Choosing a Flavor of Mythras....

 I've noticed a trend during my gaming hiatus....I'm back to browsing endlessly through Mythras and associated tomes, reading and scheming about what I might  do with them. BRP remains a core go-to when it comes to Call of Cthulhu gaming, but Mythras covers all the bases so well these days, that its justifiably entered the realm of "universal systems" which the likes of GURPS and a few others normally hold the ring on. I mean....look at this breakdown:

Want to do Science Fiction? Mythras Imperative gives you essential tools, M-Space and its expansions carry it through. 

Want to do time traveling or alternate realities? Check out Luther Arkwright, which aside from being a useful sourcebook on an interesting but obscure British graphic novel series is also a useful dimension-hopping sourcebook.

Want to do D&D but with a D100 mechanic? Classic Fantasy has you covered, providing more than enough emulation to incorporate classes and a ton of D&D tropes without otherwise altering the core Mythras experience.

Just interested in straight fantasy? Classic Mythras has all you need in its core book, but you can also dive deep into mytho-historical adventures in Britain, Rome, Constantinople and now Babylon. It is also trivially easy to pull any GURPS sourcebook as a reference tool for use with Mythras.

Pulp adventure? Monster Island is an excellent resource, and Mythras Imperative covers the bases nicely, although I think there is room for more here.

Post-Apocalypse? Rubble & Ruin and Seasons of the Dead collectively cover most any angle on the genre you could want. R&R covers a low key near future apocalypse with plenty of science-fiction weirdness (not Gamma World level, but you could definitely use this for a quasi realistic post-apoc future). Seasons of the Dead has everything from zombie plagues to terminator robot invasions fully covered, something I did not expect prior to getting the book.

Weird alt-reality dystopian retro-futurist Sci Fi? Odd Soot is one unique and dark flavor, and there's Worlds United for an entire other "Flash Gordon" style flavor. I have the former but not yet the latter.....I'm not much of a fan for retro-futurism unless it incorporates the benefit of hindsight, but concede I haven't picked up Worlds United yet so maybe there's stuff I don't know about.

If you want mythos stuff, and don't mind "Mythras adjacent" from the OGL we have Delta Green, and there are other similar mythos-based OGL products online as well (that I don't have so can't comment on). Delta Green is nonetheless the best modern interpretation of the Cthulhu Mythos out there, so well worth it.

Supers is covered too. 3rd edition Mythras Imperative contains enough rules to start, and a forthcoming tome from TDM will provide the rest.

I see some spots that need more bits to fill in, of course: a proper Pulp Adventures setting book would be nice, I imagine, for those who want to run some hardcore Indiana Jones type stuff. More SF content would be welcome; a Gear Sourcebook for Mythras and/or M-Space would be extremely welcome. We could also use some more focused genre books on Cyberpunk and maybe something aimed at modern day adventuring, or modern horror that is not typically mythos based.

The issue I face now is: how to narrow down the focus to what I should run next? I'm leaning hard toward something Rubble & Ruin on the one side, and of course Mythic Babylon on the fantasy side. I also have the Bronze Age Egypt campaign I've been working on, which would be easy to fit within the Mythras rules. After that....M-Space, Mythic Britain, and more all demand attention. Maybe I can plot out several 4-6 session long mini campaigns in different settings, and let the group decide which flavor they are most keen on pursuing.

Too Much Mythras Coolness: Mythic Babylon, Odd Soot, Rubble & Ruin, and M-Space Companion

Mythras is doing really well, almost a renaissance of really cool and useful new content to fill the void left by BRP's quiet return to being an engine for Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. Mythras has only grown increasingly versatile and accessible thanks to the condensed Mythras Imperative rules, various genres popping up powered by Mythras, and a wealth of third party publishers taking Mythras in interesting directions. Anyway....here are four books you as a Mythras fan should not be missing right now:

Mythic Babylon

This released today, and I am perusing the impressive PDF this afternoon but can already tell its going to be a book I must run. The Design Mechanism has been knocking historical sourcebooks with mythical elements out of the park, filling a void not properly covered anywhere else save by GURPS. I'll post more on this as I read in more depth, but wanted to get word out that the book is now live while I wait for my print copy. I also ordered a copy of Fioracitta from TDM, a book which a friend of mine grabbed and looks like a fascinating take on a fantasy alt-Italy.

Odd Soot

While investigating my plans for M-Space campaigning in the near future I noticed this oddity on Frostbyte's storefront and decided to take a leap even though it sounded like it might be part of one of my least favorite genres (retro SF in which the SF is rooted in the golden age of science fiction and ignores the benefits of hindsight). Instead, it turns out this is an amazingly weird and unique take on doing an alternate history science fiction setting in a 1920's universe, but it defies the stereotypes of this sort of genre completely in favor of something weird and new and extremely compelling. You need to read it to see that it is unique and worthy of being a cult classic.

Rubble & Ruin

I was a fan of the original BRP monograph for post-apocalyptic roleplaying even though it needed more depth of design, and was surprised to discover quite by accident that it's been revamped (with two modules as well) for Mythras as a stand alone system. Rubble & Ruin provides all the rules and more for rough post-apocalypse gaming in a package that looks like it's not wanting for any content. I'll also be writing on this one more soon.

M-Space Companion

M-Space, despite my gripes with the very basic equipment and weapons list in the core rulebook, is still by far the best SF adaptation of BRP I've found on the market. It's only gotten better thanks to the M-Space Companion, which adds in some much needed SF content, most notably rules for cybernetic augmentations (good rules!), rules on playing robots as characters (also good rules!) and an expanded culture/background system that adds some randomized elements to character backgrounds. Well worth the asking price to provide useful additional content to M-Space. 

Speaking of M-Space, if you did not know, a quality color edition of the rulebook is available on DrivethruRPG now here. Previously you had to order it from Europe at prohibitive cost, or get a cheap copy in black and white off Lulu. Get it now before the cost of color printing skyrockets for POD in July!