Roleplaying with the HeroQuest game system in the
ancient Russia of legend and folktale, a land of glittering onion-domed churches
and dark, dangerous forests, home to heroes, fiends -- and the flame-feathered
firebird.
Mythic Russia will
be released in 2005. It will be a standalone book,
including all the rules necessary for play, as well as information on the
setting, maps and scenarios. Development of the game and book is currently under
way, and this website will be updated regularly with support material, previews
and development notes.
Mythic Russia is being written by Mark
Galeotti. As well as being an academic specialist in Russian history, he has a
long association with gaming and a particular understanding of the HeroQuest
system, having been one of its developers and also Acquisitions Editor for
Issaries, Inc. In his words, "this is unapologetically a labour of love: I
have always wanted to see the magic, whimsy and horror of Russian history and
folklore brought to life, and I think in HeroQuest we finally have the game
system able to do it justice."
Mythic Russia will use the core game
engine, adapted for play in this setting. However, it will be entirely
compatible with HeroQuest.
A Designer's
Blog with regular comments and progress reports is now online.
Latest News
30 June 2005: Revisions throughout the site, including a sample Sibiryak
spirit, Crow, and the Byzantine
Greek and Sibiryak perspectives
on the magical Otherworlds.
25 May 2005: Playtester's Notes, a
new section with information and observations
from playtest games.
21 May 2005: a preview extract of the Mongol Great Spirit Tsaghan
Ebugen, Lord of the Mountain, master of sea and earth, life and death
30 April 2005: a worked-through example of character creation: Oleg
Birch-Tall
9 March 2005: a new preview extract, an outline of Moscow.
31 January 2005: minor updates, including the addition of a thumbnail version
of the colour cover art by Jeremy Mohler, above, and a preview extract on the
hedge wizards known as Kolduny.
20 December 2004: the final updates for 2004, including a preview of
the Russians' dour and self-disciplined Saint
Ioann.
8 December 2004: new previews of pagan deities' magical keywords - Rugyevit
the fierce Russian warrior god and Aušrine,
the brilliant, beautiful and selfish Lithuanian goddess.
17 November 2004: an introduction to the Otherworlds
which lie beyond the Mortal World, as well as a new page on the Artists
working on Mythic Russia.
10 October 2004: another preview, of the homeland keyword for the Lithuanians.
10 September 2004: Mark Galeotti gave an interview
to the Ring of HeroQuest Narrators about the game's progress, what makes
medieval Russia such an interesting setting and how it will develop the core
HeroQuest rules.
27 July 2004: Mythic
Russia News yahoogroup formed: this open-access mailing list will allow
you to keep up to date with progress. It is a low-volume list (for the most part
there will only be one monthly update) and only Firebird may post to it (so it
will not become a source of spam).
HeroQuest is a registered trademark of Issaries,
Inc, which has licensed its game engine to Firebird Productions. All content
throughout this site relating to the Mythic Russia
game and setting is copyright © Mark Galeotti 2004-5.
All content throughout this site relating
to the Mythic Russia game and setting is
copyright © Mark Galeotti 2004-5.