Dwarf
Dwarves are short, stocky warriors who live in vast halls under the earth. Expert miners, stonecutters, jewelers, and smiths, their metalwork knows no equal. Dwarves covet wealth, and often adventure with humans for this reason. Dwarves tend to be strong and doughty, but their short, stubby legs provide the MM a cheap excuse to slap down ad hoc situational modifiers that make the Dwarf character’s life more difficult.
Primary Attributes: Might and Wits
Gender: All dwarves have beards. Therefore, if anyone wishes to play a female dwarf, she must reconcile herself to wearing a beard. It may be braided, oiled, or otherwise bedizened with feminine ornaments, but no dwarf, male or female, ever shaves his or her beard. If your group lacks the overall role-playing maturity and sophistication to hew unwaveringly to this simple principle, it is recommended that you only allow male dwarf characters.
Basic Hits: 12
Hard as Stone: Dwarf characters add their Might modifier to all Mystic Fortitude and Physical Vigor rolls, as well as to any Danger Evasion rolls involving complicated stonework, sloping passages, cavern collapses, and the like.
Canny Foeman: Dwarf characters add their Wits modifier to their EDC whenever fighting large or gigantic creatures or any of their traditional enemies (such as goblins or elves).
Weapon of Choice: Dwarf-characters always prefer the axe, pick, or hammer (choose).
Level Benefits: Each level beyond the first gives a Dwarf +4 hits, +1 to Luck, and +2 to Might, Skill, Wits, or Will.
Possessions: Dwarfs start with a dagger, their melee weapon of choice, a dwarven crossbow with 12 quarrels, breastplate, helmet, and shield. Starting wealth is 3d6 x 20 silver pieces.
Paladins
Servants of the new god Mitra, these holy warriors convert the unbeliever and battle evil with supernatural fervor. They always conduct themselves honorably and morally, and will not commit any act that would generally be recognized as cowardly, cruel, lustful, greedy, or otherwise atrocious. MM's can deny use of any or all of the Paladin's special abilities to characters who flout this restriction until appropriate atonement is made.
Primary Attributes: Might and Grace
Gender: Paladin characters may be of either sex.
Basic Hits: 12
Mitra’s Blessing: Paladin characters add their Grace modifier to all Mystic Fortitude and Physical Vigor rolls.
Mitra’s Balm: Paladin characters may lay their hands on any character once per day. This will either heal one hit die of damage for each level the Paladin has attained or allow the character a new saving throw against any disease that afflicts them. They may use their own save or the Paladin’s, whichever is higher.
Mitra’s Fist: Paladin characters may add their Might modifier to damage rolls against any creature of Eldritch or Unearthly Mystique with a decidedly chaotic or evil aspect. Whether a creature has this aspect or not is usually obvious but ultimately up to the MM to determine.
Weapon of Choice: A paladin’s weapon of choice is always the sword.
Level Benefits: Each level beyond the first gives a Paladin +4 hits, +1 to Luck, and +2 to another attribute score chosen by the player.
Possessions: Paladins start with dagger, sword, breastplate, helmet, and shield. Starting wealth is 3d6 x 10 silver pieces. Given enough time Paladins of 3rd level or higher can always obtain a horse and/or a spear when needed, even if they don’t presently have the silver to spare.
Designer’s Notes: The Dwarf and Paladin were first published in the 1975 Scythian Grimoire, one of the most controversial and successful third party supplements in the early days of M&M. The Paladin’s three abilities and thinly veiled quasi-Christianity made the class very popular, but were taken by LGS and some OM&M diehards as an outrage against the clean symmetry of the core system and the purity of its influences. Vietnam veteran Merlin Greave, the controversial author of the Scythian Grimoire, Parthenon of Skulls (1976), and The Alphabet of Doom (1977), mixed many elements from the minor genres of Euro-fantasy and science fiction in with the more mainstream sword-and-sandal fare that drew so many to M&M. “People say they like pastiche? The truth is, they can’t handle pastiche!” Greave was often heard bellowing to Steve Peryton and others at the first ChimerCon in El Cerrito, California, a major West Coast alternative to MazeCon. These versions are extrapolated from Greave’s notes; he was working on an update to the Grimoires for Revised M&M before his untimely passing in 1988.
There are already dwarves in Mazes&Minotaurs... Look up the entry for "Derros" in the monster part of the main rule-book.
That's what you get from third-party stuff... They don't even know the MRB well enough. Although the Scythian Grimoire wasn't such a mess as Misdeeds & Madness.
Quote from: SkyrockThere are already dwarves in Mazes&Minotaurs... Look up the entry for "Derros" in the monster part of the main rule-book.
That's what you get from third-party stuff... They don't even know the MRB well enough.
This canard, which first saw print in
Griffin magazine as early as October 1975, has been thoroughly debunked time and again. Derros are Small, whereas Scythia's dwarves, while short and stocky, are solidly in the Medium range; Derros are evil where dwarves are generally good; and while the craftsmanship of the Dwarves is on a par with that of Derros, their mastery of higher forms of technology does not compare.
Plus, there are no rules for Derro PCs in the 1972 game.
The fact is, rather than accepting that the elves, dwarves, throon, saurigs, phraints, and t'cheem battle spyders of Scythia are drawn from alternative sources to those you M&M purists prefer, you continually sully the reputations of Greave and other fine third-party game designers with your base innuendo about their lack of knowledge or design ability. For shame!
Are you guys still arguing about that old piece of crap? Who'd play M&M when you could play FleeceQuest?
FleeceQuest 2 had its merits, to be sure, but the dubious Algonquin Mound 3rd edition from the eighties ought to have permanently put to rest any idea that it was the end-all, be-all RPG.
Are you kidding? FQ3 was just a cleaned-up, streamlined version. I wasn't too sure about the Arete Point system, but I found in play it adds loads of genre-emulating realism.
One of the most inspired troll posts recently. Have at thee!
Quote from: droogAre you kidding? FQ3 was just a cleaned-up, streamlined version. I wasn't too sure about the Arete Point system, but I found in play it adds loads of genre-emulating realism.
And I'd say nothing about the recent, much-hyped "fourth edition" / resurrection of Fleecequest which has the crappiest opposed resolution mechanics ever found in an RPG.
Quote from: droogAre you guys still arguing about that old piece of crap?
Well, it seems that this "old piece of crap" managed to survive to this day (35 years after its first edition), while all the so-called, "better" or "ultimate" mythic fantasy games that shamelessly plagiarized M&M bit the dust long ago - who remembers
Titans & Trojans or
Adventures in Mythology (and I'll say nothing about
Fantastic Odysseys) ?
Mmmh ?
And now, as some of you already know, M&M has entered the Digital Age (http://mazesandminotaurs.free.fr/revised.html), heralding a new era for Mythic Tabletop Roleplaying entertainment worldwide.
Long live
Mazes & Minotaurs !
Quote from: olivier legrandWell, it seems that this "old piece of crap" managed to survive to this day (35 years after its first edition), while all the so-called, "better" or "ultimate" mythic fantasy games that shamelessly plagiarized M&M bit the dust long ago - who remembers Titans & Trojans or Adventures in Mythology (and I'll say nothing about Fantastic Odysseys) ?
Don't get Sett started about that German rip-off,
Polyphemos.
--
Unter Blinden ist der Einäugige König.
Come on, I've grown out of that childish "heroic" stuff ages ago. Nowadys I want a good simulation of ancient battle-fields, with a detailed break up of the different metallurgic eras. Hitting a bronze Mycenean bell armor with a late-aga falcata should be reconstructed perfectly.
That's why I play Urnmaster.
Urnmaster ? Just another M&M rip-off, where so-called "realism" (read : endless d100 tables) can force you to play an allergic, speech-impedimented Hoplite with an irrational fear of yellow... Maybe they've got their mettalurgy right, but their approach to character creation (not to mention magic and heroism) is laughable.
As any serious hobby historian will tell you, M&M remains the One & Only Foundation of all RPG-ness - its influence can even be felt in the so-called "dark & mature" games of the 90s such as Black Griffin's pseudo-feminist Lamia : the Devouring and its infamous spinoff Gorgon : the Petrifying... not to mention the ludicrousUmbrawalk which transposes traditional mythic elements in a cyberpunk setting (yeah, satyrs with gauss-pistols and cyber-implanted nymph hackers)
Quote from: CalithenaThe fact is, rather than accepting that the elves, dwarves, throon, saurigs, phraints, and t'cheem battle spyders of Scythia are drawn from alternative sources to those you M&M purists prefer, you continually sully the reputations of Greave and other fine third-party game designers with your base innuendo about their lack of knowledge or design ability. For shame!
If you look at how things mutated and twisted after the MRB, it's only reasonable to stick to it.
Think about Maienades as PCs, or think about the introduction of Derros' as playable characters... All goody-good angsters who creep out of their caves, hate their own culture and seek someone who loves them. Especially the signature character Derrozzt Down'Under with his two ray-gun sabers sucked.
Quote from: olivier legrandUrnmaster ? Just another M&M rip-off, where so-called "realism" (read : endless d100 tables) can force you to play an allergic, speech-impedimented Hoplite with an irrational fear of yellow... Maybe they've got their mettalurgy right, but their approach to character creation (not to mention magic and heroism) is laughable.
d100 tables? βάρβαρος! We're not talking about Ethosmaster here! It would help discussions like these if you Mythophiliacs could get your terms straight. Comes from playing the same game for 30 years. Some of us want to learn about the past, not live in it...
Ethosmaster is the one with the tables, made famous by the rather short-lived licensed Harryhausen Role Playing, Urnmaster, written by Msrs. Stills and Nassh is a pristine example of role-playing, now available in a beautiful binder.
Look, why argue? We might have the old arguments of history vs mythology, but at least we're not proponents of that stupid Socratic gaming going on at The Grove...
Quote from: SosthenesLook, why argue? We might have the old arguments of history vs mythology, but at least we're not proponents of that stupid Socratic gaming going on at The Grove...
You're right - if we go on like this, we will end up arguing about the whole Ludist/Dramatist/Mythopoetist thing for ages.
So let's be constructive and talk about the Greatest Fantasy RPG Ever Written... (and no, I don't mean Fleecequest).
I feel like I just read some bizarre version of a Mornington Cresent rules discussion*.
*If they weren't bizarre enough to begin with.