Worldbuilding is about making places and people! Whether you worldbuild to write, for an RPG, or just for fun, welcome!
Elthos RPG & The Mythos Machine
It was recommended I post this here in Worldbuilding as I have created Elthos RPG that that focuses on helping GMs who want to create their own worlds by providing a simplified yet traditional style RPG rules system, and a web application named The Mythos Machine to help them crunch all the numbers and store information about their worlds and characters online. Among other things. If you want to take a peek it's in Open Beta at:
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Oh, by the way, you may wanna post in /dmsg too, even though that's technically for D&D I'm sure people there GM other stuff too. Also /RPGs. They're both sorta quiet communities right now though.
Ok, thank you for your suggestions. I'll go ahead and do that a little later today or as time permits. It's busy season for yours truly. :)
Oh wow, this sounds fantastic! Actually, this sounds like something I have half been planing to try to make myself once I get some more RPG experience. I have this dream/half-baked plan to eventually do a RPG stream where a group of writers would play together, taking turns to GM shorter adventures set in their own fictional worlds, so I have pondered how to create a system that is easily adapted to different peoples' lore. This sounds like it might work for something like that. Do you think one has to be an experienced GM in order to use this system or not?
I will be signing up later tonight to check it out, once my to-do list has been checked off.
Thank you for your kind words, Emma! I think that new GMs will definitely find Elthos RPG worthwhile. It's design has two goals - 1) to simplify GMing by using tiny-numbers math, 2) to keep the traditional RPG tropes. So in effect it is a highly distilled version of the traditional RPG. In addition it also comes with the enormously useful support of the Mythos Machine which crunches all the numbers and provides a centralized location for world building. In additional it provides a great deal of flexibility to the GM in terms of allowing them to configure their world with whatever Things (weapons, armor, equipment, races, classes, etc) that they can imagine, while tying all of that together with a coherent underlying system to handle the math. Between these two aspects, the rules, and the Mythos Machine, I think people will find the system is well designed for new GMs (and old) to pick up, and after a short stint of learning how the Mythos Machine is organized, get into their games quickly and easily.
My advice is pick one of the two template worlds - Fantasy or Western - and start by creating a couple of places, one campaign, and one adventure to start with. Then create some adventure groups (which can include auto-generated monsters, or NPCs). You do that in the "Groups" screen > "Generate Adventure Groups" screen. Then go to the Reports and select "Print World". You will then get a print out of what you have created so far. You can use that to bring to your game and it will have everything you need to run your adventure - including whatever maps and images you've uploaded while creating your Places.
You can then tell your players to log into the system and find your user name in the list of GMs on the Players Info form... and select your World. They will then be able to Generate their characters which takes a few minutes and is mostly going to involve them picking weapons and armor and equipment, and possibly spells or miracles.
Once you have that you're good to start playing.
And once you have played with it a little bit I recommend THEN going to the World Configuration Screen and checking out the options you have as a GM to configure the system to your liking. For example, you can rename the 3 primary requisites. Or you can change the number of dice used by the General Resolution Matrix. You can also change how Players can generate their characters (either by rolling randomly, or point allocation, or a hybrid of both).
But before you change config, I do recommend getting started with a basic campaign and a few player characters.
Also note - the system is in open beta right now. I'm collecting feedback and making changes as we go. I will be adding new features along the way, and the look and feel of the site will probably be upgraded as well over time. It's an iterative process. If you have suggestions please let me know!
Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts and experiences with it. Best wishes, and great Gamemastering to you!
That sounds really interesting, and thank you for the detailed answer!
How useful is the system for playing in different genres? Is it possible to make, say, a sci-fi setting or a historical setting? I'd assume yes, since that stuff can function as flavor/fluff on top of the mechanics, but I wonder if there are any drawbacks.
I'm looking forward to testing it, and will get back to you with feedback once I have. Not really sure when I'll be able to actually play a campaign using it, though, but I'll definitely have a poke at the website tonight.
So far I've been able to run games for every setting I can think of. Modern day, Medieval, Sci-Fi, Steam Punk, Samurai, Pre-historic, and so on. It's just a matter of creating the proper equipment, weapons, armors, races and classes that belong to the setting.
Pretty soon I will be adding more Genres to the list of Template Worlds. Right now I have Fantasy and Western. I will be adding one for each Genre over time. However, that said, if you take Fantasy or Western, you can still create any kind of genre you want. That is just a matter of selecting "Create Minimal World" when you create your World, which provides you with just one of each thing, rather than a small collection. From there you can create the things you want. I recommend, however, starting with a non-minimal World so you can get the idea of what kinds of things there are, and how they are configured relative to each other. This is the best way to learn the system and see what the intended balances look like. Of course that information is also in the Rules Book, which you can download from the site (Draft #8) as a PDF, but I still think it's a good idea to start with a non-Minimal World to begin with. You can always delete it and then start a new one from scratch if you want. Or delete any of the Things that come with it that you won't need and create new ones to replace them. Your call. The system is very flexible that way. :)
Very cool, thanks!
Hi Emma, Just wanted to follow up and see if you had a chance to take a look at the Mythos Machine. I'm hoping you found it interesting. Of course it's in open beta and not really finished (it actually has a long way to go before I'm reasonably satisfied with it), so naturally I'm eager for any feedback on it. I wonder - what is your impression of the thing? Thanks for any thoughts you may have!
Sorry, it completely slipped my mind last night. I have signed up now, however and uh... unfortunately I already need help, hah! I can't seem to find the manage member page so I can turn myself into a GM! I'm probably just missing it somehow...
If you are on the Main Screen where you can download the rules and connect to the videos then you can click the "Create" button. That will lead you to the Admin Console which has the Manage Players button. I recommend taking a gander at some of the videos to get the idea. The videos are also beta, and not that well done, honestly, at this point, but they do serve as a reasonably good orientation. Or you can plunge right in and poke around. There's lots of little (?) circles that if you hover over them give you additional information about the relevant items. :)
Oh, I found it! Thanks.
I'm probably not gonna have time to actually read the rules/pdf until after X-mas, I've realized, but I might check some videos out first. By the way: can one be a GM and a player with the same account? like, can I set up my own world as a GM, and also be a player in someone else's world? Or would I need a separate account for that?
You can be both a GM and a Player and use the system exactly as you just said. You can also go into your own World as a Player to see things as they see them. That can be useful at times as well. To switch between GM and Player go to the Player Screen. If you want to check out my World of Elthos you can find me as GrayFalcon in the GM's list (on the Player Screen) and select "Elthos" as the world. Try rolling a Character and then choosing items and such. That should give you a good idea of how the system works from the Players view.
Very cool! That will make it handy if I realize my streaming idea...
By the way, can one GM have more than one world?
Technically yes, but not at this time. Once the Open Beta is complete (not sure when, depends on a variety of factors) then I may open that up as an option. I see pros and cons to enabling that. I'm deliberating if it's worth offering, or if it's easier / simpler for people to have one world at a time. Not sure yet. Feel free to give your thoughts on it.
Also, if you know anyone else who might be into providing feedback, feel free to send them a link to the site. I can use as much feedback as I can get.
Also - what do you think of the look of the site in a general sense? What impression does it give you? Thanks! :)
For me personally, being able to make several worlds would be absolutely fantastic! I am mainly interested in using the system as a way to play RPGs in my fictional worlds (I'm a writer) without having to do extensive hacking. Like I've mentioned, I have an idea for a streamed RPG campaign series where writers I know play RPGs in each other's worlds, and if that comes to pass (or even if it doesn't and I just invite people to play in my worlds), it would be really great to be able to have several worlds as I have many, many fictional worlds and they're quite different in terms of mechanics and flavor and theme.
I'll keep that in mind and share the link around.
Strictly visually, I think the front page, where you register, looks amazing but once you're logged in it does have a bit of a 90s/early 00s clunky look. Organizationally I find it a bit confusing, but I've literally only been on there for about 5 minutes so I might start finding it more intuitive once I've used it more.
Yes, thank you for your response. I know that the landing page looks more dazzling than the inside of the site. That's very true. I am going to be working on bringing the whole thing together as one visual concept asap. Thanks for mentioning that. It's an important point, and it may cause people to bounce since the look and feel changes from awesome to ... well ... not-as-awesome. Yup.
As for the multiple worlds, I see what you mean. I love your idea of writers playing in each other's worlds by the way. I'd be delighted to participate. Once you've created anything in your world, like a place, campaign and adventure, try going to the reports page and printing your world to see what that does. If you add adventurer groups to an adventure then it will include the stats along with the printout. :)
Yes, I think it's extra jarring because of the contrast. But again it's an open beta, so it's understandable. Looking forward to seeing it all spruced up though!
Thanks! It's one of my favorite brain-children, and I'm hoping to maybe realize it in 2018. 2017, I'm thinking of just setting up one of my fictional worlds and doing a campaign in the system to get a taste for it.
I've had a quick look at the print function and I love that that's built right into the system, that'll be very handy! I don't think I'll have time to play with it much more until Sunday (we celebrate Xmas mainly on the 24th over here), but once I've poked a bit I'll come back with whatever strikes me as feedback-worthy.
Ok very cool. Have a Merry Christmas!! :)
You too!