Carsten's Mythic Adventures, Part 1

Carsten from Germany is back with another great contribution! This time he's trying the Mythic GME for his first ever solo RPG effort and he's sharing with us his observations. This is a really helpful way for those soloists out there who have yet to try a Mythic-powered adventure to get an idea of what it's really like.

From Carsten:

For a while now I owned the Mythic GME and Mythic Variations and I remember myself reading it for the first time. I was very intrigued by the concept but somewhat puzzled about how one was actually supposed to play all by himself. I mean, I didn't know how I was supposed to interact with NPCs, how to act out dialogue and how to get into the game in general. Was I supposed to picture everything in my mind? Or to talk to myself all the time?

I did some searching to get some insight and I found some helpful tips on this blog and on the Solosaurus blog. I also looked at the Mythic Yahoo group to get some insight on how to actually play a solo session. Everything I read so far came down to writing it all down. Since I am lazy, I tried other approaches first. I had no problem with talking to myself and acting out dialogue, which I did the first couple of sessions. But somehow, I didn't really get into the story. The reason for that was, that I was picturing everything in my mind, describing scenes to myself out loud, but I was writing all the time anyway to keep things consistent and to be able to reference it later. The change between imagining the scene and taking notes proved to be very hindering and prevented me to get involved in the story.

Then I actually gave it a try and played a session by typing it and it really worked for me. I started two adventures and both times I found myself really involved in the story. So, to complement all the tips I have read so far, here are the things that really work for me, followed up by an actual play report of my in-progress Star Wars adventure, powered by Risus and Mythic, to encourage all of you guys out there to just give it a try:

1. Don't be discouraged if your first sessions don't go so well. Playing solo is a very different experience from what you are probably used to and like everything it takes time to grasp it, but when you do, it can be pretty rewarding. So keep at it.
2. Experiment with different play set-ups. Try writing, try talking, try to just imagine things and find the set-up that works for you. Just like in Risus, there is no wrong way to play. For me I found that writing or better, typing, is the way to go.
3. Create custom tables tailored to your system of choice to quickly generate and flesh out NPCs and locations. For my Star Wars game for example I have a planet generation table which contains four columns (Planet Function, Dominant Terrain, Government, Starport) with 12 entries each. Just roll 1d12 four times, once for every column, and you have the framework to spark your imagination to create a planet. I did the same with NPCs: Two columns, race and profession, 12 entries each, one roll per column. Of course you could use Mythic complex questions to try to flesh these out, but I have found that it is quicker and more tailored to the system I use if I use this approach. 
4. If you play out dialogue with NPCs try to integrate the system into the dialogue by asking the NPC Yes/No questions in character when appropriate and have those questions answered by Mythic. If I have no other clues or logical reasons I also establish the NPC's initial mood with a die roll: 1: unfriendly/hostile 2-5: indifferent/neutral 6: helpful/friendly. During the dialogue I then use social interaction skill rolls to try to influence this initial mood for better or worse.

So, no more talking, have fun reading my actual play report with integrated game mechanic notes. Oh, one more thing, If something is not spelled right or gramatically incorrect, be kind, since English is my second language.

Next post, Carsten's Actual Star Wars/Risus/Mythic Play Report...