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Hello everyone!
I have long haunted those forums, trying to decide if I should try getting into TOR, and at last I have decided I should!
The thing is that I'm quite new to rpgs, and I have some questions.
I'm going to run this game with 2 other people, and I already found in the forums some ideas on how to do that. However, I wanted to give this a shot alone, mainly because my playing group is not going to be available until after Christmas. Because of that, I was thinking of using a GM emulator system (like Mythic), which will help me play alone.
Using an emulator means that I don't need a fixed story, being both the LM and the PC, but what I mostly need is a loosely woven story, which offers a lot of different options and freedom, and is not so fixed. So I was thinking I should get the Core books, and maybe the Rivendell book (I love the Rangers and I read they are really fleshed out there), but from then on I am not sure if I should buy some of the other companions. Do they all offer fixed storylines that are fully fleshed out for the Loremaster? I read somewhere that The Darkening of Mirkwood is less fixed than the others. Should I begin with that? Or do you believe that the core books and Rivendell are enough for this solo endeavor?

One of the most interesting solo experiments I've seen used Mythic not to emulate the GM but the players. That's an interesting approach that might serve you better. Use Azrapses to make four characters and then their traits and Mythic to tell what they do in each situation of the adventure.

There's also Play-by-Post and various realtime play sites if you want more interaction.

Mythic GM Emulator should work just fine with The One Ring. The Rivendell sourcebook is a good choice to go with that, because Eriador is a lonely, empty land and Rangers tend to travel alone—a good setup for a solo Ranger character.

The Darkening of Mirkwood is a collection of linked, half-fleshed-out adventures and interludes that take place over decades. Other books have more detailed adventures but with less to link them into a complete campaign, or are the area sourcebooks. These aren't necessarily needed when using Mythic, though they wouldn't hurt either.

My advice: get the core book and Rivendell, as you were thinking, and take a solo Ranger around Eriador battling trolls, orcs, and undead and protecting travelers.

I've never tried this kind of thing and I'm intrigued... I may have to look into it - as our group's GM I wouldn't mind playing something; a sandbox B/X D&D game could be lots of fun.

Thanks for the suggestions!I'm going to take Stormcrow's advice and start with the core and Rivendell, and see where it leads from there!By the way, I checked everywhere for the core, but it seems it is out of print?Does anyone know if it's being reprinted?

Intya wrote:Thanks for the suggestions!I'm going to take Stormcrow's advice and start with the core and Rivendell, and see where it leads from there!By the way, I checked everywhere for the core, but it seems it is out of print?Does anyone know if it's being reprinted?

It is:

Jon Hodgson wrote:The reprint is on the water right now, heading for the bellies of hungry TOR warehouses worldwide.

Rich H wrote:I've never tried this kind of thing and I'm intrigued... I may have to look into it - as our group's GM I wouldn't mind playing something; a sandbox B/X D&D game could be lots of fun.

Same here, I don't totally understand how Mythic works, so I'm really curious.

The basic idea behind Mythic is that there is a big table with odds. You ask the game a leading question, like "Are there orcs in the room?" You decide how likely the answer is yes, then roll against the table to determine whether the answer is yes, no, very yes, or very no. As your game progresses, you keep track of a number call Chaos: as you lose control of the situation Chaos increases and the answers are more likely to be yes. Whenever you roll against the table there is also a chance that the scene will be interrupted by something you hadn't foreseen, and the higher the Chaos the more likely there will be an interruption. If you can't decide what something in the game might mean, there are some tables of simple words to trigger your imagination. You also keep track of your goals and the characters involved in the game; as you move from scene to scene, these have a chance to resolve, generate, or change themselves.

Basically, Mythic takes the place of the game master, answering your questions about the game world. Where you would ask of the GM, "Do I see such-and-such?" or "Does so-and-so attack?" Mythic takes on this role. You can hold entire solo games controlled by Mythic where you really have no idea what's going to happen next. You can run games with groups but no GM. You can run games as the GM where you use Mythic to decide what you present to the players. Or you can run games normally, and use Mythic to make the occasional decision you hadn't planned for. I've even heard of Mythic being used to simulate players, but it wasn't designed for that.

There is a whole generic Mythic game system, but you can also get just the Mythic GM Emulator, where you use your own game rules and just use Mythic as the substitute GM.

If I ever find my living expenses magically paid for in perpetuity such that I could just do fan stuff all day long, I'd love to do a combination of Mythic and Wild Adventures as a thread here in the forum. I think that'd be neat to do, and maybe even fun/useful for others.

That said, time is time, so maybe someday, but not today (sadly).

Great post Stormcrow, thanks for explaining it. Will definitely give it a shot. I may even use it so I can play with the other players!