Mystix RPG - The Big 3

[scrandy]

Hi!
I did some RPG developing, for some time now, because I was bored and disappointed with other Systems. Till now (3/2007) I have got a nearly playable Version (with myself as GM), which includes a d20 pool System, 122 Skills (No Panik - One Player has only a few), over 80 Spells so far and a detailed World and Mythology, which was originally based on the "Thief"-PC-Games Series and is now completely independent (except for some names perhaps).
I have written down some parts of the System allready, but before I continue I wanted to now, how other RPG-Experts would see my Idea, so I wrote down the big 3 for my game and hope for some reply from you. If you like it or not - simply tell me. But if you do, please say, what is wrong and what you would like better.
Thanks!

My big 3:
1.) What is your game about?**
„In the old World we were once all united, living on a giant ball flying in space. Now things have changed. The four Elements are seperated, so is Live and Death, Order and Chaos or Civilization and Wilderness. Those of us, who still believe in unity, live on little Islands floating in space or travelling with giant pegtops on Energy-Beams from Island to Island to find others, who survived the great awakening.“ Mystix is a mideaval Fantasy Game, which deals with Extremism, where itself is not extreme. It is more of a mainstream Fantasy System where nearly every playing style is supported – play as you wish. It delivers a complete background story with new or long forgotten characters and opponents. So if you want to play a Warrior or a Mage or a Librarian (this is really playable) – no problem. But you really can't play a Dwarf or an Orc – For that there are enough games allready.

2.) What do the characters do?**
In simple: The old Spirits try to gather their followers and you got to stop them. This can be done in many different ways. You can of course play classic hack and slay, because the Leader of the Extremists is behind that great Dungeon of his, or you have to investigate an intrigue inside the great City of Myriad that in the End leads to some Cultists. Or you get a secret Prophecy which has to be made true or the World is doomed or you simply play out a complete ceremonial Wedding of two fellow Kurshok ... including the Chase for the robbed bride – of course or ... well, everything is possible.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?**
The Gamemaster explains the actual Situation on the Islands or if he likes creates some by himself, then the Players enter the Islands and play a Story. Inside the game the group plays which style they want. To do this they can use a very modular Attibute and Skill System whith rules for nearly every stile – at least I hope so. There will be a simple Fighting System, which is very extensible but stays allways fast. The Players should allways be able to generate a magical Charakter within an hour without knowledge the System, and they are able to improve the Charakter within 30 Levels by adding new Abilities and Spells and improving the power of Others. Alltogether the group can do nearly everything within the World of Mystix.

[scrandy]

Hi!
I did some RPG developing, for some time now, because I was bored and disappointed with other Systems. Till now (3/2007) I have got a nearly playable Version (with myself as GM), which includes a d20 pool System, 122 Skills (No Panik - One Player has only a few), over 80 Spells so far and a detailed World and Mythology, which was originally based on the "Thief"-PC-Games Series and is now completely independent (except for some names perhaps).
I have written down some parts of the System allready, but before I continue I wanted to know, how other RPG-Experts would see my Idea, so I wrote down the big 3 for my game and hope for some reply from you. If you like it or not - simply tell me. But if you do, please say, what is wrong and what you would like better.
Thanks!

My big 3:
1.) What is your game about?**
„In the old World we were once all united, living on a giant ball flying in space. Now things have changed. The four Elements are seperated, so is Live and Death, Order and Chaos or Civilization and Wilderness. Those of us, who still believe in unity, live on little Islands floating in space or travelling with giant pegtops on Energy-Beams from Island to Island to find others, who survived the great awakening.“ Mystix is a mideaval Fantasy Game, which deals with Extremism, where itself is not extreme. It is more of a mainstream Fantasy System where nearly every playing style is supported – play as you wish. It delivers a complete background story with new or long forgotten characters and opponents. So if you want to play a Warrior or a Mage or a Librarian (this is really playable) – no problem. But you really can't play a Dwarf or an Orc – For that there are enough games allready.

2.) What do the characters do?**
In simple: The old Spirits try to gather their followers and you got to stop them. This can be done in many different ways. You can of course play classic hack and slay, because the Leader of the Extremists is behind that great Dungeon of his, or you have to investigate an intrigue inside the great City of Myriad that in the End leads to some Cultists. Or you get a secret Prophecy which has to be made true or the World is doomed or you simply play out a complete ceremonial Wedding of two fellow Kurshok ... including the Chase for the robbed bride – of course or ... well, everything is possible.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?**
The Gamemaster explains the actual Situation on the Islands or if he likes creates some by himself, then the Players enter the Islands and play a Story. Inside the game the group plays which style they want. To do this they can use a very modular Attibute and Skill System whith rules for nearly every stile – at least I hope so. There will be a simple Fighting System, which is very extensible but stays allways fast. The Players should allways be able to generate a magical Charakter within an hour without knowledge the System, and they are able to improve the Charakter within 30 Levels by adding new Abilities and Spells and improving the power of Others. Alltogether the group can do nearly everything within the World of Mystix.

[Conteur]

Do you have a Site to look at with more information. The idea seem great enough...
Did you take some inspiration from Chrono Trigger where you are thrown into a frozen world and climb on floating island?
My world is made that way so maybe it's normal that I like that...

[scrandy]

Hi!
Thanks for the Reply. I'm sorry but my Site has to wait some time. I've allready registered www.mystix-rpg.de but for now there are too many changes in progress, that a release makes no sense. I have so far about 20 Pages written with usable Rules with all the Talent-Descriptions and Spells but it is not detailed enough to understand it without explanation.
But of cause if you want to know more, simply tell me what interests you and we can write about it here.

If you like or dislike a special aspect of my idea, then tell me. That would help me a lot.

About the Islands: Well I don't know Chrono Trigger, because I don't know much about Console Gaming. But I really like Island Worlds, because they offer the player or the GM much flexibility and because the Group can decide on which Island to play; The space is limited and you can meet strange fellows when a strange Island is flying by and on another day of the campaign this island may be gone forever, if you like. But if you don't you can use my detailed maps (which I am going to draw) and detailed descriptions for the GM and players and if they want to use it, they can and if not, then they aren't urged to do so.
In addition to that practical reasons, it fits very well inside the background. The original Thief games delivered allways a fight between or against extremists, who tried to rule the world or simply destroy one part of it. Normally there were the Hammerites, Order-Warriors fighting for Order and civilization, and the Pagans fighting for nature and chaos. These factions were watched by the Order of the Keepers, who had old prophecies which showed them the way to keep balance between the fractions.
In Mystix these principles were much extended. There are more fractions than in Thief and a huge fight between them (or their gods) has allready taken place and has separated these Elements, they were fighting for. There are for example, giant vines, thick as a village, floating through the air and grabbing everything they can, there are oceans separated from the islands floating around and "visiting" the islands (if they like). There are giant Fireballs, which randomly light the Islands in lack of a Sun. And the Islands... Well they are the only place where the opposing Elements meet and make a "normal" life for the people possible. The players live on the Islands and are mostly connected or member of one of these Cults or Ideals but they are no extremists. They have to put away their differences to stop these, who want to destroy unity on the Islands again.

Again thanks for your feedback, and please guys write something!

[Conteur]

Seems very great but are you forbidding the players to play extremists?
I am an extremist guy who love to play more extremist character(I played maybe 10 games since my birth so...I love it when I can play someone in the center of the universe who shout like hell(in fact, I love to play childrens-kings!)).
Some players love to respect unity and balance but others like it when chaos rule. Anyway, the world seem very interresting and I would love to undestand your rule system about the powers a character can have(I also love to play a cleric or a wizard kid...)

[scrandy]

OK, why shouldn't you play an extremist? At first I must tell you that an extremist in this case is not a children king or a crazy beggar or a time traveller who forgot his way back. In the original PC-Game "Thief" Extremists (in this case Religious Extremists) were people who only accepted their believes and destroyed the Unbelievers. There are some Quotes of the Game I copied below to see the craziness. In an real early attempt we tried to play these original Characters. This ended up in a group mistrusting and assassinating each other - so not regularly playable. So I decided that these extremists are villain-only and created a scenery in which these Characters could play together without Fanaticism. The Scenario was that the Orders (The Hammerites or the Pagans) could be played in a milder Form as normal Hammerites for Example who learned to have some tolerance for the benefit of all living together. And these milder people as well as Characters without religious background at all (including your Child-King) can be played to save the day against some Extremists or for another reason. But of course if you want to integrate one real extremist into the group it is not forbidden.

About the System:
It is a d20 pool System with 7 Attributes (Str, Dex...) between 3 to 6 at Level one up to 10 Points at Level 25 or so. These Attributes are the number of dice you roll in case of testing your abilities. You have to get over a Situation-Value with each die to get a success. The amount of your successes tells you how good you did it from "barely made it"=1 to "with some extra bonus effect"=6.
The Situation-Value is the Difficulty of your Task minus the Stat of your Skill. This is the basic mechanic without any modifications. It is used nearly everywhere: With your Skills, Spells, Fighting...

What you can play:
There are no classes, so be what you like. You can choose from 122 Skills but you don't have to, because the skills are divided into Skills (to a value of 6) and Specializations (6-12). If you don't have the Specialization like Climbing you can allways use the corresponding Basic-Skill Athletics for example. Spells are also made this way. But if you want to use Magic (which anybody can do) you have to choose one of the Cults and join them to get "Believe", because you can only use so much magic as you have "believe". I made this, so that i don't have to use Mana or Spell-Remembering and can tell the players as GM that there might be consequences if they use the gifts of their gods too often. These consequences can be, that a superior inside your cult wants a task done, that you wouldn't do freely or an old spirit overtakes you because you are so filled with the magic of his kind. Well something like that. And of course being a Cultists brings both benefits (connections, items, shops...) and of course some responsibilities (taking on unrewarded quests, helping other members...)

So your Wizard or Cleric would be an Elemental Magican or a Shaman of the Trickster or a Priest of the Hammerites or a Agent of the Keepers for example. But you are free to combine any Skills to find your individual Character. Only the magic is some kind of strict, because you can't combine the spells of two different cults, because you can only have one Religion in Mystix - but I think you have enough spells to choose allready.

To Skills I should add, that you only have usefull skills. Things like cooking and farming are not included, but if you like you can add these things without a value (and cost) when you learn them in game. But you have some Skills you cannot find in detail in other games: Such things like Research, Glyphs and Pictographic (Specializations of Reading) which can be used to find new clues in an ancient library or things like 
Intimidation or Provocation as (Sp. of Influence) to play an interrogator or a librarian or toomb-expert.
Well you can nearly play everything...

I hope I answered some of your questions, and I hope I will find the time soon to type the rest of the rules into my wordprocessor so that I can send you the complete rules.
Till then, thanks for your interest and write something about it (what you like or what not).

And here are the promised Quotes of the original game taken from Wikiquote: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thief

Quotes of the Hammerites (believe in the Master Builder):
"Before death came, the liars were made to feast upon the hands of the thieves, and the thieves were made to ingest the tongues of their liar brothers, and we praised the Master Builder for his judgements." -The Hammer Book of Tenets

Quotes of the Pagans (believe in the Trickster or called Woodsie-Lord):
"...And the manfools piled rock on rocks and raised a treesie roof, hammers saws tear the skin of goodsie wood... ...and laughs at the Woodsie Lord. ...And when learns the Lord of this, He sends His beastesses to the manfools... ...who attacks and hammers saws their useless fleshes, and build him a house of they rotting skins." -Unattributed Trickster song

[Conteur]

Are you saying you can roll 6D20? Maybe I misunderstood or maybe you like the D20 very much(wich I don't because of it's ultra-randomness but I wont judge your rules 'til I've tested them)...
Is it very bloody(I know of about 10 games in wich the character can get hurt or the mission is over...
As for the Extremist, that's why I love to be a Storyteller, I can be really crazy. But I also love it when my players play crazy people but I doesn't happen often. That's the reason I love Planescape because you are almost forced into an extremist faction who want to be the greatest in the universe. Anyway, I know it's hard to have a bunch of player who are Fanatist of different Cult so I think you have the right idea to make it villain only for a multiplayer game.
I love to make Solo games though so...
As for the Skills, I think it become too complex to have so many Skills. In my game, I reduced to 30 Skills but I have played Rolemaster and Call of Cthulhu who has as much Skills. I depend on gameplay. I also saw that you have Levels so how does the Experience work. Do you get a Level and 10 points to distribute in your Skills(like Dungeons) or you get to distribute your Experience points to buy Skills upgrade(like Shadowrun). As for the big-bad-player question, what is the maximum level? Also what happen when one switch religion? Does he lose all his previous spells for others?
Maybe I ask too much questions...(sorry, I'm so geeeek about RPG; if I could get rich by reading them, I would be richer than god)

[scrandy]

Well, in fact you can roll up to 10d20 at level 20 or 30. But at level one you can roll between 3 to 6 d20. And yes this is a big hand full of dice. I am aware of that, and I don't like d20 more then any other dice. In fact I don't really need a dice pool.
But at last, I am going to build a mainstream System and I thought of what a player would want out of a dice system, and here is what I found out:
1.) It should be easy to use.
2.) It should be predictable: A player should allways be able to guess his chances well.
3.) Skills should reduce the luck-part.
4.) There should be few and short dice-throws: Few to no calculations during dice throwing, only one throw per action.
5.) Players should "feel" to take action: By making a viewable or hearable throw.
6.) Dice should be easy available for newbies.

These were my conciderations, so I got from a linear system to a bell-curve, then to d6 pool, d10 pool and then finally realized that a d20 is more than a ball then any dice and finally I sat down together with a friend and took tests on a d20 pool System.
But you were right there are many big dice in your hand at once, so we found a way to throw the dice without holding them in hand. We took the top (the transparent part) of a DVD-Spindle and placed the dice in there. When you shake the Spindle all dice are thrown, and they allways land correctly. No flat table to worry about. So we could rule out 1.) because it is easy to use, and the noisy shaking (especially in fights) makes real fun and creates an atmosphere of realy doing a hit when you let it fall on the table for the last centimeter or so (5.)).
So what about the math: It is really few to calculate: difficulty-skill -> then throw (4.)) and the more Skill you have the fewer luck is in the throw (3.)). In fact it is a system with very few chances for complete failure, because even with 3 dice, which is minimum, it is not very likely that you fail completely. But it is not likely for a novice to do everything completely right (3 successes) or even to make an outstanding result (6 successes) with an bonus effect. So I think this is even some kind of understandable: When you have only three dice because it is not your main attribute then you can at best do it like you wanted it (3 successes), more likely is that you get only one or two successes and made it barely: meaning it took longer to open the lock, or the created potion smells strange or you are exausted after climbing up the huge wall. But if you are at level 10 or even more you got perhaps 8 dice allready and can count more or less on normal successes (3) or even hope for more. With spells this is even more fun because the successes determine if you can modify or strengthen your spell. So I think 2.) is done too, but of course sometimes playtesting can prove every nice theory wrong. But what's definetely right is, that the d20 is the most common dice in Germany because DSA (Das schwarze Auge - The black Eye) uses it and of course D&D and I can't remember anybody playing RPGs not having 10d20 at home. But what about 10d12 or 10d8. Would you buy some additional dice to play a game you don't even know?

So d20 pool it is - but if you disagree: Prove me wrong, what is it, that sounds stranage, what would be a risk, or too complicated. I would love to discuss that. I think it is a long way to a perfect Mechanik and that is one reason why I am here.

Skills:
Yes there are much skills. But as mentioned above, in germany everybody is crazy about DSA, so is my group. And in DSA you have much more skills. I think the key to a good Skill-System is not, that you have only few, but that not everybody has the same. So I made a System where you have only 20 Basic-Skills (Athletics, Disciplin, Perception, Weapons, Armor, Attack, Defense, Alchemy, Rituals, Reading, Kulture, Religion, Influence, Travelling, Art, Craft, Nature, Healing, Mechanisms and Stealth) which even have not to be taken all by every Character. For example a Warrior will not do Alchemy or so. With these Basics you can do everything but only to a basic level. If you want to do more difficult tasks like creating your own Sword for example, you cannot do it with craft, becouse the difficulty may be too high. So you need a Specialization of Craft called Forge, which can go over the value of 6 So you can make your Sword with a roll on Forge and when you do pottery you still use Craft. ... Well if you really want to do pottery of course.
So you have an average of about 30 skills and about half of it are unique for your Character. If you have Spells of course you have even less Skills.

Levelling:
I thougt of about 20 to 30 levels, so that you have a progress after each Session. You gain XP of course (Because players like to count big numbers) and can spend some points (perhaps 50) per Level and one point to an attribute. The Points for the Skills are spent with this Formula: To get a Stat from 3 to 6 you spent: 4+5+6=15 Points. So 50 is not much (perhaps I need more but I have to think on this one). Spells are like Skills. And for Specialisation you only need to spend points from 6 on, because you allreade have the Basic Skill on 6.

Religion:
Well, religion is not easy, and not completely finished, yet. But for now it is like this. If you got a "Believe" Stat you benefit greatly like being allowed to use spells or getting some bonus, because your "believe makes you determined" (for non magical cultists). But it has some odds and duties with it. So the following things could happen:
- You like your Cult and everything is fine! - OK
- You hate your Cult because you have miscreated your Character - If you find this out fast, you can take back your special abilities (like Magic) and spend the Points somewhere else later. (Big Conversation)
- You like to play a converting Character, or somebody who things highly of 2 Cults and wants to join both. - This is no problem, but you have to divide your "Believe" in two parts and you will never be as good in one part as a Pure-Cultist. This division can be changed as you convert during an Adventure. But in this case your concern shouldn't be your Spells but your Life. If your conversion is known, at least one Cult is won't be very happy about it and anything from a light Penalty to a Manhunt is possible (Depending on the drastics of your conversion). In any case you will keep your Spells but possibly cannot raise them further.
- But if you only want to change Religion to have other Spells - The GM should show you direktly that this is not an option, because the Spells have a purpose for each Religion and should also prevent an magical supermunchkin without any mythological-background.

Sooo, I hope every question was answered so far. But if you have more, or possibly a suggestion, tell me. You can never ask too much!

[mauriciocabaleiro]

HI..
i liked your idea for a setting, however i was wondering this:

What is the felling you´re after? Why the d20? And why not roll 2 or 3 instead of 6?
Perhaps there can be a difficult number that increases and still throw 1 to 3 d20s?

I ask because..the d6 has a lower number of faces then the d20..therefore its easy to improve that by using it to count sucesses. But, the d20 has many faces, and a greater range..so why still use it to count sucesses.

Are you going to use only one type of dice?

Oh..i hope im not bothering you..im just curious..its your system after all..

[scrandy]

Hi!
Well, you are not bothering me at all. In fact your questions are the reason, why I am posting here.
I like my game of course, but I'am not so arogant that I think that it is perfect, and I think that I can only make a good mechanism, with a lot of help. This is so, because everybody thinks of another aspect it should have, and by taking everybodys opinion seriously I hope to design a game, that somebody would actually play someday.

Ok, to your questions:
In fact I have no experience with pools at all. So as I pointed out earlier it was a long journey to a d20 pool. The main reasons to pick a d20 pool was that a decision had to be made that day (because we weanted to test something) and we had a lot of d20 lying around. At first we thought, why should we play with a pool at all, because it was strange to have so much dice in your hand and you have to throw them carefully across the table so that they can actually be read. And then we had this fundamental idea of using the top of a DVD-Spindle (this is a transparent plastic pot where about 25 DVDs are sold in without cases). Well we put in our dice and shook them around or rotated the pot, so that the dice fell greatly, and they fell wonderfull everytime and it worked with 3, 6, 10 and even with 12 dice. So our throw was much faster than before, because we didn't have to search for the dice over the table. But as you can imagine, this would not work with d6 or d8 etc. because they are not rounded enough. And after we did some probing and some fighting with dummy characters for some ours we found out that it is not so hard at all counting successes on a d20 (if you have generally good readable dice).

BUT, there are some things you write, that really concern me:
Why the d20: Well, besides that funny story how we found it and throw it, it is basically because we love to have that splitted Basic-Skill/Specialization System that really worked out when we played Serenity from  Margaret Weis Productions. We love it because you can have that much different Skills without overloading each Character and it really needs at least Skills up to a value of 12(for high level Characters of course) (or I better would prefer 18 for a value). So we need a bigger range for the Difficulty minus Skill calculation than we could have with a d6 or d10 which will be the threshold for the successes -> So we got the reason for the bigger range of the d20.

Why roll 6 and not 2 or 3: The answer is the player: Do you know players, that have a skill of 12 but an attribute (for Example Strength) of 2 and feel like a mighty warrior. I can't think of one. It's only psychologically. Even with a 3 to 6 range at level 1 they won't feel good, I promise you that. But there is really one thing in your question that troubles me: When I saw my probability curves, I drew, I found out that with 3 dices at minimum it would be hard to fail a test (have no successes) and even with a 1 cancelling out a success it would be really easy to succeed. This wouldn't be the case with one or two dice, of course. But then I thought about my RPG-experience of the past and realized that I hated it when a test failed. Even as GM I hated it. So I changed it, that you need three successes to do a task comletely right. If you have less you will get some sort of penalty, but you don't loose in general. With this system there is never the situation, where you will have to do a simple reroll, because the player really needed that test to win. Instead you got a penalty(<3) or a bonus (>3). The penalty or bonus will be something that the GM can use to improve the story or create suspense.

For Example: If you are followed by Cultists inside a cave, and reach an abyss the players will throw dice to jump over it. If they are level one novices some of them will do good and land across the abyss, but some of them will only have one success. Then the GM can say:"You did it across the abyss but now you hang at the border and are going to slip away into the abyss with your hands reaching for help in the dust" - So a new thrilling obstacle is born to get him save till the cultists can get their bows ready or jump after them.  But if they were real high level professionals he could let them somersault across the abyss or he simply let them see the hidden tunnel while jumping across the abyss, that they would have missed if not for the 6 successes.

So are we using only one dice: No, definetely not. I love them so much that there will be more. However, the dices (except d20) will most be used for special situations and weapon-damage and I intend to have it playable at level one with 6d20 and 1d6 enabling more rpg-newbies to try it out without having to buy many dice types only for damage. But I hope I will find good reasons to use at least 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, d10, 1d12 for different reasons but the general mechanic that will be used 90% of the time will be 3d20 to 10d20 pool-tests for Skills, Spells and Combat-Tests, because I think people like it when you got one mechanik for all situations.

OK, now I have again written so much... well, that doesn't mean that anything of the mechanic is final. I will think about it at least till easter when I have a playtesting-group.
And of course I hope for more critics or ideas from you guys, because this really helps me and brings problems to light that I haven't even thought about and I will consider your input, mauricio, and am thankfull for your ideas.
I hope my explanations did make sense to you, if not feel free to tell me!
;-)

[mauriciocabaleiro]

Im glad you understand that im only being cooperative..

Thanks for your - to the point - answer..it took away many doubts..

Just a final fought..You have designed a system to roll the d20s (the dvd thing) then why not use only d20s? Otherwise you have to use the dvd thing to roll the d20s and to roll the others on the table..

IMO, i would come up with a way to use only d20s..imagine spinning a lot od d20s to come up with damage? that would drive the players crazy..

oh..and can we get more info on your setting? sounds interesting..
bye
mauricio

[Conteur]

I'm lost in the numbers!
I did'nt know that in Deutschland they had that much D20 and I have a Deutsch Kurs in 3 Uhr. Here, we don't have that much(I have 3D20 and I rarely use others than my lucky green to play Dungeon). My player with the most dice has 400 dices but maybe only 8D20. Anyway, it's your system.
I would like to know more about your cities, your inhabitants, your technologies, your world...

[scrandy]

Hi, Guys!
Thanks for your input, and I hope I don't write too long in my posts, but many things are not easy to explain shortly.
To Mauricio:
Your Idea for the d20 only got me thinking and although my girlfriend will hate me for this (because she loves different kinds of dice in a game) I think it will really be the best thing to get a d20 only system running. At least it will be worth a try. And I think as long as I haven't tested the whole mechanic I can change that easily. Perhaps it is even possible to get rid of the damage-throw by integrating it into the normal attack throw.

To  Conteur:
Well, we have no more d20 than you, but as mentioned the most played game here is DSA (even more than D&D). And because DSA uses d20's and many people bought some of them allready for collecting purpose, I think it is the natural way around here, but of course I'm not going to make a game for germans only (that would be crazy) and since my girlfriend is a professional English-Translator I will get a English Version nearly at the same time I write my German-Version. But there is one thing I find very funny and almost crazy: There is no Fantasy System I know using a d20 pool - and that is one reason to do it. It may fail and perhaps in some weeks I will be in favour of another mechanism, but I am not in a hurry: In the end it should be a good mechanism, not while playing around with it.
But out of that question, I think it is cool, that you learn some German. I did some french in school but my teacher ruined it, so I take french lessons in university again, but I am not good, yet.

About the World:
Well since mechanisms change fast and the world is the real news in Mystix I will tell you a bit more about it, especially about the big Capital City of Myriad:
I wrote some little stories, that will be told from different point of views:
"Myriad is a word from an old language of the old ball like world and means 10.000. We Myrians call our city by this name because of the Thousands of wonders you will encounter when you visit Myriad. It is the first City of our known World and the holy ground where the builder once laid food on and gave us the holy hammer, so that we may build us a home and guard us to the enemies lurking behind the corners in darkness. Since then we build us a City the master builder would be proud of. On the top of a giant rock in the center of the island, where we once received his blessing we built a city that is unique in all kinds. Many floors above the green-lands below the great rock the City shines in glory. In the center of it there is the Cathedral of the Church of the holy Hammer, which speaks truth, law and order in the city. While our Hammerites the glorious Order-Warriors walk the streets to enforce the builders law.
Many glorious wonders did our architect Morlenious Crean to create a home for thousands of people, who live not only beside each other, but in up to five houses that are built over each other. And together with our most experienced scientists our master smith did accomplish great things by inventing these steam machines bringing light and power to our world in darkness..." Glorified description from the Old Smith in Exile

Another point of view made a travelling monk, who really should be more of an Barde but chose to take the oath of the hammerites and learned to regret it later: "Little fellows, give me more beer! Then I will tell you a story that no-one wants to hear, up there! Hahahaaaa... It is a story about a City of stone and Metal, a story about those Hammer-Heads that made it, a story about you little fellows and how they broke your neck:
There was a time when the last of us, that had survived the great awakening, stood on top of this stone that would once be the great City of Myriad and got this great Hammer from this Crazy God and they said: Lets enslave the others so that we can live in paradise on top of them rotting in the caves and the mines. And they did it ... yeah they did it. And now what have we got: The mines are long depleted, but we are still here - sitting in caves like rats getting smaller and smaller and eating mushrooms and rats to survive. Yes they build a great City but nothing for us... "

"Water flows, air flies, fire BURNS and... -- My master may I disturb your prayers. The aqueduct is leaking and two levels of the supterrains are allready floated. -- Is that so? -- Yes, master, many could flee but some of them are allready fightling for their lives. -- I see, I will call in the council immediately..." The great aqueducts, who can present enough water for all the people in Myriad are a difficult thing. The members of the Hand, a Guild of Magicians, that are known for their exceptional Elemental-magics have constructed the aqueducts with great efforts. They had to find a way through different kind of magics to levitate the fresh water from the flying sea to the north into the canals of the city. And later, when the mines stayed populated, they installed a complete ventilation-system where fresh air could enter the most inner structures of the great rock. Everything went fine inside the City with these improvements ... till the day came where the aqueduct broke and the water entered the caves ... and it did never left. The lowest sections of the great rock are now known as the underwater graveyard, because not even the Guild of the Hand was able to get everywhere and everyone out.
But through this event things changed, because the Church of the Hammer decided to give up many of the caves underground and to expand the city, to give even the poor a place where they can live a normal life in safety.

Well that where some stories. I would like to write more, but it is too late today. I hope you like this narrative style. I think it is a good way (also in the rulebook) to give the player a good view over the world and show them that not all people in it see themself from the same perspective. Remember: there are no real villains in my game, only normal guys, whose point of view got a little bit too extreme.

[Conteur]

I love the narrative style! It seem a very good game and I think I love love to try it. Do you have a map of it or some images?
As for the DSA game, what is that? Maybe I know under a different name but I think not because here, we almost only have the D20 system that use the D20.

[scrandy]

Hi Conteur and everybody else 'reading!
It's been some days now since my last post, but it is really good to see that still someone is out there watching out for Mystix!
Well, Conteur, I would love to give you my early preview of my game to play, but it is not finished enough to play and in fact it is in german. Well translation is under way (my girlfriend is on it) and the translation sounds much better then my posts here (without the missspelling), but it will take some time.
I think I will post some things from time to time here (and hope for your feedback of course) and I will tell everybody, who is interested, when it is ready to play. And of course I hope for some playtesters then (but that will be another forum entry)

About DSA: Well, it is called "the dark eye" in english (not the black eye - my mistake), but it is not that popular in other countries. It got out some years after AD&D and is today played by most german RPG-Players. It is very narrative and has a lot of skills and a very strange dice rolls with 3d20. The main reason, why I consider DSA so much is because the 4. Edition of it has many flaws and a lot of people here are unhappy and in need of another system, like my group did.
Well, I don't think I can produce something like DSA (or D&D), with that many players. But I want to make a mainstream system, which many people would want to play. So I think by meeting some of their expectations I will make it easier for some of them to play my game one day... but that has to be seen.

About MAPS and other content: Well, I have no map, YET. But I am writing. Last week and probably the next 2 weeks I will not be able to write much, because I have to finish some work for university. But I think around easter I will get you some more (perhaps even a simple map). I will also playtest on easter so I think some new Ideas will come to my mind then. But till then I will post some content about Mystix here:

Some background about the Keepers:
"35 Winters after the great awakening a girl called Cassandra, a poor orphan, lurking around in the streets of Myriad, found an entrance to an old building that for a long time noone had ever entered nor left. It was called the chamber of voices, because an old woman was sitting in there reading strange symbols in a long forgotten tongue. The people of Myriad hadn't entered her house because they didnt't like her strange talking much, but Cassandra had no chance. It was cold outside and noone was there she could steal some food from, so she entered the one place noone would bother her: the chamber of voices.
They had allways warned her about the old woman. They told her that she speaks the strange words as if they meant something about you, as if they had just told her who was visiting. And then she would stare you in your eyes untill ...
Cassandra opened the door. And there she was, an old book on her knees, murmuring the same words ever ever again: "Rankonis in karbular demarliar dixit, urupar kardis inpenerabilis fax noziat kaar!" - But she was not staring! With old tired eyes she looked at Cassandra and then smiled, still speaking out this one sentence... And then the words came to Cassandras mind like magic: "And there will be a girl..." She couldn't believe her ears at first but she recognized one word after another, and then she spoke to the old woman: "And there will be a girl, who will come before you, to speak the words you seek for these glyphs, that you read." And then she continued with a new sentence and Cassandra followed: "Together you will lead your people out of the time of the awakening into a new age that another glyph will tell you about, someday." And their eyes met and the bond that once will become the keepers was born"
... A lonely tale from a book inside the keeper library.
Since that day (the foundation of the keepers) many books were found and many glyphs were read. The keepers are today one of the most powerful guilds in Myriad. They gather all the knowledge that is to be found inside their hidden library, that not even the builders of the city know about. They learned to use the glyphs for all kind of purposes. The glyph magic is one of the most powerful magic around. They can lock away every secret, use living shadows, and stone gargoyles to their help and open portals to places noone else can go. Keepers have been in secret for a long time, and that will not stop, when you play one. To your other characters you will be known as a merchant or traveller or somebody else. In real you are THE stealth-character of the game (at least at high level) and use everything to gather informations, fullfill the plans of your guild or try to hold the powers in balance. And maybe someday you will find one of these legendary books that can be read by the old woman and translated by the girl, that will predict the future and will help to prevent great evil from rising. 

Well, so much for the keepers. I really would like to give you a map... but...
If you have anything to add, or you found something, that makes no sense to you, or you have a good idea to add...
please tell me.