I have struggled with picking a personal favorite Engine. Out of the emulators I playtested, I ranked three on the top of my list, Covetous Poet, Mythic GM Emulator, and the Conjectural Roleplaying Gamemaster Emulator. I adored these three for various reasons… but… At some point, when I have no idea what Engine to use, I need to decide on one.
However, this is where things get… spicy. Over on the Solo Roleplayer’s site, Kenneth Norris had an interview with Zach Best, the creator of the CRGE. Originally, CRGE was to be a framework to put over Mythic GM Emulator in an attempt to condense the Engine and make things less hectic.
This is the plus to CRGE. The answering is very solid, straightforward, and has an addictive system regarding keeping track of how many straight yes/no answers you have, so that when you roll again, you can get a better chance of an And, But, or Unexpectedly (CRGE’s plot twist option).
However, while I enjoy CRGE’s plot twist resolution system, sometimes I still hold a torch for Mythic’s plot twist resolution system. That’s when I realized… I could basically import that into CRGE without any fuss. I basically curb a rule or two by making all doubles, regardless of Chaos Factor, triggers for a Random Event.
So why not cut the middle man and import that (and Scene Rolls) over to CRGE? And so I will. Thus, I dub this Engine… Well, it’s not really worthy enough, since it’s just CRGE with two extra things imported from Mythic. I’m not even sure if it’ll work. Gotta give it a test run soon.
But anyways, I’m personally calling it CRGE Kai (bonus points to whoever gets the reference) but for all rights, intents, and purposes, (or TL;DR) CRGE wins the Enginebowl for me and unless I decide otherwise, it’ll be my go to Engine.
Solo RPG Voyages 
Kai = the Lone Wolf PC?
Keep us updated on your new hybrid engine!
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Huh… My mind’s blown with that connection. That works, but it was not my intent to name the modification after the PC, nor is it to reference DBZ Kai, which also a condensing of the original.
Kai references to the Japanese character 改, which means reform, correct, and change. It’s a term used to refer to modified ships in the video game Kantai Collection.
As for updates, I have taken a spin with the engine in Bliss Stage.
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I just ran across this old post of yours. Is there a place where you describe CRGE-Kai in more detail? I’m not familiar enough with Mythic to be able to figure out exactly what modifications you’re proposing in this post, but I’d love to know how your system works. Thanks!
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I’ll see if I can better summarize it here.
Mythic has a similar structure to CRGE in which yes/no questions are asked. However, it also has a number to keep track of at the end of “scenes” called a Chaos Factor. The higher the number, the more out of control the game becomes and the higher the likelihood of yes/no questions resulting in a yes.
However, because I’m using CRGE’s methods of yes/no, where it’s more dependent on which part of the story thread I’m on, Mythic’s yes/no system does not apply. Instead, I take the leftover mechanics from Mythic and place them on CRGE.
In this case, the leftover mechanic is beginning each scene with a D10 roll to see if the scene gets interrupted (i.e. random event) or altered (if I say the next scene involves me going to a bar, the altered scene could be that it’s eerily empty) depending on the Chaos Number. There would have been another leftover mechanic in which doubles activating a random event depending on if they’re below the Chaos Number, but I do that regardless.
And, obviously, this means taking Mythic’s random event generator as well.
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Hello! I’ve you try the Scarlet Heroes Solo engine? And yhe The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox by Paul Bimler? Tahnk you in advanced.
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I have those on my to-do list.
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Cobra Kai – karate Kid maybe?
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No, but good guess.
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