Imagine that the Greek, Egyptian and
Celtic people evolved on another world, isolated from all other cultures
except for each other. Now imagine that their collective mythologies
were all real and quite tangible.
Welcome to the world
of Mythic, a fun mythology based RPG from Chimera Press! Though an
Officially Licensed product for Savage Worlds, Mythic can be easily
adapted to any gaming system you happen to favor, are experimenting
with, or routinely use.
It begins with an evocative
image of a Greek warrior, an Egyptian archer and a Celtic mage fighting a
really huge and uninjured Minotaur in the ruins of a vast Grecian
temple. The Minotaur looks really pissed and a second Minotaur will soon
be joining him. Two pages later, a colorful map of the Known World that quickly dispels
the notion that you'll be adventuring on Earth.
Designed
to run optimally with a limited number of players, Mythic seeks to
duplicate the flavor of the ancient epics, and succeeds quite admirably.
There are twenty two heroic archetypes to choose from, all of them
human, and there are three distinct cultures to provide flavor. The
character creation process takes you by the hand and walks you through
it, step-by-step. By the time you're done, you're armed and ready to
tackle the world of Mythic.
Mythic Greece's culture
thrives in Illosia, as does the Olympian pantheon. The chapter devoted
to their culture is more than sufficient to get you started, and there
is a One-Sheet Illosian adventure on the Chimera Press website (more on
this below).
The Nisserri are the Mythic equivalent of
the ancient Egyptians, and their culture is guided and protected by the
Pesedjet, the ancient Khemetic gods of the Nile-lands.
Pridithians
are the barbarians of the Known World. They are brawny, fierce, and
under the Otherworldly tutelage of the Tuatha de Dannan, the Fae of the
Celts.
The book provides examples of actual names, alphabets and other cultural tidbits that greatly enhance the game world's reality.
Although
some of the creatures are unique to the Known World, like the Thosean
Lion, the Bestiary offers a comprehensive and thorough collection of
mythic and mundane beasts from all three cultures, some a bit altered
perhaps, but they all work well within the context of the Mythic game
setting.
The Bestiary is followed by nearly four
pages of generic NPC types you're likely to come across while
adventuring, everything from Assassins to Worshipers. These are fleshed
out enough to quickly insert into your adventure, lacking only names,
nationalities and unique quirks, mannerisms or affectations
Mythic concludes with a blank Character Sheet, which you can also download from the Mythic page on the Chimera Press website.
While
you're there, you can also download the divine Family Tree of each
culture and a One-Sheet adventure called Wedding Crashers (which I
mentioned above). It is set in Illosia, and involves Centaurs... enough
said! I enjoyed this scenario so much that I will be reviewing it!