Welcome to Mystic Days
The problems are solved! No more initiative, AC, alignment, character class limitations, over powered characters, or a host of other factors that slow down your game, cause player distraction, or make your game less realistic and immersive.
At Glumer Games, we believe we have created a system that will truly allow character customization, unfettered by character classes, weapon limitations and spell prohibitions. In Mystic Days, you can try any spell you want and use any weapon your character has the strength to wield. In addition, our magic system allows players to create any spell or magic item they can think of! In other games, your character will be limited to what their character’s class and the spell’s description allow. If your character is first level then they can cast a little bitty spell for a little bit of damage. In Mystic Days that is not the case because we do not have levels. You will get better dice to use as your character improves with the spells they use. This means you can cast the most powerful form of a spell the very first time your character uses it. The risk is this; the die you get to cast spells is likely going to be a very low die at first, such as a d6. You must roll that die and get a higher result than someone else gets on a d12, otherwise known as the magic die. If you lose, alternative things can happen, and the more power you put into a spell, the more devastating the results will be if it goes awry.
This is only a taste of what awaits you in Mystic Days, so come and join us by downloading the free Quickstart Rules for game masters and players right now!
See our latest successful kickstarter here!
Check us out now on kickstarter at the link above and become one of many fellow adventurers who are fast becoming Mystic Days fans! The iconic artist, Clyde Caldwell, who has captured the imaginations of us all since the early days of D&D, has licensed Glumer Games LLC to use some of his greatest works for the brand new covers of Mystic Days! We’re offering hardcover, softcover, and boxed sets. However, the boxed sets are limited to a quantity of only 500. Once they are gone, they are gone. We will never offer this boxed set again and Clyde Caldwell has graciously signed fifty of them. Each boxed set comes with a certificate of authenticity and their own number from one to five-hundred. Time is ticking to get your very own copy of what we believe will become a very unique rpg collectible!
To be the first to know about everything new in Mystic Days, join our email list here. Don’t delay! https://mysticdays.com/contact/#
Watch our latest interview about Mystic Days.
Watch a livestream of a group of players on discord playing the adventure from the Quick Start Rules. Some think this is risky to have someone else showing how our game works, however, we believe it’s a great way to showcase our game. Rather than have us, the creators, show you how to play, we’ve decided to put our game to the ultimate test. We know the rules, and frankly, we could fudge things in a tutorial without you ever knowing. The players on Tuesday have no vested interest in our company or our game. If they don’t like it, they are going to say so. If it is going to be broken, they will break it. Yes, that’s risky, but that’s also how confident we are in the system. We want you to have the most honest play test video possible, and we can think of no better way to do that than to lay it all on the line for you this Tuesday, September 19, at 8pm EST on YouTube.
Produced by Glumer Games LLC: this lethal, fast-action fantasy game is for everyone who loves OSR style. Your character likely won’t survive, but if they do, they will be legendary!
If you want an easier game, play 5e. If you’re tired of hacking your high fantasy game system to make it harder, combat faster and more realistic, or magic deadlier to the caster themselves, welcome to Mystic Days!
Mystic Days is designed to keep every single player involved in each combat round, thereby minimizing, if not eliminating altogether, the chance for players to become disengaged until it’s their turn. The combat round is basically organized chaos, while simulating the realism of actual combat. Everyone acts at once, and the dice determine who is successful and who is not. Combat is also designed to be realistic by giving players a multitude of options, from hitting below the belt with groin strikes to using specific weapons that aid in defense. Magic is also very chaotic and not easily mastered.
Concerning characters, we don’t use the old tropes either. An elf can live underground and forge all manner of weapons and armor just as easily as a dwarf can be a herbalist and tend to their garden, while a human can be the best tinkerer, locksmith, and potions maker just as easily as a gnome can be a wonderful acrobat, historian, and animal trainer. Also, little folk don’t simply like the comforts of home while always being good at “borrowing” things. They can be the greatest adventurers of all!
We’re a skill based system which means your character gets better at the spells they cast, the weapons they wield, and the special skills they employ, not the ones they don’t.
Want a challenging game which offers action economy in combat, character development based upon their ability scores and the special skills you choose, significant strategic differences in weapons and armor, no limits on the spells your character can have, no alignment, no initiative, fluid combat, realism without game play detraction, extensive fisticuffs and grappling rules offering realistic unarmed combat, no armor class, no levels, skill and attribute based rules for practically everything, character mortality, rules framework for creating any spell or magic item you can dream up, the framework for converting your old school characters and monsters from D&D, no character classes, and the ability to try whatever you want with your character? Would you like to get all that and more, and not have to purchase any updated core rule books for the rest of your life?
Transcend the old ways.
Welcome to Mystic Days!
The Roll Off System
The Roll Off System is not just a major game mechanic, it’s the core of the Mystic Days game system.
In most role playing games, when a player’s character enters combat, the player will ask the game master, “What do I need to hit?” The player wants to know the number they need to roll on a d20 in order to make a successful attack, and thereby cause damage to their opponent.
In Mystic Days, when a player’s character enters combat, the player will not ask such a question because the Roll Off System involves two parties rolling against each other, and the high roll wins with the tie going to the defender. Period.
The Roll Off System makes combat fluid thereby making it more enjoyable by engaging multiple people simultaneously. With no initiative, the game master, known as the Adventure Guide, or AG, will arbitrarily determine the order in which players will take their turn during the round. With an action economy based upon the character’s Speed score, some players will get more turns during the round than others.
No other role playing game uses these specific mechanics that we are aware of. This not only is the core of our system, but it is what makes Mystic Days as unique as a purple monkey in a savannah of gray baboons.
The Roll Off System doesn’t end there. It is applied across the board to a variety of aspects which occur in most role playing games. Your character drank poison? Roll off against the poison. Your character wants to cast a spell? Roll off against magic. Your character is a attacked by a monster using an innate ability? Roll off against that innate ability. The list goes on, but I digress.
Combat
In combat, players roll a die called the action die. This is determined by their character’s Dexterity score. The higher the Dexterity score, the better the action die they will have. The d4 is the lowest action die any character can begin play with, but all characters can improve their action die as the game goes on. Their Dexterity score will also dictate the highest action die they can attain. The next factor is the character’s Speed score which gives a penalty or a bonus to the action die. The third factor is the weapon proficiency bonus if the character has one, and last, but not least, is the weapon reach bonus. That’s right. The longer the weapon, the higher the bonus! Given these factors will not change, it’s easy to determine your totals very quickly, and use them each round. If your character is being attacked by a bugbear, you state what your character is doing, and then the adventure guide, or AG, will tell you what the bugbear is attempting to do. You roll your action die against the bugbear’s action die, which the Adventure Guide will roll. Both combatants add any of the aforementioned modifiers and the high roll wins with a tie going to the defender! Simple. There are some nuances to this, but that’s basically it.
In Mystic Days, characters and monsters get a certain amount of actions per round based upon their Speed score. The higher the Speed score, the more actions they can perform. This means we have inserted an action economy into each round, so you must take into account how many actions your character has. That does not mean the faster combatant automatically wins. They must win the roll off and that’s what we like about the Roll Off System.
If you run out of actions in the round and the opponent still has actions left they can get free attacks. Of course, free attacks are not automatic hits, but the roll is no longer contested. You simply roll two 10-sided dice and if it is equal to or less than your character’s Dexterity score, you have struck with the free attack.
In addition, we incorporate Boom Rolls. If a player rolls the highest number on their given action die, they get to roll it again and add it to the total. This gives every character a punchers chance, and causes players to exercise more caution and strategy.
Our weapons table lists almost sixty different weapons for players to choose from. Each one comes with it’s own unique advantage. The khopesh, for example, grants a bonus when used to defend, and if a successful defense is made, the player gets a bonus to disarm that opponent with their very next attack.
There are two size categories listed here; small and medium. Your character will fall into one of these size categories, and their weapon will do damage accordingly. In addition, damage is based upon one of three techniques; thrust, slash, and chop. In real combat, there are many more techniques than these, but this allows some flexibility and options. The character data sheet has space for players to record all of the information, so you don’t need to constantly reference this table. Crunchy enough?
Couple this with specific action economy that is based on your character’s Speed score, and you have a recipe for added combat realism. The weapons table shows how many actions per round each weapon gets based upon the character’s Speed score. A dagger is obviously faster than a great sword, and this fact is demonstrated by different action rates. Of course, the great sword has a much better reach bonus than a dagger. All of this creates unique, and customizable combat
Magic
In Mystic Days, magic is a dangerous affair for everyone involved. A simple healing spell could turn deadly for the caster by draining their life points instead of healing their patient. It’s not easy harnessing and channeling the arcane powers of the universe, nor is it safe to do so. Casting a spell is a two stage affair. You must first harness the energy which involves rolling a die called the harness die. This can be as low as the d4 or as high as 2d14 or more. It depends upon the character’s Wisdom score and how many times the character has ever tried harnessing energy. The Adventure Guide rolls the d12, otherwise known as the magic die against the player. If they lose that roll off, they lose a number of points that spellcasters have daily access to. If the player rolls higher with the harness die, (including any modifiers), than the AG rolls on the magic die, the character harnesses the energy. Now they can hold that energy until they attempt to channel the energy into a spell. To do so, they must roll the channel die against the AG’s magic die. The channel die is also based upon the character’s Wisdom score.
If the player wins the roll off against the AG, then the spell is cast properly, and the rest is history, but if they lose that roll off, terrible things can happen to them, those around them, or both.
Monsters
In Creatures & Coins you will find goblins, dragons, harpies, mermaids, trolls and many more monsters you may be familiar with by name, but beware, for they are not what you are familiar with by description. Any one of these monsters can kill characters without thinking twice. Think twice before engaging any monster in the dark. Monsters, we believe, should be monstrous. It is monsters we seek to slay, whether by necessity or by choice, which drives us to heroic deeds in life, and in Mystic Days, it is this basic truth that underscores our development of the monsters we have created. They are not for player characters to become, but to destroy.
We also did not want to simply regurgitate monsters you were familiar with, so we made goblins, hobgoblins, trolls, harpies, etc. that are unique to Mystic Days. We also changed lycanthropy up a bit. We broadened the disease, renamed it, and made it affect each of the species differently. We call it lögunforia.
In the mythological world, lycanthropy is most often associated with one turning into a werewolf, but it also has a broader definition referring to any cross of animal and human monster that turns from their human form into their monster form by the power of the full moon. These individuals are referred to as lycanthropes. The word is derived from the Greek words for wolf (lykos) and man (anthropos) whereas the word werewolf comes from the Old English, wer or were meaning “man”.
In Mystic Days, lögunforia is the term referring to the curse of changing form during the full moon(s). This is a compound word formed from two gnomish words, and has a more general definition. The first word, lögun, means monster, while the second word, olforem, means to possess or be possessed. Together, they form the word lögunforem, and describe a person turning into a monster, thus, giving us a general idea of the cursed disease while the actual disease itself is called lögunforia. Lögunforia, however, effects each of the different peoples peculiarly. In each case, a specific and unique monster is created. Nogols and dwelves are immune to lögunforia due to some genetic anomaly between the mixing of these species.
Regarding the Life Points of creatures and how strong they may be against your character, we give this example: a dragon can have over 3,000 Life Points, and for comparison, the stoutest dwarf will likely have less than 90 Life Points. This game requires teamwork and strategy to defeat monsters, not a 20th level paladin with invincible armor and a +10 magic sword. Attempting to hit a dragon with the flat of your sword in order to subdue it is akin to jumping into the tiger pavilion at the zoo with a coffee stir stick. Those antics won’t work here.
What about weaker monsters? Can my character simply walk through scores of them unscathed? In Mystic Days, kobolds and goblins can and will eat your character’s lunch at any stage of your character’s development. Nothing is to be trifled with. This game is deadly if you’re not careful. If you want your character to become heroic, then it will take more than just attempting heroic feats. You will need to be strategic and you will need teamwork. There is no other way around it.
Characters
There are three types of vision: normal, infrared, and night vision. Humans, gnomes, some nogols, and tomte (our version of the halfling), all have normal vision. Dwarves and kel (an elf-like species), both have infrared vision while elves and some nogols will have night vision. Dwelves, a combination or elf and dwarf, can have either infrared or night vision. Infrared and night vision have severe limitations and only work up to short range which makes it helpful, but does not eliminate the need for artificial light.
In Mystic Days, your character will have the Life Points they begin with, and that is all, with very little exception. The average character will have 40-70 life points and the average monster,…well,…let’s just say they can deliver death with one blow. If you’re not squeamish about character mortality then you’re going to love Mystic Days.
Additionally, there are no gods in Mystic Days. We have established one supreme God, but he and his religion are mostly just a backdrop. What this means is that characters cannot call upon the powers of some deity to aid them. The arcane powers of the universe are available to all those whose Wisdom and Intelligence scores are high enough to access those powers. There are almost no limits to what your spell casting character can do.
