Man, Myth & Magic
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| Man, Myth & Magic | |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | James Herbert Brennan |
| Publisher(s) | Yaquinto |
| Publication date | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| System | Custom |
Man, Myth & Magic is a fantasy role-playing game, using paper and dice, set in the ancient world, drawing from legends dating from approximately 4000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. It was first published in February 1982 by an American company called Yaquinto.
The game mixes many elements from this wide time period. Character nationality and class are determined randomly, so a party might have a British druid, a Greek sybil and an oriental shaman. There are 6 main character traits (strength, speed, endurance, intelligence, courage, and skill) and these are represented by a number between 1 and 100. Dice rolls use a percentile system. For combat, you roll and add/subtract modifiers to beat the basic to hit number of 50 percent. The basic game includes a starting adventure set in a gladiator school. The game comes in a boxed set consisting of three books (Basic Rules, Advanced Rules, and Adventure Booklet), dice, character sheets, and adventure maps.
Light on rules, but heavy on mood and atmosphere, the game quickly became either a cherrished favorite, or a hated "worst game ever" offering, often used as verbal fodder for referencing bad or boring games. This was, and is, entirely unwarranted. The rules were indeed light and simplistic, but the existence and popularity of Chaosium's "Basic Role Playing" line, by way of comparrison, proves the lie to this assumption of poor quality. It is important to remember two critical things when entertaining such notions. First, the game was published at a time when roleplaying games were still in their infancy, and the concept was more important than the mechanics involved. Everything on the market at that time was a reinterpretation of AD&D, using similar rules and concepts, with tentative variations, and the focus almost always being placed on the setting, period, and genre. It would be several more years before true, unique innovations began to appear, taking roleplaying games, and the ways and methods they were played, in vastly different and unique directions. Secondly, Man, Myth & Magic took the dangerous approach of rooting itself in actual history, and only then overlaying mythological and fantastical elements. This invariably caused knee-jerk reactions to many, who saw roleplaying as an escape from "real life," and couldn't see the appeal of historical, even pseudo-historical, adventuring. The focus was always on the story, with the rules themselves being an unfortunate neccessity. For many, this worked well, and the game continues to have die-hard fans to this day. For the majority, sadly, it is simply an easily forgotten footnote in roleplaying history. One this must be said about this game, however. If you're ever presented with the chance to experience it, be sure and allow yourself the opportunity to make up your own mind, and not accept negative opinions as fact beforehand. If you like a good, rich atmosphere and eclectic mood, and don't place all of a game's worth in its mechanics, you may very well enjoy this game a lot. If, on the other hand, you like a severe, complicated rules set, and prefer monsters on the end of your sword instead of mystery around the corner, then this most definitely won't be your cup of tea.
[edit] Released products
- 4306 - Man, Myth & Magic (1982, Boxed Set - Includes items 4300-4305)
- 4300 - Dice
- 4301 - Book 1 - Basic Rules Book
- 4302 - Book 2 - Advanced Rules Book
- 4303 - Book 3 - The Adventures Book (Begins campaign with Adventure 1, Episodes 1-4)
- 4304 - Character Pad
- 4305 - Adventure Maps
- 4307 - Adventure 1, Episode 5 - Death to Setanta
- 4308 - Adventure 1, Episode 6 - Kingdom of the Sidhe
- 4309 - Adventure 1, Episode 7 - Newgrange Reactived
- 4310 - Adventure 1, Episode 8 - Glastonbury Labyrinth
- 4311 - Adventure 1, Episode 9 - Ascent to Hell (Final episode)
- 4312 - Adventure 2 - The Egyptian Trilogy (3 episode, standalone adventure)
- 4313 - Adventure 3 - Werewolf of Europe (1 episode, standalone adventure)
- 4314 - Adventure 4 - Norse Trilogy (never published)
