I purchased this more for the GM Emulator features than the Roleplaying system. The main purpose of this system is to allow you to apply the tools in this book to play any RPG adventure without requiring a game master. This allows solitaire and cooperative play. The foundation is actually pretty simple system with two key parts: Yes/No table and two-word keyword system.

The Yes/No table can be used to present Yes/No questions to the system, with the chart providing a mechanism to determine the % chance of yes, no or exceptional yes/no. You roll percentile dice (1-100) to get the result. You ask questions of the system as you might ask a game master when you need more details of a setting or what's happening, such as "Is the market crowded?", "Do I find the gem on the dead goblin?", or "Is the weapons officer a traitor?" To provide a weight to favor the more likely answer, you determine how probable it should be for the answer to be Yes. For example, "Do I find the gem on the dead goblin?" might be unlikely if you have more powerful enemies that haven't been defeated and the gem is key to the story, or it could be very likely if you slayed the goblin in a dungeon where the type of gem is pretty common for the treasure the dungeon contains. You cross-reference this probability of being likely with a Chaos Factor, which begins at 5 on a scale of 1-9. The higher the Chaos Factor, the more likely are Yes and Exceptional Yes responses. This factor goes up or down between each "scene" of your adventure based on how chaotic you think the previous scene was.

The Yes/No table can also be used to determine % of a challenge succeeding based on the cross-reference of the skill of the character attempting the challenge with the difficulty of the obstacle or competing character. For example, if you want to determine if a Ninja succeeds in hitting a target with a shooting star, you would consider the Ninja's skill (likely Exceptional) with the difficulty of hitting the target (average for a target character with average dexterity). You then get a % chance of getting a Yes, No, Exceptional Yes, Exceptional No and roll percentile dice (1-100) to get the result. This is using the exact same table as above.

Finally, there is a two-word keyword system designed to provide you with a random two word combination to help stimulate (or "seed") your imagination to apply it to the current situation. You have a supporting table that can also determine the subject of the keywords, if applicable. For example, this can be used to generate a random event in a scenario when doubles are rolled on the percentile dice. The first roll would determine the subject, such as Player Character Favorable, and the next two rolls determining the two words from two different keyword tables that are used in combination. Each table has 100 different keywords. For example, you might produce a result of "Passion" and "Attention" from the two tables. So if you're a spy sneaking into a secret base and get a random event with "Player Character Favorable -> Passion Attention", it's up to you to apply it to the situation. In this case, I might say that nearby guards are chatting with a beautiful officer in the hallway that would allow me to sneak past them undetected.

The book contains more information about how you can apply this to your adventures, and it even uses this system to let you play a full RPG game without requiring any other RPG rules. Where the book really shines is in the way it demonstrates the use of the system in a variety of settings (Sci-Fi, dungeon, mystery, etc.). But if you already have a rule set that you like, such as Pathfinder, you can use the tools mentioned above to allow you to play your campaign without a dedicated game master (though one player or the group will have to provide interpretations on the results produced by the system, as well as when and how to apply the charts.

Why does this work so well? If you're just setting up the adventure without any guidance, you tend to direct the adventure along a particular path. Once you've set this process in motion, your mind will tend to propel forward in a particular direction. When you use the Mythic system, you interrupt your story at various points to determine whether the story proceeds as you initially design. When you get a No, Exceptional, or keyword response, you're forced to stop and reevaluate your story and might be forced to redirect the narrative path. That's where the surprise comes in.

The only problem I've had with this is that I haven't felt like the Chaos Factor has worked for me as intended. I've had several times when the Chaos Factor keeps dropping to the point where I can't get anything to happen. But I need to play around with this more, as I might need to be more proactive in making something happen, even if it's in a different direction.

Finally! The groundbreaking wargame classic from the 80s is finally available outside badly worn used copies or pristine copies that cost and arm and a leg. In both cases, you really hate to play it in order to at least preserve the components. Efforts to republish the game over the past 15 years have met with more drama than an entire season of "The Guiding Light."

This is a straight-up scanned version from Second Edition, with reminder text in the Action Deck enhanced for legibility.

Action cards are printed on Poker sized cards, which are a tad wider than the original deck. This makes sleeves easier to find, as they fit perfectly in sleeves for M:tG. The backs have the images expanded to fill the entire card to excellent effect, while the front of the card maintains the same ratio, leaving a negligible bit of white space on the left and right margins. This deck has the most errata that needs to be applied: Marsh cards should have -1 instead of +1, Card #7 should have a 1 instead of a 7 in RPC position 9, and all the black RNC Movement cards should have INF shifts 2 to the right instead of the left. Remember: you'd have to do the same thing to your $150 copy off eBay. The cards are flexible and riffle shuffle easily. As stated previously, the reminder text has been enhanced for legibility.

AFV cards are printed on the same size cards as the action deck, and have been slightly enlarged to fill the size of the card, as the original cards were smaller. The errata on some of these cards were already applied by the time the Second Edition was published, so no problems there.

Personality cards are printed on mini-card size cards, and the images were reduced from the original size of the cards. This will leave a smaller footprint on the gaming table, which is nice. I'll have to play a game or two to determine whether the size reduction will make reading the game information during play more difficult (Morale and Firepower numbers, for example).

The rulebook is a PDF scan from a well-preserved copy, and the scan quality is fantastic. There's only a slight discoloration on the back of the rulebook, which is pretty common for a game 30-some odd years old.

The counters are available as both PDF for self-printing, or printed on the same card stock as the card decks. The card stock version is the most convenient for those who simply want to cut and play, but it's very much worth putting forth the effort to apply to sturdier material such as cardboard or wooden square pieces you can buy at Craftparts.com.

As for the game itself, it's incredibly tense. The game is designed to produce the type of fog of war and chaos that soldiers faced on the battlefield. The Designer's Notes in the rulebook should be required reading by all wargamers, as it explains the method to the madness. There are "gamey" elements to play, such as the fact that groups don't have flexibility to move to one side while they have flexibility to move to the other due to the A/B/C/D nature of group formation the game imposes.

Learning the game can be a challenge, as there are tons of fiddly bits you have to remember. Once you've played the game a few times, things fall into place, and game play will quicken with only minor reference to the rules for handling situations that don't occur very often. You have to be patient with both the game and yourself, roll up your sleeves and dive in as best you can, and go back and review areas that are unclear. The effort is definitely rewarded.