The Progression of Myth & Magic™Welcome to Book 1: The Player’s Starter Guide. Together with Book 2: The Game Master’s Starter Guide, this is the playtester’s version of the Starter Kit for the Myth & Magic Fantasy Role Playing Game. This set of books includes many of the updates and revisions that were suggested by active participants in the open playtest over the past several months. It includes certain expansions that the developers also wished to make. It would be a fair characterization to view this kit as the beta version of the rules and, as the playtest continues, the rules are subject to change. As we have constantly reinforced this ideal in the past, Myth & Magic is very much a community game, and together we will continue to push the envelope to create the best game possible.
In the alpha release, now called the Classic Starter Kit, we presented a game that was, in many instances, an updated and streamlined version of the 2nd edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game. The Classic Starter Kit was not intended to be the final product. It was intended to be the foundation upon which we build new and exciting game mechanics as a community. The rules are open content, so we were able to discuss the rules and revise them.
This revised Starter Kit incorporates some monumental changes. The first change (but certainly not the largest) took place in the combat mechanic. Armor Class is still ascending, but the base was changed to 10. The "To Hit" value was replaced by a Base to Hit bonus. These changes to the combat system bring the attack resolution system of Myth & Magic more in line with games like Castles & Crusades, the 3rd Edition and Pathfinder. The combat is still imaginative and no emphasis was placed on miniatures, movement or range to retain the tone of classic play.
We added a seventh attribute: Perception. For this, we thank Thomas Ruddick and the then editors of Dragon Magazine. In Issue #133 (May, 1988), Mr. Ruddick authored an article entitled, "Notice Anything Different", which allowed for the introduction of a seventh attribute to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons™ roleplaying game. Since that May of 1988, no iteration of the world’s most popular role playing game included this seventh stat, although its inclusion was sensible and Mr. Ruddick’s article sold the attribute properly. Myth & Magic breaks this trend and it is a better game for it.
There are other changes, of course. We added classes, races, spells, proficiencies, equipment, rules and more!
The introduction of the BASE20 system to Myth & Magic is perhaps the largest change, though. It impacts the proficiency system dramatically and it creeps up in other aspects of the game. The BASE20 system is a ladder of complexity and it is used to quickly gauge the difficulty of a given task and the required roll to succeed. Almost all skill-based tasks use the ladder, so if you can remember the BASE20 system, you can easily master the entire non-combat system. It is a major streamline that makes playing and running the game much easier.