lawrence.whitaker

I'm a huge Goodies fan. But we've spent all our money on securing the rights to Metal Mickey and Rentaghost, so there's sadly nothing left for Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie. Don't worry though - we do have a couple of fondly remembered British TV shows quite well represented in an upcoming release.

I'm a huge Goodies fan. But we've spent all our money on securing the rights to Metal Mickey and Rentaghost, so there's sadly nothing left for Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie. Don't worry though - we do have a couple of fondly remembered British TV shows quite well represented in an upcoming release.

It's the next big thing.

There's absolutely zero likelihood of us pursuing any kind of Star Trek or Prime Directive license. Metal Mickey, on the other hand, is looking very promising.

There are some great examples of these Dream Quests (which is what the Melniboneans call them) in the graphic novel series published in the mid 2000s called 'Making of a Sorcerer'. Elric, in preparation to rule Melnibone, undergoes several Dream Quests to establish the various pacts with the Beast Lords and others. However, I don't think it would be appropriate to revamp the entire magic system to Dream Questing. There's ample evidence in the books for other types of magic: runes of power, shamanism, and more traditional sorcery involving the summoning of specific entities and the creation of enforceable pacts. While Dream Quests give Melniboneans an advantage, it seems to be limited to them. Other cultures have different approaches, and so other magical systems need to be present. Dream Theft is quite different from Dream Questing, for instance; and Elric remarks that the cultures of the Unknown East have a form of sorcery he hasn't encountered before. I wrote Dream Questing into the MRQ-based Elric rules I produced for Mongoose, ensuring the game was as up to date with Moorcock's canon as it could be, so there are already such rules out there - although the books are now out of print.

There's just one day left in our Merry Mythras Yule Sale, with 25% off selected titles at The Design Mechanism Store (www.thedesignmechanism.com/products). There's never been a better time to pick up a copy of Mythras and one of our campaign books, such as Mythic Britain, Shores of Korantia or Monster Island, and never a better time to enter the strange parallel universes and timestreams of Luther Arkwright. Prefer something more Old School? Then Classic Fantasy, dungeoneering d100 style, might just be for you. So hurry - the sales ends on January 2nd. Use this code - TDMYULE2016 - to get your 25% discount!

As the second part of our Merry Mythras Yuletide celebrations, we're having a grand Christmas sale on certain of our print titles! Use this code: TDMYULE2016 between December 26th and January 2nd to receive a 25% discount on the Mythras books below. Mythras, Mythic Britain, Monster Island, Classic Fantasy, Shores of Korantia and Luther Arkwright The sale is happening at our webstore (www.thedesignmechanism.com/products), so hurry for some great Christmas and New Year Bargains!

Funny you mention that. On parallel 23.48.37, 'Luther Arkwright: The Complete RPG' outsells every other roleplaying game by such a colossal amount that we've all bought yachts and spend our time cruising the Mediterranean.

The 'Parallel Lines' campaign will be a 2017 release and is currently being edited. It consists of 8 scenarios forming a (very) loose campaign and has adventures written by myself, Pete Nash, Chad Bowser, Anthony Boyd, Bryan Steel, Bruce Mason, John White and Scott Crowder. The characters are part of Valhalla's Mjollnir section - a team specialising in advance investigation prior to someone like Arkwright becoming involved, if that proves necessary. The scenarios range from a version of Earth where the Salem Witch Trials started 200 years later than in others, take in a post-apocalyptic Camargue, travel to dystopian versions of London and Edinburgh, and involve epic journeys aboard the Trans Siberian Express and a Empress-class Ukrainian airship. People have asked if the Arkwright rules will be rereleased as a standalone game: they won't be - at least not in the foreseeable future.

It is. Selected high rank spells, plus the psionics section.

Here we are in the countdown to Christmas, and the first of our Yuletide messages - there'll be another before the festive season is done. We're kicking-off Yule with the second of our monthly scenarios, and a surprise expansion for Classic Fantasy... Xamoxis' Cleansing In the small city of Tithys, a mercantile family's matriarch covets the treasure known as The Cleansing. Its powers are fabled, and the characters are hired to retrieve it. But they are not the only ones who desire this magical artefact: a pride of wronged panthotaurs, a vengeful goddess, and an ambitious shaman all have designs on The Cleansing. Retrieving it will be hazardous; but more hazardous still will be keeping hold of it... $3.99 PDF - available from our Store (http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/products) $6.99 Print - available from Aeon Games Publishing (http://www.aeongamespublishing.co.uk/) and Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-b ... g/20061304) 16 pages Classic Fantasy Expert Set A taster for the Unearthed Companion, the Expert Set provides magic-users and clerics with a selection of spells for Ranks 4 and 5, expanding their potency. Also included are rules clarifications and amendments, and a new monster to face in the form of psychic Mind Slayer. And, what would a Mind Slayer be without psychic powers? These too are provided for Classic Fantasy players and GMs. $4.99 PDF - available from our Store (http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/products) $7.99 Print - available from Aeon Games Publishing (http://www.aeongamespublishing.co.uk/) and Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-b ... t/20074719) 34 pages From everyone at The Design Mechanism and Aeon Games Publishing, we wish you all a happy, healthy Yuletide season filled with much fun and great gaming!

https://rpggeek.com/article/24483474#24483474

Very much so. It's simply that Aeon haven't had chance to print it yet. No Very unlikely. There's an entire campaign back being edited right now.

It did Clarence - it's right behind Mythic Britain. I had to squint a little to see it!

Some pictures of the rather excellent Aeon Games Publishing team at Dragonmeet, flying the Mythras flag and demonstrating Classic Fantasy...

Our forum is currently unavailable. This is a provider-wide issue, so we need to be patient while service is restored.

Same question's been raised on our own forum too.

Remember that the more (and heavier) armour you wear, the more your Initiative is penalized, slowing you down and letting opponents get in the first attack. So less and/or lighter armour can be a significant advantage in terms of who strikes first. And while Choose Location might seem to be a no-brainer, because you can always choose an unarmoured location, as an effect, it still relies on your doing enough damage to overcome Hit Points to create a Serious or Major Wound; in other words, it's not a guaranteed fight ender. It depends on the HP of the opponent, the weapon you're using and the luck of the dice. There are, in fact, several other less obvious Effects that are much more effective than Choose Location. So while it might appear to be overpowered, we don't think it is. And as Paolo points out, the Effects are structured around realistic combat experiences and reflects what a competent combatant should be able to achieve without resorting to penalizing the skill's target number or watering down the nature of the effect in other ways.

The booklet accompanying the Combat Cards has precisely this Goal/Category approach built into it. You don't need the cards to make it work, but the Strobus Codex helps narrow-down your decision making by channelling the best effects according to the intention.

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, each to their own, etc. But as to not looking simple: it's an illustration on one side, and the way the effect works on the other. Hardly complicated. And they do speed-up effect selection. You don't have to hunt through a list, you can have a small, custom hand built with effects you most often, or the GM can restrict the effects in play. As ever though, try your variant and see how it works for you. If it gives you and your players the experience you're looking for, then that's brilliant. My advice was more to prepare you for the fact that making the effects random is likely to lead to a lot more work than you might imagine. But Your Mythras Will Vary.

Yes, it's always tough to say for certain how long a scenario takes to complete. It depends on the GM's style and the players' approach. For example, play testing Mythic Britain, we spent at least 3 sessions of about 3-4 hours on one of the scenarios, with a great deal of discussion, planning, and so on. Another group I heard from completed the same scenario in one 3 hour session. G33k's advice is good. Always read the scenario, plan it according to how you know the players will approach things, and if you want to complete it in one or two sessions, make sure your GMing style is paced accordingly. Do this by limiting how much out of character talking the players do; use a stopwatch or countdown to force them to make decisions quickly; impose lots of limits, make rolls quickly and push the momentum. If you want a slow-burn, you can drag things out. Consider yourself the game's metronome - you dictate the pace; it's all a question of how you do it.

So I understand things correctly, under this system, you'd roll randomly for the Special Effect, rather than choose it? While it might be fun for Rabble and Underlings, for player characters and major NPCs, it's defeating the tactical purpose of Special Effects, which is to choose something that grants a tactical advantage according to circumstances. For example, I might not want to kill my opponent - simply disarm him or incapacitate him. However, if I have to roll the effect, I might get a result that completely works against that objective. Fun, perhaps, but likely to prove frustrating if you have a specific goal or intention. Also, how do you categorise an inferior weapon? Size? Length? Damage? Every weapon has its strengths and weaknesses depending on the situation. A longspear vs a dagger for example - the former does more damage and is longer, but becomes distinctly inferior to the dagger if the character is nimble and ducks inside the spear's range to stab the spearman in the throat (which actually might now be impossible because he has to roll randomly for the effect, rather than choosing the head as a location). I think what you're really trying to do is speed-up the choice of the Special Effects, but I don't think the system you're proposing is the right way of doing it. You'd need to re-engineer the combat mechanics (and Special Effect mechanics) to ensure you have a streamlined result. A better option is simply make it easier and quicker to choose the effects you want. For this, we have the Combat Cards on Drivethru that include a booklet filled with ways of specifically speeding-up special effect choice.

A full setting book is unlikely, but enough material for people to take and develop as they wish is certainly a possibility. The Spider God's Bride was adapted for Legend by Mongoose a couple of years ago, and is still available. You shouldn't have any difficulty using it with Mythras.

It is. It's not a priority, but it's not forgotten. Keep an eye out for something we'll be releasing early next year in our Monthly Scenario campaign.

And the one below gets you 20% off... BOOKCALSAVE