NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jacob Marley" data-source="post: 6105435" data-attributes="member: 89537">Back in late 2008 I discovered Mythic: Game Master Emulator. Over the past five or so odd years, I've increasingly come to rely on Mythic to adjudicate play in situations in which the PCs have "surprised" me with their actions. Plane Shift, as written in its 3.x incarnation, creates a "surprised" state as I cannot predict exactly where the PCs will arrive (5 to 500 miles (5d%) from your intended destination). Looking at both [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s and [MENTION=53286]Lwaxy[/MENTION]'s posts above (and I'll focus on using [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] as an example), here's how I would DM the game: first, the PCs arriving on the plane would constitute a transition scene. Basically, they'd gather themselves together and determine where they are, how far they are from their intended destination and how they plan on getting there. In [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s case, he states that he summons a centipede to carry the party to their final destination. (For example purposes I'll disregard that it appears to be an illegal use of his character's ability.) I'll assume another character was capable of determining where they are in relation to their final destination. In all likelihood, this transition scene would require maybe a couple minutes. At this point, the party declares their intent: to arrive at City B.With Mythic, there are now three possible outcomes that could occur: they could arrive at City B as intended, they could arrive at City B and find that the scene has been altered, or they could be interrupted on the way. (If I had already made a map of the area, then I'd also ask the PCs if they are interested in exploring any of the interesting locations. I'll assume that the players are not interested in any locations.) Which event occurs would be determined by a d10 roll against the current Chaos Factor (I'll assume an average 5 for this example.) Any roll of 6 or higher and the PCs will arrive at their intended destination. A roll of 5, 3 or 1 would alter the scene while a roll of 4 or 2 would result in an interrupt scene. An altered scene could be something as trivial as the PCs arriving to find the gates are closed (It's night! Goblins have been raiding! Whatever.), or something major like the city is being besieged. Whatever the scene is altered to, though, will be determined by what Mythic refers to as Context. Context is the PCs, their various motivations and agendas, the threads they are pursuing, and the setting in which they currently occupy. If I am on top of my game, I can create a scene that is interesting to the players and myself on multiple levels. An interrupted scene is an entirely different, and unexpected, scene. Here I differ somewhat from how Mythic handles things. In these cases a random encounter is triggered. The encounter will be rolled on an encounter table (either one I have already prepared or the ones in the DMG). This encounter will be modified using the Event Focus Table in Mythic while taking into consideration the context of the campaign. Examples of the Event Focus Table include: introduction of new NPC(s), PC positive/negative, an ambiguous event, or any of a number of others. I will also occasionally consult the Event Focus Table during an altered scene if I find unable to think of something creative.In normal circumstances, I use Mythic in conjunction with my traditional hex-based methods. I alternate a lot during the game between a scene-based approach and exploratory play depending on the current needs of the campaign. With regards to skipping scenes, I really prefer that the player in question handle it through out-of-character discussion rather than relying on me to "read him/her." There is too much potential for me to misread his/her intentions. I am a big believer in being open and clear with respects to what you want in the game.</blockquote>

Verification