Mythic Story Structure

GM Reference

The key to running a successful mythic campaign or adventure involves a little more planning than a typical game. The five-part monomyth structure — Contact, Awakening, Journey, Return, Life Afterward — provides a framework that scales from a single session to an entire campaign.

The Monomyth Contact Awakening Journey Return Life Afterward Elements World's Reaction Role of Failure

The Monomyth

The structure of a mythic game is drawn from the concept of the "monomyth," outlined in Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This pattern appears throughout countless modern and ancient mythological tales, from the Bible to The Lord of the Rings. GMs are encouraged to read up on the monomyth in detail and examine other stories that use this pervasive narrative structure.

Many mythic stories follow a five-part structure. This structure isn't set in stone — GMs should improvise details to suit the campaign. The steps represent story ideas that might reveal themselves over one or more encounters.

1. Contact
An unchallengeable threat appears
2. Awakening
Mythic power is granted
3. Journey
Quest to grow and prepare
4. Return
Face the primary threat as equals
5. Afterward
Mythic heroes deal with the aftermath

Contact

At the start of the campaign, the PCs should be normal adventurers, developing and advancing without the aid of mythic power. This gives them a chance to experience life as mundane heroes, struggling to earn enough gold to keep themselves fed, and allows them to explore the normal world.

When the PCs first come in contact with something truly wondrous, the mythic campaign starts in earnest. They learn that there's much more to the world around them than they first realized. This can take the form of some great, emerging danger that the PCs cannot hope to defeat as they currently are — perhaps an incredibly powerful dragon threatens the land, a long-dead god returns, or the tarrasque reawakens. The PCs are drawn into this story as their lives are forever changed by this unchallengeable threat.

A key part of the mythic narrative: Characters don't start mythic. Even if they gain powers during the opening scenes, each character has an ordinary life before their ascension. This grounds them in the world and lets them understand the magnitude of the change within them.

Awakening

The next step is for the PCs to receive the aid they need, in the form of mythic power. The actual means by which the PCs receive this power may vary (see Mythic Themes), even between PCs in the same game. By the end of this part of the story, the PCs have had their moment of ascension and are now mythic. They are not yet ready to face their primary challenge, but the first steps down the path to victory should be revealed.

Often, the source of the power gives them a clue to their journey. After receiving aid, the PCs must leave their old world behind — make this a painful choice. Present their first major challenge here so they can fully grasp the power they now command. Mark this point with some sort of loss or setback, to emphasize the gravity of the situation.

Example: The tarrasque is ravaging the countryside. The PCs flee into a valley and find an ancient seal recently broken. A guardian spirit beseeches them to intervene, then imbues them with mythic power. They leave the valley to find their hometown gone, devoured by the tarrasque. Before they can mourn, cultists attack. They realize they must retrieve a legendary blade capable of ending the beast.

Journey

The journey can be nearly any length — from the middle of one session to dozens of sessions. The PCs, now enhanced with mythic power, must contend with various trials and dangers. Three common types of tests define this phase:

Tests of the Heart
The PCs struggle for something they care about other than themselves. A goal other than their own well-being and power, with real consequences if they fail. Someone or something threatened gives the PCs reason to carry on.
Temptations
Some obvious (retire in peace; accept a shortcut through a cursed forest) — refusal defines the heroes. Some subtle — the price seems small compared to the gain. Forces of good and evil alike test the heroes to reveal their mettle or lead them to corruption.
Confronting the Source
The PCs learn more and more about the source of their power, ultimately revealing the truth about its nature. This leads to a confrontation where the PCs feel they are equals to this source, not merely its servants.

At the end of their journey, the PCs find their ultimate goal just within reach. Achieving it should be their most difficult test yet — some foes are there to cull the unworthy, others are agents of evil set to destroy the PCs. The final step in the journey should include a reward the likes of which the PCs have never seen.

Return

The trip back can be just as perilous as the journey out. The heroes are at the height of their power, but beset on all sides by those who would see them fail. Their enemies should be aware of the quest and use every means to end the PCs. Mythic characters have the tools to brush aside lesser threats, giving them a chance to fully appreciate their power.

During the return, the PCs might travel by different means than before — the planes, a magic carpet, a more direct route. They're leaving the mythical world behind, returning to the mundane. They should get a sense of that transition, and of returning home changed.

At the conclusion of the mythic game, the heroes face their ultimate foe. This final encounter will be their greatest challenge — one that might even claim their lives. When the conflict is over and the threat has been dealt with, the PCs' journey is finally complete.

Life Afterward

The GM and players must decide what happens to the PCs' power once all is well again. Do they transcend ordinary life to continue down the path of a mythic hero, facing even greater threats? Do they find their mythic power fleeting, leaving them with the difficult task of returning to a mundane life? Many of these decisions will be guided by the needs of the story and your campaign.

If this was only a short mythic session, the transition will be simpler than if it was at the end of an arc lasting many months. If mythic power was a central theme of the entire campaign, this might be its logical end. The next campaign might take place in the same world, years or generations later, where the players' previous characters have faded into legend.

Elements of a Mythic Adventure

Beyond the story structure, a wide variety of elements can give your campaign a mythic feel. A mythic adventure should contain some of these, though not necessarily all at once.

Cunning Foes
Enemies are proactive, not reactive. They use the environment, exploit PC weaknesses, and have contingency plans. After a first encounter, a cunning enemy learns and adapts — conducting reconnaissance, using minions as probes while watching silently.
Hard Consequences
Failure, unforeseen side-effects of actions (watching the countryside burn from a mythic fireball), and hard choices with no costless option. It's through suffering and reacting to consequences that the heroes' true nature emerges.
Impressive Settings
A large keep is impressive; one with a 200-foot tower at its heart is awe-inspiring. Natural environments should be similarly grand — entire forests five times normal size, waterfalls over 100 feet high, or locations with supernatural effects like a lake perfectly calm even when disturbed.
Legendary Creatures
Creatures with backstories that make them legends in their own right. A random dire wolf is not legendary; one that has fed on townsfolk for a decade and inspired local myths is. Defeating such foes adds to the mythic characters' own story.
Otherworldly Influence
Mysterious forces — deities, ancient magic, artifacts — take notice of the PCs. Some influences are beneficial (cryptic seer, gifts in a tranquil glade). Others are hostile (powerful storms, a constantly changing map, agents of an evil power). PCs should feel their quest has attracted the attention of forces they don't fully understand.
Powerful Enemies
Foes with powers far beyond what the PCs normally expect. Mythic abilities give the PCs the tools to defeat these challenges, but such foes are dangerous nonetheless. Not every fight needs to be against a powerful foe — lesser enemies give the PCs a chance to show off their talents.
Supernatural Events
Strange and wonderful events surround mythic characters — events that twist and alter the world around them. Local (a perpetual blizzard in a small valley) or vast (a gloom covering the sun). These supernatural events are tied to the story of the characters, whether they know it or not.

The World's Reaction

Amazing powers and impressive foes are only part of a mythic story. The world's reaction to such heroes is also a significant part of making a campaign actually feel mythic. NPCs in a mythic game should have a sense — possibly vague, possibly unmistakable — that the PCs are marked with grandeur.

How to Show the Mythic Mark
  • Visible always: a glowing brand or faint aura
  • Visible when using power: manifests only during mythic acts
  • Subtle: felt rather than seen — others sense it without knowing why
  • Progressive: subtle at lower tiers, pronounced as tiers increase

Regardless of approach, the world should never mistake mythic characters for normal people.

How NPCs Should Treat Them
  • Never "tasked" or "ordered" — even rulers address them as peers or supplicants
  • NPCs don't waste mythic characters' time with trivial favors
  • True powers (angels, demon princes, kings) recognize the potential and are polite now
  • Mythic power is alienating — looked at with reverence, fear, or resentment, never familiarity

Mythic characters are, in some ways, the ultimate outsiders — saving a world they don't quite fit in anymore. This alienation is a feature, not a bug: it underscores the weight and cost of their extraordinary nature.

The Importance of Failure

In a mythic game, failure can play an important role in motivating the characters. Failure doesn't need to mean death — it can mean the PCs' efforts weren't enough to solve all problems before them. They might win the battle, but find that the town was destroyed around them, or someone close to them died during the conflict.

This failure is a story opportunity. It can be used as motivation to continue on their journey, even against loss and extreme adversity. It also illustrates that the PCs' enemies have power similar to theirs, and that challenges ahead will test the heroes' limits and resolve.

Optional Rule — Mythic Flaws & Boons: For ways to mechanically reinforce the drama of failure and moments of triumph, see Mythic Trials, Boons & Flaws →