Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Mazes and Minotaurs

This might be way old news for many of you out there ... BUT ... I feel it is timely to mention this game with CLASH OF THE TITANS just around the corner.  Also when I myself checked the page I was very surprised to see that good ole M&M is still being  very well supported by its creator who is still putting out new material for it. A few years back I had a chance to play this game with a master old school DM. It was one of the best RPGs campaigns I've ever played in.

The premise for the game is very simple, its a what if ... what if the inspiration for original D&D wasn't Conan and Sword and Sorcery fantasy ... but rather classic Greek mythology.  The game is extremely close in play style and rules mechanics to classic 1st/2nd edition D&D with some really awesome twists and additions (like smooth small squad based combat rules, streamlined naval combat, etc.).  The best thing about the game is it is ENTIRELY FREE.

The creator of the game to sum him up quickly ... an avant-guarde French punk rocker type with a knack for game design (from what I've heard of him ... never met him nor did I find extensive biographical info on him ... this is just what I've heard from fellow gamers). At any rate he was inspired by this article to write a game as though D&D had in fact been based on Greek mythology. What he came up with is in my opinion a very pure, old school game that is sleek and elegant ... but most importantly captures a level of authenticity in terms of being faithful to the old school style game and to the genre of Greek mythology (without being dry and boring). You get a very classic Hollywood style Greek Mythology  feeling game. That said however the game can be slavishly faithful to history if the DM and party would like its just a matter of what the DM wants to have in their story ... or it can be cinematic, heroic and over the top.

Again with Clash of the Titans just around the corner it seems like this title might be worth checking out for anyone out there who hasn't seen it ... if nothing else people ... download the stuff ... its free from the game designer himself (who has vowed never to make a penny from it) with his express consent and encouragement to do so ... he made it for us to enjoy. Here is a more detailed review.

3 comments:

Aaron E. Steele said...

Nice post. This is something I have read several time, but never downloaded.

I think Chevski also did a post in the last several months about M&M.

I'll have to give it another look!

The Lord of Excess said...

Yes I think I've seen several people do posts on M&M over the past few years. I claim no originality here ... just happened across your post and actually a few others pertaining to the impending release of Clash of the Titans and bada bing ... thought I should pop up a little reminder. I really want to play M&M again at some point ... such a damn good system!

Alexander Man said...

Thanks for the link! I checked it out briefly... and it looks great! Must Download! The Greek Mythology is really interesting theme for fantasy RPG, and it´s something we haven´t tried yet in our gaming group!