You folks might not know this, but I am a huge fan of the Myst series of computer games. I consume everything there is to know about those games, the universe they’re in, the associated novels, all of it. It’s a brilliant series of games, and more than that, a brilliant setting for storytelling.
With the recent re-opening of Myst Online: Uru Live (dubbed “MOULagain”), which is currently free-to-play, and supposedly working its way towards an open-source, donation-supported, fan-run system, I’ve been inspired to reinvestigate some of my original schemes surrounding the series, namely:
1.) If I could Write Ages, what sort of Age would I Write, and how would I implement that so that other players would have fun exploring it and solving puzzles there?
2.) How would I adapt the setting of the Myst games and novels into a workable RPG setting, complete with sufficient action and adventure that it would retain the interest of a group of gamers sitting around a table, while also remaining true to Myst’s puzzle-oriented, generally non-violent roots?
The novels provide an excellent template for both questions. I’m pretty sure that the original, separate versions of the books are now out of print, but the Myst Reader that contains all three together is an excellent read which I highly recommend. They describe an incredibly complex world in which a race of people called the D’ni live in a vast underground city where they practice the Art of Writing books that establish links to other worlds, which they call Ages. Many adventures are had, tragedies take place, and plenty of moral and ethical dilemmas are presented, primarily revolving around learning to use the incredible power to Write new worlds without being consumed by it.
The first problem I run into for making it a game setting is that while it is very grand setting in both scope and depth, there are very limited numbers of encounters with monsters to fight. Yes, I know that game sessions can be perfectly fun when running on pure RP and not killing a single thing, but a balanced RPG setting allows for both pure RP sessions and the possibility of a good old fashioned dungeon crawl. But there’s not really any dungeon to crawl in the Myst universe. While the adventuring party could make a habit of visiting new, unexplored Ages and potentially run into hostile alien animals while there, to satisfy the power-gamer/hack-n-slasher that always finds his way into every group, there needs to be a more reliable way of running into violent conflict. In a setting where the violence has usually already taken place, and you arrive to try to figure out what the hell happened, there’s not so much of that. Granted, in the last book, there was significant conflict between people when a slave uprising took place, and then another group of slaves tried to topple the fledgling regime of the first, but that sort of thing isn’t particularly common in the Myst universe, and is clearly divergent from the normal theme of finding clues and solving puzzles.
I’m not saying there’s not room for gamer-sufficient conflict in Myst, I’m just saying that I’m not sure how best to introduce it without feeling like I’m not staying true enough to the setting.
The second thing I run into with adapting it to a gaming setting is that the only magic in the universe is The Art – the ability to Write books that link, or teleport, a person to other Ages. And there’s really no other magic, supernatural, or technological abilities beyond that. It’s pretty much just regular, Earth humans. And the D’ni, who are pretty much regular humans with 400 year life spans. There’s no Cure Light Wounds, no Fireball, etc., and there’s also no future tech, like self-contained medical kits that can heal someone from almost dead to perfect health with minimal effort, or radar that can tell a person where all of the badguys are instantly. Granted, some technology in the setting is rather exotic, powered by exotic crystals or lightning storms or some other contrivance, but it’s generally steampunk-style stuff, and not really the sort of thing that would help keep an adventuring party alive. Once I do find a way to bring in the violence, how do I keep characters alive without those sorts of extraordinarily helpful contrivances that regular people don’t get? Some players just tend to have characters with very short life expectancies, and it’s generally no fault of the player beyond their personality and their bad luck with the dice.
If you’re confused by anything I’ve mentioned, or you just want to learn more about the Myst universe in its current state, go hit up the Mystlore Wiki.
Anyway, I’ve rambled out a bunch of thoughts, and I’m very curious what you guys think.
Also, go read those books. Seriously. Good stuff.
~Uncle Waterboy
aka LazarusRising on MOUL forums. KI #04336444
Edit: The reason I mention that is that we’ve got a good thread going on this subject over at the MOUL forum, if you prefer to read/comment there instead.
