Lets Read Mythus pt 24

"On a lonely planet spinning its way to damnation amid the fear and despair of a lonely human race, who is left to fight for all that is good, pure and gets you smashed for under a fiver?"

A scholar of Mythus exegesis displaying best practise, yesterday

Such an introduction can only mean one thing: its time to continue the thankless self-inflicted swedge through the Advanced Mythus spell descriptions. Y U do this? In search of stuff that might be useful in games people actually play.

Today's main event is The Gygax Forgotten Classic, a flat race over pages 284-294 of the Dangerous Journeys: Mythus course.
Going: dull to middling.
Weather: overcast, dry.
Anticipated obstacles: opaque language, repetitive format, unintuitive mechanics, massive drinking.

Previously: Dweomercraeft (wizardin') and Priestcraeft (godbotherin').
Today: the filthy specialist matjickqkcks of Apotropaism, Astrology, etc.

As before, each grab bag of example castings covers Casting Grades I-V, with 3-5 example castings per level. Casting time is hidden away in the name of the spell, for which see LRM pt 23. Heka costs are as noted in LRM pt 22.

And with that: "Bog snorkels on gentlemen."

Apotropaism I

Abram's Safekeep Formula
Protects 1 small object from mundane damage (small fires, rot, being eaten by pests, etc.). Also makes it remarkably uninteresting to thieves or vandals, who have to make a DR "Hard" test vs. their Spiritual Metaphysical CATEGORY to notice it. Duration is 1 week/10 STEEP.
Semi-useful. Might steal. *gluk*

Iron Nails Charm
Enchants normal nails with warding aura.
Two crossed nails ward area against "...Netherrealm, malign nature and Evil creatures or beings..." (this particular recurring wordy mythus-ism will henceforth be denoted by the shorthand "[Team Evil]"). One nail can hold closed doors, windows and the like. Entering warded area or opening secured item requires DR "Hard" check vs. Mr Evil's Spirit TRAIT and causes 1d6+1 Physical damage.
Protection from evil with nice folkloric mechanic.

No Surprise Spell
Subject gains infallible spider sense to imminent danger for 5 minutes.
I honestly have nothing to say about this spell.

Protection from Fire Cantrip
Magickal smoke alarm, awakens from sleep if needs be. Thankfully only applies to uncontrolled fires. If subject is targeted by fire they gain a one-off +10 Avoidance bonus. Lasts 1 day/10 STEEP.
Semi-cool in a petty magic/cantrip way.

Safe Passage Ritual
Allows caster + 1 mate/10 STEEP to amble past natural hazards with ease (precarious pathways and aggressive animals are the cited examples).

Useful, if a bit "Screw your skills, I have Heka!" for my taste.

Apotropaism II

Harn's Hidden Passage Spell
Anyone within a 1-rod area centred on the caster vanishes from normal vision so long as they don't talk or do anything wildly conspicuous. True Sight casting and/or guard dogs negate. [Team Evil] have 1 DR penalty when attempting to target apotropaist using this casting, even if they spot him.
Quite cool. Not so much classic invisibility as a mobile "IGNORE ME!" field.

Protection from Deception Cantrip
Causes lies to sound grating to the ear. Criminal Activities, Mental and/or Deception are useless against this Casting, because phuq muggle skills. Visual deception like Sleight of Hand is not negated.
Detect Lie. Nothing more need be said.

Protection from Paralysis Charm
Grants Paralysis Resistance at 20% + 1/10th caster's STEEP + 1% per Heka spent. Test against DR "Moderate"(x2) in most cases. So, if you boost Resistance to even 50% only an Autofail on your roll = "Gak! I cannot move!" And this is another reason I hate Mythus' screwy take on d% mechanics.

Warning Alert Formula
Causes tinkling sound and silver glow to limn any [Team Evil] or hostiles who enter a 1-rod radius/10 STEEP centred on the caster or any point he designates.
Detect evil with a side order of detect hostility. S'ok I suppose.

Apotropaism III

Alchindus Sigil Formula
One shot anti-evil claymore. Causes 2d6+2 Spirit damage to the first [Team Evil], thief or desecrator to come within 1 ft/10 STEEP of the sigil.
No ruling on whether the sigil has to be in plain sight, whether it can be hidden away, or what.
Another guards and wards effect, though Unearthed Arcana's sepia snake sigil was cooler.

Eviltracks Agony Charm
Hammer nails into a hand-/footprint left by a [Team Evil] member to cause them 2d6+2 Physical damage (ignores armour). One nail per print. Other castings can enhance the damage inflicted or pin the bad guy in place.
Tin-eared name aside this spell is semi-cool. I remember a cheesy horror film (Warlock?) that used this gimmick to good effect. So bonus points for folkloric precedent.

Full Consecration Ritual
Wards a 1-rod radius against [Team Evil] for 5 minutes/STEEP. Malign gribbler with a Spirit TRAIT < the caster's STEEP shun the area. More powerful creatures can enter warded area, but take 2d6+2 Spirit damage.
Another variation of the protection from evil spell, as previously mythusized by Priestcraeft castings. Nowt to write home about in a game where Spirit = 6x(3d6) or so.

Unseen Sentinel
Forces a minor spirit to guard a 1 chain diameter area for 5 mins/STEEP. Spirit can only warn those who enter the area, and alert caster of intrusions.
So, an alarm system. *meh* We have these things called dogs...

Apotropaism IV

Invisibility to Undead
Does exactly what it says on the tin: da undead no can see you.
Unliving creatures (WT-? *gluk gluk*) are less affected. They can spot you and your delicious brainmeat/blood/lifeforce with 100% - apotropaist's STEEP vs DR "Hard".
Again with the non-intuitive probabilities Mythus? Seriously, FRO!

Protection from Drowning Cantrip
Magic life vest lasting 1 day/10 STEEP. Causes you to bob about in water, mud, quicksand, etc. If held under you do into suspended animation until a breath can be drawn.
S'alright. Might be worth a level 1 spell slot in a Classic game.
Usable content? Consume! *gluk gluk*

Protection from Fear Spell
Negates fear from any source. ANY source. The description is very specific about this:

Synonym abuse? Oh my yes. *gluk gluk*

Don't see what's inherently magical about negating fear, trepidation and apprehension; where I come from we have a wonder substance called 'alkyhol' with similar effects.
Reason Advanced Mythus Sucks #1,593: the game lacks any dutch courage and/or medicinal booze healing rules.

Apotropaism V

Abjure Spell
No, doesn't allow you to become an oathbreaker with impunity. Actually causes 5d3 each of P, M and S damage unless to anyone in the 1 foot diam./STEEP area of effect who doesn't truthfully announce their membership in [Team Evil].
No idea what's going on here. Some sort of "confess your crimes!" *slap, slap* thing going on?

Chant of Guarding Cantrip
Negates Heka-powered compulsion (Attacks to Control, -to Influence, etc) around the caster for 5 mins per 10 STEEP. Mundane forms of persuasion still work.
Alright counterspell to all the 'boogly-boogly, you must obey me' mechanics scattered hither and yon in Gradgrind's Piffledross. Dunno if I'd use it in a Classic game though.

Protection from Curses Spell
Negates the first Curse inflicted by [Team Evil] on subject. Max Casting Grade negated = caster's grade in Apotropaism.
Kinda handy. Might be adaptable to a Classic D&D game if your evil types use a lot of curses.

Astrology I

Astromancy Spell
Three paragraphs of 'goes nowhere fast' waffle wrapped around another uninspired 'clue me' spell. The caster has to reveal their plan to the GM, who determines likelihood of success based on a bunch of ass-pulled criteria and DRs.
Screw that! Dice for it.
This spell is bad, and those involved should feel bad. It is classic "How not to..." material.

Influence of Scorpio Spell
Detect precious metals in 1 rod/10 STEEP diam. General direction only, no clue as to relative values of detected loot.
Stealable. *gluk gluk*

Know Disposition Cantrip
Know alignment + detect reaction. Can be blocked by Castings or - probably - sheet lead.
Dull, and no mention of whether it is socially acceptable to *ping* people with such an intrusive spell.

Minor Horoscope Formula
Another vague-to-uselessness 'clue me' spell. Allows the GM to foreshadow coming events within a 1 week horizon. He can do this anyway, coz he's the GM!

Star Chart Place Formula
Psychometry on a place.
Affects 1 chain dia./10 STEEP. Caster picks up general impressions about things that happened in the location. Can be performed remotely at unspecified DR penalties.
Similar to the old AD&D psionic ability. May be of interest to others.

Astrology II

Best Time Formula
Cast the auspices for the most opportune time to do a thing. Can result in DR modification in your favour. So, time-constrained free Joss (Mythus probability-shifting Fate Points).
Thematically appropriate, but a bit bland as written.

Influence of Venus Cantrip
Short duration charm person effect which causes the target to become "...temporarily enamoured of the astrologer or another of the opposite sex..." Allows caster to manipulate target per the Magnetism K/S Area. Bit creepy in the date-rapey implication that "...the target will only vaguely recall the Influence of Venus Effect, and what transpired when it was active."
Erm, no.

Influence of Virgo Ritual
Grants a 20 point STEEP boost to a not-Astrology K/S area for 2 hours + 1hr/10 STEEP. Requires the subject to be within spitting distance of scholarly books or a living expert in the subject. On a Special Success 1d3 STEEP are retained permanently.
Free skill points. Why would you not cast this exploit as often as possible?

Star Chart Item Spell
Psychometry on an object. Success as DR "Moderate" Astrology checks grants impressions about the creator, how the object has been used, etc. Max checks: 1/10 STEEP. Failure = no meaningful impressions. Fumble = no impressions from this item ever.
More specific than the area psychometry casting above. May be semi-useful if you like that sort of thing.

Astrology III

Ascendant Cantrip
Allows the caster to have two Influence of castings active at once, rather than the normal restriction of one at a time only. Both expire when the shortest duration is up.
Meta-magic effect. Utility outside Mythus - limited.

Influence of Cancer Formula
Doubles healing rates for 1 day/10 STEEP. Negates Shock, soothes fear, and suppresses the desire to self-harm.
Handy long-term 'peaceful healing' effect. Might be useful for NPC hospitallers and general down-time healing in your game. *gluk*

Influence of Mars Spell
Grants 10 Physical Attribute points and +10 STEEP to one Combat K/S Area for 5 mins/10 STEEP. Special Success = 20% chance permanent +1 to a Physical Attribute, 80% chance +1 to Combat K/S Area.
Another 'spam this daily for great justice!' casting. Why spend hard-earned Accomplishment Points (Mythus XP) when you can just set easy-to-renew Heka on fire?

Know Truth Charm
Causes people to blow glue, sorry, glow blue in a 1 rod/10 STEEP diameter. A person's glow will turn black if they lie.
Area effect detect lie with nice FX. B+, would use. *gluk*

Astrology IV

Influence of Mercury Spell
Doesn't cause Mad Hatter-ish behaviour. Instead amps Mental Mnemonic Power (Int.) by +10 to a maximum of 40 for 5 mins/10 STEEP. No chance of permanent increase.
I'm not sure how/if modifying one's stats in Advanced Mythus modifies K/S Areas. I'll leave the full implication of such a cascading nightmare of char sheet adjustment to the reader... *shudder*

Influence of the Moon Cantrip
Creates a 1 rod radius/10 STEEP cloud of sleep mist. Eveyone in the area has to make a DR "Easy" test vs. Spiritual Psychic Capacity or spark out for 1AT/10 STEEP of the caster.
A non-HD-capped, area effect version of the classic D&D "You Win" button.

Kayyam's Wisdom Ritual
Has up to 4 effects, each of which takes 5 minutes to invoke.

1. caster renders himself immune to drugs which would impair Phys, Mental or Spirit.
2. caster can detect lies flawlessly.
3. caster can take ectoplasmic form.
4. caster can grant a Spirit bonus to 1 person/10 STEEP equal to 1/10th the Caster's Astrology which acts as Spirit armour. The caster gains a pool of bonus Heka = twice the Spirit points bestowed.

All this lasts for AT = caster's STEEP.
Medium-term buffing spell with an odd 'spooky spy form' side. No idea how this got past the Interesting Police. Possibly folkloric origin?

Astrology V

Aetherscan Cantrip
Caster is able to detect Aethereal creatures or Aethereal-influenced Heka for 1 AT/10 STEEP. Theycan also detect illusions as such with a DR "Hard" Astrology check.
Combined detect ethereal+illusions; might have some utility for an old school game.

Arago's Influence of the Sun Cantrip
Caster becomes a solar system. No, really. He radiates bright light in 1 rod diameter/10 STEEP and has small glowing planets orbit him. This bizarre effect causes 5d3 Physical damage per CT to all Undead and light sensitive creatures. Creatures not used to light are dazzled for 1d3+5 rounds after the effect ends.
I kinda like this as a replacement for things like sunray or daylight. The "Yes, in Mythus the universe really does revolve around the caster" factor is beyond parody though. *gluk* for several reasons then.

Influence of Gemini Spell
Magic walkie-talkie. Allows 1-way communication only. Duration: 30 seconds/10 STEEP, range: 1 league/10 STEEP. Can be intercepted by Castings or Telepathy.
Pretty *meh* variation on the various sending and message spells probably already present in your preferred game. Pass.

Mysticism I

Enough! I can take no more. Page 289 and the sheer drudgery of this tosh is forcing me to tap out.

"Screw you!" said my poor, suffering skullmeats "I didn't sign up for this sort of abuse."

Ye gods, is there anything more tedious to read in an RPG than spell/power descriptions, especially low-level ones? If there is, I can't think of it. Page after page of minor modifiers or petty exceptions to this/that/t'other rule. I know you need rules for spells -- otherwise it all degenerates into some sort of degenerate Forge-inflected Magic Tea Party (like Everway), and nobody wants that -- but there's simply no excuse for making the mystery and wonder of magic so. damn. boring.

Long story short: the Advanced Mythus castings are banal systematisation of the fantastic at its very, very worst. To paraphrase an old saw: "Magic system? There's no magic in it!"

Next Time: It all goes a bit bell-bottomed and patchouli-scented when we finally look at sample Herbalism and Mysticism castings. On the bright side: artwork by Gelon and Mitchell.

Pic Source: Dangerous Journeys: Mythus rulebook, the environmental graffiti website, teh intawubz

Lets Read Mythus pt20

Ah me, where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday that I first jokingly broached the idea of a Lets Read of Dangerous Journeys: Mythus (and for the life of me I can’t remember why that ever seemed like a good idea). Now here we are, 20-odd weeks later, still deep in the Combat chapter, facing yet another wodge of text, tables and wonky formatting.

Today we exhume the Advanced Mythus rules on Weapons and Armour, which sprawl across pages 235-256 in a bloated abandon reminiscent of an orgied-out Roman emperor. Those last few hardened, dead-eyed souls still playing along at home may wish to charge their glasses with something nice and paint-stripping now.

Weapons and Armour Information and Tables

The section opens with a couple of paragraphs of introductory busywork. In brief: "here are tables of stats for war gear, uses them." (a paraphrase, not the original gygaxian prose) The customary intro is followed by a column of text explaining what all the abbreviations in the forthcoming tables mean.

These abbreviations.

Sub-Area -- what weapon skill sub-area you use to bash people.
WP -- Weapon Points. How much the weapon adds to your skill.
C -- Composition; what your thwackenstick is made from. (M for metal, W for wood, C for combination)
S -- Speed Factor. Not ‘SF’? I’ve no idea why not.
DT -- damage type (P for piercing, C for cutting, S for stunning, B for blunt, etc.)
Dam -- base weapon damage
Reach -- striking range (in yards)
Price -- price in Mythusbucks.

Additional notations for missile weapons:

T -- thrown weapon? Y/N distinction.
Price -- given in a ###/## format. The number before the slash is weapon price, after is price per shot
ROF -- rate of fire per round (before modification for skill level)

Not sure if any of these are worth toasting as OMJ (Original Mythus Jargon - gateway to liver damage since Feb 2012); with the exception of 'WP' and 'SF' they’re all pretty standard RPG jargon.

Weapon Tables

Remember the weapons tables back in the AD&D PHB; the ones that sprawled across a page or so, and which were so lovingly parodied in Hackmaster? Well, the Advanced Mythus weapon tables cover four pages: pp236-240, the whole of pages 236-240. That's two pages for listings of melee weapons, one page for missile weapons, and then another page of missile weapon ranges, of which there are five: Point Blank, Short, Medium, Long, Extreme. Why five? Because three range brackets would just be soooooo unrealistic, of course.

In total the tables give stats for:

Melee Weapons -- 18 swords, 9 shields, 59 others -- total 86
Missile Weapons -- 8 bows, 9 xbows, 23 others -- 40 total

Almost all the special rules and footnotes from EGG's iconic AD&D weapon tables are in there, along with a few new ones. There are 13 special weapon abilities all told, and it looks like this is where all the special attack stuff I was lamenting the lack of last week has been hanging out. Want to unhorse/disarm/entangle? See here:

Yeah, lotsa combat options, all hidden away in the footnotes.

Its nice to see some familiar old friends (hold at bay, prod off horse, etc.) poking out of the sanity-devouring accretion of Zalchisian proportions that is the Advanced Mythus rule set. But - and isn’t there always a ‘but’ - I do have one small niggle with these super secret esoteric rules of doubleplusobscurity. Namely, that the half-written rule problem which so often plagues Advanced Mythus rears its ugly head again. For example:

Ok, great. But what DR are you supposed to test against? A straight DR "Hard"(x1) roll? A DR derived from the relative weapon skills of the participants (in the manner of a contested K/S vs. K/S roll)? Does the guy you’re trying to do stuff to get an Avoidance roll? Are we told? Are we hell.

The footnotes to the missile weapon tables are much simpler, with only one special rule and a couple of notes on ammunition cost. But then what else did you expect regarding a series of variations on a theme of string and twigs? It's not like anyone armed with a bow was ever instrumental in winning a battle; no, not like Gary's beloved pole-arms.

Wassat? "Gunpowder weapons?" Wash your filthy mouth out!

A couple of other takeaways from the Advanced Mythus weapon tables:

• Pike, Mancatcher and (Bill-)Guisarme(-Voulge) are slow as owt at SF 10. Enjoy your going last.
• Rapier, Scimitar, Mancatcher and Lance practically do your fighting for you, adding 10 WP to your skill (12 if you pick up a heavy lance). Sure, coz lancing is super-easy and takes no practise at all...
• Daggers are able to unhorse opponents. Nope, it says so right there on page one of the grand unified melee weapon table.
• Long bows and crossbows negate the first 5 Armour whenever they hit. Some melee weapons (particularly the Renaissance-era ones: halberd, 2H sword, morningstar, pick, pike) ignore even more; anything up to 2x their inherent WP!
• Some weapons are officially useless against armour, either doubling armour values per hit, or causing 0 damage.
• Throwing a rock at someone? That's Hand Weapon, Missile (sub-area: darts). ¿Que?

Weapon Descriptions

As well as the four pages of tables for 120+ types of weapon, we’re also offered no less than eight pages of text defining those weapons. The weapon lists are pretty much what you'd expect of a Cold War-era militaria nerd's knowledge base: the majority of stabbinators are European or Japanese, with a scattering of notorious weapons (bolas, blowgun, shaolin shovel, cho-ko-nu, tulwar) from other cultures. I spotted no African, Amerindian, or Polynesian weapons, and very few Indian and SEAsian ones, so all you maquahuitl, tlinga, katar or chakram fans are SOL.

But fret not knife-on-a-stick fetishists! All the classic Gygaxian pole-arms are there. All. Of. Them. Because a game without glaive-guisarmes and six alternative names for the ranseur(!) is no game at all.

Each and every killtoy gets one paragraph of potted description covering such germane information as:

• general appearance,
• cultural origin,
• use in combat, and
• minimum strength requirement to wield.

The minimum strength requirements are, to put it mildly, problematic. For one thing I've no idea why this particular rules wrinkle wasn’t defined earlier and integrated into the weapon tables: it’s not like a there’s a lack of space. For another thing more than a few of the requirements seem rather over-inflated. Min PMPow (Str) of 13 to use a katana? Min Str 15-16 to use a pole-arm? In a game where normal humans have Str 10? That seems steep to someone used to RQ's 'Min Str 7/9' requirements. To cap it all there's no mention of any penalty for using a weapon that's too heavy for you, just a blanket ‘you must be this high to ride’ number. PMPow 15 and you want to use a PMPow 16 weapon? RULES SAYS NO!

Dear oh dear. That is no way to run a whelk stall...

A couple of weapons from the tables ('chopper', 'generic shield') are missing text descriptions, and there are a few other odd Easter eggs hidden among all the wordswordswords:

• Pig feathers (a metal version of the classic sharpened stake) don’t even belong on this table; they’re an emplaced battlefield obstacle, not a weapon.
• Manopele? An armoured sword-breaking gauntlet covered in blades and spikes. METAL as all hell.
• A Foot Bow (Long) - or possibly a Foot (Long) Bow - is basically a giant crossbow that uses you as the body. See that wacky scene in Hero [link].
• Get your bow wet and you lose *at least* 50% range and any bonus damage. Get your compound bow wet and its 75% likely to come unglued. Bow users: enjoy your 'hostage to a dick GM' status.

Finally we come to the all-important question of utility. Is this section useful?

Arguably not. If you've read the AD&D weapon rules you've had most of the benefit of this section, and the writing herein is the worst sort of completist, minutiae-obsessed game writing. I’m not going to take EGG to task for failing to anticipate the later prominence of Google and Wikipedia, but I know for a fact that handbooks of medieval warfare and weapons (produced either by game designers or by general interest publishers) were readily available in the 1990s. Eight pages spent defining a spear, katana or pike is naught but just needless busywork and completism.

And then there’s this particular weapon description:

Argh! the obvious! I'm blind! I’m completely blind!!!

Is that subtle self-parody, or just complete loss of proportion? I don't even know any more.

Advanced Mythus: Chaos plot?

Armour Tables and Descriptions

Just when you thought it couldn't get any fiddlier and pixel-bitchy, we finally come face-to-face with the Advanced Mythus armour rules in all their infernal glory. They're only six pages in toto*, and include rules for natural (monster) armour, for humanoid (suit) armour, for barding (animal) armour, and no less than three variations on the theme of  simplified Advanced Mythus armour. Yes, you read that right. Mythus even manages to make a meal of simplifying thing.

* Wait, did I really just write 'only six pages of armour rules'? What is this game doing to my head?! More worryingly, why are the armour rules lodged in some poor little Scottie dog?

The crux of the Mythus armour system is the Armour Categories table:

Because a dozen armour locations makes sense in a game with four hit locations.

You can only have one piece of armour per Category, but each piece of armour grants its protective bonus to all the listed Hit Location Areas. Does that make an oz of sense to you? Thankfully there are a couple of paragraphs of worked examples and rationales for the hopelessly confused. The self-awareness test is again failed with a helpful suggestion that "...it would be a good idea to create an armour sheet to help you keep track of it all."

Natural Armour

Monster armour in Advanced Mythus is weird and a bit irritating in that completely negates the benefits of multiplied damage from hit location rolls. No, seriously. Read this:

So, according to this, rolling for Hit Location on a monster is nothing but busywork.

The above conclusion is not just me interpolating meaning for dramatic effect. This textual WTFery is entirely supported by the example gratis offered as elaboration and clarification. Consider the armour schema of a Mythus monster:

Because a unified 'All Others' column would never work.

Argh! That's just stupid! A single row of 'Normal' armour and note to the effect of "deduct this from damage before multiplying for Area hit" would cut that whole over-elaborate table down one value, two modifiers, and a footnote, and all in a grand total of three lines. Watch:

Stone Golem
Armour, Non-Vital 20* (Electricity 10, Blunt 5)
* deduct from damage taken /before/ multiplying for hit location

Natural Armour? Nothing natural about it! Kill it with fire, salt the earth, and start from scratch!

Human(oid) Armour

Rules for artificial armour. Cost for bigger suits scales in a linear fashion (+100% for each +3' of height above human norm), while protective value scales not at all. So a 12' tall giant's suit of armour costs three times the human norm (no, not eight times) and blocks exactly the same damage that a human size suit does. I'll just leave that bizarre little nugget o’ Mythuslore there to enrage anyone who understands cube-square mathematics, shall I?

The introductory paragraph of madness is followed by another para' explaining the abbreviations used in the tables on the following pages (a bunch of damage types, "AP Cat" = Armour Protection Category, "SF Pen" = Speed Factor Penalty). This is delicious jargon, and we drink to it. (*gluk gluk*)

After the decompression of OMJ terms into English we're then given something that, at least in a bad light, looks a little like an armour encumbrance rule:

Running: -1 yd/BT per -1 SF penalty.
Walking: -1 yd/AT per -1 SF penalty.
Dodging: impossible in armour with SF 5+. Why SF 5 or more? Because phuque, that's why!

Whether you’ll care enough to remember something as fiddly as this in play is up to the conscience of the reader. I wouldn’t give it a second look myself.

Armour Tables

Cover pp248-249. Listings of all the information you could ever want or need for both individual items and for full suits of armour. Annoyingly there's no 'bespoke' vs. 'off the peg' organisation, everything is all mixed in together in alphabetical order. Could have been handled better IMO.

Page 2 of 2, page 1 is just more of the same.

There are several footnotes at the base of the second page, and the old Mythus crime of using both bullet points (·) and askterisks (*) in a font where there is almost nothing to distinguish them rears its head again. "Bad editing staff! No cookie for you!"

All those different numbers by damage type probably relate, in some subtle way, to the Weapon-vs.-AC tables of AD&D fame, but I'm blowed if I can tease out any correlation beyond the most obvious.

Astute observers will note that shields make a reappearance, this time giving their defensive stats rather than Speed Factor damage. A rational mind (as opposed to the mercilessly Martian logical one that actually laid out Advanced Mythus) would probably have hied the shields off into a single unified table all of their own.

Armour Descriptions

Pages 250-253 are a primer on the art of armour, from the evolution in styles of full plate right down to the subtle delights of Cuissarts, Demi-Jambarts and Tuilles. (Nope, me neither without checking) One paragraph per suit or piece of oddly shaped metal. The Speed Factor penalties from the armour tables are reproduced in the description. My cursory flick-through turned up no text/table conflicts.

Barding Descriptions

Armour for animals. Warhorses (+elephants +monsters) only. Work and riding horses are unable to wear barding. Why is not explained, they just can't. Barding of a particular type always protects per the table. I assume the listed price is to bard a horse rather than a war-elephant or something equally rock-and-roll. Nothing is said about the price of armouring other creatures. Presumably it's an "If sir has to ask, sir cannot afford" situation...

The table is pretty self-explanatory to anyone familiar with the human(oid) armour tables.

• "SF Pen" percentage is actually a penalty to the mount's speed.
• Chamfron and Front Plates are additional 'bolt-on' armour. Everything else is a big coat of horse reinforcement.

A textual note that creatures of Phaeree cannot wear any ferrous-metal barding (iron, steel, adamantine) and must wear bronze reveals that the latter metal offers only 70% of the protection of steel. This implies a whole other level of detail regarding non-iron weapons and armour, a world of which we (perhaps mercifully) know nothing.

Useful? Depends on how fiddly you like your tinned horse rules...

Cost of Weapons and Armour

Price of stabbers and tinbitz varies by quality.

Quality in turn affects only the amount of damage your shiny toy can take in parries. Spending 10x the normal amount on a weapon of "Unsurpassed" quality modifies its innate Weapon Points, Speed Factor penalty or encumbrance effect by precisely 0. You want a better weapon? Go kow-tow to the Heka-slinger: they have the monopoly on improving weapons.

"Silly muggle! All mundane quality is equally worthless; only magick has mechanical benefits in Mythusworld."

Price variations with no useful purpose in-game? *pffft* Seen better. Heck, written better.

Damage To And Repair Of Armour

An opening plaint on the complexity of modelling wear and tear on armour before we're informed that if a piece of armour takes maximum damage 10 times (ie: blocks damage, but some still gets through to you) it falls to bits. That drops to "5 penetrating hits = crumple" if its a buckler. Again, no variations for quality.

We do find the limits of Advanced Mythus armour fiddliness though:

Note Gary's polite use of the word 'purist'.

Averaged Armour

Most of pages 255-256 is spent in tacit admission that the default armour system of Advanced Mythus is overcomplicated to the point of absurdity. The reader who might actually want to play a game of Mythus some time before the heat death of the universe is offered three alternate system of simplified armour calculation.

The first alternative system is Average Armour, and it offers three levels of coverage (half, 3/4, full) in six remarkably familiar types.

Half armour = byrnie (coat) only
three-quarter = byrnie + greaves and gauntlets
full = the above + helm, shield, brassarts

The armour types are (stop me if you've heard this one before):

Hello old friends. What are you doing in a dump like this?

Want simpler? Pick an off-the-peg Averaged Armour, Simplified suit: all the joy of damage types with none of the number-juggling of pick'n'mix armour.

Want simpler even than that? Choose Averaged Armour, Unified Damage Types, which is basically the Mythus Prime armour system.

The numbers are run for you in one last page-spanning table:

Start simple, get more complex? Such is not the Mythus way!

-----

And that's the skinny on arms and armour in Advanced Mythus. Wasn't it both fun and infinitely useful for your nice, simple, rules-light Classic game?

...

...

"Pwa-hahahahahaha!!!"

Sorry, no. Couldn't keep a straight face there.

Seriously, some stuff here might be of interest to AD&D players, or to RuneQuesters who want a bit more mechanical fiddliness to their arms and armour rules. Almost anyone else should probably take these weapons and armour rules as a cautionary example of the dangers of excess.

I think I’m going to go and read classic super simple Brit-gamer RPG AFF: Dungeoneer until my desire to hunt down the surviving members of GDW’s editing department and make them eat pages of Dangerous Journeys: Mythus while screaming "You! You let this happen!" abates. I may be some time...

Next Time: Dazing, Permanent Damage, Shock and more. And that's just what's going on inside my head...

Pic source: Dangerous Journeys: Mythus rulebook, teh netlowubz

Lets Read Mythus pt10

Being now a third of the way into the Dangerous Journeys: Mythus book, this week we turn our jaundiced attention to skills, specifically Mental ones. Sorry, but that doesn't mean cool stuff like telekinesis or shooting things with mind bullets (that's called Psychogenics or something in DJ-world), it's just book larnin.

For the benefit of my fellow masochists who have stuck with this project we're still deep in the trackless wastes of Chapter 10, albeit in a new section entitled K/S Area Descriptions. This sprawling chunk of info-dump opens with -- and this is no word of a lie -- the line "And here it is, the section you've all been waiting for!" My feelings on this can best be summed up visually:

Wildly out-of-place carney barkerish razzamatazz opener over with, we only have to sit through one nice short paragraph explaining that this is section you turn to when you need to work out what your HP's skills do, at least for simple K/S Areas. For complicated (Heka-active, aka 'magic') skills you're referred to the Mythus Magick book for full details.

There's a short sub-section on Cross-Application of K/S Areas which adds yet another, entirely un-bloody-heralded (of course), wrinkle to skills. Apparently having other relevant skills will actually boost your ability in skill use by some actual small amount: 1/10th of one skill is added to another.

Oh good, coz there was me thinking, "I like the Advanced Mythus skill use system, but it just doesn't offer enough things to keep track of".

Then without further ado we're plunged into a sea of skill descriptions. 64 interminable pages of 'em. That's enough room to write a game in, that is!

General Comment on the Skill Areas
Each of the eleventy-dozen-and-three Mental, Physical and Spirit skills gets its own individual blurb. Some get a single paragraph explaining that "this skill is exactly what you think it is"; others get a dozen or more sub-areas and a /couple of pages/ of detail. There’s little apparent rhyme or reason over which skills get lick-and-a-promise treatment, and which get the full Gygax. I’m sure there’s a logic to it, I just can’t divine it.

Remember the potted Vocation descriptions a few weeks ago? [link] We're going to do the same for skills, but with a sharper eye on possible utility for old school games.


Mental K/S Area Descriptions

Lots of skills, oh my yes. I fear I had forgotten quite how many.

Oh well. Too late now. Let's just start at A and plug away until I lose the will to live.

Agriculture
Farming farming farming

You probably started adventuring to get off the farm, but retain some of your previous skills and knowledge. Dunno, don't care.

Five sub-areas:

1. Animal Husbandry (includes falconry, horse-breaking, etc.)
2. Crop Farming
3. Floraculture (includes Herbs)
4. Horticulture
5. Viticulture (includes vintning)

These sub-areas seem massively over-generalised. For example, take a look at the actual blurb for the Crop Farming sub-area:

"Gorsh, that Cleetus dun be raat know-li-jubble."

Now, call me a nit-picking ninny if you like (you brave Internet Tough Guy you) but I was of the - hopelessly simplistic and doubtless flawed - understanding that farmers, herders and the like specialise in the crops/beasts they tend. But apparently on Aerth rustics are expert on the nuances of handling all animals ("It lives, I can wrangle it"), or at growing every single crop "...from alfalfa to zucchini..." If you're going to pretend to be exhaustive and 'realistic' then at least divide crops up by climate or continent or something. A spud farmer won't be an expert on sorghum, and a Peruvian highland maize dude won't necessary know anything about tropical lowland rice.

So that's the classic Mythus mix of over-specific and wilfully vague in full effect in the very first skill description we encounter. This fills me with joy and anticipation for further delights to come. Hemlock cocktail? Don't mind if I do.


Apotropaism
That's a hit on the "Improve Your Word Power" category (*gluk*), and the first page-long skill description. Apotropaism is abjurative/protective magic wot keeps nasty things away. It adds to your Heka score, enables you to use "...powers and Castings of apotropaistic nature. (See the Mythus Magick book.)" ~and~ gives you a dandy little string of innate "keep away!" powers based on your skill level.

You gain access to spells according to the following table:

Casting Grade = Spell Level in Classic D&D-speak. (*gluk)

This one table is identically reproduced (with different title headers) no less than 13 times in various magic skill descriptions. That's just wasting pages for the hell of it.

As well as the above, someone with a decent Apotroaism skill also gains a suite of innate, advance-by-skill-level badness-repelling abilities. One power per 10 full skill points, ranging from Warding Gesture (super-quick spirit armour) at 11+, up to Spirit Trap (Ghostbuster-style soul trap) at 91+. Each of these gets a one-paragraph power description.

So, as you can see, Apotropaism is a non-trivial skill mechanically. There's meat enough here to serve as mechanical chassis for a whole Abjurer/Spirit Warder class in an old school RPG. The interaction of learned spells and innate powers is reminiscent of the way the Mage and Priest classes work in OEPT, which is cool.

Does that count as something useful for your game? Arguably so.

Appraisal
Know the value of stuff skill. No less than /14/ sub-areas, some of which are just straight duplicates of others. Piss-poor proof-reading and clockwatching editing are in effect.

1. Artwork
2. Furs
3. Crystal/Glasswork
4. China/Pottery
5. Rugs & Fabrics
6. Gold/Precious Metal
7. Jewelry
8. Handicrafts
9. Woodwork & Furniture
10. Garments
11. Buildings
12. General Goods/Workmanship
13. Animals
14. Land

10% of Appraisal skill is added to your Rarities (Antiques Roadshow knowledge) skill, which is nice.

Architecture
"Design building that no fall down, go boom" skill, also history of architecture. No sub-areas, so you know all about every building tradition on the planet. Architecture skill and Fortification and Siegecraft skill cross-feed to each other at 10%.

Astronomy
Telescope-fondling, planet-ogling and eclipse-prediction skill. Adds to Heka, but only for Astrology skill. Cross-feeds 10% to Navigation.


Biography/Genealogy
Who Do You Think You Are? skill. Might be actually semi-useful in tribal/feudal societies where bloodlines and the like matter for something other than dogs, or in a world where knowing someone's ancestry and true-name lets you do magic on them.

Biology
You know about living things. No sub-areas, so you know about everything from entomology to marine biology to ecology. Cross-feeds 10% to animal care.

Botany
You are all-knowing about flora and fungi. Again, no sub-areas, so you're an omnidisciplinary plant-understander. Doesn't cross-feed or add Heka to Herbalism, as you might expect, but it does improve farming or gardening skill checks.

Business Administration
The skill description here is beyond parody. Here, look at this:

Wow, days of high adventure indeed. I have nothing more to say on the subject.

Chemistry
Non-magical alchemy. Kind of obsolete in a magic-world setting where Alchemy actually works. You can make chemicals, but "...in the Advanced Mythus game, chemical formulations which would create explosives will not work." This massively arbitrary ruling that only the magic people get to make things go boom makes Jamie Hyneman a sad science walrus.

Criminal Activities, Mental
This skill still sits slightly oddly with me. Crime is doing things in a way the powers that be don't approve of, not a skill set in itself. Yes, I can see the utility of having specific 'cunning villainy' skills from a game adjudication perspective, but... *sigh*

14 sub-areas:

1. Blackmail
2. Bribery
3. Confidence Games
4. Counterfeiting
5. Embezzling
6. Extortion
7. Fencing goods
8. Forgery
9. Fraud
10. Gambling Operations
11. Racketeering
12. Vice
13. Money Laundering
14. Misappropriation

We are generously advised that "...because there are so many sub-areas... they are gained at twice the normal rate." Fine, but surely it would have been more logical to, I dunno, rein back on the kudzuvian sub-skill sprawl. For example, I fail to see how Embezzling, Misappropriation and/or Fraud differ in any meaningful way: surely the first two are merely aspects of the third?

Criminology
Detect crime skill. Horribly anachronistic for a pre-modern setting: there's a reason "poachers make the best gamekeepers" and "set a thief to catch a thief" are proverbs. Also mechanically useless given that the Criminal Activity K/S Area can be used against itself in opposed rolls. This skill is just bad design on every level. Criminology adds 10% to Crime, Mental.

Cryptography
You read Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, right? Codes are cool. Includes a table of code-breaking difficulties based on the code-maker's skill, and a rule that basically makes a skilfully constructed code unbreakable. Mathematics boosts Cryptography skill by 10%, which is nice.

Current Events
Streetwise/Gather Information/Gossip skill. Adds 10% to Biography/Genealogy. Includes a handy little table indicating how long news takes to spread in a pre-modern society, which may have some use in non-Mythus games:

Semi-useful? Combined with the earlier semi-usefulness of Apotropaism that's a whole, entire full useful. Woo hoo! Consume!

Deception
ARGH! Again with the 'make a skill of a skill usage' thing?! A paragraph of waffle defines things that can be modified deceptively (people, events, places, things, or information -- basically anything that is). The remainder of the column expended on this arguable non-skill discusses hypotheticals and worked examples. In game terms, the Deception skill modifies use of other skills (Criminal Activity, Espionage, Law, Disguise, etc.): double your effective skill if a Deception roll is successful, half if failed. (*weeps*)

Demonology
Know about demons skill, and possibly an intentional Take That to D&D 2E's pusillanimous flight from the time-honoured gaming tradition of stabbing de(-mon/-vil/-modand)s for fun, profit and XP. A page of rules explains how your HP can learn demonic true names and gain leverage over them with the related Sorcery skill. Demonology is defined as 'activating' Sorcery, which (I think) means it is a necessary prerequisite, or some such. Adds to Heka.

Domestic Arts and Sciences
Mrs Beeton/Martha Stewart knowledge. I suppose its necessary, but there’s a reason the single biggest pre-modern employment type after ‘farmer’ was ‘servant’. As a big, rich flash adventurer you can hire people to do this sort of stuff for you.

Four sub-areas:

1. Cooking and Nutrition
2. Household Management
3. Interior Design/Decoration
4. Sewing and Tailoring

Each of these can be taken twice, as domestic or commercial. "Yay!"

Dweomercraeft
Another page-long skill description. The first two paragraphs /finally/ explain how to check for Full Heka capacity. You may recall the gnashing of teeth that induced back in our whistle-stop tour of Vocations. I find myself greatly displeased that there was not one single page reference to this section. Believe me, in a densely written 400 page rulebook that sort of oversight is 'strangle the editor with the writer's entrails' level annoying.

Long story short: roll d% vs character’s MMCap Attribute.
Pass = you are huge in the magic pants, Fail = you ain’t.

We’re informed that "Dweomercraeft is the knowledge and art of the Laws of Magick [sic] and Castings..." whereas the related Magick skill "...is the art of the use of [Heka] to influence events on Aerth..." So theoretical vs applied magic, gotcha. Dweomercraeft has five effective sub-areas, one for each of the five schools of magic (Black, Green, White, Puce, Blue, Ulfire, Grey) we met back in the Vocations section. Knowing more than one school increases Heka gain from this skill.

THAT table makes its second appearance, this time headed Non-Mage Castings for no good reason I can divine.

Ecology/Nature Sciences
You know about landscapes. I'd like to think this was hardcore Herbertian To Tame a Land ecology, but as the skill description talks about ecological ‘issues’ rather than ecological science, I fear not. Provides Heka for filthy hippy tree-huggers.

Economics/Finance/Investing
You know how money works and how to make it flow your way. Also how to destroy economies and pauperise millions with your greed.

Education
Instil knowledge into the thick skulls of others skill. Improves own learning time for skills, which saves you time and money.

Engineering
You know all about mills, vehicles, pumps, printing, presses and such-like pre-fossil fuel Heath Robinson gizmos. No sub-areas, because all machines and mechanical processes are interchangeable in the mind of the mad wizard Xagyg. Optics, windmills, hydraulic engineering, presses, shipbuilding: all same. How much play this skill will ever get in a magic-active setting where at some point physics just stops working (see Chemistry skill description above) is entirely too hostage to GM whim for my tastes.

Engineering, Military
Macho khaki-clad combat engineering. The possessor knows about "...placing and building fortresses, bridges, roads, dumps, bases and camps..." as well as building "...shelters, towers, siege engines, stone throwers and the like..." Oh, and they can also build (or detect and disarm) indoor and outdoor traps. There’s even a table of example traps your MacGyver type can whip up with a skill check:

This is potentially stealable for a skill-using Classic D&D game. Just convert the damage ratings to your nearest local equivalents, and job done. Unlike the poor saps in D&D3E Advanced Mythus characters can actually make simple snares, pitfalls and punji spikes without expending enough gold for a peasant family to live on for a year. It’s just skill check; construction montage; done.

This skill cross-feeds Fortification and Siegecraft by 10%, which is a particular bete noire I’ll be returning to under the relevant skill description.

Espionage
Spying tradecraft skill, for the high-collared and fedora-ed types. Like Criminal Activities, Mental the Espionage Skill can be used to detect Espionage in opposed rolls. Six sub-areas:

1. Gather Information
2. Clandestine Meetings
3. Border Crossing
4. Smuggling
5. Recruit Informers
6. Object Concealment

Not sure about border crossing as a sub-area in itself. Surely that’s covered by smuggling (getting stuff covertly from A to B)? And shouldn’t smuggling in turn be a Criminal Activity? Oh, never mind. Skill also sucks for lack of balance bucket of acid on door sub-area.

Etiquette/Social Graces
Making yourself look good socially. There’s an implicit monocultural assumption that etiquette is interchangeable between cultures, which is a bit "eh?" but probably falls under an ‘acceptable breaks from reality’ exemption. Here would have been the logical place to introduce the ‘fish out of water’ modifiers to SEC (and thus arguably social interactions) that characters take for being far from home. Instead those are back in the Primitive Vocations descriptions. Oh dear, oh dear.

Foreign Language
Allows a character to read, write and speak one or more form of foreign hooting-and-parping. Knowing one language boosts your ability to speak any and all related languages by some percentage, which is nice. The two page(!) table of language interactions though (pages 146-147, because the half-page table back on page 101 simply wasn't comprehensive enough); that’s less than nice. In fact it’s just pure wagharglbarghl in its mix of over-specificity and Eurocentric bias.

I won’t reproduce the table in full, but here are a few salient examples of Advanced Mythus linguistic WTF-ery I was able to glean from it:

• Latin exists, and helps you speak lots of Romance languages, but there’s NO mention of Italian as a language at all. Sorry Petrarch, Dante, Macchivelli; you’re all SOL mutes.
• Knowing Boideutsch means you speak Deutsch, Franco-Deutsch and Latideutsch at 75%, Skandeutsch at 50%, Skandian at 25%, and Slavic (and its dialects) at 10%. Agh! This level of fiddlyness is like having Geordie, Cockney and Scouse as separate languages. Why, for the love of Raptor Jesus, not just have one Speak German skill and make use of the existing dialect rule?
• No -oc/-ouil distinction in French? That seems like a strange oversight for a writer who knew all about the troubadours.
• In Flanders they speak Brythokelltic, not French or any variation thereof. Oh, how we laughed.
• Slav? You speak Slavic. Not Serbo-Croat, Polish, Ruthenian, Russian, or whatever; generic Slavic, maybe seasoned with dialect. Because everyone east of Germany all sounds the same.
• Speaking Hindic grants you Hindic dialect at 90%, Burmese at 25%, and Farsi at 10%. Now, that’s either lazy, or just plain rude. There are something like 600 distinct languages in four major language groups spoken across the Indian sub-continent. Smearing the lot together into ‘Hindic’ is like saying there’s one generic ‘European’ language.
• Beniyorob allows you to speak Ewe and Yoruban at 50%, and any dialect within 25 miles of your home at 10%. So at least there’s some acknowledgement that the African West Coast isn’t all one monoglot mess.
• Quechuan (Incan) grants you knowledge of native subject languages at 75%. This is wrong from a historical perspective: the Incas had an official policy of attempting to eradicate local languages in the (continent-spanning) area they conquered. It was a harsher version of the within-living-memory situation where children in Wales could be caned for speaking Welsh in class.
• Teclan (Aztec-ese) allows you to speak Lemurian at 25%, and Atlantean at 10%. Which is semi-witty in a kind of 'Atlanteans/Muvians build the pyramids' way.
• Knowing Altantean (and Lantlan - the other Atlantean language, I dunno) mean you can speak Spanish, Portuguese, Berber and Aztec with some facility. That must be one weird-sounding tongue.
• Many of the Native (North) American language groups - Iroukian, Lakota, Cherokee - are mutually comprehensible at 50%. I’m not sure if this was actually the case IRL.
• Suomi gets a look in, heck, it gets dialects; but the richness and complexity of Javanese isn’t even mentioned. The whole of South East Asia (bar Cambodia and Siam) speaks some flavour of Malay.

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU-!

Yes, I know, I've ranted about languages in Mythus before. And, yes, I know, it's only a game. But if your implied setting is a parallel Earth then don't get surprised when someone takes issue with glaring historical/linguistic howlers. To adapt an L5R fandom meme: Rokugan is not Japan, but Aerth's Nippon totally is.

The Linguistics skill supplements Foreign Language by 10%, which little detail is quite enough to push the whole dog’s breakfast  of Foreign Languages over the threshold from 'complicated' into the realm of 'absurdly, needs a spreadsheet, byzantine'. FGSFDS!


Fortification & Siegecraft
Why this skill even exists in the face of Architecture and Engineering, Military is entirely beyond me: Architecture covers putting up castles, Military Engineering covers knocking them down. A column-and-a-bit gives us a potted primer on the art of medieval fortification, which is just Gary the Wargamer flaunting his reading around the subject. (*gluk gluk*)

And, between a full-page picture of that looks like a blown up Prince Valiant comic panel, the infamous two-page language table, and a double page art spread of some Egyptians having a feast, that's our lot until page 150. (Full critique of the art will follow when we get to the end of the section.) This seems like a natural place to break(down) until next time, when we will resume the quixotic search for useful gameable gubbins.

What have we learned so far? Well, mainly that the Advanced Mythus skill system is not half as logical or exhaustive as it thinks it is. It's also very reflective of a particular authorial voice. Skills the writer knows/cares about - and/or thinks matter in terms of the game - get a quite maddening level of detail, anything up to a dozen or more sub-areas and a page of discussion. Other (amazingly broad) fields of human knowledge get short shrift indeed.


Next time: the skill grind continues with Mental skills from 'G' onwards. Hopefully we'll get through more than six letters of the alphabet. Expect this:

Pic Source: Dangerous Journeys Mythus rulebook, Nextwave: Agents of HATE - Vol2 I Kick Your Face, and teh intuwubz

Lets Read... Mythus pt 6

Today we look at the third section of the chapter on Creating Advanced Mythus HPs, the pithily entitled:

Step 3: Standard HP Descriptions and K/S Area Bundles
(Or, in non-gobbledygook, 'careers and skills'.)

This section alone is 26 pages, of which 20-ish are text and boxouts, and 6-and-change are art. I'll go over the content first and save the art criticism for later if that's alright. I’ll also try keep the editorial ranting to a decent minimum, instead concentrating on winnowing out sense - and possible worth - from the big blocks of words in front of me.

pp70-71 are preamble matter. Extensive and densely formatted preamble matter; the textual equivalent of a stale bagel. There are two main thrusts to this section:

1. characters choose their vocation (one of 35, plus 5 optional nonhuman races) irrevocably but can diversify away from it by buying new skills, and 
2. magic-using careers (of which there are 12) are all Partial Heka users, except for the lucky 20% of high-stat Wizards and Priests who make the cut as Full Heka users.

Inevitably - this being Mythus - it takes a *lot* of parsing to tease these essentially simple facts out of the hot, roiling quagmire of text. The focus of discussion alternates by paragraph, swapping back-and-forth between the general subject of HP K/S Areas (trans. "PC skills") and the far more specific subject of HP Heka potential. Just another instance of the GDW editorial department half-arseing the job.

There's also a d% skill benchmarking table, which I have reproduced for viewing delectation below:

The spread ends with an especially egregious piece of handholding: a whole paragraph that explains the oh-so-clever layout of the skill lists. And I quote:

Yes, I can see that. I have eyes. They work thank you.

So this is a good start. Two pages of wordswordswords that could have been reduced to a few lines by someone with a rigorous sense of what needs to go where. Looks like we'll be playing the Mythus side game good and hard again this week. :)

On a parenthetical note before we dive into the vocation skill lists, I want to talk a little about one of the two points I mentioned above. For the sake of illustrating my point I’ll do it Socratic style. 'Q' is my query to the text, 'A' is the answer it returns.

Q: Hey, Mythus.
A: Yeah?
Q: Where do you learn what a Full Heka user is, and why it's better than being a Partial one?
A: Refer to the Mythus Magick book, of course.
(funnily enough Mythus Prime referred us to Advanced Mythus for an answer to that question, but ok.)
Q: How do you determine which new-minted HPs get to be Full Heka users?
A: See ditto.
Q: Hey, Mythus.
A: Yeah?
Q: Isn't telling me this stuff kind of /your/ job; being that you're an RPG rulebook and all?
A: [dense block of repetitive filibustering gabshite]

Thanks to the magic of the intarwubz, I was eventually able to refer to the long-out-of-print Mythus Magick book. And what did I find in the relevant HEKA USERS section? Why, nothing less than /a complete lack of useful information on determining Full vs. Partial Heka status/. Really. Nothing. After constantly referring to this Partial-vs-Full Heka distinction as if it were a big thing the writers seem to have forgotten to explain it fully and clearly.

Seriously, f*** you Mythus! I’m just some random internet guy and I can write rules more clearly. Watch this:

Determining Degree of Heka Power
General Heka skill user, or Mage/Priest with <101 in your casting TRAIT? = Partial Heka. Sucks to be you.
Mage with a Mental TRAIT/Priest with a Spiritual TRAIT total of 101 or more? Roll d10:
1-2 - you crackle with Full Heka mojo when you walk.
3-10 - you only have small-in-the-pants Partial Heka power.

Add a maximum of one paragraph of setting/context fluff and references to other sections of the rules, then move onto the next subject. That is how you write a one-shot rule. Here endeth the lesson.

Weekly rant on the deficiencies of RPG writing standards over. Back to the matter in hand: Advanced Mythus skill lists.

After another two-page art spread (of which more below) p74 gives us an explanation of the footnotes used in the vocations tables: dollar sign ($), asterisk (*), and bullet point (•). Now, your humble author ain't a technical manual writer, or any sort of layout wonk, but even I can see that using an asterisk ~and~ a bullet point in a tight-packed typeface like the one in the Mythus book is a sub-optimal decision in terms of clarity. Given that we've already seen double asterisks (**) and crosses (†) being used to footnote tables /in this very chapter/ there’s simply no excuse.

With that done we get the first of our Vocations, ordered per the big long table on page 63. You may remember that we looked at that last week. 35 vocations. Thirty-bleedin'-five!

The Vocation descriptions and their skill lists follow a standard format. The main text gives us a potted description of the career. Some of these - like apothecary, soldier/mercenary, pirate etc - are pretty self-explanatory and largely a waste of text. Others - such as the various Dweomercraeft (wizarding) Vocations - have short blurbs about various (in)famous organisations on Aerth. This is a nice 'describe the setting through game material' touch, and I wish it had been exploited a little harder.

We're also given a handful of keywords describing the defining interests and motivations of each vocation. This is a bit 'Intelligent Martian', but might help the hopelessly confused who lack dictionaries and/or history books.

A substantial boxout gives the game material for each Vocation. Advanced Mythus vocations have an average of 20 skills, with 250 or so skill points split between them. This is a marked increase from the 200 points divided between 10 skills of Mythus Prime. Working out Advanced Mythus K/S Area scores is also rather fiddlier working things out in Mythus Prime. Case in point:

Mythus Prime: 20 + 1/2 TRAIT,
Advanced Mythus: 20 + (SMPow+SSPow)x0.5•

The required calculations generally come with footnotes indicating added complexity (expanded upon in some nebulous, never-defined elsewherespace, of course).

Example skill list boxout, one of 35 or so.

Unfortunately there is quite a bit of orphaning (separation of table from related text) in this section. Some Vocation descriptions end up two or three pages away from their skill lists, which is less than ideal. But then, given that some K/S Area boxouts take up entire pages it may be simply a necessary evil.

>>> Warning: lots of text follows. Skip ahead if you're DILLIGAF about vocation/skill lists.


Alchemy Vocations (Mental)
Alchemy: You are Paracelsus in a world where magic works. You are pretty high-born (have to be to afford all that weird hiccupy glassware) and have lots of science skills.
Apothecary: You are Cadfael. Not as addled by mercury fumes as the alchemists, still pretty proto-scientific.

Arms Vocations (Physical)
Cavalier: You are a highborn knight in shining armour type. Cultured Palate is surprisingly prominent a part of your skill set.
Engineer: You are a military engineer, and the only one who does any bloody work in this army. Military Engineering and Fortification/Siegeworks are separate skills to you. I have no idea why.
Soldier/Mercenary: You and your hundreds of surly friends kill people for money. Apparently claiming it’s for another reason altogether makes this more respectable. You Gamble better than you know your job.

Dweomercraeft Vocations (Mental)
We get another two paragraph rehash about how important Heka is on Aerth, and some semi-informative text about requirements for Full Heka user status that really belongs as an actual rule either back on pp70-71, or in the magic chapter. *tsk*

Black School (Abyssal Institute, Ebondark College): Gee, I wonder what hat these guys wear. Puppykicking and Maniacal Laughter are missing from their skill list for some reason.
Elemental School (Imprimist Hall, Quintessential Academy): You are a classic 4+1 element wizard with an 'inquiring mind' bent. Skill list reads like a prospectus for one of the flakier Californian universities.
Grey School (Penumbrate Palaestra, Shadowy Forum): You are a morally ambiguous Shadow Magic dudes. Part way between Elemental and Black. Shadowy Forum obviously lost the 'Who gets the dull name?' mage war.
Green School (Transcendent Conservatoire): You practise religiose nature magic, flute solos and basket-weaving. The Green School deny being druids, but have Herbalism, Ecology/Nature Science, Spellsongs and Poetry on their skill list, the dirty hippies.
White School (Orgonebright Institute, Splendent University): You are a white hat wizard who stand for "Reason, order, altruism, and sacrifice for the betterment of all..." Skill list is all kinds of generic wizard.

*meh* Ars Magica and WFRP did schools of magic better.

Mysticism Vocations (Spiritual)
Mystic types are four flavours of augur. They can gain additional Heka powers after character creation, which sounds cool. "Note that this power will translate to the corresponding Psychogenic K/S Area in a Vril-Active milieu (see other games in the Dangerous Journeys line for details)." ... Oh. It appears I spoke too soon.

Astrologer: You are interested in everything. Not just the mysteries hidden in the stars: everything! No, really. It says so. Heka skills out the wazoo.

Truly beyond parody.

Diviner: You are interested in stuff, but less obsessively than those weird astrologers. Skill list is pretty much interchangeable with theirs.
Fortune Teller: You are Gypsy Rose Lee in a magic-active world. You still get no respect.
Soothsayer: You are a spirit-talking prophetic type with a rich inner life.

Outlaw Vocations (various Traits)
Assassin: You lurk in the shadows (and are expected to enjoy it) and kill people for money. Which is bad. Nice people only kill for country, or clan, or cult... Your best skill: Toxicology, you pharmacist you.
Bandit: You steal from people at sword point and are ghastly common by default. No dandy highwaymen here. Broad, generic-as-all-hell skill list.
Mountebank: You cheat people out of their goods, which apparently earns respect among the Stockholm Syndrome-afflicted people of Aerth. You scam and gamble good.
Pirate: #Yarr harr fiddle-di-dee# Skills are as Bandit +boats, -horses.
Thief: You steal stuff by being sneaky. It’s a living. Three of your top five skills are about deception.

PriestCraeft(sic) Vocations (Spiritual)
Priest vocation has the chance to be Full Heka special snowflake, everyone else is Partial Heka second-class citizens.

Healer: You are Florence Nightingale. Sadly it’s boring 'angel with the lamp' Flo, not 'medical store locked? Pass me that fire axe...' Flo. You skill list is all medical, all the time.
Priest: You have obligations to a higher power. In game terms this means you've taken a Vow of Fidelity and get the chance to be a Full Heka user, which may or may not be worth the hassle of the GM trying to pull adversarial 'force the paladin to fall' crap on you. Your skills = theology syllabus.
Theurgist: You are Faust, beating up Supernatural beings for their Heka using your vast knowledge of pantheonic family trees.
Wise(wo)man: You are a magical holistic medic who thinks all evil is caused by demons (aka The Accursed). You'd be really annoying if you weren't right - magic world remember? You have good Handicrafts and Agriculture skills.

Primitive Vocations (various Traits)
"Ya ain't from round here, are ya boy?"
Hunter: You eat meat. Animals are made of meat. You have put two-and-two together and made a living of it. Your skill list is Ray Mears + Green Arrow.
Medicine Man: You grumble curses and wave bones at things: horrible stuff happen to them. You can also use the word 'mojo' unironically. Broad skill list.
Seer: You are a rustic version of the soothsayer who communicates with gods and ancestors. Your skill list - like you - is mistaken for soothsayer in bad light.
Shaman: You are a black hat version of the medicine man who weedles the Netherrealms for power. Priest skills + animal training.
Warrior: You are Proud Warrior Race Guy incarnate. You fight better than the Soldier vocation and probably have a wicked cool hat. Qur'plah!
Witch Doctor: You protect the tribe from demons, monsters, bad spirits and the like. Townies think you weird. Hope you have a high tolerance for Ting tang walla-walla bing bang gags. Lotsa Heka skills.

This section ends with two paragraphs on literacy for primitives and settled populations in a fantasy milieu. Surely the place for this would have been in the earlier SEC and Literacy section?


Scholar Vocations (Mental)
Philosopher: You are an action philosopher who "...suits action to thought and word. Think of a Nietzsche doing thus!" Kelltic Ovates of Aerth claim to be philosophers, but they can't even spell Celtic right. Your skill list includes Sport, Travel, Journalism and three Foreign Languages, which is all kinds of WTF?
Poet/Musician: You go into the dungeon and sing at things. How's that working for ya? Even the class description emphasises the virtue of expanding skills away from the vocation's list. You have all sorts of non-practical skills.
Sage: You are a walking encyclopaedia and go well with onions. You have crazy breadth of 'know stuff with your brain' skills.

Voyager Vocations (various Traits)
Explorer: You travel to distant lands and claim you found them. This is news to the existing inhabitants. You can do Darwin/Marco Polo stuff with your skills.
Merchant: You are a grubby little capitalist who buys low, sells high, and gets robbed by proper adventurers. Your Deception overtops your Business Admin, Investment and Survival skills, which may or may not be Gary's little dig at TSR.
Seafarer: You are a respectable midshipman or such, according to the book. Hah! who are they kidding? You're a scurvy-raddled salt who lives for rum, sodomy and the lash. You have boaty skills and sewing prowess.

Non-Human Vocations (various Traits)
All non-human vocations gain access to an innate Heka power, usually ‘Psychogenic’ (which I think is Mythus-ese for psionic. *gluk gluk*). This power is determined by the GM from some never-published Djangos Gurnery book, which may prove slightly problematic.

Aflar (Spiritual): You are a snooty and aloof Norse elf. Likes: decorum, courage, nature, the hunt and superiority. You have hunter/skaldy skills.
Alfen (Mental): Contrary to expectations, you are short, fat and rustic, and would be called a Hobbit outright if it weren't for the eagle-eyed law-ninjas of the Tolkien estate. Likes: practicality, solidity, comfort, crops and tradition. Your top ten skills are all tedious domesticity/lifestyle crap.
Dwarf (Physical): You are Urist McBeard of the Clan McBeard. Strike the earth! Likes: caverns, gold, precision, work, caution and suspicion. Take a wild guess what your top skills are.
Elf (Spiritual): You are decidedly noble-but-enigmatic Sidhe in flavour, and wouldn't look out of place in Celtic tales or Arthuriana. Likes: culture, nature, revelry and beauty. Bows, Music, Poetry and Astrology top your living cliche skill list.
Gnome (Mental): You are from Zurich. EGG is not even being slightly subtle about this. Check out the vocation description:

Likes: profit margin, credit, risk, hazard and reward. Top two skills? Business Admin and Economics/Finance/Investing. (Is true, no make up)

And that brings an end to our merry rampage through the Advanced Mythus Vocations and their skill sets. After the casserole of hot nonsense on pages 70-71 the descriptions themselves aren’t too offensive - only a paragraph or two apiece. All that pads this section out is the *sheer number* of possible life choices on offer, many of which differ in ways that only a beancounter would actually care about. I think it’s actually the first time I’ve actually seen splat sprawl* in a core book.

* Gamer jargon: an excess of variety in character or setting options, variously trivial or game-breaking. Results from the demands of a publication treadmill. If you’ve played WoD or GURPS -- or any D&D after B/X -- you’ll know what I mean here.

Advanced Mythus is a world away from the 'Fighting Man, Wizard, Cleric' archetypal purity of OD&D without quite embracing the 'open plan' character generation of GURPS, Runequest or Savage Worlds. Worst of both worlds; merits of neither.

Overall utility of this section to players of Classic D&D? A big fat '0' I'm afraid. Still, at least the infamous Mythus text bloat hasn't been as cataclysmic as in preceding sections. The jargon has been rich and plentiful enough to keep my buzz going, but Dr Cactus will not be demanding that those responsible report for exemplary correction. Not today.

This post was brought to you letters 'D' and 'T', and by the number 40%-proof. Remember kids: trinkin' iss gud fur you!

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The Art of the Section

As promised, a quick rundown of the art to be found in the Vocations section of Chapter 10 of the Mythus rulebook.

Three full page/spread pieces, four b+w partial page pics. All the artwork is competently executed, at least to my untrained eye; but there there's nothing on a par with Blanche, Miller, Nicholson (read that as Otus, Sutherland, DAT if you speak Merkun).

pp72-73 - two page FC spread by Midgette & Meyer. It seems to be a sort of daily life in Mythustown scene, presumably representing the diversity of vocations in this section. Its omission would be zero loss.

p76-77 - double page Midgette & Meyer battle scene. An Egyptian-looking army complete with lightning throwing chariot-mounted wizard, fight it out with bearded Shemite(?) warriors. Clever use of negative space, silhouettes and smoke clouds as framing element. Kinda cool, but would be more suited to the Combat or Magic chapters.

P80 is a quirky Midgette & Meyer pic of a flying wizard with a terrified warrior clinging desperately on as his loot pours out of a tear in his satchel. Good compositionf and nicely picaresque subject matter.

B+W partial page pics
P71 - an unintentionally amusing Daniel Gelon pic of a classic dungeon situation: a confused goblin-type staring at an Elf wizard framed in a doorway. Why is the goblin confused? Well, I know I’d be a bit nonplussed if a guy broke into my home and started throwing Goth-dancing shapes while his hands were on fire.

Goblin: "ZOMGWTFBBQ?"

p85 - A desert ruin. David Miller, I think. The signiture is rather squiggly and ambiguous.
p87 - A rather Mongolian-looking centaur introduces us to the Primitive Vocations section. Uncredited.
p90 - A broken-nosed Egyptian soldier posing down before Egyptian scenery. Because we all need more Khemri beefcake in our lives. Miller again?

Only noticed this recently - the page header pics for Basic and Advanced Mythus are different. Cute, but not useful in play.

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Next Time: we look at Advanced Mythus chargen section 4: Knowledge/Skill Areas; What They Are and Aren't, and section 5: More HP Data (Attractiveness, Joss, Birth Rank, Quirks, Knacks, Peculiarities and Counter-Quirks, Handedness and Race). There are lots of tables ahead, and they may have useful stealables. We can but live in hope...

Pic Source: Dangerous Journeys Mythus rulebook, Jolly Jack