It’s curious to me how things come around in circles but last night’s decision to begin a game on Griffin Island using the Mythras rules was a surprise. Going into the evening’s Session Zero discussion, I was ready to run RuneQuest III… but something changed my mind.

Griffin Island is a complete wilderness sandbox campaign designed long before the 1986 boxset. First it was a generic fantasy campaign setting, then it became Griffin Mountain in Glorantha, at last it returned to being generic fantasy for RQIII.

Why Mythras?

Mythras first entered my life as RuneQuest 6. As I wrote in my Apologia way back in 2016:

Perrin’s RuneQuest was always superior [to D&D]. I still love the elegant d100 mechanic… In that game, anyone could (in theory) learn any skill and even many spells. It was a less-restricted vision of fantasy gaming that, right from the beginning, inspired dreams and the desire to play games. When I discovered RuneQuest 6th Edition, in early 2013, it was like coming home.

An Apologia for Mythras Classic Fantasy, 26-08-22 (reposted from the now defunct ubiquitousrat.net 03-09-16)

When I recently re-read RuneQuest III, I realised immediately the roots of Mythras lay in the earlier edition. RQIII has the four Cultures and the addition of the Cthulhu-inspired Careers (aka Professions) was an obvious innovation. Through the genesis of Mongoose RuneQuest to Mythras there is a clear lineage of design.

As we sat talking through which edition of RQ to adopt, I was struck by the sense that 30 years of game design and experience were summed up in Mythras. The group has expressed a desire to avoid Glorantha (excluding the current edition) so I thought what the heck?

Adding the fact that one player is a RQ neophyte, I decided giving them Mythras Imperative as a starting (and free) set of rules made sense. In the end, it was the desires and needs of the players that edged me back to a design I know works well. Because it is rooted in RQ, converting details from Griffin Island should be simple.

So here we are, sailing toward the island and preparing to disembark at Sailor Port. The chaps are busily totting up their pools of skill points while I figure out how on earth to scan that giant player’s map. Nice problems to have, if you ask me.

Game on!