Welcome to my playthrough of this partly Mythras-medieval/fantasy-game and partly both playtest and review of Omens Below. A system agnostic tool for generating and playing through dungeons by no other than The Random Refuge.
By review I don´t mean a lenghty detailed one but more of my impressions while playing.
I play this one using the Mythras imperative free ruleset which actually is Runequest 6.
RuneQuest 6: The complete ruleset that is known today as Mythras was originally published as the 6th edition of RuneQuest by the publisher The Design Mechanism.
The Name Change: When The Design Mechanism lost the license to the “RuneQuest”- name (the rights reverted back to Chaosium, who then created RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha), they took the exact same ruleset, stripped out the specific RuneQuest setting references, and rebranded the game as Mythras. And you can download both the Mythras imperative and Mythras classic Fantasy imperative for free on Drivethrurpg.
I wrote this little intro to get some feeling for the games atmosphere. Maybe I will go on with some world building at some stage… if my character survives this. The idea is that my character Ponthos lives in the countryside, the outskirts of a larger city called Bellhaven. And he is doing this job in the district called “Hallowhang” which is a poor part of this grim town.
Ponthos followed his uncle’s instructions: “Go to the blacksmith and pick up a new spear and a small shield. He ows me for those goats. Then you go to the south entrance of the city sewers. Someone will be waiting to let you in boy.”
The silver coins lay in a worn leather pouch. Ponthos had only nodded and done what was expected of him: stand up when there was work to be done, ensure there was food on the family’s table, and hopefully survive the day.
His bigger goal was to save some of those coins and help build up the family farm to its former glory and one day.. just one day be not so dependent on the city to keep on living.
The man waiting by the iron grate was a hideous sight. He had huge pimples all over his bold rather red head and half his face. Of varying sizes. Some seemed to have burst long ago, oozing out only to make room for the next. His mouth was a single grin, with no whole teeth left. His nose had been broken a few too many times, making the sound of his breathing sound more like a whistle.
The man said, “Can you believe they’re hanging the bastard today? Some lucky soul will get the chance to jump and reach for his legs and try to hang on to them as he suffocates... hahahah... Can you understand that? Hanging there from the legs while the life is sucked out... hahahah.” He catchd his breath.
“Well, at least death is certain anyways. But that thrill to get to hang there with the damned and try to get his head separated from the rope! Hahahaha… And you know what happens if that one looses his grip? They all get to throw tomatoes and veggies on him! Hahaha! Ooh my young boy, today is a good day for a hanging…”
Then he took an old looking key, put it in the grate-door and opened it up.
”There you go boy. Now you go in there and get rid of those…those…
”Rats?” Ponthos filled in.
The man fell silent, scratched one of his infected boils until it started to drip pus down his cheek. Then he giggled and looked at Ponthos. “Rats..yes… be sure to take their tails as proof. Come see me at the tavern, the “beheaded goose” when you are done in there. I can´t hand you any maps but I believe you have seen the end when you get to a large pool containing all the filth and refuse of the city above. A true cesspool, boy, hahahahaha.” Then he coughed and spat.
Ponthos felt the world ending… a feeling he had lived with the last 24 years, living a bit outside in the countryside but spending most of his time in that city, breathing the decaying air, trying to survive one day at a time.
I will start by rolling up my character Ponthos. He is sort of a hunter. An extuingisher of rat infestations and other unwelcome smaller creatures around the town of Bellhaven. A grimdark place somewhere in the mind of this solo-player…
First I choose a name, age, culture and career. Ponthos is his name, 24 years old. He is civilised and his career is hunter.
The next step is to determine the characteristics. This is done by rolling 3d6 for STR, CON, DEX, POW, and CHA, and 2d6+6 for SIZ and INT, followed by calculating the skills. I won't go through the full process here, but if anyone is especially interested, let me know and I can write a separate article about that. The system is really good and the tactical level of combat is one of my favorites in ttrpg´s. It is Deadly.
I made my character after the concept “hunter” and gave him a short spear, a buckler and a dagger. The crowbar is another thing coming… Just realised that the picture contained that and it is not chosen from the beginning…
I made up three passions which gives the character (me) some advance in certain situations. And four proffessional skills learned because of his work.
So… lets jump in to the action!
And lets do some threads & throws shall we?
Ponthos steps through the door and closes it behind him.
It is not so dark in there, torches are burning every here and there. It looks like someone at least gets in here for work with the sewers.
This is the loop I use. I check for encounter and deal with that before I continue with contents. In the rulebook it´s the other way around. Maybe tha will proof as the better choice but for now I will do it like that.
1. Intensity rating
2. Size and shape of the room/size of corridor
3. Encounter? -depending on which room it is. For example -3 on the encounter roll in room 3 and so on. On a dice roll (1d10) zero or below, it´s an encounter/enemy
4. Combat (if any due to encounter) (I like to deal with the enemy before I get to the contents of the room) (That may change)
5. Contents (Roll on tables to see what´s inside the room.(Always interpret the content based on the room's Intensity rating.)
6. Check foor doors/openings
The first room: This one gets an Intensity rating of 1 because it is the number one room. The intensity rating gets higher by every room you walk into, not corridors. This means that the danger here is minimal but it is there…
Then I roll for the size and shape of the room: 1D10 = 8 (6 squares on a grid paper). Every grid-square is 10 feet. And the shape: 1D10 = 7 (Semi collapsed rectangular) I draw this up on grid paper. I did not really draw the rooms/corridors with exact precision.
No encounter in here so no combat. Contents: useful items: tool/crowbar. I rolled on a D10 table for this and i interpret “tool” by saying I find a crowbar. Might come in handy.
Then I roll for doors/openings: 2 exits. The way Ponthos came in counts as one of the exits. So one it is. Then a roll on Doors: 1D10 = 3 which means no door.
That is the procedure so far. Ponthos gets in the sewers, sees these torches light up the walls. It´s quiet in here.
Parts of the walls has collapsed. He spots something on the ground when he moves forward. A crowbar. He picks it up and continues on through a opening in the stoneish wall.
Room 2: This room gets an intensity rating of 2 beacuse it´s the second room. It is a irregular shaped area (a roll with a modifier due to the first rooms shape) and Ponthos sees this big rat-like creature nosing around a few meters before him. It spots him, seems a bit surprised at first and attacks. So first combat it is.
Round 1. Ponthos wins the initiative (same order during the whole fight) and the rat is considered flat-footed until its turn, which means it cannot parry or evade. Ponthos has two AP-points and making an attack costs one AP.
Attack: 1D100 = 39 (64) Hit! I get to choose two special effects (one for the hit and one for the surprise) whichis a great thing in Mythras.
I choose impale and choose location. I choose its head as location. Impale means that my weapon (spear) drives in its head and gets stuck. If I later try to draw it out, it leads to more damage.
Damage roll: 1D8+1 (short spear) +1D4 damage bonus: 6+1+4 = 11 -1 (the rats hard skin) so 10 damage total. And the rat has 5 hp so it dies instantly. This count as a major wound, as the head injury reduces its Hit Points to a negative value equal to or greater than its original HP. In the event of such a head injury, the victim dies instantly without any chance of survival.
Because of this I don´t roll for brawn which one normaly have to do when getting the weapon back due to impale.
The combat system in Mythras in marvelous. I haven´t stumbled upon any of the likes of this, or a more brutal system except for maybe Rolemaster/Against the dark master.
One good hit can kill instantly. You really want that initiative and roll a great one at the start.
One thing I totally forgot when doing this fight was Ponthos passion: Hatred towards rats which would have given him a bonus: When a passion is used to augment a skill, it adds 20% of the passion’s own value to the skill being used.
I won´t forget that again…I hope.
So I roll for room contents now that the combat is over and Ponthos can focus on the surrounding areas. “none” and “treasure”. So I interpret with the intensity rating of one in mind: Ponthos fins a small purse containing 1D6 silver coins: 1D6 = 2 (silvercoins). He pick these up still a bit shaken by that big rat. And hr remembers what the man said before…about the tail. So he takes his dagger and cuts off the rats tail as evidence before moving on.
Door check: 1 door and it is locked. So I believe I use the crowbar on the door to get it wide open. Difficulty level standard so I roll for my brawn skill (25%) which was a success.
So then I roll for damage on the door until it gets smashed = Ponthos gets the door open with his crowbar and walks into..
Room/corridor check: Corridor/6 squares long. No new intensity rating and no contens-rolls in corridors.
Ponthos walks into this corridor. the walls are uneven. It seems this part of the sewers are not really built for a safe passage for humans… just dirty water and whatever likes to dwell within…
Ponthos feels the smell of decay and he thinks of this as the better half of the Hallowhang district.
Roll for junction: one junction, right. So I draw this on my map. A corridor always ends with a room of some sort so I just check if its is a door at the end of the corridor first. No door. So a opening which ponthos just can walk through.
Room 3. Intensity rating 3. Organic or irregular (The dice roll got a modifier of +4 because of the last shape result in room 2). 4 squares.
Ponthos steps in to this room where the sewage water runs on both ends and he walks on a sort of bridge-like area to get across.
There is no encounter/enemy in this room. But there is something else…
Treasure!
And because of the intensity rating just got to 3 I think 1D6 of silver coins can be worth finding here on the ground: 1D6 = 4. So four silvercoins. Not that big of a treasure but if it was in a later room the bigger reward.
Ponthos is a bit down. He picks up the coins but thinks that this can´t build him a new home, less help his uncle. He gets the feeling of not getting what he actually deserves.
Exits: 3 so two new ones. One to the souyh and one to the west.
Ponthos walks through this iron bar door of sort and comes into…
Room 4. Intensity rating 4. Organic or irregular. (The dice roll got a modifier of +4 because of the last shape result in room 3) No encounter/enemy here.
Contents: treasure/denizen. Really interesting.
Ponthos finds another of these purses laying around, 1D6 = 4 silver coins. And he finds something else according to the contents second roll, a denizen.
I think of this as a encounter with a person so I roll on the YES/NO oracle in Omen gme. Is it a human? NO. And That´s it. I interpret:
The creature had an bent back and misfigured body overall. Ponthos could see that it was not entirely human. It was dressed in cloth and the shoes were more like cloth tied to its feet. The eyes looked at him with a nervous but at the same time curious sight. Pothus was about to ask “what” it was but changed his mind because of his good manors: “Who are you?”
"I am Walmar, I work down here”, Walmar answered with a very light and a bit nasal voice. He spoke just like a human but the skintone was more grey greenish.
”I am Ponthos and I try to cleanse the sewers from rats”.
”Well, there is one here somewhere… not sure if it could pass the locked doors..So you say…you say..is the door to the outside still open?” And he looked at the way Ponthos just came in.
”Yes, it is.. you don´t have a key with you?”
”Key? No…no key..I can go now..?” And he pointed again at the way towards the exit.
Ponthos started feel a bit sorry for this Walmar character. Something felt off.
”Yes of course you can". And he gave him a smile, a pitying smile.
Walmar started to walk away, and Ponthos reflected on how bad his walking looked. “Are you alright, walmar?”
Walmar stopped but just for a second before he continued on and talked at the same time: “They used me for target practice…arrows…” Walmar wasn´t nowhere to be seen but his voice could be heard from afar in the sewer: “Thank you…Ponthos”.
Ponthos stood there in the gloom with this new experience of meeting this… this Walmar. He thought which side he was really helping by going down here in the sewers, in the slums of that.. nevermind. Time to move on.
There had been some sort of doors or walkways leading somewhere here in the past. But they had been blocked by debree. So it´s time to backtrack to room 3.
I roll for the backtrack to see if anything encounters Ponthos: 1D10 = 2 Nothing happens.
The west door is locked so I will try to use Brawn to get it open: 1D100 (25%) = 37 Failed. Lockpick? No haven´t got any… So I make an attack roll with my spear which is a success and the door can be opened. But it made such a noise so it´s -2 on next encounter roll.
Because of the lack of encounters this far I felt like Ponthos got more and more anxious. What was going on down there? One rat down…a big one. But what else could lurk around the corner? The Intensity rating is great. It makes this situation really feel dangerous. The next encounter Will be at intensity level 5 or more. That rat was encounterd at intensity level 2 so next encounter will be much tougher. And just to have that knowledge when playing makes me feel a bit tense :). I mean when playing according to Mythras ONE very good hit can kill your character at once. Just saying…
Room 5. Intensity rating 5. Organic or irregular. (The dice roll got a modifier of +4 because of the last shape result in room 4) Size: 4 squares. No encounter/enemy here.
Contents: 1:Danger, 2: Danger. So I roll on the DANGER TABLE: 1D10 = 2 & 5.
”Something expired” & “Something can be triggered”.
I intrpret with the intensity rating in mind:
Suddenly the lights goes out, it´s completely dark in the small room. And Ponthos can hear a one time clicking sort of sound. When he stepped forward (before the click) he felt the irregularity in the ground so he understood something was triggered. Which leads to a mechanisms roll: 1D100 (54%) = 37% Success. And now I choose to use one of my three luck points to basically save Ponthos life. I interpret:
Before it gets dark, Ponthos manages to see a hole opening in the wall a bit ahead of him, and he ducks while taking his foot off the mechanism. A big bolt which would have run through his forehead whistled past above him instead.
There is an open door in front om him so gets moving. On the other side there is a corridor, 7 squares. No junction. Ponthos continues until he reaches the door on the other side which is locked.
I try to use brawn (25%) to open the door: 1D100 = 99% Fumble! Which means in Mythras, Ponthos get 1% increase in the skill he fumbled, brawn. But the fumble gets a consequence too… I interpret: First of all -2 on the next encounter roll due to the noise he made. An d because of this fumble Ponthos got stuck with some piece of his armor which now i torned apart and gets 0 protection until repaired somehow. I roll 1D20 to see which part: 1D20 = 6 Left leg. So getting hit in the left leg means no more -2 damage modifier this moment on…
Room 6. Intensity rating 6. Rectangular. Size: 3 squares.
Encounter roll: 1D10 modifier -8 (-6 for the sixth room and -2 for the noise) = 2 -8 (-6) Enemy!
Because of intensity rating 6 it is a risky encounter. So this can be it… the final fight in these sewers I guess. Lets just hope for that initiative roll..
I made this encounter to be a larger rat. I took the stats from a lion and called this one a “lionrat”. Size 25, CON 13.
Yes, it became a bit tooo cute,not my intention,hehe.Well here we go.
Initiative rolls: Because of Ponthos armor on his right leg: 3 he gets -3 on his initiative roll. I think I totally missed this one before. Therefore his initiative roll will be 1D10 +12 = 20 and the lionrat has 1D10 + 14 = 16. So Ponthos goes first.
I think I will just use my 1 of 2 AP to attack this creature head on and hope for the best. And maybe use my shield as second action, we´ll see.
1D100 (76% due to my passion: hatred toward rats) = 37 HIT!
The lionrat gets one attempt to parry/block: 1D100 (65%) = 82 Failure. This means I get a special effect. So I go for its head (choose location).
Damage roll: 1D8+1 +1D4 = 12. Ponthos thrusts his spear against the beasts head and the spearhead penetrates, making the monster shaking its tail and loosing balance beacuse of the chock. The lionrat had 8 hp (head) which now is at -2 which counts as a serious wound. It needs to get to -8 to be fatal. Now this applies: Immediate Stop: The rat is shocked by the pain and cannot attack for the next 1d4 combat rounds (it can still attempt to parry or dodge attacks).
And… Chance of unconsciousness: The monster must immediately attempt an opposed roll with its Endurance against your attack roll of 37.
If the rat rolls above 78, or if it rolls under 78 but lower than 37 (since you won the opposed roll), it collapses on the floor.
If it rolls between 38 and 78, it manages to stay conscious but is still too shaky to attack.
1D100 = 52 (alive but shaken)
My second AP… I attack again but miss.
1D4 = 2: The lionrat will not attack in the next two rounds.
Round 2. Ponthos attacks again and miss. But with one AP left he tries again: hits, and the beast gets to parry and succeeds. Because of that Ponthos does not get a special effect..
Round 3. Ponthos attacks but it´s a miss. But he tries one more time to hit the beast and it´s a success! The lionrat gets to roll for parry but it´s a miss which gives Ponthos a special effect which again will be choose location (head). Damage: 7. The lionrat falls dead and Ponthos cuts off its tail as proof.
He stands there chocked by what he just had witnessed. A rat monster. He wants nothing but to get out of there now. So I roll for backtracking which is a D10 for every room Ponthos backtracks through. Nothing. Nothing at all. No more encounters in the sewers.
The end…. or is it?
Thank You for reading and being part of this community :)
It has been really fun to try out this Omens below. And I have decided that I will continue use this when I end up in a dungeon of some sort here after. And I hope to get some world building done in the future and make this town and other landscapes beyond playable…
I really hoped for Ponthos to survive too because I feel I want to play this characer a lot more.
I hope You comment and please follow the trail…
Because of the lack of encounters this far I felt like Ponthos got more and more anxious. What was going on down there? One rat down…a big one. But what else could lurk around the corner? The Intensity rating is great. It makes this situation really feel dangerous. The next encounter Will be at intensity level 5 or more. That rat was encounterd at intensity level 2 so next encounter will be much tougher. And just to have that knowledge when playing makes me feel a bit tense :). I mean when playing according to Mythras ONE very good hit can kill your character at once. Just saying…
Room 4: content: Treasure+denizen (4-weak) Yes/No: Is this creature alive? 2 Yes.
Congrats on the crystal clear explanation of both Mythras and Omens Below and your story in a single article.
The slow builtup of Omens Below does give your PC a chance to find something small and run. Or stay for more treasure... but also more danger.
You can skip that by starting at higher intensity and encouter ratings.
I am not particularly fond of percentile dice mechanics or games that rely on extensive skill and feat lists; I prefer to encourage player creativity in narrative development. The name "Lionrat" was perfect.
I do recall having a positive impression of Mythras.