Hey there folks. After two playtest sessions, I've brought Mythos into enough coherency that I am willing to subject it to the public eye. If you would like to read a copy, just head on over to http://outofmind.pbwiki.com/f/Mythos0_1_2a.pdf and give it a look. I'm rather tired at the moment, so I think my further commentary shall have to wait until morning comes. Please, if you see any glaring omissions, inconsitencies, or things that make you go "hmm", post a reply. In the meantime, I must take my leave after a fruitful day.

To restful sleep I go,
Eric

I will not post a midnight, I will not post at midnight...

Wrong version got uploaded. Fixed now. Goodnight.

Okay. I saved my text in .odt, which means I certainly won't be editing it this shift. So, instead, I'll open up again regarding dice, cards, and bidding.

The thing that makes the conflict system fun, as expressed by my playtesters, is the bidding back and forth during a conflict and getting into the narration. The thing that I think maybe takes away from that is the problem with cards and randomness. Using cards makes things familiar to the players, but on the other hand it also means that someone has to remember to shuffle each deck afterward, and do it well enough that you don't wind up with clots of cards here and there.

This most recent revision reflects my thinking upon directly replacing those cards with d6s. The range of results is smaller, yes, but during playtesting the exact values of the cards rarely made any real punch. On the other hand, having big honking pools of d6s doesn't seem, conceptually, to be as tactical as the cards allowed.

The other option is to use multiple die types, mixed and rolled. This has several advantages for what I am doing, but a solid downside or two. On the upside, because there will ultimately be fewer dice rattling around, the rolls of the individuals are going to be much more important. This handles a problem which I previously had with the cards, where opponents of equal capability would often have essentially the same quality of draw (as the number of cards went up). The other problem this handles is in terms of differentiating Traits, Expertise, and Enthusiasms in an effective manner.

On the townside, rolling and bidding variated die types is a bit close to what I hear Dogs does, and I don't want to step on any design toes there. The results of the bidding still differ a fair bit from the way Dogs handles it, but...I don't know. Multiple die types seems to be the best middle ground between the problems with the cards and the problems with d6s. I suppose the best solution is simply to playtest, but do you folks have any thoughts regarding this route? Has it been done too much before, too well? Does that even matter, if it works in the overall design?

Thanks,
Eric

The text is a bit sparse, I need more meat to sink my teeth into ;)

As to "Not stepping on any Design Toes", do what fits your game, you don't even own Dogs, you're stealing the rough form of the idea, if you are, fine.
Do what is right for your game. If someone has something which is perfect at what it does, and you're trying to do that, use it. Don't cut off your hand just to make things more interesting.

First off, I want to congratulate you on this great idea! I think Mythos has a lot of potential. The general idea for the game is great. What the game lacks is direction. The way I see it, Mythos are a generic set of rules to role play a story orientated game. I recommend that you come up with a setting of sorts. A good, semi-surrealistic setting may take this game to new heights. 

Keep up the good work, my friend.

Dead