Thinking About MYTHIC HERO
Monday, January 2, 2012 at 1:39PM One of the big projects that’s been on my mind as I transition from full-time employment at Hero Games to being a self-published/freelance writer-game designer again is Mythic Hero. This was the last book I was working on at Hero, and I’ve acquired the rights from the company to use the title and what little I’d already written.
Once Hero’s own Kickstarter for The Book Of The Empress (see right sidebar) is done, I plan to launch a Kickstarter to try to get Mythic Hero going. It won’t be easy — it’s going to take me a minimum of 3-4 months to finish writing it and lay it out, which means I have to ask for a pretty significant chunk of Kickstarter money. But I think it’s worth the effort, and hopefully you will as well. ;)
So what, you ask, is “MH”? The joke tagline we used when describing it around the metaphorical Hero Games water cooler was “Steve’s version of Deities & Demigods.” That’s a pretty good one-phrase pitch, but the key words are “Steve’s version.” As someone who (a) got into geekish pursuits via reading mythology, and (b) a D&Der from way back when, I loved the “DDG” (as we called it) from the moment it hit the hobby store shelves. It’s been years since anyone produced anything remotely similar for gaming (at least that I’m aware of). I’ve always wanted to write such a book, and now I finally have the chance.
So MH is, at its core, a review of a lot of mythoi for gaming — descriptions of gods, heroes, monsters, and more from the great (and not-so-great) mythologies of the world. They’ll all be written up in HERO System terms, of course, but the raw information is useful for any game. In that sense, MH is a lot like the DDG — but because this is “my version,” it’s going to go beyond that.
Generally speaking the DDG didn’t provide a lot of information about cosmologies and the like, nor about the major myths the gods participated in. For example, it’s got a great description of Thor’s abilities and powers, but never mentions a single adventure he had or foe he fought. MH, however, is going to include those details. I’m not going to re-write whole books of myths, obviously, but each section of the book will provide as much information as I can dig up about how that mythos says the world was created, organizes its universe, and so forth. The descriptions of each god and hero will summarize their major adventures, partly as a way of explaining the abilties on their character sheets, and partly as a way of providing inspiration to GMs and players alike. Additionally, if there’s any other cool information I uncover while doing research (like special spells, enchanted items, or types of spellcasters common to a culture or mythos), I’ll shoehorn that in somewhere — details like that are always fun and useful for gamers.
The first chapter of MH will provide a bunch of useful introductory material: “Templates” for common divine abilities; discussions of how to present/use gods in your game (including how to fight them, since as corny as that may “realistically” sound it happens a lot in actual myths); and even how to play gods in mythology-based campaigns. This isn’t going to be a huge chapter; the book’s already long enough and I don’t want to get too bogged down in this sort of thing. But I feel it needs some coverage.
The rest of the chapters cover individual mythoi. The basic structure is: introduction; cosmology and related information; gods (major/important/fun gods get full character sheets; lesser deities just get textual descriptions); heroes; and lastly villains and monsters. For example, the Norse monster section has Fenris and Jormungandr; the Russian/Slavic monster section has character sheets for vodyanoi, domovoi, rusalka, and other such spirits.
Here’s the list of mythoi I’m currently planning to cover:
As you can see, the list includes all the old favorites (like Greek, Norse, and Chinese) along with quite a few more obscure mythoi, many of which have never been covered for gaming (as far as I know). The main guideline about which pantheons get a chapter is, generally, whether the subject has good, approachable resources in English that I have or can obtain. One reason gamers in general tend to emphasize/know about Greek and Norse mythology is that there are such excellent resources available on them. I have an extensive personal mythology library (I’ll show it to you as part of the Kickstarter video), and that will form the foundation of the research required to write the book. (And no doubt my collection will grow as I write MH!) It’s going to be a lot of work... but also a lot of fun, and in the end it will create a really great gaming supplement.
Obviously this isn’t going to be a small book! The American Indian Mythologies chapter itself is over 30,000 words long (about half the length of more than a few gaming supplements I’ve written), and the Norse chapter exceeds 20,000 words. My guess is it’ll be somewhere in the 300-400 page range, though that depends on art density, my layout skill, and other as-yet-uncertain factors. Getting the rest of the book written is going to take a lot of time and work.
Assuming the MH Kickstarter succeeds, I hope to follow MH up with a second, related, volume: Legendary Hero. “LH” will cover famous characters who appear in legends but not myths. This includes the Arthurian legends, the bogatyrs of Russian folklore (along with Baba Yaga and such), Robin Hood, Sinbad and others from The Arabian Nights, and plenty more. If MH doesn’t work out, then LH will just have to get slotted into the “What Might Have Been” folder along with it.
So that brings me to the two questions that are largely the point of this blog entry (ones I’ve already put to the fans at the Hero website):
1. Would you be willing to buy Mythic Hero by supporting a Kickstarter? If so, how much would you be willing to pledge — $25? $50? $100 or more? Something else?
2. Do you know of any mythoi I haven’t listed that you think are worth covering? If you know of a source for a mythos that I haven't included on my list, feel free to mention it. Please include author and title so I can easily look it up on Alibris or the like.
I’m looking forward to hearing what you think!
Reader Comments (11)
I would pledge at LEAST $50.00 to see MH make it to print. I am a huge fan of myths and legends. In my years (30 as of this year!) playing the Hero System, my friends and I have written up our own gods and goddesses and have taken on the role of their offspring in one very memorable campaign.
I would think the lynch pin of any superheroic game that takes place in the past would rely heavily on the influences of the Gods!
We are HUGE Hero Games fans and would love to see this project become successful. One of our artists is currently running a Hero Game for a few of us and indeed has been the main Hero Game GM in my circle of friends since I taught him the rules in college.
Count me in on any Kickstarter you initiate regarding Mythic Hero and if you need any help writing or need art work commissioned feel free to contact myself or my colleagues here at Pantheon Press.
Thanx Rob!
I'd gladly pledge $50.00 for a hardcover, $40.00 for a softcover, provided a PDF was included in that price. I recommend adding a $10.00-$15.00 pledge level for PDF only.
I'd _love_ to see this book released, as I'm a big fan of a) your design work, b) HERO 6E, and c) mythology RPG books.
Since you mentioned that "It’s been years since anyone produced anything remotely similar [to the DDG] for gaming (at least that I’m aware of)", let me recommend that you check out Of Gods and Monsters for the Castles and Crusades RPG. It is C&C's DDG, and it is _awesome_, especially for the way it details the behavior required of devotees of each deity/pantheon, and the benefits (both fluff and game mechanical) that a worshiper gets in return. Great stuff.
I hadn't heard about that book, Rich; I will definitely track down a copy!
Count me in! :D
That is an impressive list of mythoi you're planning on including! As I am most interested in "Steve's take on the DDG," I am definitely in at probably the $100.00 level (more if i like the "perks" that go with the level). I would love to have this book on my gaming bookshelf!
If you're looking for contributor art (along this style: http://fr3d-l4ng.deviantart.com/art/Squire-FINAL-260416911 ), I'd be happy to help make MH pretty!
Love the idea, and I'd certainly pick up the book!
I'll keep that in mind, Fred, thanx!
Are you going to incorporate any of the material from previous HERO sourcebooks? I really thought the 'mythic' ones were quite enjoyable and useful, such as Mythic Greece and Mythic Egypt. I think those came out back when I.C.E. was the publisher, but I'm not 100% certain.
Farrell
Count me in for at least $25. As a new to Hero fan, I jumped it with both feet. I love the products you have put out. Mythology is what started my interest in fantasy and fantasy gaming, so this book sounds right up my alley.
Farrell -- I don't have any plans to incorporate any material directly from past Hero Games supplements, such as Mythic Egypt. However, I'll be covering some of the same material (Egyptian mythology, in this case), and hopefully you'll find my take on the subject just as entertaining and useful, if not moreso. ;)