything needed (except dice and friends) for creating fabulous adventures in the Elder Isles. Exhaustive information on the kingdoms and lands of the islands; full rules for characters, skills, combat, magic, and monsters.
 
Great care has been taken to recreate the style and atmosphere of Jack Vance's novels, so that Games Masters and Players can fully immerse themselves in the Lyonesse setting. Special rules for creating towns, taverns, tavernkeeper, and even lovingly described meals are all included, emulating the quintessential elements of the books.

Don your armour! Take up your weapons! Sharpen your wits! Get ready for adventure across Hybras and beyond!

And here is a recent review of the game at RPG.net.

During these dark times, I’m so happy that this is now available. Praise Lucanor!

Lyonesse is coming

The good folk at the Design Mechanism have received the proof copy of their forthcoming Lyonesse book:

Lawrence Whitaker writes:

“It's a big book – 510 pages in total – but this is a complete, standalone game containing everything you need to roleplay in Jack Vance's Elder Isles."

As I’ve noted before (many times), I’m quite excited about this game! Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy is one of my all-time favourite fantasy series, and Mythras is one of my all-time favourite role-playing games. Consequently, I think that this is going to be awesome!

I’m looking forward to bossing around some sandestins while thwarting the Ska…

Interview with the Mythic Lawrence Whitaker

Gentle readers, as many of you already know, Lawrence Whitaker (‘Loz’) runs the Design Mechanism with Pete Nash. Whitaker and Nash created the Mythras role-playing game together (the immediate successor to RuneQuest 6, also authored by them). In addition to Mythras, and many fine supplements for it (e.g., Mythic Britain), Loz has written numerous excellent RPG books over the past few decades. He’s also a superb gamemaster.

Anyhow, ENworld’s Charles Dunwoody recently interviewed him about his RPG work. Among many interesting things, Loz mentions the forthcoming Lyonesse role-playing game:

“The Lyonesse RPG will be released next year for the system, licensed and approved by Splatterlight Press. It will be self-contained and powered by Mythras. Lawrence described the setting as consisting of an archipelago between England and France that is said to have sunk in the modern age. The RPG spins out of a setting created by Jack Vance. The books are evocative and filled with interesting characters and the RPG will follow suit. It combines traditional European folklore with violent action. The setting has a complex set of magical rules. Some humans can use faerie magic which is a less powerful form. Higher level magic works through demon summoning. The demons work magic on behalf of the sorcerer.”

(The DM’s PDF overview of the Lyonesse RPG can be found here.)

Curious about Mythras? Check out Mythras Imperative for free!