The “Greek Ten Hells” is a combat system I designed for Mythic Heroes. The core mechanic itself is not complex; it’s a tower-climbing system where the difficulty increases with each map. I envisioned players going through trials, much like Dante’s journey through the ten layers of Hell in The Divine Comedy. So, I designed each layer of Hell with its own unique combat mechanics.

In the River of Wrath, players take periodic fire damage. In the River of Forgetfulness, you occasionally “forget” to use skills. At the entrance to the Underworld, you face the giant three-headed dog, and in the Maze of the Night Goddess, you temporarily lose your vision.

As players progress through this journey, they are immersed in an exploration of Greek underworld mythology.

Now, imagine if I had just randomly tweaked some values in an Excel sheet and placed monsters arbitrarily—the core mechanics wouldn’t change much, but the player’s experience would be completely different.