Rifter

My hope is that in 2015 I will be able to spend a lot more time working on MH. I was making really good progress until I had to put it aside to focus on the Odin book, and one thing after another kept me from returning to it all year. In 2015 my plan is to avoid taking on so many little assignments, or things I don't really want to work on, so I can devote my time and efforts to several larger projects that interest me -- one of which is MH, of course. So hopefully 2015 will be a year of much mythic progress!

That's perfectly all right, but "mythic roleplaying" isn't what Mythic Hero is about, and it never has been since the book was first announced nearly four years ago. (Yeesh, time flies! ) Aside, perhaps, from some bits of the introductory chapter, it focuses entirely on describing specific mythoi and the gods and other entities that are a part of them.
 
If that's not a book that interests you -- that's cool. Not everyone has to like every book. But that's the book I want to write, so that's what I'm writin'. After all, since no one's paying me to do the work, I might as well do work I truly enjoy. 

At last it can be revealed!
 
At last it can be revealed! I took advantage of some free time in ace artist Eric Lofgren's schedule earlier this year to get him to create a beautiful piece of art that I currently intend to use as the cover of Mythic Hero. He took my idea and executed it superbly.

I don't have a finished book. I don't have any specific idea for how I'll publish the book when it is finished. But man, do I have a kick-ass cover.
 

Time for a quick "year in review" update.
 
I just finished the Etruscan Mythology chapter (a short one at only a little over 5,000 words) and have now begun the major task of the Hindu Mythology chapter. That'll keep me busy for quite some time.
 
Over the past year I've been able to devote a lot more time to Mythic Hero (though never as much as I'd like!), and in that time I added 162,000 words to the manuscript. That nearly doubled it from its length as of 01/01/2013. Currently it stands at approximately 338,000 words, with a long way yet to go. Unless I'm sadly mistaken I bet Hindu Mythology will add at least 40,000 words to the total. That will leave only one major mythology to go -- Celtic, which is so large I'm planning to split it into four chapters -- and about 20 smaller mythologies to research and write up. (Some of the latter may not support a whole chapter, in which case they'll get folded into another chapter or sent down to the "Miscellaneous" catch-all chapter at the end.)
 
So there's still a long way to go. I've been at this over two years so far, and it could easily be another two years. But now that I'm devoting more than just spare time to it (much to the chagrin of my bank account ), I'm making enough progress to stave off any despair I might otherwise feel when I look at the remaining mountain of work. I hope those of you who've been waiting patiently for the book won't mind continuing to wait so I can get MH Just Right. Eventually I'm going to have something pretty awesome to show you.
 
If anyone has any questions, comments, suggestions, or requests, as always feel free to post 'em.

Thanx, LL! I definitely appreciate the support that you and all the other backers (and people who would've been backers had circumstances allowed) gave me.
 
I am certainly considering a Kickstarter approach -- assuming KS is still around whenever I'm done writing. (In the unlikely event it isn't, I'm sure something similar will have taken its place.) I think greater knowledge of KS, and my having the vast majority of the work done, will count in my favor. OTOH I'll probably need to raise more money, unless I want to go for a low amount just to defray as many expenses as I can. I'll have to see how the odds balance out before deciding to roll the dice.

Generally speaking it's not my intention to cover things like that in any serious detail. If I come across a useful fact that I can easily squeeze into the manuscript, I do, but I don't go out of my way to track that sort of information down (in part because, as you note, it's often not available -- and even when it is, finding it might significantly increase my already hefty workload).
 
One thing I am considering vis-a-vis another MH Kickstarter, is offering as a stretch goal a second book called something like Mythic Hero:  Priesthoods And Temples. It'd basically be a PDF in which I'd give each god who gets a character sheet in MH a one-page write-up describing his priests, rituals, temples, etc. This would be entirely fantasized/made up (not researched), but where I already happen to know some useful historical details (e.g., Quetzalcoatl's temples are circular, not square), I'd include them. So, assuming the project gets that far, that would be another 200-300 page book backers would get for free.

No, that isn't really what I have in mind. If I do this the way I want to do it, I want to publish a big, quality book. I don't want to publish just a PDF, and I don't want to rely on the quality (or lack thereof) of PoD for the product.
 
In the end, if I'm going to publish this book, I don't want to cut any corners. I don't want to have to compromise anything. I want to do it the way I think it should be done... if that's possible.

Done and done! After a lot of research and writing I've finished the Slavic Mythology and Baltic Mythology chapters of Mythic Hero. Together they came to well over 20,000 words, longer than I expected.
 
Monday I need to start working on a novella I've agreed to write, but in the meantime, though, that leaves me a few more days to play around with mythology. I think it's time to bite the bullet and tackle one of the remaining three "major" mythologies (Celtic, Chinese, Hindu). I think I'll pick Chinese. I may need to order some General Tso's Chicken and egg rolls for lunch to get myself in the mood.

Re: MYTHIC HERO: What Do *You* Want To See?
 

 
If I agreed with that, there'd be no point in writing this book. There are lots of mythology books out there; this will be the only one with HERO System information on gods, creatures, items, and other related cool stuffs. Those who don't think gods should have character sheets are, as always, free to ignore 'em. Having them in print won't hurt anyone. And for those who do want 'em, they'll be available. It's a win-win.

Howdy Herophiles! Time for a WDYWTS thread about our next awesome book: Mythic Hero, which I've been itching to write for a long time now.
 
Our shorthand description for MH around here is "Steve's version of Deities & Demigods," and while that's a good one-sentence pitch I think the key words there are "Steve's version." I think this book is going to go significantly beyond other gaming supplements on the subject. Or at least, that's my intent.
 
Here's what the book will contain as it's currently conceived:
 
Chapter One: Gods In Gaming: A review of a bunch of useful introductory material, much like HSB has its own Chapter One. It will cover "Templates" for common divine abilities, a discussion of how to use gods in your campaign (such as the various approaches, from "ultra-powerful" to "basically just like the PCs"), and even how to play gods in mythology-based campaigns.
 
The rest of the chapters are descriptions of individual pantheons, arranged roughly in this order: the cosmology/setting; other interesting bits (such as unique magic systems, spells, or pantheon-wide items); the gods (major/important/fun gods get full character sheets; lesser deities just get textual descriptions; heroes; villains; and monsters. For example, the Norse monster section has Fenris and Jormungandr; the Russian/Slavic monster section has character sheets for vodyanoi, domovoi, rusalka, and other such spirits.
 
Here's the current list of pantheons I'm intending to cover:
 
American Indian (selections from major tribes like Cherokee, Haida, Iroquois, etc.)
Arthurian Legends (but see second post below about "Legendary Hero")
Assyro-Babylonian
Aztec and Mayan
Celtic
Chinese
Demonology (medieval Christian demons like Belial, Moloch, maybe even Satan )
Egyptian
Finnish
Greek and Roman
Hawaiian and Polynesian
Hindu
Hungarian
Japanese
Norse
Slavic/Russian
Sumerian
Voodoo
Yoruban
 
And then I'll have a final chapter on mythoi I don't have enough information to write up in full, like Aborigine, Armenian, Hittite, Zulu, and so on. If in my researches I come across enough information onany of them, that pantheon will get bumped to "full chapter" status.
 
The main guideline about which pantheons get a chapter is, generally, whether the subject has good, approachable resources in English that I have or can obtain. One reason gamers in general tend to emphasize/know about Greek/Roman and Norse mythology is that there are such excellent resources available on them. My library (see picture below) contains a lot of good references on a lot of mythologies, but there are some mythoi that just aren't covered well in English (or at least not for prices I'm willing to pay ). If you know of a source for a mythos that I haven't included on my list, feel free to mention it. Please include author and title so I can easily look it up on Alibris or the like.
 
So, now that you've got the basics... what do you want to see in Mythic Hero?