Lessons From Launch & Plans

The Myriad is 2 episodes in and I've already learned a bunch. It has been very exciting watching new players interact with the system and reflecting on myself as a DM and what I'm best at. I've been realizing how I need to tailor things moving forward to work best for me. The collection of all of these insights have led to to one major epiphany shortly after session 2 had ended.... I'm going to remake character creation again.

WAIT HOLD ON OKAY LISTEN!!

I'm not going to do it until there is a natural break after this campaign. I'm also fairly confident I can do everything I need to do in a day or two, so I may have it done in my spare time before the campaign concludes. I'm well acquainted with development days turning into months into a year... but the rework would still use every single piece of what is here already. The simplest explanation is that it would be a system of random level ups which offers a limited choice of options from the options that are already currently available. This is actually one of the very first ideas I fleshed out when beginning work on The Myriad, but tossed aside due to some of the inherent problems of player character power and consistency when their level ups are full of random nonsense. Now, some things have clicked and it makes a ton of sense.

First of all. Why? Seriously, after all of this, why? 

The first thought is of introducing Jerma to the system and having him play in a short, 3 session max, campaign. I know a player like him would not be interested in min-maxing a character and reading all the skill options over a week before we play. I love the idea that somebody who wants to jump into a session of Myriad can do so with as little friction as possible. Streamers are my primary demographic for players who would only be discouraged by overly complex systems and introductions. Explaining the world and how reading is dangerous is hard enough without a mechanical rulebook frontloaded with it. 

My primary goal with The Myriad is for it to be an entertaining show that can reach a wider audience. Complex character creation does nothing for that goal. In the situation where I am publicly releasing The Myriad as a system for other people to use that would be a higher priority, but I'm pushing that ambition from my mind to focus on what matters in the present so that maybe someday meeting that colossal goal might actually happen. Trying to accommodate Myriad being useable by others has only served to slow me down at every step of the journey and I feel farther away than when I started. I often cut ideas I know I could do on the fly during a session without any problem, but wouldn't be able to create UI for others to take advantage of. For now, I really just want the content I produce from this to be the best it can be and help educate any future development on a standalone client.

The second point is about myself and really being able to reflect on the style of game I like to run the most. Now that I've got back into the swing of running a game or two (literally) It's become a lot more clear what actually matters to me. How much fun I have running games is directly correlated to the longevity of The Myriad as a whole - so designing a system that pairs well with how I want to play the game obviously makes a lot of sense. I really believe you need to find what works best for you in life and try and tailor the positions you put yourself in to best suit your strengths. 

Running a 100 session epic campaign with the same characters is never going to be something I will be able to accomplish without a lot of mental sacrifice. Even 20 episodes feels like a stretch right now, but I've felt like that is what you're supposed to do. And to be doing more than one of these types of campaigns simultaneously.  My ideal setup returns to the first scenario, where I am doing a short 3ish session campaign which is self contained and you do not need a ton of episodes worth of knowledge to understand the story. An anthology of short stories that cross paths and characters from previous entries -- with a bonus that a character's death is less disruptive when a potential stopping point is always in the near future. If a player wants to leave after 3 sessions, it works. The rest of the characters and players may continue to cross paths in future adventures.

A totally randomized level up system works well within this realization of smaller scope campaign settings. Not fully randomized, because I'd like to also fully incorporate the idea of learning specific skills through downtime actions -- For example; if Eerie learned of Object History from Scarlet instead of needing to specifically level up and take the skill. Ashle compared this to Slay the Spire, where you are offered a choice between resting and upgrading your cards. It's very similar, honestly. Sacrificing short term safety for long term power as unique downtime actions arise depending on what resources you have available. The most engaging choices always come at a clearly visible cost. It'd be cool to see this even encourage a group of players to seek out a particular person or place to learn some practical abilities which can only be learned in a unique location. Character progression could become the quest.

The starting point for character creation is selecting a pre-defined character token which comes fully packaged as your 'class'. A 'Fighter', as a basic example, would start with some curated abilities and items centered around being a melee combatant. This makes it incredibly easy for a new player to jump in and feel comfortable that their build isn't "wrong" or they have missed out on an important mechanic they didn't see. The class would be much more well rounded with more options than the current players - I can guarantee each ability fits the theme and are more equal in power level than a min-maxed build which only seeks the best abilities rather than a variety. Each class will be supplemented by racial, background, and birth sign choice so there is still some starting flexibility -- but only the parts that are most significant to the identity of a character. This may even be a good time to be able to drop some lore to new players and explain what their class represents in the world.

The rest of the character is built simply by playing the game. Finding a sword. Finding a book that teaches the party a random spell. Learning transmutation from a traveling Foreman. When randomized level up options are presented, I also fully believe this is a much more engaging moment for a twitch chat to directly understand the cause and effect of the level up and what choices they would want to make in the given situation. Seeing all level up options at once is a bit much for what will ultimately be a largely casual audience acquired through the various streamers who play in individual games. Its a chance to be a 'React-Andy' when you get something that fits so well with that bow you just found. Its a chance to just not worry about it.

I hope you see where I'm coming from with this! This system is entirely dependent on the skills which already exist. I would really just need to make some simple functions for displaying level up options from the existing pool of abilities which can be freely expanded over time. Roughly as simple as copying X number of random level up tokens from the main map and then letting players only choose from them. I would like to categorize abilities so that 'Fighters' have a higher chance of generating 'Fighter' type skills and passives appearing. Birth signs, classes, or in game situations which allow a pick of any starting spell from the entire list of random options allow some of the control you may otherwise fear missing out on. Who you become after that is determined by the journey.