Wednesday, August 22, 2012

RPG Review Recess - Mythender

Bow before me mortals as I tell you a tale from far beyond, of myths and legends who are keeping you down and oppressing you for their own petty grievances, and their thirst of power!

Tremble with fear as you hear my voice, my loud and epic voice shudder through your bones about a game that should be played when you wish to smash All the Gods, All the Time with the might of your Flaming Sword of High Death and your Flaming Fist Hand Full of Dice! You shall hear the story of the Mythender!

For those who are unaware of what Mythender is, I know I had only heard it told in fables and stories around the RPG table, it is a game that is best described (and oft described by its author Ryan Macklin) as a game where you get to stab Thor in the face, with your Scarred Javelin of The Ancestors or any other pointed object you so wish to stab him with. It is a game about ultimate success, and the price you pay in order to achieve your ultimate success.

What price is that you ask? Well this massive pillar of light with glowing red eyes that float throughout the pillar is not my true form. Indeed I was once a mere mortal before my Mythic Heart was awakened and now find myself closer and closer to Godhood myself, that despised and wretched state that I wish to reverse before I find myself the very Gods I despise with all my Mythic Heart.  If I do, it will fall to my brethren to slay me as soon as they can.

The game itself is not for the faint of heart, or arm. There is a multitude of dice required for it, it is quite simply spelled out for you at the beginning of the book that if you don't want your table covered in dice then this is probably not the game for you. You will be lifting scads of dice and rolling them, watching them bounce across the table only to give you more dice the next time you have to roll them for an action.

That's the very bare bones description of the mechanic.  You roll dice to get more dice which allow you to get more dice, to get more dice until you're rolling so many dice that the table falls under it's majestic weight. Hyperbole? Only a bit, I swear I saw the table buckle as I passed by a game of this during Gen Con.  It was the Mythic Land itself crying out for relief from the awesomeness of the Mythenders that surrounded the table.

But that's what makes this game live up to the billing of being amazing. There's a lot of power in the tactile sense of rolling a huge handful of dice. Here you just do it killing Gods.

Character creation is very template oriented, you pick your background, why you became a Mythender and the Myth you're working towards.  You then create what you look like at every stage, and your three Mythic Weapons which fall into three categories Intrinsic (for things that you are), Artifacts (for things you have), and Companions (for those you have with you). I might have got the exact terminology wrong, but that's because I don't have the book in front of me?

Why don't I have it in front of me? Because it's power has burned itself into my mind. It is an all powerfully entertaining thing to read as well.

Be wary mortal, or you might find your Mythic Heart opening up and you will walk the paths that I have walked towards your very doom.  Especially since he's going to be giving it away for free. A very tempting offer indeed.

1 comment:

Ryan Macklin said...

Howdy! Thanks for the review!

FYI, it's Relics, not Artifacts.

For those reading, it'll be available to the world for free around October (as it was part of the Random Kindness Encounter bundle). Folks can find it then at :http://ryanmacklin.com/mythender/

Thanks again! :)

- Ryan

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