Thanks for the breakdown! I played some Runequest back in the 80s, so the fundamentals of the system are familiar to me, but there are clearly many new things I need to learn. I like the sound of special effects.
We just released an actual play video running a high stakes mythras combat to demonstrate how awesome it is. Check it out on the channel if you're interested
The active defense + special effects aspects of Mythras are SO good. It really does feel like you're in the heart of the action at all times, almost like it's always your turn.
I always played Runequest from the 2nd edition in the early 80's, it avoided many of the issues that other systems had. As a Runequest descendant, Mythras combat keeps all the good stuff, removes the bad and makes it even better. The special effects are really good.
The concise information in this video feels very well put together. Great stuff lads. Was running Mythras on Friday evening, it also happened to be my 100th game as a GM. Looking forward to more videos!
I've been working on my own TTRPG for a few years now, and it's uncanny to see how many design decisions I've come up with are similar to this game, from opposed rolls, wounds systems and hit locations. A lot of these concepts appeared as reasonable and necessary from day one. Interesting to see how others have arrived at the same kind of conclusion.
After an exchange on Twitter a few weeks ago, you changed my mind about hit locations. Realised my issue isn't actually hit locations, it's the burden of extra rolls/looking at tables. So I figured out an easy way to make them not increase procedural bloat and added them to my game. So far? Added oodles of tactical depth with no extra burden, just had to make them only work off called shots.
Plus, IMO it's easier to track HP in the end, at least when the individual HP values are low. You can do it backwards with tick marks on a notepad instead of erasing and re-writing a number every time something happens.
Great video! I discovered mythras when it was still called runequest 6 and I keep coming back to it (even if I like to play a lot of different systems). When I play with people unfamiliar with Mythras, they are always shocked how the combat is so fast and visceral... once you get the system it runs very fast and keeps players engaged
I legitimately find tracking Mythras HP easier than games where you've got a giant bag of points. Since each location only has, what, twelve *max?* I can track it backwards. Something does 4 damage? 4 ticks on the notepad. Erase when healing. Easy.
Awesome video! This is an awesome breakdown for someone who's been trying to get into Mythras mainly because of the The Broken Empires I've been eyeing Mythras for a while, hesitating between several iterations of d100 systems and I boiled it down today to a tie between OpenQuest 3E and Mythras I actually started to read both OpenQuest 3E and Mythras Imperative today, but am still hesitating on which one I wanted to use in my next fantasy game Looking forward to your next content about Mythras! I'm extremely excited about it!
@@blacklodgegames 😊 Yeah I've downloaded it but I've not gotten to it yet But I'm actually completely impressed with the layouts in those Mythras Imperative books, it is so clear Also, any good introductory adventures? Because I'd love to try it at the table, sounds so fun and strategical!
I agree with everything here, Mythras has a bit of a learning cliff to it, but once you understand it flows well. Sections of the book need some serious edits though.
Not having every enemy fight to the death causes a lot of fun for me as a GM and dillemas for the PCs. In my Stars Without Number game I had many situations where enemies surrendered when things went really bad for them. When that game ended we have started a Mythras game in the Thennla setting. We just had one session down but also played Magic World before the SWN game. They have a HP pool in the game, but it was still quite deadly but fun. SWN was our first foray into another d20 game after about 8 years of d100 and it has HPs but the inflation is kept in control better than some other systems that shall go unamed. If you want every combat to have some pucker factor, give Mythras or other d100 games a try! If you like fighter types then this game gives you something more to do than I roll to hit and roll damage.
I did simular with GURPS. If your weapon skill is 15 or higher, you can aim for a location. If not, you have the option of rolling randomly on the hit location chart when you make a Critical Hit. The idea is to give the option while discouraging heavy use. Go for the eyes Boo!
So someone played Vagrant Story and the Front Mission series and went "hmm...TTRPG". Sounds cool to me. The roll and counter-roll is actually how I designed my little board war game, with 1-4 d12 rolled depending on the situation, and I came up with two different systems of determining the hit (whether highest die wins, or highest total wins) which could both be used depending on if they were using a "charge" order or a "move and attack" order. It meant that you never knew which the opponent was going to do on their turn (with them having 1 action per turn but 7 actions per round), but you still got to defend yourself in a way that wasn't entirely "he has bigger numbers so he wins". It made games very dynamic, very fun, if a bit slow.
Better yet, this video barely gets into what makes it interesting to play, IMO. What really makes this system tick is that you earn Special Effects before rolling for damage. A lot of effects don't do anything if you don't deal damage (so armor matters a lot), and often have their own saving throws after that. So if you're picking what you're going to do, you're picking how much you want to gamble, essentially. Maybe you gamble on something fight-ending or you go for something relatively sure and advantage-generating. Or, like, say the enemy has a shield. That shield will probably passively protect several hit locations, reducing your chance of doing anything. So the smart thing to do is to pick the Choose Location special effect to bypass it. But... if they won on defense earlier, there's a Special Effect that lets you "preapre" for something and counter it. Obviously they'd prepare for Choose Location, so if you do that they might get to attack YOU instead. Now you've got a puzzle on your hands.
Sounds a lot like Warhammer Fantasy RPG but more polished, taking the best of 2nd of 4th edition. Which is great! WFRP is definitely one of the great systems out there, and by far the best one made by a major company.
Although I'm not a huge fan of Mythras (Delta Green as a system is something I prefer over any other d100), I have to admit it was a great overview that oozes with excitement for the game. Right on, dude!
I love Runequest 2nd combat and Mythras is an excellent expansion! You may want to look to Blade of the Iron Throne, for a different take in combat but in the same vein! Playing it currently and it's a blast.
This makes me want to look into any conversions people have done in the past with hit locations/special effects for Pendragon since it is ultimately BRP with a d20 instead of d100.
I just realized that I need to get a beard straightener and Prime Day is over. Thanks Frasier... lol
Місяць тому
That sounds awesome. when we used to play D&D back in the day a friend and I did a home rule set for things like Femoral hits and things like that but this is next level! great job, sounds like a very interesting gaming system. I wish I had a gaming group still, your stuff you are putting out sounds REALLY cool. I just don't play anymore since everyone around me I have met so far is into Lines and veils and crap.
This is one of the things I've always liked about Shadowrun. Every attack is defended against. On the other hand, you never roll damage, it's always a flat score that body armor absorbs. Another interesting thing was that your initiative score is a resource. Every round you take an action, you deplete 10, but you can also spend it on interrupts, like the ubiquitous Attack of Opportunity or to Intercept someone who's trying to get past you with a grapple or a clothesline or something. People always think this bogs down combat, but allowing people who are not up in the initiative order to make meaningful choices outside of their turn keeps everyone's attention on what is going on, and demands everyone continuously form accurate pictures of combat, rather than relying on a map with player tokens in some autistic game of Chutes and Ladders. Im sure Mythras does it better, though. There is a lot of clunkiness to Shadowrun.
D&D has been my fantasy go-to, and, as I commented on in another video, I have moved on to ACKs 2. That said, I am intrigued by this system. To run a Mythras campaign in which I would be converting Paizo's Adventure Paths or other published modules from other editions of D&D, would I have an easier time if I looked into the Classic Fantasy version, or would it be fine to stay with just Mythras?
Bought the mythras core pdf recently due to your last video on it. Been running PF2e and it's getting a bit meh. Once I have read the core rule book, going to buy and read babylon and start running a babylon game. Thanks for introducing me to the game. I am so damn excited to run it.
@@blacklodgegames let us know what you think of classic fantasy once you have finished. I am tempted but I am also feeling a little burned out by DnD tropes.
So awesome there's a free pdf to get a taste. I really want to try Mythras but i'm trying to not buy new books til ive played a few games of other systems i already own first
GURPS is the same with everyone having a good list of combat Maneuvers to chose from and active defense. Those maneuvers combined with active defense and low hit points makes combat very suspenseful. It's hard to see how it works just reading the book and playing a one shot. Faster combat is not the same as more exciting combat. In fact, in practice, faster combat systems seem less exciting to me.
This seems great. Any chance the mythras combat can be translated to ACKS? It would probably not be attack + defense but only attack, but ACKS already sort of has the idea of modular armor, so you can just say what body part each point of AC is protecting... idk, maybe ACKS just assumed far more enemies than Mythras tends to have? Would be cool to have a bit of a more dynamic and possibly tactical aspect to ACKS.
Check the Judges Journal for the optional critical hits system. It allows you to do combat maneuvers like disarming, knocking people down etc. These are just fundamentally different approaches to combat though, so there is no mixing matching imo. Mythras and ACKS focus on fundamentally different things, so they play and feel different.
The combat doesn't sound super far-off from how the Fantasy Flight 40k RPGs work; a step further away from DnD, maybe, but that's all. For anyone who's played those or was curious, it's an easy jump from there to Mythras, by the sounds of it. A very good hit can almost nullify an enemy, but the same generally goes for the player too (unless you permanently burn a Fate, which you don't get many at chargen or during a campaign)
Have you guys seen warhammer fantasy rpg(earlier editions), sounds similar to what you described in combat aside from the damage effect at least until critical damage
There's a fairly comprehensive list of non-human hit locations at the end of the creatures chapter, as well as a hit location table for every creature.
I've played BRP in different forms since 86 and never found that it "flows" whether it's been CoC,Elric/Stormbringer, Götterdämmerung/ Lex Occultum, Drakar och Demoner, Mutant . I've liked it well enough but if I want crunchy games I prefer WFRP 1, 2,4 ,Zweihänder and Harnmaster. The new Runequest gives me a headache and is far too fiddly. I will read Mythras to see where it falls but I guess it will remind me of never-ending battles using Drakar och Demoner Expert during the 80s.
I´ve never played mythras but I´ve played the new runequest edition. I know they are related but I didnt know they were this similar, although I haven´t read mythras.
Hey, fine folks at BLG. I have just gotten a baby boardgame project of mine to a playable state (in Tabletop Simulator) and was wondering or hoping that you would be willing to take a look at it or perhaps even be part of playtests.
Seriously looking into Mythras but have one question.... Being that it is so deadly do you find that players tend to do everything to avoid fights? Talk their way out of it, run away, etc.? Playing timid or too safe in other words.
I don't, but I'm also not afraid to have my character die. You can also start the players at higher skill ratings to make them superior to most people. Armor also goes a LONG way to preventing those major wounds
@@AndrewJohnson-n3m but to actually answer your question, you can parry ranged attacks with shields, and the special effects give defenders lots of options. It's very fun and very tough. Not everything is a fight to the death too
the game mechanics are way too cumbersome!!! we got rid of these items: - initiative... GONE - attack (to-hit) roll... GONE - combat action economy... GONE once these scene debilitating activities are removed, TTRPG combat moves fast and dynamic.
I love this video It made me want to run a d100 game (almost). I'll check it out, but I ask that you check out GURPS too. Because it sounds like GURPS.
My issue with RPG combat is rarely the mechanisms, but usually with the stakes. I mean very often the fights are just meaningless. There is nothing at stack beyond the lives involved. And that is what makes it boring, the lack of compelling narratives, the lack of an internal struggle of the characters to even consider to try to avoid a fight.
You definitely get a whole new viewpoint in Mythras.....fights are dangerous, and the shadow of death or maiming is never far. Keeps the stakes very dear
The thing I don’t like about Mythras is that pretty much every aspect of it is non-diegetic. But I can understand why people who don’t care about diegesis like it.
@@BanjoSick there are restrictions on special effects and they don't always succeed. Often times they provoke another opposed roll of a different skill, or have conditions like impaling only working if you do enough damage to actually penetrate armor etc. hard to describe in a video of this length. It is also restricted by weapons you have (can't impale with a hammer, can't shield bash without a shield etc.) so it's far more tied to what you are actually capable of and feels much more like actual strategy in the flow of battle.
That's not an unfair first impression. For the table, it's really only there to make it clear while reading the rules. We never reference it in play because it's such a simple system. As for double the dice rolls, rolling a die and adding a modifier takes the same time if not longer than rolling two dice and comparing them. There's not only speed to consider though, but also the efficiency of the rolls. In a D&D-esque game, the most you can do with an attack is roll a crit and do double damage. In Mythras, a crit can take an enemy combatant from full up ready to fight to disarmed, on the ground, and forced to surrender.
So what I'm hearing is that whoever lands the first blow wins the combat because every effect you described here would absolutely be devastating to the target. Why not just do an attack/defense roll, and whoever looses dies? That seems far more streamlined than this nonsense.
@@Adept_Austin there are plenty of times when no one gains special effects either, so it isn't an instant kill on every shot. Armor goes a long way to keeping you alive (like armor did in real combat) and not all special effects succeed automatically. Impale, for instance, lets you roll damage twice and pick the higher result, but the actual impaling action only succeeds if you get through their armor. It's hard to cover that in a video of this length, however.
What kind of poor ass excuse for RPGs have you been playing if your opening statement is like this. Damn .... P.S. The sistem - Critical success, fail, hit, fumble ... is nothing new. It was there from the 90's in the games like Baldur's Gate that used the DnD table top rules, a roll dice D20 and if 1 Critical fail - fumble, if bellow enemy AP (armour points that take into calculation equipment and stats) or save dice if you are using magic, then miss. If above AP or save dice, hit. 20 was critical hit. There were a few classes and magic items that could reduce that to 19.
In one minute you managed to tell me a bunch of things I definitely don't want while talking like it was things I do want. Four minutes in and I've never been so turned off by everything in a TTRPG sales pitch. Thanks, but no thanks. Everything about how that would play sounds absolutely terrible. This is a game for people that read RPGs or maybe do one shots at conventions, not ones that play them.
@@Abumustard6364 D&D 3.0e was good if you tweaked it a bit, and I think tweaked for balance it's my favorite system. The core mechanic of D20 is rock solid. 3.5 sort of ruined it; too much broken. WEG D6 is OK, but the lack of hit points is annoying in long term play. BRP has a lot of things I like about it, but it's base mechanic is fundamentally flawed and while it's OK for CoC, I'd never adapt it to a fantasy game. Blades in the Dark has some merits. I like Pendragon quite a lot, but it has a rather narrow focus.
@@celebrim1 I haven't noticed what's so flawed with the D100 yet and I've gone through CoC, Delta Green and Mythras now. Could you enlighten me? My main experiences with D20 comes from 5e and SotDL and I find it works fine too. Isn't Pendragon using a D20 variant of the BRP system too?
@@Abumustard6364 The biggest flaw with D100 isn't just that roll low is annoying, but that it only handles difficulty in narrow ranges - usually a relatively unheroic range. In other words, it handles increasing skill fine but poorly handles differentiating task difficulty. The most intuitive way to handle it involves division which is ugly at the table and involves non-linear impacts on odds. This is fine if and only if most tasks are in a narrow range. CoC is fine because characters are expected to be unheroic and to fail often. Pendragon adjusts to a D20 variant but more importantly rebalances at a different narrow range cleverly built around assumptions about armor and enemy. But armor systems tend also be very narrow. You run into problems where most opponents are either not dangerous or else lethal. You have the same problems occur in D6 which effectively has similar soak mechanics. These flaws are annoying but you can overcome them for some genres and some lengths of campaign and some styles. But the described system just leans into all these problems in a way that just sounds like a mess precisely because the things he describes me as a wanting I know from 40+ years of experience as a GM I definitely don't want.
From a general design perspective, your point about everyone learning one system is something that has become way more important to me over time.
You KILLED it with this one, GF. I expect the Mythras discord to receive an influx of new players after this.
I hope so!
Thanks for the breakdown! I played some Runequest back in the 80s, so the fundamentals of the system are familiar to me, but there are clearly many new things I need to learn. I like the sound of special effects.
Nothing shuts up people complaining about hit locations faster than "do you want to make that a called shot to the head?"
Classic Fantasy is my flavor of Mythras. Absolutely spot on with the points you make. 🎉
We just released an actual play video running a high stakes mythras combat to demonstrate how awesome it is. Check it out on the channel if you're interested
The active defense + special effects aspects of Mythras are SO good. It really does feel like you're in the heart of the action at all times, almost like it's always your turn.
I always played Runequest from the 2nd edition in the early 80's, it avoided many of the issues that other systems had. As a Runequest descendant, Mythras combat keeps all the good stuff, removes the bad and makes it even better. The special effects are really good.
The concise information in this video feels very well put together. Great stuff lads. Was running Mythras on Friday evening, it also happened to be my 100th game as a GM. Looking forward to more videos!
I've been working on my own TTRPG for a few years now, and it's uncanny to see how many design decisions I've come up with are similar to this game, from opposed rolls, wounds systems and hit locations. A lot of these concepts appeared as reasonable and necessary from day one. Interesting to see how others have arrived at the same kind of conclusion.
After an exchange on Twitter a few weeks ago, you changed my mind about hit locations. Realised my issue isn't actually hit locations, it's the burden of extra rolls/looking at tables. So I figured out an easy way to make them not increase procedural bloat and added them to my game. So far? Added oodles of tactical depth with no extra burden, just had to make them only work off called shots.
Plus, IMO it's easier to track HP in the end, at least when the individual HP values are low. You can do it backwards with tick marks on a notepad instead of erasing and re-writing a number every time something happens.
Everything sounds exciting! I'm looking forward to delving into the system soon.
Great video! I discovered mythras when it was still called runequest 6 and I keep coming back to it (even if I like to play a lot of different systems). When I play with people unfamiliar with Mythras, they are always shocked how the combat is so fast and visceral... once you get the system it runs very fast and keeps players engaged
I legitimately find tracking Mythras HP easier than games where you've got a giant bag of points. Since each location only has, what, twelve *max?* I can track it backwards. Something does 4 damage? 4 ticks on the notepad. Erase when healing. Easy.
Lets fucking go. You guys just keep turning out top-tier content.
This is true. Mythras is great. It is not more crunchy than D&D.
Awesome video! This is an awesome breakdown for someone who's been trying to get into Mythras mainly because of the The Broken Empires
I've been eyeing Mythras for a while, hesitating between several iterations of d100 systems and I boiled it down today to a tie between OpenQuest 3E and Mythras
I actually started to read both OpenQuest 3E and Mythras Imperative today, but am still hesitating on which one I wanted to use in my next fantasy game
Looking forward to your next content about Mythras! I'm extremely excited about it!
Awesome! Check out Classic Fantasy Imperative as well for a bigger magic system than what is in Mythras Imperative.
@@blacklodgegames 😊
Yeah I've downloaded it but I've not gotten to it yet
But I'm actually completely impressed with the layouts in those Mythras Imperative books, it is so clear
Also, any good introductory adventures? Because I'd love to try it at the table, sounds so fun and strategical!
Black Lodge Games delivers the most informative and captivating videos as always :)
I agree with everything here, Mythras has a bit of a learning cliff to it, but once you understand it flows well.
Sections of the book need some serious edits though.
I am going to have to pick up this ruleset, I've been looking for a good dueling system.
Once you go to wound locations with effects, you never want to go back... Unless you don't care about RPing.
Not having every enemy fight to the death causes a lot of fun for me as a GM and dillemas for the PCs. In my Stars Without Number game I had many situations where enemies surrendered when things went really bad for them. When that game ended we have started a Mythras game in the Thennla setting. We just had one session down but also played Magic World before the SWN game. They have a HP pool in the game, but it was still quite deadly but fun. SWN was our first foray into another d20 game after about 8 years of d100 and it has HPs but the inflation is kept in control better than some other systems that shall go unamed. If you want every combat to have some pucker factor, give Mythras or other d100 games a try! If you like fighter types then this game gives you something more to do than I roll to hit and roll damage.
I did simular with GURPS. If your weapon skill is 15 or higher, you can aim for a location. If not, you have the option of rolling randomly on the hit location chart when you make a Critical Hit. The idea is to give the option while discouraging heavy use. Go for the eyes Boo!
This is why I love the WFRP combat. Although this is admittedly an evolution of that system.
Its almost like "systems don't matter" is just an excuse for bad systems
Systems absolutely matter
So someone played Vagrant Story and the Front Mission series and went "hmm...TTRPG". Sounds cool to me.
The roll and counter-roll is actually how I designed my little board war game, with 1-4 d12 rolled depending on the situation, and I came up with two different systems of determining the hit (whether highest die wins, or highest total wins) which could both be used depending on if they were using a "charge" order or a "move and attack" order. It meant that you never knew which the opponent was going to do on their turn (with them having 1 action per turn but 7 actions per round), but you still got to defend yourself in a way that wasn't entirely "he has bigger numbers so he wins". It made games very dynamic, very fun, if a bit slow.
Better yet, this video barely gets into what makes it interesting to play, IMO. What really makes this system tick is that you earn Special Effects before rolling for damage. A lot of effects don't do anything if you don't deal damage (so armor matters a lot), and often have their own saving throws after that. So if you're picking what you're going to do, you're picking how much you want to gamble, essentially. Maybe you gamble on something fight-ending or you go for something relatively sure and advantage-generating.
Or, like, say the enemy has a shield. That shield will probably passively protect several hit locations, reducing your chance of doing anything. So the smart thing to do is to pick the Choose Location special effect to bypass it. But... if they won on defense earlier, there's a Special Effect that lets you "preapre" for something and counter it. Obviously they'd prepare for Choose Location, so if you do that they might get to attack YOU instead. Now you've got a puzzle on your hands.
Thanks for the review aaaand the subtitle for a non english native :D I love your content !
Sounds a lot like Warhammer Fantasy RPG but more polished, taking the best of 2nd of 4th edition. Which is great! WFRP is definitely one of the great systems out there, and by far the best one made by a major company.
Mythras is based off of RuneQuest (It's RQ6 with the serial numbers filed off), a system that pre-dates WFRP. Both are good systems in their own ways!
Thx for the video
It really sounds deadly i will give it a try!
Although I'm not a huge fan of Mythras (Delta Green as a system is something I prefer over any other d100), I have to admit it was a great overview that oozes with excitement for the game. Right on, dude!
Excellent overview of the combat system of the game. There are definitely so many options when it comes to combat in Mythras!
Great video as usual. Hopefully this can convert some people over.
I really got redpiled by mythras a few years ago and ever since, every dnd combat felt flavorless and rigid
I love Runequest 2nd combat and Mythras is an excellent expansion! You may want to look to Blade of the Iron Throne, for a different take in combat but in the same vein! Playing it currently and it's a blast.
Amen! Mythras is THE combat system for me, absolutely superior.
This makes me want to look into any conversions people have done in the past with hit locations/special effects for Pendragon since it is ultimately BRP with a d20 instead of d100.
I just realized that I need to get a beard straightener and Prime Day is over. Thanks Frasier... lol
That sounds awesome. when we used to play D&D back in the day a friend and I did a home rule set for things like Femoral hits and things like that but this is next level! great job, sounds like a very interesting gaming system. I wish I had a gaming group still, your stuff you are putting out sounds REALLY cool. I just don't play anymore since everyone around me I have met so far is into Lines and veils and crap.
In D&D most tatical choices are made in character creation
I've always been a sucker for the crit tables in the back of the MERPS book myself but this sounds awesome too.
This is one of the things I've always liked about Shadowrun. Every attack is defended against. On the other hand, you never roll damage, it's always a flat score that body armor absorbs.
Another interesting thing was that your initiative score is a resource. Every round you take an action, you deplete 10, but you can also spend it on interrupts, like the ubiquitous Attack of Opportunity or to Intercept someone who's trying to get past you with a grapple or a clothesline or something. People always think this bogs down combat, but allowing people who are not up in the initiative order to make meaningful choices outside of their turn keeps everyone's attention on what is going on, and demands everyone continuously form accurate pictures of combat, rather than relying on a map with player tokens in some autistic game of Chutes and Ladders.
Im sure Mythras does it better, though. There is a lot of clunkiness to Shadowrun.
Mythras is the ultimate Dark ages RPG. It's my go to TTRPG.
It's really great
D&D has been my fantasy go-to, and, as I commented on in another video, I have moved on to ACKs 2. That said, I am intrigued by this system. To run a Mythras campaign in which I would be converting Paizo's Adventure Paths or other published modules from other editions of D&D, would I have an easier time if I looked into the Classic Fantasy version, or would it be fine to stay with just Mythras?
Classic Fantasy uses Mythras rules, it's like a supplement to run OSR AD&D with the Mythras system. It's amazing 🎉
Interesting system. Would love to see a "lets play for dummies" where one shows combat while showing the relevant text.
They actually did it just some days ago. Check the video out!
Very helpful. Can you also make a video on how the magic works? Thanks.
Bought the mythras core pdf recently due to your last video on it. Been running PF2e and it's getting a bit meh. Once I have read the core rule book, going to buy and read babylon and start running a babylon game. Thanks for introducing me to the game. I am so damn excited to run it.
@@mathewkevan5646 that's awesome, we have mythic Babylon but haven't read it yet. Making our way through Classic Fantasy
@@blacklodgegames let us know what you think of classic fantasy once you have finished. I am tempted but I am also feeling a little burned out by DnD tropes.
@@mathewkevan5646Classic Fantasy is the shiz. You will love it! All the best things from AD&D in the Mythras rules. Perfection
So awesome there's a free pdf to get a taste. I really want to try Mythras but i'm trying to not buy new books til ive played a few games of other systems i already own first
Yeah it's awesome
Def get the Classic Fantasy Imperative as well.
If you like Mythras, you need to check out the combat style of Jackals (another D100 game).
Will do!
Sounds like a Monty Python simulator when I get my arms and legs cut off.
GURPS is the same with everyone having a good list of combat Maneuvers to chose from and active defense. Those maneuvers combined with active defense and low hit points makes combat very suspenseful. It's hard to see how it works just reading the book and playing a one shot. Faster combat is not the same as more exciting combat. In fact, in practice, faster combat systems seem less exciting to me.
This is fantastic, and a thoughtful treatment. Would you mind telling us which films you showed clips of (I only recognized about half of them)?
The last duel, braveheart, the Northman
excellent video!
dismemberment!! yes!!!
ahem... in game I mean.
This seems great. Any chance the mythras combat can be translated to ACKS? It would probably not be attack + defense but only attack, but ACKS already sort of has the idea of modular armor, so you can just say what body part each point of AC is protecting... idk, maybe ACKS just assumed far more enemies than Mythras tends to have? Would be cool to have a bit of a more dynamic and possibly tactical aspect to ACKS.
Check the Judges Journal for the optional critical hits system. It allows you to do combat maneuvers like disarming, knocking people down etc. These are just fundamentally different approaches to combat though, so there is no mixing matching imo.
Mythras and ACKS focus on fundamentally different things, so they play and feel different.
The combat doesn't sound super far-off from how the Fantasy Flight 40k RPGs work; a step further away from DnD, maybe, but that's all. For anyone who's played those or was curious, it's an easy jump from there to Mythras, by the sounds of it. A very good hit can almost nullify an enemy, but the same generally goes for the player too (unless you permanently burn a Fate, which you don't get many at chargen or during a campaign)
Horde mechanics in those systems are fun
This sounds awesome. Makes me want to try WFRP in this system instead of its current disappointing format.
Have you guys seen warhammer fantasy rpg(earlier editions), sounds similar to what you described in combat aside from the damage effect at least until critical damage
@@grzegorzcembruch2834 haven't checked it out but have had several people recommend it
Is there a separate hit location table for every creature? Or will I sometimes hit a snake in the leg?
There's a fairly comprehensive list of non-human hit locations at the end of the creatures chapter, as well as a hit location table for every creature.
I've played BRP in different forms since 86 and never found that it "flows" whether it's been CoC,Elric/Stormbringer, Götterdämmerung/ Lex Occultum, Drakar och Demoner, Mutant . I've liked it well enough but if I want crunchy games I prefer WFRP 1, 2,4 ,Zweihänder and Harnmaster. The new Runequest gives me a headache and is far too fiddly. I will read Mythras to see where it falls but I guess it will remind me of never-ending battles using Drakar och Demoner Expert during the 80s.
I´ve never played mythras but I´ve played the new runequest edition. I know they are related but I didnt know they were this similar, although I haven´t read mythras.
Hey, fine folks at BLG. I have just gotten a baby boardgame project of mine to a playable state (in Tabletop Simulator) and was wondering or hoping that you would be willing to take a look at it or perhaps even be part of playtests.
Seriously looking into Mythras but have one question.... Being that it is so deadly do you find that players tend to do everything to avoid fights? Talk their way out of it, run away, etc.? Playing timid or too safe in other words.
I don't, but I'm also not afraid to have my character die. You can also start the players at higher skill ratings to make them superior to most people. Armor also goes a LONG way to preventing those major wounds
Our sessions revolve a lot less around having combat encounters being the standard way of dealing with situations.
@@blacklodgegames how does this avoid the ranged meta that would crop up if everything’s deadly then why not be far away.
@@AndrewJohnson-n3m that's the meta in real life :)
@@AndrewJohnson-n3m but to actually answer your question, you can parry ranged attacks with shields, and the special effects give defenders lots of options. It's very fun and very tough. Not everything is a fight to the death too
This sounds way cooler than acks or D&D.
It's very different. ACKS has a lot more world simulation that is lacking in Mythras, but they are focused on different things and genres.
I'm currently playing both so because I like them both :)
Sounds like GURPS for XXI century childs
@@gladstonepinheiro3295 Runequest predates GURPS
@@blacklodgegames cmon, we both knows that GURPS is the Standard Model of reality!
Just kidding, love you guys, keep the good work.
Non of these problems are there in Rolemaster. Love that even more than RuneQuest
Haven't tried rollmaster yet
@@blacklodgegames It's actually not that roll intensive:) Chartmaster, that is accurate:)
@@BanjoSick if you want death by charts, check out Ascendant!
@@blacklodgegames hmm, ok. Might take a look.
the game mechanics are way too cumbersome!!!
we got rid of these items:
- initiative... GONE
- attack (to-hit) roll... GONE
- combat action economy... GONE
once these scene debilitating activities are removed, TTRPG combat moves fast and dynamic.
@@bruced648 coin flip for campaign victory is the only way to play RPGs
@blacklodgegames while I've gone the route of minimalist gaming... I haven't gone to that level - yet!
Impressive...
I love this video It made me want to run a d100 game (almost).
I'll check it out, but I ask that you check out GURPS too.
Because it sounds like GURPS.
Not enough time to cover gurps
@@blacklodgegames Sad. Ima gonna have to do it. I'm not nearly as eloquent
@@Fwibos subbed
My issue with RPG combat is rarely the mechanisms, but usually with the stakes. I mean very often the fights are just meaningless. There is nothing at stack beyond the lives involved. And that is what makes it boring, the lack of compelling narratives, the lack of an internal struggle of the characters to even consider to try to avoid a fight.
You definitely get a whole new viewpoint in Mythras.....fights are dangerous, and the shadow of death or maiming is never far. Keeps the stakes very dear
Palladium RPG does the same wih opposed d20 rolls.
Old world of darkness used opposed rolls in combat as well. It's an approach I generally like a lot.
@@blacklodgegames rolling up to 10d10, too much for me. Palladium was my first TTRPG, and it was about besting enemy's d20 roll.
@@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115
>10d10
you would *hate* Exalted haha
@@blacklodgegames no more than Phoenix Commando or Nephillim.
@@blacklodgegames my record in exalted is like 43 I think
Warhammer fantasy RPG anyone?
The thing I don’t like about Mythras is that pretty much every aspect of it is non-diegetic. But I can understand why people who don’t care about diegesis like it.
Wrong.
@@blacklodgegames wonderful engagement with the topic.
Interesting take. I've always seen it as fairly diagetic, but what are some things that stick out to you?
Which games do you play that are mostly/all diegetic?
@@dwil0311he ain't wrong though!
Increasing complexity over time is not a bad thing, it's a feature of good game design.
Spicy take: combat is the most boring part of RPGs, no matter how you run it.
I agree, so I'm not sure how spicy that is.
That was my opinion as well before playing Mythras.
Probably one of the worst comments I’ve ever read
I thought that as well when all I played was variations of D&D
@@Abumustard6364 Exactly. "Tactical combat" like in D&D 5e or Pathfinder is mid at best.
Sounds lame actually. Deciding the crits seems meta and breaks realism.
Wrong.
@@blacklodgegames OK, would love to try it out and se how it feels irl. Always there for a simulationist game.
@@BanjoSick there are restrictions on special effects and they don't always succeed. Often times they provoke another opposed roll of a different skill, or have conditions like impaling only working if you do enough damage to actually penetrate armor etc. hard to describe in a video of this length.
It is also restricted by weapons you have (can't impale with a hammer, can't shield bash without a shield etc.) so it's far more tied to what you are actually capable of and feels much more like actual strategy in the flow of battle.
I would recommend checking out Mythras imperative as most of the combat rules are intact and not cut to the bone like the magic systems
@@blacklodgegames So that is like in RuneQuest, it is a RuneQuest fork after all, right?
Great way to speed up combat: double the rolls on each turn and compare tables. What?
@@interactiveTodd speed is not a value in itself, but comparing two numbers is not slow.
Comparing two numbers is a time tax, it adds up to slow down the game a lot. Source: I play PF2.
That's not an unfair first impression. For the table, it's really only there to make it clear while reading the rules. We never reference it in play because it's such a simple system. As for double the dice rolls, rolling a die and adding a modifier takes the same time if not longer than rolling two dice and comparing them. There's not only speed to consider though, but also the efficiency of the rolls. In a D&D-esque game, the most you can do with an attack is roll a crit and do double damage. In Mythras, a crit can take an enemy combatant from full up ready to fight to disarmed, on the ground, and forced to surrender.
@@ingenparks ngmi
So what I'm hearing is that whoever lands the first blow wins the combat because every effect you described here would absolutely be devastating to the target.
Why not just do an attack/defense roll, and whoever looses dies? That seems far more streamlined than this nonsense.
If that's what you heard, you are an idiot.
There's more nuance than that, but combat IS a serious affair
@@Adept_Austin there are plenty of times when no one gains special effects either, so it isn't an instant kill on every shot. Armor goes a long way to keeping you alive (like armor did in real combat) and not all special effects succeed automatically. Impale, for instance, lets you roll damage twice and pick the higher result, but the actual impaling action only succeeds if you get through their armor.
It's hard to cover that in a video of this length, however.
I don't think you understand the system, grab the free PDF and check it out. What's got to lose?
What kind of poor ass excuse for RPGs have you been playing if your opening statement is like this. Damn ....
P.S.
The sistem - Critical success, fail, hit, fumble ... is nothing new. It was there from the 90's in the games like Baldur's Gate that used the DnD table top rules, a roll dice D20 and if 1 Critical fail - fumble, if bellow enemy AP (armour points that take into calculation equipment and stats) or save dice if you are using magic, then miss. If above AP or save dice, hit. 20 was critical hit. There were a few classes and magic items that could reduce that to 19.
Did not claim this was new only that it was good
In one minute you managed to tell me a bunch of things I definitely don't want while talking like it was things I do want.
Four minutes in and I've never been so turned off by everything in a TTRPG sales pitch.
Thanks, but no thanks. Everything about how that would play sounds absolutely terrible. This is a game for people that read RPGs or maybe do one shots at conventions, not ones that play them.
@@celebrim1 levels of ngmi that shouldn't even be possible.
I've had quite the opposite experience, works very well for long term play. What TTRPGs do you prefer?
@@Abumustard6364 D&D 3.0e was good if you tweaked it a bit, and I think tweaked for balance it's my favorite system. The core mechanic of D20 is rock solid. 3.5 sort of ruined it; too much broken. WEG D6 is OK, but the lack of hit points is annoying in long term play. BRP has a lot of things I like about it, but it's base mechanic is fundamentally flawed and while it's OK for CoC, I'd never adapt it to a fantasy game. Blades in the Dark has some merits. I like Pendragon quite a lot, but it has a rather narrow focus.
@@celebrim1 I haven't noticed what's so flawed with the D100 yet and I've gone through CoC, Delta Green and Mythras now. Could you enlighten me? My main experiences with D20 comes from 5e and SotDL and I find it works fine too.
Isn't Pendragon using a D20 variant of the BRP system too?
@@Abumustard6364 The biggest flaw with D100 isn't just that roll low is annoying, but that it only handles difficulty in narrow ranges - usually a relatively unheroic range. In other words, it handles increasing skill fine but poorly handles differentiating task difficulty. The most intuitive way to handle it involves division which is ugly at the table and involves non-linear impacts on odds. This is fine if and only if most tasks are in a narrow range. CoC is fine because characters are expected to be unheroic and to fail often. Pendragon adjusts to a D20 variant but more importantly rebalances at a different narrow range cleverly built around assumptions about armor and enemy. But armor systems tend also be very narrow. You run into problems where most opponents are either not dangerous or else lethal. You have the same problems occur in D6 which effectively has similar soak mechanics.
These flaws are annoying but you can overcome them for some genres and some lengths of campaign and some styles. But the described system just leans into all these problems in a way that just sounds like a mess precisely because the things he describes me as a wanting I know from 40+ years of experience as a GM I definitely don't want.