Mythic RPG provides an emergent world building experience, that is fun and simple, but for long time GMs like myself, or anyone who is very much into setting design, putting a few set pieces in place can be of great value.
Of course, if you are between scenes and decide to head to a pub, that can be generated on the spot, and all the details can flow from the moment you walk in the door. That is emergent game play at its best, but there are Soloist who enjoy the GM hat as much as the do the Player hat, and for such Soloist, this article may be of some help.
I still strongly suggest you start by making a character you want to play. In doing so you will have to make a number of decisions. You will pick a genre, for instance, decide the scope of the game (neighborhood to intergalactic), get a list of things you are good and bad at, and maybe as part of your Strengths and Weaknesses section generate a few NPCs that are needful for your character roll.
(Actually, if you are so inclined you can make several characters, and let each additional one give you a few more setting chunks as long as they don't clash with the character that came before it. For me, exploring a few characters makes for a more well grounded game setting).
I still strongly suggest you start by making a character you want to play. In doing so you will have to make a number of decisions. You will pick a genre, for instance, decide the scope of the game (neighborhood to intergalactic), get a list of things you are good and bad at, and maybe as part of your Strengths and Weaknesses section generate a few NPCs that are needful for your character roll.
(Actually, if you are so inclined you can make several characters, and let each additional one give you a few more setting chunks as long as they don't clash with the character that came before it. For me, exploring a few characters makes for a more well grounded game setting).
Now that you have your character(s), extrapolate them out. If they have special contacts (Strengths) or enemies (Weakness) you have a head start, but there is so much more on your character sheet you can pull off to make setting and character seeds. Start with the character summary. It should explain who your character is and to some degree how they got to the point they are at as game begins. For Spider Bella the genre is clearly cyberpunk, she has a grudge against the corporation she was born into (an entity and hook), she has a fixer of some excellent connections (character and perhaps an organization(?)), she is fostered with a family (yet more characters all with potential connections of there own). Those are all good hooks, fleshing them out a little will get you well on your way to a setting, but hold off on finalizing their details while we explore a couple more tools, but there is yet more. If you have an exceptional ability how did you get it. If you re really awful at some sort of task what consequences has that had. I don't suggest cluttering our character sheet with a full character history, but in answering these questions (maybe on an attachment), you get to see the people, places and things that made your character who it is. Now, that we have mined the character for what it is worth, lets use some other tools.
I suggest starting with issue 49's article "The Society Crafter". Now this has a strong leaning towards creating societies randomly, but each section of it gives a categorization of a piece of information that can help ground the character's home district into a real place. Its broad topics are "Beginning, Productivity, Flourishing, Covenants (think of them as formal or informal treaties), Defenses, Culture, and Society Events. Every one of these things, besides making a very real feeling location, also are rich in game hooks. What is more, should you draw a blank on any of these, the random tables could well be useful.
The set of useful categories, combined with what I know about the character, gave me a nice little neighborhood with some light background and a lot of flavor. I started to get a feel where the known NPC come in, and I could see some necessary NPCs that would be needed to make the crafted society work.
Now, that I have a feel for the neighbor hood I want places in it. Using the context from the character and the society, I turn to MM16 "Location Crafting Random Cities". My technique for using tools like this can be found in earlier blog articles, but in short I generate all the randomized categories, then do a character walk through to experience them. As I do, the world becomes populated with food vendors, little shops, gangs, policing agencies, other adventures, market places, and probably most importantly the characters home.
This is enough details for a dozen games, but I suggest one more tool: MM38, "Solo Setting and World Creation System". This article gives you an opportunity to generate both micro and macro histories that build on one another. Before rolling for the history fill out the genre, tone, and context sections, to set in wet concrete (if not stone) the details you have already established, and the limits you wish to put on the setting. Then jump in there and follow is history crafting procedures (you can find blank fillable PDFs of the World Building sheet here), it it will give you cornucopia of ideas for organizations, problems to solve, plot hooks of many kinds, and a feeling of history about your setting.
That should be enough for you to launch a campaign.
Now, prepopulate your lists a bit and get to playing!
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