Running Mythic Games
Mythic games share the same core structure as any campaign — adventures, monsters, treasure, and experience — but add a layer of drama, theater, and tension. This chapter covers campaign scale, encounter design for mythic and non-mythic parties, rewarding mythic characters, running recurring villains, and ready-to-use adventure ideas.
Making a Mythic Atmosphere
For a game to feel mythic, it must evoke wonder and awe in the GM and the players. It represents a power shrouded in mystery and beyond the reach of mortals. When characters encounter the mythic, they should feel as though they've just received a glimpse into an unseen world, promising so much more if they're bold enough to explore its wonders and face its dangers. A mythic atmosphere involves legends coming to life, and the characters will have a part to play in shaping these myths.
Running a mythic game requires more than just allowing the players to have mythic power and face off against mythic foes. Creating a mythic atmosphere is just as important. The world itself and the structure of the story need to change to make room for the mythic to exist alongside the normal. Mythic creatures and their environments should feel as if they are part of the world — hidden, but tied to the mundane events and lands around them.
Contrasting the mythic with the normal world is crucial. The extraordinary only seems that way if it's in sharp contrast with the mundane. A flying castle drifting over pastoral farmland is dramatic; the same castle set among towering volcanoes loses its impact. Use the world's existing feel as your baseline, then push beyond it to reveal hidden places where mythic elements have always dwelled.
Different Scales of Mythic Campaigns
The mythic rules can be used in a number of ways, from simply including a mythic foe at the end of an adventure to allowing the PCs to play mythic characters for their entire careers. The GM decides how much influence these rules have on the campaign and world as a whole.
Designing Encounters
Designing a mythic encounter is similar to designing any encounter, but the challenges are far deadlier. It's important to stress to the players — through the encounters they face — that these are dangers beyond what they'd normally expect. The mythic rules can be used in two main ways: to challenge normal PCs and to challenge mythic PCs.
Encounters for Normal PCs
If the PCs aren't mythic, mythic creatures and villains are more powerful than their normal counterparts, making encounters significantly more dangerous. Normal PCs should be rewarded with XP and treasure based on the adjusted CR (see Adjusting CR and Level). This means the PCs face creatures that would normally be below them in original CR, but whose strange abilities make them true threats. Such encounters should generally be at least challenging relative to the PCs' Average Party Level (APL).
Encounters for Mythic PCs
Mythic adventurers are ready for challenges beyond what's normally expected for characters of their level. When designing encounters for mythic characters, roughly:
- ⅓ of encounters should use their adjusted APL (challenging)
- ⅓ of encounters should use their original APL (easy — let them dominate)
- ⅓ of encounters should fall between the two values
High CR Experience Point Awards
The Core Rulebook doesn't include XP rewards for encounters above CR 25. Use this table for mythic campaigns where PCs regularly face such challenges.
| CR | Total XP | Individual XP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–3 PCs | 4–5 PCs | 6+ PCs | ||
| 26 | 2,457,600 | 820,000 | 614,400 | 409,600 |
| 27 | 3,276,800 | 1,092,000 | 819,200 | 546,000 |
| 28 | 4,915,200 | 1,640,000 | 1,228,800 | 819,200 |
| 29 | 6,553,600 | 2,184,000 | 1,638,400 | 1,092,000 |
| 30 | 9,830,400 | 3,280,000 | 2,457,600 | 1,638,400 |
High CR Treasure per Encounter
| CR | Treasure per Encounter | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Slow | Medium | Fast | |
| 21 | 55,000 gp | 84,000 gp | 125,000 gp |
| 22 | 69,000 gp | 104,000 gp | 155,000 gp |
| 23 | 85,000 gp | 127,000 gp | 190,000 gp |
| 24 | 102,000 gp | 155,000 gp | 230,000 gp |
| 25 | 125,000 gp | 185,000 gp | 275,000 gp |
| 26 | 150,000 gp | 220,000 gp | 330,000 gp |
| 27 | 175,000 gp | 260,000 gp | 390,000 gp |
| 28 | 205,000 gp | 305,000 gp | 460,000 gp |
| 29 | 240,000 gp | 360,000 gp | 540,000 gp |
| 30 | 280,000 gp | 420,000 gp | 630,000 gp |
Rewarding Mythic Characters
Mythic characters should be rewarded with XP and treasure based on the higher overall CR of the encounters they face. In general, this means mythic characters will earn XP and treasure at a faster rate than their normal counterparts.
Adjusting CR and Level
Having mythic tiers changes a character's effective level for determining appropriate challenges and rewards. Likewise, having mythic tiers or ranks changes the effective CR of foes.
- 10th level / 5th tier → effective 12th level
- 20th level / 10th tier → effective 25th level
- 2nd-rank minotaur → effective CR 6
- 6th-tier champion pit fiend → effective CR 23
For mythic monsters, this calculation is already included.
Recurring Mythic Villains
Recurring villains are a staple of fantasy fiction. With careful planning, mythic villains can become memorable opponents that players talk about for years. With the heroes possessing extraordinary power, the villains that defy them should also possess a measure of that power.
Ideas for Mythic Adventures
The following ready-to-use adventure frameworks include a plot synopsis, sample challenges, the primary adversary, and further adventure hooks. Each can be tailored for PCs who have already begun their mythic journey.
Synopsis: Pilgrims to a famous holy site have been found turned to stone along the road. The local clergy is deeply concerned for their parishioners and the sanctity of the site.
Challenges: The souls of petrified pilgrims hover around their bodies as ghosts or spectres that attack anyone who comes near. The holy site was corrupted by cultists of a rival deity — paths to the summit have been destroyed, forcing a perilous route.
Adversary: A mythic medusa, once a devotee of the site's deity before being cursed and tortured into serving a rival power, leads the cultists.
Further Adventures: Restoring the pilgrims may require recovering rare ingredients from far-off lands. The cult may seek revenge. The church may ask the PCs to destroy the cult entirely.
Synopsis: A town's mythic phoenix protector clashed with an ancient red dragon. Both fell to earth — the dragon fled wounded, but the phoenix's fires were corrupted by the wyrm's evil. It now stalks the land in mad pain, burning everything.
Challenges: The phoenix's tears granted the PCs mythic power. They must battle fires, protect the community, and deal with monsters imbued with the phoenix's corrupted essence while discovering the guardian's true nature.
Adversary: The mythic phoenix — not a traditional foe. The PCs may wish to heal it by purging the evil corruption, or end its suffering if it's too far gone.
Further Adventures: The evil dragon is still out there, healing. If the phoenix is saved, it reveals information needed to defeat the dragon. If killed, the phoenix may return reborn — grateful or wrathful.
Synopsis: During the naming ceremony for a newborn royal, an old woman enters playing a silver pipe, freezes all the attendees, and departs with the infant. A note instructs the kingdom to send its finest champions to an arena deep in the world "if they wish the kingdom to survive."
Challenges: The arena is run by powerful devils. The only path forward is to enter the gladiatorial games — mythic manticores, giants, hydras, and more in terrain suited to each beast. There is more than one way to win: convincing other contestants to band together could overthrow the devils.
Adversary: The devil organizers secretly arranged the kidnapping to lure heroes prophesied to threaten their kind. Winning in the arena ruins their plans even if the PCs never fight them directly.
Further Adventures: Vengeful devils may seek a rematch. The heroes' destiny — whatever threatens the fiends — is now set in motion.
Synopsis: Halfling farmers with a mystical bond to their lands have had that bond severed by unknown forces. The land is blighted, crops withered — and carnivorous plants now stalk the fields.
Challenges: Mythic plant creatures wander in droves. Yellow musk creepers spawn unusually powerful zombies. Underground tunnels reinforced by giant roots shelter the true threat.
Adversary: An evil mythic druid — revealed to be a forlarren fey. Destroying it isn't enough; deeper tunnels lead to myceloids worshipping a mythic leader (or worse, a sard). Only destroying these creatures restores the land's birthright.
Further Adventures: The PCs gain the ability to create mystical bonds between people and land. Evidence may point to other evil colonies elsewhere in the world.
Synopsis: The heroes come upon a portion of the world left unmade — a roiling mass of primeval matter. Others with ill intentions seek to control the Nascent Sphere. If the heroes fail, a mythic villain may use it to create a literal hell on earth.
Challenges: Chaos beasts, howlers, elementals, and a community of proteans led by a keketar claim the sphere. Vicious demodands seek to conquer it. A suspicious azata emissary complicates matters further.
Adversary: At the heart of the Nascent Sphere: a mythic hekatonkheires titan, exiled to the mortal world long ago and nearly able to free itself.
Further Adventures: The heroes must choose a permanent form for the sphere. Thwarted demodands plot to reverse the process. Archons from Heaven arrive to study the heroes' new home. Peasants flock to it — the PCs may find themselves rulers of a nascent nation.
Synopsis: An ancient civilization once dominated a valley, now degenerated into savagery. Three mountain peaks hold vast treasures and ancient magic, each guarded by a different mythic threat.
Challenges: Brutal, xenophobic descendants of the civilization roam the lower reaches. Each peak has a unique challenge: a mythic crag linnorm (Peak 1), a mythic neothelid and the bulk of the valley's warriors (Peak 2), a mythic thunderbird in perpetual storms (Peak 3). The third peak's summit holds a carved stone throne.
Adversary: The degenerate race's leader — who can potentially be returned to greatness if seated on the throne with a recovered crown and book of ancient wisdom.
Further Adventures: A restored civilization becomes a valuable ally. Other members of the race may need to be found if the PCs failed to save the valley's population.
Synopsis: The heroes awaken in a world where humans, dwarves, elves, and other common races are believed to have been extinct for ages — and they've gained newfound mythic powers in this strange land. A mystical artifact transported them here under unknown conditions.
Challenges: To return home, the PCs must find the twin artifact or create a portal another way. Survival in a land where they are considered legendary extinct creatures creates unusual social dynamics — normally hostile groups may worship them; former allies may fear them. The queen's castle is built to giant scale, and her enormous black cat is a lethal predator.
Adversary: A mythic giant queen who doesn't want the PCs dead immediately — she wants to learn about their world so she can expand her domain.
Further Adventures: Other creatures now know the PCs' world exists. Returning home may have awakened dormant mythic power across their world, unleashing new perils.