Sunday, April 4, 2021

Mythic Game Master Emulator


My intent was to use Mythic GM Emulator (MGME) with Genesys to augment that game's situational based dice, but the more I read this, the more I realized that I didn't need the special dice or Genesys itself. I could get by fine without the overlaying system of Genesys and just use something simple like B/X as the core game and let MGME do all the heavy lifting.


Yes-No and Probability

The way the system works is interesting. This isn't a rule system, but more of a framework for determining the answers to yes-no questions given a probability you assign to the question being a "yes." You can go even, somewhat likely, very unlikely, a sure thing, impossible, and so on with the probabilities, and this is all modified by a global "chaos" type factor that goes higher the more things get out of control and goes lower the more the players get things under control.

There are limits to the types of number of questions you can ask to avoid cheesing the system, and it is recommended you avoid asking the question "do I find a suitcase with a million dollars in it?" in every scene. They say two questions per scene is a good number, like "is the room empty?" and if no "are these the goblins that escaped?" You answer questions until you figure things out, setup the encounter with the system of your choice, and go from there.

For the most part, you go by logic and what you would expect, but the system is engineered to throw you curveballs every once and a while to keep things interesting, As a solo-play system I can see this working well.


Random Events

When doubles are rolled and the singles digit of the doubles is less than the 1-9 Chaos Factor, a random event occurs.- so every question asked of the fate chart has the possibility of throwing a curveball into the story with every question asked. I like this since it puts some danger on asking questions for 5-10% of them having a possibility to throw a wrench into the works.

These can be decided on the spot, or there is a flavor table where you can roll two random words to help you interpret the event, such as "inform-ambush" meaning your group gets advance word of an ambush happing to themselves or others.


Adventure and Scene Frameworks

There is also a basic scene framework to build encounters with that string together for an adventure. You setup a scene, there are some chances for it to go off the rails from what you expected, and you begin the yes-no process to setup the situation. This felt like a section I would pass over, but one thing caught my eye - when a scene is setup, a 1d10 is rolled and compared to the current Chaos Factor. This roll can either alter or interrupt the scene you have planned in your head.

With an altered scene, what you thought was going to happen in the scene is changed in some way. The goblin fort you planned on attacking is empty. The lost starship everyone assumed crashed is actually intact. The casino the super criminal is supposed to be at is holding a carnival festival. Your assumptions about the setup for the next scene in your head are not correct, and you are forced to change them.

With an interrupted scene, you don't even get there. The goblins ambush you before you even get to the fort. You get a distress call from a remote moon before you ever get to the planet with the lost starship. Your superspy never gets to the casino, and instead, they are locked in the back of a runaway taxi as it careens towards a cliff!

You then play out the original, altered, or interrupted scene. After that, you make changes to the story threads (updating, starting, or stopping the threads in the adventure), the character and NPC lists, and update the current Chaos Factor either positively or negatively (depending on if the characters were in control or out of control).

I like the concept of story threads here. You can start with stop the goblins from attacking traders on the road. You learn of the goblin fort and you add, destroy the goblin fort. You learn of a kidnapped merchant being held for ransom and you add, rescue the merchant. You destroy the fort and rescue the merchant, so you cross those threads out, but you learn of the goblins were being paid by an evil cult to attack the merchants, so you add investigate the evil cult to your story thread list. Perhaps you find a map the goblins had with the location of a strange ruin, so you add investigating that to your story thread list as well.


I Like This, Well Put Together

This is a fun story framework system I can see myself using. It is interesting, lightweight, and it doesn't get in the way of the underlying rules with all sorts of special talents, abilities, and qualifiers. There isn't a lot of scaffolding here except for the Fate Chart, Chaos Factor, two ways of creating Random Events, and one-of-three possible Scene Setup rules. Just four pillars to consider when thinking about what happens next, and a solid yes-no method for creating the low-level details.

Very nicely done, and hlighly recommended for those into solo play.

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