i don't play as much as I'd like, but i still buy books like this for ideas about world building fantasy culture. This one definitely delivered. It's nice to have options other than just Medieval Europe and East Asia.

Well done.

As a total geek about Earth’s historical Bronze Age, when I heard about Mythic Babylon‘s launch back in 2021 I knew I’d want to pick it up. The book’s languished on my kink shelf, but it finally reached the top of my reading stack.

Published by Design Mechanism for their D100 system Mythras, Mythic Babylon provides a comprehensive point of entry for those interested in playing Mesopotamian campaigns during the reign of Hammurabi. Although you’ll need a copy of their core rules to play Mythic Babylon, the book should be pretty usable with your choice of system.

My own experience of Mythic Babylon was firmly as an armchair read; I haven’t had an opportunity to take it for a test drive.

The immediate sense I got when I started reading is that Mythic Babylon is focused on setting. Opening with a hundred pages on life in the cities of Sumer & Akkad, agriculture, economics, religion, and culture, and littered with sidebars quoting ancient texts—such as the famous Code of Hammurabi—it’s crystal clear that Mythic Babylon‘s objective is to evoke its setting for the reader. While it is a game, and does have “gaming” content, it feels clear to me that the authors’ passion was for describing the ancient world.

And they do so phenomenally well. I read a lot of history, and honestly this is one of the better survey texts I’ve read on the period. In particular I love how—because Mythic Babylon is a game—the book really puts into context all the different places and cultural customs and historical figures, and how they’re interacting. Most histories divide up the material to focus in greater detail on particular aspects. For example, my Routledge survey text on the Sumerians is deliciously detailed, but is so precise (or alternately unwilling to commit, a reasonable rhetorical stance in academia) that it’s hard to get a holistic picture. In contrast Mythic Babylon provides immediate details about a number of places and people because, well, you need to know what the hell’s going on if you’re gonna play a game!

As an aside, the Routledge text on the Babylonians is also really good, if you want a deeper historical dive.

Overall the prose is a little dry, when compared to the gaming field, but it’s downright poetic compared to most modern histories. It might have been appropriate to add a bit more “pizazz” when discussing the magic in the setting, because the fantastical does get overshadowed by the historical.

In a similar vein, at times I felt like the gameplay elements seemed to play second fiddle to the setting. This might also come down to a Mythras stylistic choice, as I’ve found other campaign settings for Mythras (such as Shores of Korantia) a bit dry. There’s also a personal element, because I am someone who likes big splashy overt magic, and Mythic Babylon feels more “low” fantasy. There is overt magic wielded by priests and sorcerers, but the general feel is more subdued, more subtle. It does so to focus on a historical experience with a dash of magic, and I can’t help but wonder how the game would feel playing “the myths of the Babylonians” in comparison to “the world as the Babylonians believed it.” A bit more organization or structure to the magic—specialization based on deity, or city—could have been interesting, too.

I do really like the setting’s emphasis on divination, and on the Purity skill. This is a D100 rating which describes a character’s relation to the divine order, and impacts your ability to wield magic, be socially accepted, and so on. For example, if you’re under 40%, you need to roll Willpower if you want to enter a temple. Hit 0%, and you turn into a demon—effectively, an alternate method of character death. Because of how vivid the setting is, Purity is one of the more effective “morality” mechanics I’ve seen in a game. It looks to impact player behavior quite strongly, providing firm reasons to make choices in-character as an ancient Akkadian.

The last third of the book is more gamemaster-facing, with the geography of Mesopotamia, a bestiary, and tools for running campaigns in Mythic Babylon.

Like the setting, the geography’s a little dry, but generally well-written. Here, the dryness came from repetition, consuming the foreign names of several temples and local divinities with each city described in the gazetteer. Maps are also provided of many cities, although these are often only partially useful. The mapping style is archaeological. It highlights a few specific places which have been excavated, with detail a bit too small to see well.

In contrast the gazetteer entries are often quite good, with both overt plot seeds, and noted conflicts between cities or individuals which could bedevil players. And again, this is a place where the authors’ breadth of knowledge shines. They could have just written up Sumer & Akkad, but instead we have Elam and the Levant, and mentions of further afield both up north and south into the Persian Gulf. It really brings a picture together of the whole Mesopotamian region, and its neighbors, for adventure.

I like the bestiary’s diversity of monsters, but I couldn’t help but feel that some seemed a little too easily killable. Of course, I don’t know Mythras well, and I’m comparing them to RuneQuest’s gonzo fantasy monsters with 10-20 points of armor, so there’s every chance I just don’t have the tools to evaluate this part of the book.

The gamemaster’s chapters are solid, and provide real advice and interesting ideas for both campaigns and scenarios. The authors make sure to remind the gamemaster to “start small” (important with any unusual setting), and the plethora of scenario ideas provides good support for introducing cultural elements piecemeal. For example, having an adventure during ilkum duty, and then another introducing the city’s assembly needing help negotiating with the king.

Mythic Babylon is modestly illustrated with black & white drawings of varying quality. I wouldn’t say any are atrocious, but there’s not many which felt spectacular, either. I do quite like that most are captioned, to help with reader clarity. The illustrations successfully bring the setting to life, and help give an idea of what the world looks and feels like. They didn’t “wow” me, but they did their job.

The cover, though, is awesome. In hindsight, I think the cover did impact my expectation for “big, over-the-top mythic action” in the text.

Can you blame me?

That said… there’s no color interior illustrations, but the book’s interiors and graphic design are still in color. With the cost of illustration in a book this size black and white absolutely makes sense—I ain’t knocking the choice of art—but surely it would have been better to create the book in black & white instead? Looking at DriveThruRPG’s storefront, it kind of baffles me that there’s a premium color edition. Like… why? There’s no illustrations in the book that call for it, that I saw. Just a bit of graphic design.

For me, Mythic Babylon was solidly an armchair book. It’s not likely I’ll ever get to play it directly with a group, and that’s OK. I certainly feel there’s lots of ideas I can mine from this, plus I do just love the period. I definitely feel I got my money’s worth, as a customer.

That said, I think it’s worth asking myself if I feel confident about my ability to bring Mythic Babylon to the table, as a gamemaster.

While I don’t feel “confident,” I also don’t feel “apprehensive.” I think it would be a bit tricky to bring as a new setting, but there are pretty good tools in the book. A starter adventure—not in this book, it’s already super long—somewhere would be helpful, probably. Getting an idea of how the authors “expect” a game to go. Alternatively, maybe focusing on one corner of the setting as “home” would have helped. The authors recommend starting small, but many of the central powers and places have similar levels of detail.

Overall, it’s a pretty good book. I do think that if you’re interested in games set in ancient Babylon with any system, you should pick this up. It’s a great book for history geeks, and a really solid introduction to the topic. The setting material is pretty system-agnostic, giving gamemasters interested in non-Mythras (or even non-D100) games still plenty of reason to use Mythic Babylon.

This review was originally published on my website, akhelas.com.

I've been playing TTRPGs since the 80's. I've had hundreds of rulebooks, modules, campaigns, settings, and other RPG esoterica. I have NEVER had a book that is as good as this one.

I absolutely love, love, love this book. I told all the friends in my gaming group that this reads like the history book that you desperately wish you'd had in highschool or college - plus it adds in all the mechanics that you need to bring this setting to life in your Mythras game. The level of scholarship and care that went into this product are exceptional. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed elements like sprinkling relevant excerpts of the Code of Hammurabi throughout the book to add even more flavor to the already super-detailed discussion of the cultures in play.

I've gone through my PDF and marked it up like a textbook. I'm super excited to get my hands on the hardcover that I've order and add it to my bookshelf.

Based on the quality of this book alone I'm planning to pick up every Mythical XXX book that The Design Mechanism publishes.

Mythic Babylon is a fantastic product.

I love that period of history and I was lucky enough to play-test the game with Paul Mitchener and could tell it was something special. My softback copy of the book has arrived and it is a thing of beauty.

The book is sizable without being unwieldy, the writing is crystal clear and really flows, and I adore the B&W illustrations (they are excquisite).

The product itself is a really in-depth (not overwhelming!) treatment of the most well-known slice of Babylonian history while imagining that the myths and mythology of the time are true too. That means the reader / GM / referee gets an immersive and full introduction to a fascinating setting - this is bronze age gaming at the very birth of cities and civilisation - neither coins or horses (jest) have been invented yet! The material is presented in a way that allows GMs to layer in how much authenticity they want - from a general vibe thru to the very intricacies of temple life - so groups will be able to dive as deep as they want in to what is a real but also deliciously alien way of life.

They game's default mode to play is going to provide for some very unique sessions and also some fantastic fantasy roleplaying opportunities. Skim off the mythology and you have a brilliant historical Swords & Sandals setting. Inject the mythos (as it is v compatible with CoC) and you have a really amazing dark swords & sorcery game.

All the Mythic Settings are fantastic, but I think this one really is the best of them all.

Mythic Babylon is peak historical fantasy gaming. I would heartily recomend everyone purchase - whether you want a great one shot / campaign, a fab and interesting read, or inspiration for any fantasy game of your choice.

This is another excellent book from the Design Mechanism. Great layout, well-organized, and fantastic content. DM is becoming the new GURPS of settings books: if you have any interest in the topic, you should pick it up regardless of system. It's a high quality book with great research.

One thing that I particularly like about Mythic Babylon, is that while there's a lot of familiarity, there are also plenty of cultural differences that make the setting different and exciting. Priests, for example, are just career employees who's job is to keep the gods satisfied. They're not necessarily zealots, evangelists, or even fans. They're just doing their job. Another example: horses haven't been domesticated yet, and there's difference of opinion about whether kings should be driven in chariots (pulled by donkey or donkey hybrids) or follow the classy, traditional, conservative option and ride a donkey.

If you're a Mythras fan, there's information about cults, stats for monsters (a fair number of which are new to me), and suggested tweaks for the magic system and new combat styles.

Whether you're interested in Babylon, the Bronze Age, or just want to mine for ideas, this is a truly great source book.