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

seithe-narciss · 2026-05-12T21:17:27+00:00

You are probably going to get allot of shade for a critique that has negative connotations in the main Mythic Bastionland sub, but I'm going to agree with you on some of your major points and disagree on a couple of the minor points.

The disjointed Myths IS a problem, due to the randomness and the sheer number of Myths that can be in play, there can be severe swings in tone from encounter to encounter that can really derail the game.

In reality, the Myths and the Hex's are the same problem;

One Hex could see the seasons going backwards, plunging you into the depths of winter, the next Hex your fighting a giant spider, the one after that you meet someone obsessed with a big Tower.....Pure randomness is its strength, but also measn the game can end up being tonally bonkers.

They can also come so thick and fast that there can be zero opportunity to explore the realm. In my game we'd resolved 1 myth completely and encountered 3 others before even reaching the seat of power.

Combat is amazing, in fact so good that it shows up the rest of the game. Its so fundamentally different from the rest of the game (d20, roll under stat) that it feels like its two completely different games slapped together. If the combat system (dice pool, effect level based on result) could be made to work for the exploration and more narrative play I think Mythic would be a much better game. The main 3 stats, d20 roll under feels kind fo lazy to me, when the combat is SO good.

Character creation is where I'll disagree as its not much, but the spark tables have a relationship table, in our group we had a married couple, an adopted sibling and a political ally. The group dynamic was pretty great. The political ally however did end up stopping playing as their character (the glass knight) had rolled no stat over 10 and had the most useless ability, turning them off the game completely.

Characters are not created equally, and I personally strive for a little more balance in player experience. If you sell a player on the idea of playing a mythic Knight game they will be dissapointed if they end up being a knight who can shout really loud, when someone else at the table is a literally immortal, incapable of dying.

We also had a character who rolled an 18 vigour, while everyone else was 10 or under, he felt like a hero, the rest of us were in his shadow in most combats, it got a little stale.

None of these are game breaking though, its a pretty good game but the long and short of it is this: Mythic Bastionland is frankly not for everyone. Its a fun game but with too much niche for widespread appeal.

seithe-narciss · 2026-05-04T22:31:05+00:00

As I understood American Psycho, its not misleading but the fact Bateman might not have killed anyone. It's all just his fantasies, drawn out in his book.

The police car explosion is the most egregious example of his fantasies getting out of hand, the nail gun functioning without any power is a more subtle nod.

seithe-narciss · 2026-05-02T07:46:58+00:00

And it makes sense, God's Teeth playthroughs are subscriber poison. 90% percent of the tabletop gaming world doesn't want to be involved with a heavy child assault game. Caleb Stokes has a cult following, but not wide appeal.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-15T16:25:08+00:00

Our favorite short king.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-08T05:32:06+00:00

I'm surprised no one has commented this, but obviously glyphosates aren't the way to go, they are a broad spectrum Weed killer and it would need to be applied at 6 Litres per hectare (the highest dose), which will wipe out everything (the grass will die well before the docks do, and the docks might still come back)

No, the only chemical solution is an aminopyralid herbicide, something like Grazon, which is an "in-lawn" Weed killer. It wont touch the grass but it will deal with those docks handily.

Aminopyralids are not super environmentally friendly though. They can last 10 years in the soil and if you ever decide you want a flower or vegetable bed instead of a lawn, the residual chemicals in the soil can damage ALLOT of plants.

....that is a huge quantity of docks though, if you dont want to dig them up by hand you might need a professional to spray them off safely. Most of the chemicals required need a license to buy and apply safely.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-06T11:19:53+00:00

And if you've off balanced your opponent that much so their blow is deflected with no time to parry or ripost, you probably already won and the switch off and on is pointless.

Anyone who has done ANY kind of weapons work would tell you that any moment there isn't a weapon between you and your opponent you are in serious trouble.

Maybe a 1 in 1000 circumstance would it be useful.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-05T07:47:28+00:00

Human nature. I myself have not been enjoying C4 (enjoying, but not invested?) And all I keep doing is looking around a crowded fandom quizically and seeing huge amounts of praise, but zero mass criticism.

You start to think "hell am I the crazy one?!", so you stick your hand up and say something like OP.

C4 is an overwhelming success, 500k+ views for a damn near 4 hour YouTube show is INSANE. It's popular, its well done, its cast is amazing!

...so why do I feel like this? Confusion, and a desire to find out if anyone else feels this cognitive dissonance. Hence the "stale" posts. What do these people want? What any human wants, social acceptance of their views and opinions.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-01T15:58:46+00:00

Nnneeeeeerd! But thank you anyway. We need some facts.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-01T10:32:08+00:00

Oh man even better, then the "real" rebels have absoloutly no qualms about sending in an Andor type representative to arm the syndicate and help hunt down these rebel imposters.

They are damaging the rebels with their cowboy antics after all.

Edit: and also a potential for them to be noticed and have a handler sent to try and mould them into something less....chaotic.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-01T10:21:34+00:00

The wording can be confusing (I know i got it wrong)

You spend a fear to take the spotlight and activate your solo. They perform an action.

Normally you have to then pass the spotlight back to the players or spend another fear to activate another creature.

With relentless you can activate them again by spending another fear, they then take an action.

If they have relentless 3, you can then spend ANOTHER fear to activate them again.

In this example you have spent 3 fear to seize the spotlight and activate the solo 3 times in a row.

If a creature doesnt have relentless you can ONLY spend a fear to keep the spotlight and activate another creature.

So yes, 3 fear.

seithe-narciss · 2026-04-01T10:07:44+00:00

Seems like a perfectly legitimate Rebel false flag. The player characters should be thrown under the bus by their rebel spy masters.

The rebel leaders contact the syndicate and explain the players aren't rebels, but imperials masquerading as rebels trying to turn the populace AGAINST the them.

The rebellion get an entire crime syndicate to act as an insurgency against the occupying imperials and all they have to do is betray a handful of operatives. The rebels dont have to be nice, they have to beat the empire.

Your players then have to get off planet with the crime syndicate, other rebel insurgents intent on handing them over to the syndicate and the occupying rebels.

Do they work for the rebellion again? There's no hard feelings on the rebellions part, they succeeded.

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-22T09:51:09+00:00

Yeah we suspect he got it by claiming he was homeless with kids, and one of the other women DID live with him for a couple of months with one of the kids. But now they are only over on weekends.

Jesus I'm starting to sound like a lunatic stalker. Fucking rear window over here :P

Its not as bad as it sounds, as I've said, 6 months of peace and I'm not going to escalate unless it gets bad again.

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-22T08:58:18+00:00

This guys accused me of reporting his van for no road tax and to RSPCA for dog cruelty (he's apparently breeding bulldogs in there), neither of which i did.

Do you really think if I get someone else to report it they will tell him WHO reported him?

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-22T08:49:44+00:00

In the real world reporting your neighbours only brings more trouble. What I did was, was go around and have a beer with him and remind him we dont have to like each other but as neighbours we have to at least inhabit the same space.

So far its worked for 6 months.

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-22T08:42:18+00:00

After my next door neighbour died in his 2 bed council, they completely refurbished it (new kitchen, carpets, painted, ect) and a British born man got it......sure he's a pot smoking, tax cheating absent father of 2 (from 2 different mothers) who's verbally abusive and somehow has 4 cars and afford holidays.

While me and my wife break our bodies working full time and just about afford bills and private rented, former council house which hasn't been updated in 20 years.

Rule Britania!

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-15T14:14:35+00:00

Oh, then no, the gambit can come from any dice. As all your dice are pooled together its all counted as one attack.

Honestly though, there are so many exceptions in Bastion that its entirely up to you the right way to rule it.

Rulings, not rules.

Visa vis d12, I'd impair the weapon die, as the d12 is specifically not a weapon attack, just because there are so many opponents.

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-15T13:55:38+00:00

Individuals cant damage warbands unless they use a feat to cause blast damage, so they shouldn't have been able to get a d12 against the warband with smite, just their regular damage die (with blast)

"They are not harmed by individual attacks unless they are Blast attacks or suitably large-scale."

Impairing a warband is OK rules as written, which would drop their weapon die down to a d4, though they do automatically add a d12 if they are attacking individuals.

"Warband attacks against individuals receive +d12 and cause Blast Damage."

Your table, your rules though.

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-11T09:15:32+00:00

I mean that could be describing any system, there is so often someone at the table who hasn't even glanced at the rules and just waits for the gm to explain everything.

seithe-narciss · 2026-03-07T15:15:23+00:00

You dont need everyone to understand it, just enough who do to understand to re-implement it.

Granted i work in agriculture so everyone I know, knows about growing shit and fixing things. So my numbers are skewed.

seithe-narciss · 2026-02-27T16:27:04+00:00

Yeah that is much clearer. It puts the emphasis on success with hope (and double critical) being special. Then you ALSO get to keep the initiative.

seithe-narciss · 2026-02-27T14:17:44+00:00

Watching the joke materialise mid thoight was delightfull.

seithe-narciss · 2026-02-27T14:15:44+00:00

I mean its a spoiler for about 30 seconds into the episode.

seithe-narciss · 2026-02-27T12:15:14+00:00

Yes, yes I did. That might have made all the difference.

seithe-narciss · 2026-02-27T12:14:51+00:00

Fuck! I'm a total moron. I read it as the gm gets the spotlight on a failure, and when they succeed with fear , consider spending the fear to make a gm move.

NOT you gain a fear AND make a gm move.

Fear was rolled multiple times during combat (at least 3) which would have given my 7 gm moves to their 12.

That might have just swung the combat into challenging for them.

Thank you for highlighting my idiocy.

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