Quickstart Guide

This Quickstart Guide is intended for use with the Mythmaster Quickstart adventure and the included Quickstart Characters. It is a condensed version of the most important elements of the Core Rules intended to help get you playing as quickly as possible. You can download a printable version of this section here.

How To Play Mythmaster

Mythmaster is similar to many other tabletop roleplaying games wherein a group of players and a Director collaborate to evolve a story forward, using dice to resolve the outcome of various actions. The players each have their own unique character, while the Director moderates the flow of the game and takes on the roles of the antagonists and the supporting cast.

Starting - Quickly

In order to begin playing the Quickstart, you will need someone to act as Director and a group of (ideally) 3-6 players.

If you are playing in person, you will need:

dice, (4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 12-sided, 20-sided, and two 10-sided)
note paper and pencils
figurines, battle mats and dry erase markers if you like to use them

If you are playing online, you will want:

video conferencing software
a shared whiteboard space
a dice-rolling application

Whether you are playing online or in person, the Director should take some time to prepare by reading through the details of the adventure, and the players should choose their characters and download and/or print out the provided character sheets.

Your Character

Each players' character is the avatar that they use to interact with the imaginary world of the game. You, as a player, declare what you think your character would do in any given situation, and the values that define your character determine how likely they are to succeed.

Characters in Mythmaster are defined by the following:

Their Vitals: such as their Species, age, social status, or any factions that they belong to
Their Stats, Attributes and Derivatives, such as their Strength, Intelligence, Intensity, Health, Stamina or Movement
Any Perks they have, such as Night Vision, Magic Sense, or Indomitable
The weapons and armour they use, and their ability to attack or defend themselves with them.
The Skills and Spells they have learned.
The Equipment they carry

All of this information is included on the Character Sheets for the six characters you can choose from to play this Quickstart Adventure.

Basic Flow of Play

Playing Mythmaster is simply a matter of having a structured conversation, mediated by the Director, and focused toward the resolution of a story that evolves as you go.

Here is how it works:

The Director describes the situation - establishing the scene and setting.
The players tell the Director what they want their character to do.
If necessary, the players and/or the Director roll dice to determine the outcome of those intended actions.
Based on the actions taken and outcome of any die rolls, the Director describes what happens and how the situation has changed.
Players update their character sheets if necessary.
Repeat.

Resolving Actions

Most actions in Mythmaster are resolved by rolling a Challenge. There are two kinds of Challenges. When a player wants their character to do something that is uncontested - such as lifting a heavy object, they roll a 21 Challenge. When the player wants their character to do something that is contested, such as winning an arm wrestling contest, then they roll a Versus Challenge.

The 21 Challenge

When a character attempts an action that is non-trivial and could potentially fail, but this action is not being contested by another character, the player must roll a 21 Challenge. To do this, the player rolls 2d10 and adds their relevant stat or skill to the result. If the result is 21 or higher, they succeed.

Example: lifting a heavy log

Valer Dumalc Creek wants to lift a heavy log that is blocking their path
The Director tells the player to roll a 21C using their Strength
Valer Dumalc Creek's Strength is 13, so they roll 2d10 and add 13 to the roll
The player rolls 6 and 7, and then adds 13, for a total of 26
26 is higher than 21, so Valer Dumalc Creek succeeds in lifting and moving the log
The Director tells the player they moved the log successfully, and describes what happens as Valer Dumalc Creek continues down the path

The Versus Challenge

When a character attempts an action that is being contested by another character, enemy or NPC, then the player rolls a Versus Challenge. To do this, the player rolls 2d10 and adds their relevant stat or skill to the result. Also, the Director rolls 2d10 and adds the relevant stat or skill of the challenger to the result. If the player's result is equal to or higher than the Director's result the player succeeds.

Example: covertly tailing an enemy through a crowd

Irina Vulpu wants to follow an enemy character through a crowded market to discover where they are going
The Director tells the player to roll a 21C using their Tailing Skill
The enemy, who is wary of being following, also rolls a 21C using their Tailing Skill
The player rolls 2 and 3, and then adds their Tailing Skill of 15, for a total of 20
The Director rolls 3 and 4, and then adds their Tailing Skill of 12, for a total of 19
The player's roll is equal or higher, so Irina Vulpu succeeds (even though they did not roll higher than 21)
The Director describes the action as Irina Vulpu successfully follows the enemy character through the crowded market undetected

Turns and Action

Depending on the specific context of the situation, the basic flow of play described above may be more or less structured. When there are not a lot of dice to roll, such as when the characters are traveling, exploring or engaging in conversations with NPCs the flow can be loose and informal, but when the specifics of moment to moment action need to be resolved, the Director may decide to move play to a more structured flow, defined by turns.

When play is proceeding turn-by-turn, each turn represents five seconds of real time. During a turn each player takes their turn in sequence, and then the Director determines the actions of each of the NPCs or enemy characters. This process repeats until the Director decides the flow of play is no longer tightly time constrained, and actions and decisions can be relaxed to the less structured model above.

Actions

Each turn, each player is allowed to perform three Actions. Some things a player might do cost more Actions than other things; for example, moving your Base Move costs 1 Action, and making an attack with a melee weapon also costs 1 Action, but getting up off the ground if you have been knocked down costs 2 Actions.

Each Action you perform in a turn after the first, costs you a point of Stamina. This means a character might be expending up to two points of Stamina every turn.

Combat

When engaged in physical combat, each individual attack is essentially treated as a unique Versus Challenge between a specific attacker and a specific defender. The attacker declares which weapon they are using and what type of attack they are attempting. The defender declares the type of defense they will attempt. Both sides roll 2d10, adding their relevant, modified skills to their rolls. If the attacker rolls higher, they score a hit, if the attacker rolls lower they miss (ties go to the player). All the relevant information for each weapon and each type of attack is included on each players' Character Sheet.

Attacking

In melee combat characters may perform Fast or Strong attacks with their weapons. In ranged combat they may perform Snap or Ready Attacks. The number of Actions required for different types of attack varies, and in come cases, characters may be able to move as well as attack, or to perform multiple attacks in a single turn. To perform an attack, the attacker rolls 2d10 and adds their weapon skill, modified by the weapon and type of attack being attempted. These values are already calculated and included in the Attack column of the Weapons or Ranged section of each players' Character Sheet.

Defending

When attacked, a defender must attempt to defend. They can defend against melee attacks by Blocking using their equipped weapon, shield or unarmed, or they may attempt to Dodge. Ranged or thrown weapons can also be Dodged, but can only be Blocked using a shield. Defending never costs any Actions. To perform a defense, the defender rolls 2d10 and adds their weapon or armour skill, modified by the weapon or armour being used for the type of attack directed at them. These values are already calculated and included in the Block columns of the Weapons section and the Dodge columns of the Armour section of each players' Character Sheet.

Doing Damage

If the attacker wins the Versus Challenge, then the attacker needs to roll damage. Damage for each weapon for each type of attack is already calculated and included in the Damage column of the Weapons or Ranged section of each players' Character Sheet. The attacker rolls their damage, and the defender subtracts the Protection value of any armour they are wearing. The rest of the damage is applied to their Health Derivative.

Combat example: Mariara Stoica a ghoul:

Mariara Stoica is fighting a ghoul using her two-handed Defender's Axe.
She declares a Strong attack against the ghoul, which costs 2 Actions.
She rolls 2d10 and gets a result of 11, to this she adds the Strong Attack value for her Defender's Axe, which is 17, for a total of 28.
The ghoul attempts to Dodge. The Director rolls 2d10 and gets a result of 11, to this they add the ghoul's Dodge (Melee) versus a Strong Attack, which is 15 for a total of 26.
This is a hit, so Mariara Stoica rolls her Strong Damage of 2d8+3 against the ghoul. She rolls 13 for a total of 16 damage. The Defender's Axe is also blessed, so she does +25% damage - meaning an impressive 20 points total.
The ghoul has only 10 Health and no Protection, so it goes down.
Mariara has only used 2 Actions so she could still move - but there are more ghouls coming so she decides to let them come to her.
Mariara Stoica passes her remaining Action, so she only spends 1 Stamina for the turn, then play passes to the next player.

Casting Spells

Some characters are not particularly skilled at fighting with weapons, having instead focused their energies toward learning to cast spells. Spells are like skills, in that the player needs to roll a 21 Challenge in order to cast them. Casting a spell requires spending Actions (more powerful spells cost more Actions) and also paying a Casting Cost which is deducted from the spell caster's Concentration derivative. If they do not have enough Concentration to cast their intended spell, they cannot do so. The basic properties for all Spells are listed on the Spells Table.

Example: casting the Far Sense spell

Vivienne-Eve Innoviva wants to scout out a house full of people presumed to be infected with Black Rot by projecting her sense of vision inside using the Far Sense Spell.
The player expends 1 Action and 3 Concentration to attempt to cast the spell, then rolls 2d10, getting and 6 and a 4, they add their Far Sense Spell Skill of 14 and +1 for her Diviner's Monocle, for a total of 25, which succeeds.
The Far Sense Spell allows Vivienne-Eve to project her sense of vision at a speed of 8 hexes per turn plus 1 h/t for each point they succeed their roll by. So they can project their sight at 12 hexes per turn for 6 turns.

Resisting Spells

Some spells can be Resisted. This means that the target of a successfully cast spell can roll to mitigate the effects that the spell might have on them. The caster of the spell must still achieve a result of 21 or higher, and if they do, the target rolls a Versus Challenge using their relevant Attribute.

Example: casting Freeze on a group of ghouls

Cosmin Terezeta is being charged by 4 ghouls. Vulnerable in physical combat, he decides to cast the Freeze Spell.
The player expends 2 Actions and 5 Concentration to attempt to cast the spell, then rolls 2d10, getting a 3 and a 4, they add their Freeze Spell Skill of 16, for a total of 23, which succeeds.
The player rolls their damage of 3d10, and gets 4, 6 and 6, for a total of 16.
The Freeze Spell projects a large, wide cone that effects everyone in it, including all four ghouls
All four ghouls must roll 2d10 to Resist adding their Stability of 7, to attempt to beat the 23.
The ghouls get results of 11, 17, 18 and 24, respectively. The first three fail, but the last one succeeds.
The three ghouls who resisted take all of the 16 damage - killing them.
Unfortunately for Cosmin, the ghoul who Resisted takes half damage for a total of 8, reducing its health to 2... so it keeps coming.
Cosmin uses his remaining Action to retreat moving his Base Move of 4 (he has dropped his backpack) away from the Ghoul.
Cosmin's turn ends with him having used all 3 Actions, so he must also expend 2 Stamina.

Additional Rules

Along with the provided Quickstart Characters, this short summary of the most important and most commonly used rules of Mythmaster should be enough to enable you and your group to start playing the Quickstart Adventure right now.

As you play, you are sure to encounter situations not fully covered here. Feel free to follow the links in the text, which will take you to relevant information and additional rules in the Core Rules, the Bestiary, or the World Guide that will help you keep the adventure moving and expose you to much of what Mythmaster has to offer.

As you dive deeper in the game and its systems and universe, you will learn to conduct the game efficiently and smoothly, and by the time you have finished the Quickstart Adventure, you will be excited to continue on with new stories and adventures, or even to begin creating your own.