rpg
Instead of starting with a fully populated world, the players begin with a loose concept of what they want to do, like "We're a bunch of adventurers seeking our fortunes in the Goblin wildlands". From that point on, players engage in a cooperative story telling exercise. The game proceeds as a series of "scenes", like in a movie or book.
Where Mythic steps in (this is a game, not just a social exercise) is any time there is something to be decided. In those cases, players formulate a yes/no question, decide what the "odds" are (good, bad, etc) and then roll on the "Fate Table" to get a "very yes, yes, no, hell no" result, which the players must then interpret in their own story.
Example:
Player1: We search the room. Is there any treasure?
<odds are unlikely, roll on "Fate" table, get "yes" result anyway.>
Player1: Woohoo! We find a small chest under some rubble in the corner
Player2: Sweet! I go over to it check it out. Is it locked?
To make things more interesting, there's a "Chaos factor" that represents the chance of something not going according to plan. So instead of "yes/no", you might get a "yes, but..." result. This Chaos factor can go up or down during an adventure. Any time you are rolling on the Fate table and score doubles, if the number is less than the Chaos factor, you get a random event. You also roll for random events at the beginning of any scene. To carry on the example:
<players decide the odds of the chest being locked are good, and roll "yes, but....">
The random event system is very "mad-lib-ish". You roll on 3 separate tables to generate a phrase that you must interpret in the context of the scene. An example might be "Introduce a new NPC - propose lies". In the case above, you might decide that another adventurer shows up, yelling "Stop! That chest is cursed!".
The Mythic "GM Emulator" engine is generic enough to work with any RPG system, though naturally Mythic has its own character stats and combat rules if you want to go "full Mythic".
As I mentioned, the game proceeds as a series of scenes. Most people aren't interested in (for example) the actual trip from point A to point B, so unless there's a scene along the way, you would just skip over that part and start your scene when you arrive at point B. You would probably do a "Is the trip uneventful?" test, choosing likelihood based on how you plan to travel. Of course, you must might wind up running afoul of the Chaos factor and wind up in a scene you never expected!
So why am I interested in this system? Well, it turns out that a few guys on one of my mailing lists are using it as a campaign story generator for their miniatures games. What a great idea! So you start off with your force and a setting, then let Mythic generate your whole scenario encounter. Once you have the setup, use your rules of choice to fight the battle, letting Mythic run the enemies.
5150 already has a pretty good random campaign system, but it's very light on details, being more of the "do I get to fight anyone this campaign turn, and what sort of encounter is it?" variety. One could use that system to set up the "scene", then let Mythic help determine the story. Definitely something worth playing around with.
