
So I don't see many people talking about this system, but I've been wanting to try it for ages, so I figured, why not send out a call? (Alternatively, if anyone's running a Mystic Empyrean and has a free spot, let me know!) Mystic Empyrean is a free-form game that uses a rotating GM system and focuses on good roleplay, world-building, and storytelling, with all the players given a chance to help create the world along with the treasures, villains, peoples, and places that populate it. The players are placed in the role of eidolons trying to rebuild a shattered world. Eidolons are god-like beings who develop powers based on their personalities. This means that what powers you develop and what sorts of actions you're good at will be defined by how you roleplay your character. So if you're hotheaded and get angry at the drop of a hat, your hair might turn to fire (because you're hotheaded) and the ability to control flame. Alternatively, if you're always giving up too easily or back down without a fight all the time, you'll probably end up seeming like a tastier target for enemies... literally. If you back down all the time, you have the possibility of gaining the trait Edible, which causes your body to be made of something tasty like bread or sugar, and creatures that're looking for a snack will target you first. Though on the plus side, the party will never need to worry about going hungry. If you're more a fan of rollplay than roleplay and just want to charop and hit stuff... while that can definitely be fun, this is probably not the game for you. If you like to charop and hit stuff while world building and roleplaying an interesting character though, that can definitely be worked in. If you'd rather just leave charop and hitting stuff out of it altogether, the system lets you do that too! It all depends on what sort of game people want to play. Its rules allow for players' imaginations to shine through, and conflicts (whether social, puzzle, combat, or whatever else) are resolved through card draws based on "the Balance." The World Balance deck is made up of a number of cards representing Fire, Light, Electricity, Water, Stone, Darkness, Air, Aether, and Pure Anima, with the number of each element in the deck depending on the realm that the players are currently playing in and each element being associated with certain types of actions. Degrees of success or failure are determined by the number of degrees an action's element is away from the element drawn, based on the alignment wheel. For example, a direct attack against an enemy (a fire-element action) would spectacularly succeed on a draw of fire, mostly succeed on a draw of light or air, mostly fail on a draw of darkness or electricity, and straight up fail on a draw of water. Draws of Pure Anima are always success and draws of Aether are always failures. Your personal Balance, determined by your personality traits and how strong they are, allow you a number of redraws to try and get favourable results. So that's a brief rundown of part of the system, and if you have any more questions, fire away! I'm still not sure whether I'd want to run through the free preview game to help everyone (including me!) get a feel for the system, or if we should jump right into it, so it'll be down to the group. Also, the preview game uses a dice variant to make it more accessible, but I'd want to use the Balance since it seems more interesting. If you want to buy the corebook, you can grab it here from drivethru rpg for just $15 , but it's not strictly necessary. Oh, right, and timezone-wise, I'm EST-based, but as a uni student, I'm up at random hours anyways, so I'm pretty flexible with when games'll be.