Mythras RPG

Recently, I've taken a deep dive into the world of d100 gaming after years of mostly d6 and d20 games. In the 80’s I played MERP, Alpha Dawn, and Hârnmaster, but I never played the best-known games like RuneQuest or RoleMaster. For a variety of reasons, I’ve joined in the surge of interest in solo RPG techniques and while I like low-crunch games at the table, I’ve discovered that I enjoy high-crunch games when running solo journal gaming sessions. This led me to a chaotic maze of games that I was only vaguely aware of a few weeks ago.

This week I’ve been playing the Mythras RPG, and for the most part I’ve been really pleased with the experience. There are certainly some elements that add a lot of crunch (and some bookkeeping) to play, a lot of that seems to be frontloaded into the character creation process.

Combatants get Action Points to determine how many actions they can take in combat. I didn’t fully understand this until I watched a video on Youtube which showed the process. Combat breaks down into rounds, cycles, and turns. On your turn, you can spend an Action Point to take a proactive action, like an attack. You can spend Action Points for reactive actions on others’ turns, such as a parry. A cycle is once through the initiative order of turns: warrior attacks but misses, skeleton attacks and warrior parries, cleric-y guy attacks and skeleton parries. If there are still Action Points left at the end of the cycle, a new cycle begins, and this goes on until all points are spent. This immediately adds an interesting and strategic element to combat, encouraging decisions like deciding if it’s worth parrying or letting armor absorb the blow. Coming from D&D, this didn’t click at first, but I think it’s brilliant.

I also really enjoy the concept of Passions in Mythras. Passions are a simple way to codify some motivations that can drive the story, but there is a mechanical element to them. This is a roll-under system, so a Passion is expressed something like Hate(Lord Gillesby) 52% or Loyalty(Emperor) 37%. Because there’s a percentage assigned you can roll for them just like a skill. At first, I didn’t know how in the world I would use those, but at least in solo play they come in handy. They give me an interesting lever on the character’s motivations. For example, if confronted with a difficult choice regarding the emperor, you might roll to see if the character’s loyalty affects their decision. This is open-ended enough to offer lots of possibilities for play.

I think Combat Styles also are a clever and organic way of handling a weapon proficiency system. Your character is skilled in a particular cultural combat style, which includes a few weapons and possibly a special trait. All combat styles start at the same base, but you can advance your skill in a style as you use it, becoming a better fighter. This allows a knight to be skilled in things that feel right (mounted combat, sword, and shield, etc.) while your archer has a different set of skills (bow, short sword). It’s simple but nuanced, feels right for the setting, is easy to tune, allows a lot of freedom while still imposing limits.

Mythras originated from the RuneQuest 6 rules, and its DNA is closely tied to that entire line of games. This makes it close cousin to the Basic Roleplaying system, RuneQuest, and a variety of Chaosium games – not to mention all the forks and variants over the years. Learning Mythras feels very much like joining a family of games which have their origins in the earliest days of the hobby. For example, I picked up a pdf of Magic World, which is a (now discontinued) Chaosium game rooted in the d100 system (it was on sale on drivethrurpg.com for $2.99 or something). Magic World has its own innovations, but the basic mechanics are totally familiar. I like this, and the infinite variety and creativity that it encourages.

My only complaints about Mythras so far are that there are some typos and a few rules that seem unclear to the beginner, even in the latest revision (I bought it last week from drivethrurpg.com). These concerns are superficial and haven’t in any way prevented me from enjoying the game.

Over the coming months I’d like to try more variants of the d100 system: RuneQuest, Magic World, Basic Roleplaying, and Legend to name a few. I’m glad that I branched out and added this system and its relatives to my library. The time I’ve spent with Mythras has been rejuvenating and I’ve greatly enjoyed the game.  

Games I’ve been playing recently: Dungeon Crawl Classics, 13^th Age, Mythras, Dungeon World

Games that are on deck: Mythras, Magic World, Basic Roleplaying, MERP/Against the Darkmaster, and maybe Hârnmaster.