Arthurian Mysticism and Violence: a Mythic Bastionland Analysis

24 Jan, 2025

Mastering an internal code while navigating The Weird and medieval violence can be a socially acceptable act of self destruction, dancing on the edge of a knife, whispering in the dark while a monster hunts you.

Introduction

Mythic Bastionland is a medieval adventure game inspired by Arthuriana and folklore written by Chris McDowall ¹ and related to his other work Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland, with mechanical differences based upon the implied setting and themes. The game navigates the violence of Arthurian legends with clear eyed romanticism firmly focused on Myths: the destabilizing magical threats that warp the fabric of reality.

Knights can easily be lost in the machinations of Court, but Myths and occasionally titanic tests of arms are how Knights achieve Glory and prove themselves worthy of the City Quest, not acts tied to politics and the mundane world.

This post will be an overview of Mythic Bastionland grounded in my own experience running the game for the past year. Please note: this writeup is focused on the game experience itself though I would remiss not to call out the beautiful art throughout the pre-print pdf shared with backers and drawn by Alec Sorenson. It is wonderful.

On Form

I would characterize Mythic Bastionland as a capsule game ² as defined by Rise Up Comus ³ . As a reminder, his definition was:

These principles structure capsule games so they can do what they do best:

• Provide predefined characters
• Create rules that are the right size
• Create immersive rules
• Create maps with no blanks
• Provide a sense of finality

Mythic Bastionland provides predefined knight characters, the rules align directly to knightly role play and action, the map has "no blanks" in the sense of map creation encompasses creating a clearly defined realms filled with myths and secret locations separated by wilderness, and the time structure of "Seasons" and "Ages" creates a sense of finality.

I note this to say that while one might borrow ideas from OSR adventure modules when creating one's bespoke realm, I would not recommend attempting to include items, monsters, or locations from standard OSR modules. The intended play style of the average module does not align with Mythic Bastionland's intended cycle of play and I think robs the game of what it does best.

Knighthood

Knights in Mythic Bastionland are navigating two worlds: the Mundane World: brutish violence and politics amongst those with strong arms and little regard for those they deem lesser; and The World of Myths and Seers: eerie and otherworldly happenings, supernatural beings and threatening concepts manifested in the material world. In the mundane world, Knights are mighty warriors with material, martial and social power. In the world of Myths, their skill at arms is less impactful.

Knights in Mythic Bastionland are not those of Pendragon. This is more Mary Stewart's Merlin books and the movie Excalibur than the Sword in the Stone. Each is strange in its own way, granted the ability to impact Myths through their contact with the Seers, otherworldly and strange prophets and interpreters of the odd and perilous who live in remote sanctuaries in the wastes. Seers are a conduit to the mythical world but weak. Knights are avatars of strength, warriors and almost detectives, who seek to prove their worthiness for the City Quest through resolving Myths throughout the land.

There is but one of each Knight type in the realm at any given time. When say, the Boulder Knight dies, a new Boulder Knight may be named or emerge somewhere in the realm, eventually, perhaps in a new Age.

On the Realm

The Vale is a remote realm carved out with warriors' blood across the the Sea. Lawlessness reigns, with roving warbands terrorizing the countryside and strange mystics shouting apocalyptic prophecies. Nature reclaims the queen's road. Craven opportunists find easy avenues to power.

Realm creation in Mythic Bastionland requires creating a hex map and populating it with terrain types and points of interests. The game text provides a clear procedure and extensive tables to inform realm creation. he d6+d12 Knights and Myths section of the book also includes components to inform all elements of realm creation.

An example: Each realm has four Holdings which are large settlements such as a fortress, castle or large town. I turn to the Civilization spark table page and roll on "Holdings" which delivers the following results:

• Welcoming Pillars
• Ornate Bridge
• Ancient Gate
• Dark Bridge

Having rolled two bridges, this would imply two Holdings were built at important Crossings. This realm potentially has several important arterial rivers through the land. I'd then roll on the extensive "Civilization" tables e.g. "Bailey" to further define the Holdings. This is done for each point of interest type as the map is created.

Afterwards, I normally would generate a key non-player character or two to reflect the leadership of that particular Holding that I might map relationships afterwards to other holdings and dwellings in the realm, creating more connections.

Overall, I found the map creation very fun. I used Cone of Negative Energy's Hexkit application available on itch.io to do so. I provide the map to my players because we play online and it's just much easier.

Exploration

Travel involves knights choosing a direction to set off into the Wilderness seeking adventure. They can travel at different paces depending on speed or if they are able to find a proper paved road. Roads are few and are (I believe) at the Referee’s whim to place, though logically they might be important routes between major Holdings. If Knights end a phase in Wilderness, 66% of the time they will then have a Myth-related event occur. This frequency creates a realm where mythic weirdness scratches at the thin borders between Holdings and other landmarks, lurking in the wastes and wilds.

This matters because exploring remote areas seeking Myths to resolve in order to achieve Glory and be worthy of the City Quest is the game. Slaying monsters or fighting cruel hedge knights does not grant Glory. Questing for Myths or achieving notorious feats of arms does.

The design intent lays out a map with vast wilderness haunted by Myths and those living uncomfortably close to them.

Conclusions

Mythic Bastionland is a game with a clear vision for the type of game experience it is meant to provide: knightly adventures in a dangerous world haunted by Myths and Omens. It requires some initial prep creating the map and sparks for each key location. Wardens need some degree of comfort in improvisation. Players need to buy into their role as Knights seeking to be worthy of seeking the City, pulled between the mundane and the mythical.

Footnotes