Mythras

RuneQuest 6 By Another Name
The wait is over and the end product looks great! The Design Mechanism released Mythras this week and although I was hoping to have a physical copy in my hands at Gencon, I am quite happy to be viewing the digital copy now - the printed book I have pre-ordered. Last year when Chaosium announced the name RuneQuest would return to their stable of Glorantha products, it put questions in my mind as to the future of The Design Mechanism's RuneQuest 6th Edition game. I really like RQ 6th and have been hoping The Design Mechanism folks would be able to continue the game under a new name. Earlier this year, they announced exactly that and the new name would be Mythras. The first Mythras product was Classic Fantasy, followed by the 34-page Mythras Imperative, a bare-bones player version of the Mythras system suitable for introduction to the game.
If RuneQuest 6 is not a familiar name, it is a d100 game with a long hobby pedigree extending back to 1978 when The Chaosium released RuneQuest 1st Edition. Using a classless, skill based percentile system RQ 1 was at the time a novel product joining a "realistic" game system (percentile systems tend to be very transparent) with a rich fantasy world, Glorantha, based on bronze age myth and magic runes. The d100 engine would soon be separated from RQ as Basic Role Playing (BRP) and would power most of Chaosium's subsequent games including Call of Cthulhu. RuneQuest would be separated from Chaosium during the late '80s and out-of-print for a number of years. It was re-introduced to the hobby by Mongoose Publishing about a decade ago and received a mixed reception. Pete Nash and Lawrence Whitaker (now with The Design Mechanism) MRQ as it became known a much needed overhaul which became Mongoose RQ II and later renamed Legend (when Mongoose lost the RuneQuest TM). Mr. Nash and Mr. Whitaker formed their own company, The Design Mechanism, expanded and improved on their ideas for RuneQuest and published RQ 6 in 2012. Some very well done setting books soon followed (particularly notable are Mythic Britain and Monster Island).
Mythras is a 306-page book in comparison to RQ 6 which is 458 pages. A quick comparison results in difficulty finding anything that's been left out? Mythras is essentially the same system as RQ 6, the same combat mechanics, the same chargen system with a few tweeks, the same five magic systems, lots of information on cults and the game mastering advice section is improved although it is fewer pages (24 vs. 16). I am thinking the shorter page count may be mostly layout as RQ 6 had considerable space devoted to side-bars. In several cases, cults and game mastering come to mind, I think Mythras' text is clearer and easier to comprehend. The Design Mechanism folks have produced two cut-down introductory products, RuneQuest Essentials and Mythras Imperative, since the initial publication of RQ 6 and may have developed some less wordy rule explanations along the way.
Regardless, Mythras feels like everything RQ 6 was and more. Released from the strange limbo land of being RuneQuest without Glorantha, The Design Mechanism can finally make Mythras it's own complete package. The bronze age feel is still here along with a fantastic d100 system, but it doesn't seem like a product with the serial numbers filed off anymore.