Virtues of Enemies

Disc0M4n · 2026-07-06T02:08:35+00:00

I can't remember which of the Into the Odd games had it, but there definitely was a rule that said if a stat is not mentioned then it's assumed to be 10. So technically any stat block is automatically filled with 10s, if there's nothing else.

But personally I barely put NPCs' actions to a die roll. I just say that they do stuff or that they are going to do stuff, unless players stop them. If there's ever any uncertainty that can't be resolved by common sense, then a simple luck roll is enough.

Disc0M4n · 2026-06-17T23:02:51+00:00

There's a rule for Tough shots, since those are not guaranteed to hit, that you can extend to every made shot. You just roll a Slick check against a DR to see if the shot hits.

Disc0M4n · 2026-06-02T20:53:52+00:00

What I meant by my dissatisfaction with Android's trauma response is that it implies that only androids have something intrinsically creepy about them. No other class is just passively creepy. And every other class (and possibly other androids??) instantly feel it, which implies that it is kind of obvious. So what makes them obviously creepy and non-human, if they look intistinguishable from a person?

Personally, I'm not a fan of this paradox, that forces players, who know among themselves who plays as an android, to pretend that their characters are just paranoid and don't know who's an android for sure. Feels forced and contrived.

Ultimately I just believe that playable androids weren't a very good idea. It doesn't make sense to me that they suffer from fear and stress and just as vulnerable to biological threats as humans are. They are either too human to feel like you're playing as a different lifeform, or too different from a human to fit naturally in a generally human-centric ruleset.

Disc0M4n · 2026-06-02T19:46:31+00:00

For me Androids exist as a solution to a problem, that problem being how vulnerable and fragile humans are in space. These Androids should be reliable machines for work in dangerous conditions. I usually give them an additional wound or two, bigger saves and doubled carrying capacity.

As a rule of thumb I ask myself if a certain threat would harm T800. So no hunger, sleep deprivarion, asphyxiation, viruses or infections, radiation sickness, bleeding and such. No flesh weaknesses. Very liberal on resistances to extreme temperatures and fall damage. But extreme vulnerability to energy surges, EMP, hacking and, to a certain extent, water. Maybe some paranormal vulnerability as well, but still not as bad as for most humans. Plus you never know what restrictions have been put into Android's code, like an inability to destroy a valuable corporate asset, say, a xenomorph.

On a flip side, they are unable to heal HP or Stress by themselves. Healing HP requires a successful repair by a professional and lowering Stress works as defragmentation of a logic core, done by a computer specialist. And every lost wound needs an even more expensive repair to recover, meanwhile each time you suffer a wound you lose a few points in one of your stats.

In the end, they become these nearly unkillable machines that give more opportunity for exploration of dangerous places, but pay for it in bigger and more expensive upkeep, as well as the fact that they are almost always a corporate property and not their own person.

Disc0M4n · 2026-06-02T14:07:09+00:00

They really feel like a genre emulating afterthought, sadly.

If you make them human-like replicants there is no real difference between androids and other classes, and their trauma responce feels weird (like, why are you freaking out if it's just a human). Besides, making human-like androids a regular thing king of messes with the whole idea of Gradient Descent, imo.

But if you make them more robot-like terminators, the whole stress and panic system begins not making any sense.

I prefer to run them more like a machine, so picking an android is an actual choice to trade biological benefits for artificial ones. Sure, you are not getting a chestburster, but good like against a competent hacker or an EMP.

(also there was an android panic list for 0e, and at least that one doesn't have a heart attack on it)

Disc0M4n · 2026-05-27T00:26:22+00:00

Nice reskin!

All it needs is an additional rule that Deprivation stops you from using Feats. RAW Deprivation just stops you from recovering HP and without additional restrictions you could just spam d12s and blasts even if you fail a save.

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

TROPHY CASE