Pyramid 3/38: Tell us of your Myths

[Kuroshima]

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.