The Mythic Gamemaster Emulator is a unique product: a tool that enables cooperative GM-less roleplaying experiences, a system for playing an roleplaying game by yourself, and it even works as a low-prep method of GMing a traditional game.

The revised artwork in the late 2021 update is a most welcome change. Easily the most negative thing I've read in reviews of this product has been about the previous editions crude and off-putting artwork and now that's gone - replaced with gorgeous imagery.

Excellent product quality on the printed set. There were some issues with the pdf download formatting, but the creator fixed that issue.

As far as using the deck with all the interrupt, altered scenes, chaos factor and learning to ask the right questions, just dive in. I cannot suggest anything else. Yes, you might spend all day trying to get that first encounter, figure out how to set it up and then actually fight or talk your way through it. I cannot help on the details because I've used the deck with three different systems to test it out.

Needless to say, a lot of the mechanics land on the system you are using. I can only suggest you have methods of generating simple encounters for the "level" of the character(s) you are soloing. I've worked it with AD&D 1st, BRP, Hero and a bit with Adventure Awaits (which is virtually a hack 'n' slash itself).

So, get it, try it. If need be try it several times until it starts clicking.

This seems super cool, but is genuinely unusable unless you also own and have read/understood the book. Full disclosure: I bought the book at some point as well but it seemed way complex, and I've used and enjoyed the Mythic GME deck, so I thought this would be similarly easy to use, but I guess I'll have to go read the full book. The manual for these cards explains well the set-up of the cards and how to use them to generate the plot points and turning points or whatever, but completely fails to elaborate on what a turning point is or how the crafter is really supposed to work. I think the manual should either be expanded to make the cards truly stand alone, or they should more clearly show that you need to also own and use the adventure crafter book in order to use them. If either of these things happen I'll glady add more stars to my review.

Edited: Just read the description and it looks like it does say now that it requires the book, not sure if I missed that when I bought these or if it didn't say that yet. Rating 5 stars but in my heart it's 4-4.5 because I really really wish the Adventure Crafter manual would include all the information so I wouldn't have to flip back and forth. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is a unique solo RPG set of mechanics applicable to any genre. Where I found it a bit hard to comprehend personally I see it as a big step forward in solo roleplaying or even group play as it takes out the need for a GM, handling the grunt work itself. You still need to be creative to make it fun, but that is not a big deal. Basically a vastly expanded set of rules similar to a "Choose Your Own Adventure" from those classic books.

I got this because I really enjoy playing RPGs solo, and I wasn't dissapointed.

I enjoyed the oracle, with integrated random events, though for me what really stood out was not the oracle, but the Scenes mechanic. This is what sits at the heart of Mythic and gets an adventure going. I revolved my game around this, and then let Mythic take over.

A neat book, dense with information. Recommended.

I'm really impressed by the ongoing development of the Mythic system for us solo RPG'ers! Great to see consistently high quality support, and some fresh new ideas to try out. In this issue, the Mythic Mysteries framework is a great way to make crime investigation scenarios work better than they would in the regular Mythic rules, with a more logical structure provided to ensure your mystery makes sense. The timing is ideal for my current campaign so I was really happy to see this article and the resources provided and I'm going to build it in right away. Excellent work, long may the magazine continue!

Ok so I am long time GM for a number of different systems, dating back to AD&D. It took a little while for me to pick up Mythinc and give it a red hot go with solo play. Currently running a game of The One Ring for myself with 2 main charatcers and Mythic really has given me plenty of twists to existing story lines from some of pre-written adventures I had purchased. It's taken a little while to get going but with a quiet room and my dice, I can tell a story and have a bit of fun with my RPGs sitting on my shelf! Thank you for putting this quality product together!

This is a great concept for running an RPG adventure solo. Depending on the effort you want to put into it, this can run anything from a mini-delve to a major on-going campaign. You can run it all with the help of this book.

However for it to work properly it requires a good amount of effort, ingenuity and recording. The book points you in the right direction but you have to interpret the details yourself.

A very ingenuous system.

Fantastic addition to the Mythic lineup! The mystery framework seems very useful and simple to incorporate into the overall solo gameplay experience. I really like that it's useful for both "whodunit" type mysteries as well as broader investigations like you'd experience in a Dr Who scenario, and the included extended example is a great way to demonstrate the features and functions of the system. A very useful tool for the solo player's toolbox!

"Randomized Location Crafting" is an excellent update and improvement on The Location Crafter. It's cleaner and easier to use than the original. The Area Elements Table is a nice improvement.

The Random Element Descriptors Table is good on its own for describing a Location, Encounter, or Object. It has an additional use that the text doesn't mention: It can stand in for the Descriptor 2 table from Mythic Variations 2. The Descriptor 2 table strives to be a generic, one-size-fits-all list of adjectives you could apply to characters, places, and things. Some of its entries are harder to apply to one category or another. If you know you're describing a character, a place, or a thing, you can use the Encounter, Location, or Object column from the Random Element Descriptors instead of the generic Descriptor 2 table.

The Area Elements Table creates the opportunity for external plug-ins: random generators you've found or created outside of the Mythic family of products.

• If you get the "Random" result from the Encounter column, the article has you roll up a couple of Random Element Descriptors to figure out what it might be. Instead (or maybe in addition), you could use an external encounter generator you like.
• If the Area Elements Table gives you the "Known" result, the article has you roll on the Known Elements Region Sheet. You could add the name of your encounter generator as a known element. Maybe you added "Tusken Raiders" to the Encounter column because you want them to be present, but you might also add "desert encounter generator" as a known encounter. You won't roll up the encounter until you see that result during play. That reduces your prep time and gives you adaptability during play. It lets you factor in other considerations on the spot, such as day vs night encounters or common vs rare encounters, without having to fill up the region sheet and without having to hard-code specific encounters ahead of time. Similarly, you might have external generators in mind for locations and objects.

"Making the Most of Altered Scenes" is also helpful. I do find occasions when I want more inspiration for altering a scene. By the way, it took me a while to realize what the heading "Random Event Graft" was supposed to mean. I was immediately thinking of "graft" in the sense of political corruption. Eventually, it sunk in: "Oh, right, like grafting plant parts." :-)

As usual, Tana Pigeon's writing is clear and organized. The fully worked examples are very good.

What an amazing tool for both solo play and to help a GM run a low-prep / prep-less game. It seems to interact well with the RPGs I have tried so far, and the explanations are very clear. The only reason it's not a 5/5 for me is the rather cringy art throughout. Doesn't bother me too much, but the book would have been better without it.

Perfect implementation of the Mythic GME system. I currently use the deck solo with Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed rules with the Arkham and Miskatonic University source books as a "logical" backdrop for on-the-fly stories. I also picked up the Keeper decks to quickly pull random NPCs, phobias, and monsters as needed. I can play a deep, low-footprint RPG game on the couch.

Oddly enough, the GME-generated stories with Arkham as a backdrop progress much like the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective games, except they are entirely open-ended. The resulting stories and accumlation of clues and locations don't feel random at all. It's kind of creepy (which is great). I'd like to try LA and New Orleans source books next with the GME deck, but I'm currently preoccupied with a growing menace in Arkham.

Perhaps most importantly, the mechanics of the GME deck are fun in themselves. I have some super heavy board games and sometimes the intricate mechanics get tedious to run. With the GME deck, I'm getting intricate, complex stories with mechanics that practicallly run themselves. Every flip of the card is an exciting opportunity for the story to progress in unexpected, yet logical ways, especially when the chaos factor inevitably ramps up.

I don't go as far as journaling with the GME deck, though the scenes play out much like a good movie or book in my head. I use a notebook as a simple date and time calendar as well as investigator's clue book. I track plot points (threads), locations, NPCs, and clues in my notebook as the story develops. It's lightweight and fun.

One little nice-to-have I might suggest is for the publisher is to add a ten step random number generator to the cards similar to Fields of Fire (GMT). As many people will use the GME deck with existing RPG systems, they can dispense with all the various dice and use one or more cards with the random number generator off the deck. Need a D3? Use a card from the deck. Need a D20? Use two cards from the deck. D100? Ditto. Need a D500? You get the idea. It's so easy and compact.

Our group has now used this to run a post-apocalyptic game for four sessions and it has been very entertaining so far. I've found that using this system activates all the players nicely, where in traditional games some players fall easily into idle mode (especially true with online gaming).

I would give the product 4 - or maybe even 5 - stars if it didn't have the awful underweight-big-breasted-no-underwear-wearing-women "art" in it.

TL;DR Classic solo rules feel dated today yet still might be of value if you’re looking for a generic GM emulator.

Mythic Game Master Emulator (MGME) was my first purchase from drivethrurpg.com and its age does show. At the time, solo rules for decision making were a new concept to me. The general idea was to make a wish for the fiction, roll percentile dice to see if it comes to pass, then adapt when it doesn’t. That central idea remains sound. The desire for a solid solo game that isn’t choose-your-own-adventure still resonates with me. While I do have nostalgia for CYOA games, it was eye opening to see a different style. However, the implementation in MGME feels lacking today. Is it still worth a read? Maybe. With so many more solo options on the market, you might be able to find something more tailored to what you want in a system. Especially from the mid-quarantine boom that found so many players trying to get a TTRPG fix without their usual face-to-face game groups. Myself, I’ve preferred the Ironsworn solo TTRPG experience… but note that it’s a game that was released more than ten years after MGME.
As a generic GM emulator, MGME might still find a valuable place in your collection. But it could also use an update, drawing upon the past decade of solo gaming innovation. Aside: Throughout the book, the author appeals to “logic.” For me, these calls fall short. Trying to cover inductive and deductive thought to explain how the system works? Not very clean and ultimately not of much use. And for what it’s worth, Sherlock Holmes actually used abductive reasoning, regardless of what Doyle called it.

I use the variations for a few years, I have also Mythic 1 but I largely prefers what the variation bring. Personally I made a hybrid system, called GMCore, based on the work of this book (mainly the fate / detail / event check) and I've been able to interface to it the moves and momentum concepts from Ironsworn to it. I also use the Behavior Check, even if now I use the more streamlined and very good one in Mythic Magazine and I integrated it to a 3-levels npc interaction system (1 level for a specific need/interaction/investigation).

Anyway, all that to say thanks for the incredible (and ongoing, via the magazines) work! M1 was good but MVII definately put the bar for tabletop solo RPG gaming! Keep it up!