Cosmic Seafarer — 4E Solo game using Instant Game and Mythic GM Emulator

[fissionessence]

Cosmic Seafarer — 4E Solo game using Instant Game and Mythic GM Emulator

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum, as I'm not really sure how to define what I'm doing here. Mods feel free to move this thread to whatever you find appropriate, although I'd like to maintain some visibility in terms of traffic

In this thread I will be posting a log/journal that follows my process of randomly generating and playing a solo D&D 4E campaign with no GM whatsoever. Feel free to skip the next few paragraphs and pick up where it says 'Interesting stuff starts here'.

Okay. I don't really know where to start. Basically, I decided to play a solo game of D&D 4E. In order to generate the setting and beginning plot elements, I used Instant Game from Animalball Games. Here's a synopsis:

Instant Game is the completely random gaming system through which the players and gamemaster determine the genre, setting, location and plot of the game at the beginning of each session. Years in development, the full version of Instant Game comes with all the rules for creating and playing a campaign, and has the full charts for creating every aspect of your game session, including optional tables for villains, major NPCs, personality traits and more.

It's free, so if you're at all interested, go download it.

I haven't yet gotten to the part where I'll use it, but for game play and story progression I'll be using the Mythic Game Master Emulator. Here's a synopsis:

In a Mythic adventure, the GM (or players without a GM) can start an evening's entertainment with about five minutes of preparation. As the adventure unfolds, the GM is just as surprised by the twists and turns as the players are.

I just bought this product today, and after reading through, it's what inspired me to try it out. However, I'm not here to sell it to you, as I have no affiliation, but rather to relay my experience with my solo game.

As I progress through the process of setting up my game, I kept a log/journal, written in a format for presenting here or on a blog. Interested parties may read along. I don't know how often I'll be able to play 'sessions' of this game, but I hope it's fairly often, and I'll try to keep logs like what's found below in order for people to follow along.

Interesting stuff stats here:

* * * * *

Pre-rolling character idea: Cosmic Magic sorcerer with Moon's Blade feat (crescent striker multiclass from The Lunar Scrolls)
Undecided race; probably +2 Cha race, but not also +2 Str because that's only dragonborn. (Not a dragonborn fan here.)

The following points were generated with Instant Game from Animalball Games. The bullet points are what I came up with based on the rolls.

Instant Setting:
Setting: Sea Adventure
· This adventure will take place (or at least start) on a nautical ship. As the character is a cosmic sorcerer, he is probably the navigator who reads the stars. This puts a focus on both the stars and the moon (because of his feat) for the cosmic focus feature; apparently he's more of a night guy and not as into the sun.
Tone: Fantasy
· This was a given, as it's D&D and it's the type of game I want to play. However, I rolled on the tone table before I realized what I was doing, and I got fantasy anyway
Thing 1: Troubled youth
· Apparently my character was somewhat of a delinquent. This is probably how he ended up on the ship, as a poop deck sweeper or something. His sorcerer powers manifested maybe, or perhaps he studied astrolabe books and stuff, and he became more useful with his navigation skills.
Thing 2: Mindless hordes
· Recently, mindless sea creatures have been attacking the ship for no apparent reason.

Instant Story:
Opposition: Warlord
· Apparently there's some kind of undersea mastermind warlord behind these sea creature attacks.
Action + Thing: Infiltrate + psychic ability (Disregarded descriptor roll of clean.)
· Huh? Okay, well, apparently the warlord's ability is psychic in nature. My character must discover (infiltrate) the nature of this ability in order to be able to combat it.
Action + Other Thing + Descriptor: Clean + natural disaster + cold
· There was recently a natural disaster which my character's ship and its crew noticed. When the ship came to investigate the nearby victim island, it was clear that some kind of blizzard had occurred (cold). Buildings are left chilled, but all other evidence of what may have happened, such as inhabitants of the destroyed town, is gone. (As evidence of what happened is gone, I consider the site cleaned.)

Now that I have a basic setting and a story premise, I still don't know what kind of ship this is, or what my character's race might be. It's tough since I also don't know what races exist in this fantasy world. These are questions I could answer on my own, but I like random. I think I'll start by rolling on the tech table to see where that leads me; I'll ignore my roll if it doesn't fit the style of fantasy I want to play. Space Colonies. Yeah, I don't think so. I'll try once more before giving up. Cybertech. Okay, so that didn't work out, and I'm right back where I was . . . except that I've ignored a few rolls now, which is something I don't like doing.

I'll roll 'places' and see if that informs anything about my ship. Tavern. Interesting. Is this some kind of sea-faring tavern, like a gambling cruise ship? That doesn't really fit with what I said about the ship investigating the blizzard island. But, maybe there's a way to fuse the adventurer-filled, quest-bulletin-board-equipped tavern concept with a sea-faring vessel. (Five minutes or so pass.) Maybe the captain of the ship used to be an adventurer himself, but has now 'retired' into sailing. He'll take adventurers anywhere they want to go, but for commensurately high prices. As he travels, he collects 'quest seeds', treasure maps and the like. As he meets adventurers he feels are up to snuff, he sells them the treasure maps or information, or hires them to perform certain quests off of which he thinks he can make a profit. In this way, he makes a reasonable amount of money, and he adventures vicariously through these younger people aboard his ship, which incidentally serves basically as a sailing tavern So yeah, that was just me making stuff up, but I don't really know how I could have rolled for it. This ship could make a Dragon Magazine article all on its own

So, apparently my character's been sailing all around on this ship which is constantly filled to the brim with adventurers. This could explain how some possible 'adventurous' impulses may arise from him. It also offers an alternate explanation on how he manifested sorcerous powers, as any arcane hero passing through the ship could have awakened them, bestowed them, or taught him to train them himself.

But now I need a race. I think I'll just take what I expect is a common approach, and say that pretty much every race in any D&D 4E product (present or future) exists somewhere in the world. The obvious ones are common, such as human, dwarf, elf, eladrin; the rest exist with varying population across the world. Now I just need to pick one; give me a little bit while I poke through my Wizards books and third-party products . . .

Okay, well I used the compendium to pull up a list of Charisma races. Here are the ones I really just wasn't interested in playing for this character: half-elf (I already have a half-elf warlock character), drow, tiefling, hobgoblin, goblin, dragonborn. Halflings and gnomes were kind of close to okay, but I just didn't feel like they fit this concept floating in my head. I almost went with doppleganger, as I thought change shape had the potential to be awesome in a solo game (or any game really), but it just didn't have much going for it other than that. I also looked through my third party product races, but nothing with a Charisma bonus caught my eye (and yes, I'm not doing without my 18). In the end, I decided to take a race that I've really liked since I first read it, and just change one of the ability score bonuses to Charisma. Yes, I could change them both, but that would be cheating too much The race I chose was Remarkable Races — Xax. If you don't have this product, go to RPGNow and look at the cover. I'll give you a sec, go ahead. Yeah, that's a crazy looking guy. Now I have to rationalize my character's appearance. The first question I asked myself just now was, "How did he have a troubled youth and just manifest his power if he's spent his life looking like that?" I mean, do the xax just wander human cities living normal lives and not having any sorcerous powers? They seem like a race (even just from the look of them) that should have natural magic powers from birth. My solution to how his powers only recently manifested also solved the problem of how he could have lived a normal 'troubled youth' childhood: the manifestation of his cosmic magic sorcerous powers is what changed him from an average human boy into a xax. "But wait, what about the 'official' fluff of the xax from the Alluria Publishing supplement?" Yeah well, it looks like I'm throwing most of that out; I'll try to work it in when I can.

Current character story: As a young boy, he was a street orphan and got into a lot of trouble picking pockets and whatnot. This got him into trouble with the law, where he went to some delinquency place and because of the 'dark ages' laws of that city he was sold as a slave. The captain bought him to sweep the poop deck. He found himself on a ship full of adventurers, who he came to somewhat admire. One day a beautiful wizardess or somesuch caught him staring at her as she lounged in the sun. She smiled and winked coyly. When they docked and she and her party left the ship, she winked at him again and cast a spark of magic at him. He doesn't know if this infused him with power, or just activated something latent within him, but over the next few weeks his body began changing. As his transformation completed (into a creature the likes of which are seen on the cover of the aforementioned racial supplement), he found he also had magic powers and an affinity for the moon and the stars. He is now able to read them better than any astrolabe, and eventually replaced the ship's previous navigator. As the ship is constantly filled with adventurers of all shapes, sizes and races, he doesn't feel out of place in his strange and unexplainable new form, and the captain seems to have some kind of affection for him, as he shows great talent and power as a navigator and potential adventurer.

It strikes me now that I should probably figure more out about this captain, and I should probably use dice I've been neglecting randomness for about the last 45 minutes of typing this. So, I go to the Personalities table of Instant Game. Clever. Yes, that should come standard with any former adventurer turned current ship captain/entrepreneur. I'll roll again. Greedy. Yes, I think I covered that, too. We're looking for something more I can work with here Distracted. Interesting. Subtle, but interesting. I'm afraid to roll further and come up with something too convoluted, but it looks like this ship captain may have some secret keeping him distracted from the full breadth of his operation. Perhaps we'll eventually discover more as the game plays out. For now, I'm going to go generate my character, now that I have a race and class to work with.

* * * * *

~ fissionessence

 

[fissionessence]

Warning! This section is all boring character creation! It has nothing to do with the story, plot, Instant Game, or Mythic. This is just me making my character and all the rambling that goes along with it. Read at your peril.

Well I was going to generate my character in 'silence', then start the story; but, as I was making him I kept thinking of things to 'say' that I was forcing myself to remember, so I may as well log as I create him. First of all, I realized the xax is small. That's fine—as I hadn't yet decided on my character's age, I decided he was a small 14-year-old. He transformed into a 'xax' at that size, and now he'll never grow. In fact, it seems the transformation even shrunk him a little, as the average height for a xax is 3'3" to 3'9". I started with 3 feet, and rolled a d12 for inches, and I got a 9. He's the maximum average height for a xax, so I also gave him the maximum average weight: 100 lbs.

His Strength is 16 (9 point-buy points) to support his cosmic sorcerer build. Presumably he wasn't this strong before he transformed. His Constitution is 12 (2 points). The xax is supposed to get a +2 to Con, but that's the bonus I moved to Charisma instead. When I had 2 spare points, I put them in Con as a 'remnant' of this swap His Dexterity is 10 (0 points), which partially explains why he didn't make it as a street urchin. Rogues need to be more nimble than average! His Intelligence is a 14 (12+2; 2 points), which is probably the only good score he had before his transformation. His Wisdom is 8 (0 points), further explaining why he couldn't make it on the streets. Finally, he has a Charisma of 18 (16+2; 9 points) to support being a sorcerer. I had kind of imagined him as a more introverted character, so now I'm wondering how to merge being shy and charismatic. I won't dwell on it now, but I'll try to see if I can make it play out 'in-game' . . . then again I don't know how much roleplaying will really end up taking place in this solo game.

My character's first racial trait I include on my sheet is Chaotic Resistance. I roll a d10 at character creation and gain resistance to a damage type according to my roll. The 'choice' is permanent. I'm loving this random stuff mixed in with my solo game based on randomness. Anyway, I roll for cold. I'm not sure how this fits, but it doesn't have to; the xax are supposed to be random. Radiant might have fit better with the moon and stars thing, but oh well. Actually, if I'm remembering right, some of the cosmic powers related to the moon are cold-based. Anyway, on we go.

Next is Dual Heritage, which gives my character the elemental and aberrant origins . . . I'm going to skip this one, not that it probably matters. Unlike regular xax, I don't know how my character turned into a 'xax', so I don't even know if this feature applies to him.

Next is Memory of Conflict, giving him a weapon proficiency in a superior weapon of his choice! Awesome! I choose the parrying dagger! Oh no . . . the "parrying dagger" isn't a "dagger", meaning he can't use it as an implement. Ah, but that's okay. His Moon's Blade feat (from The Lunar Scrolls) allows him to create weapons from moonlight in both of his hands as a minor action; one can be a regular dagger for using as an implement, and the other can be a parrying dagger (the only superior weapon that would probably do him any good . . . his AC's only a 13 before the bonus from the parrying dagger). Even without the Moon's Blade feat, he could just carry both types of dagger around, no problem. As he generates his weapons from moonlight, I won't give him any actual weapons under his equipment section; however, I will put a note by his AC that it's 14 as long as he conjures up his parrying dagger.

The last racial trait of note is We Are One. At the start of each encounter, a xax rolls a d8 to randomly pick another race's racial power for the encounter. This is a pretty neat mechanic I'm excited about trying out. For normal xax, I suppose it represents how random they are. This applies to my character as well, but I think it's also cool how it can be partially justified by him spending so much time around all those different adventurers . . . picking up their tricks with his magic. Also, this is more randomness to infuse to my already random game.

It's probably worth mentioning that I'm the author of The Lunar Scrolls, the book from which my character's Moon's Blade feat is taken. I was going to include the full text of it here (which I haven't done for the xax stuff, as I don't have the rights), but then I realized that the entire crescent striker (including this feat in question) is available as a free preview at our website. Not to pimp out my stuff, but it saves me some typing and some space on this page. Incidentally, multiclassing into crescent striker requires my character to choose a 'Mental ability score' to potentially use for crescent striker abilities that ask for it. Of course, he chooses Charisma, though it's not yet relevant.

I'm now filling in my character's class features. Obviously they all come from the Cosmic Magic spell source. The first one lets me change the ability score that modifies his AC from Int or Dex to Strength, which I take advantage of for a net +1. I modify his AC (I already mentioned the adjusted change above without saying where it came from), but I don't take up space on my character sheet to write out that stuff.

Next is Cosmic Power, letting him add his Strength modifier (+3) as damage rolls on his arcane powers. He doesn't have any powers from his crescent striker multiclass yet, but they have the lunar keyword as a power source. However, the beginning of The Lunar Scrolls talks about how the lunar power source is kind of like several power sources in one, and how it can mean different things to different characters. Since my character is getting lunar power through sorcerous magic, I'll let him add his +3 to his lunar powers whenever that becomes relevant.

So . . . Soul of the Cosmic Cycle. I like keeping my character sheets brief, so this gigantic class feature was a beast to abbreviate. Anyway, my character will probably almost always start out in the phase of the moon. This fits his theme, and helps keep his low AC higher. It also reduces the chance of being forced into the phase of the sun (since the phase of the stars would come first), which totally does not fit his character, and also grants a resistance that's redundant with his randomly selected racial resistance. Of course, the sun phase's resistance also lets him ignore enemies' resistances to cold, so if he picks up cold-based powers, phase of the sun may seem a little bit more attractive. Speaking of powers . . .

Whoops, just kidding! Forgot about skills. Arcana is a given. (No choice there.) Next up is Athletics. He has a reasonable Strength, so I may as well play to his strengths (hehe). Athletics can be useful, plus he gets a racial bonus, so it's up to +10. Bluff: probably the only useful thing he learned in his 'troubled youth'. And finally, Nature. I'm not sure why, but maybe it'll be useful if he ends up in the forest or something. It brings his -1 up to +4.

Okay, so now we're at powers. First up is blazing starfall. It has the Cosmic Magic tag, so I can't turn it down; plus it's just a great power. I don't really know what combat is going to be looking like in this solo game, but I'm guessing that punishing enemies for coming close to my character's frail body will be useful.

Next: storm walk. This doesn't really fit the theme, but I have a feeling being able to shift away to use a ranged attack will be useful. I'm not excited about the attack against Fort, though. I'll be keeping a close eye on this one, as his crescent blade dazing ability with his reasonable Strength might be a better melee option than constantly shifting and using attacks against Fort. Either dragon frost or burning spray would be next on the list. We'll see.

Encounter power: ray of the moon. I honestly didn't even look at any other powers. I spotted the power with the Cosmic Magic tag, then saw that it targeted Will—my favorite defense to attack—and didn't both shopping around. Maybe I'll look at them later, but for now I'm satisfied.

Daily power: Here I felt like I was metagaming even more than in previous choices. I wanted to go with the themed option of cosmos call, but the damage is measly compared to dazzling ray, and the rider effects hardly seem to make up for that. Some of the other powers seemed to have their focus on hitting more than one target, which I'm predicting won't be too relevant in my solo game. We'll see how that plays out, but for right now I had it between dazzling ray and chromatic orb. In the end, I picked the ray for the higher damage, even on the miss. The effects on the orb seem really good, though, especially since they also happen on a miss. However, unlike in a 5-man D&D combat, I don't need my daily power to be flashy; I just want my opponent dead fast. Of course, that's me guessing again. Oh yeah, and dazzling ray targets Will, too

Now it's on to equipment . . . I don't have any armor proficiencies, and I generate my weapons(/implement) out of moonlight, so I don't need anything in that regard. I really don't feel like bothering with mundane equipment, and I (as a player) don't like spending gold on consumable items like potions or alchemical items, so I think I'll just sit on my 100gp for now.

Which leaves me with . . . a name. I need a name. 'My character' just isn't going to cut it. I've named my character sheet file 'CosmicXax', which has a certain ring to it, but I'm looking for something a little more personal. I happen to have a random name generator, thus following the theme of the character and this experiment quite well. Let's load it up and see if we get anything fitting for this character.

In case you're interested, and since I'm hyperlinking everything else, the program I'm using is the Everchanging Book of Names. So, I first load this thing up, and before I even click to generate names I see this: Sami Pyörre. This name seems great. It reminds me of Sammy Paré from the X-Men. He's a young awkward boy whose mutant power is to look like a fish. Sound familiar? I mean, my character has more powers than just looking a little weird, but still. Sami Pyörre is like an exotic twist on Sammy Paré: perfect for a fantasy game. Then I realize that's the name of the author of the program, not a randomly generated name. Oops. My perfect random name isn't actually random. So, I'll give the random names a couple of spins, but I'm definitely keeping 'Sami Pyörre' in mind

First thing is to plug in a 'chapter' to the program. Anyone who wants can make one (although I have no idea how), and it plugs into the EBoN to generate names based on the sounds or syllables the person put into their 'chapter'. I have more chapters than I care to type out here, but I'll start with a Planets and Moons chapter from a category called Oddities. I click on it, then see that it's constructed from terms in Star Wars, StarCraft and similar sources, but I suppose I might still get something that fits the concept of my character. It turns out they don't sound necessarily sci-fi except for the occasional number thrown in to designate a planet in a system, and after about 25 names I find Rinian. I'll click a few more times in case I find something better, and perhaps a last name. Marus seems simple enough. Rinian Marus. It's no Sami Pyörre, but it would be weird to name a character after a guy who made a program to name characters . . . right?

If you skipped the character creation, you may want to resume here, where I choose random names, plus learn more about the captain and his tavern ship.

Now my character sheet's done. The captain needs a name, and heck, the boat, too. There's a tavern name chapter in the EBoN, so I'll run that a couple times. Hm. They're surprisingly not-tavern-sounding-ish. Drippendlice? Scan-Is-Bell!? Ding-Blice!!?? Mestoncharchor? I can't even say that last one. However, I also got Barring-Ster which I think I'll switch around to Star Bearing as the name of the boat. It's kind of awkward to theme the ship after my character, but perhaps the ship—and maybe the captain's secret—have more to do with Rinian's transformation than any of us realizes. You just never know.

So now the captain. First I think I'll roll on the PH races to figure out what race he is. I was imagining him as human, but I need to roll some dice (apparently random names isn't enough for me). There are eight races in the Player's Handbook, so I roll a d8. My Cthulhu d8 (okay, now I'm just going crazy with the links . . . although I couldn't find a picture of my dice, which are green with white) shows the elder sign, so tiefling it is. Perhaps this captain's secret is something more infernal. I think I'll use the "Old World - Goths, male" chapter of EBoN for the tiefling captain's name. I don't really like the name Tradaro, but not everyone has a name I like, and I feel like it fits. It's not like he's my character, what do I care I think for his last name I'd like something stereotypically tiefling like 'Firedark' or 'Blacklies'. From what I've heard about the random monster namer in Level Up #1, it just might do the trick. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy yet as none of my local stores carries it I think I'll hold of on Captain Tradaro's last name until then. And now, it's my bed time. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a chance to actually play!

* * * * *

~ fissionessence

 

[fissionessence]

With the story and character generated, I'll move away from the randomness of Instant Game and name generators to the Mythic Game Master Emulator product. I'm going to try to include enough Mythic mechanics for readers to follow along with what choices I'm making, and what's being randomly determined for me by the system. However, I don't want to 'give away' the 'secrets' of the system. If you're reading this and you wrote or own the Mythic Game Master Emulator, let me know if I'm divulging too much.

Now I need my first adventure to being. According to the rules, I can either decide what my first adventure is or try to roll for it. I don't really know where I want to start, so I'm going to try to roll. For Mythic's random events to work, I need to have a couple lists. First I need NPCs.

NPCs
1) Captain Tradaro
2) The ship's crew
3) Adventurers currently aboard
4) The psychic sea warlord
5) Mindless horde of sea creatures
6) Non-existent people whose home was destroyed by the blizzard

That was more than I expected, and a few seem like a stretch to include there, but Mythic encourages me to include NPCs even if they don't seem like much. Now I also need a list of threads, or quests/story lines/etc., that my character is pursuing. Hm.

Threads
1) Become a full-fledged adventurer
2) 'Infiltrate psychic abilities'. That is, discover the source of the warlord's power over the sea creatures.
3) Learn what happened to the island; what caused that blizzard, and where'd everyone go?

That seems like a good list of Rinian's current goals. I decided he probably hasn't really noticed Captain Tradaro's 'distractedness', so I didn't include a thread about discovering the captain's secret. I don't like this since now I'm separating my character/player knowledge from my 'GM' knowledge. So, I think I'll go ahead and decide Rinian has noticed, and add the fourth thread.

4) Discover the distracted captain's secret.

Okay. I have a character, NPCs, threads, a setting, and some intrigue. I think I'm ready to roll up a random event . . . but I've never done this before. Let's see how it goes.

Results: Focus: NPC positive; Action + Subject: Excitement Reality; Random NPC: The ship's crew.

So something good happens to the ship's crew (of which Rinian is a part, incidentally), and it has something to do with the terms 'excitement' and 'reality'. Hm, maybe I should have come up with my own starting adventure XD But, let's give this another minute or two of thinking. Reading through Mythic, it suggests I change my results to 'excitement of reality', and I read through some examples for interpretations of other action + subject rolls. I'm sure I'll get better at this the more I play. So, what's something that 'excites' or stirs up reality, and is a positive thing for the crew? I think I'll use a 'thing' roll from Instant Game for guidance/inspiration. Music. Okay! I hadn't planned to do this, but it looks like I'm going into prose mode.

The sun beat down on the Star Bearing, just like it did every day. With little more than grunts appropriate of their heavy work load, the crew continued their daily maintenance of the ship, pulling and tying off ropes, adjusting sails and swabbing the poop deck. With the lazy adventurer passengers still in their beds, members of the crew were the only ones out actually working this morning, and they were no more pleased about it than usual. However, one crew member found himself humming . . . then another. A strange tune had come up and across the boat, drowning out the crashing of the waves against the boat's sides, and putting a certain cheer in the step of the overworked crew. Soon, they danced cheerfully as they worked, and not at all embarrassed of their new-found reverie.

Wahoo! I rationalized my random roll. Okay, so where does my character, Rinian, fit into this? After all, I am going to want to be playing his story here.

Rinian had only recently rolled out of bed when the singing started. With a room in the tavern portion of the ship, Rinian had a view to the aft of the boat. He peered out to see the crew dancing and whistling as they worked . . . not a common sight on board the Star Bearing. He used to have to get up early with the rest of the crew, as he was responsible for much of the cleaning, so he knew their demeanor—it wasn't this. Since his transformation, though, he was in charge of navigation by the stars, which kept him up later at night. He tended to keep the same awkward hours as the adventurers now, and he had even been able to convince Captain Tradaro to let him have a room near theirs, in the tavern portion of the ship that came up like a building in the middle of the boat.

Scouring out his window for any source of this music that seemed to pervade the entire ship, Rinian was unable to spot any source. He left his room, listening around the hallway; the music seemed to be just as loud no matter where he went. Nonetheless, Rinian searched.

Okay, now I'm going to ask Mythic's fate table my first question. Is Rinian able to find the source of this music anywhere on board? I don't want to ask, "Is the source on board?" because that might give me knowledge that Rinian might not know . . . and I don't want to know anything that he doesn't. That might be a personal preference, though, and it might make the game tougher to play, but I'm going to go for it for now. I have no idea how reasonable it is that Rinian would find the source of the music, since I don't even know if the source is on the ship, so I'm going to give this chance a 50/50. Yes. Rinian has found the source. Now I need to know what the heck the source is.

I could ask the fate table loaded questions like, "Is the source of the music a bard adventurer?" with high likelihood, but it seems weird to ask questions based on guesses of what it might be. I'm not sure the 'correct' way to play here, as in what the designers of Mythic might suggest. They propose that logic should guide my questions, answers, and applications of those answers, and it seems logical that the source of the music would be a bard adventurer . . . I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with that. I still have my Instant Game tables open, so I think I'll roll on the 'other things' table. Treaty. Uh . . . is the music coming from the psychic warlord who's trying to make a treaty with the Star Bearing? That's a fate question; 50/50. No. Is it some other unknown psychic force of the sea? Yes.

Interesting, but I still don't know what it is that Rinian found that is the source of the music. Did this unknown psychic force of the sea send an emissary? That seems very likely, given the context. Yes. Mythic says I should be able to answer most stuff with a single fate question, and here I am about to ask my fourth in a row (or fifth if you don't count that Instant Game roll as an interruption). Is this emissary a humanoid? Very likely. Yes. Rather than roll an endless series of fate questions to determine the species of this emissary, I'm going to generate a list off the top of my head of aquatic sentient creatures to which I have access in 4E. Logic dictates that this emissary would be both sentient and aquatic, so I don't have any qualms with skipping ahead on this. Here's my list:

Aquatic creatures:
1) Sahuagin
2) Myrddin
3) Kuo-toa
4) Merrow (Races by Siberys; sorry no link )

I roll a d4 for . . . Merrow. This race of water-dwelling creatures from Magic: the Gathering's Lorwyn setting has the ability to transform its tail fin into legs, and this is reflected in Siberys's writeup, so that explains how it's able to come aboard the ship. As it's playing beautiful music and coming to form a treaty with the ship, I'll ignore the Shadowmoor version of this race. I'm tempted now to make some rolls to see if the creature is inside the ship, or somewhere on the deck, plus how it was hidden at the beginning . . . but those things aren't really important, so I'll move on.

Rinian saw a blue-green-skinned scaly creature ahead, strumming an elaborate gold harp. It's voice soothed him as its music rang out across the ship, but Rinian was too curious to just dance or sing along.

"I haven't seen you aboard," he said. The creature seemed startled to be interrupted from its music.

"I have not finished my song," it replied.

"Yes, well, I'm sorry, but how did you get on board?"

The creature began strumming again on its harp, though its music was no longer accompanied by its singing. "I have climbed aboard in order to bring you my master's song of alliance."

I avoided asking this question up until now to avoid knowledge that Rinian wouldn't have, but it seems like now is the time to find out . . . Does this merrow and its master want to make an alliance with the ship to band against the sea warlord? This seems very likely, given the context. Yes.

"Recently," it continued, "mindless hordes of sea creatures have begun attacking my people. Normally we live in harmony with the creatures of the sea, but some psychic force is corrupting them and interfering with my master's own psychic power. We have come to your ship in peace, as we know what great powers ride along your vessel, and we require your assistance."

"These hordes have been attacking us as well, you know."

"Yes, and we have seen how well you have dispatched them. We have not had as much luck, and we have suffered many casualties."

Rinian realizes that having powerful adventurers aboard surely has had a positive effect on the Star Bearing's ability to defend itself. He's also noticed that the attacks only started about as recently as they visited that blizzard island, so he asks. "These attacks, do they have anything to do with the blizzard that recently struck a nearby island?"

This is a fate question I've been wanting to ask, and now I have an NPC who would presumably be able to answer. The merrow's master would probably know, and so too would the merrow emissary. I'll assume this creature's knowledge and the truth are one in the same. It seems likely that they're related, giving the context I've set up. Yes, they're related. How are they related? I'll roll on the 'actions' table of Instant Game. Clear. Aw man, back to puzzling answers. I'm not in the mood to rationalize this, so I'll just skip it and ask the fate table a loaded question. Did the blizzard event on the island somehow give the sea warlord his powers? 50/50. No. Another loaded question at 50/50: Was the blizzard event caused by his awakening, as he's some ancient being? Exceptional yes. Ooh, this is my first exceptional answer. That means that not only is the answer yes, but I should extend the implication of the question . . . I'll get from this that he's very ancient and he's been 'sleeping' on that island for a very long time. Presumably, he wiped out the inhabitants of the island and any other evidence so that his true nature would be hidden.

Unfortunately, I have to go now. When I next play, I'll have the merrow relay to Rinian what we just learned through our fate rolls, and see where it goes from there.

* * * * *

~ fissionessence

 

[fissionessence]

The merrow looked solemnly at Rinian. "Yes," it said. "My master fears that some ancient being that dwelt on that island has recently awoken, causing the cold. It now lurks in the sea with untold intentions, causing havoc."

"So what is it you think we can do to help?" Rinian asked. "Why did you come to the Star Bearing?"

"My master believes there is help to be found among you."

Is Rinian the help of which 'the master' spoke? It seems somewhat likely, as this is a solo game! Yes. Does it have anything to do with the moon or stars? This also seems somewhat likely, given the amount I've focused on that theme so far. Yes. Also, I'm getting sick of not having a pronoun when referring to 'the master', so I may as well get this out of the way: Is the merrow's master a male [or female]? Yes. Male.

"Well," Rinian began, "what help are you looking for?"

The merrow glared deeply at Rinian, its eyes slightly narrowing, evaluating him fully. "It is you I came for, Rinian. Did you not wonder why my music held entranced all but you?"

Indeed, the merrow was still strumming its harp; in their conversation, Rinian had ceased to notice.

I had wondered a bit about that myself, but I just figured everyone else was asleep or enjoying the music too much to care. But, it makes more sense this way, and Mythic is all about logic I think I'll ask another question in preparation for my next prose section. Has Rinian noticed any changes in the stars recently? Once again, this seems somewhat likely, since apparently the moon and/or stars are related, and Rinian's always watching the stars. Exceptional yes.

"Oh," Rinian replied bluntly. "The stars have changed recently, does this have anything to do with it?"

"Of course. Now come; all this strumming has loosened one of my finger scales."

I kind of pushed this scene forward with the merrow requesting that they go; I'm not sure how much more I could have gotten out of it. I think this system might work better if I had more drive built into what I wanted my character to do from the get-go. But, we're still in a learning phase I guess: both me in terms of how to use this system, and my character in terms of what's going on around him.

Now, in order to figure out where it is this merrow wants to take Rinian, I'm going to roll on an Instant Game table: 'places'. Limbo. Uhhhhh. I guess I'll go with this, but I'm not sure where we're going yet. For now, I think I'll define limbo as some kind of in-between demiplane having to do with the ocean and the stars somehow.

The merrow stowed its harp and reached for Rinian. Reluctantly, the misshapen boy took the fish creature's hand. And when he did, the world went white.

Mythic segregates a game or adventure into scenes. That definitely screams 'end of scene' to me. I now need to decide if the previous scene was chaotic, or if Rinian basically had things under control. This seems pretty subjective, and even the examples in Mythic seemed pretty ambiguous, with me not totally agreeing. I'm going to say the chaos goes up, mostly because I'm hoping it'll add more random spice (and therefore guidance) into the mix. Chaos: +

What I'm supposed to do next, is decide on how the next scene starts, then make a couple rolls to see if anything unexpected happens before we get there. I'll set the next scene up like this: "Rinian and the merrow travel to a dreamspace where the merrow can inform Rinian more of what's going on and/or what they need him to do." Okay, now I'll roll . . .

Wahoo! My scene is being interrupted! Let's roll to see by what.

Results: Focus: NPC action; Action + Subject: Agree Tactics.

Since I rolled something to do with an NPC, I need to update my list of NPCs, then roll randomly on the list. I add:

7) Merrow emissary
8) Merrow's mysterious psychic master

And I roll a d8 for . . . The ship's crew. Again. Okay, so Rinian's transporation to limbo with the merrow emissary is interrupted by the ship's crew acting on an agreement of tactics.

The world went white for but a moment in Rinian's eyes before reality quickly situated itself back around him. The merrow seemed to have been startled out of its spell by the crew who had rushed the two. With the music ceased and their reverie ended, the crew mates seemed none too happy to realize what it was they had been captivated to do over the past thirty or so minutes.

Before Rinian—or the merrow, it seemed—realized what was going on, a couple of the burlier crew members had each taken the merrow by an arm. It squirmed and tried to slip free of their grasps, but they held fast.

"Wait, stop!" Rinian cried at them. "Let it go; it needs me."

"Let it go?" Barnus asked incredulously. "This thing was makin' me dance!" The burly crew mate shook the merrow's arm violently.

Rinian shook his head. "You don't understand. It needs me to help stop the sea creature attacks."

Here I think I'll use my first D&D mechanic! The situation seems to call for a Diplomacy check, say . . . DC 10. Not too hard, but Rinian's not trained in Diplomacy so there's still a chance he'll fail. 20.

Barnus grimaced, but released the merrow's arm. He nodded to the crew mate holding the creature's other arm, who released his end as well.

"Thank you," Rinian said. "Please tell the captain I'll be back."

Rinian's last sight before the world faded to white again was Captain Tradaro standing atop the roof of the ship's tavern, his arms crossed and his old wrinkled red face staring blankly down at Rinian.

So, my proposed scene was interrupted by the ship's crew, but then they agreed on Rinian's tactics and let him go with the Merrow.

Well, I named that crew mate using the EBoN. Since I bothered naming him, I may as well add him to the NPC list. Here it is updated:

NPCs
1) Captain Tradaro
2) The ship's crew
3) Adventurers currently aboard
4) The psychic sea warlord
5) Mindless horde of sea creatures
6) Nonexistant people whose home was destroyed by the blizzard
7) Merrow emissary
8) Merrow's mysterious psychic master
9) Barnus, burly crew mate

So now we're back where we started, but I'll lower the chaos since Rinian handled that situation pretty well with one solid Diplomacy check. Chaos: (even) I'll plan for my next scene to be just like it was going to be last time: "Rinian and the merrow travel to a dreamspace where the merrow can inform Rinian more of what's going on and/or what they need him to do." Now, I roll again.

My roll indicated that the scene happens as planned, but with some slight twist. I'll ask the fate table a question about what it might be, although Mythic suggests I should be able to slightly alter it on my own; oh well. Is this 'limbo' where the merrow is taking Rinian the psychic dwelling of its master? Somewhat likely. No. Aw man, that would have been cool. I'll roll on the 'descriptors' table from Instant Game to see if it gives me any inspiration. Tricky. Tricky indeed. Perhaps the merrow's ability to travel to this limbo is hindered somewhat, making the journey trickier than it would usually be for him. Let's get this scene started.

Rinian's stomach turned and he felt twisted and tossed around this blank whiteness. After what seemed like several minutes, Rinian found himself standing on a cold stone flat floor that seemed to extend forever in all directions. The sky in all directions consisted both of stars and the depths of the ocean; fish swam above them, weaving through asteroid belts like they would a coral reef.

Rinian's stomach still lurched, but not from the sight. The journey's effects still lingered. The merrow seemed equally affected, which seemed strange. Shouldn't this creature be accustomed to the visit here?

Apparently the merrow had seen Rinian looking at it, and responded. "I'm sorry; I do not know why I was unable to transport us here more . . . gracefully." It coughed, with a slight gag, then stood up straight, shaking off any final effects it may have felt. "I am Chersin. I have come on behalf of my master, Teunari. What is your name?"

"I am Rinian, but didn't you know that already?"

"No. My master told me of the gifts I sought, and the spell in my song was designed to exclude one who possessed such gifts; I knew you would come to me eventually."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"What gifts?"

"Do you not read the night sky? Are you not in tune with the moon and the stars?"

"I am, but what does that have to do with what's going on? You never explained —"

"Come." With that, Chersin began swimming upward through the air. When the change had occurred Rinian was not sure, but Chersin's legs were now a long tail fain that he used to propel himself upward.

Rinian pulled the air around him with his arms as if he were swimming in water . . . and indeed, it seemed as if he were. His stroke pushed him up through the watery air in the direction Chersin had gone.

Chersin didn't go far, however. He tread the water-air with his fin as he waited for Rinian to catch up.

"What is this place?" Rinian asked as he made the last few strokes toward the merrow. "I can swim through the air."

"This is the dreamspace offered to those most trusted and appreciated by my master. Do not worry yourself with it now. Look," Chersin said, and he gestured to a constellation to which the two were now closer than when they had been on the ground.

Having caught up to the merrow, Rinian ceased his 'swimming' and quickly found himself sinking. He immediately kicked and stroked again, realizing he would need to tread the air-water to stay aloft/afloat. He nodded at Chersin's gesturing, waiting for the merrow to continue after boy's blunder.

"This is the constellation that recently changed," Chersin said. Indeed, Rinian had noticed this change.

Let's pause for a second. I need to find out what this change in the constellation means, or at least what Chersin thinks it means. I'll assume it has something to do with this ancient awakened sea warlord, but I'll roll on Instant Game's 'descriptor' table and 'other things' table for inspiration. Glorious Nightclub/Rave. Maybe Teunari, Chersin's master, is pissed because the warlord is holding some kind of awesome undersea rave and Teunari wasn't invited. Yeah, I don't think so either. It would be great to have a table of words that only applied to my fantasy game here. Maybe 'glorious' refers to being under the beautiful night sky, and 'nightclub/rave' is actually a drug reference. When the stars are out, that's when the warlord's psychic drug takes over the mindless hordes of sea creatures, which is what causes them to attack. Given that this roll was prompted from me wondering about the particular constellation, that's probably the specific set of stars that induces this effect. It's a bit of a stretch, but it looks like that's to be expected when figuring out all these random things.

"My master believes that this newly formed constellation is what the revived entity is using to focus its power over the sea creatures. Not only that, but the constellation it replaced was one very sacred to the followers of Teunari. My master considers this, along with the attacks on our people, to be a personal affront."

So, right now this is my second day of working on this game/experiment. It's probably been a combined total of almost ten hours; maybe more (writing this log takes a long time!) I'm ready for a fight. This isn't supposed to just be a test of Mythic Game Master Emulator or Instant Game's random word tables, but also a test of one-PC 4E combat. I'm going to see if I can't lead the context and direction of the adventure into a combat-oriented focus.

"So what am I supposed to do about it?" Rinian asked. "I mean, I can read stars, but I can't change constellations or psychically control fish."

"It is not a star-reader we require. It is your cosmic connection. This gift is the reason you can read stars, and it is the reason you can help us."

"But what is this gift? How did I get it?"

"That I cannot answer." For a moment, Chersin and Rinian looked into each other's eyes, both wondering. "Nonetheless, you must go and unlock the secret of this constellation—the secret of this entity's psychic power."

"Okay." Rinian's arms and legs were beginning to get sore from the treading of air. "But where must I—"

Chersin placed his hand on Rinian's shoulder, and the world faded to white.

And that's the end of our third scene. Overall it was pretty calm, though it was totally freaky to Rinian. Therefore, plus the fact that I just like high chaos, I'm going to raise the chaos level back up. Chaos: +

Before I can decide how I want the next scene to start, I need to figure out where Chersin is sending my poor 14-year-old wannabe-adventurer human-turned-xax. I honestly don't know how anyone could play Mythic without Instant Game's tables. I'm going to roll for a place. Dungeon. !!!!!!!!!! I was going to be super pissed if I got parking lot, but dungeon is exactly what I was looking for. Well, I was kind of hoping to explore that blizzard island (Rinian does have cold resistance!), but a dungeon is crazily perfect, given that I was just asking for a fight. Plus who knows, maybe the dungeon is somewhere beneath the island.

So, I don't know anything about this dungeon yet, but that's okay. Here's my scene premise: "Transported to some unknown dungeon by the merrow Chersin, Rinian must begin searching for clues about the sea warlord and the strange constellation." And then I roll! My roll indicates that the scene will start just as I planned. And despite itching for a fight . . . that's where I'll pick up next time.

* * * * *

~ fissionessence

 

[FloatingDisc]

This is fascinating, and very entertaining, well done! I can't wait to read more.

I've started using the tools you've suggested to start a little short story - i love random generators ;]

Keep it up.

 

[fissionessence]

This is fascinating, and very entertaining, well done! I can't wait to read more.

I've started using the tools you've suggested to start a little short story - i love random generators ;]

Keep it up.

Thanks, I'm glad you find it interesting I doubt many people will make it through all of that text, but I hope I can go back and read through it for my entertainment some number of years from now hehe.

~

 

[fissionessence]

Okay, so it's been about a week or so since I played last. I left off having just been transported by Chersin to a dungeon that has yet to be described in any way. Chersin sent Rinian here for a reason, but we don't know why. I could roll to start finding out why, but Rinian doesn't know, so I don't either. I also don't know what this dungeon looks like . . . whereas Rinian does know. I'm tempted to roll to find out, but two things are stopping me. 1) I don't have a 'random dungeon theme' table to roll on; and 2) I don't need to know. As stuff happens in this dungeon, the description and setting of the dungeon itself will probably (hopefully) become apparent.

One thing I do need to know is whether the room Rinian teleported into is empty. One thing I happened to find in the past week is the Random Dungeon Generation appendix of the AD&D DMG. Table V. F. will tell me 'Chamber or Room Contents', so I roll. Monster and treasure. Nice. I get my first battle, plus hopefully get rewarded for it (assuming I don't get killed; I still don't know how this solo combat is going to work out!) Now I need a way to find out what I'm fighting. This result will begin to 'color' the dungeon itself as well.

I'll assume I'm going to be fighting in a standard encounter, which means for me right now 100xp worth of monster. That's one level 1 monster, or four level 1 minions. Actually, just to put a little random in the mix, I'll roll a d20 for encounter difficulty.

Encounter difficulty (1d20)
1-4: Easy (level -1)
5-14: Standard (level)
15-18: Tough (level +1)
19-20: Difficult (level +2)

And here we go. Tough. Okay, so I'm looking for a level 2 monster, four level 2 minions, or five level 1 minions. Or a level 1 monster and a level 1 minion. To make monster finding easier, I'll roll a d4 to pick one of the encounter builds I just listed. 4. A level 1 monster and a level 1 minion. In the future, I'll just manually create encounters based on what makes sense (or try), but right now I don't know anything about this dungeon so I'm making it as random as possible.

I have access to the Monster Manual right now (MM2 is in the mail), plus Critter Caches 2-4. In those products, I see 13 level 1 non-minion monsters. I'll roll a d20 and throw out results above 13. 6. That would be the goblin blackblade. It now dawns on me that I could be using the DDI Compendium for more monsters, compiled from every WotC source. But, I don't feel like loading that up right now. I need a minion. I see four minions from the MM, but the kobold doesn't make sense with the other goblin, so I'll roll a d3 to decide between the remaining ones. 1. Decrepit skeleton. So there's a goblin blackblade with a decrepit skeleton. My dungeon is already starting to get a feel for it. I need a room, so I'll roll on table V of the Random Dungeon Generation appendix, Chambers and Rooms Shape and Size, plus the other tables it refers me to. Square, 10'x10'. That's a small room. 2 exits. Interesting. One exit is behind Rinian, and one is to his right. I think the assumption is that these exits are closed doors. Treasure is in a chest. Since Rinian can't see what the treasure is, I'll hold off on finding out what it is until he sees it. For now, it's time to start this fight in this super cramped room.

First I'll ask a fate question: Do the goblin and/or skeleton notice Rinian as he enters the room? This seems very likely, though there's the possibility they're sleeping or something. Yes. However, my roll astoundingly also resulted in a random event. Wow. This is pretty intense, and we haven't even rolled initiative yet. Way to interrupt my combat. I need to roll an event focus. NPC positive. That means I need an NPC list to roll on. Mythic isn't totally clear on this, but it seems like I should limit my list to NPCs who are actually nearby, which isn't that many in this tiny 10'x10' room. It would be pretty awkward to have to work the ship's crew into this scene, if I rolled them for the third time in a row. Let's see . . .

NPCs in the tiny dungeon room
1) Goblin blackblade
2) Decrepit skeleton
3) Chersin
4) Captain Tradaro
5) Sea warlord
6) Teunari, Chersin's master

Some of those could still turn out pretty awkward, but depending on the results of the random event, they could also serve to define this dungeon and why Rinian was sent here. Let's roll. Goblin blackblade. Eh. Okay, time for the event action and subject. Antagonize military. Something good happens to the goblin, which has to do with 'antagonize military'. I interpret this to mean that this goblin has been antagonized by his fellow goblins for being a weakling, and he sees Rinian's appearance before him as an opportunity to show his other goblin 'friends' how good a fighter he can be. Thus, he considers Rinian's appearance a positive random event. This also pretty much means that the goblin will immediately attack. Let's roll initiative.

Rinian gets 13. Goblin blackblade gets 9. Decrepit skeleton gets 14. I'm a little confused about why this goblin and skeleton were in the same room together, and whether or not they're on the same side . . . but I think I'll just take it for what it's worth and assume Rinian will have to fight them both (maybe it's a goblin skeleton). Thus, the skeleton pulls out its short sword and attacks Rinian. Critical miss. Nice. Next is Rinian. Oh, at the start of the encounter, as a xax, I'm supposed to roll to pick a racial power. Fade away, the gnome power. That's intense, and perhaps perfect. We'll also assume he started in the Phase of the Moon, as it's his favorite phase as we talked about in one of the earlier sessions. This means his AC is 2 higher (15) in this tiny room with two foes. With his minor action, Rinian conjures his crescent blades—one as a dagger and the other as a parrying dagger, increasing his AC another point (16). With his sorcerer powers not being very good options here, he'll just swing his dagger at the skeleton who just attacked him. Critical miss. Nice.

And then the goblin. All of its sneaky powers pretty much as useless as Rinian's sorcerer powers in these close quarters, the goblin blackblade just attacks with its short sword, hoping it can take the strange boy's head to his comrades. 8. Well that was a pretty action-packed round.

The skeleton attacks again. 9. Rinian attacks the skeleton. 20. Finally a hit, and the minion skeleton crumbles! That's Rinian's first 25 experience points!

The goblin snarls at the loss of his minion (hehe) and swings again. 8 again. Rinian attacks. 21. 7 damage. The goblin is down to 18. It attacks back. Critical miss. Okay . . . Rinian attacks. Critical miss. I'm not making this up. The goblin attacks back, desparate for victory. 8 AGAIN. Rinian gives it another shot. 13. Miss. Oh, and I just realized that since the skeleton's gone, Rinian's AC goes down 1 (15). Not that it's mattered. The skeleton attacks. 21! A hit. 6 damage, reducing Rinian to 18. They're tied! But, Rinian triggers his racial power for this encounter and fades away. Having suddenly lost sight of his opponent, the goblin uses its minor action to try to perceive Rinian, with a 13. I'm not exactly sure how this should work, but Rinian's Dexterity is a 10, so I'd put the DC at 10, but penalize the goblin -5 for trying to find an invisible target. So, the goblin becomes utterly confused, possibly imagining that his foe disappeared as quickly as he arrived. (And a reasonable assumption that would be, so perhaps the unintelligent goblin doesn't quite make it that far.)

On his turn, Rinian tries to open the door behind him with a minor action. Fate question: Is the door unlocked? 50/50. Yes. The goblin sees one of the room's doors inexplicably open. I need to go back to my Random Dungeon Generation tables now. Some rolls determine that the other side of the door is a 20'x20' room with a passage on the same wall as the door Rinian just opened. I won't roll to find out more about the passage yet, as Rinian can't see down it. The room is empty. Rinian will use his move action to go 6 squares into the room, just 2 squares from the back wall. With a straight shot at the goblin, and invisible, Rinian fires his blazing starfall at the goblin with combat advantage. 23 vs. Reflex. 10 radiant damage, reducing the goblin to 8; it's bloodied. If it leaves the burst area of blazing starfall (basically the tiny room), it will take 3 fire damage.

I'll ask the fate table if the goblin is willing to risk its life as a final attempt to save face (yes), or try to escape (no). 50/50. Yes. The goblin charges, taking 3 damage (5). Critical hit (25). 8 damage, putting Rinian at 10—he's now bloodied and moves into the Phase of the Stars (AC now 14). Rinian uses storm walk to shift 1 square back and attack. 14 vs. Fortitude hits the goblin for 15 damage. The goblin's dead. In the heat of the moment, Rinian doesn't even consider not killing the foul creature. He's seen death in his time on board the Star Bearing, and having to fight for his life did not instill him with pity for the goblin.

While I think checking the treasure seems like an automatic addendum to a D&D combat, I think that cinematically it would be a separate scene. Thus, the combat scene ends and I propose a new one: "Having been teleported to a mysterious dungeon and defeating a skeleton and goblin, Rinian opens the treasure chest to claim its contents." Oh, and the chaos definitely went up there. Chaos: ++ Let's roll to see if the proposed scene is altered. 4. That means we get an interrupt scene and I need to roll an event focus. PC positive. Great! As there's only one PC, that means Rinian. Action + Subject: Return [of] nature. And this is the hard part. Does Rinian's human nature return? I don't think that would be positive.

I just went back and looked over my list of threads trying to find inspiration. This is kind of a stretch in terms of interpretation and non-random decision making, but what if: this dungeon is unnaturally cold, having something to do with (such as being underneath) the blizzard island and the sea warlord's place of slumber. With the nearby anchor destroyed—in the form of the skeleton—this area of the dungeon returns to its natural state: not quite so cold. This is a pretty radical jump, and it implies a lot about the dungeon. However, it's also somewhat firmly based on the context set so far. I'll ask the fate table if this is the case, giving it 50/50. The high chaos score actually improves the chance of a yes answer. And . . . No. Okay, so let's try this again.

Does the skeleton's now-freed spirit (nature) return to thank and guide Rinian? 50/50 again. No. In retrospect, I don't think I should have rolled that one, as it wasn't nearly as much of a stretch as my first try. It seems somewhat logical, and doesn't imply or decide much else about the setting. I'm going to go with it despite my question turning up no. So, the skeleton's spirit comes to thank Rinian. Is it a goblin? Likely. Yes. Let's roll a personality from Instant Game. Reasonable. So, Rinian gets to learn some things about this dungeon from the goblin spirit. Does the goblin know anything about the sea warlord? 50/50. Exceptional yes. Does he know his name? Likely. Exceptional no. Perhaps that means the sea warlord has no name, or that it's so ancient that none know it. Did he serve the sea warlord? That is, do all these [hypothetical dungeon-dwelling] goblins serve him? Likely. Yes. Does he know the source of the warlord's power? 50/50. Yes. Oops, I forgot Rinian already knew the source as well: it's the constellation. Is this dungeon underneath the blizzard island? 50/50. No. Hm, well at least now I know for sure. I can't think of any more yes/no questions to ask the spirit. I can think of plenty non-yes/no questions, but as I wouldn't know how to answer them, I'll just assume that the spirit is ready to move on. Rinian thanks the goblin, who floats away to the afterlife.

Now, for the treasure. That scene reduced our chaos to Chaos: +. Now I'll propose the same scene as before. "Having been teleported to a mysterious dungeon and defeating a skeleton and goblin, Rinian opens the treasure chest to claim its contents." And let's see if the scene is altered. 6. Another interrupt! Roll for focus: PC negative. Aw man, that means Rinian again. Action + subject: Travel [of] joy. Somehow, someone's travel of joy is negative for Rinian. The first logical thing I come up with is that someone sensed the treasure's guardians are no longer guarding it, so they travel joyously to retrieve it. This leaves Rinian in a position to either defend or abandon his find. Oh, that conversation with the goblin spirit should have been a short rest, so I'll spend some healing surges and move back into the Phase of the Moon. Two surges spent brings him up to 22 hit points.

Now . . . there's more than one way I could deal with this situation, but I think I'll roll an encounter level, using the table I generated above. Standard level (level 1). Is this creature coming to claim the treasure a goblin? Likely. No. So, I'll roll to find out if this is one level 1 creature, or four level 1 minions. (1d2) One creature. I'll roll for a random sentient level 1 creature. (It should be sentient because it's purposefully coming to seek the treasure.) Halfling slinger.

Somehow this halfling is aware of the treasure. Perhaps he is an adventurer wandering this dungeon, and he finds an empty room with a treasure chest. The halfling slinger has a +9 Stealth, so I'll assume he uses it. 21. This is well above Rinian's passive Perception of 9, so I doubt the xax boy notices the halfling sneaking into the other room. However, this is supposed to be a scene with the halfling, not an "all the sudden the treasure is gone" twist, so Rinian will have to catch the halfling.

Rinian, having finished his conversation with the goblin spirit, casually walks to the smaller room to collect his treasure. He is shocked to find a halfling looting from the chest Rinian had already assumed would be his to plunder. I may as well roll a gender for this halfling (without the fate table, for minimal bias). Male.

-- "Hey, I just killed a goblin and a skeleton for that treasure!" exclaims Rinian. --

Familiar with adventurer etiquette, Rinian knows that treasure should be his. And . . . it's my bed time again. I'll pick up here next time!

* * * * *

~ fissionessence

 

[fissionessence]

And so what's Rinian's reaction going to be? Will he try to attack the halfling? What will the halfling's reaction be to Rinian?

It will probably help to have a personality for the halfling. Thank you, Instant Game. Humble. That doesn't really sound like a halfling to me, but okay. So Rinian runs in and yells that this his treasure. Does the halfling concede the loot immediately? Unlikely. Yes. Nice! And I was about to ad hoc a skill challenge, too.

"Oh." The halfling stands up, shocked. Treasure tumbles from his open sack back into the chest as his arms fall limply. "A skeleton and a goblin? Really?"

"Yes," Rinian says. "We were just in here, fighting. But then the skeleton's spirit came to give me some advice."

"Skeleton? Advice?" the halfling asks incredulously. "Really?"

"Yes, and this is the chest that was in here with them," Rinian states. "I know how adventuring works; I defeated the monsters, so I get the treasure."

"But what are you? You look like a monster to me." The halfling draws his dagger.

Rinian raises his hands in innocence. "No!" he says, "I'm human! Well, I was anyway."

"You're pretty short for a human." The halfling looks Rinian up and down. "And you're all blue, and your eyes are on crooked."

"Yes, well. I changed somehow."

"I see. Well I guess if you're human and you beat these monsters, then you're not all bad, and I don't want to try to fight you. See you around!" And with that, the halfling, having dropped the treasure back into the chest, leaves the room and takes off down the passage.

After that exchange, the scene seems to have ended, with not much more than a slightly entertaining exchange, and a new NPC to add to our list. I could have rolled more stuff to find out more about the halfling and see if he wanted to stick around and whatnot, but I'm ready to keep this game moving! Plus, it'll be nice having another dungeon NPC on my list for any event rolls that might come up.

Now I'll propose my same scene again . . . for the third time. "After teleporting to a mysterious dungeon, defeating a skeleton and goblin, conversing with the skeleton's goblin spirit, and persuading a halfling adventurer not to steal his treasure, Rinian finally claims his rewards." Oh, also, we'll lower the chaos to the default Chaos: []. Now we roll. 2. That's another interruption. Now I'm getting sick of this, but let's see what we got. Move away from a thread. That means I need a thread list. Let me scroll up and grab it.

Threads
1) Become a full-fledged adventurer
2) 'Infiltrate psychic abilities'. That is, discover the source of the warlord's power over the sea creatures.
3) Learn what happened to the island; what caused that blizzard, and where'd everyone go?
4) Discover the distracted captain's secret.

Should I add any threads? I think we have one or two more to work with . . .

5) Discover the meaning of this dungeon. (That is, why was Rinian sent here?)

Hm. That might be it. I'm expanding the meaning of the second one to encompass pretty much anything having to do with the sea warlord. And we roll: 5. And then an action and subject: Intolerance [of] environment. That means the meaning of this dungeon (or at least how it applies to Rinian) should become more obscured through some 'intolerance of environment.' I'll take that to mean that some kind of mist or something begins to pervade the place. This hazard is intolerable (or at least uncomfortable) to Rinian, and so it makes him wonder why Chersin would have sent him to such an intolerable/uncomfortable place. Actually, Goodman Games's GM Gems has some random tables in it. I think I'll use their Empty Rooms Worth Describing table to see if Rinian notices some aspect of the room that he hadn't noticed, but that is awkward to him. I've never rolled on this table before, but I'm assuming most of these rooms won't carry positive aspects. If this result doesn't make sense, I'll throw it out. The grinning countenance of a devilish skull beams down from the frescoed ceiling.

That's actually everything I was asking for. It gives a great reason for Rinian to not have noticed it before, is very unsettling, and even goes so far as to match the tone of the undead Rinian already defeated. Rinian will check the ceiling to the larger room to see if it's frescoed as well. Is it? 50/50. Yes. As I predicted before, the dungeon is really starting to describe itself. Plus Rinian's passive Perception of 9 really goes a long way toward justifying how details like this can just 'appear' (I only partially did that on purpose during character creation )

So that 'scene' was just Rinian noticing the ceiling. These scenes are seeming less and less cinematic, but nonetheless, it's what Mythic says I'm supposed to do, so I'm doing it. I guess that was unsettling (or intolerable) enough that the chaos should go up to Chaos: +. Now I'll present the same scene again. 5. That means the scene happens, but it slightly altered. Finally my treasure! According to Mythic, I need to come up with the slight alternation myself, and the first thing I think of is that the halfling stole some of the treasure. Jerk. I guess Rinian saw the treasure when the halfling was handling it, and something Rinian noticed specifically is not in the chest; that's how Rinian can tell the halfling took it.

Anyway, to figure out what is in the chest, I'm going to use a random treasure generator. I happen to have one such treasure generator from a website called Dark Tales and Good Times. At a glance, it looks like it has most (if not all) of the 4E magic item sources in its database, plus a third party product (which I happen to own). You can also program in your own items if you want the generator to potentially grab them. Oh yeah, here's the website: Dark Tales and Good Times | 50 Foot Divine Suplex

So I'm going to generate an entire level's worth of parcels, suited for a 'party' of one level 1 character. I was able to 'turn off' items that would be of no use to me, such as big axes and plate armor. Anyway, here's my level of treasure:

Level 1 Treasure Parcels
1: [Level 3] Safewing Amulet +1 (Player`s Handbook p. 251)
2: (1) 100 gp turquoise, 80 gp
3: 120 gp
4: (1) 100 gp garnet, 20 gp
5: 1 [Level 1]Antivenom (Adventurer`s Vault p.25), 40 gp
6: 400 sp

So there we go. Now I'll roll a d6 to see which of these parcels Rinian found in the chest. 1. That's the amulet! That means that another parcel must have also been in the chest, and the halfling must have run off with it or part of it, so I'll roll again. 5. It seems that while the halfling poured all that 40 gp back into the chest, he managed to slip the antivenom into his sleeve. Rinian plans on getting that back. So, Rinian will don the +1 safewing amulet, increasing his non-AC defenses by 1 each, and giving him some leeway from falls. Before we end the scene completely, let's have Rinian peer down the unexplored hall. This brings us back to the AD&D Random Dungeon Generation appendix.

Okay, so I accidentally just spent too much time mapping ahead, but I think it'll come in handy over the next few minutes. I even drew it up in Photoshop, so I'll try to attach the map when I post. The Random Dungeon Generation tables actually made some wandering monsters for me, kind of doing Mythic's job for it . . . I guess that's okay. For now, Rinian is looking down a 20' wide passage that backs up on itself 45 degrees 30' ahead. I'd say our previous scene lowered the chaos back to Chaos: [], so we're ready to propose our next scene. "Rinian ventures into the passage, seeking the meaning of his visit here, and the halfling who stole his treasure." Now I'll roll. 1 means the scene is slightly altered. I think that's easily covered by the wandering monsters I've already generated.

Rinian gets to the end of the 30' passage, then turns to follow the 45 degree turn. After another 30', the passage turns 90 degrees to the left. There, ahead, is a wandering monster. The passage turns 45 degrees to the right at that point, though Rinian can't see around the corner to know that's there's yet another wandering monster 30' down from that turn. Since these monsters can easily see each other, I'll assume they're in some way related. My first guess is that the 'monster' Rinian can see is the halfling, who has now stopped his escape when the other monster came from the direction where the halfling was headed. I'll ask the fate table if this is the case. It seems likely. Exceptional yes. Nice! I must be a pretty good guesser.

I'll roll an Insight check for Rinian to see if he can tell the trouble the halfling's in. 20. Not too shabby, considering he gets only a +1

"Well that's karma for you," Rinian says smugly. "Maybe I can help you out if you hand over that vial I know you stole."

In order to get a better grasp of this situation, I think I'm going to find out what this other wandering monster is. First I'll find out the encounter difficulty, using the same table I had before, but this time I'll build an encounter for two players, assuming the halfling will be fighting alongside Rinian. Tough (level +1). That's 125xp per character. I'm trying to decide if 'wandering monster' means invariably a singular monster, or if it can be a full encounter. I think I'll go with 'AD&D assumed you fought a single monster at a time' and '4E assumes more monsters in a fight' and convert the term 'wandering monster' to 'wandering monster(s)' or 'wandering encounter'. Thus, I'll come up with a list of possible encounter builds.

1) Two level 2 monsters. 2) One level 2 elite monster. 3) Two level 1 monsters and two level 1 minions. 4) Eight level 2 minions. 5) One level 2 monster and four level 2 minions. 6) Ten level 1 minions. Man! Things really get complicated when we add more xp into the mix. I'm sure there are some options I missed there, but the point isn't to create an exhaustive list of encounter builds. I'll roll a d6 to pick one. 4 - Eight level 2 minions. Interesting. Also, it's worth noting that I seriously doubt the halfling slinger is going to be worth the difficulty he's adding to this encounter. I thought about only making him add 50xp or so to the mix, and maybe I should have, but for whatever reason I decided not to. Let's see if I regret it!

Okay, well this time I'm using the DDI Compendium to find my monsters. I have eight hits on possible level 2 minions; none of them is a goblin, which would have been the perfect fit here. I'm going to ignore the grand melee gladiator (this is not a coliseum), the kobold cleaver (I already decided to exclude kobolds earlier in the adventure), and the halfling stout (because . . . whu?). That leaves me with 5, and I'll roll to randomly determine . . . kruthik hatchling. I wonder where those came from.

"Okay!" the halfling cries helplessly.

Good, he's accepted Rinian's agreement. Now let's roll initiative. Normally I roll groups' initiatives together, but eight is a lot, so I'll roll them in pairs. Rinian: 12. Halfling: 23. Kruthik pair 1: 21. Kruthik pair 2: 15. Kruthik pair 3: 23 (after the halfling). Kruthik pair 4: 6. We're in a 10' wide hallway here, so there's not a lot of room for maneuverability. Wider than the 10'x10' room, but still.

The halfling pulls out his sling and uses his recharge power stone rain against three of the closest kruthik young. 7, 23, Critical miss. Not great, but one of the kruthiks drops with an insectoid screech. The halfling runs back past Rinian, and the bugs begin their swarm. The first kruthik runs up past Rinian, circling around so all the kruthik can attack in the cramped space. Rinian doesn't have his crescent blades conjured, so he tries an unarmed punch for his opportunity attack. 5 misses, and the kruthik misses its claw attack with an 8. The next kruthik on 23 is dead, but the pair on 21 go next. This one also tries to circle around, but gets taken out by Rinian's punch with a 22. The next one just scampers up and claws at Rinian with a 9. Then are the kruthiks at 15. One runs up and claws with 24, dealing 4 damage, putting Rinian at 18 (he wasn't healed up all the way because of awkward healing surge math). The next kruthik uses its climb speed to attack from the wall so that it doesn't have to circle to provoke an opportunity attack. Its claw is an 18, dealing another 4 damage. (14.) Now it's Rinian's turn. I realize I forgot to roll for his racial power. He gets . . . fey step. I swear I'm not making this up, folks.

Rinian fey steps a few squares away, only slightly around the corner from the swarm of kruthik young who swarmed up around him. However, the angle isn't such that he incurs any cover penalties for the blazing starfall he calls down on the kruthik. Let's start rolling attacks. 7, 8, 7, 17. Of the four kruthiks in the area, only one goes down. However, if any of the kruthik try to leave the area, they'll die. This essentially creates a minion barrier in the hallway, and Rinian can just use the power round after round. Something doesn't seem right, but hey I'm not complaining. I guess it's expected these kruthiks should have ranged options or something. Well, Rinian's done and it's the last pair of kruthik's turn.

Are the kruthiks (as a group) dumb enough to trigger this damage on themselves? Unlikely. Yes. The last two kruthiks move from their positions way back at the end of the hallway, then charge to attack Rinian and/or the halfling. However, their charges are interrupted when they die from blazing starfall's fire damage. The halfling goes next, shifting back from one kruthik that was next to him, then firing his sling. His stone rain recharged, but he only has one target in this portion of the corridor. A 24 hits, taking out that kruthik young, then the remaining two young take their turns, both trying to move out of the starfall area, and burning up.

Rinian takes a deep breath, and gains 125xp! (Also the halfling gains 125xp . . . in case he's keeping track.) Rinian's up to 250xp.

"Wow!" the halfling exclaims.

Rinian scratches his head. "Yeah. Wow. Now give me my vial."

"Oh, right. Sure. Whatever you say." The halfling rummages through his sack, and pulls out the green vial. He hands it to Rinian. "Sorry about before, and thanks a lot for the help."

"Are there a lot of those creatures here?"

"Well, there's a natural cave system this dungeon is built into. It's not that surprising that they might find their way in here."

"I see. And what is it you're doing here?"

"Just looking for treasure. I've seen some rich adventurers, and I figured I'd cash in!"

"Well, adventurers have to be able to fight baby kruthiks."

"Yeah. I was hoping for the treasure part more than the adventure part." The halfling bobs his head around a bit, awkwardly filling the silence as Rinian seems distracted. "What is it you're doing here."

"I'm looking for something. An answer, I guess."

"An answer? What's the question?"

Rinian laughed. "The question? 'What is it I'm doing here?'"

I don't know whether or not the halfling knows a way out of this dungeon, so for now I may as well have him stick with Rinian. When there's a fork, I'll assume the halfling knows one direction is the way out. Since Rinian is looking for something and doesn't know what it is, he'll go the other way, hoping to delve deeper. For now . . . there's no fork, so the halfling's coming with us.

At the end of the last hall turn is a door. We'll figure it's open, since the kruthik would have come through it. (Note that this stuff I pre-rolled.) Beyond the door is an empty 10'x10' room, with another open door on the opposite wall. Here's where I start rolling again. There's another room here. It's 30'x40'. Upon entering, there are three other exits: two on the right wall and one on the same wall as the entrance. There is also a secret door in this room, but I can't figure out some of what this Random Dungeon Generation table is saying. Anyway, Rinian only has a passive Perception of 9, and isn't exactly in 'dungeon delving' mode, so he's not going to look for or find this secret door. Another thing I can't figure out from these dungeon generation tables is whether the three exits are supposed to be door or just passages (the tables for finding out stuff about what's beyond them is different). I'll just assume they're all doors. Also, these three doors are essentially 'forks' in the road. I'll assume one of these doors leads to the exit of the dungeon and whatever exists above ground. And so, the halfling leaves through that door, ready to escape this dangerous dungeon. See ya, halfling!

Let me roll to see which door was the exit. It's one of the doors on the right, closer to the wall that we just came in from. Thus, Rinian will explore the door on the same wall as the one he just came in. Actually, it looks like it's not supposed to be a door, just an open passage (I think I figured these tables out, at least partially). Woah. This passage opens up to a 60' wide river with a bridge connecting Rinian's side of the passage to the other. Since this direction is actually doubling back from where we just came from, it looks like that portion of the dungeon is somehow suspended above this river, which runs below.

Knowing this, let's check the other passage in the room. This passage goes 45 degrees to the left for 30', before opening into a 4000 square foot empty circular chamber. Well that's silly, having a big 'ol useless chamber. I may as well roll on that GM Gems Empty Rooms Worth Describing table again. This room contains a greenhouse covered with tinted glass. Dim light reveals rows of withered stalks in beds of cracked earth. Interesting. Hopefully that'll mean something later. Oh yeah, I should also roll for exits to this room. There are two. One is on the left side of the circle (from the entrance), and the other on the right.

I feel like I should be asking more fate questions right now. I've hardly asked any this session . . . with the other tables and random devices at my disposal, I think I'm favoring them for their specificity . . . and I really don't know what questions I should be asking. However, the fate mechanics are the core driving mechanic of Mythic, and apart from my own intervention, they're what'll be motivating the story forward. The random dungeon generator has helped, but I don't think it's really doing the whole job.

The problem is I really just don't know what questions to ask. At least, not without starting a long series of boring yes/no questions. I guess this random greenhouse is worth formulating something. So how about: Does Rinian recognize these dead plants as having anything to do with the moon or stars? 50/50. Exceptional yes. Well there you go. Plot.

Kind of. As I said, fate questions driving the story . . . except that I still don't know how these plants have to do with the cosmic cycle, and I have no table to ask about it. That means I have to come up with options on my own and ask or decide about their validity. I really don't like doing that (which is probably why I don't ask more fate questions). Let's see if the Things table from Instant Game can give me any advice. War. Mmmm. Tastes like vague. Well, wars mean history, so I'll have Rinian make a History check. A good result will be an excuse to make something up. 7 is not a good History check. Nature? 21. That's much better.

These plants only grow under moon- or starlight. Rinian can sense that the dim light emanating from the greenhouse is indeed starlight, though there are no stars in this underground dungeon cavern. It must be magically generated starlight, though signs of a battle (war) indicate that these magical generators were damaged in the scuffle.

Okay; now's a good time (as any) to recap everything we know (or that I can remember without re-reading everything) about this dungeon.

Dungeon facts
1) Goblins dwell here, and they work for the psychic sea warlord.
2) At least one undead was here; there could be more.
3) At least part of this dungeon has a demonic aspect to it (the fresco with the grinning devilish skull). That could have been the only room with that theme, and the fresco could actually have been the reason that skeleton reanimated. (Thus, we may not encounter any more undead or demon frescoes. On the other hand, the goblin I killed in that room could be reanimated the same way. Maybe I should add him to my NPC list!)
4) This complex is connected to underground caves, which includes an underground river and an unknown number of kruthik.
5) At some point, great care was taken to grow plants that thrive in moon- and starlight. However, a battle destroyed the magical devices sustaining these plants, and they were never repaired or cared for again.

Okay. Now. Does Rinian want to go into the natural cave structure, or investigate the passageways leading from the circular greenhouse chamber? Well, he knows there are kruthik infesting the caverns, and this greenhouse has to do with what he's probably looking for, so the passages from the chamber seem to be the best bet. That's where we'll pick up next time. I'll even propose Rinian's next passageway venture as a scene, to give the Mythic system more of a chance

* * * * *

Thanks for reading! If you are reading at least some of this and finding it interesting, please let me know. I like having a log of all this, and will probably continue writing it even if no one reads it (assuming I keep having the time). However, there's definitely more of an incentive if I know at least a few people find this entertaining or useful to some degree.

~ fissionessence

 

[FloatingDisc]

This is great!

I've started my own, just for fun, though I don't have the exhaustive list of random tables you do. I might write it up some time soon. So far I've got a kobold wizard named Zeep travelling by ship to discover why mindless hordes are destroying an important dam... The ship's captain just died in a fight with goblin pirates, but luckily Zeep has talked the ship-bound elemental (think Eberron) into taking him to a safe port. The only thing is, the elemental is deceitful and cunning, and has already fooled Zeep a couple of times...

It's interesting having such a malicious NPC as the only other character in the game so far! I'm hoping to get the Captain raised, at least for company ;]

Keep up the good work, I'm really enjoying the write-up!

 

[Dyson Logos]

I'm watching this too - I picked up Mythic some time ago but never took the steps to actually trying to use it yet.