Great read!! I too struggled to follow the doom/dread mechanic. I'd almost flip it around, and say Dread drives the Yes, and ask the question in the form, "will something bad happen". As the Dread goes up, you are more likely to get the bad thing. But have the dread resolve itself quicker if it makes sense. For example dread goes up, have an encounter, but if the conflict is resolved quickly and well then the doom die drops. But if the PCs or monsters fled the scene to regroup then the dread doesn't go down. Rather than time based Doom would be scenario based.
For Mythic, I think the question always needs to be phrased in a way that a yes makes the situation worse in some way. It becomes more complicated, more dangerous, and more epic.
They touch on it in the rules, but they don’t drive the point home. It gets even more muddled when some of the examples they give run counter to that idea.
You are right. For the life of me I can't figure out Mythic. I think I ask my questions backwards from how Mythic is structured, which is maybe what befuddles me here. It was funny, I was putting my taxes into one of the programs, and when you type something, all of a sudden the amount owed skyrockets, even if you've only partially entered the details. So dread or chaos goes up! Chance of audit encounter! Perhaps a dangerous side quest to earn cash to pay off your debt! Then you enter the last bit of information for that section and wait nothing happens! Until you remember to check that one box, and dread falls back and you now owe the exact amount as before. Perhaps the more dread or chaos, the more likely something bad happens but also more likely of the and or but scenarios, so bad+crazy. No, you owe less, but your audit risk tripled, or you owe more and you have to fill out these other ten forms.
Thanks! Yeah, the more I just accepted the weird-ness, the better it flowed. For me personally, a stand-alone hex-travel procedure would be really helpful, or even just how you integrate the Caern rules with the Wenderweald, (do you use the wilderness table from Caern? The watch order?) when you roll certain things, etc. Part of me liked how the dread die changes, it adds this sort of an outside element like fate, that you can sort of say is perhaps the Wenderweald itself affecting your chances. Also, on first read, I thought you add a Doom die and increase the Dread die at the same time, but on rereading, I realized they are increased/decreased on separate tracks. I decided on simply adding a Doom die after each 'scene' which I think works pretty well.
Great read!! I too struggled to follow the doom/dread mechanic. I'd almost flip it around, and say Dread drives the Yes, and ask the question in the form, "will something bad happen". As the Dread goes up, you are more likely to get the bad thing. But have the dread resolve itself quicker if it makes sense. For example dread goes up, have an encounter, but if the conflict is resolved quickly and well then the doom die drops. But if the PCs or monsters fled the scene to regroup then the dread doesn't go down. Rather than time based Doom would be scenario based.
But i read it as the dread die going up makes "no" more likely, so I saw yes as needing to be positive.
Great read!! I too struggled to follow the doom/dread mechanic. I'd almost flip it around, and say Dread drives the Yes, and ask the question in the form, "will something bad happen". As the Dread goes up, you are more likely to get the bad thing. But have the dread resolve itself quicker if it makes sense. For example dread goes up, have an encounter, but if the conflict is resolved quickly and well then the doom die drops. But if the PCs or monsters fled the scene to regroup then the dread doesn't go down. Rather than time based Doom would be scenario based.
For Mythic, I think the question always needs to be phrased in a way that a yes makes the situation worse in some way. It becomes more complicated, more dangerous, and more epic.
They touch on it in the rules, but they don’t drive the point home. It gets even more muddled when some of the examples they give run counter to that idea.
That's an interesting thought!
I like the idea of making Doom scenario-based.
Seems like a step-by-step might help too.
How might this work better for you in issue 2?
That’s how “Chaos” works in the Mythic GM emulator. The more things are out of control, the more likely the character(s) will encounter more trouble.
You are right. For the life of me I can't figure out Mythic. I think I ask my questions backwards from how Mythic is structured, which is maybe what befuddles me here. It was funny, I was putting my taxes into one of the programs, and when you type something, all of a sudden the amount owed skyrockets, even if you've only partially entered the details. So dread or chaos goes up! Chance of audit encounter! Perhaps a dangerous side quest to earn cash to pay off your debt! Then you enter the last bit of information for that section and wait nothing happens! Until you remember to check that one box, and dread falls back and you now owe the exact amount as before. Perhaps the more dread or chaos, the more likely something bad happens but also more likely of the and or but scenarios, so bad+crazy. No, you owe less, but your audit risk tripled, or you owe more and you have to fill out these other ten forms.
This setting seems so interesting. Awesome write up! I like your thoughts added at the end.
Great write-up! Looking forward to playing this one.
Thanks for taking the time to try out my zine!
Your story was excellent
I LOVED the liminal town and loam golem.
For what it's worth, you used the Doom & Dread in a way that drove the story - that's how I do it.
Framing the oracles around the dice is a challenge for me too - it sends you to a Markov state quick, but that maybe too harsh.
Would it work better for you with a prescriptive procedural that's independent of Cairn?
I'd love to solve this one for you in issue 2.
Thanks! Yeah, the more I just accepted the weird-ness, the better it flowed. For me personally, a stand-alone hex-travel procedure would be really helpful, or even just how you integrate the Caern rules with the Wenderweald, (do you use the wilderness table from Caern? The watch order?) when you roll certain things, etc. Part of me liked how the dread die changes, it adds this sort of an outside element like fate, that you can sort of say is perhaps the Wenderweald itself affecting your chances. Also, on first read, I thought you add a Doom die and increase the Dread die at the same time, but on rereading, I realized they are increased/decreased on separate tracks. I decided on simply adding a Doom die after each 'scene' which I think works pretty well.
Great read!! I too struggled to follow the doom/dread mechanic. I'd almost flip it around, and say Dread drives the Yes, and ask the question in the form, "will something bad happen". As the Dread goes up, you are more likely to get the bad thing. But have the dread resolve itself quicker if it makes sense. For example dread goes up, have an encounter, but if the conflict is resolved quickly and well then the doom die drops. But if the PCs or monsters fled the scene to regroup then the dread doesn't go down. Rather than time based Doom would be scenario based.