Pyramid 3/38: Tell us of your Myths

J. Edward Tremlett · 12-19-2011, 07:51 PM

So it's been out a few days now, what did you think?

What articles grabbed you with the power of ancient gods? What sort of flew by like a bad smell cast by an incompetent fairy?

What's got you running a new campaign? What's made you change yours around?

Show us your new scriptures!

Tzeentch · 12-27-2011, 03:01 AM

-- Ok, finally got a chance to buy and read through this issue. I'm currently playing in a 4e D&D campaign (as a player, not DM) so hoped this might be useful to our Dungeon Master. I was pretty 'meh' about the theme to be honest, but the issue has enough meat on it that my $8 seems well spent.

The Golden Geniza of Ezkali (Matt Riggsby): IMO the strongest article in the issue despite it's rather narrow focus. In particular, its matter-of-fact advice on gaming prophecies is much stronger (and more concise) than the one obstensibly focused on that aspect (Art of Prophecy) and it had a very interesting Low-Tech angle with the description of Jewish geniza and how it can rationalize the familiar treasure trove of scrolls found while adventuring. The article seemed a bit uneven in detail though, with the bulk of the article consisting of detailed trap descriptions (to be fair, it is a GURPS Dungeon Fantasy themed article).

Solid article. The maps were pretty interesting, but I'm not usually a huge fan of game-aids in the magazine itself.

Seven Mythical Artifacts for Dungeon Fantasy (Antoni Ten Monros): Oh great, I thought, yet another translation of 'real world' mythical objects in gamable objects. I find the concept totally played out, but Antoni does play with GURPS mechanics in a much more original manner than I suspected would be the case. For those wondering, the seven artifacts are: Aegis (Greek), Coir Cethar Chuin (Celtic), Golden Fleece (Greek), Helm of Hades (Greek), Necklace of Skulls (Hindi), Nothung (Viking), and Tezcatlipoca's Smoking Mirror (Aztec).

Of these, the ones I felt had the strongest thematic elements were Nothung (anti-magic 2H sword that has crazy awesome parry abilities), and the Aegis (shield with an interesting and simple ally shielding mechanic).

I'm pretty 'meh' on the concept of the article, but it was executed well.

Eidetic Memory: Baba Yaga (David Pulver): "Baba Yaga? The crone who lived in a hut with chicken legs? How the hell is that supposed to be anything but laughable these days? Well, what if she was an alien. Uh what?" That's my main impression of this article. I have to admit I never thought of crossing Baba Yaga with the Greys. It's one of the more bizarre crossovers I've seen, and I have to think David wrote this with tongue firmly in cheek (her house has two robot legs).

I'm not sure what I think about this one. Wierdest article of the issue that's for sure! :)

The Journey of the Dead (Kyla Ward): Very interesting advice on running adventures along the lines of various heroes forays into the realms of the dead searching for loved ones, advice, and so on. It's very light on game mechanics, which is actually a plus here, as the style of adventure really calls out for a more narrative structure than "I roll my Research (Land of the Dead) skill."

I'll be pointing out this article to my DM since I have a feeling he wants to do a brief foray into the spirit realms at some point.

The Bear Myth (Alan Leddon): Surpisingly informative article on the origins of the bear as a mythic creature and various examples. That said, I'm not entirely clear what the game applicability is. I learned very interesting thigns about bear myths in general, but pretty much nothing about incorporating that into a campaign. For Dungeon Fantasy I think something like a section on Bear totems or barbarian bear-themes would have been very useful.

Nice read, but feels like a well thought out Wikipedia article. I can see this forming the basis of a great future article with more game application though.

Babylon Rising (J. Edward Tremlett): Ack, another article that is really part of a series. In this case, it makes a lot of references to material way back in Pyramid 3/7. That's fine, and you don't need that old article to understand what's going on, but be aware that you might want to grab that issue too.

I was pretty 'meh' on this article. It's basically old gods versus modern Islam in post-invasion Iraq and I never really got a feeling for what kind of theme the author was trying to convey. The main idea appears to be supporting a religious insurgency led by reborn Mesopotamian gods but I'm not clear how you can run that without being more than a bit insensitive to REAL problems in that area. It's an interesting concept but I think stripping out the stuff about it being set in modern Iraq will do wonders to help sell it to players.

Art of Prophecy (Megan McDonald): Not a fan of this article. Not so much because I don't like it was written - it has lots of good examples of sources of prophesies and how they are dealt with in fiction and real life - but because I have a hard time swallowing that the GM has to do all this rigamarole to get players to accept the prophecy. Players are usually VERY KEEN as to when the GM is speaking through NPCs and how prophecy is used in games as a barely-disguised railroading device.

The article briefly mentions making the prophecy NOT about the players to avoid railroading, but that strikes me as a smokescreen. It also has the problem that players may start thinking all prophesies are just lame red herrings designed to make them waste time.

I'm not really happy with this article overall, because I don't think it really addresses the huge problems of this as a railroading tool by GMs (CHOO CHOO ALL ABOARD PLOT TRAIN EXPRESS NO STOPS UNTIL THE DRAGON LAIR!) or a time waster (LOL YOU THOUGHT THE PROPHECY SPOKEN ABOUT THE LEVEL 6 ELF RANGER AND LEVEL 7 HALFLING ROGUE WAS ABOUT *YOU*, SILLY?). The strong start about who speaks prophesies was great. Ended with a thud becuase of how I've seen this play out in games and it's never quite so nice and clean.

Kuroshima · 12-27-2011, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

Seven Mythical Artifacts for Dungeon Fantasy (Antoni Ten Monros): Oh great, I thought, yet another translation of 'real world' mythical objects in gamable objects. I find the concept totally played out, but Antoni does play with GURPS mechanics in a much more original manner than I suspected would be the case. For those wondering, the seven artifacts are: Aegis (Greek), Coir Cethar Chuin (Celtic), Golden Fleece (Greek), Helm of Hades (Greek), Necklace of Skulls (Hindi), Nothung (Viking), and Tezcatlipoca's Smoking Mirror (Aztec).

Of these, the ones I felt had the strongest thematic elements were Nothung (anti-magic 2H sword that has crazy awesome parry abilities), and the Aegis (shield with an interesting and simple ally shielding mechanic).

I'm pretty 'meh' on the concept of the article, but it was executed well.

I completely agree that the concept is played out. However, I find that it's not played out in GURPS. Also, I tried to stay away from some of the most typical artifacts (nothing from either Arturian myth or Christian myth, and trust me, it was done on purpose), trying to "spread the love" on many cultures, and trying to avoid mutilating the myths beyond recognition. If I included 3 Greek artifacts, it was because it's a well known mythology (For many people, 'mythology'<=>'Greco-roman mythology'), and because I felt that relying only on less well known mythologies might make it less interesting for some (While I can understand the appeal of completely bizarre and unexpected takes on any subject, I tend to find them hard to use at the table. The Baba Yaga article for example is interesting, and very well written, but sincerely, as game material it's useless to me). Sometimes, I had to use a good deal of artistic license when the artifact didn't have many explicitly stated abilities.

As for the execution, well, I'm glad you liked it. I really tried to give it an original spin, mechanic-wise. Mechanics are my strong point. In fact, this is probably one of the less crunchy articles I have ever written.

demonsbane · 12-28-2011, 04:54 AM

These two articles have been the most interesting ones to me in this Pyramid issue. Their Dungeon Fantasy focus is not the cause, just a coincidence:

Quote:

The Golden Geniza of Ezkali

Seven Mythical Artifacts for Dungeon Fantasy

And I was interested in reading these two articles as well:

Quote:

The Journey of the Dead

Art of Prophecy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

I completely agree that the concept is played out. However, I find that it's not played out in GURPS.

There are some mythical artifacts in the historical sourcebooks for the earlier edition, but I agree. It has been interesting to me to see this done for GURPS, and it has its own strenght.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

trying to avoid mutilating the myths beyond recognition.

Which is very much appreciated.

12-19-2011, 07:51 PM	#1
J. Edward Tremlett Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Lansing, MI	Pyramid 3/38: Tell us of your Myths So it's been out a few days now, what did you think? What articles grabbed you with the power of ancient gods? What sort of flew by like a bad smell cast by an incompetent fairy? What's got you running a new campaign? What's made you change yours around? Show us your new scriptures! __________________ It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God (Heb. 10:31) "Or the light that never, never warms" (Boc. 6:55) Read SPYGOD. Behold my Linked In Buy my (SJ Games) stuff.

12-27-2011, 03:01 AM	#2
Tzeentch Join Date: Aug 2004	Re: Pyramid 3/38: Tell us of your Myths -- Ok, finally got a chance to buy and read through this issue. I'm currently playing in a 4e D&D campaign (as a player, not DM) so hoped this might be useful to our Dungeon Master. I was pretty 'meh' about the theme to be honest, but the issue has enough meat on it that my $8 seems well spent. The Golden Geniza of Ezkali (Matt Riggsby): IMO the strongest article in the issue despite it's rather narrow focus. In particular, its matter-of-fact advice on gaming prophecies is much stronger (and more concise) than the one obstensibly focused on that aspect (Art of Prophecy) and it had a very interesting *Low-Tech* angle with the description of Jewish geniza and how it can rationalize the familiar treasure trove of scrolls found while adventuring. The article seemed a bit uneven in detail though, with the bulk of the article consisting of detailed trap descriptions (to be fair, it is a *GURPS Dungeon Fantasy* themed article). Solid article. The maps were pretty interesting, but I'm not usually a huge fan of game-aids in the magazine itself. Seven Mythical Artifacts for Dungeon Fantasy (Antoni Ten Monros): Oh great, I thought, yet another translation of 'real world' mythical objects in gamable objects. I find the concept totally played out, but Antoni does play with GURPS mechanics in a much more original manner than I suspected would be the case. For those wondering, the seven artifacts are: Aegis (Greek), Coir Cethar Chuin (Celtic), Golden Fleece (Greek), Helm of Hades (Greek), Necklace of Skulls (Hindi), Nothung (Viking), and Tezcatlipoca's Smoking Mirror (Aztec). Of these, the ones I felt had the strongest thematic elements were Nothung (anti-magic 2H sword that has crazy awesome parry abilities), and the Aegis (shield with an interesting and simple ally shielding mechanic). I'm pretty 'meh' on the concept of the article, but it was executed well. Eidetic Memory: Baba Yaga (David Pulver): "Baba Yaga? The crone who lived in a hut with chicken legs? How the hell is that supposed to be anything but laughable these days? Well, what if she was an alien. Uh what?" That's my main impression of this article. I have to admit I never thought of crossing Baba Yaga with the Greys. It's one of the more bizarre crossovers I've seen, and I have to think David wrote this with tongue firmly in cheek (her house has two robot legs). I'm not sure what I think about this one. Wierdest article of the issue that's for sure! :) The Journey of the Dead (Kyla Ward): Very interesting advice on running adventures along the lines of various heroes forays into the realms of the dead searching for loved ones, advice, and so on. It's very light on game mechanics, which is actually a plus here, as the style of adventure really calls out for a more narrative structure than "I roll my Research (Land of the Dead) skill." I'll be pointing out this article to my DM since I have a feeling he wants to do a brief foray into the spirit realms at some point. The Bear Myth (Alan Leddon): Surpisingly informative article on the origins of the bear as a mythic creature and various examples. That said, I'm not entirely clear what the game applicability is. I learned very interesting thigns about bear myths in general, but pretty much nothing about incorporating that into a campaign. For Dungeon Fantasy I think something like a section on Bear totems or barbarian bear-themes would have been very useful. Nice read, but feels like a well thought out Wikipedia article. I can see this forming the basis of a great future article with more game application though. Babylon Rising (J. Edward Tremlett): Ack, another article that is really part of a series. In this case, it makes a lot of references to material way back in Pyramid 3/7. That's fine, and you don't need that old article to understand what's going on, but be aware that you might want to grab that issue too. I was pretty 'meh' on this article. It's basically old gods versus modern Islam in post-invasion Iraq and I never really got a feeling for what kind of theme the author was trying to convey. The main idea appears to be supporting a religious insurgency led by reborn Mesopotamian gods but I'm not clear how you can run that without being more than a bit insensitive to REAL problems in that area. It's an interesting concept but I think stripping out the stuff about it being set in modern Iraq will do wonders to help sell it to players. Art of Prophecy (Megan McDonald): Not a fan of this article. Not so much because I don't like it was written - it has lots of good examples of sources of prophesies and how they are dealt with in fiction and real life - but because I have a hard time swallowing that the GM has to do all this rigamarole to get players to accept the prophecy. Players are usually VERY KEEN as to when the GM is speaking through NPCs and how prophecy is used in games as a barely-disguised railroading device. The article briefly mentions making the prophecy NOT about the players to avoid railroading, but that strikes me as a smokescreen. It also has the problem that players may start thinking all prophesies are just lame red herrings designed to make them waste time. I'm not really happy with this article overall, because I don't think it really addresses the huge problems of this as a railroading tool by GMs (CHOO CHOO ALL ABOARD PLOT TRAIN EXPRESS NO STOPS UNTIL THE DRAGON LAIR!) or a time waster (LOL YOU THOUGHT THE PROPHECY SPOKEN ABOUT THE LEVEL 6 ELF RANGER AND LEVEL 7 HALFLING ROGUE WAS ABOUT YOU, SILLY?). The strong start about who speaks prophesies was great. Ended with a thud becuase of how I've seen this play out in games and it's never quite so nice and clean.