Like most introductory chapters in books here we find a lot of key concepts that we will need later on, here brought to the forefront and defined. Below is a systematic summary of the elements in chapter 1.
Even in this first chapter we see a peek of how the game will be played. There is a discussion of establishing baselines, different sorts of tags (units of adventure elements), hints on play elements. This is a condensation of course, but I believe it will serve the purposes for our project.
Key takeaway from Chapter 1: Introduction
- Mythic offers several play styles, from a spontaneous GM assistant, to group GMless games, to solo GMless play, as an event aid in other game systems, and even as a writing aid.
- The importance of logic (context) and interpretation (improvisation).: Logic in this sense means logical in context of your game.
- What keeps an airship up, how does a lightsaber work, what is the price of a lousy lawyer.
- Interpretation is how you improvise, based on prompts or other randomly introduced elements, the next scene or action based on the logical context of the scene/setting.
- Details and Ranks: details describe an entity. Ranks, set by a baseline of average, help to understand interact its variation from the mean, higher or lower and set a level of competence (in the case of a PC), level of inherent quality (example, hardness of a door), or difficulty of a challenge (forcing open a steel door).
- “A detail is just what it sounds like: an important aspect of the character or object.” pg. 9
- “Every detail has a corresponding rank that describes the “potency” of that detail.” pg. 10
- “Ranks are all relative to the typical denizen of the same game world as your character.” pg. 10
- “A character with a strength of above average is slightly stronger than the average person in that game world, for instance.” pg. 10
- “Skills, abilities and powers are all relative to this average model who also possesses the same skill, ability or power.” pg. 10
- “It is sometimes easier to think of skills in terms of professionals. A typical professional will have the relevant skill at average rank. That is high enough to earn a living with the skill.” pg. 10
- “You can think of abilities and powers in the same way.” pg. 10
- “ A character with telekinesis is compared to others with the same ability. The typical telekinetic has this power at average rank. What this means in real-world terms is up to you. Perhaps the average telekinetic can pick up a book from across the room, while one who has a rank of exceptional can pick up a person from across the street.”: pg. 10-11
- “For any detail, you only have to figure out what the average rank stands for in real-world terms (editor note, real-world for your game setting). Once you know that, higher and lower ranks will work themselves out relative to this standard.” pg. 11
- Once a baseline (Average) is established, record this for future reference.
- Game actions (detailed fully later in the book).
- “Resisting, or difficulty, ranks, which are used to set the difficulty of a particular task, can be set in much the same way.” pg. 11
- “A difficulty rank is not based on a character detail but on a task or situation.” pg. 11
- “The easiest way to think up difficulty ranks is to also think in terms of our average citizen. What rank in the appropriate detail would he need to accomplish the task?” pg. 11
- “Difficulty ranks need to be relative to a scale … Otherwise, the ranks won’t make sense.” pg.11
- “...rank is relative to the normal guy.” pg. 11
- Could an action be accomplished by an unskilled/uneducated/Un-power individual? If no …
- “Just as character details relating to skills and abilities are based on the average professional, so too are difficulty ranks that rely on skills. For instance, the difficulty of hacking into a computer system is relative to the difficulty an average hacker would have in getting in, not the average general person.” pg. 11
