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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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Although I'm calling this episode "Episode 1", it's really the second episode: the first was run as more of an expirement to see if this "setup" would work for me (I'm playing this within a txt doc). I think it worked great, and had a blast playing out the last episode. Mythic and Risus work great together.
I've read several blogs about how to get yourself doing solo Mythic sessions, and one in particular (Carsten's adventure on the Solo Nexus) mentioned something that gave me the impetus into trying this out. He mentioned that he needed to write things down as they happened, both to keep track of everything and to give himself a written record of what was happening in game as it happened. But this process needed to be quick.
This got me thinking: I could play a Mythic + Risus game entirely inside a text document. Last episode proved to me that it was pretty easy to do.
To read what happened in "Episode 0", you can find the previous reports here:
Scene 1: http://bit.ly/wbtdep00sc01
Scene 2: http://bit.ly/wbtdep00sc02
Scene 3: http://bit.ly/wbtdep00sc03
Scene 4: http://bit.ly/wbtdep00sc04
Scene 5: http://bit.ly/wbtdep00sc05
Suffice it to say that in each episode I'll have the main character walk through a "doorway" and find himself in some sort of crazy situation with no idea what's going on or why he's there. WBTD = What's Behind/Beyond the Door.
For this episode I'm going to use the same character I used before, simplified slightly and with no dice taken away. I'll also be resetting the Chaos to 5, setting the Threat level to 3, and setting up my initial threads as before. For this first scene I'm not going to roll to see if the scene is altered or modified.
Jack
Know-It-All (4)
Athletic (3)
Homebrew/DIY (2)
Perceptive (1)
And off we go...
Scene 1 (Chaos 5, Threat 3)
Setup: Figure out where I am and what is happening.
Threads:
* Where am I?
* Why am I here?
Characters:
None yet...
After falling through bright light I suddenly find myself standing in front of a door. Opening the door I find myself...
Q: Where am I? (complex)
A: 43,64 Imprison A Burden... So I'm guessing I'm in or near a prison.
Q: Am I in a prison cell? (50/50)
A: 10, Exceptional Yes.
So I'm in a prison cell. Not only that but I'm guessing...
Q: Am I chained up? (somewhat likely)
A: 93, No. Okay... then I'm going to say the "exceptional" result above is because I'm wearing a prisonor's uniform of some sort.
"Well... wonder what I did to get in here?" I say jokingly.
Q: Am I alone in the cell? (very likely)
A: 16, Exceptional Yes. Very alone.
Q: Is the cell, this entire prison, extremely old, run down? (likely)
A: 11, Exeptional Yes (damn, ton of exceptionals this scene). Also, random event with Focus 73, PC Positive and Meaning 20,5 Truce Inside... Not getting anything on that meaning, need more info... 40,84 Postpone Status quo... One more time, 73,28 Separate Intrigues. Really not getting anything on these... Postpone status quo seems to go with me being locked up... Wait, got it.
Suddenly the doors to my cell give a loud metal on metal screech as they swing open a few feet. I've been here awhile, locked up... For how long, I don't know. But now I'm free. What ever force once held these cell doors closed, must have finally come to a truce with the forces of nature and given up it's inner fight.
Now... Why was I locked up? and by who? (separate intrigues)
Q: Is there anything of note in my cell, and if so what? (somewhat likely, complex)
A: 34, Yes. 71,15 Trick The Innocent.
Q: Nature of the trick? (complex)
A: 94,91 Dispute Weapons.
Looking around my cell, I notice a knife laying against the wall opposite my cell door. "Huh, might come in handy," I say as I start towards the knife.
Then I remember: It's a trick. If I grab the knife, the cell doors swing shut.
"So someone thought I'd want that knife and set a trap of sorts, knowing I'd try to take it..."
Q: Do I remember if I felt I needed to protect myself? (50/50)
A: 28, Yes.
"I needed the knife to protect myself..."
Q: Do I remember anything about what I was protecting myself from, and if so what? (50/50, complex)
A: 19, Yes. 67,22 Open Energy... Would say some sort of "ghost", but a knife wouldn't protect me from that unless...
Q: Is the knife covered in runes or anything else that would make it somehow "magical"? (somewhat likely)
A: 63, Yes. Damn. I really did want that knife.
Okay, so there is something... some ghost-like "force" out there, outside this cell, that wants to do me harm... but is scared of this knife.
Q: Was this entire cell somehow protected from this "ghost" out there? (likely)
A: 60, Yes.
Then I notice the walls. They're covered in runes, stars in circles, glyphs. Someone trapped me in this room... for my own protection. If I want to get out of here, out of this prison and away from whatever force I felt threatened enough by to want that knife, I NEED the knife.
I'm not really sure I want to risk being trapped in this room any longer. I may be safe from whatever these runes are protecting me from, but I have no idea how long it would be until the door opened should the trap go off again. Going to try to disarm the trap.
I'll treat the trap as a one roll threat/conflict: "Trapped knife".
Q: Is the Trap's difficulty more than 3 dice? (unlikely)
A: 64, so +0 or 3 dice.
Looking at the knife, I use a bit of my "Know-It-All" ability combined with my "DIY" knowledge to try and disarm the trap.
Conflict: "Know-It-All (4)" vs. "Trapped Knife (3)"
Result: 5+6+6+1=18 versus 5+5+4=14, so the trap is disarmed.
I notice the trap's trigger right away. It's complicated, but I should have seen it before springing it the first time... then again...
Q: Did *I* set the traps and put the runes on the walls? (unlikely)
A: 95, Exceptional No.
Okay then, get it together man.
With the trap disarmed, I grab the knife.
Q: Anything else of note in the cell and if so, what? (unlikely, complex)
A: 17, Yes. 89,61 Attract Death. Think I know where to go with this, but need more: 28,90 Separate Danger. Thinking another danger, separate from the entity somewhere outside my cell... another trap possibly.
Q: What's the nature of the trap (besides it being lethal)? (complex)
A: 37,47 Struggle Attention.
There's a book next to the prison cell cot. "Well that's interesting... I wonder what it's about?"
And again, I remember... "NO!!!" I scream as I force my gaze (and thoughts) away from the book... Too many sleepless nights trapped in this cell pouring over the book, searching it's pages for information that was always just outside my realm of understanding. Maybe if I look in the book just one more time I'll find some information about this being that lurks somewhere outside this cell...
NO!!! I know now that I need to leave this cell, get as far from this book as possible. Was it the book's power that brought me here? I don't know, but to look on the book again would probably be the death of me. Visions of my starved body flipping franticly through it's pages are enough make me realize: I need to get out of this prison and away from whatever wanders it's halls.
With a sigh of determination, I leave the cell that has been my protection for god knows how long.
Ending the scene here.
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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NOTE (added after starting play): This was originally titled Episode 1 Scene 1. Read below to see why the title changed
For this episode I'm going to use the same character as before, with no dice taken away. I'll also be resetting the Chaos to 5, setting the Threat level to 3, and setting up my initial threads as before.
Jack
Bit of a Know-It-All (4)
Athletic When I Need To Be (3)
Into Homebrew/DIY (2)
Introspective Yet Perceptive (1)
And off we go...
Scene 1 (Chaos 5, Threat 3)
Setup: Figure out where I am and what is happening.
Threads:
* Where am I?
* Why am I here?
Characters:
None yet...
Q: Scene Modified?
A: 2, Interrupt Scene. Focus: 24, NPC Action. 80,63 Trust Power
Okay, I'm thinking that as I fell through the doorway into the light at the end of the last episode, I found myself floating through some bright space that somehow was healing my wounds... reinvigorating me somehow.
Q: I'm wondering if I see anything in the "brightness" (50/50)
A: 74, Nope... just bright light. The Focus for the interupt scene was "NPC Action", though we have no NPCs right now... Usually with Mythic I'd roll to see which NPC is the focus, though since we don't have any current NPCs, I'm going to add a random NPC from the previous episode:
Possible NPCs:
1. Giant Godzilla-esque Monster
2. Suburbanites
3. Giant bugs
4. Guy that gave me the info on the bugs (and "killed" me).
Q: Which NPC? (d4)
A: 3, Giant bugs.
Q: Was I somehow a spy for the bugs? (giving this "unlikely" because I'm not really feeling it)
A: 7, Exceptional Yes. Wow. That changes things a little.
As I'm falling through the light I manage to somehow turn myself around and realize that I'm still only a few feet from the doorway I just moments ago "fell into". The man with the knife is standing there, bloody knife still in his hand, staring forward into the open doorway. Yet he doesn't appear to be looking at me or even into the light really. It's as if I'm able to see him through one side of the doorway, but he's looking into what lies beyond his own doorway in his own reality.
He's staring into the distance at something, he looks terrified. I notice his eyes start shifting back and forth as though tracking multiple moving objects. The bugs. They begin pouring though his doorway before the man can blink. From my perspective on my side of the doorway they're appearing out of nowhere, covering the man, muting his screams as he's bound and encased just feet away from me. Strangely (or not) this doesn't bother me in the slightest. Maybe it's that whole knife to my back...
I notice one of the bugs turns back towards what would have been the man's doorway. It seems to look directly at me. Faintly, I get the sensation that the bug is... thanking me?
Q: While I'm watching, do the bugs find anything "incriminating" about the guy? If so, what? (50/50, complex)
A: 93, Exceptional No.
Q: "Why? Why are you thanking me?", I ask the bug. (complex)
A: 35,11 Return Emotions
Again I get faint sensations the bug is trying to tell me something.... "Anger. Distrust. Danger."
I guess that makes sense. The bugs saw people like this guy as a danger to society. I mean, if he'd go so far as to kill a guy like me, then who else could he have harmed?
And with that, I'll end the scene AND this episode... and continue falling through the bright light.
I think next scene, the first of the next episode, I'll skip rolling for altered/modified scenes as I did in the first scene of the last episode.
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
-
Scene 4 of my "What's Behind the Door" Risus/Mythic expirement. Other scenese found here: Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3.
Here's my character so far:
Jack
Bit of a Know-It-All (4)
Athletic When I Need To Be (3)
Into Homebrew/DIY (2)
Introspective Yet Perceptive (1)
Last scene I figured out a bit more about what was going on with the bugs so I'm going to give myself one more die for each open thread. Also, going to leave the Chaos and Threat Levels alone.
Scene 4 (Chaos 7, Threat 3)
Setup: Back at this guy that helped me out's house, going to question him and see if I can get any more information on what's going on
Threads:
* Get people to safety! (2/3)
* Figure out what happens to the encased people (2/2)
Characters:
* Giant Godzilla-esque Monster
* Suburbanites
* Giant bugs
* Guy that gave me the info on the bugs.
Q: Scene modified?
A: 5, Altered Scene. Crap. I have a few ideas on how to alter the scene but I'm not really sure what would be the most logical alteration so...
Q: How is the scene altered? (complex)
A: 76,64 Mistrust A Burden. I can definitely work with that as it goes with some of my thoughts.
As soon as I close the door behind me, my "new friend" spins around brandishing...
Q: A kitchen knife? (very likely)
A: 26, Yes.
"Tell me why I can trust you!" he shouts, keeping the knife a bit too close for comfort. "How come you acted that way out there?!? You don't look like a fool, so what are you, some kind of spy?"
I'm going to treat this interation as a threat: "Calm the guy down".
Q: Is the threat greater than 3? (unlikely)
A: 48, threat level modified by -1, so the thread is at 2 dice.
Being a "Bit of a Know-It-All (4)" I'm going to say that I know how to conduct myself in a way that will (hopefully) calm people down: I'm going to give myself half dice (2).
"Hey man, I have no idea what's going on here but I don't want to hurt you in any way... this is all new to me."
Conflict: "Bit of a Know-It-All (2)" vs "Calm the guy down (2)"
Result: 4+2=5 vs. 5+6=11, so I lose a die. Damnit, should have pumped.
"What the hell do you mean 'this is all new to me?!?'"
"I mean that I really have no idea what is going on... Please trust me, I'm here to help."
Conflict: "Bit of a Know-It-All (1)" vs. "Calm the guy down (2)"
Result: 3 vs. 3+5=8, so I lost another die and I'm out so no calming this guy down.
Q: Does he lunge at me with the knife? (very likely)
A: 42, Yes.
Q: Is the threat greater than 3? (50/50)
A: 96 (!), so threat +2 or 5. Crap, this guy must have been training for a situation like this. Going to make the threat "Crazy dude with kitchen knife (5)"
I'm going to give him one round of conflict against my "Athletic When I Need To Be (3)", which I'm going to pump to 4.
Conflict: "Athletic When I Need To Be (3+1)" vs. "Crazy dude with kitchen knife (5)"
Result: 4+4+5+3=16 versus 5+3+3+4+6=21, so I lose 2 dice and am at 1.
The guy lunges at me as I jump backwards towards the door. His knife glances my arm as my back hits the door. Hard.
Scrambling to my feet I try to open the door... Hopefully he'll be scared enough of the bugs that he won't come out after me. Hopefully the bugs won't notice a bleeding man running through the streets. Hopefully I'll survive this... somehow.
Conflict: "Athletic When I Need To Be (1)" vs. "Crazy dude with kitchen knife (5)"
Result: 1 versus 6+2+5+5+6=24, I didn't stand a chance. So I am out of the conflict.
Q: Is he trying to kill me? (very likely)
A: 93, Yes...
Maybe exposing my back to this crazy guy wasn't such a great idea... Weird though... I feel the knife go into my back, burning pain, and then suddenly the door in front of me goes... bright? The last thing I remember, besides the pain, besides falling through the bright doorway, is the guy... this supposed "new friend", saying... "what the..."
Prologue
Looking back on this scene, I probably should have had the guy's "mistrust" be a little less violent. Oh well. So far I've been pretty much recording my thoughts and the play "as it happens". I've found that this has been working really well and am enjoying doing this. I've seen other people that post Mythic plays say this before, but even if these scenes don't read very well they're A LOT of fun to play out.
That said, there are a few bits that I'm not liking with the system I've been playing. I don't like the Yes/No odds changing with respect to the Chaos level. I feel it places too much burden on how a question is asked. For the next "Episode" all Yes/No questions will use the odds given by mythic for a Chaos level of 5. Everything else Mythic related will stay the same so I will still need to track Chaos (I don't see that as a big deal at all).
The other thing that bugged me was my rules on "threat" giving that guy 5 dice. Then again, I rolled really high (96!) so maybe that was what fate had in store. The rules seemed to work alright for everything else as well... going to keep them for now.
One thing I want to keep in the back of my head as something I could try out: the Free Universal (FU) ruleset. It seems like it would work really well solo but I'm not sure how "gamey" it is (more gamey being a "good thing" in my opinion). Going to keep playing with Risus for now.
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
-
Scene 3 of my "What's Behind the Door" Risus/Mythic expirement. You find find the previous scenes here: Scene 1, Scene 2.
Here's my character so far:
Jack
Bit of a Know-It-All (4)
Athletic When I Need To Be (3)
Into Homebrew/DIY (2)
Introspective Yet Perceptive (1)
Last scene was modified, this scene is very similar to before but with an added thread: "Figure out what happens to the encased people".
Q: Is the difficulty greater than 3 (the current threat level)? (50/50)
A: 7, which gives -1 or 3 - 1 = 2 dice.
Also, raising the chaos level...
About my earlier idea of giving myself a certain number of dice towards completing threads: I think I should start at one die for each.
Scene 3 (Chaos 7, Threat 3)
Setup: Middle of a suburban street that has recently had a giant godzilla-sized bug go through it and now has smaller versions of the monster scurrying about encasing those that are "acting out".
Threads:
* Get people to safety! (1/3)
* Figure out what happens to the encased people (1/2)
Characters:
* Giant Godzilla-esque Insect Monster
* Suburbanites
* Giant bugs
* Guy that gave me the info on the bugs.
Q: Scene modified?
A: 10, unaltered.
The scene is unaltered... lets try to close some threads
Q: Can I "Get people to safety"?
A: I roll 6 versus thread's 4+4+3=11, so no I can't.
Q: Can I "figure out what happens to the encased people"?
A: I roll 3 versus thread's 7, so no.
Q: Do the bugs notice me somehow? I mean I WAS yelling a bit ago... (likely)
A: 98, No.
Q: Do the bugs notice the guy that helped me out? (somewhat likely)
A: 89, No.
Thankfully none of the bugs noticed me or the guy that helped me. As calmly as possible I try to follow the guy that helped me.
Q: Does he mind me following him? (50/50)
A: 77, No.
Q: Have the "encased" people been removed from the scene? (50/50)
A: 29, Yes.
Q: Did I see where they were taken? (I'm "perceptive" so I'm making this "likely") If so, where? (complex question)
A: 35, Yes. 23,74 Judge Liberty... damn. This IMMEDIATELY brings to mind John "Omega" Williams suggestion on what could be going on.
It's then that I notice a large building at the end of the block that looks very alien in structure, but at the same time... familiar. It almost looks like some foreign technology was built on top of... a courthouse? And the insects seem to be dragging these encased people towards the building...
Q: Are we able to get back to dudes house without conflict? (very likely)
A: 78, Yes.
After walking for a bit with the guy that helped me out before, we finally get to his house.
Q: Does he live alone? (50/50)
A: 65, Yes.
Okay, I feel this is a good stopping point as I'm in relative safety (I think) and have learned a little more about what's going on.
So it looks to me like the people encased by the bugs are being brought back to the old courthouse in town, though I still don't know what happens to them there. Next scene I'm going to be mostly trying to get some background info on these bugs and the giant monster from my new-found friend.
Going to add a die to both open threads above. I'll roll for them later to determine if I can answer the questions they represent in the next scene. As before, I'm open to any interpretations on where this could be going... I have a few ideas in my head, and the dice definitely (in my mind) rolled in favor of John's earlier interpretation, but the more possibilities I can think of, the better the game
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
-
Scene 2 of my "What's Behind the Door" Risus/Mythic expirement.
Here's my character so far:
Jack
Bit of a Know-It-All (4)
Athletic When I Need To Be (3)
Into Homebrew/DIY (2)
Introspective Yet Perceptive (1)
Scene 2 (Chaos 6, Threat 3)
Setup: Try to get myself and as many others away from these giant bugs and into safety.
Threads:
* Where am I?
* Why am I here?
* Get people to safety!
Characters:
* Giant Godzilla-esque Monster
* Suburbanites
* Giant bugs.
I'm not completely comfortable with Mythic's method of setting when some types of threads can be marked "complete" so I'm going to treat the "Get people to safety!" thread as an obstacle with a certain number of dice that need to be "beat". Whenever I complete a scene in which I further a thread, I will give myself one more die towards this thread. Then, whenever I'm setting up a scene in which I could conceivably "end" this thread, I'll first roll against the number of dice the thread has, using the number of dice I've earned. If I equal or beat the thread's roll, I'll allow myself to "close" the thread in the scene.
So first, to determine how hard to make this thread? I'll use the "threat" notion to determine the number of dice it has...
Q: Is the "Get people to safety!" thread a higher than 3 threat?
A: 36, which gives +0 so the thread is "Get people to safety! (3)".
Q: Scene modified?
A: 6, scene interrupted. Focus: 3, Remote Event (ambiguous). Meaning: 3/24 Neglect Tension.
Okay, here I am standing in the middle of the street seeing a giant insect godzilla-like creature marching off to the sunset, tons of people standing around watching, and suddenly smaller dog-sized versions of the monster start crawling around, encasing the suburbanites in their webbing. What would you do in this situation? Well, I'd start screaming for everybody to get back in their house. When I started doing this though, people were remarkably... un-moved. They looked at me like "what the hell is your problem?"... I suddenly notice that everybody is pretty calm about the whole situation.
Q: Do they see the bugs? (Very Unlikely)
A: 20, Yes.
Q: Hrmmm... so the people aren't even really concerned that they and their neighbors are getting encased by these bugs? (50/50)
A: 85, No.
Okay, so they ARE concerned about their neighbors getting encased by these bugs, but they AREN'T worried about it. I'm going to ask (to everyone near me), "Why aren't you worried about neighbors? These bugs are going to eat them!"
Q: What kind of response do I get? (complex)
A: 33/19, Stop New Ideas
Thinking a guy near me tells me to shut up and go with the flow...
Q: Anything else? (complex)
A: 64/76, Spy The Mundane
and... they're looking for those that stand out.
Wow, okay... so very calmly a man looks at me funny like I must be insane, quickly composes himself and says matter of factly "Calm yourself, they'll only eat you if don't act like everybody else."
I think I have a better picture of what's going on now: these bugs can only see people that stand out from the crowd. The two guys arguing over a car accident stood out as everyone else was calmly watching the monster walk off into the sunset. The monster must come through town every once in awhile to stir up trouble and "let the little ones feed".
How the hell do I handle this? How do I save these people?
What immediately comes to mind? EVERYONE must fight back. (end scene)
Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:45 pm
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
-
Aka, What's Behind The Door.
Okay... going to try a bit of an experimental solo Risus game using the Mythic GME. Setup/background for this game is that my character walks through a doorway into a different... reality. The door closes behind me and I am left to wonder (initial threads):
* Where am I?
* Why am I here?
I'm going to assume these questions are being asked from more of a dream-like state, instead of being "oh my god, how did I end up here."
I'm going to use the regular Mythic GME rules, with complex questions resolved by interpreting subject/action rolls, and an initial "Threat Level" of 3. At the beginning of the first scene, I'll ask the complex question (see Mythic Variations) "Where am I?" to get the ball rolling.
The Mythic GME does a great job at pulling ideas out of your head so I'm not really sure where this will lead... I am going into this thinking that "bad things" are going to happen to my character. Where a question may be answered in a mundane fashion, I'll probably take more of a "WTF" route instead...
Here's the character I'll be using:
Jack
Bit of a Know-It-All (4)
Athletic When I Need To Be (3)
Into Homebrew/DIY (2)
Introspective Yet Perceptive (1)
Okay, here we go...
Scene 1 (Chaos 5, Threat 3)
Setup: Figure out where I am and what is happening.
Threads:
* Where am I?
* Why am I here?
Q: Where the hell am I? (complex)
A: 19/84, Waste Status Quo.
Okay it looks like I'm standing in the middle of the street in the suburbs (OOC: status quo): all the houses look the same and the yards are perfectly manicured... at least this would be the case if everything wasn't completely trashed (OOC: wasted).
Q: Do I see any signs of life? (50/50)
A: 9, Exceptional Yes.
Q: Are there people standing around everywhere? (Likely)
A: 54, Yes.
So, there are people everywhere. Everyone's standing around outside.
Q: Is it immediately obvious why everyone is outside, and if so why? (Somewhat Likely)
A: 60, Yes. 51/27, Overindulge A Project
Following everyone's eyes I think I see what everyone's outside gawking at... Looks like a giant monster of somekind... Maybe some mad scientist's experiment gone awry.
Q: Is it an immediate threat? (50/50)
A: 95, Exceptional No.
It's pretty far away. As big as it appears, I can just barely see it's silhouette quickly fading into the sunset. Okay, at this point I'm guessing I'm here to help somebody affected by the damage done by the monster.
Q: Do I see anybody that needs immediate help, if so what's going on? (Likely)
A: 88, No.
Okay... No burning buildings or anybody screaming for help... yet.
Q: Is there a danger present that I am aware of, but others aren't? (Likely) If so, what?
A: 8, Exceptional Yes (!!!). 95/82 Punish Dispute (?) 18/44 Move Prison (?) 96/96 Guide The Public.
Looking around I see several smaller versions of the giant monster scittering about in the backyards. They look almost... insectoid or spider-like. Not much bigger than a medium sized dog. Suddenly, I notice one of them spit out some sort of webbing, knocking a person to the ground and encasing them (OOC: moving prison).
I need to get these people back in their houses, NOW (OOC: guide the public)!
I see two people arguing about something, (Q: car accident? 50/50 A: 24, Yup.) one has a tire iron, both are about to get webbed and don't realize it (OOC: punish dispute).
Q: Do I notice the bugs in time to warn them? Rolling against my "Introspective Yet Perceptive (1)" gives 2 (Very Unlikely).
A: 60, Nope.
Down they go, encassed in webbing... Damn, that guy and his tire iron could have helped out...
Segueing into the next scene here as I think I have a good idea of where I am and what I'm supposed to be doing. Going to up the Chaos as there wasn't a ton of action in this scene, and keep the threat level the same.
I like where this is going.
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
-
I really like how beautifully Risus and Mythic work together for some solo (GM-less) role-playing. Want to know what's behind that door you just opened? Use Mythic to ask a "Complex Question" and interpret the results. Whatever result you get can usually be pretty easily turned into a Risus "Cliché". The only problem I tend to have then is how many dice to give the resulting cliché?
In reading play reports of others using Risus with Mythic, it seems most just go with however many dice seem most logical ("don't stress about it, you're thinking too much!"). That fits both the Mythic and Risus way of doing things, but is still a little too loose for what I'm looking for: sometimes I want to be surprised by the difficulty/ease of a given obstacle... I want more variability around this number. Because of this, I've been thinking about how to implement some sort of "Threat Level" within Mythic + Risus games. Here's what I’ve got so far.
First, set the "threat level" to some base value, say 3 dice. This threat level will act somewhat like Mythic’s "Chaos Level": it gets raised if the characters are having too easy of a time, and lowered if they're having too hard a time. Now, whenever you’re trying to determine how many dice to give an obstacle or threat first decide how likely it is that the threat will be higher than this base threat level using an adjective similar to those already given in Mythic ("Impossible", "No Way", "Very Unlikely", etc.). Based on this odds description, look up the "Threat Roll Mod" on the (second) chart below:
Add this modifier to a d100 roll and, using the column corresponding to the current chaos level, look up the "Threat Level Modifier" on the "Threat Chart". Then add the threat level modifier to the base threat level to determine how many dice this encounter, obstacle, or threat will have. The minimum number of dice a cliché can have is 1, so any value less than that should be interpreted appropriately.
As an example, let's say I have a "Sneaky Little Rogue (4)" that has entered a castle with the intention of robbing it. Let's assume the current threat level is 3 and the chaos level is 7. Opening a door to what he assumes is the castle's treasury, he finds he's instead found the castle's kitchen and (ack!) there is a "Group of the Castle's Guards" eating dinner here! How many dice to give the guards? Based on the current threat level, I'd say that it's "Somewhat Likely" that the guards have more than 3 dice. This gives us a Threat Roll Mod of +10. Rolling d100+10 on the Threat Chart results in 61+10=71 which, based on the chaos level of 7, results in a threat level modifier of +1. This gives a modified threat level of 3+1=4 and the guards will be a "Group of Castle Guards (4)".
Note that if the chaos level had instead been 5 or 6, the threat level modifier would have been 0 resulting in a modified threat level of 3. Also note that if I had said the odds of being higher were "Very Unlikely", then the guards would have been instead a "Group of Castle Guards (2)".
This notion of threat level can also be used to determine target numbers by treating any target number roll as a single action conflict against a modified threat level. Say the rogue above is trying to open (what he thinks is) an ordinary locked door and we have the same threat and chaos level as before. I'd say the odds of the threat being higher are "Unlikely", and roll d100-20 to get 43 which gives an overall threat level of 3-1=2 (yup, looks like an ordinary lock). So, I roll the rogue's 4 dice (getting 18) against the lock's 2 dice (wow, got 2) and see that the rogue opens the lock quickly, quietly, and with ease (was it even really locked?).
I tried to get this chart to behave similar to the way Mythic handles odds. For example, even if you considered the odds of a threat being higher as "Has to be", there will still be a small (5%) chance that it won't be (at a chaos level of 4-6). Also, the more chaotic a situation gets, the more variable threat levels will be.
I should note that if you're just looking at target number's, Risus Monkey describes another way to roll against target numbers using tools already available within Mythic. This may be preferable to some as it doesn't involve any other charts (and is just generally pretty elegant).
Anyway, I hope this helps anybody that decides to use it.
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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My wife and I really like the Ticket to Ride line of games and have introduced them to many of our non-game playing friends. Several of these friends have later gone out to buy their own copy while some have even started bringing over new games for us to play (yay!).
I was pretty excited when I heard that Days of Wonder was going to release a new expansion for Ticket to Ride that involved kaiju monsters tearing up the board... After seeing what they were going to call it though, I had a bit of an existential "whaaa?!?" moment.
"Alvin & Dexter"? whoa. See, Alvin and Dexter are very special names in our house...
This is Alvin:
And this is Dexter:
As you can probably guess from the pictures, Alvin is one of our rabbits (we have two) while Dexter is one of our dogs (also have two). Crazy.
Anyone that has met Dexter knows he's one of the most timid, submissive, and kind dogs you could ever meet. Imagining Dexter going on a Godzilla-like rampage: hilarious.
It's not much different for Alvin. He's extremely friendly and usually very eager to get a quick pet (especially if you have something to feed him). Imagining him as a disguised alien secretly plotting when to hatch his plan to take over the world: also hilarious.
I was planning on picking up the expansion anyway (it arrived on Wednesday, w00t!), but it's really pretty cool the added little fun the naming will cause when we bring this out... even if it was unintentional (or was it?).
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Jeremiah
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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These are some ideas I've had running around in my head about combining the rules to the new D&D boardgame system (Ravenloft and Ashardalon), with the components of Zombies!!! and the tone/theme of The Walking Dead. Please feel free to fly with any of this. If you do though, please release whatever you come up with for the rest of us to enjoy...
Thought #1.
I really like the game system presented in the new Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game and Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game. These games allow players to go on missions (called "scenarios" or "adventures"), each with a different set of conditions that need to be satisfied in order to "win".
The setup for each of these scenarios combines with a "tile-pull" system in such a way that no two plays of the same scenario will be the same. This not only adds immensely to the game's replay value, but also adds (IMO) a significant feeling of adventure and exploration. It also adds a sense of suspense to the game, as you're usually unsure if the next "tile-pull" will reveal that scenario's big baddy. In total, the tile pull and scenario setup rules combine to make what I feel is a truly excellent system.
Another great idea from the game is how each monster has specific tactics associated with it. This makes it so the game can be played cooperatively, with no game master or overlord.
One thing the combination doesn't do though is give what *I* feel to be "that old school dungeon crawl" feeling. Maybe it's changed in Wrath, but when a party of adventurers goes into Castle Ravenloft they aren't "delving into a dungeon": they're raiding a fortress. The characters are constantly under attack. There is no "push-your-luck" feel of "do we go back to town and cash in now, or do we see what's behind this door?" But this is OK!
Given this, I've been thinking of different settings this system could be applied to. These would be settings where the characters are faced with entering an impossibly harsh environment in order to do something.
Thought #2.
One of the first boardgames I bought after discovering BGG was Zombies!!!, a game I personally think gets a bum rap. I wouldn't call it "great", but we've had a lot of fun playing it. That said, the "shotgun guys" and most of the zombie figs from the game are now being used for Zombie Plague, which I feel is a far superior game (though very, very different).
But Zombies!!! also has a "tile-pull" system, similar to Ravenloft. Hmmm...
Thought #3:
I'm a pretty big fan of the Walking Dead graphic novels (yeah, the TV show's pretty good to), but I haven't been caught up in ages... One of the things I really liked in the beginning of the novels was the sense of how dangerous cities (especially Atlanta) had become. I also liked how each of the characters had come to define themselves by how they helped the group: Glenn being very quick and agile, Rick being a great leader, Michonne being able to kick ass like nobody's business...
And they always seemed to purposely put themselves into impossibly harsh environments in order to do something. Hmmm...
Now, how to combine these thoughts? I've got a bunch of ideas in my head that I hope to flesh out, but not a lot of time to do it... I'll post my ideas later, but this is all the time my lunch hour provides
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