RETROSPECTIVE - Mythic Roleplaying Game

I have been remiss in posting lately but I have a couple more Retrospectives left.

As you may be able to tell from some of my prior Retrospectives (such as this) I was once an avid participant in role-playing games. Although I don’t regularly play anymore, I still am a fan of the games. Occasionally, I get the itch to play in an RPG but I didn’t want to join a group of strangers. One day I was musing that it would be great if there were a way to play solo RPGs. I knew about Choose Your Adventure books (and played them when I was younger) but these seemed so limiting. Well, I poked around on the internet a bit and found Mythic.

Mythic claims that it can be run without a GM and without any preparation. It does this with its very clever GM Emulator. Essentially, the player asks a Yes/No question about the world or adventure, estimates the odds, and then rolls on a table to determine the answer. For example, my character could be moving through a dungeon and comes to a door. He opens the door. Question: Are there any monsters in the room? I decide that the odds are likely and I roll against the table. The result comes up as yes. I know that I stumbled into trouble. I can use more questions to decide exactly what I’m up against (or I could just make it up on the spot).

Another cool feature is that the some rolls can result in exceptional successes or failures. For example, my character, Hiero the Humongous is trying to pick a locked door. I roll and get an exceptional no. The exact result is up to the player’s imagination. In this case, I may decide that not only did Hiero fail to get into the room but he also made some noise that alerted a guard in a nearby room!

Furthermore, Mythic has mechanisms to create random events and it has a lengthy random event table. These events could crop up while you are in the middle of some task or could occur between scenes and could alter the story in some way. Let me backtrack a bit to explain. Mythic games are organized into scenes. A player will use his or her imagination to set the scene but then roll to see if a random event occurs. The event could modify the scene in some way or it could cause an entirely new scene. Players will have to use imagination to fill in the blanks (of course, they can use the Yes/No table to help them out). As another example, let’s say that Hiero’s love interest has been kidnapped by the nefarious Lothario. For the next scene, I decide that Hiero will ride to his love’s rescue. I roll for a random event and get an interrupt scene. That means that a different scene will occur. Off the top of my head I think of an ambush, which makes sense. So the next scene involves Lothario’s minions ambushing Hiero! This mechanic can introduce some unexpected plot twists to the game.

You can use the GM Emulator along with another RPG system (such as running combat using D&D). Mythic does include a complete RPG system. Characters are made using descriptive terms (Hiero may have above average strength). The Yes/No table takes these descriptions into account. Thus, taking actions are resolved using the table. The character creation system reminds me a lot of FUDGE.

Does it work? I’ve tried it a couple of times and can say unequivocally that it does, sometimes too well. It certainly generates interesting plot twists. Occasionally, though, it created too many twists for my tastes and I found the story bogged down with excessive side stories. I also found that I was writing down every random thing that occurred, which bogged down the game. Finally, I decided that I did not like Mythic as written because it uses percentile dice, which I hate! Because of these concerns I stopped playing the game.

Nevertheless, I am still using ideas from Mythic. I use the random events table (I found a version that uses 3D6 – all hail the mighty and wonderful six-sided die!). If I get stuck during a game, I’ll use a yes/no question like the Mythic GM Emulator to come up with a response although I simplified a bit. I’ll probably just roll a D6 with 6 being a good result and 1 being bad. Essentially, my solo RPG sessions are Mythic-like in approach even if I do not use the exact system. Thanks to Mythic, I realized that solo RPGing is not only possible it is also quite fun!

Note: If you are interested in the GM Emulator but not the whole game, Word Mill Games does sell it separately.

Francesian Conquest - Battle of Quadrivium

It is Easter morning and I have some free time. What better way to celebrate than with some bloody conflict?

Although it has been a long while, I decided to stage a battle for my Francesian Conquest campaign. When last I visited medieval Francesia, Lothar the Lascivious had overrun the Imperial province of Transflumia. Now he is invading the province of Meditera.

Today's battle came, once again, from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames. It is scenario 27 - Disordered Defense. A smaller but better commanded army seeks to seize a crossroad from a piecemeal defense.

I also used Thomas's random army lists. The armies for each side are:

• Redgrave (commanded by Lothar) - 3 Heavy Infantry + 1 Warband
• I used the Dark Age list for the Redgravians
• I was going to make the warband into berserkers but I don't have any "warband" figures. I converted it into Lothar's personal bodyguard (The Ravens) and gave them an additional +1 CV
• Empire - 2 Archers + 1 Cavalry. Reinforcements of 2 Cavalry + 1 Heavy Infantry
• I used the Medieval list for the Empire
• I rolled for a unit of Men at Arms, which I ruled to be equivalent to the Redgravian Heavy Infantry
• Per the scenario, reinforcements arrive on turn 8

I don't have any roads so I used a building to represent the crossroad that is the objective of the game. I ruled that the building is a hamlet at the crossroads. Its structures provide some assistance with defense but cavalry can still penetrate. Here is the battlefield at the start of the game (using my Baccus 6mm figures).

Starting positions.
Redgravians on the bottom of the picture

 Although I used Thomas's scenario and army generator, I did not use his rules. Instead, I went with my own medieval rules, which are generally a modified version of Song of Blade and Heroes and DBA.

And here is a pictorial record of the battle:

The Redgravians advance toward the hill (L).
The Mediteran cavalry charges! (R)

The Redgravians swarm over the archers on the hill and the cavalry.

The Mediterans break off!

The Redgravians advance on the crossroad hamlet of Quadrivium

The Mediteran cavalry regroups and charges the Redgravian flank

After a bloody engagement, the Redgravians drive off the cavalry.
Meanwhile, the Redgravians advance on the hamlet.

And force out the defending archers.

But now Imperial reinforcements arrive!

Archery destroys one Redgravian warband.

Imperial cavalry takes out another.

Lothar's Ravens hold the crossroads.
A Redgravian warband under Sigurd retreats to the hill, and waits.

Lothar stymies the attacks of 3 enemy units.
Meanwhile, Sigurd waits,

Finally, as darkness nears, Sigurd charges into the rear of the Imperial cavalry.
Lothar holds on until nightfall.

As night descends (and turn 15 finishes), the Imperial troops withdraw, leaving Quadrivium in Lothar's hands. The battle is his, but he is furious with Sigurd, who dawdled in providing support to his warlord (he spent 3-4 turns on the hill!).

This turned out to be a fun, back and forth game. At first, it looked like the Redgravians would steamroll over their opposition (archery was notoriously ineffective early on). Then the Imperial reinforcements swept in and seemed like they would wipe out Lothar. Somehow, he managed to hold on until the end.

The command rolls were very streaky. I went until turn 9 without a single command failure, but then I rolled a whole string of them. Late in the game, the Imperials went 2 of 3 turns without activating a single unit. Then the Redgravians went 3 turns without being able to move (leaving Sigurd sitting on the hill).

What's next? Well, I decided that instead of a single, winner-take-all battle for Meditera, I would play out a 3 game mini-campaign using Thomas's guidelines. The side that wins 2 of the 3 battles will control the province. So far, Lothar's invasion is proceeding according to plan. Can he drive out the Imperials in the next battle?

He is Risen Indeed!

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! (Luke 24:1-6 NIV)

Happy Easter!

Derailed!

Family Game Night featured Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. Once I completed my 6th destination ticket, I was feeling confident that I would win. I quickly finished another 2 routes to trigger the end of the game. I then began counting my bonus points. I had one destination card (for Honningsvag to Kobenhagen) worth a whopping 21 points!

My awesome 21 point destination ticket highlighted in red

There was only one problem. The end point wasn't Kobenhagen; it was Oslo (the red star on the map). I got it mixed up with another destination ticket I had, and unfortunately I did not have a connection to Oslo. As a result, I lost 21 points, a swing of 42 points! I ended up losing by approximately 10 points. Ooops!

I Save the World, Again

Around Christmas, I mentioned that I was starting a new campaign of Dragon Age: Origins.

Yesterday I confronted the archdemon

who was leading a darkspawn invasion of Ferelden. Its army was sacking the capital of Denerim. My party rushed to the top of Fort Drakon, where the archdemon was perched. We attacked and brutal battle ensued. The fight was not going well, but then I noticed a ballista on the battlements. I swung it around and loosed bolts upon the dragon until it lay dead.

In the end, I saved Ferelden, and got the girl.

Ah, Leliana

I then started my next video game challenge:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I don't often post about sports in this blog, but I have to tonight.
In NCAA basketball action:

Kentucky (#1 and undefeated) 68
Notre Dame (my alma mater) 66

I tuned on the game in the second half with ND winning, and they ended up losing in what would have been one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history. I am a jinx.

On Unpainted Miniatures

Over on The Miniatures Page there was a recent  topic titled "In Defence of . . .  Unpainted miniatures in a game." The original post challenged the community to post its defense of using unpainted miniatures during a game. The majority of posters responded that they were indefensible. They claimed that a big part of the appeal of miniature gaming is the "spectacle." In another topic, one poster claimed that pre-painted miniatures would eliminate "90% of the hobby" because miniature wargaming "is not just playing games." It just struck me that the TMP community in general is into the modeling aspect of the hobby.

In contrast to the majority on TMP, I am a heretic. My response was that a game with unpainted miniatures is better than no game. I cannot fathom that anyone would reject a game without painted miniatures. Obviously, that is not a choice I would make (for example). It is also why I thoroughly enjoy boardgames.

Anyway, I pondered the debate and theorized that there is a spectrum between those who are "gamers" (those primarily interested in the game) and those who are "modelers" (primarily into the "spectacle"). The spectrum would look like this, and I would be on the "gamer" end of that spectrum.

I thought about it some more and decided that this model is a little simplistic. Someone could be a staunch modeler and still be into the gaming aspect of the hobby. Instead, I realized that "gamer" and "modeler" could be two separate axes such as this:

One could then be plotted both axes. Someone who only collects and paints figures would be high on the x-axis but 0 on the y-axis while someone playing with unpainted minis would be 0 on x and high on y. 

Although I occasionally like to build and paint stuff, I hate having to hold up a game for it. My primary interest in the hobby is the games themselves. Thus, I am high on the gamer axis but fairly low on the modeler axis. I think that TMP in general, because it is primarily a site about miniatures, is fairly high on the modeler scale but can span the gamut on the gamer scale. A plot of me vs. TMP might look like this:

This would explain why there is such intolerance of unpainted miniatures on TMP whereas I am far more ambivalent.

Of course, this raises another question. If I'm not much into modeling, why do I even bother with miniatures games? I think I'll save that for another post.