Mini-Review: Mazes & Minotaurs

This one is, I believe, the last mini-review I originally wrote for EN World but never got around to publish, slightly edited.

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Back in 2002, Pault Elliot wrote an article about how different D&D (and the whole TTRPG scene) could have been if its inspirations were different; say, Jason and the Argonauts and the Odyssey instead of Conan and the Lord of the Rings. Olivier Legrand became fascinated with the concept and soon began working on such a game that could have existed back in the 70s, first on his own, and then collaborating with Paul himself. Eventually, the fruit of their collaboration was the design of Mazes & Minotaurs.

Mazes & Minotaurs was not just a design experiment, however. It was minimalistic, amateurish, and even parodistic, but it was a game to be played, nonetheless. Soon the original version received numerous supplements, and then a major revision, bringing us the advanced versioní of the game, which is now available on DriveThruRPG.

A shtick of M&M is that every product is written as if it were a re-release of something from the 70s or 80s, and a whole fake history of role-playing games is constantly referenced (like MAZECON and the Griffin magazine), which makes it a hilarious read on its own. As noted above, however, M&M is not merely a parody; it is a fully functional game with a simple but powerful core.

M&M has a slightly tweaked list of Attributes (Might, Skill, Wits, Luck, Will, Grace), whose modifiers are used extensively to calculate various secondary statistics (such as melee and missile attack bonuses, and saving rolls like Danger Sense and Mystic Fortitude). There is no standard resolution mechanic per se, even though every test is made using the familiar mechanic of "d20 + modifiers vs. target number". There is no skill system either (just like in the early editions of D&D), but there are various Background Talents detailed in the Companion.

The Players Manual describes twelve classes (such as Centaur, Lyrist, Spearman, and Thief). They differ in their starting Hits (the equivalent of hit points), primary attributes, and special abilities (everyone gets two or three of these, except for casters who only have their spells). Combat is very straightforward, but the supplements detail a fair amount of special maneuvers. Magic uses spell points (called Power Points), and every caster class has access to six unique spells.

The Maze Masters Guide provides information regarding the setting (called Mythika), whose bare-bones descriptions are further detailed in a series of articles (cf. Atlas of Mythika). It also has a handful of random generators (adventure plots, city states, temples, mysterious islands), and an easy-to-use monster creation system (the actual monsters are presented in the Creature Compendium; circa 200 opponents of various types and power levels).

Mazes & Minotaurs is an amazing work of love. It retains the simplicity and familiarity of old-school D&D, while improving upon it at the same time. There are a lot of supplements covering a wild range of topics (new monsters, mythic items, classes, and adventures), yet the game remains simple and elegant. And the best part is that the entire product line is completely free.

M&M Session #1 - Isle of the Red Minotaur

"Lanike, the only daughter of King Neokles, has suddenly fallen into a deep magical slumber. Youguys, brave and foolhardy and expendable heroes, have been tasked with finding Xenon the Sage, currently imprisoned on the Isle of the Red Minotaur out of divine punishment. Captain Boros and his crew of thirteen are ordered to take you to the island, wait until your return, and sail towards wherever the magical cure is according to Xenon." - my verbatim introduction to the players

The party:

• Kitipos son of Karipos, Noble 1
• Orion, Spearman 1

Arriving at the rocky island, the party wagered 20sp each against a total of 100 of the crew that they would bring back the Red Minotaur's horns.

Following a trail inland they heard a melancholy tune. Orion decided to play harmony, and soon they met the source of the music: a childlike spirit of fortune and prosperity. He shared a lot of information about the island, and tasked the adventurers with retrieving his cornucopia from a pair of mischievous lemures.

The duo advanced forth, literally cutting their way in the forest, when suddenly vines of malicious intent grabbed Kitipos. The plant-creature was quickly dispatched, and the adventurers marched on.

They arrived at a log, inside from which they heard laughter. With their fierce looks and powerful words they pressed the lemures into handing over the cornucopia, which they then returned to the good spirit, who gave them a flask of oil that would protect them from the Red Minotaur. They feasted and rested, and in the morning they headed towards the Ursid village.

The bearmen were skeptical of the adventurers' plan to rid them of both the minotaur and the griffin, but nonetheless they gave them two goats, and the old Murbo concocted a sleeping drought.

The duo applied the sleeping potion to the goats' skin and headed towards the minotaur's cave. On their way they discovered a scorched grove of trees, one of them, beneath a thick layer of ash, appearing calcified.

They lured the minotaur's pet bicephalous dogs out, who quickly fell asleep as they ate from the poisoned goats. With but a thrust the adventurers executed the slumbering creatures.

Soon the minotaur became agitated as its dogs weren't responding. The adventurers barely had enough time to apply the oil to their bodies and dress themselves in armour - the minotaur came charging. Its fiery breath indeed proved ineffective against the ointed skin of Kitipos and Orion, and withing a minute they decapitated the Red Minotaur.

They took its Girdle of Strength and Bridle of Taming, skinned the dogs, and cut the minotaur's horns. When they returned, the Ursids rejoiced.

Then Kitipos put on a goat's skin to lure the hunting griffin close enough to Orion to put force on the bridle. The griffin did show up, Kitipos escaped its claws, but Orion only managed to jump on its back. With both adventurers hanging onto the creature, the griffin flew away, trying to run poor Kitipos into a cliff or treetop. Fortunately Orion was soon able to put on the bridle.

Once they both climbed on its back, they flew towards the tower where Xenon was kept prisoner. The landed on a balcony and entered. They saw broken mirrors and an emaciated man of unkempt hair and with empty eye sockets.

Xenon regaled his tale of tragic love: the dryad he fell in love with now dead because she chose a mortal, and himself imprisoned and unable to die or leave. Upon mentioning the calcified remains of the woman-shaped tree, Xenon realised there still might be a chance.

The adventurers were directed towards an island where the Temple of Doom is built on top of many springs where waters from the Underworld enter the mortal realms. In exchange for a flask of such water, Xenon would tell them about the cure to wake the sleeping Lanike.

And so, they set the fast Okeai's sail towards the Temple of Doom - with a bridled griffin on board, nonetheless!

Referee's note: A session of three hours, including character generation and a generous amount of joking around. I slightly tweaked the number of enemies (as I was originally expecting four players), but even starting characters are fairly strong anyways. Healing is very slow, however, so the lack of a magician (and thus access to curative or area-of-effect spells) might become a problem later.