Dungeon Crawling With Google Docs

Now, given how this is the last Monday of GM Month, I figured I’d do a GM-related thing. And what better way than to return to the artificial GM that kicked my solo roleplaying into overdrive: Mythic. As it stands, I played most of my games with this Emulator, since it’s the one I’m most familiar with. I’ve first played this with D&D 3rd Edition (as almost all the rules were online for free), but now I feel like I should do my first Solo RPG with Mythic and 5e. Well, sort of. I did a bit of a solo game with 5e, but that was more for writing a story than anything else.

There’s another reason I’m doing this: I’m testing out the new Mythic Addon and seeing how it plays out in game. Who knows? Maybe this will be the norm for how I write stuff. Let’s begin. I’ll grab myself a pregen from Tabletopping, with me being a level five Dragonborn Champion (Fighter). Let’s do the example scenario to get us started.

Let’s Overdramatize A Flower For Mara

I can understand LARPs. I really do. Most people tend to refer to roleplaying as being in a play, but in reality, it’s more like playing a game, but you and your friends make up an epic story to justify why you have to get through your obstacles. LARPing, however, is the quintessential idea of roleplaying, at least with what people say about it. There’s no literal rules like in most RPGs, and even if there is, there’s usually a reason that makes it fair for everyone, like how you’re required to make weapons soft.

Most people make LARP scenarios. Some of you can recall me mentioning one where you have a final conversation with someone before they finally pass on. Seems grief is a popular topic, as there’s another LARP based around the death of a loved one: A Flower for Mara. The story’s simple: you have a cast of characters having four acts to voice out their grief, concerns, sorrows, and all that other stuff, all while Mara tries to have them cling onto their regrets.

Like Fiasco, the scenario sets up inter-character conflicts and ulterior motives of intrigue, which I like very much. Seeing Thomas wanting to get to reading the will ASAP much to Caleb’s chagrin due to it being too soon (and also because part of the will discusses what becomes of his house), only for Thomas to confess later that he’s more concerned with how Caleb would make use of the house that has been in their family for a long while and would rather have some of the heirlooms they have be put in the museum so that they’d be treasured in an attempt to get his father’s approval is a pretty sweet moment.

Though, A Flower for Mara’s tone is less comedic than Fiasco with the whole grieving storyline. One of the game’s main concept is each character having a grief that motivates them. Here’s the thing: the grief has to be a real thing that happened to the player. The game warns that playing A Flower For Mara will hit close to home for some players.

That said, there is room for comedic moments in the game, as the playtest shows and you don’t have to reveal your Grief if you don’t want to. So what am I going to do with this RPG, per se? Well, in celebration of GM Day (which I missed by so many miles) and the CRGE being released, I’m gonna do a double whammy. Using A Flower For Mara as a Driver, I will also use BOLD, UNE, and CRGE to play through a LARP. Before we begin though, there are a few things I wanna get clear.

The first being griefs. At the risk of shooting down the message A Flower For Mara is trying to convey, namely it being a story where people get to converse and act out feelings of sadness and grief, I’m gonna change up the nature of them. Although, considering that I’m playing only one character and everyone else, Mara included, are gonna be controlled by UNE, it’s probably gonna be a given.

Each character will have a grief that’s unique to them and will serve as a driving motivation for why they act that way during the grieving process. This ties into my second thing I want to settle. Zoe’s age. As stated in the game, Zoe’s age impacts everything because she is Mara’s daughter. I need to determine this before I determine griefs because Zoe’s grief might just be “this is the first loved one I lost”. With that, let’s get to our first CRGE question:

E.P.I.C.: Greek Titan World

Hey everyone. This is going to be different from my previous posts. This is me envisioning a campaign based around Kenneth Norris’ E.P.I.C. system, which helps people create a campaign with a few simple steps. I’ve decided to take a game I played in and expand it as if this would be a campaign. For this, I choose Greek Titan World, the Titan World/Fate Solo game I have played, since it has the makings of a nice campaign, but I feel like I need fleshing out.

Let’s Finish Avalon Quests

Alright, I think it’s time for me to bring closure to one of my RPGs: Avalon Quest. When we last left our heroes, they stopped for the night at a meeting spot deciding on who to save, a messenger who might be long dead or a village that might be long raided. Either way, goblins are dying.

So, there’s something I want to be honest about, I’ve been relying on Mythic too much and not on Avalon’s own system. So, here’s what I’ll do: If Mythic has an altered scene, I will use Avalon’s event system. If Mythic reports no scene change, I will check on Avalon. Alright, lovely. We had just killed three hyenas, it is now morning, and now they will depart…

Greek Titan World

Alright, now I really wanna try a World RPG, like Apocalypse World or Dungeon World… but I have no idea what to play. There’s quite a few options. However, one premise separates itself from the rest of the RPGs powered by the apocalypse.

Long ago, the world belonged to humans. Those days vanished, however, when the Titans came. […] Before long, humans had been pushed to the brink of extinction. Now this world belongs to the Titans.

Why does this interest me? Well, it’s because when I think “the world belongs to Titans”, I don’t think the Anime or the Manga. Hell, I don’t think of the Titans depicted in either media. I think of the classic Titans. You know the ones I mean.

Behemoths that ate their children to ensure that an age-old prophecy was denied. Goliaths who carried the world beneath their shoulders in penance for their crimes. Fallen Gods who had given humanity their first light before being continually eaten away. A pantheon before the classic Pantheon took over. I’m of course talking about the Greek Titans.

Funny story, I first thought the show was basically “Greek Mythology + Metal Gear Rising”. So much like how I turned Kancolle into more of a crime-centric story, I’m giving Attack on Titan a bit of a mythological spin. Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s play Titan World.

This leads me to a bit of a predicament of which RPG engine to use. I have decided that I will roll between the six engines I have used so far (discounting Oculus due to the unique viewpoint system) to determine what RPG engine will be used. This will be paramount to all RPGs I will do sessions on in the future save for ones where I have predetermined it or sequels to sessions I have done before.

For future reference, the chart to show which engine is used is as follows:

• 1 = CRGE
• 2 = Epic
• 3 = Fate
• 4 = Mythic
• 5 = Poet
• 6 = TSS

Alright, and with that, let’s rollin’!

[Roll: 3, Fate Solo]

Ah, an interesting choice. Especially since the Advantage/Disadvantage system is based somewhat on Fate’s own system. Now, let’s make our character. But first, allow me to run you through a bit of Titan World’s rules.

The rules are simple. Roll 2d6, add your attributed stat to it. You want to aim for anything over 10. Anything after 6 is good, but 10 and over gives you a nigh-crit. While most 6 and under results are bad, it’s when it comes to saving your friend from a Titan or saving yourself from a Titan that is grisly. 6 and under are pretty much instant death. Heck, scoring a 7-9 on saving your friend results in you getting killed instead.

However, this makes sense considering the deadly nature of the show. Heck, the “save your friend at the cost of your own” result is actually a scene from the show. However, you have Luck, so if you get in a real jam, you can just get out of it alive. Still, I give the guy who made this RPG props. Double props for the classes.

See, there’s a horde of classes called “The Rookie” class. They don’t start out with any neat moves or anything, but instead start out at level 0. They don’t even get a full name or a backstory. The only thing they have is one goal “survive your mission.” Which, considering the nature of Attack on Titan, is very, very unlikely. For those who have seen the show or read the manga, you know what I’m talking about. When you do survive the mission, then you get to pick out a class. Though, that is if you start out as a Rookie.

You can pick a normal class just fine, and there are five classes to go around, each filling a different role. You have the Naturals, high-flying extraordinaires that soar in the air, Warriors, high-trained killers who specialize in the murder of Titans, the Tacticians, people who think better than they fight, the Leaders, people who can rally up the weaker-willed people when shit hits the fans, and finally the Shifters.

You guys ready for what the Shifters are? Well, you know how the RPG premise was ‘The world belonged to Titans’? Well, as it turns out, a select few humans are able to be Titans at will. Kind of like a twisted version of Ultraman. This… is a very interesting premise, even if I had not watched or read AOT, but I’m not gonna use this class as my PC. Instead, I’ll use The Warrior, if only because this set up:

The war against the Titans is a business, and humanity’s primary export is murder.

Just sounds perfect for a plot hook. Let’s get the character readied.