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Chaosium Digest Volume 13 Number 01
Chaosium Digest Volume 13, Number 1
Date: Monday, February 19, 1996
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Announcement: Mythos (Chaosium) MYTHOS
Playtester's Notes on Mythos (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS
Editor's Note:
It seems oddly appropriate that the 13th volume of the Chaosium Digest
should open with a special on Mythos, the blasphemous new Call of
Cthulhu Collectible Card Game. I suspect that Mythos wll be a new
force in the Digest in the coming year. Those of you who enjoy RPGs
need not worry though: articles on of Chaosium's RPGs will continue to
appear as well, assuming, of course, that subscribers continue to
write them!
Shannon
--------------------
From: Chaosium <chaosium@aol.com>
Subject: Announcement: Mythos
System: Mythos CCG
MYTHOS is a new collectable card game based on the extraordinary tales
of horror written by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Our primary objective
was to develop a game system featuring ease of play, the "feel" of a
traditional card game, and a lively pace. Look for MYTHOS to begin
shipping on April 19, and to arrive in stores by the end of that
month. The second and third booster sets should follow in May and
June.
A French edition of the game will be printed at the same time as the
English edition. Negotiations are currently underway for Spanish and
Italian translations, and they will probably appear in the near
future.
Although over 20 million cards are being printed for MYTHOS, the run
has already sold out to distributers. This means that you should let
your local retailer know that you are interested in the game, so he
can make sure he gets sufficient allocation from his distributor.
GAME SYSTEM
In designing MYTHOS, we first reviewed the play styles of traditional
card games such as rummy and gin, noting in particular the flow of
play and the involvement and interaction of the players. Our goal was
to give MYTHOS a similar feel. Each player is constantly involved.
You never have to wait while another player finishes a long turn
sequence. Each player gets one play on his or her turn, and no one is
ever out of the game before the game ends.
The heart of MYTHOS lies in the Adventure Cards. These are short
stories in a narrative format that indicate the cards you must play
before you can earn the points given on the card. They provide a
pattern to your card play that other players may try to decipher.
The rules for MYTHOS are simple and complete. A game is finished in
about an hour with plenty of room for complex play strategies, deck
building variations, and great replay value.
Much of the MYTHOS replay value lies in the more than 30 different
Adventures included in the card set, and also with our Create-Your-Own
Adventure card. Chaosium offers both horror fiction and role-playing
scenarios for our Call of Cthulhu game that can readily be distilled
into Mythos Adventure Cards with, of course, the consent of your
opponent. This will provide an unlimited variety of different MYTHOS
games.
A TYPICAL GAME
Each player first chooses his or her Investigator, shuffles their
cards, and draws a hand of 13 cards.
Each player develops the resources of their Investigator, playing Ally
cards, Tomes, Artifacts, and Spells. You also create a Story Deck, a
pile of cards containing the Locations visited and other cards that
have gone out of play. You have a number of Event cards to plague your
opponent with, including Phobias, Rioting Townsfolk, Looting Thieves,
Madmen with Shotguns, Nightmares, Catastrophes, and Epidemics.
You also portray that aspect of the Mythos that attacks the other
players. Monster cards are played face-down in a Mythos Threat. Once
card play has ended in a round, then Combat begins.
During combat, each player, beginning with the Investigator with the
lowest remaining Sanity Point, commits the Monsters in his or her
Threat to attack their opponent. Then, each player commits Allies to
defend their Investigator (Allies not committed will not suffer
damage). Spells are then cast and then combat is resolved.
PACKAGING
The MYTHOS game begins with our Starter Display. Each display features
10 decks of cards, and there are 10 displays in each carton.
We looked at various kinds of stock on which we could print the cards,
and decided to use the more expensive poker stock. This paper resists
the crimping suffered by other card games, it resists wear better, and
it has the right sort of feel when playing the game.
Each Starter Deck, then, contains 60 playing cards printed on poker
stock, a 32 page rulesbook, and a unique MYTHOS feature: a
double-sized Investigator Card. COLLECTORS' NOTE: Every one of the
cards appearing in the Starter Decks will also be available in the
first three booster sets. You wll probably want to purchase just a few
deck of Starters, to get the rules and a few investigator cards, and
not an entire display case.
The Investigator Card serves to focus each player, indicating just
where to play your cards on the table. It represents the "you" in a
Mythos game - that personality who confronts the horrors and denizens
of the Mythos. Each Investigator Card offers the player the choice of
two Investigators, each illustrated in full color and printed
back-to-back. No two players in a MYTHOS game can use the same
Investigator. There are 18 different Investigators on 9 Investigator
Cards. COLLECTORS' NOTE: each display for our third booster set
includes a free complete set of all the Investigator Cards.
BOOSTERS: while we were hard at work designing the MYTHOS system, we
also designed three booster sets. These are being printed at the same
time as the starter decks, so that we can assure you of their timely
release.
The first MYTHOS booster is titled THE EXPEDITIONS OF MISKATONIC
UNIVERSITY, which will be released along with the starter decks. Here
we expand the world of MYTHOS and explore the resources of Miskatonic
University: its professors and noted students and the various tomes
found in its vaunted library. Also, this set features many locations
and allies from Europe, various new spells, and the luxury of travel
aboard the quality ships of the time.
The second booster looks to the South Pacific and the fabled island of
R'lyeh. Titled CTHULHU RISING, it includes exotic islands, weird
Mythos locales such as R'lyeh, the deep one city of Y'ha Nthlei or the
library on Celeano. Dread Cthulhu himself lurks here somewhere!
Finally, the third booster set that we will release is LEGENDS OF THE
NECRONOMICON. Here, the Middle East, and particularly the exotic city
of Cairo, comes to life. Literally. This set of cards introduces the
concept of travelling into the past to meet the greatest wizards of
old including Abdul Ihazrad, also known as the Mad Arab, and the
author of that dread tome sometimes known as the Necronomicon. As a
bonus, each Legends of e Necronomicon display includes one complete,
unfolded set of all nine Investigator Cards.
CARD STOCK: we are using Zanders poker stock with a water-based
varnish for the best playing-card feel and resistance to card crimping
and wear. The Investigator Card measures 5"x3.5" and is folded in half
and tucked into the box. It is printed four colors on two sides,
providing two different investigators in each deck.
ART: Some of the best artists in the cards, game, and comics
industries have madly scrawled all over their walls at the
Institution. Alphabetized they are: Salvatore Abbinanti, Chris Adams,
Thomas Garrett Adams, Stephen Barnwell, Mike Blanchard, John Bridges,
Dennis J. Calero, Tim Callender, Barry Chambers, Alan M. Clark, Gene
Day, C. Brent Ferguson, Mark Ferrari, Scott M. Fischer, Earl Geier,
Lee Gibbons, Justin Hampton, Ovi Hondru, Andrew T. Kalichack, Michael
Kellner, Drashi Kendup, Scott Kirchner, Brian Krank-McLean, Meghan
Krank-McLean, Todd Lockwood, Heather McKinney, Jeff Menges, Lee Moyer,
Roger Raupp, Sam Shirley, R. Wayt Smith, John Snyder, Tom Sullivan,
Joseph Sutliff, Strephon Taylor, Susan Van Camp, Eric Vogt, and Jason
Voss.
CARD DISTRIBUTION
There are 400 total cards in the array used for the MYTHOS Starters
and the three boosters. One hundred of these cards are rare, one
hundred are uncommon, and two hundred are common.
The MYTHOS starter decks are created from an array of 220 cards and
the nine Investigator Cards. In each starter deck is found 6 rare
cards, 18 uncommon cards, and 36 common cards, plus one Investigator
Card and a 32-page rulesbook.
Each booster set contains 60 new cards plus a blend of the cards that
appear in the MYTHOS starter decks, at the ratio of 2 rare cards, 4
uncommon cards, and 7 common cards for a total of 13 cards per pack.
The rarity level of the cards is identical across the Mythos starters
and the boosters. A rare card found in the starter decks is printed in
the same frequency as a rare card found only in a booster. Otherwise,
a "rare" card from a booster would be more rare (there are fewer of
them) than a "rare" card in the starters.
MYTHOS PRODUCT SUMMARY
STARTER DECK DISPLAY #1300 10 decks $89.50
Single Deck Product Number #1300-1 1 deck $8.95
EXPEDITIONS OF MISKATONIC U. #1301 36 packs $106.20
CTHULHU RISING #1302 36 packs $106.20
LEGENDS OF THE NECRONOMICON #1303 36 packs $106.20
MYTHOS is a trademark of Chaosium Inc.
MYTHOS is copyright 1996 by Chaosium Inc.
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: Playtester's Notes on Mythos
System: Mythos CCG
The Mythos CCG has been simmering in the background for a while. V11.9
and V12.7 each had some early notes on it. The article above is the
full-out press release on Mythos, which first appeared at Dundracon
this past weekend. As one of the playtesters for the game, I thought
I'd take a few additional paragraphs to expand on the Mythos notes a
little bit.
Like CoC, Mythos is a game of warring against the dark forces of
Lovecraft's uncaring universe. Each player takes on the role of an
investigator, and this choice determines the player's initial sanity,
his starting languages, and, most importantly, how many cards the
player must have in his hand when he redraws (more on that in a
second).
There are a very wide variety of card types in Mythos: LOCATIONs
present characters with physical places to travel to, where different
things may be done depending on the attributes of the card; ALLYs
provide characters with protection in fights, and can also help in
translating books, and other tasks; EVENTs may be used to change the
attributes of the world (by causing the dawn of a new day, the rising
of Aldeberan or the formation of a mighty storm, for example), or they
may be used to affect opponents adversely (by giving them phobias or
causing madmen to descend upon them, for example); TOMEs allow
characters to cast certain types of spells, provided they can decipher
them; SPELLs are special cards that may have various affects upon the
game, provided that the character is willing to expend the SAN to fuel
them; ARTIFACTS help either the character or his allies, but sometimes
cause SAN losses too; and finally MONSTERs are awful creatures of the
Mythos, which may be used to strike at your opponents.
One last type of card is the ADVENTURE card, and this is the most
important to the game. After playing a certain selection of cards, you
can reveal the adventure that you have just completed. This gives you
victory points towards winning the game. When the first player goes
insane, the player with the most combined victory points and sanity is
the winner.
One of the coolest things about Mythos is that it goes very fast: I
start walking to Innsmouth; Joe summons a Mythos creature at the Lodge
of the Silver Twilight; Fred changes it to day with a Dawn event; and
it's already my turn again!
Players also tend to not get washed out of the game in Mythos due to
one bad draw, unlike some of the older CCGs. If a player finds that
his hand is worthless, he can pass twice in a row, and the current
turn comes to an end. There is a quick combat phase, where the Mythos
monsters fight against each other before disappearing, and then each
player gets to discard and redraw. The investigator cards give a
minimum hand value (for example, 3) and a maximum hand value (for
example, 5). At the end of a turn, a player must discard a number of
cards to bring him to his maximum or lower, but may not discard so
many cards as to bring him below his minimum. In the case above, other
players would get one or two actions, before the troubled player
passed twice in succession. Then, he'd be able to ditch his 10 worst
cards, and draw almost an entire new hand.
There's probably a lot more I could write about Mythos, but I think
I'll content myself with saying just a few things about strategy and
level of complexity.
The game is very simple to play. The rules are easy to pick up, and
there are no complex questions of Timing or Interactions that require
a Seer or Prophet to mediate.
However, the strategy behind the game can be quite complex. This
starts out with deck-building, when you're trying to balance
Adventures so that they overlap in such a way to make all of their
completion easier. It continues into the game itself, where you must
decide: what adventure are you working on; should you shift to another
adventure that just became easier to complete; how quickly should you
move through your deck based on your current situation; what defenses
do you need against your opponents newly summoned (face-down)
monsters; are you willing to sacrifice allies now, when they could
provide you with knowledge later; can you afford the sanity loss to
cast a spell or use an artifact; and much more.
And, this strategy should only become more enjoyable as future Booster
sets are released for the game.
As is noted in Chaosium's article, above, the initial run of cards has
already been sold out to distributors. There will be lots of cards
available, however, and you shouldn't have much trouble getting the
cards you want, provided that you let your local retail store know
that you'll be looking for Mythos when it rises in late April.
Shannon
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
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