That Mythic Age Feel

[S'mon]

* [edit] I'm not saying you have to make the PC's +15th level or anything, just so long as they and the other major NPCs are much more powerful than the common folk. You could do this under 10th level I'm sure.

While this is true, it can be tough convincing the experienced 3e-er that their 3rd level Fighter is the "Greatest Warrior EVAR". I tried this with a low-power setting where the 6th-level PCs were supposedly the 'greatest heroes of the land', and it didn't really feel right. Double-figure character levels says 'powerful' right off, and allows NPCs to have a range of levels while still being inferior to the 'true heroes' (the PCs) - maybe the 'mighty warrior king' who's a PC's father and the group's patron is an 8th level Fighter. To the 1st-level common people, he's practically godlike, but he's still not as good as the PCs.

 

[spunky_mutters]

To obtain a mythic feel I think you need to create a consistent flavor:

- The gods (or other powerful beings) are not far away, and their handiwork is evident in the world. They don't need to be in the player's faces, but evidence of their feuds, wars, and temper tantrums will be easy to find in the terrain, the people, and the news of the day.

- Everything is unique. Heroes of legend fight monsters who are individually cursed or changed by the gods themselves into these monsters. You don't fight a cyclops, you fight Polyphemus, son of Poseidon and Thoosa. Every monster should be a unique encounter with a backstory that hooks into the mythic nature of the setting.

- By keeping things lower level you don't give the players access to planar travel magic on their own, so they need to use the natural connections between the underworld and their homes, or ride a magical steed to the home of the gods, or whatever unique planes your campaign world offers. Hiding the mechanics behind flavor goes a long way to increasing the mythic feel of the game.

- Think in broad strokes. Don't be afraid to level cities, divert rivers, bring down mountains, etc. This is the kind of thing that should happen all over the place in a mythic age game. Players don't need to be super-powered to survive, they just need a bit of ingenuity, courage, and it wouldn't hurt if they have unique items available. Maybe they need to convince the herald of the weather god to lend them a horn of the winds to protect their seaside homes from the wrath of the ocean god (blowing back his waves with the horn). They will need to return it promptly when finished, but having unique and powerful items (any one of which might actually be epic level) make appearances in the campaign gives it a high-powered feel without making the players into walking powerhouses.

At least these are things that I would do.

 

[Darth Shoju]

While this is true, it can be tough convincing the experienced 3e-er that their 3rd level Fighter is the "Greatest Warrior EVAR". I tried this with a low-power setting where the 6th-level PCs were supposedly the 'greatest heroes of the land', and it didn't really feel right. Double-figure character levels says 'powerful' right off, and allows NPCs to have a range of levels while still being inferior to the 'true heroes' (the PCs) - maybe the 'mighty warrior king' who's a PC's father and the group's patron is an 8th level Fighter. To the 1st-level common people, he's practically godlike, but he's still not as good as the PCs.

To be honest, I'd be tempted to start them out over 10th level too. I just wanted to toss the disclaimer in there so I didn't seem like a powergamer.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, another thing to remember about the mythic age: the world is small.The players homeland rests in the center of the known world,the further from home you go the stranger everything becomes. What lies beyond the horizon is unknown, and possibly unknowable, the abode of Dragons, Giants, and Gods...

Make the afterlife a physical place, one that the heroes can visit. Get rid of the Raise Dead and Resurrection spells, instead if the players want to bring back a fallen comrade they must quest into that shadowed realm, and negotiate for his return. While this means that the option is available to even a relatively low level party you can't merely bring the dead back in the middle of an adventure.

Vengeful ghosts, interfering Gods, stories and songs of the heroes exploits. Create a few legends, make up the songs and stories that the PCs hear of these great heroes.. then let the PCs meet them.

The Auld Grump

 

[KrolltheGreat]

Basically, I would do one of two things:

Allow them to be Epic Level Heroes (which is what they might want anyways, just not wanting to say it directly for some reason), but... after you tell them the environment, history, etc... of the land... THEY have to come up with background stories that led them into becoming Epic Heroes already... and you give them all visions that lead them to each other and keep them in the right direction (obviously a powergame)... While fun to play, might be more difficult to DM/manage...

Or, you using the same visions idea... and same environment, history, etc..., just customize the D&D rules... Take off some of the limitations put on D&D (like maximum skill points per level, removing some prerequisites, instead of waiting for a certain level to obtain new ability increases/feats, grant them during gameplay as appropriate/story logical, and/or letting them do things Unorthodox, like, instead of obtaining a new 1st lvl & a new 2nd lvl spell, allow them to give up both for a 3rd lvl spell (1+2=3, LoL)). Put them in a major time event that sounds like it should be in an upcoming Sci-Fi movie (example: humanoids are few and scatterred throughout the land, half killed by unknown plagues, the rest devoured by magical beasts... I'll stop there, don't want to give away all my ideas). Anyway, obviously at first, at lower levels, they won't be able to do epic stuff, but with some of the limitations removed, they should start be able to start doing great and wonderous things earlier than normal (after all, they don't call them legendary heroes for nothing), and if these things help them overconquer a land-wide crisis, they will become legendary... This way is still fun, and easier to manage as well.

Just some ideas.

 

[S'mon]

My feeling on the Epic Level Rules is that they're probably not suitable for a mythic game, although some mythologies (eg Indian) are more OTT than others (eg Norse). To me the Epic Level Rules feel more like Dragonball-Z or maybe The Mighty Thor comic than the Silmarillion. Characters in the Silmarilion don't level cities with a burp.

 

[Eldorian]

I've not read the Silmarilion, but I've studied a bit of mythology. To get the truely mythic feel, I think your characters need to be amazing people, like born under mysterious circumstances and with the enmity of some gods or something. Main characters in mythic tales are seldom normal dudes that take it upon themselves to do great things. It would be ok for them to be low to mid level, but have them have some interesting powers. High point buy or 5d6 drop 2 would be good for stat generation. Avoid putting NPCs in the world that are more powerful than the heroes, other than Gods and monsters. Avoid "a monster" and have more "the monster"s. The cyclops example was good. The minotaur and The medusa are more legendary than A minotaur, etc. You might want to award exp faster and have fewer, harder battles, or at least avoid boring battles. Gilgemesh didn't kill random orcs, or even the Sumerian equivalent. Good motivations would be fame, but not fortune. Legendary heroes aren't in it for the money. As was said before, don't be afraid of making huge changes to the game based on the party's actions. If by talking a king into fighting off some foe, they start a 40 year long war, which changes the political landscape of the area forever, then all the better. It's more legendary in feel if your actions have a larger impact.

Anyways, this is all IMO. I've had a few games that had legendary feels to em, just need to make the PCs really important.

Eldorian Antar

 

[green slime]

I think that Epic-feel characters could be the instruments of the gods, and therefore these (the gods) do not need to be remote. But they should not be dominating the game entirely and telling the players where to go and what to do constantly. But arrive in Dreams, with ill-forebodings, and express concern for certain events, and the like.

 

[Eldorian]

I think that Epic-feel characters could be the instruments of the gods, and therefore these (the gods) do not need to be remote. But they should not be dominating the game entirely and telling the players where to go and what to do constantly. But arrive in Dreams, with ill-forebodings, and express concern for certain events, and the like.

Definatly don't have gods telling the PCs what to do. A good idea would be to have a god thats an enemy, but have the characters been on the good side of a god that favors the characters, so that the enemy god doesn't want to anger the friendly one. I think the TV show Hercles tried something like this, and tho the show wasn't very good TV, it would probably have been a good game.

Eldorian Antar

 

[tetsujin28]

Everway is really good for this Mythic Age type game. Very vague, with a tarot-like deck for action resolution (along with comparison of exponential power level)

At least it might give you ideas for adventure structure. The basic structure is, you come to a new sphere (world). There is some unresolved tension in the world, usually social, and the heroes will resolve that tension in one direction or another, with specified consequences.

Everyway's a great game that never quite found its audience. Along with BESM/dX or Nobilis, this would be my choice.