The Sorrows of Young Efric (Lyonesse RPG)

As I mentioned recently, I’ve started playing in a Lyonesse campaign. I’m quite excited about this, as Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy is among my all-time favourites. Also, I'm a bit burnt out from running two campaigns. While I enjoy being a GM, I prefer to focus on one campaign at a time (my "Against the Court of Urdor" campaign is still going strong), and it’s a pleasant change of pace to alternate between playing and gamemastering. 

In case anyone is interested in what a Lyonesse player character looks like – perhaps to get a sense of the rules and setting – allow me to introduce my character: Efric ‘the Rational’.

I’ll begin with his brief backstory, generated in part by using the wonderful Lyonesse “Background Events” table. I tried to construct something suitably “Vancian” in flavour…

The Tale of Efric (so far):

Efric was born during an eclipse – along with his younger sister and brother – some eighteen years ago within the walled town of Sardilla in the realm of Caduz. It was an ominous sign. All the rats within his father’s tavern turned white that night.

The first twelve years of the triplets’ lives were uneventful. Efric and his brother learned how to play the lute and performed on occasion in the tavern. His sister loved to sing to their music. During those days the three “children of the eclipse” loved each other’s company.

But one day the legendary mage Tamurello chanced upon the trio whilst visiting the town. He sensed great magical potential within them and offered to take them on as his apprentices. Efric’s parents refused, and with a gracious smile the great mage departed.

A few months later, Efric’s parents died in a freak accident involve a runaway flaming cart filled with screaming cats. Whispers spoke of the involvement of the “Black Adder,” the mysterious spymaster of Caduz. Others suggested that magic was involved. In any case, Efric’s grandfather was overwhelmed by his new childcare duties. When Tamurello suspiciously reappeared in the town a month later, Efric’s grandfather was guiltily relieved to agree to let the mage take his three grandchildren as apprentices.

For six years Efric and his siblings studied at Tamurello’s manor Faroli in the Kingdom of Pomperol, at the edge of the Forest of Tantrevelles. The most talented of the triplets, Efric’s sister and brother eventually allied against him. Encouraged by Tamurello for his amusement (or so Efric suspected), his siblings became increasingly antagonistic towards him. Finally, unable to tolerate the miserable situation any further, Efric fled Faroli for Lyonesse Town.

Efric took his brother’s lute, a gift from Tamurello, when he fled. The lute was crafted by the famous Fairy Luthier, Fendair, and is greatly prized by all who know and understand the artistry of the lute and its music. Given his brother’s paltry skill at playing the instrument, Efric deemed it just that he should “liberate” it. 

The pale young mage now tries to earn a living playing melancholy tunes on his faerie lute at the Sad Cathay. His favourite song is “How Soon is Now?”, which should be unsurprising given his bleak demeanor and chonomantic skills. 

EFRIC “the Rational”

Homeland: Caduz.

Career: Magician

Age: 18

Social Class: Freeman (Affluence: 64).

Culture: Hybras.

Fashion Statement: “I wear black on the outside, because black is how I feel on the inside.”

Background Event: Magically gifted (trained by a mage).

Strength: 9.

Constitution: 7.

Size: 12.

Dexterity: 12.

Intelligence: 17.

Power: 15

Charisma: 15.

Action Points: 3

Damage Modifier: 0.

Experience Modifier: +1.

Healing Rate: 2

Initiative Modifier: 15.

Movement Rate: 6.

Luck Points: 3.

Magic Points: 15.

Passions:

Hate Brother and sister: 70.

Find one true love: 60.

Defend the honour of Caduz against Lyonesse condescension: 50.

Compulsion: Bathing (60).

After using Sandestin magic, Efric must take a proper bath that same day – failure to do so results in him being weary (unless he rolls over 60). This is because his Sandestin insists on cleanliness.

Standard Skills

Athletics: 21.

Boating: 16.

Common Tongue (Hybraic): 100.

Conceal: 32.

Customs: 74.

Dance: 27.

Eloquence: 35.

Endurance: 29.

First Aid: 29.

Folk Lore: 40.

Influence: 65.

Insight: 65.

Perception: 62.

Ride: 27.

Singe: 30.

Stealth: 30.

Swim: 16.

Unarmed: 21

Willpower: 70.

Professional Skills

Courtesy: 37

Lore (History of the Elder Isles): 40.

Music (strings – lute): 40 (55 when using Fairy lute).

Literacy: 99.

Fairy Magic: 50 (65 when using Fairy lute).

Sandestin Coercion: 62.

Sandestin Invocation: 64.

Research: 40.

Combat Style:

Citizen Militia (mace and shield): 51.

Trait: Cautious Fighter.

Fairy Magic: 50 (65 when using Fairy lute).

“Far-flung Whisper-song” (projects the voice of the target).

“Irudo’s Immortal Bulldog” (creates an alarm in the form of an illusory dog).

“Willowisp werelight” (creates magical light).

“Shiel’s Anonalous Key” (fastens/unfastens locks and bars).

“The Four-Fold Spell” (increases movement rate).

Sandestin Coercion: 62.

Known Axiom: Chronomancy.

6 Sandestin Coercion Points.

Sandestin Invocation: 64.

“Cunctation” (stops time around caster).

“Interpellation” (grants target  +1 action point for non-attack actions during combat).

“Prorogation” (suspends aging for a number of years equal to Invocation skill).

“Restoration” (healing spell).

“Sustenation” (permits survival without food, water, air, or warmth).   

Noteworthy Equipment

Lute made by famous Fairy luthier Fendair (+15 to Music & Fairy Magic when used).

Soaps and oils for proper bathing.

Two sets of decent clothing (all black).

Mace and shield.

Scraps of armour (2 armour points – covers 4 locations).

To Do List: Middle-earth and Greyhawk campaign notes; a new Lyonesse character

I’ve sadly neglected this blog over the past two months. But I have not been (entirely) idle – indeed, I’ve been quite busy running my two campaigns. 

[The Witch-King by Liz Danforth]

One of them – Against the Witch-King – wrapped up two weeks ago. Or more precisely, it’s now on hiatus. A suitably epic conclusion – an audience with King Arvedui of Arthedain, following the completion of many important tasks – has brought things to an end for the time being. But the campaign will resume nine years later in “game time” – after a (hopefully not as long) break in “real time.” The final session of the current part of the campaign took place in the spring of 1965 of the Third Age; the campaign will resume (after the break) in early 1974. The characters all accomplished what they set out to do (a year earlier in game time; over two years ago in real time). But, as those of you familiar with the history of Middle-earth likely know, things become a bit “intense” in Eriador in 1974! So, while I need a rest from running this campaign, I’m determined to resume it at some point to see how Angmar’s final assault plays out.

Depressingly, I’ve fallen far behind in my campaign logs for both of the campaigns that I’ve been running over the past two-plus years, and especially for my Middle-earth one. Instead of writing entries as detailed as the first two for the Against the Witch-King campaign (1 and 2), I’ll try to write a brief overview of what happened, something like what I did when I encountered a similar problem (falling hopelessly behind) in my earlier Middle-earth campaign.

I really don’t like leaving my campaign logs unfinished! Even a truncated summary of what happened in the adventures is better than just leaving it incomplete – for my own future recollection, if nothing else, although I hope that at least a few other people might find the logs interesting. 

This thought reminds me that I never finished the log for the Greyhawk Classics campaign that I ran a few years ago. While running that campaign made me realize that I rather dislike the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons system, the role-playing aspects of the campaign were nonetheless a lot of fun, and I really should explain how everything wrapped up – including why ultimately the characters never actually went into the Temple of Elemental Evil.

[A modified portion of Darlene's famous World of Greyhawk map.]

The Against the Witch-King group will soon be starting a new campaign, using the Lyonesse system and setting (the system is an adaptation of Mythras). I’m quite excited about this – not only because it’ll be nice to have the opportunity to be a player again (while still running my other campaign), but also because Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy is one of my all-time favourites. I’m presently putting the final touches on a rather fun and intriguing character – a former apprentice of the dreadful wizard Tamurello. If you’re curious about the game, here is a brief interview with one of the authors (and my GM) Lawrence Whitaker. 

[The wizard Tamurello from the Lyonesse RPG book]

Vancian times ahead!

Praise for Songs of the Dying Earth

Among my favourite works of fantasy fiction are the Dying Earth stories and the Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance. I’ve read the Lyonesse trilogy three times and most of the Dying Earth stories twice since I first discovered them as a teenager. While I preferred the Lyonesse trilogy when I was younger, as it was (despite its many quirks and abundant dry Vancian humour) closer to the “high fantasy” style that I adored then, I now think that I prefer many of the Dying Earth tales overall, especially the two Cugel sagas, due to the remarkable uniqueness of the setting and characters. In any case, they’re all well worth reading if you’re a fan of fantasy fiction. 

I recently finished an excellent collection of short stories written in honour of Jack Vance called Songs of the Dying Earth. It actually took me a few years to get all the way through the twenty-two stories included in the volume. This isn’t a criticism – after reading a few stories I would put aside the volume in order to read something else for a while (a new novel or whatever). That’s the nice thing about short story collections: they’re easy to dip into if you want to read a few tales and then put aside without “forgetting” anything important to continue onwards later.

The collection includes a preface from Jack Vance and stories from an impressive set of authors. I especially enjoyed the stories by Robert Silverberg (“The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale”), Jeff Vandermeer (“The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod”), Glen Cook (“The Good Magician”), Byron Tetrick (“The Collegeum of Mauge”), and Tanith Lee (“Evillo the Uncunning”).

But in my judgement the best one of the bunch – and the one that is a proper novella because of its length – is “The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderõz” by Dan Simmons. It is a wonderfully bizarre tale that captures the flavour and “ethos” of the Dying Earth delightfully well, but without simply trying to imitate Vance’s style. It’s worth the price of the book alone. 

One thing I especially like about many of the stories in this collection, as well as Vance’s own classic Dying Earth tales, is that the protagonists often are magicians. I love mages (or wizards or sorcerers or whatever) and regret that they are only rarely the main characters in fantasy stories. 

Mythras and Against the Darkmaster news

Some quick notes on a couple of things for two of my favourite RPGS: Mythras and Against the Darkmaster.

First, Mythras. There is a new supplement for the delightful Lyonesse FRPG: Rogues, Rascals, and Rapscallions.

Here’s the announcement from the Design Mechanism:

A supplement for the Lyonesse roleplaying game – roleplaying adventure in the Elder Isles of Jack Vance.

Everyone loves a good villain, and the Elder Isles are full of them.

Rogues, Rascals, and Rapscallions is a resource to the beleaguered Games Master. It has a cornucopia of criminals, a superfluity of scoundrels, a mass of miscreants, and a surfeit of scallywags. The book is divided into five chapters, respectively covering ne'er-do-wells, cults, societies, places, and schemes, each accompanied by multiple stories that can embroil the characters in villainy, either as victims, witnesses, investigators or – heavens forfend! – perpetrators.

Packed full of scenario ideas, intriguing encounters, nefarious nemeses, and exotic locales, Rogues, Rascals and Rapscallions is a must for any campaign, be it Lyonesse or some other fine setting.

Hardcover POD & PDF ($35.99 and $12.99 respectively)

Colour & B/W

140 pages

Available now here.

As for Against the Darkmaster, it looks like the Game Master’s Guide will be available soon. 

From the folks at Open Ended Games:

We’re thrilled to announce that the Against the Darkmaster GM's Guide is nearly complete! This complement to the Player’s Handbook, covering the GM’s side and Bestiary of the Core Rules, will be available both as a Print-On-Demand (POD) and PDF on DrivethruRPG. Here’s a preview of the cover art by the always excellent Heraldo Mussolini to whet your appetite!

I love that the cover is from the perspective of the Darkmaster. Very cool!

While I adore the massive VsD tome, having slimmer Player and GM books is more useful for running the game, in my view – and obviously less expensive for players. (Also, holding the VsD core rules in one hand while running a session can be a bit tricky…)

Secrets of the Golden Throne for Against the Darkmaster

Last month I mentioned that a new campaign setting was in the works for the Against the Darkmaster FRPG (“VsD”): Secrets of the Golden Throne.

 

Well, the project has been successfully funded on Kickstarter, so the campaign book will indeed be produced. (There’s 13 days to go on the KS campaign in case you’d like to back it.)

 

As I’ve said a few times before here, as an old MERP fan, VsD is my favourite FRPG to come out in recent years (since Mythras). VsD takes the basic elements of MERP and uses them to build a game that is even better overall. 

[The mysterious island of "Awallon"]

While the small campaign setting included in the core book is impressive, it’s great that a larger setting will be available soon – and one that promises to have an enchanting “Arthurian”/ “Faerie”/ “Lyonesse” flavour as well! (In addition to the campaign setting and adventures, new rules material also will be included: kins, cultures, spells, and monsters.)

 

If you’re curious about the game and/or setting, some free downloads are available here.

 

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.”

 

Fictional worlds and the RPGs that I would use for them

Below I list some of my favourite settings from fantasy fiction that I think could serve as viable RPG settings and the rules that I would use if I were to run adventures in them. 

Fictional setting: Middle-earth (as described by JRR Tolkien in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and so forth).

 

System: Adventures in Middle-Earth (a 5^th edition D&D variant, heavily revised with ideas from The One Ring RPG) for the Third Age (I had a very positive experience using the system).

Possible alternative: Against the Darkmaster (VsD)—for earlier eras or if I'm drawing a lot on my old Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP) collection, since it’s easy to convert MERP stats into VsD.

(Why not MERP? In my view, VsD keeps everything that is great about MERP and makes some helpful improvements.)

 

A further thought on Middle-earth: I'd like to try The One Ring (2^nd edition) system sometime—I have the book and box set, and they’re gorgeous. I played a couple of games of 1^st edition TOR years ago and didn’t care for it—something about it just didn’t “click” for me. But that may have been because I didn't really understand the system (or I was just too tired or something). AiME imports a lot of ideas from TOR, so there must be something there.

Fictional setting: The Elder Isles of Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy.

 

System: The Lyonesse RPG (a version of Mythras).

One of my favourite FRPGs (Mythras) adapted specifically for one of my favourite fantasy settings—what more could I ask for?

(I think that this system also could be used for a “Cugel-level” Dying Earth campaign.)

 

Fictional setting: The Eternal Champion multiverse, including especially the worlds described in Michael Moorcock’s Elric (the “Young Kingdoms”) and Corum stories.

System: Mythras, especially with the (now out-of-print) RuneQuest II (MRQII) Elric supplements. Since Mythras is a direct descendant of MRQII, conversion would be a non-issue. (I played in an excellent Young Kingdoms campaign using MRQII a decade ago.)

 

Fictional settings: The Hyborian Age (as described in Robert E Howard’s Conan stories) and the Atlantean Age (as described in REH’s Kull tales).

 

System: Crypts and Things if I want something fast and furious; Mythras for detailed bone-crunching action.

 

Fictional settings: Clark Ashton Smith’s “Averoigne,” “Hyperborea,” and “Zothique.”

 

Systems: Again, either Crypts and Things or Mythras, depending on what style of game I want to run.

 

Fictional setting: The “First Law” world, as described in Joe Abercrombie’s original trilogy, and the post-trilogy stand-alone books (I think that the regions covered in Red Country and Best Served Cold would make excellent campaign settings). (Note: I haven’t read the “Age of Madness” trilogy yet.)

System: Either Mythras or Against the Darkmaster.  

 

Fictional setting: The “Cthulhu Mythos” universe (as described by HP Lovecraft and others).

 

System: Call of Cthulhu (naturally)—or possibly a modified version of Mythras (I'm playing in an excellent Mythras “Return to the Mountains of Madness” campaign now).

 

 

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!