Making More Of Mythras

Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan (and writer for) the Mythras game system’s “Classic Fantasy” supplement. In the last two years, I have played more of this game than any other.

Ever since the release of Mythras, as the reborn edition of “the game formerly known as RuneQuest 6th Edition“, I have also been collecting pretty much everything that The Design Mechanism has released for the game. From the fantasy world of Thennla to the most recent After The Vampire Wars setting, I have grabbed them all. While the scenario pile keeps growing it’s also worth noting that the scope of the game’s core rules also continues to expand.

This weekend, inspired by some words from system author Pete Nash from The Fenix Papers, I decided to grab my copy of Mythic Rome and have a look. As I did so, I also flipped back through the pages of Mythras itself and realised (with horror) that I have used no more than half of the core rules. By focusing on Classic Fantasy, I have managed to bypass many rich resources in the core rulebook.

This post is about taking stock of the greater Mythras offer and why I think it’s worth a second look.

Delving The Core Rulebook

The Mythras core rulebook contains more than most fantasy roleplaying games. Most games offer rules for character creation, handling character actions, combat, equipment, magic, and some example opposition. Looking at D&D5e, for example, the Player’s Handbook gives all of this and the (separate) Monster Manual adds to the basic creatures outlined in the appendix.

What I like about Mythras is that it offers more than the average core rulebook.

For starters, there are the five magic systems. Each of those systems is different and offers flavour of magic that will change the nature of your setting: it’s not just Wizard, Sorcerer, or Cleric in the D&D vein, which is basically just a slight variation on the same magic system. Mythras offers five genuinely different but also compatible approaches to magic. The Theism is very different to Sorcery; Folk Magic is available to all characters, while Mysticism is a matter for disciplined focus; Animism genuinely invokes the spirit magic of ancient cultures and many low-magical fantasies.

I also find myself intrigued with the Cults and Brotherhoods chapter. This section helps you to build thoughtful and meaningful organisations for your setting, be they religious cults or a brotherhood of thieves… or whatever faction you might need. The game offers you a means to make organisations matter to your players. It’s a natural development of the approach RuneQuest introduced to the hobby about 40 years ago… but Mythras has delivered it mature. It’s a valuable tool that I’m kicking myself for ignoring for so long.

Finally, reading the Games Mastery chapter is actually useful. Advice both general and specific to this set of rules makes the chapter of value. I found encouragement and simple tips alike here, which was an unexpected prize for someone as jaded as I am in gaming.

Yes, you can download Mythras Imperative and get the core game engine free of charge. Yet, if you like the game engine, I’d recommend adding the Mythras Core Rules… especially if you aim to run a game with magic in it.

Sourcebooks

Mythras is designed to best emulate a low- or mid-magical fantasy experience which is a refreshing alternative to the power fantasies of so many other roleplaying games. It’s a game built to help you experience a down-to-earth sense of verisimilitude where, no matter how experienced the heroes become, the characters are always at risk while they seek their reward.

In a way, the choice of settings such as Mythic Britain and Mythic Rome can give a false impression of what the system is about. For example, when I flip the pages of the Mythic Earth supplements, I can easily see the invitation to play a historical game; yet, in each book, there are also the seeds for making the game more fantastic.

Mythic Rome has taught me more in a day about the Roman Republic than I had really absorbed in half a lifetime of interest in Roman wargames and legends. It’s a detailed exposition of all things Roman and worthy of any historian, albeit much more readable than most history books. That said, Mythic Rome also provides ideas and rules for emulating a flavour of theism and magic that fits the era. You can play the game with a strictly historical tone that ignores the possibility of the supernatural… or you can play with the Roman assumptions about the gods and spiritual realms brought alive.

It’s the flexibility that intrigues me: I fancy running a game set in Rome but with more overtly magical themes and motifs. That’s easily achieved using Mythras‘ core elements blended with the supplement, Mythic Rome. Heck, I can even imagine creating a high-fantasy city based on the culture and society of Rome but inhabited by Minotaurs and Beastmen. However you want to shape the setting, the rules will support you and the supplements will give you ideas and tools.

Inspiration Unlocked

The words that inspired me to dig deeper were these:

“It is no secret that by far the greatest majority of roleplaying game settings are based in pseudo-medieval worlds full of European monsters and folk lore. Indeed, their ubiquity has become so staid that in some ways the game market has become rather boring. Why has this occurred and what can we do to change this bias?

…Indeed, both history and anthropology are the very best source for creating strange new ideas for RPGs, not only in the cultures so encountered, but for plot lines too.”

• (The Fenix Papers, pages 37-38)

These words ring true for me. The challenge in the article is to rise above fashionable stock tropes and to experiment. It is in the history of humanity that we can indeed find anything we can imagine, and much more that we’ll fail to imagine, for our adventures:

“There is almost nothing strange or weird that a human society hasn’t already done at some point in history.” (The Fenix Papers, page 38)

I’m going back to Mythras with the eyes of a creator to seek out inspiration for my fantasy gaming. I’m going to mine the supplements and search the core rules for opportunities to play something different. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Classic Fantasy – on the contrary, I love a good dungeon romp as much as the next old schooler. Yet, there are more options for our gaming. We can find new vistas and refreshing ideas if we let ourselves explore.

Have you given Mythras a proper read? I know I haven’t. I stopped with just the rules and failed to appreciate what other options and details were lying within those pages.

Game on!