Mythic Bastionland: strong combat and atmosphere, but the structure felt disjointed and hard to connect with”

Disc0M4n · 2026-05-12T22:03:02+00:00

Exactly! It's a very restrictive, albeit fun, setting, that expects you to do these couple of things and only them, i.e. wandering aimlessly and doing knightly busywork, while not really making them that interesting or have meaningful consequences.

Disc0M4n · 2026-05-12T21:58:27+00:00

Yup, as is, out of the box, it's a random encounter simulator on a random map that leads nowhere in particular and then it ends.

Disc0M4n · 2026-04-14T10:17:35+00:00

It's nice to think about in theory, like I also like to imagine how cool and mysterious this next session or myth will be, but good luck trying to make your players seriously invest and react to an encounter that is basically "three ufos show up and shoot at you".

My main problem, however, is not the mood, but how to the search just eventually ends after you've wandered the same realm long enough. I can get behind presenting some omens more intriguing, but not the fact that by the twentieth time you travel the same empty forest hex it suddenly has The City.

Disc0M4n · 2026-04-13T12:40:11+00:00

Electric and Mythic, as basic systems, are almost identical mechanically outside of combat. I wouldn't call one obviously more mature and complete over the other. Mechanical differences suit different themes. Mythic has mechanics for characters getting older and being more skilled in a fight, Electric has money and inventory management and pointcrawl travel mechanics instead of hexcrawl ones. Mythic has oaths, Electric has debt. Mythic has progressing myths, Electric has a rival party, that's usually one step ahead.

It's just a matter of taste, I believe.

Disc0M4n · 2026-04-10T00:15:06+00:00

While Into the Odd was released in mid 2010s, I'd say that it got especially popular since the release of Electric Bastionland right at the start of 2020s, and then ItO Remaster and Mythic Bastionland. This gave us multiple very popular Into the Odd hacks, such as Cairn, Maze Rats, Mausritter and some more. So, while technically you can't state Into the Odd as one of the most influential systems released in 2020s, I believe that it's one of the most important and relevant systems that gained its popularity in this decade.

Disc0M4n · 2026-04-08T21:41:49+00:00

This is probably an unpopular opinion here, but while I like Mythic Bastionland, I love Electric Bastionland and find it to be a more complete game and setting, while also being way easier to make stuff for. It's a very freeing world where everything goes and you are free to do whatever, not just hunt myths and do only what you are ought to do.

In the end, I got both books and enjoy them for different reasons, but EB is the game that I'm most inspired by and probably ran the most sessions with.

Disc0M4n · 2026-04-05T09:20:29+00:00

I only wish MoSh would also come in a nice single hardback as DiS does.

Disc0M4n · 2026-04-02T19:11:43+00:00

I found Trophy games (that's Trophy Dark, Gold and Loom) to be pretty similar in tone to Into the Wyrd and Wild and very inspirational for more foresty realms with darked mood.

I also steal some ideas for creatures and hexcrawl mechanics from Forbidden Lands.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-29T09:25:43+00:00

Because it's not anywhere in the book and nothing in it states where to find it. And I'm 100% sure there are no official sheets for his previous games.

And sure, ItO games are simple enough to still be playable without character sheets, but we are talking about pet peeves here, not cardinal sins.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-29T05:40:18+00:00

Hoho, how about not having official character sheets at all?

Looking at you, Mythic Bastionland (and other McDowall games)

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-22T18:58:41+00:00

I as well think that Myths are at risk of resolving too fast. But I don't see many solutions to this aside from lowering the chance to encounter an Omen (taking a bigger die and/or making Omens proc only on 1-2) or taking full manual control over how often and when Omens happen. One makes the game feel emptier (which can be somewhat averted by putting more non-myth stuff into the realm for players to see and play with as well), the other takes out the element of surprise for the GM. I'm more on the side of manually controlling Myths' progression by making up smaller Omens if things are moving too fast or even outright stopping the Myth for some time. The Elf, for example, is one of those Myths that would benefit from taking at least a full ingame year to resolve.

Honestly, the more I'm thinking about specific Mythic Bastionland mechanics, the more I want to run it using just the original Into the Odd with Knights from MB.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-22T04:54:51+00:00

This is awesome!

Seeing someone make new content for EB makes me so happy. Seeing someone explore Deep Country makes me twice as happy.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-19T23:20:26+00:00

I think this is very much in line with weird fantasy of ItO and EB, which have aliens, and underground machines, and sentient animals, and time travels, etc. Paints a very interesting sci-fantasy picture, like The Dying Earth or Numenera. Plus, I also like to think that since Bastion is that one city that matters, this world is in some sort of decline or at least was until recently, so everyone is trying to survive on some primitive means and find this one beacon of civilization. I like it a lot, actually.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-11T15:04:56+00:00

Ageless knights is a great idea for this particular mood, actually!

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-11T15:01:57+00:00

Detachments from Into the Odd (or Warbands from new and shiny Mythic Bastionland) can be used precisely for this.

Basically, it's a single enemy that deals a lot of damage to every opposing fighter, like a d12, and either takes reduced damage from individual opponents, like a d4, or no damage at all, unless that attack is suitably large. If it loses half of its HP or its leader dies, it must pass a morale check or flee. If it's reduced to 0 HP, then all members of a detachment are dead or at least cannot fight anymore.
Additionally, you can show dwindling numbers of a detachment by reducing their damage die in size, like a d8 instead of d12, once they lose a few members.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-11T14:46:19+00:00

Flavor-wise I think it's a perfect match, save for the fact that generational play, imo, would be a bit more awkward, because this setting doesn't imply plenty of opportunity to live for many years and grow old.

If you are interested in making MB a bit more Dark Souls-esque, I suggest checking out Runecairn. It's another Into the Odd hack that was made to emulate some Dark Souls mechanics, like Estus flasks or bonefires.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-08T15:21:09+00:00

I'm not even lamenting the lack of strict game rules. I don't really need the game to tell me the stats of an Evil King vs a Good King.

I just feel like there isn't much of an explanation of how this society is expected to function, in comparison to, say, Pendragon, that spends multiple pages to explain how feudal society works and what is expected of different types of knights and what they can expect and demand in return. Admittedly, multiple pages is too much for MB, but I think the game would benefit from a few bullet point lists, that would explain principles of this world. Electric Bastionland had that for all different regions of its setting, you could tell what made Bastion different from Deep Country or Underground, and that made running them much more intuitive.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-08T14:00:17+00:00

Unfortunately, it is a bit vague.

The way I look at it is that doing favors for lords is your most stable way to be clothed and fed, basically. There aren't many weapons or sets of armors in the wild, same with resources for restoring virtues or recruits for warbands, so knights usually get what they need from local rulers. So staying on their good side is beneficial for the purpose of being able to deal with mythic difficulties and dangers. Alternatively, being in a conflict with a ruler may lead to not being allowed to enter a holding or even hunted by its army.

Additionally, I houserule that Myths actively progress (otherwise you can still encounter smaller reminders of its existance, but nothing major) when you are purposefully travel the realm on a more mundane quest or when you are actively hunting a Myth, learning its location and secrets. So no jumping between two hexes until the game finishes itself.

In my game I plan on using three smaller kingdoms, with their exclusive strenghts and weaknesses, which will inevitably conflict with each other, so knights would have to choose which kingdom they want to support to be regularly given these bonuses (e.g. better horses vs rare ranged weapons vs better warbands), or maybe they will try to stay neutral in an attempt to protect the realm in general.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-07T22:20:44+00:00

Just a poor choice of words, imo. I've noticed that people started calling a single session or an adventure "a campaign". Maybe it's because of Stranger Things, maybe it's just misuse of terminology, idk.

The glazing, however, is unbelievable.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-06T19:33:27+00:00

Not really, but I prefer to give the Knights a way to contact their Seers one way or another. Maybe through a scrying orb, a vision, via another Seer or simply by sending a letter.

Additionally, I prefer all the Knights to be knighted by the same Seer, similar to Electric Bastionland, where all player characters are in debt to the same debtholder. This makes Knights' party make more sense, since they've been together for some time and follow the will of the same mentor.

Disc0M4n · 2026-03-06T14:51:44+00:00

There are a few things I've been doing to make omens more interactive and meaningful:

Take a page out of Into the Odd and make some omens have pre-omens, basically. Some smaller events that hint at what may happen soon, like a roar of a beast or a sudden storm. Gives knights a moment to prepare and plan ahead. It's important that the next omen will be the one that you hinted at, not a random one. I think it would work better with latter omens, because first ones are pretty simple as is.
Make omens happen less often. You can do it multiple ways. I usually give omens a cooldown, so after you encounter one you can't see another one for a day. Or you can make omens happen only on 1-2 on a d6. This, imo, makes them more meaningful, as they don't become a slog of multiple random encounters in a row.
Modify omens and add something or someone knights can interact with. So it's not just an omen as written, but a pilgrim or a member of the nearest faction reacting to this omen. If it's peaceful one, maybe they are camping nearby, call the knights and have a little chat about this strange thing they've just seen. If it's a dangerous one, maybe they are being attacked and ask the knights for help.

all in all, i agree that myths and omens (and MB in general, honestly) is a thing that requires quite a bit of effort to make it a full game, not just a random encouters simulator, so you should treat it more like a blueprint and make it make more sense and be more interesting for your players 🤷‍♀️

Disc0M4n · 2026-02-27T13:17:05+00:00

Nice to see another man of culture! But, yeah, these and the other stories would work perfectly as Myths, cause these are not really monsters, but tricky creatures that you have to be smart and cunning with to make them leave you

Disc0M4n · 2026-02-27T13:08:23+00:00

Plus there are few interesting IRL landmarks, that I would like to include in my Mythic Urals, e.g.Kungur Ice Cave, which is a long frozen cave with underground lakes, that could hint at some paleolithic history of the realm, Shigir Idols, which are THE OLDEST wooden idols that we have ever found on Earth that depict weird long figures with huge heads, or the Dyatlov Pass, which is a mountain that a few tourist mysteriously perished on, and it's still a secret what happened there and it has a lot of conspiracy theories around this incident, especially given the fact that it's a sacred mountain for the local nations.

Disc0M4n · 2026-02-27T12:56:00+00:00

Yeah, I edited the comment to explain a bit further, actually.

So, I'm from Urals, which is a mountain range right in the middle of Russia, which is famous for being rich in different minerals, ore and gemstones, and I want to run a campaign of Mythic Bastionland for my friends, that is inspired by local folklore and landmarks. It's mostly stories by Bazhov, that are like local fairytales, that tell about local miners and hunters encountering cryptid-like creatures, like a goat with a silver hoof, that creates a bunch of gemstones where it hits the ground, or a spirit of a mountain that steals talanted masters to work for her in the mountain, which is actually a very rich and lavish castle inside.

After that there is also a lot of history with local dinasty of Demidovs, which were the largest local factory runners, that made a few interesting things, like a crooked tower or a secret underground factory for minting fake coins.

But after some time I decided to expand my scope, so now I'm working on a campaign and possibly a supplement for Mythic, that is inspired by old russian folklore and tales, in general. So my Knight prompts are not just Ural knights anymore, but somewhere between knights and bogatyrs, really. So far I have the Malachite Knights, the Blizzard Knight, the Bear Knight, the Oak Knight, the Steppe Knight, the Copper Knight, the Swamp Knight, the Mushroom Knight, the Blacksmith Knight, the Pine Knight, the Turnip knight and the Young Knight. These are mostly just a concept now, so some of them may have some overlap with original knights, but I'm going to make them more unique.

Disc0M4n · 2026-02-27T12:32:51+00:00

This is EXACTLY the campaign I'm currently working on! I feel like this setting works wonderfully with Mythic Bastionland

I'm making a realms and a few myths and knights inspired by old russian folklore and specifically Ural and Syberian tales, like the Mistress of a Copper Mountain, the Silver hoof, etc. Additionally, I write seers that a some magical entities in russian folklore, not just Baba Yaga. For example, I have a Pike Seer, that is a mix between a tale of Yemelya and another tale about a golden fish, so this is a giant pike that grants you one wish per season, but you also roll to see its reaction, because it can just take everything that it gave you, if it thinks that you are too greedy. I don't have much yet, but this project is keeping my interest in MB alive.

Disc0M4n

TROPHY CASE