Customer Reviews

Mythus (Dangerous Journeys RPG)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My friend recently got out of the Marines and he brought with him the most wonderful role playing system I've ever encountered, and I've played alot of them. The way it approaches the use of skills is truly the most effective I've ever seen. The combat system, which runs off the skill system, works beautifully. It is a shame that TSR took this spectacular system away from the role playing populous, though how they won the lawsuit when the similarities to D&D are so few and far between still stupifies us all. I recently picked up Gary Gygax's new game, Lejendary Adventures, and while reading it, I keep thinking to myself, "It's almost Mythus, but Mythus did 'this' better." The only problem that any of us had with Mythus was the magic system, which is a bit unbalanced. Other that that, it is the pennacle of role playing games.

Here's a "could-have-been"... In the early 90's Gary Gygax (a creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons) teamed up with GDW to create an all-new RPG. The game was originally called Dangerous Dimensions (DD). Though this was changed early on, the damage was done. Rival company TSR claimed that the renamed Dangerous Journeys game infringed their D&D trademark, though the rules systems & backgrounds of the games have little in common. TSR sued. The issue was resolved out-of-court, with game production ceasing, and TSR acquiring the game.

The lawsuit was both costly and distracting for GDW, at a time when the RPG industry was beginning a contraction. GDW would stumble on for a few more years before ceasing operations in 1995. (Interestingly, TSR -- $30 million in debt -- was sold to Wizards of the Coast in 1997, a victim of poor management and market forces.)

Quality of production appears to be high, and the basic game is relatively simple. Much of the book is taken up with elective add-ons. It's a shame Mythus wasn't allowed to continue.

The Dangerous Dangerous -- Mythus game system is the best! The book is great and well worth its (orginal) price tag of $26. Although the system needs more playtesting (too many opportunities for unfair exploits) and the book needs better editing (errors in the data tables are worse than typo/grammer errors). Mythus & Dagerous Journeys is great..The best!. To bad T$R (AD&D) sued GDW for frivilous copyright issues. Now WOTC (Magic the Gatering) owns T$R and Mythus (through a buy-out) and hopefully they will debug and re-release Mythus.

This is a neat little system. I don't know how it runs yet but it seems to be quite flexible and intricate. The only thing about this is, unless you're an experienced DM who's willing to build your own campaign setting, you're going to have to pay a high price for the worldbook and the bestiary to run this game. Both of those books seem to be rather rare. There's also the problem with all the renames (I think to keep TSR from suing, which didn't work as Lorraine Williams was a rather petty woman). A PC is now an HP or "Heroic Persona" for instance (an NPC is also an OP, as in "other persona"). So it can be a bit confusing.

The game has an interesting idea behind it, and I love the setting, but the system itself is a bit pretentious.
Still, it beats the hell out of the dumbed-down role-playing games which have been released lately.