Tips for new MCs

Many are the responsibilities of the MythCrafter (MC). As rules referee, main villain, a whole host of supporting characters, and the adventuring party’s number one fan, you have many roles to fill. MCing can be a tremendously rewarding experience, but it also takes significantly more preparation than simply playing the game.

Whether you are new to MCing or you have been running TTRPGs for years, it can be helpful to skim through this page.

New to TTRPGs?

A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) is, in the broadest sense, a collaborative storytelling game. One player (the MC) will present scenarios to the other players (the adventurers), and together the adventurers will work as a team to complete the quests that the MC offers them. TTRPGs share some roots with improv acting as you are collectively telling a story together. However, when the outcome of an action is uncertain, you determine success by rolling dice and adding your character’s skills or abilities to those die rolls.

A game of MythCraft will typically be played over many sessions, much like a narrative video game. As the heroes grow in power, they will explore more of the world and face bigger threats, cementing their legacies in the annals of history.

Session Zero

Colloquially known as “Session Zero,” it is highly advised to take some time and have a conversation with your group of players before playing the game. This could be the entire first game session that you get together as you embark on a long campaign, or it could be the first 5 or 10 minutes of a single session game, also known as a one-shot.

The purpose of a Session Zero conversation is to ensure that both you as the MC and all of your individual players are more or less on the same page with game expectations and general interpersonal etiquette.

Note that in a long campaign, it can be helpful to have multiple Session Zero style conversations, typically between adventure arcs. Checking in and ensuring that everyone is having fun – or, if they are not, what changes might be made – can help ensure the long-term health of an extended campaign.

A few suggestions for Session Zero discussion topics are provided below.

Game Expectations

What are players committing to by joining your campaign? Here are a few considerations:

Campaign Length: Roughly how long do you expect your campaign to last? Is this a one-shot that will be done at the end of the night, or a short campaign that will span a half- dozen sessions, or a multi-year saga?

Player Absences: Schedules get tricky, and sometimes it is impossible to get everyone together. Do you still play if you are missing one player? What about two? If you cancel a session, do you call the night off entirely or do you play an interlude-style one-shot set elsewhere in the world? Maybe it is time to break out a dusty board game and pick up your MythCraft campaign once you can get more of the party together.

Characters when a Player is Absent: If you play a session and one of the players is missing, what happens to their character? It can be difficult to narratively justify the character being absent, so does another player want to temporarily handle both their own adventurer and the adventurer of the missing player? Or perhaps your table would rather ignore realism for the sake of simplicity, and rule that if a player is absent, their adventurer is also absent.

Player Responsibilities: Because the MC does significantly more preparatory work before each game, it only makes sense to delegate certain responsibilities to your players. This might include coordinating snacks and dinners, managing a game schedule, or taking care of certain bookkeeping responsibilities like the group’s treasure hoard or tracking Initiative.

Adventurer Code of Conduct: In most TTRPGs, adventurers must work together to accomplish a common goal. This does not mean that they must always get along with one another; some of the most memorable adventures contain heroes that hold significant moral and strategic disagreements with one another. It is important, however, to make sure everyone understands that this is a cooperative game. A sneaky pickpocket should generally consider the other players’ adventurers to be off-limits for thieving. If an adventurer feels very strongly about not pursuing a course of action, but the rest of the party is determined to proceed, then that player should be encouraged to come up with a justification – even a flimsy one – for why their adventurer would reluctantly continue traveling with their friends. Be sure to determine ahead of time whether PVP (player vs player) combat is allowed under any circumstances.

Real-Life Conflict: Conflicts that arise in the confines of a shared fictional story should never spill into the real world, and likewise, conflicts that you may have with your friends in the real world should not bleed into the game. Especially as an MC, do not act punitively by punishing a player’s character within your narrative as a way of retaliating due to outside circumstances. Resolve outside conflict maturely. Usually this may warrant a one-on-one conversation, but on occasion it might be better to handle a conflict by talking through it respectfully as a whole group. Always strive to hear the other person’s opinions in good faith; it is often safe to assume that someone is not intentionally causing real-world conflict and also wants to resolve the conflict as badly as you do.

Setting the Tone

Having established the expectations for the game, it is also a good idea to establish the tone that you are aiming for in your campaign.

Fantasy adventures cover a massive range of tones, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Game of Thrones. Determine what kind of story you want to tell, and converse with your players to come to an accord. Is this a comedic adventure or a grimdark murderfest? How likely are adventurers to die? Is it likely for their actions to have severe consequences? If they murder a town guard, will this come back to haunt them, or will it typically be hand- waved? Are offbeat puns encouraged? What about joke characters like Sir McGuffin of Plotsburg and Herring the Red?

Note that even if you choose a specific tone for your game, you can still incorporate other tones. Dark campaigns cannot be broody and grim all the time; the adventurers will need moments of levity, hope, and redemption to remind them why they fight in the first place. Similarly, games that are primarily comedic can be a great place to explore some heavy themes, like corrupt power and influence.

Yellow and Red Zones

Finally, it is strongly advised that you discuss “Yellow and Red Zones” with your players. Yellow zones are things that players do not feel very comfortable with in the campaign, but will tolerate. Generally, if you consider including something that falls within a player’s yellow zone, it might be a good idea to consult with them first. An example of a yellow zone topic might be something as simple as arachnophobia, or something heavier like extramarital affairs. Red zones are things that players want completely barred from your game that should not be on the table at any point during gameplay.

Having had conversations with your players about game expectations, the tone of the campaign, and yellow and red zone topics to be observed, it is time to dive in and begin designing your first MythCraft campaign!

Preparing for a Session

As you prepare a game session, it is helpful to have a few goals in mind. Your players will undoubtedly take the session in directions that you did not anticipate, and it is okay if you do not achieve every narrative goal that you set out to meet in a game session.

Ideally, each session will spotlight each hero at least once and will advance the story’s narrative in one notable way. Spotlighting a hero will look different for each player’s character. Imagine a party of heroes is traveling across a harsh desert. The ranger might manage to find enough food for the party despite the hostile environment. The troubadour might talk down or even befriend some would- be bandits. The berzerker could take on a ferocious desertmonster in spectacular fashion. While each of these three heroes might contribute to solving each dilemma, by emphasizing their strengths in narration you can make each player feel especially proud of their unique contributions.

A notable narrative moment might be an NPC revealing information to the party which will allow them to get into the forbidden crypt. They might confront the final boss of an adventure, or complete a side quest for a friendly barkeep. Not every narrative moment has to be monumental, but it is good to advance the plot in some small way every time you play.

In addition to these narrative considerations, spend some time thinking about what the party has done so far and what you think they might do next. Plan out a couple combat encounters, a couple social encounters, and a couple exploration encounters accordingly. Having two or three encounters of each type on hand will help you quickly respond to the decisions that your players make.

Using this Wiki

Designing NPCs offers tools for designing NPCs of all kinds, from simple merchants to world-conquering villains.

Crafting a Campaign suggests different styles of long-term campaigns and provides a few tools for considering your campaign as a whole and breaking it down into manageable adventure arcs.

Designing a Campaign World provides information for running social encounters and exploration encounters. It also has guidelines for designing skill challenges that you can use in either situation.

Designing a Combat includes detailed guidelines for designing balanced (or unfair) combat encounters and what to consider when doing so.

Threats beyond Combat

Magic Items

Magic Items

The World of Ancerra

Free Low-Level Adventure

Manor Uvior

Glossary

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