I came across a couple of books in the Local Half Price Book Store a few months ago and had not had time to read them until very recently.
What follows below are short chapter descriptions of one of those books along with some comments taken from the Editors Preface and other portions of the book itself.
SOME of what I included below are actual quotes or excerpts or are paraphrased from the book.

Last I give my opinions of the book. (FWIW)
Cautionary statement:
The book described below is over 400 pages in length, and so the tiny amount of info I post here is obviously almost nothing in relation to the huge amount of information in the actual book.
Although this is not a review of the game (I am NOT qualified to give one), I did read the book (portions of it anyway), and this is basically a post to introduce folks to the book and the game it supports.
Some members here may not have heard of it, or if they have perhaps they have not read the book, or any of the supplements to it.

Dangerous Journeys - Mythus (1992) by Gary Gygax, with Dave Newton
413 pages (plus a few pages of ads in the back).
Editors Preface by Lester Smith (April 1992).
Published by GDW,
Copyright: 1992 Omega Helios Limited

This is the first of three rulebooks for the role-playing game Mythus.
The game was designed by Gary Gygax.

The copyright page and the back cover indicate that the Mythus Book above is one of three rules books for the Mythus setting.

Mythus Magick
Volume 2 of the Mythus Rules
This is the full magic rules for the setting.
The book includes 1000 magical castings (Spells), powers, etc.

Epic of Aerth (A&E are supposed to be combined)
Volume 3 of the Mythus Rules.
Describes the World of Aerth in detail.

There is a Gamemaster, and the players whose characters are called Heroic Personas (HPs).

In most instances, the dice required are percentile (Or 2-10 sided dice) and D6, though at times a D3, or D5 are needed and a table is offered to show how to convert those numbers using the D10 and D6.

The game is (For the most part) set in the world of Aerth (I cant make that fancy symbol with the A&E combined).
A fantasy world much like earth, with magic.
This world setting also has a counter world (Different dimension)
called Phaeree (Again the A&E should be combined into one symbol).
A fantasy world of Wild Magic.
The wall between the two worlds is thin and easily traversed if you know they way.
The preface goes on to explain that those two main worlds also have multiple possible copies as well.

NOTE: I think Gary Gygax wanted to make it easy for the Gamemaster and players to be able to expand on the Mythus system in any direction they wished.

This book does encourage expansion by the Gamemaster and players.

The game setting for Aerth is basically the same as earth, but in a fantasy setting and a timeline set at 1000 years prior to current earth.
Magic works (Called Heka) and science is basically a useless thing.

The beginners rules (Called Mythus Prime) are a description of the basic game mechanics:
Player Section; 25 pages.
Gamemaster Section; 9 pages.
Followed by a short mini adventure (8 Pages) called High Time at the Winged Pig.

One can begin playing Mythus (Prime) after reading those first two short rules sections from the Prime Rules.
After the mini adventure the book begins the Advanced Mythus rules (called Advanced Mythus). :  

Creating Advanced Mythus HPs (Heroic Personas); Chapter 10: (67 pages).
Core Game Systems; Chapter 11: (84 pages)
Combat; Chapter 12
Heka (Magic); Chapter 13
Additional info is offered in Chapters 14-16 advanced data regarding:
Campaigns and Gamemastering, more on Personas, and some data about Magical Items;

Chapter 17 is an Advanced Mythus adventure scenario (40 pages) called
Condemned as Galley Slaves
The adventure is just what it seems to be from reading the title.
The Hp's are galley slaves on a Kings ship, having been convicted and sentenced for a crime they did not commit. (That's what they all say)
Both sea and land adventures are included in the scenario.

In the back of the book are a 27-page appendix and a 3-page character sheet.
The front includes a two page Table of Contents.

COMMENTS:
I have not played the game, but the rules read like a simplified version of AD&D to me.
There are basically three main attribute or characteristics categories for characters (HPs):
Mental, Physical, Spiritual, which are then broken down further into three main subcategories and those three are then broken down one more step.

I read the Prime Rules and found them easy to understand and the rules easy to follow. The mini Game also looks like it would be fun to run as a GM, or to play as a HP.

I also scanned through the advanced rules, and though I did not read them all, I felt that they were not all that more complex than the Prime Rules, just more information about the game and the rules (As one would expect).
The Galley Slaves Adventure reads very well and looks like a lot fun.
I hope to run it one day.

Mythos:
The game seems to have been created to be similar to OD&D with fewer rules and fewer rolls.
Leaving more time for Roleplaying and less Rollplaying, with ample room for the imaginations of the players and Gamemaster.


The other Mythus Book I have is:
Dangerous Journeys - Necropolis.
A campaign supplement to Mythus.
219 pages of campaign scenario set in a desert climate (Aegypt)
Includes a large map (17x22).

The main antogonist is Rahotep; an ancient evil Priest/Mage who worshipped the God Set.
Rahotep wished to make his god the one and only god worshipped in the land.
Of course the priests of the other gods and the rulers of the lands disagreed with Rahoteps visions of making his evil god supreme among all others.
They destroyed Rahoteps army and held the Priest/Mage at bay for weeks until Rahotep and his few remaining followers finally housed themselves in a bunker like tomb and killed themselves in a last act of defiance to the ruler and his minions.....
but that was not the end of it.........
Set protected the tomb from all who would enter to defile the tomb of his loyal Arch Priest and his other worshipers.
None of the victors were able to enter to determine if all was right with the world again.
None since then have been able to raid the tomb either.
Sets protections are far too great.
Set has plans for Rahotep and his followers.

The Necropolis book was also revised and released as a hardcover D20 book.

serleran wrote:Full DJ is more complex than D&D, in my opinion, as there are lots of minor variables that throw in exceptions and modifiers to the formulae. However, Mythus Prime is exceedingly easy to play, and is quite the nice forerunner to Lejendary Adventure.

You're doing a disservice yto yourself if you do not have Mythus Bestiary, though.

Also, Mythus Magick is simply an amazing book - so many possibilities in there.

DJ always looked like a great game, but it intimidated the hell out of me, since I knew I would be the one required to run everything and thus have a better than normal understanding of the rules.  One thing that might have helped would have been sample, easy to run adventures.  One of the best ways to learn how to run a game is to read a completed adventure.  Unfortunately the game's lifetime was cut short otherwise we might have seen these eventually.

Mike B.

serleran wrote:It is a great game, and very capable of intimidation, especially if you're more familiar with traditional game tropes. One reason for this is, I think, the desire to break away from preconceived notions of what a fantasy RPG could be - Gary had gone from the class archetype paradigm to a more free-form open system, and there are a lot of "that is not how it works in D&D..." areas, especially regarding Heka and the magic system (where one can have numerous skills to make you very powerful regarding spellcasting.) There are also loads and loads of details, both in the setting (Ærth is wonderfully conceptualized - get Epic of Ærth and enjoy!) and in the rules themselves (many of the skills are minutely explained in typical Gygax prose.)

I am lucky enough to have the Unhallowed horror expansion/supplement as well. I love it. Not quite Call of Cthulhu, but its not supposed to be.

I don't have much knowledge of DJ, but Lejendary Adventure apparently shares many similarities.   However, where DJ was rules-heavy and richly detailed, LA went the opposite direction.  Incidentally, "Heka" became one of Gary's nicknames.

Sick (as my 12 year old son would say - this is a good thing!)

Wasn't there a third Dangerous Journeys setting as well?

I'm tempted to say it was called Changeling, but I've lost my bookmarks for the DJ fansite.