Preparing for Mythic Bastionland: setting up the realm
Part 1 of ???
Indie/OSR/NSR sessions every other Thursday at the Sword & Board have taken off. A core group gelled very quickly and has been pretty dedicated, with a few people interested in running games. I haven't run anything myself in that slot since finishing the Muckfort (final play report still pending!) and, oddly enough, I've been running Kala Mandala weekly in a different slot with an entirely different group.
Next thing I'll run on Thursdays will be Mythic Bastionland. It's been tempting me since I got it in the Kickstarter but I haven't had the spoons to wrap my head around running it until recently. Thankfully, that time has come and I recently started prep.
I'd been a little nervous about this because my last attempt to create a realm didn't seem to make sense. Since then I listened to a bunch of actual-plays and have a better sense of how all this realm-generating turns into gameplay. And maybe I'm just rolling better now?
I started with a 12x12 hexmap, as recommended. To create the terrain, I rolled 4d12 and designated each of the dice as follows:
• 2d12 for (approximate) hexmap coordinates • 1d12 for size • 1d12 for Landscape (in the Nature-Land table)
Caption: It'll look nicer than this by the time we play!
I haven't done the Character of the hexes yet. Not sure if I'll apply that universally to each terrain type (i.e., a stretch of heath that's entirely barren, or varieties therein).
For the first few plots of terrain, I centered the plot on the coordinate hex I rolled and improvised the spread. When I began to roll overlapping plots, I'd stick the new plots close to that location and fill in some blanks in the map with it. To finish, I made some executive decisions to rejig some hexes to give the landscape a little more flow and possibility for drama.
I'm not sure about the distinctions between some of the terrain types - in the context of the game, what's the difference between a forest and a glade hex, or a bog and a marsh? Does it make sense to have an 8-hex cluster of glades? I'll figure it out later, if need be. The amateur physical geographer in me struggles with this!
I haven't place the rivers yet, but I have a pretty good sense of where they'll go.
Not sure where to put barriers. 1/6 of the hexes seems like a lot!
I then rolled the four holdings. Thankfully, the dice cooperated again and helped inspire some dynamics. I rolled each of the Civilization for civilization to round out each holding, re-rolling where things just didn't make sense or where there were duplicates that wouldn't be any fun. I use some online generator for town names but forget which.
For holdings we have:
- Knightthorn - a wild citadel (seat)
- Freywatch - ancient battlements
- Crystalvale - a bright dome
- Baygate - a dark gate
After placing the holdings, I rolled all six myths and got (die roll in parentheses for easy reference):
- The Wall (1-2)
- The Sun (3-5)
- The Underworld (1-11)
- The Imp (2-5)
- The Spectre (4-4)
- The Crown (4-8)
I liked rolling them together and placing them after the holdings, because again dynamics and situations began to emerge.
The big question for me has been whether and how the myths relate to the Woes and News rolled for the holdings, or to other elements such as ruins? It makes narrative sense to connect some of them, but I'm worried that these connections might fast forward through the discovery the myths. OTOH, since we're planning a limited adventure of 4 sessions, that might not be such a bad thing. So far I've decided to that I will connect them.
I've made more progress since the initial draft but may save that for future posts. I quite like the emergent dynamics of the realm - like every GM who has done prep that hasn't sucked I'm sure, I find myself wondering if this is fit for distribution? If play goes well, maybe I'll bundle it as a free download on Itch as a pre-prepped realm.
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