I purchased runequest 6 a couple of years after it came out, on the recommendation that it would be good for a Hyborage Age game that I was planning. I bought Mythras immediately upon release based on my experience with RQ6. Since that time, it has become my go to system for a large number of games.

Mythras is in the d100 family of games, and is derived from the Mongoose RQ2 rules (by the same authors actually). Having seen these rules since, I can see how they have evolved to make them more understandable, more elegant, and more in line with a game that might work for multiple settings. I would call it medium-crunch, with most of that crunch being up front at character generation. Skills are percentile rated, as it is a member of the d100 family. I like this because it is very clear what your chances are - 30% ina skill means you have a 30% chance of success.

Mythras uses the standard STR/CON/DEX/SIZ/INT/POW/CHA setup for stats, and all skills are based on combinations of these two, rather than static values seen in some other d100 games. Skills are broken into two categories - Standard skills which everyone get some base value in, and Professional Skills, which you may not have any points in.

Culture and Career define how you get your skills - each provides a set with points to distribute among them. Careers cover a broad range of medieval professions (though see Mythras Imperative for more modern ones), and Cultures cover Barbarian, Civilized, Nomadic, and Primitive. Each has a distinct flavor to them, and there are careers recommended for each. Family history and family events are also covered, providing for a more lifelike character. I find that this makes characters make sense within a society, and gives them a sense of belonging that doesn't come in every other game.

Skills can be utilized in a number of ways, but somewhat unique to Mythras is the notion of a differential roll. You compare levels of success (Critical, Normal, Failure, and Fumble) to each other and gain a number of bonuses based on this. This is used extensively in combat, but some guidance is provided on making use of it in other scenarios.

An economics and equipment section is presented as well, complete with standards of living and rules for crafting, bartering, and haggling, as well as all of the weapons and armor you might need for an ancient to medieval campaign. Siege weapons and vehicles round out the mix. One notable part of weapons is their use of Size and Reach. Combat (detailed below) makes use of this extensively. It allows for Spear and Shield users to have distinct advantages over Hand Axe and Short sword users.

The game provides an extensive section on rules for a variety of situations. Fatigue is one of the most notable here, as it is used for bleeding and asphyxiation, and heightens the tension in combat. Many of the other standard things that you expect to find in many more detailed RPGs - encumbrance, survival, falling, poisons, etc. can all be found here.

One notable call out are Passions. Passions are a measurement of loyalty, hate, love, or other emotional bonds to people, places or things. They are rated the same as skills, and indeed, in the right situations, may be used as skills. Thus, if defending your king, and you have a great Love (King), you may augment your combat skill with your Love (King) passion, or even replace it if the situation warrants. These are highly recommended in bringing your character some nuance that may not be immediately present. These can also be added to a character at pretty much any time (pending GM approval of course) so that you can grow your character quite easily.

One of the most engaging features of Mythras to me is the combat system. Mythras uses hit locations and hit points, as well as action points to determine number of actions and initiative to determine when you act. Attacking is active, as well as defense if you desire. Damage is done and armor reduces the damage. Defenses can be via parrying or evading. Abstracted, it doesn’t work on a grid, instead relying on engagement between melee combatants and movement ranges.

As noted above, differential rolls are used extensively here, and power the use of Special Effects. These reflect disadvantageous situations that the attacker or the defender may inflict upon their foe, making combat much more lively than a simple back and forth of attacks and defense. These can be Tripping your foe, Pressing your Advantage, Impaling with your spear, and more. They are not limited to attackers, as defenders can defend, even if the attacker misses, gaining their own special effects like Overextending their Opponent, returning a Trip, or Blinding with a shield. Special effects go a long ways towards making the combat more tense, interesting, and providing opportunities other than whittling down bags of hit points.

I should note, however, that Special effects can take a bit to get used to, and this is probably my strongest criticism of the game. There are quite a few options, and the novice player can become overwhelmed, or focus on simple effects like striking the head. I would recommend taking a look at Mythras Imperative with its slightly smaller list of special effects to ease into things. Or limit your players to some specific ones until they get the feel of things. Soon they will see how other options can be better. One of our first games, I suggested that the GM strike at another player using Trip as a special effect instead of striking at the head. The head shot would not have killed the other player, but the trip ended up delaying him long enough that my character did die.

Mythras has an extensive magic section, clocking in at 80 pages and covering 5 distinct magic systems - Folk Magic to cover small spells the common people might use, Animism that deals with the negotiation with and binding of spirits, Mysticism which brings a high-flying wuxia feel, highly flexible Sorcery for covering (rather intuitively) sword and sorcery campaigns, and Theism, which brings a decidedly different view of magic bestowed by deities upon their worshipers.

Each one of these is presented in extensive detail, and you are encouraged to tune and refine these to suit your campaign. Guidelines for low, medium, and high magic campaigns are provided, as well as different ways to recover magic points - not all need apply in your campaign, and may apply at different levels. Advancement is covered in detail, of course, and each can be tuned - folk magic may be quick, and sorcery may be slow to learn. Mythras’ magic systems are one of the gems of the book, in my opinion.

Rounding out the book are three sections - one for cults and brotherhoods, an extensive creature bestiary, and a games mastery section.

The cults and brotherhoods provides an excellent framework for building organizations for your campaign, including ranks within them. Many examples are given as to using them with the above mentioned magical schools, and including Gifts - special powers like Immortality or puissance in a skill - that may be learned as one gains ranks within the organization. Geasa, Taboos, Superstitions, and Oaths cover a variety of restrictions, making it so one might need to swear allegiance to a Lich-lord to gain knowledge of raising the dead.

The bestiary provides rules for creating many new monsters, as well as covering more than 50 different mythical and non-mythical creatures. Some are less traditional like the Bagini or the Acephali, and traditional goblins, giants and dragons can be found here as well. Some non-traditional PC races like minotaurs and panthotaurs can be found here, as well as more traditional elves, dwarves, and halflings.

Another real gem in Mythras is the Games Mastery section. Unlike many of these section in other RPGs, I feel Mythras’ really gives excellent guidance of how to run a Mythras game. How to use passions, how to run social conflict, how to do investigations and use of traps. The combat section here talks extensively about some of the common misperceptions of the system - options other than death, action points being the only mechanism for winning, and how to use rabble (mooks) and underlings to get a particular feel. It really talks extensively about how to give cults flavor and life, and more than just faceless organizations that the PCs ignore.

Mythic Constantinople starts out with an introduction, of course, and sets the year at 1450. It talks about how religion is a major feature, though you need not explore it in your game, and talks about how much mythic you want to put in. Fortunately, you don't have to put any magic in it - the non-human races are pretty optional. It also has a pronunciation guide for Greek and Turkish, which you will probably need

Next is the section on history and geography of the area. it talks about the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn, and the city itself - how it looks, what it's population is at any point, fortifications, monuments, and the nine districts. This section is a half a dozen or so pages, largely because there are far more detailed sections ahead in the book.

Next is the 20 or so pages on Byzantine culture. It talks about the different social strata - the demos, the mesoi, and the dynatoi. There is also the emperor and his family, but that's sort of out of the scope of the rest. It talks about slavery, foreigners of various types, as well as magic and superstition. Language, clothing, pastimes, and the calendar (filled with religious feasts) make up much of the next section, giving a detail picture of life in Byzantium as portrayed here (I personally cannot attest to it's accuracy). Education, gender roles, and the economy, as well as guilds follow next, and then into the natural extensions of crime, governance, law enforcement, and the judicial system. Next come a couple of pages each on the church and the military, with mercenaries and the navy getting small sections of their own.

Then we have the mentioned mediterranean world. it gives the bulk of this section to the Ottoman Empire, which makes sense. They don't get quite as much as Byzantium proper, but certainly a bigger section than the others. It goes into quite a bit of detail about the military and education systems here, so you can use it for a protagonist as well as an antagonist.

Next comes the character creation section. They detail out Greek and Turkish characters in extensive detail, as well as Arab, Frankish (essentially, all Europeans), Arimapsoi (a sort of cyclops), Astomatoi (mouthless humanoids with giant ears they can fly with that live off the smells of food), Blemmyai (Acephali from the Mythras book), Kynokephaloi (dog headed humanoids that are well loved in Byzantium), Minotauroi (take a guess), Skiapodes (monopeds!), and tripithamoi (essentially, imps). A couple of new careers in the catholic priest, labourer, miracle worker, and sportsman. There are also a couple of pages of culture and profession specific combat styles here - a really nice add. A section on names and background events specific to the campaign round out this part

Money and equipment follows. There are a couple of new weapon traits and a couple of new weapons. Greek Fire gets a nod, as well as early firearms and explosives. Artillery rounds out this section.

Next comes the magic section. They have specific Gifts from God called Charismata, exorcist animists, alchemy (and cleverly done at that), and some new folk magic. Christian theism gets a bit of a tweak on Theism that leans not only on requiring a gift from god, taking communion, and having people who believe in you being a conduit of God's power. It's a great little take on Theism that will really alter how it's played. Sorcery is given a couple pages as well, and tweaked to be the realm of a Bad Idea, but definitely the promise of power. Animism and Mysticism get small sections that come up later in organizations that teach them. Lastly, it talks about Christian, Muslim, and Jewish relics.

Next comes an extensive section on communities. there are 37 organizations in this, ranging from military brotherhoods to dervishes to exorcists to hospitallers to Platonic philosophers. far too extensive to list here, they all seem to follow the cults and brotherhood format in Mythras, many with Gifts (including some non-traditional ones, like room and board). There are also 26 big name NPCs in this section covering a pretty wide range of societal roles.

The next 60 pages or so is Constantinople in detail. And wow, the detail. The nine districts above each get 3-6 pages, as well as charts for randomly generating city nodes and all kids of info on typical houses and businesses and the like. Even typical conversation topics. Each district also includes rumors, local lore, and several (6-15 or so) places of interest in them, along with affiliations associated with that, people who are there, organizations that utilize it

The last section is about 30 pages to help you build a campaign. There are four campaign arcs all laid out, as well as many Secrets to add into your game, and themes to help guide you. There is advice on running a military campaign, especially the fall of Constantinople (the siege and the battle for the city are presented a separate campaigns). There is also a small bestiary in this section.

It’s 232 pages in that typically dense Mythras format. Art is solid and spread throughout, though not overly so. Probably ever dozen pages or so. Maps for the empire, the region, and for specific city level stuff (larger ones are available separately).

The pdf is disappointingly NOT bookmarked or hyperlinked. Right now this is probably its greatest flaw. I get that it will be many many bookmarks, but wow, it’s a lot of material to not have them. TDM typically does them, so i imagine it'll be coming here in a future revision

edit: the pdf has since been updated with extensive bookmarks and hyperlinks. was just a few days. thanks for the prompt response!

(the majority if his text was taken from a my review of this product on another board)

I picked this up after getting the Essentials version. It's not often that I can pick up a free version that fits the bill for 3 campaigns I had in my head, and then decide that I need the full version at $25 (pdf)

RQ6 is a great system. RQ is old, and the last time I played it was more than 20 years ago. Honestly, it felt like they decided to do 20 years of patch revisions to make the system better, not new. That I really appreciate. That means most all of the mechanics are fully baked, and things have been thought out. The book has nice sidebars talking about some of them.

Despite it's apparent complexity, it's actually a relatively simple system. Combat is nuanced, surprisingly fast, surprisingly deadly, and interesting, and real choices have to be made with weapons - damage, reach, defensiveness, unique abilities.

Denizens, like Fate of the Norn:Ragnarok itself, is an amazing book.

Lets start with the art. If you think the art in FOTN is excellent, DOTN will blow you away. From the mock-wood print style in the history section to the dark brooding style of the Pre-generated characters to the border work on all the character and monster boards, it is good end to end. The book itself would be worth it on the art alone.

But then you get a truly fascinating system out of it as well. No dice, totally different mechanics than many things that you may have played, and a fascinating world story straight out of the sagas. It sort of feels like vikings meet anime, complete with ghostly shield maidens protecting you from fiery blasts, giants of truly preposterous sizes swinging clubs the size of ships, berserkirs that shapechange into giant bears and leap 50' and druids that summon up portals to the nine worlds connected by Yggdrasil.

DOTN does much to complete what was started in FOTN. It introduces 6 new archetypes

• the Berserkir - blessed by Thor with his rage, they are killing machines - fire and steel cannot stop them, and ice cold water turns to steam trying to cool their rage.
• the Blacksmith - not a sit at home kind of guy, he can summon a forge beast to help him with crafting wherever he goes, and knows best how to use his own creations. With cultural proscriptions against stealing from the dead, he can be your best friend.
• the Druid - masters of world-bridging magics and nature, many can change shape into various birds and beasts.
• the Fardrengir - travellers and hunters, most of us would think of them as rangers. Many have a silver stag or a golden boar to ride into battle upon.
• Sceadugengan - darkwalkers, those who have been to Svartalfheim and returned - they learned the dark arts of thievery, assassination, and chicanery and practice them in Midgard.
• Stalo - while Berserkirs may be masters of uncontrolled combat, the Stalo are warriors of form and control. They methodically maneuvers himself, and sometimes his allies, to decisive victory.

With these archetypes, it makes it much easier for someone looking to bridge from a more traditional fantasy game - the fardrengir is similar to a ranger, the druid can change shape, the sceadugengan has a strong thief element, the berserkir is a viking staple.

Then you add in almost 150 pages of background, historical figures, location information, and secret societies. I feel like this was a features that was missing from the core book, which focused strongly on the larger picture of Ragnarok and the other worlds. How does Miklagard (Constantinople) figure in? How about Athelstan? The slave-trade in ancient Dublin? The first Althing? All of these and much more are in here.

Then add in 50 magic items - not simply +1 swords, but real living magic items with histories and curses and backstories. Everything from Egil Skallagrimsson's sword Dragvendil to the big daddy ship of them all, Naglar. Lets not forget five of Wayland's swords, including the legendary swords Durandal and Caliburn. Lucky for your inspired Blacksmith, the crafting rules are included, so he can harvest Rime Ice or Shadow Steel from alkas bleeding over the other realms and construct truly unique and custom items.

Toss in nearly 20 additional monsters, including Banshee and Draugr, nearly 200 new powers, 9 new metas - including much needed defensive metas - you have a book filled with flavor and crunch! But, as they say, that's not even all! New norn rules for naval battles and building longships really round out a viking campaign. A new lifepath background generation method helps a Norn flesh out those NPCs. A full saga in the back, full of suspense and horror one might find facing Cthulhu, and then another 9 saga starts pulling from the history and background presented in the book - who wouldn't like to go on a quest to make a new sun.

Denizens is quite the dense book, and a worthy companion to Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok. If you you have FOTN and don't have Denizens, it will complete it in ways you didn't even realize were missing. If you don't have FOTN and are looking at Denizens, you should definitely pick up both - the game really sings with both. The both of them together clock in at just shy of 800 pages - as much as a DMG, PHB, and MM - and feel like they really belong together.

I ordered this set of cards through the kickstarter and delivery was very fast. Turn around time from start to product at my door was just over a month.

The cards themselves are quite excellent, and feel like standard playing cards in the hand. The art is quite excellent and unique. After playing a few games, no noticeable wear or color bleed on the hands.

The rune cards are a little more plain, but are used only for adding extra complexity to the game. They would also be handy for playing Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok by the same publisher.

The game is a variant of a eastern European game that goes by the name 1000 in various languages. It is a trick-taking game for three players, with variants for 2 and (sort of) 4 players. It strikes me as close enough to Pinochle that if one had two decks one could just play Pinochle with a Norse themed deck and have a great game.