Mysteries & Myths: Volume 2 - A Compendium of 1000+ Rumours

Mysteries & Myths: Volume II

You know how this goes. One of your players leans across the table.

“Can I roll for gossip?”

And suddenly, everyone is looking at you.

That was the problem that inspired the original Mysteries & Myths: a compendium of more than 1,000 rumours designed to give Game Masters something interesting to say whenever their players decide to start asking questions.

But apparently 1,000 rumours weren't enough.

So we're doing it again.

Mysteries & Myths: Volume II contains another 1,000 system-agnostic rumours for medieval fantasy tabletop RPGs, covering ten entirely new categories of gossip, hearsay, warnings, half-truths and outright nonsense.

And, just like the first book, the final book will grow with the campaign.

For every person who backs this Kickstarter, we'll add another rumour to the finished book.

A Thousand More Things People Probably Shouldn't Be Talking About

The categories in Volume II begin with some unfinished business. When we created the first Mysteries & Myths, backers voted on which rumour categories they most wanted to see included in the book.

Some made the cut.

Others didn't.

So Volume II begins by bringing back three of the most popular categories that didn't quite make it into the original:

Criminals. Ancient Curses. Oceans & Rivers.

From there, we're travelling somewhere new. Inside the book you'll find 1,000 rumours across ten categories, with 100 rumours in each before the campaign even begins.

• Criminal Rumours: Smugglers operating beneath the docks. A thief who has never been caught. A merchant quietly paying protection money. Someone asking far too many questions about the night watch.
• Ancient Curses: A family that never produces a firstborn son. A patch of woodland where nothing has grown for a hundred years. A sword that every previous owner supposedly died carrying.
• Oceans & Rivers: Ghost ships. Missing fishermen. Things glimpsed beneath black water. Ferrymen who refuse to cross after sunset. From busy harbours and fishing villages to lonely rivers and treacherous coastlines, these rumours are perfect whenever your adventures stray close to the water.
• Courts & Justice: A magistrate accepting bribes. An innocent prisoner awaiting execution. A trial whose verdict was decided before it began. A law that nobody remembers being passed. These rumours explore judges, gaolers, sheriffs, courts, punishments and all the wonderfully questionable ways medieval justice might operate.
• Roads & Travellers: Something has been following caravans along the eastern road. A merchant arrived yesterday carrying goods nobody can identify. Travellers have begun avoiding one particular crossroads. And apparently the old woman walking from village to village hasn't aged in thirty years.
• Fey & Folklore: Don't whistle after sunset. Never accept food from someone you meet beneath the old oak. Leave a coin beside the well on the first night of winter. And whatever happens, don't answer if something in the woods calls you by name. These rumours draw upon fairy tales, folklore, strange customs and the old rules everyone knows, even if nobody remembers why.
• Markets & Merchants — suspicious traders, counterfeit coin, shortages, black-market goods, strange imports, merchant rivalries, vanished caravans, price fixing, crooked weigh scales, goods with questionable origins. This is an extremely practical category because markets and shops are places players constantly visit.
• Death & Burial — unusual funerals, disturbed graves, disputed wills, bodies disappearing, forbidden burial grounds, undertakers with secrets, strange mourning customs, people supposedly seen after their death. It gives us gothic material without simply becoming another “Monster” or “Magical” category.
• Wilderness Rumours: Hunters returning without their weapons. Strange footprints appearing after heavy rain. A valley where birds no longer sing. Fires burning on a distant hillside where nobody is supposed to live.
• Festivals & Gatherings: The tournament has been fixed. Someone intends to poison the feast. The travelling performers aren't really performers. And apparently the winner of this year's harvest competition has disappeared. Fairs, markets, tournaments, pilgrimages, weddings and festivals bring people together. And wherever people gather, gossip follows.

Built to Drop Straight Into Your Game

Just like the original Mysteries & Myths, every rumour in Volume II is designed to be system and setting agnostic.

We don't tell you the name of the kingdom. We don't decide who rules the town.

We don't tell you that the suspicious noble is Baron Something-or-Other from a setting you've never heard of.

Instead, the rumours are deliberately written so that you can make them yours.

Drop one into an existing settlement. Attach it to an NPC your players already distrust. Turn it into the beginning of an adventure.

Make it completely true.

Make half of it true.

Or watch your players spend three sessions investigating something that was never true in the first place.

They're prompts, not prescriptions.

Whether you're playing Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, an OSR game or your own homebrew medieval fantasy RPG, you can roll a die, choose something that catches your eye and keep playing.

What's Included?

The finished book begins with:

• 1,000 system-agnostic medieval fantasy rumours
• 10 different rumour categories
• 100 rumours in every category
• Plus one additional rumour for every Kickstarter backer

All presented in an easy-to-use A5 book designed to sit beside you at the table whenever your players start asking questions you weren't expecting.

Pledge Tiers

£11 — Mysteries & Myths Volume II PDF

Receive the complete digital edition of Mysteries & Myths: Volume II, including every additional rumour added during the Kickstarter campaign. Your PDF will be fulfilled through DriveThruRPG.

£15 — Mysteries & Myths Volume II Print-on-Demand Pledge

Receive the complete PDF edition of Mysteries & Myths: Volume II along with a DriveThruRPG Print-on-Demand code, allowing you to purchase a softcover copy of the finished book at print cost plus shipping. The £15 pledge does not include the later printing or shipping charge. This tier is ideal for international backers who want a physical copy without the cost of having one shipped directly from the UK.

£20 — Mysteries & Myths Volume II Physical Edition — UK Only

Available to UK backers only.

Receive the complete PDF edition of Mysteries & Myths: Volume II plus a physical softcover copy of the finished book. Your physical copy will be fulfilled directly by Misfit Hobbies in the UK, rather than through DriveThruRPG's Print-on-Demand service. Shipping will be charged separately through the Kickstarter pledge manager after the campaign. As with every other tier, your copy will include all additional rumours added by backers during the campaign.

Fulfilment

Digital fulfilment for all backers will be handled through DriveThruRPG.

Backers on the £15 Print-on-Demand tier will also receive a code allowing them to order the finished softcover directly from DriveThruRPG at print cost plus shipping.

For UK backers who choose the £20 Physical Edition tier, your physical copy will instead be printed and fulfilled directly by Misfit Hobbies.

This gives international backers access to comparatively affordable local Print-on-Demand fulfilment, while allowing us to handle UK copies ourselves.

Any applicable shipping charges for the £20 UK Physical Edition will be collected separately after the campaign.

Already Own Volume I?

Perfect!

Volume II contains an entirely new collection of rumours.

The original book covered:

• Tavern Rumours
• Magical Rumours
• Military Rumours
• Prison Rumours
• Temple Rumours
• Medical Rumours
• High Society Rumours
• Monster Rumours
• Treasure Rumours
• Mundane Rumours

Volume II goes somewhere different. Together, the two books give you more than 2,000 rumours before either campaign's backer-added content is even counted, covering everything from overheard tavern gossip and noble scandals to criminal conspiracies, ancient curses and unsettling stories whispered along lonely roads.

You absolutely don't need Volume I to use Volume II.

But if you own both?

Your players are going to have to work considerably harder to catch you without an answer.

Free Sample

You shouldn't have to take our word for it.

We've put together a free sample of Criminal Rumours taken directly from Mysteries & Myths: Volume II.

Download it, throw a few rumours into your next session and see what trouble your players manage to cause with them.