Well, in an effort to get more posting done (something I really need to do, yeah?) I’ll be adding more Tabletop RPG type material instead of the usual computer gaming. (and so the title)
Today’s post comes about after I purchased and read (most) of the Mythic Game Master Emulator from Word Mill Games. This product comes via PDF or print (Lulu) and is pretty cheap — around $7. (PDF) The book claims to be able to emulate a GM for any roleplaying game, whether you have one player or several. It can also be used to aid a GM to create and run an adventure with the absolute minimum of effort. (create a starting scene) It does these wondrous actions through a few tables, some player logic, and interpretation.
Need something more tangible to get an idea of how it works? Ok. First, start off with your characters and a basic opening scene; then, ask a yes or no question based on the scene and roll on the main chart (taking the two modifiers into account) to see what happens (yes/no, exceptional yes/exceptional no) and apply it to the scene. So, as an example — Your thief character is creeping through his mark’s house, he’s entering a dark room and you ask, “is anyone in the room besides me?” and roll — a ‘no’. You could then go on to ask further questions, as detailed as you want to flesh out the scene until you have a good idea of what you want to do. It may be a bit slower than a normal GM, but it’s soloable — which is important.
I’ve gotten some trial adventure time done with the system so far, testing out my homebrew rules and setting. It works quite well — far better than I thought it might — and has helped me with the testing I need. I could see it easily being used to create some one-shot adventures for/or trying out different systems and settings that you or your players might want to use.
