Ot Dangerous Journeys:mythus ?

[JeffB]

Hello,

I recently have begun searching out Gary’s Dangerous Journey’s (Mythus) game.

I was out of roleplaying from ‘84 to ‘98 so I missed the whole thing.

I tracked down a copy of the Mythus main rulebook, but I have some questions for those who might be in the know…..

1)Were there any other published “rule”books besides Epic of Aerth, Mythus Prime, and Mythus Magick?

2)Mythus Prime: My copy of DJ:Mythus has both Mythus Prime and Advanced Rules in one book. I found out there is a separate Mythus Prime book, was this an expansion of the Mythus prime rules in my book? Or the same in a separate format?

3)Anyone know where I can find eratta?

4)Good Mythus websites? I’ve been searching online but most that I can find are not there anymore…

5)I know there was some novels, and I see an ad for Computer and Super Nintendo games in my book, but what about adventures? Necropolis was one, but is that it?

6)Actually If anyone knows where I could find a complete roster of Mythus books and magazines published that would be phenomenal…

I just don’t understand why TSR made such a big fuss over this game…I can kind of understand the original title issue (Dangerous Destinations), but DJ:Mythus has so little to do with D&D I just can’t believe they went to so much trouble to take the game off the market…glad I missed that era of TSR…

BTW if you like Mythus..Gary’s new LA game is sort of like a slightly more detailed Mythus Prime..great game..

Thanx in advance

 

[Grazzt]

Epic of Aerth, Mythus Magick, Mythus (rules), and Mythus Beastiary were the books.

Necropolis is the only sourcebook/adventure published. There was another planned (Asacalon), but TSR sued GDW before it saw print.


BTW- Necromancer Games is producing a d20 version of Necropolis for release at GenCon. I worked extensively with Gygax, Clark Peterson, and Bill Webb on it. If ya liked the original DJ stuff you'll love the new d20 version.

Check out Necromancer Games' website for more info or our MsgBrds (the NEcropolis forum)

 

[Grazzt]

I just don’t understand why TSR made such a big fuss over this game…I can kind of understand the original title issue (Dangerous Destinations), but DJ:Mythus has so little to do with D&D I just can’t believe they went to so much trouble to take the game off the market…glad I missed that era of TSR…

Actually for all the differences, there were a lot of similiarities, especially in the Mythus Magic book. Look at the spells and then 1e/2e D&D spells. Though the names are different in a lot of cases, the spells were the same. Plus there were some things that were the same in the other books as well.

But- just TSR being TSR I suppose and wanting to screw with Gary would be my guess (though I dont know all the details).

Anyway- I loved DJ/Mythus, still own all the stuff (all books and mags, and even the GM screen), and am glad Necromancer Games gave me the chance to work on the d20 version of Necropolis. That was a blast from the past and was very cool.

 

[JeffB]

Scott,

Thanx for all the info…

Since I don’t have the magick book yet, I guess I haven’t seen the big similarities, though admittedly some of the sample castings in my book have a passing resemblance…but yeesh..don’t ALL FRPG games of the past have similarities in spells? Even Runequest had some D&D-like spells…Not arguing with you,of course… just thinking out loud :-D

Actually I was the fellow who posted over on the Necro boards if Necro (heh heh..how funny…necro by necro), would have stats for Gary’s LA game a few weeks back…

I wasn’t aware of the Mythus Bestiary..methinks I have some searching to do….

Anyone else?

Thanx
Jeff

 

[Golem Joe]

1)Were there any other published “rule”books besides Epic of Aerth, Mythus Prime, and Mythus Magick?

As Grazzt said, additional books were Necropolis and the Mythus Bestiary (Aerth Animalia). However, there were also 6 issues of Mythic Masters Magazine -- a quarterly zine produced by Frank Mentzer of all people. These zines were practically sourcebooks in themselves, and cleaned up a lot of the poor editing/rushed production of the cores.

2)Mythus Prime: My copy of DJ:Mythus has both Mythus Prime and Advanced Rules in one book. I found out there is a separate Mythus Prime book, was this an expansion of the Mythus prime rules in my book? Or the same in a separate format?

Its the same material with bits and pieces from the other cores mixed in. It has a few entries and maps from Aerth and more monsters (from Mythus and the Bestiary). Its a good, cheap primer. Originally, as I understand it, Gygax wanted Prime to be its own book, but GDW decided to toss it into the main book for some reason.

3)Anyone know where I can find eratta?

Heh. Not off-hand. There are a few sites still maintained, but none host official errata. Perhaps Mythusmage could help -- Allen posts around here.

4)Good Mythus websites? I’ve been searching online but most that I can find are not there anymore…

Right. The price of being an unsupported game. I can't think of any good sites right now. I believe the mailing list is still active. Subscribe and track down the 6 MMMs. You won't regret it.

5)I know there was some novels, and I see an ad for Computer and Super Nintendo games in my book, but what about adventures? Necropolis was one, but is that it?

Necropolis was the only adventure published, yes.

6)Actually If anyone knows where I could find a complete roster of Mythus books and magazines published that would be phenomenal…

See above.

I just don’t understand why TSR made such a big fuss over this game…I can kind of understand the original title issue (Dangerous Destinations), but DJ:Mythus has so little to do with D&D I just can’t believe they went to so much trouble to take the game off the market…glad I missed that era of TSR…

Because it used dice as a randomizer. Because the Priest vocation was derivitive of the priest class. Because there are drow. These were only SOME of the claims TSR's lawyers made at the time. TSR basically outspent and tied up production to the point it made sense just to dump the game. IIRC, Gygax and GDW came out ahead on that deal. All that material (except Necropolis) is still languishing somewhere in the TSR vaults.

Oh, and the original name was Dangerous Dimensions. I still have the issue of Previews with the ad for that game, before they changed the name.

BTW if you like Mythus..Gary’s new LA game is sort of like a slightly more detailed Mythus Prime..great game..

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I play. For all its warts, DJ is a great game. It takes a while to figure out though -- not because its difficult or over burdened with rules, but the editing sucks. It needed to cook a little longer before being brought to production. Thank God for the MMMs. They made things make a lot more sense in some cases (like revising the order of character creation). About the only reason I don't play it now is because its unsupported, and converting monsters all day long just bugs me.

LA is almost as good. Some of the conventions are a bit more ambiguous -- like the Base Ratings -- and I really miss the resolution system. At the same time, its much easier to whip up characters for it. No one complains about spending hours creating a mage anymore.

If you like LA, spend some time on Lejendary.com. Lots of juicy LA stuff to be had there.

Golem Joe

 

[Golem Joe]

Re: Re: Ot Dangerous Journeys:mythus ?

Actually for all the differences, there were a lot of similiarities, especially in the Mythus Magic book. Look at the spells and then 1e/2e D&D spells. Though the names are different in a lot of cases, the spells were the same. Plus there were some things that were the same in the other books as well.

I dunno about that. A lot of the spells are pretty unique. Necromancy, Sorcery and Witchcraeft are VERY different from anything offered in the core AD&D books. Yes, there are fireball and lightning bolt spells, but I don't think TSR can claim a great deal of originality there. How many other FRPGs have those spells? At any given time, DnD has had hundreds of thousands of spells available. Its impossible to think there wouldn't be some overlap. And remember, the mechanics of Mythus were very different than AD&D.

BTW, funny that Monte Cook should be doing Spellsongs for DnD, when Mythus had them in spades. Oh well.

Golem Joe

 

[Grazzt]

Re: Re: Re: Ot Dangerous Journeys:mythus ?

BTW, funny that Monte Cook should be doing Spellsongs for DnD, when Mythus had them in spades. Oh well.

Golem Joe

Totally agree with ya on this one. Also agree about the 6 magazines (which I have). They are very good and did go a long way in cleaning things up and helping flesh things out. Remember the Lighthouse article? And the mini-adventure to boot?

 

[mythusmage]

In current DJ news. Ascalon has been edited to remove DJ specific material, making it a generic RPG sourcebook. It's now looking for a publisher. The writer (Loren Wiseman) now works for Steve Jackson Games as head of the GURPS Traveller line.

I'm looking into getting a new site up on the web (to replace Mythusmage.com). The new place will have a DJ section, along with DnD and D20 sections and other goodies.

Bastion Press has the books scheduled for scanning. The files will then be converted to PDF.

I'm now doing conversions of the Mythus Castings to DnD 3e spells. The first conversions can be found in the Necropolis forum of the Necromancer Games bulletin boards.

Interesting note: There were 6 books published, 6 issues of Journeys Journal released, and 6 issues of Mythic Masters Magazine released.

Finally, the following games have been designed and developed (more or less) for DJ: Mythus (only one released), Unhallowed, Changeling, Abyss (fan effort), and a couple more, but danged if I can recall the names. Mythus Prime has resulted in a few efforts as well, such as an Amazing Engine: Bughunters conversion.

Hope that helped.

 

[Dahak]

Interesting note: There were 6 books published, 6 issues of Journeys Journal released, and 6 issues of Mythic Masters Magazine released.

Patricia Pulling would have had a field day with that....