One of my favorite terms in a TTRPG is “Play to find out.” I don’t know its origin, but it’s often found in fiction-first games. Solo games, games with lots of prompts or player agency or similar mechanics that make it hard to prep for.

It means that you discover the story of your game as you play through it. It’s literally the opposite of a railroad, which I talked about last time. It means the fiction is front and center, and whenever something happens, the GM, the players, they ask questions about the goings on and follow where the answers might lead.

Instead of knowing all that will/can/should happen, you keep the game itself a mystery, which unfolds as you and your players explore its narrative.

From a design perspective, I appreciate any game that includes mechanics in their core design that enables fiction-first, play to find out, behavior. Games powered by the Apocalypse have players make moves as part of their actions, and the outcomes of these moves ask questions of them. Ironsworn, a game keep coming back to, is built on that engine and, if you ask me, perfects this formula. It’s a solo game after all, so it must be great at asking questions and allowing you to follow the answers.

Mythic GM Emulator is another great product you can include with any other more traditional game. Not just to emulate/replace the GM, but also to enhance your own game-mastering. It’s full of prompts you can generate to enhance the fiction and surprise yourself. It has an entire system to curate the ebb and flow, the calm and chaos of an unfolding narrative. Even a game with a binary, simple resolution mechanic like 5e can benefit from the dynamics and inspirations a supplement like Mythic GME can bring.

Even if you don’t want to use prompts and random generation throughout your sessions–if you prefer to prep and plan–things like Mythic are still super useful for game prep. I use it virtually all the time between my Draw Steel sessions. I know of some of the things I want to include–villains, NPC, events, etc–and then use Mythic GME to answer some of the questions I would have. Why is the NPC here? What does the villain want? Where is the artifact and what can it do? I ask myself these questions and answer them with the prompts generated with Mythic, letting the inspiration and answers lead me while I prepare the next session or adventure.

It’s freeing. It opens up your creativity in ways you couldn’t imagine. Prepping games is a lot of work, way more work than your players need to do week after week. Turning prep into a bit of play with random prompts can add a lot of fun. And with more fun comes more creativity and ideas and inspiration.