I downloaded the rules and really like some of what I've seen of Mythras, but I find its character creation and skill systems to be more than a bit fiddly. It also seems highly dependent on the GM doing a lot of setting legwork - establishing his world equivalents of "Hoplites," or "Mongolian Horse Archers," et cetera, etc.
I might use it for a game set in, say, Ancient Rome, but I'm disinclined to do that level of cultural development for a fantasy world. I don't want my players to have to work that hard to go from concept to the character they want to play. Because realism nods are rather nice...except when they're not. Like...size/frame and culture are things you roll? WTF?
It is not a beginner's system, and it does demand quite a lot of the GM no doubt. The system is more of a toolkit than most and it's for more serious players that want a game that's more realistic, which is more tailored to a specific setting that sits in a particular time and culture, although it does support more fictional and fanciful settings. I don't disagree with the impression it
is more demanding of the GM, I'd say less so of the PCs as I have had quite a bit of success running RQ6/Mythras games for players with no experience of the system.
Mythras Imperative is very condensed and is not the friendliest when it comes to character creation, the full rules are much better. The system could do with a more approachable quickstart, although at the same time Imperative is the reference document for the "Gateway" licence so there's a lot in there.
Combat Styles are a lot easier to establish than they look, it is just a set of weapons and one or two traits. It is left open in the rules because it covers 10,000 years of combat styles and weapons, any examples are going to be inadequate and always need to be tailored to the campaign setting and to the GM's style. Notesfrompavis has collected 100 of them here
Combat Style Cards for Mythras and a big list of traits here
Encyclopedia of Mythras Combat Style Traits
An example from Mythic Rome: (4th Century)
Hastati and Principes - Cautious fighter trait
Iron Rimed Oval Shield (Scutum), L, S, 5 AP/15 HP Passive Blocks 5 Locations
Sword (Falcata), M, S, 1d4+2+db, Bleeding
Heavy Javelin (Pilum), H, ‒, 1d8+1+db, Impaling
It also comes with armour details:
Bronze Half Hoplite Armour
Large Pectoral (Lorica), 4 AP (Chest)
Single Greave (Ocrea), 5 AP (Left Leg)
Helm with Cheek Flaps (Cassis), 5 AP (Head)
There are quite a range of campaign settings that
do get very specific on these details:
Mythic Earth so far covers: Mythic Britain, Mythic Logres, Mythic Rome and Mythic Constantinople.
Mythic Babylon, a true bronze-age setting will be coming out in 2021.
There is a substantial ancient-world fantasy setting, Thennla, which is a mix of Persian, Greek and Roman influences
Monster Island is a substantial sword & sorcery supplement which has separate culture entries for lowland tribal animists, corrupt decadent 'civilised' sorcerers, and island colonists. I would
almost recommend it for any system but the rules details are quite extensive.
www.drivethrurpg.com
Classic Fantasy translates 2nd edition D&D tropes into the system, mostly the humanoid PC types, classes, magic and monsters
Luther Arkwright, based on the comic, is a more gonzo-dimension hopping steampunk low-powered superhero-ish setting
Lyonesse is the licenced setting for the Jack Vance series, this is a self-contained book
There's urban fantasy with "After the Vampire Wars", a 'hard' SF setting is available as "M-Space" which is an independent publication under the Gateway licence.
So, there are a lot of examples published, any of which can be used for a homebrew campaign. For example, Mythic Constantinople is set in the mid 15th century, so it can be used as some basis for any European, Mediterranean campaign of a similar time period. The Thennla and Monster Island supplements can be combined for a Hyborian Age Conan campaign, the system and these supplements make it a great one for a S&S game.
Size - yes you do have a SIZ stat! It's quite important in Mythras, as will be familiar to RQ and BRP players, being an elephant makes you stronger and tougher than a mouse! This is still true for smaller and bigger PCs. Giants can be really giant and their size makes a big difference, both to how much damage they can do but how tough they are as well.
As for rolling culture - you might do this depending on the campaign. In a more restrictive campaign like Mythic Britain you have one choice - British Celt and that's it! (unless you're playing a Saxon in which case you're in Mythic Logres) and you get a specific and specialised character creation process to fit that culture more exactly. In other campaign where the PC group might be a mix of cultures you might come from one of any number of cultures - for example in Mythic Constantinople you could be Greek, Turkic, Frankish, Arabic, or a non-human Arimapsoi, Astomatoi, Blemmyai, Kynokephaloi, Minotauroi, Skiapodes or Tripithamoi. If you imagine a Conan Hyborian campaign, a typical PC group is likely to be a mix of cultures from all over that world.
More combat styles from the Hyborian Age (Ranger Dan 90 Hyborian/Generic Combat Styles) -
Ranger Dan Combat Styles - Google Drive