With the MYTH kickstarter over and the excitement dying down at least a little bit, I decided to see if I could get Brian Shotton, one of the two game designers of MYTH to take some time from his wife, kids, and of course Conner to answer a few questions.  The fact that I’ve already given MERCS all my money, and he’s still answering questions is a testament to his commitment to fans of the game, especially given that he was inundated by questions (much more serious ones I’m sure) from many others at the same time.

100k) Now that the chaos of the last couple of days of the kickstarter is over, how is everyone feeling?

Brian: We were wasted yesterday. I found myself extremely exhausted (lack of sleep will do that). I also wanted to spend some time with the wife and kids. I had missed them. Finally, I couldn’t stop smiling. It is a greater success than I had ever hoped.

200k) Should a Myth fan run into you somewhere (say GenCon), what would be the proper libations to purchase for you to toast the successful start to this new venture?

Brian: I am a fan of Shock Tops Lemon Shandy. Almost any Hefeweizen will do the trick though.

300k) Should you remember all you now have to deliver for January during the interaction in #2, what stronger libation might be needed to quell any signs of panic?

Brian: Scotch

400k) Obviously there is a ton of production and design work that needs to be done with this game, but what % of the game content do you feel comfortable with at this point? (Rules, card text, etc.)

Brian: Base game 100%. Stretch goals 75%. Add-ons 80%. Writing and text 50% It was higher but we added a lot of written content and we have translations to facilitate.

500k) Has there been, or will there be much focus on the backstory behind the game before it’s release? Stories of the races? Development of the world behind the game, etc?

Brian: We wanted to create a world that players would be able to come and create their own world. To that end we purposefully stay away from big world concepts like name of place and such. However, we have quite a bit of lore (like the rats and rat tails, the cyclops versus the elementals).

600k) How many years of supplements do you feel you had to tap into for all of those stretch goals?

Brian: We feel we have at least a year of releases, possibly 1.5 AFTER the base game is released. We also already have a couple expansions themes that we are comfortable with for the larger expansions this game will need to deliver Journeyman Heroes and such.

700k) On the other hand, how many stretch goals had to be “invented” during the kickstarter?

Brian: 650 (though the idea was always there) 800, and 900k were all on the fly. The Slaughterfield Supplement pack was/is also still in development but we felt strong enough about it we could add it as an add-on.

800k) The game as currently designed is based around stories, that basically take 3 game sessions to complete. Are there any thoughts of expanding the game beyond that with “epics” or “chronicles” with bigger stories, or even being made up of multiple stories?

Brian: Yes. We’ll call these Myth Quests.

900k) What game mechanic are you most looking forward to introducing, that we either haven’t seen much of or haven’t seen at all throughout the kickstarter?

Brian: All the upgraded Heroes. Just in our initial testing the mechanics really come alive when you can alter your deck to create the Hero you want.

No million dollar question…but we came oh so close.

Thanks again to Brian for taking the time to answer.  Congratulations on the success kicking off this game, and I hope that success continues into the future.