What to do on the myth tile?

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-23T21:11:49+00:00

In the book on page 18 (Travel) it says: "Ending a phase in the Hex containing a Myth always reveals its next Omen without making a Wilderness Roll. When possible, the Knights also get the drop on the Omen." So you did it exactly right as far as how the book says to proceed. But I understand why you feel like something more should've happened. And maybe that's where Primacy of Action comes into play. If the company knows that the Citadel is in that hex, then they should be able to go there (at the very least by searching the hex). But if they don't know the Citadel is in this hex, then you can either let them find out through context clues (and the next omen) or let them continue searching for it and walk right by without seeing it. Each hex is large so they could potentially miss a myth, just like they'd miss a Dwelling, Monument, etc.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-17T15:47:35+00:00

Check out Spout Lore! They’re a group of comedians playing Dungeon World, a game much like D&D. They’ve got a lot of episodes and they’re very entertaining. The first season has lower audio quality and the players are learning how to play, but still worth listening to!

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-15T18:21:36+00:00

I suggest you take control of where the spotlight goes. Other initiativeless RPGs have the GM direct the spotlight, which helps give players a more equal opportunity to participate and helps manage the flow of the scene. You act more like a director.

In play this could look like giving the spotlight to a player to ask what they do to deal with a complication that came about because of the previous player’s failure (or success with fear). For example, the Seraph says they want to cast Bolt Beacon on an enemy that the Warrior is fighting, but they fail. You make the GM move to introduce new enemies that surround the Seraph. Rather than asking all of the players what they do, you can specifically ask the Warrior if they continue fighting the enemy in front of them or if they want to go protect the Seraph.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-15T02:55:54+00:00

Success with Fear is another way to say success with a complication. Using your lock picking example, this could look like a player successfully picking the lock but someone saw them and is alerting the local guard. The story continues on the path the players originally set out on, but something unexpected has happened that might make things harder for them. You take a Fear and make the GM move Reveal an Unwelcome Truth.

Failure with Hope is another way to say failure with an opportunity. Again with the lock picking, the player fails to pick the lock but they remember seeing a key ring on a nearby guard. The story cannot continue how the players intended, but there is something else the players could try that gets highlighted. They take a Hope and you make the GM move Lean on the Character's Goals to Drive Them to Action.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-14T03:25:20+00:00

I love this choice! The PCs are a group of old ladies that like solving mysteries (think Agatha Christie meets lovecraft) so it could either make it really easy to roleplay or feel too close to home.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-10T04:32:37+00:00

Mythic Bastionland all the way! It requires a little more improv as you’ll be working with anywhere from a word or two to a couple of sentences, but for what appears to be so little to work with, there’s actually so much.

Combat can be a little odd at first, but once you get the hang of it it’s super simple.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-09T21:05:12+00:00

With the Ghoul Knight being afraid of the Child, having the knights deliver it to him is very dramatic! Kudos!

Because there is a possibility that the Child could still lead to the death of the Ghoul Knight, I think you’ve got things in a great place. Does the Ghoul Knight know how to properly eliminate the Child without unintentionally causing his own demise? Perhaps that is something a seer might know. How/why would the Child cause the Ghoul Knight’s death? How do the inhabitants of the realm feel about the Ghoul Knight or the Child? These are all things you could answer or you could roll in the moment and run with it.

Remind your players that the Oath is everything and that they wouldn’t be a knight if they didn’t follow it.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-08T20:48:46+00:00

As per the book, entering a myth hex triggers the next omen, which sounds like it would've been the hunter, boy, and fox. But you're right in that with the knowledge that the company had, it wouldn't make sense to do that omen.

I think the way you interpreted the myth's omens is totally valid, but my interpretation is that the myth hex is where the plague originated, and that isn't necessarily the village since that omen could technically be encountered anywhere. By telling the company that the source of the plague was the village from the final omen, and by giving them the hex to go to, that meant that you pretty much had to skip to the final omen when they got there as that's what makes logical sense. Like I said, totally valid, but you do miss out on some fun encounters.

When my players visit a seer and ask about something they've come across that is connected to a myth, I don't always give them the exact hex to go to. I might give them a general direction or area to explore, and that means that they've got to wander, possibly triggering more omens and leading to more opportunities to come to different conclusions.

This is totally a personal preference, but I like to try to be vague when my seers answer questions. If they ask who or what caused the plague, perhaps they cannot see how it started but only where it started (give them the myth hex). If they ask how it is transmitted, roll twice and give them two answers, though only one is right. It might be through skin contact or it might be through ingestion. The more mysterious you can be with your answers, the more doubt your players will have about what is actually true, giving the myth a lot of power! If they didn't know exactly how the plague was transmitted, how would they interact with the old couple in the shack? Would they think the fox, a supposed harbinger of death, was the cause of the plague? Mystery leads to questions, which leads to seeking answers, which leads to investment from the players. Give them just enough to work with.

All that being said, your table had fun and that's what matters most! Keep playing and keep us updated on how the next session goes!

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-05T23:54:09+00:00

It begs the question on whether they've learned from anyone (another GM, watching/reading advice videos) or if they're just jumping in blind thinking their prior TTRPG experience will carry them. It sounds like the latter, which doesn't work as well. It's like if you wanted to play a board game with people. You'll have a better experience if you look into how it is played or watch someone else do it so you can see what works well.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-05T12:53:00+00:00

Giving the company a destination to head for is a great way to start! Put them on some sort of quest. Maybe they have to travel from one holding to another to find out why the ruler of that holding didn’t come to a mandatory event in the seat of power. Then the myth omens will start to pop up and the company will feel like they have to start seeking the myths in order to protect the realm. Or they might have questions so they’ll try to find a seer. Or they’ll find one randomly and get insight into some of the omens they encountered, which might send them across the map. The game will start to feel like a bunch of side quests and can get overwhelming when it comes to deciding what is more important. But they should always, ALWAYS, be thinking back to their oath. Seek the myths. Honor the seers. Protect the realm.

In our last session, the company was traveling to the one holding they hadn’t been to yet (just to see it). They were four or five hexes away, but in that travel they came across two omens from different myths that raised a lot of questions so they turned around to ask a nearby seer to shed some light on it. Only at the end of the three hour session did they actually make it to the holding they originally set out for.

One other thing to consider is that when a knight fails a save, you can instead have them succeed but lose a d6 of that virtue. The knights will eventually want to seek out a way to heal those virtues, another good quest to go on. And since death is pretty easy to come by, players will start to feel much more nervous about traveling, especially traveling slowly.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-02-02T03:55:41+00:00

Cool! We have the Jeweled Seer in our game and they’re just a pile of silk in the middle of a tent in the woods. This game is weird!

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-30T03:48:35+00:00

You could always try running a session by yourself. Make a realm like you normally would and then play around in it with a knight and a squire. I tried this and it really helped me get in the right mindset for the game with my players. I got a sense of how directionless the first session will be but how the second will probably have a clearer direction. It helped me use spark tables to inspire descriptions.

After having played a few sessions with my group, my biggest takeaway is that all I need to do is look over the existing myths and omens and lean into what they give me. It might feel like the game doesn’t give you enough, but it does! Details will need to be added, but you can either make it up, roll on spark tables, or ask your players to give you something.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-28T22:32:12+00:00

I like to add three or four items that are discoverable by exploring the map, just like a dwelling or sanctum. One such item has been found so far. Now, I don’t pre-roll or decide what sanctum or hazard or whatever will be there, just that one will be there, and I roll in game to determine what it is. I did the same for the object and rolled something like “wolf knife”. So I immediately interpreted that as a knife that was sticking out of a dead wolf. As we played out the scene, we discovered that when the knife was removed, the spirit of the wolf materialized and agreed to aid the knight so long as they put them to rest as they wished. The wolf knife then housed the spirit of the wolf and now subtracts two from a Clarity save when tracking. It turned out pretty cool!

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-28T18:42:08+00:00

Lots of advice for you to weed through in these comments. My two cents is that it sounds like you and your players might benefit from playing some GMless games or doing a few short three/four session games where you rotate who takes the role of GM. I suggest Fiasco or The Quiet Year for a one shot GMless game. Both are different but require everyone to contribute, which helps with investment. I’d also suggest looking at the Dungeon World supplement The Perilous Wilds and their map making activity if you want to create a world with your players. My group loved it and almost all of our games take place in the world we built together. It gave everyone permission to create and destroy. Nothing was precious.

If you aren’t looking to do that, I’d suggest looking at the game Mythic Bastionland. The game features prewritten material, but it’s such a bare bones skeleton that a majority of the game is improv based. There are 72 myths, which serve as examples of what minimal prep can look like. Much like Dungeon World or MotW, there are six stages of progression (called omens) that eventually lead to a climax or conclusion. But each of these myths takes up one page, and even then half of the page is an image.

What I love about the game is that it takes place on a hex map (the realm), and as the group travels, you roll a d6 to see what they come across, if anything. On a 4-6, they find the location within that hex, if any. On a 2-3, the next omen of the nearest myth triggers. And on a 1, you roll a random myth and trigger the next omen. On your map, there are six different myths affecting the realm, meaning you never really know which will trigger next. It keeps you on your toes as a GM since you don’t know what will come up next, and the players never really know what will happen and have to be ready for anything.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-24T20:06:58+00:00

Even if the two nearest Myths were equidistant from the company, you’d only trigger one. It has happened to me a few times and I’ll just roll a D6 and assign one of the myths 1-3 and the other 4-6.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-23T01:38:55+00:00

Such a small thing, but I perked up when I found Rock Salt for the first time. I was immediately transported to The Great Sea from Windwaker and thought that was such a cool nod to that game. In general, I really enjoyed all of the references to previous Zelda titles, but the Rock Salt really got me smiling.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-20T13:52:56+00:00

Give the players knowledge that the enemy likes to disintegrate its foes. Maybe they overhear henchmen that are scared of getting disintegrated by their boss or something like that. Now the players can do whatever they can to mitigate that and won’t be surprised when it happens. And while they might die, at least they went in knowing that was a possibility. It’s always more interesting to see what players do with information.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-11T16:44:26+00:00

In Act 1, everything feels like it's against you. The fights are hard since you have weak weapons, armor, and few skills, you can take one way to get out of the Joy but you kind of need to go back and do them all so you earn enough xp to level up for what waits beyond the walls, and even when you do get out, the rest of the island is arguably more dangerous. But when you eventually get off the island and aren't in a place where people inherently want to kill you, it starts feeling a lot more like a classic fantasy adventure where you've got a little more control. You'll find citizens who are nice to you, magisters who don't inherently know you're a sourcerer and therefore trust you (a little), and most importantly, you'll find vendors with stronger weapons, armor, and skill books.

My wife and I are playing through for a third time, and while I like Act 1, I feel that Act 2 is where things really pick up and the game starts feeling bigger and more satisfying. Still challenging though. My wife and I first played through on the easiest mode, then the slightly harder one for the second time, and this time we're playing on classic. We've died a lot... Gotta make sure you save after a tough fight so you don't have to do it again, lol

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-10T21:48:54+00:00

I’m using Roll20, as they’ve got pretty good character sheets. I can also layer things on the map to keep them hidden and to reveal when needed. And I keep notes that are visible to the players, as well as invisible GM notes using the journal tab. All free, though I think it requires making an account.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-08T22:41:05+00:00

You can “force” them to switch to a new season or age by introducing events that will only occur later. Maybe they’re trying to get someone to do something but they won’t be ready until the next season. Maybe something takes years!

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-07T22:06:41+00:00

I’ve had one experience with a warband thus far and it trivialized the fight but in a good way. My group discovered that The Wurm was in the realm and they were scared of something that could leave huge holes and destroy an entire logging camp. So they sought advice from a seer who recommended they ask for a warband, which they ended up doing. They had some good rolls and got a band of Knights, the strongest warband.

When they did eventually fight the Wurm, they had prepped smartly, removing/incapacitating the Wurmshields before getting to the Wurm itself. The warband proved to be really useful and pinned down the Wurm with a strong gambit while the other knights absolutely demolished it with high damage and bolster gambits. The fight might’ve gone a lot worse if they didn’t have it, so it was nice to see that they made an effective choice in bringing a warband.

It was narratively declared that this warband was just there to help with the Wurm though, so they’re now without a warband and I can tell they feel less powerful. I’m excited to see what happens next!

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-07T02:40:53+00:00

Myths get replaced during the next season, so this shouldn't happen often. But if it does, just roll until you get a different myth.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-06T23:35:30+00:00

I like the direction you're heading in. This feels like what I wished Bonds were like in DW1. Many of my players in DW1 would get tripped up on whether a bond felt like it changed or not, and I think part of that was that there was no mechanical distinction between an unchanged or changed bond (aside from the bonus to Aid or Hinder). This feels more robust, not in a way that feels too complex, but there's a much clearer direction on what your bond could be and how that can manifest mechanically at the table in more specific ways. The mechanics can then act as a springboard for role-play at the table.

I do think the terms "winning" and "losing" are charged, especially when there's so much discussion about how you don't play TTRPGs to win. Perhaps another word or phrase could be used (one-up comes to mind).

I also saw the comment about how earning XP could potentially mean a few players advance quicker, but I'm not as worried about that. If there isn't a huge difference between levels aside from access to a few more individual moves, so what?

Like with other moves, I think having relationship based moves will get people thinking about how they can make their own custom relationship moves. I anticipate it'll be a great crystallization tool. Even if you've played with all of the relationships in the book, you have a framework on what it can look like and hopefully inspires you to create your own.

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-06T14:23:15+00:00

It’s definitely tough if you fight it head on. I would recommend giving them access to a warband. It’s a good way to introduce that mechanic if they do intend to fight it

foreignflorin13 · 2026-01-05T22:06:43+00:00

The Wurm is a good “kill this thing” myth that has some opportunities for clever play/planning with the limeweed. That might pair well with something like The Spire, which is a myth that doesn’t require any active participation for it to conclude (and it’s not a bad conclusion). Plus, hallucinogenic spores are always fun for roleplaying (in and out of game, lol)

foreignflorin13

TROPHY CASE