January Preview

Greetings Tier 3 Mythicists! I have a Random Event for you, a preview of stuff I'm currently working on.

The image above is the Adventure Genre Elements Meaning Table. This goes with a Mythic Magazine article I'm working on about generating settings and worlds to play in. I want the option to not only create worlds, but create the kind of game you're playing in within that world. As solo players we have a lot of flexibility in how we play, so I figured the randomization can start even before we choose what RPG to play with Mythic.

It would go something like this: you feel like playing a solo adventure, you have absolutely nothing prepared and nothing in mind. You are open to anything. So starting with the setting, you roll on the table above for inspiration. The first word rolled is "Agents". Okay, maybe this is an adventure with characters in some official capacity, like secret agents or FBI agents, or something like that. You need more information so you roll again and get "Corporations". Hmm, "agents" now is sounding more like operatives for corporations. Maybe this is some kind of dystopian cyberpunk game. You're still not sure, so you roll for a third word and get "Communities". You interpret this by leaning into your original interpretation of a cyberpunk game focusing on agents of mega-corporations, but add in the concept of factions and communities within this game universe. This could be communities like corporate executives, computer hackers, street level anarchists, etc. These communities will form an important element in the game universe, probably revolving around conflict between opposing communities.

The idea with generating genre isn't to nail down every detail, but to establish an overall feel to the type of game you will play. This is like picking an RPG book off a shelf, glancing at the cover and maybe reading what it says about the game on the back. It's surface information, but really important surface information that determines the tone of everything else to come. 

From here, you start constructing the adventure you will play. Maybe you choose an RPG that most closely matches this setting, maybe you play with just Mythic. That's up to you. Generating the genre gives you a broad start point where you build from there.

This table also reflects portions of Mythic RPG 2e that's in development. World creation is a part of character creation, and that can include creating the genre of adventure you're playing in.

Okay, I'm going to roll up one more example. First roll is "Cozy". This makes me think this is going to be a light game, or a slice of life style game. Something without combat and more about people's lives than epic goals. The second roll is "Horror". Okay, that's an interesting combination. Cozy horror. I think I can stop there, because this is making me think of Nightmare Before Christmas. The adventure is about a village of undead who are all just trying to get by, and my character is their leader. Or, something along that line.

Try this out if you like. I'd be curious to hear how this works in your games. I feel like this table is a little different in approach from some of the others, because you aren't trying to Discover Meaning or build detail in a Scene. You're doing this before you even start playing. You could even use this just to help you decide what RPG you're going to play with. 

Happy adventuring :)