Ever wanted to write your own RPG but not known how to start? Myriad is a rules-light modular role-playing system that can be adapted to any genre and setting. Myriad is not an RPG in its own right, moreover it is a toolbox with which to construct the game of your dreams. Inside you will find a complete simple system that, in its purest form, can be picked up and played in a matter of minutes and a whole host of tips and tricks to help you twist it to your own evil schemes. You will also find a veritable cornucopia of optional rules, resources and modules to slot in as you require them. Just select the ingredients you like and discard the ones you don’t. Best of all, you can use Myriad in your own projects free of charge! An extended print edition with even more great material is also available. (Requires a Lulu account.)
There are four basic things that go to making up a character in Myriad, the most important being Statistics, Skills, SFX – the three esses – and resilience values. There are many different ways to fairly decide on what values a character has and each gaming group, Guide or module designer will have their own preference.
- Points-based is usually the fairest method of character creation but can be a little open to players giving their characters a heavy bias towards one area of expertise, for instance combat, and becoming utterly lethal in that field and simultaneously useless in all others. This is sometimes called min-maxing.
- Randomised generation involves rolling dice to decide upon the most important aspects of the character. Most of the earliest forms of RPG involved some kind of random element. It is far less prone to player min-maxing, but takes a lot of the decisions out of the player’s hands and can also lead to groups of PC’s with wildly different capabilities.
- Template based characters revolve around a group of stereotypes based on the PC’s race, career, history or a combination. This system gives the characters a decent amount of control over who and what they are while encouraging players to think about their character’s past, but can also lead to all characters of the same race and/or career feeling very alike.