Mythic Game Master Deck

My Mythic Game Master Emulator Deck arrived in the mail from Drive Thru RPG. I have had the pdf version for years but never made much of it. With ou current forced isolation I thought I would try out the Deck of cards version of the game.

The Deck does make things so much simpler to learn. The rules are a short 20 pages and for the most part it is just an explanation of how to interpret the cards. The Mythic cards are quite busy and can be used to generate Yes/No answers to questions, descriptions, Scene setups, actions, and events. And they each have two possible outcomes depending on which way the card is facing.

I ran a simple scene involving a first level solo player. It went well but I did not have any complications or unexpected turns come about just by chance. It is certainly no replacement for a human GM. But you can use it to generate a story. Mythic can be used to replace the mechanics of a roleplaying game but for the most part it is used only to decide the direction of the story.

Below is a short story about my character Ham Crowscall and his adventure in the Dark Wood looking for a missing cow.  I used the Swords & Wizardry rules.  To generate the hero I used Fantasy Name Generator and an online random hero generator.

Ham and the prize cow

Ham Crowscall Str 13, Int 9, Dex 11, Wis 12, Con 11, Cha 11, hp 6, AC 14 (chainmail), Save 14, BAB +1, Longsword (1d8), 6 torches, backpack, bedroll, waterskin, 1 weeks rations, 50 rope, 12 iron spikes, mallet, 11 sp.

Thread Cards: Find the goblins (9), Rescue Bessy the cow (1).
Character Cards: Fallvale Village (2), Bessy the cow (14), Goblins (15).

Our hero Ham is a young member of the militia in the village of Fallvale. One morning Farmer Wilfred Heard comes to him to tell him that his paddock was broken into the night before and someone made off with his prize cow Bessy. Bessy is the best cow in the tiny village.

Ham is eager for an adventure so he does not bother to wake the sergeant of the militia. He sets off to the Heard farm with the farmer in tow. At the farm, Ham finds the tracks of several goblins (five) leading a cow into the Dark wood north of the town. The dark wood has a harsh reputation but Ham in undeterred. Our hero moves quickly through the woods on the trail of the goblins who must be moving slowly because they are pulling a reluctant captive cow.

Soon, Ham catches up with the goblins resting in a dark grove in the forest, squinting their eyes in the bright sunlight. Ham attempts to scare the goblins into fleeing without the cow so he makes a lot of noise and bangs his scabbard on his leg.

The goblins are startled and run off into the woods but the continue to drag the complaining cow behind them. Ham races after them and catches up to the trailing goblin. Winning the initiative he swings with his longsword and kills it in one fell swipe.

Running up behind the next goblin in the line Ham swings again and kills a second goblin all the while yelling at the top of his lungs. The remaining goblins panic and run leaving the distressed cow behind.  Realizing he is several hours by foot from Fallvale, Ham collects the lead of the cow and leads her back to the village with no further incident. He arrives late in the afternoon to a jubilant crowd of well-wishing villagers.

Ham Crosscall has been emboldened by his little adventure and is thinking about what his next adventure might take him.

Ham Crowscall on the track of some Goblins with a cow