The Creatures of Thulê III is now out and available from here.
This booklet contains 30 new creatures, but also a new encounter table (including all the new creatures as well as all the old ones). All rules for travelling and random encounters have been included here as well, to make it easier to myth master the game! You can see this booklet as a mix between a monster manual and a partial Myth Master’s screen. NB! This book has no artwork (unlike book I and II in the series).
As the title says, MYFAROG is now available as a hardcover book from Amazon (link here). It is other than that the same as the softcover version of MYFAROG. Naturally, all corrections, updates etc. are also in the hardcover version. Urah! Urah! Urah!
Are you ready for another little adventure? Well, in that case, you can download the PDF found below MYFAROG map #2.
Here is the first in a series of mini-myths (adventures), intended for new players and veterans alike. The purpose of these mini-myths are to show how the system works, to give examples of how myth masters can do it, and to provide some adventures for MYFAROG players on how to use the tools provided in the MYFAROG core rule book. Enjoy!
This post was written 24/10/2022. It has been updated the 30th of October (p. 59, P. 158, P. 161, P. 162).
The corrections/changes listed below have already been made in the version of MYFAROG 4E that is currently available for sale on Amazon.
Many of the corrections in this list are old, so if your copy has a few pages updated/corrected, it does not mean it has all pages updated/corrected. The corrections are listed by page, not date.
The purpose of this post is to enable all those who have older copies of MYFAROG (4E) to make corrections in the book they already have, so that they don’t have to buy another book to get an improved version of the game.
P. 7 The maximum Hamingja you can now have is your character’s experience level + his Cha, but never less than 1. So charismatic characters can accumulate more Hamingja than others.
P. 8 The Hamingja cost for gaining an extra talent, to know an extra spell for Bards and Sorcerers, to be able to pick your character’s race and to modify your character’s size has been reduced to 1 for each. An NB has also been added, making it clear that you can spend your Hamingja points at any point during character creation! So e. g. if you roll for race and get one you don’t like, you can then decide to actually spend 1 Hamingja point to pick the race you want.
P. 13. Modifications for attributes have been changed slightly. 20-23 now gives you a +3 mod, but 24+ gives you +4.
P. 14 Dwarves now have the special ability to “know approximate direction and depth when underground”, instead of the “knows true north when underground”. Gnomes now have that ability too! Further, Light Elves can sense sorcery (but not Ettin phenomena) when within 60′ of it on a 1 (D6) for Half Elves, 1-2 for Grey Elves and Wood Elves and 1-3 for High Elves.
P. 15 High man maximum age is changed (from CON * 6) to CON * 12.
P. 16 Pre-requisites removed for the following Talents: Animal Friend, Careful, Shooter and Tracker.
P. 17 The Thrower talent gives +1 Missile when using thrown weapons, and that includes slings.
P. 19 The “Hyper-sexual” flaw has been removed. A roll of 39-41 will make a character Gullible and 42 Haemophilic. Further, female characters cannot become Haemophilic, and will instead get the flaw Gullible. Also, the Gluttonous flaw now gives you +1 Cold Resistance (on level 1, no changes for level 2 or 3). That extra fat will help keep you warm. See errata for page 36.
P. 20 The “Limp” flaw- You suffer from a -5 penalty to Tempo and -1 to Travel speed.
P. 27 Human and Half Elf females can now learn three skills (instead of two) from the listed skills and males two (instead of one).
P. 33 See the blog post called “Natural 1s and 20s in MYFAROG” under the “errata” category for more on that. In the task table for skills, the DD range is listed as going up to equal to or more than 25. The correct is equal to or more than 24.
P. 35 In encumbrance level, a Medium or Heavy load will now prevent a character from dashing and sprinting (for medium load) and also from running (for heavy load).
P. 36 There is now a -2 DD to Acting if the target has the flaw Gullible.
P. 57 Initiative modifications for weapons updated. All the weapons from the list of initiative modifiers on p. 69 have been included here on p. 57 as well. I. e. warhammer as a long-reaching weapon and Dane axe, longsword and halberd as very long-reaching weapons.
P. 59 Morale rules improved upon. You can now get a -2 , -3 or -4 to your morale tests if you are outnumbered (by 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1), and likewise a +2, +3 or +4 if your party outnumbers the enemy group. Orcs also get the size of the largest Orc as a bonus to their morale (but if the largest size is negative, this counts as a +0 mod). NPCs get a (by default) +1 mod for a Chief/Sheriff present. Mod for male family member present reduced to +1 and for female +2.
P. 60 Footnote added to morale table next to “Mod to all skills”. These modifications do not apply to Dodging, Perception and Tempo. So even if you are e. g. “Nervous” you do not get a -1 to any of these skills. Further, not only Dwarves and Warriors, but also Orcs, will be able to carry out a charge as a formation.
P. 62 Orcs too are now allowed to attack from the 2nd line in a formation. See footnote 6 under Special Attacks & Manoevres.
P. 68 Halberd now has footnotes 5/12/13 (instead of 5/9/12) and minimum Str is +1 (instead of +0). Minimum Str for Pike changed to +0 (from -1) and for War scythe to -1 (from -2).
P. 71 Slings are now listed as Thrown weapons. Naturally, you don’t throw the slings, but neither do you shoot with them, and in effect you just use them to throw projectiles farther and harder. They are listed as “thrown” because of the Thrower talent. See correction for p. 17 above!
P. 118 A cow now costs 1 g (instead of 12 s).
P. 124 Spell-casters can now cast each of their known spells Cha * 2 (instead of Cha) times (for Rangers and Bards) or Int * 2 (instead of Int) times for all others.
P. 133 The Rain spell now has a range of the whole region where the spell-caster is casting the spell.
P. 134 The Rose Rune spell only applies unless the spell-caster allows a creature to enter.
P. 135 The spell Awareness has a mod to all Perception skill tests for the duration of the spell. The spell Gjallarhorn will affect all enemies within 1440′ (for Mighty).
P. 152 NPC Spell Casters & Levels changed to: If an NPC is a spell caster and can only cast “Weak” spells his level (to determine the effect of the spell) is 4 and he can cast each spell 2 times. If he can cast “Normal” spells his level is 8 and he can cast each spell 4 times; if he can cast “Strong” spells his level is 10 and he can cast each spell 6 times; and if he can cast “Mighty” spells his level is 12 or more and he can cast each spell 6 times. NB! Same change has been done to the relevant “creatures” book.
P. 158 Gnolls have a Fortitude of +4 (or +6 for Leaders and +8 for Chiefs).
P. 160 Halfling has Missile OV of +2, +5 (for leader) and +9 (for sheriff). Changes also made in relevant “creatures” book.
P. 161 High Elf has Missile OV of +3, +6 (for leader) and +10 (for chief). Changes also made in relevant “creatures” book. Lizard-men have Fortitude +5 (or +7 for Leaders and +9 for Chiefs).
P. 162 Wood Elf has Missile OV of +3, +6 (for leader) and +10 (for chief). Changes also made in relevant “creatures” book. Orcs have a Fortitude equal to their own size +2 (or +4 for leaders/shamans and +6 for chiefs).
P. 191 Freyja can also cast all elf spells, but bards cannot (normally) learn those spells anyhow (they can still only normally learn those listed as known by Freyja under Water Spells.
P. 194 Formatting error corrected. “Shieva, Lada” font size is now same as for other names.
MYFAROG has been a work in progress since its first inception back in 2015. Some things worked better than others, and many things have been vastly improved upon over the years. Originally, I really wanted to use 3D6 for skill resolutions, and therefore stuck to it for a long time. Too long, I think, because it never really worked as intended. Modifiers mattered too much, and results became too predictable. When I finally gave up on the 3D6 and started using a D20 (basically a percentile die [D100] in 5% increments), for the 4th edition of the game, all the problems with the 3D6 were solved (and I felt stupid for not doing so earlier), but some new problems arose.
With 3D6 a natural 3 worked fine as an automatic failure, because it occurs only 0.46% of the times you roll the dice. Likewise, a natural 18 worked fine as an automatic success, for the same reason. With a D20 though, the natural 1 and 20 each occur 5% of the time, and you have the same chance to get a 1 or 20 as you have to get any result between 1 and 20.
Now, going from a 0.46% chance to auto-fail or auto-succeed to a 5% chance changes the game dramatically, and not in a good way. Those natural 1s and 20s occur during play all the time.
After some time, suffering from this flaw, this has (finally, in October 2022) been solved for the MYFAROG system and let me explain how. Yeah, I want to tell, because I am really proud of this solution.
Instead of an auto-fail or auto-success on a natural 1 or 20 respectively, you now get a result called “Critical Failure Risk” when you cast a 1 and an “At worst Success Chance” if you cast a natural 20.
Page 33, MYFAROG. Changes are underlined in green:
What is a Critical Failure Risk and a Success Chance? Page 33, MYFAROG:
What this means in effect is that a character with little skill (e. g. +0) have little chance to succeed at absurdly difficult tasks (where you have to roll a 20 to succeed), but the more skilled characters actually have a chance to succeed, and the more skilled they are, the higher the chance for success. The 5% chance to auto-succeed (or achieve a semi-success) (by casting a natural 20) has been reduced to between 8.3% of 5% (= a 0.42% chance) (for characters with +0 or less in skill proficiency) up to 91.2% of 5% (= a 4.6% chance) (for characters with +10 in skill proficiency).
You see, in MYFAROG your skill proficiency can normally (without racial modifications or sorcerous or high-quality items at your disposal) not get any higher than +10. You can get +3 for your attribute modification, +5 if it is a Character Role skill, and +2 for Talents. A character with the ability to get +11 or +12 proficiency in a skill with have 5% chance to succeed or semi-succeed even at tasks more than absurdly difficult to perform.
A highly skilled character is thus less likely to fail critically (not least when performing a task he otherwise is very likely to succeed with). Which of course makes sense.
NB! This is an updated rule in MYFAROG and is present in the version that is for sale on Amazon. If you have an older edition, where this rule has not been included, you can update your book directly, by using the information you get in this blog post!
The Coming for MYFAROG has now been re-released and is again available on Amazon, with additional and extensive rules for the use of vehicles, by Jeremy C. Bartus.
The Creatures of Thulê I & II, in PDF form are now available for FREE for those interested (see below). These make up the “Creatures” section in MYFAROG, only ILLUSTRATED (by Stefan Cvetković, see his author page here).
If you want PHYSICAL COPIES of these booklets, you can get them from Amazon. To buy The Creatures of Thulê I click here and for II click here.
The purpose of these booklets is to of course give you illustrations of all the strange (and some of the ordinary) creatures in MYFAROG, but also to enable the Myth Master to run a game more easily. Instead of having to take notes or flip back and forth in the core rule book every time an encounter occurs, he can now have the creature stats easily available in separate booklets!
There are so many table-top RPGs out there, and they all have something to offer. Something special. Something unique. Even the D&D retro clones all have something different and unique to offer that official versions of D&D don’t have.
So what has MYFAROG to offer that other games don’t? Or what is it MYFAROG does better than other games? Let me list what I deem to be the “selling points” of MYFAROG:
Variable Degree of Success & Failure
Instead of just “fail” or “success” you can have variable degree of success and failure, and also a risk of critical failure. You can also semi-succeed.
Modular
The game is very modular, meaning that you can leave out things you don’t like without ruining the other aspects of the game. You don’t like e. g. Cut/Shock effects? Or those detailed modifications for Stealth? Fine! Just don’t use it. It wont break the game if you don’t. You can use only parts of the rules, and then when you know them by heart, include more and more to finally get the full MYFAROG experience!
Believability & Logic
Everything in the game is believable and it makes sense, so there is nothing in the rules themselves that is breaking immersion. You will e. g. never think that: “The Orc points a crossbow at me, and tells me to drop my weapons, or else he shoots, but why should I care? The crossbow does D8 damage and I have 34 HP”… Every mechanic, every modifier, makes sense, is well-researched and when it is relatable it does compute with what you know about the real world. E.g. gravity works like gravity would. When it is not relatable (sorcery) it is explained from the perspective of a world where sorcery is real.
Combat
Combat too makes sense and is believable. No, it’s not “realistic”, but it does make sense. A sword has a bigger chance to leave a bleeding wound than a club does. A club is more likely to knock you down or even knock you out than a sword is. An experienced fighter will be able to take a bit more damage before he dies, but he too can be killed by a single well-aimed blow. There is no “hand-holding” in the combat system. The risk of dying is at all times real, and players will always think twice before they enter combat. Oh, and some creatures will be very tough to defeat, even for a party of experienced characters. You will at least some times need to use your head.
Thoroughly-researched armour, shields & weapons
Instead of just copying the stats from other games, the armour, shields and weapons have been thoroughly researched. I have tried armours, climbing with them, fighting with shields, shooting arrows, throwing light javelins with spear slings, etc. etc. etc. MYFAROG is not based on theoretical knowledge only. The advantages and disadvantages of all weapons have been taken into account, and pretty much all weapons have unique advantages and disadvantages. Long weapons e. g. are harder to use in confined space, so in a narrow tunnel the short sword might well be better to use than a normal sword – and much better than a spear. Outside, when fighting under the wide sky, on the other hand, it’s the other way around. A flail is good against opponents with a shield, a dagger is easier to draw quickly from the belt, a lead-weighted dart cannot be thrown very far unless you can throw it high, a battle axe is more likely to do damage to a shield, an Angon (similar to the Roman Pilum) can penetrate your shield and do you damage anyhow, and get stuck and leave the shield useless for some time, etc. A small shield is good for carrying javelins in the shield hand, a large shield less so and it cannot be used on horseback either, but it is better for mêlée, and a medium shield is a compromise between the two.
Armour, shields and weapons are not designed to be “balanced” but to represent actual armour, shields and weapons with their real qualities. And yes, they are all good for something, and have an edge on the others in some way or the other – if nothing else for being less expensive than other armours.
Stamina & Survivalism
There is a system for fatigue, from fighting, from travelling and from lack of food, rest and drink. This means that you have to take into account e. g. that travelling from A to B might actually leave you exhausted, unless you e. g. leave behind that heavy armour or large shield, or simply rest before you enter the dungeon or castle or whatever there. But if you rest, then you might encounter something…. whilst still weary.
You also have to take this into consideration when you fight. E. g. fighting offensively might well wear you out too soon, and leave you exhausted. What if you don’t have the willpower to keep on fighting, and you have to lower your guard?
Or simple leave Stamina out. Unless you fight Wraiths and Ghosts and such, you can.
There are rules for freezing, starvation and finding shelters, and you can easily see MYFAROG as some sort of survivalism game. Because survival alone can be a challenge in Thulê, even when not attacked by all sorts of creatures.
Morale
Because horror and fear is so much a part of MYFAROG there is a morale system, where characters can become afraid and even can lose their minds and go insane. The level of fear influences the character’s performance. Characters can even panic and run away in fear. They are not totally under your control – just like you are not really in total control of yourself, in real life.
This makes the characters more alive, and gives them a stronger sense of ‘preservation’. You can push them into situations they would not appreciate to be in, but if you do they might well perform worse than you would want them to or even run away and thus refuse to do it.
Also, courage equals fortitude, in the sense that if you have much courage, you are also spiritually strong, so courage is needed for sorcery…
Yes, because sorcery is linked to the studies of the mind and spirit, the unknown and often death. It is scary!
Certain races, like halflings, are small and physically weak, but they have more courage than anybody else, and thus are more resistance to sorcery.
Sorcery
Sorcery (“magic”) in MYFAROG is based on mythology, fairy tales and real world beliefs. It is weak (compared to magic in e. g. D&D), but can be used for great effect. The sorcerer is not a fire-ball slinging piece of artillery, but one that can influence the weather and the people you meet, one that is better at healing and one that can enchant items, light up a dark dungeon or make a fire in an instant, etc.
There are human (and half-elven) spells, but also dwarven, elven, gnomish and orcish, and although often overlapping on certain points, they are unique for all races.
System built for Setting
The MYFAROG system (using mainly a D20 to resolve skill checks and combat) is designed for the setting, the world of Thulê, and covers every thinkable and even unthinkable situation that can occur there. There is a skill that covers what you want to do and everything you can do.
Also, the system is built for the setting, but is still perfectly compatible with classical fantasy settings (not least Tolkien’s Middle-earth). You can easily modify and use adventures made for other systems and use them with MYFAROG.
An accurate presentation of the pre-Christian Native European heritage
You actually learn a lot from reading the core rule book. Information about our own pre-Christian heritage is all over the book, intertwined with the system itself and seeping into every part of the game. You will learn what our high festivals were all about, originally. Why do we celebrate Yule (“Christmas”)? What is Easter all about? What is the meaning of the Equinoxes and the Solstices? What is Beltane? Etc. etc. etc. It’s all explained in detail in MYFAROG. With little exaggeration, MYFAROG will probably be the best book you will ever have about European Paganism, our traditions and our heritage.
Hamingja
The unique Hamingja mechanics have been introduced to MYFAROG to inspire players to do good and to cultivate the noble hero in themselves, both when they take the role of a character in Thulê and hopefully also in real life. There is a Native European Traditional aspect to it, as it is very much what our forebears believed; that your Hamingja was linked to you, and that it followed you through the ages. That is what it means in the first place; Hamingja from hamr-gengja: “To Walk in Shapes”. You walk in different shapes, in different bodies, and change body when it dies, to be reincarnated in a new one. Your luck remains. Your Honour remains.
Hamingja is your character’s accumulated Honour, abstracted with a number for game purposes. As a concept it is very similar to Karma, but it is not exactly the same. Your character can gain Hamingja when you play, from good deeds and heroic acts, and from acting in a just way.
Hamingja can be used for having good luck, but if you have Bad Hamingja, it gives you bad luck…
The Myth Master gives players Hamingja points when they perform acts that are significant, heroic and honourable and especially when their acts come at a cost for themselves. When they make a sacrifice for others! He likewise takes away Hamingja points from them, and give them bad Hamingja, when they perform acts that are coward, unjust, criminal or dishonourable and especially when done solely for their own benefit.
Mythology
European mythology is used to create the deities in Thulê, and they are common to all of Europe, so you learn about the different names used for the same deities all over Europe. E. g. Baldr. Yes, it’s the Norse name for Appollon, whom the Celts call Belenus and the Slavs Jarilo or Belebog. These are all the same deity though.
Setting
The setting, Thulê, is unique and based on a myth about a part of Norway, said to have been ice-free during the Ice Age even. So people might have lived there during the Ice Age, isolated from the rest of the world.
The area, Lofoten and Vesterålen in Norway, is further easy to find maps for, even digital and highly detailed maps, that you can use when you create your own myths (“adventures”) for MYFAROG. Only the scale is different, as explained in the rule book. Real world towns and villages are there, in the game, with translated names – most of them pretty cool names too, I may add. Like Densewood, Dwarfmount, Ettinisland Harbour, Lynxfoot Island, Riverwall, Rottenwood Bay, Spell Lake Forest, Wardenholm and Weather Island, to name a few of them.
Name lists
Speaking of names, you also have long lists of appropriate names for your characters, of both sexes, including a separate list for dark elves (dwarves) -made up of all the dwarf names from Norse mythology. Yes, every single one of them.
Ettins
Ettins are known from other games too, but the ettins in MYFAROG are unique and different from them all. They are based on fairy tales and mythology, and you have stone ettins, fire ettins, frost ettins and giant worms, and they are all special in some way – and highly dangerous. And horrible! They also have stone hearts, with numerous special abilities, that can be used by skilled craftsmen to make amulets with sorcerous powers. Giant worms (dragons) also have scales that can be used to craft dragon scale armour, the overall probably best armour in Thulê.
Ettin Phenomena
Then you have the ettin phenomena found in the world of the ettins. They cause all sorts of strange and dangerous effects for those who dare venture into that part of Thulê, and most of all resemble the anomalities of “Roadside Picnic” (the book).
Price
The core rule book has everything you need to play the game indefinitely. The 3.3 edition includes the supplements released for 2nd edition, with some things not fitting into the concept or setting left out, and all of this cost less than 10 bucks.
I keep the price so low because I can, and because MYFAROG is a game that more than other games (in % of the total buyers) introduce new players to the hobby. Men and women who have never played a TTRPG before. I know that because many in the RPG community boycott MYFAROG, because it’s not “politically correct”, and because most get to know about the game via Burzum (my band) and other non-game related sources. So with a low price tag, it becomes easier for them to take the chance and give it a try.
Yes, I can sell it for less than 10 bucks, because I make a living from making music, so I don’t need the money. MYFAROG is my hobby, what I love to do, and my main objective with it is not at all to make money from it. I want to spread the game to promote a hobby I love and to also promote our Native European heritage.
Versitility
Overall I would describe MYFAROG as a cross between AD&D, Rolemaster/MERP, STALKER the SciFi RPG, old RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu. If you like any of those games you should like MYFAROG. You can play a style that resembles any and all of these games, if you wish, with the MYFAROG core rule book.
You can get MYFAROG 4.0 from here.
The MYFAROG character sheet in PDF (100% quality):
Mythic Fantasy Roleplaying Game 