Mythophany

[Green]

What follows is the gist of the game I'm now calling Mythophany.  It is an overhaul of a game I had been working on called Kathanaksaya.  To those familiar with Kathanaksaya, some of this may seem familiar, but much of it has been changed as well.

As of right now, I have completed the initial phase of writing.  The system itself is pretty much where I want it to be, but I could use some help for clarifying the rules and concepts.  I'm more than likely going to make examples, but there is still no such thing as too much clarity.

My goal with this game is to first and foremost make it playable.  Only marginally second to that is to offer something unique in perspective and methodology.  I am particularly interested in discovering which creative agendas and stances this game best facilitates as well as how it fits within other RPG theory models.  At the very least, this will help me understand my work a bit better as well as to make sure that I understand the possibilities and limitations of the system.  One of the last things I want is to have people tell me "this is the suxxors!" because they played the game in a way counter to how it works best.

For ease of reading, I will post each section separately.

[Green]

Mythophany's guiding concepts and principles can be summed up with the following:

[*]Dharma and karma are measured in points and represent the amount of influence a character has upon its story. Dharma is the force of identity. Karma is the force of choices.
[*]The amount of dharma a character has depends upon how developed the character concept is. The more fleshed out and three-dimensional, the more potent the dharma.
[*]The amount of karma a character has depends upon how fleshed out certain aspects of its dharma are as well as the meaningful choices made during the course of its story.
[*]Players bid karma to determine how characters influence the story. Bids can be modified by dharma points depending upon which dharma aspect is being invoked during a particular bid. Bidding continues until someone relents, and the story precedes as the winning bidder narrates.
[*]Bids are accompanied by a narration of events to represent each participant's pull upon the story.
[*]Players can bid against each other or against the Narrator, depending upon who controls the situation. Bids can be combined if more than one character is influencing events. When players bid against the Narrator, they are acting against samsara, which are the governing rules of the world the story takes place in.
[*]Karma can be spent without bidding to make things happen that are not immediately obvious given the information the player has about the situation. This includes: making objects, places, or people appear by "chance" and doing things that would be unlikely, improbable, or even impossible under normal circumstances. The amount of karma needed to do this depends upon the effect. The more extraordinary the effect, the more karma is needed to make it happen. [/list:u]

The following works have been most inspirational for the development of Mythophany:

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
The Playwright's Guidebook by Stuart Spencer
The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Changeling: The Dreaming by White Wolf Games[/i]

[Green]

What if . . .

. . . there was no such thing as make believe?
. . . there was a world where myths, legends, fairy tales, and other stories come together and play out grand dramas upon a stage of infinite possibilities?

If you have every wondered what happens with all the wonder and inspiration our lives and stories create, read on.

If you have ever entertained the notion that stories take on lives of their own, welcome to Mythophany.

Mythophany is a cooperative storytelling game.  The roots of the title are the Greek words mythos (story) and -phany (manifestation).  In Mythophany, you collaborate with other players to create your own stories with characters, setting, and plot that develop as you play.

Mythophany is a lot like theater and film, except you have an unlimited budget to create any creatures, props, and locations you need to tell the story.  Unlike a play or movie, you do not have to follow a script.  Instead, the players improvise their characters' words and actions.  They even create their own characters.

Most players of Mythophany are like the actors in theater and film.  They bring their characters to life by describing their words and actions.  There is one player, though, who acts as the director, producer, set director, and background artist.  This player is called the Narrator.  The Narrator describes the world around the other players' characters and portrays the characters the main characters interact with.  Deciding who the Narrator will be is the most important step that you must do.  While the characters are the focus of the story, everything else flows from the Narrator.

As you may have guessed, story is the most important aspect of Mythophany.  But ask someone to define story, and you will get a new definition from each person.  Sometimes even more.  Most will mention something about character, plot, and setting.  Occasionally, you may hear someone mention theme.  Yet, at the most basic level, story is something happening to someone somewhere at some time, occasionally for some reason.

This definition of story, while fairly accurate, does not exactly engage the imagination.  Nor is it very helpful for describing what you do in Mythophany.  We need a more concise, specific definition.  For clarity's sake, we shall define story as a series of events in which a character undergoes a meaningful change.  All the other aspects of story--setting, theme, mood, and so on--give the context for this change.  Mythophany provides a framework that allows you to create and develop a character that participates in this process.  You describe your character's actions, using the rules to resolve conflict.  You can also use the rules to add objects, places, or people that help push your character's story forward.  Usually these things are meant to help your character.  Sometimes they provide a challenge to prompt your character's development.

How your character's meaningful change occurs depends upon its nature, beliefs, values, desires, and environment.  The most familiar change is the reversal of fortune.  The classic rags to riches story is such an example.  Another type of story is the gaining of greater knowledge or understanding.  Pondering the question, "Wh do people suffer?" leads to the development of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths.  Yet another type of change is a shift in nature or attitude.  Stories of redemption are powerful examples of this.  There are more types of stories that you can play, and many of them overlap.  These are simply the most common forms stories take.

[Green]

Every story has a setting, a milieu in which its events unfold.  In some cases, the setting itself becomes one of the story's characters.  Even if a setting does not become as fully developed as a character, it is never just so much inert matter.  It determines the limits of possibility, sets the mood, and can even reveal some of the meaning of a story.

In Mythophany, all stories take place within a dimension called the polycosm.  In the simplest of terms, the polycosm is every setting ever created.  Some settings imitate our world so well that we are fooled into believing they are real.  Others resemble our world as it was in times past or as it could be in teh future.  Many are firmly rooted in what we consider fantasy.  A few are completely alien to our everyday reality.

The inhabitants of the polycosm are as ordinary or extraordinary as anyone can imagine.  Gods, monsters, aliens, spirits, artificial intelligence, everyday people, even things commonly viewed as non-sentient, dwell in the various settings made for them.  If someone can envision it and create a story for it, it exists in the polycosm.

The settings of the polycosm for the most part exist independent from and unaware of each other.  Yet, at certain times and areas, these worlds intersect and overlap.  Time and place are fluid, sometimes shifting at a moment's notice.  The changes depend upon where and when the characters need to be in their stories.  A drunkard can fall asleep in the woods and wake up on a beach many years later.  A group of children may go into a broom closet and enter a realm where mortals are more fantastic creatures than fauns, talking animals, and magicians.  A story beginning with "once upon a time" can take place at any time from prehistory to the distant future.

As you can see, more than the rules governing how each world operates, the elements of narrative determine what is possible for a character within a setting.  You could go as far as to say that the polycosm is itself a story of mind-boggling scope and intricacy.

[Green]

Every character has dharma and karma.  Put simply, your dharma is who you are.  You do not have much control over your dharma, but it can be a powerful force for action and change.  The more developed you are, the more powerful your dharma.  Flat, static characters have a weaker dharma than three-dimensional, dynamic ones.

Karma is the force of your actions and potential. You generate karma through making meaningful choices.  While these choices are often moral, karma is neither good nor bad.  You do have some control over your karma.  You can use it to exert your will upon the world.  You can use it to perform actions, overcome obstacles, or even make things happen that normally wouldn't.  Your karma often manifests through feats of skill, power, or luck, but despite appearances, it is never random.

Creating a character for Mythophany consists of detailing the various aspects of dharma: archetype, psyche, conflict, background, strengths, weaknesses, and cosmetics.  You can develop as many or as few aspects of dharma you want.  Keep in mind that the more developed your character, the more powerful your influence upon the story.  When you think of each dharma aspect, focus on the traits which have the most impact on your character.

Archetype describes your function in the story.  Are you meant to perform great deeds that change the world, often for the better?  If so, you are most likely a hero.  Are you meant to oppress, corrupt, or destroy things and people?  This might make you a villain.  Is your main purpose to help or assist someone else fulfill an archetype?  You could be a sidekick.  Perhaps your role is to offer wisdom, insight, and guidance.  This most likely makes you a mentor.  Then again, maybe you are meant to shake things up a bit by bringing change and chaos.  In this case, you may be a trickster.

You may find that several archetypes fit your character.  Pick the one that most suits your character or the one you are most interested in playing.  Don't worry about being trapped in an archetype.  During the course of the story your actions may warrant a shift in archetype.

Your background includes the experiences and relationships that influence your behaviors and attitudes.  Where do you come from?  What life experiences have shaped who you are?  Who are your loved ones, enemies, and other influential figures?  If you have unique skills and abilities, how did you get them?  Think of your background as a way to explain why you think and behave a certain way.  It is possible to create a character without background, but they may be more challenging to play since you do not have a way to root them in the world.

Though it is possible to have character without background, a character without a psyche is more prop than character.  Your psyche represents your basic nature.  It is more than your personality, which emerges during play.  Psyche is what makes you tick.  What are you emotional needs?  What do you most desire?  What are your general attitudes toward your life, yourself, and the world around you?  What values and beliefs are impotant to you?  Why do you act the way you do?  Your background can be an invaluable tool for understanding and developing your psyche.

Conflicts are things which put you at odds with yourself, another character, society, or the world itself.  It arises when who you are or what you want opposes another one of your desires, another character's desires, society's demands, or the way the world works.  Conflict makes things more interesting for your character.  Conflicts make things more interesting.  They add an element of uncertainty and help reveal the various aspects of your dharma.  Conflict keeps things from being too easy, which makes for boring stories.

In light of your archetypes, background, psyche, and conflicts, you may have strengths and weaknesses which can help or hinder you.  Your strengths are traits that empower you.  They are the virtues, talents, skills, and other abilities which can bring you happiness or good fortune.  Your weaknesses are the traits that undermine your ability to do what you need to do or get what you want.  They are the vices, vulnerabilities, and handicaps that may bring you misery or destruction.  Characters may have many strengths and weaknesses, but you only need to determine the ones which stick out the most.

Finally, we come to cosmetics.  Cosmetics represent who you are on the outside: your appearance, mannerisms, quirks, and other observable traits that do not fit the other aspects of dharma.  While nowhere nearly as important as the other elements of dharma, cosmetics help you interact with the world.  Other characters respond to your looks, speech, and habits.  From there you can reveal your other character traits.

Mythophany measures the strength of a character's dharma and karma in points.  The more dharma and karma points you have, the more powerful your influence upon the story.  If you have a powerful dharma, you can achieve things related to your purpose more easily than those with a weaker sense of self and purpose.  If you have a lot of karma, you can more easily manipulate events in your favor.  The amount of dharma and karma you start out with depends upon which aspects you develop for your character.  Use the chart below to determine your starting dharma and karma:

Archetype.  5 dharma (D), 2 karma (K)
Background.  3D, 3K
Psyche.  4D, 3 K
Conflict.  3D
Strengths.  2D, 1K
Weaknesses.  2D, 1K
Cosmetics.  1D
[/list:u]
After all the other players have determined their starting dharma and karma, add them all together to find out samsara.  In the polycosm,

samsara is the context for all experience.  It includes encompasses the physical space, natural laws, supernatural forces, social dynamics, and all other things that form an individual's experience of reality.  The Narrator determines the form samsara takes, and she uses the samsara pool to exert its influence on the story.

[Green]

Previously, you read that Mythophany measures dharma and karma in points and that these points represent the power of your character's identity and actions over the course of the story.  Now you will find out how to use these points.  The major way you influence the story is through spending karma, but you will see that dharma plays an important part as well.

The first way to spend karma is to change the story through things you do, have, or find.  The amount of karma you spend determines how much influence you want these things to have.  One karma gives you something minor and easily overlooked.  Two karma grants you something noticeable yet plausible within the limitations of samsara.  For five karma, you can do, have, or find something significant yet believable in the right circumstances.  Spending ten karma gives you the ability to do, find or have something that borders on the outrageous.

The second way to spend karma is to resolve conflict.  Earlier, we described conflicts as things that resist or oppose what you want.  Some conflicts, like the ones you developed before, are an important part of your identity.  Without them, you would not be the same.  Other conflicts are not quite so important, but they form the obstacles and challenges that make life more interesting for you.  These conflicts can represent anything from combat, an argument, a contest of wills, or anything else pitting you against another character or other forces.

Mythophany uses a bidding system to resolve conflict.  Bidding represents how your dharma and karma affect the story over another's dharma and karma or over samsara.  Bidding has three simple steps: initiate the bid, increase the stakes, and relent.

A conflict officially begins when someone initiates the bid.  To start a bid, there must be an opportunity for someone to resist or oppose you.  When you bid, you describe how you attempt to do something.  Then, you say how much karma you are willing to spend at this point.  From there, those opposing you must decide whether they want to increase the stakes or relent.

When you narrate your bid, you may attempt just about anything within the boundaries of samsara, but your success is only assured if you win the bid.  You cannot dictate another character's actions or reactions to what you do, but a high bid and careful description can make it hard for anyone to oppose you.

When you relent a bid, you describe how events go in your opponent's favor.  If you increase the stakes, you narrate what you do to push things in your favor.  Remember, you cannot dictate how another character acts or reacts.  After narrating your actions, you state how much you bid.  The amount of karma you bid must be at least one greater than the previous bid.  From here, things continue like this until all but one player relents.

Your dharma has a tremendous impact on what you are able to do.  When you are in a situation directly related to part of your dharma, you may add some of your dharma to your bid.  The amount of dharma you may use this way depends upon which of the aspects are involved in the conflict.  If you win the bid, you only have to pay the difference between the actual bid and the dharma value of each aspect used in the bid.

You can use dharma in other ways, too.  You may spend dharma to increase your karma.  Each dharma you spend gives you two karma to use for the current bid.  If you relent, you lose both the karma you gained from spending dharma and the dharma you spent to gain more karma.

After spending karma and dharma so often, you will eventually want to regain them if you wish to be able to influence the story later on.  Fortunately, there are ways you can replenish karma and dharma.

One way to gain karma is to do things that clearly reveal aspects of your dharma, even if it means you must endure greater hardship.  Your Narrator determines exactly how much karma such actions grant you.  Generally, you can earn from one to three karma for this.  In extreme circumstances, you may gain as much as four or five karma.

Another way to gain karma is to make meaningful choices during the story.  The exact nature of these choices varies from character to character and story to story.  Most often they deal with moral and ethical issues, human nature, and mythic questions.  The karma gained from these choices varies according to their impact on the story.  The greater the impact, the more karma you should gain.  Your Narrator may award from one (minor actions) to five (defining moments) karma for making meaningful choices.

Unlike karma, dharma does not change very often or easily.  You do not gain dharma as you would karma, but you can replenish spent dharma.  At times when you would normally gain karma for acting in accordance with your dharma, you may instead regain dharma.  Alternatively, your Narrator may let you exchange a certain amount of awarded karma to replenish dharma points.

Nothing about a Mythophany character is absolute.  Everything can change.  Even your dharma can shift according to the choices you make.  Archetypes change as heroes fall from grace, villains find redemption, or sidekicks and mentors and tricksters rise to become heroes themselves.  Psyche can shift with changes in beliefs and attitudes or resolving or abandoning your goals.  Background develops as the experiences and relationships important to you evolve.  Gaining and losing family, friends, romantic interests, and enemies can change your dharma as well.  Weaknesses can be overcome, only to discover more flaws.  New strengths can emerge as you overcome obstacles.

The easiest method to represent a change in dharma according to the rules is to create your character from scratch whenever an aspect of dharma changes dramatically.  If you want something more organic, the following guidelines can help you.

Changing your dharma is usually a gradual process.  A hero doesn't do one bad thing and automatically change into a villain.  Having a bad day doesn't make an optimist stop looking for the silver lining in every cloud.  Taking a vacation is not always a life-altering event.  Learning a new skill does not make that skill a strength, nor does failing at a trivial task make it a weakness.  When you consider changes in dharma, pay attention to the way new patterns of behavior and attitude emerge.  Use these changes to determine the form your new dharma will take.

Whenever you gain karma for the exercise of meaningful choices, you have two options: keep the askpects of dharma as they are or put some of your dharma in reserve.  The amount of dharma you can put in reserve depends upon the intensity of the experience and which aspects of dharma are impacted by the events.  You can represent gradual dharma shifts by placing one dharma from each affected aspect in reserve.  A life-changing experience can force all points from one or more dharma aspects in reserve.  You cannot use this dharma to augment a bid or increase your karma for a bid.  Once all the points gained from a specific dharma aspect are put in reserve, that aspect changes, and the dharma points that were once reserved function normally but for the changed dharma aspect.

[Mike Holmes]

OK, that's a lot to digest. A lot of it looks cool, however.

What is it that you'd like to discuss about the game?

Mike

[Green]

Basically the following:

1.Whether the game is clear in its goals and if the mechanics gel with those goals.
2. Determining the most unique traits of the game to make sure I don't inadvertently scrap them in rewrites.
3. Which CAs the game bests facilitates and how/if it can be used to support other CAs with minimal effort.
4. If anyone would be interested in playtesting these rules independently
5. How the game can be adapted to a variety of milieus (tabletop, chat, PbEM, and LARP).

[matthijs]

It's a bit of a vague read.

My first suggestion would be to hack away a lot of text - really, really cut to the bone. Give simple, game mechanic-based definitions of dharma, karma, samsara, bidding etc. Then it's much easier to see how the game is supposed to function.

Second, an example of play would help tremendously. Show a conflict, someone changing their dharma, gaining karma.

Question 1: You mention that dharma & karma represent the power of your character over the course of the story. So players are supposed to influence the story the way their character would like it? (As opposed to how the players would like it?)

Question 2: Everyone gets the exact same starting distribution of kharma & dharma? Is that right, or have I misunderstood something?

[Brendan]

I'd also be interested to see an example of play.

[Green]

matthjs

I'll answer your second question first, since that's easiest.  Your starting dharma and karma depends upon the things that you develop for your character.  You get the same amount of dharma and karma for fleshing out each particular aspect, but players can have varying amounts of dharma and karma.

For your first question, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding precisely what you mean since I don't see character and player desires necessarily in opposition.  In Mythophany, the character is the vehicle through which the player can influence the story, so in general what the player wants to happen and what the character wants to happen are the same.  To me, it seems that would depend on the stance (in the Forge jargon sense) the player assumes for the character.

[matthijs]

"Develop" in what sense? Do you mean that when you describe a character, you get 5 dharma points if you say something about his/her Archetype, while if you don't, you don't get those points?

Wrt player/character desires: Sometimes they are in opposition, or perpendicular, or any other combination. Even though player and character generally want the same thing, sometimes they don't. If someone plays a character with a severe alcohol problem, and an enemy tries to get the character drunk so he'll do something stupid, how should you spend karma? The character would want to spend points to get happy and avoid a hangover; the player would want to spend points to keep the character out of trouble.

[Green]

"Develop" in what sense? Do you mean that when you describe a character, you get 5 dharma points if you say something about his/her Archetype, while if you don't, you don't get those points?

Precisely.

If someone plays a character with a severe alcohol problem, and an enemy tries to get the character drunk so he'll do something stupid, how should you spend karma? The character would want to spend points to get happy and avoid a hangover; the player would want to spend points to keep the character out of trouble.

OK, now I see.  Dharma and karma as expressed in points are a player resource that represents a character's influence on the story.  In your example, if the player doesn't mind the character staying drunk all the time, he'd probably spend only one karma not to be hungover afterwards.  If the player wants to deal with the struggle of recovery, you bid karma to represent the dance of temptation and resistance.

[Green]

I've been a bit busy lately, so I couldn't post the examples that were requested.  I like the idea of showing specific aspects of the system, as mattjs suggested, so I'll address the following in the next few posts:

1.  developing a character and assigning dharma and karma
2.  spending karma
3.  resolving conflict
4.  gaining karma
5.  changing dharma

Let's start with developing character since this is the most crucial aspect of the game.

I have a character whose story I would like to tell.  I've always been interested in fairy tales, and "Hansel and Gretel" is my favorite.  I want to do a story very similar to that.  I like Hansel's courage and quick thinking, so I decide to base my character on him.  How do I go about making him into a Mythophany character?

The most straightforward way is to go over each aspect of dharma and see if and how it applies.  You only need describe one thing for each dharma aspect, but the more you do, the more ways you can draw from your dharma when resolving conflicts and gaining karma.  A good way to get more out of each aspect is to ask yourself questions about--or even to--the character.  You may want to use this method if you have a vague notion of who your character might be, but need help coming up with more details.

Another way to develop a character is to describe everything you know and applying these details to the proper aspects of dharma.  Afterward, you may choose to flesh the character out further.  This method works best for you if you already have a firm idea of who your character is.

Now we shall apply this to Hans.  For the sake of making later examples work, I'm starting him out as he was before he and his sister come to the witch but after their parents abandon them.  I'll start with what is obvious about Hans and work from there.

Hans is a handsome seven-year-old boy.  His clothes are little more than rags.  He gives the impression of being cautious and alert.

Hans and his sister Greta (now four) were the children of destitute peasants.  The mother died when Greta was born.  The father remarried, but unlike the mother, the stepmother was cold-hearted and cruel.  She abused the children and later demanded the father leave them in the forest in the hopes they would starve to death.  Hans used the bread their father gave them to make a trail from the house to the wilderness.  He and Greta followed the trail home.  They were taken into the wilderness again, but this time without food or drink, and they soon found themselves hungry and lost.  It seems it is only a matter of time before hunger, wolves, or winter kills them.

Hans has learned to be clever and quick to avoid danger and take care of himself and Greta.  He has already taught himself how to forage for food and to build traps for small game.  With gentleness and patience uncommon in boys his age, he has been teaching Greta to do the same.

Hans hopes to find a new home for himself and Greta, a home where the mother nurtures the children and the father protects them.  He cares very deeply about Greta, whose safety and comfort he values more than his own.  After what his father and stepmother have done, he fears what could happen to Greta and himself if they fall into the wrong hands.

Let's go over the aspects of dharma and see which ones Hans has.

Archetype: ?
Psyche: Hans hopes to find a loving home.  He cares deeply about Greta.
Background: Hans and Greta grew up without a mother for most of their lives.  The only mother they knew was abusive towards them.  She and their father abandoned them.
Conflict: He wants to find a loving home, but he is afraid that he and Greta will find another home like the one they left.
Strengths: Hans is clever, quick, gentle, and patient.  He knows enough about the woods to survive there for a while.
Weaknesses: ?
Cosmetics: Hans is a handsome young boy dressed in rags.

Hans is a pretty well-developed character given the short description of him.  He has everything except an archetype and weaknesses, which gives him 16 dharma, 8 karma to start with.  You may also notice that after looking over what you have for your character so far, you don't have everything fully developed.  This is fine.  Not every character will have every element of dharma.  Remember, you get dharma and karma as a reward for fleshing out your character.  You do not need every piece detailed in order to play.  In fact, you may even come back to it when you figure it out, provided your Narrator approves.

[Green]

Jiituomas and I were talking about Mythophany via email, and he brought up a good point that I'd like to share and perhaps discuss, especially considering that he is not the first person to bring it up.

The material seems _very_ adaptable. I've used similar mechanisms in experimental larps over the years, and found out that they work rather well, especially when there are no lethal conflicts. (Those are the problem points; any player would bid as much karma as possible to survive, and in a larp where everyone's a PC that can degenerate into a measuring contest.) I see the game having especially much potential for chat use.

To elaborate, what are some of the specific traits of the live-action and internet chat media that need to be taken into account when designing a variant system for LARP, PBEM, and chat games?