Natural 7

Knighthood

This post dives into creating and playing a character in Mythic Bastionland. If you'd like to read more about my opinions on Mythic Bastionland, check out my Playing Mythic Bastionland post.

Creation

Creating characters in Mythic Bastionland is very easy. You roll some dice to determine a random Knight out of 72 possibilities. Each Knight gives you some gear, an ability, a passion, and a random table to roll on. You also have three virtues, or stats, that are sometimes relevant.

Virtues

The virtues all represent some part of your character, and are useful to perform feats in combat (the combat conversation will come in a later post). Vigour tells you if you are still alive or not. Clarity is your awareness. Spirit measures bravery.

Low and high scores can help inform your character, though they don't actually matter as much as you may think they do. Knowing that you have a low vigour can be useful if you want to portray a physically weak or injured character. Low clarity might mean you are constantly looking the wrong way, or oblivious to your surroundings. Low spirit might mean you are a coward. High scores might suggest the opposite.

Gear

Every piece of gear has a bit of evocative flavor tied to it. They give you an idea of who this Knight could have been or who they want to be. Sometimes they will help inform the theme or vibe of your character. It also eases the challenge of describing a new character to the group.

Some of my favorite pieces of gear:

Abilities

Abilities are special powers unique to a Knight. They are useful in specific situations. Some are better than others. The best part about abilities is the sense of mysticality they give your character. You are magical and mythical just be being a Knight. There are also some special powers that only Knights have, called Feats. These are the skills that heavily distinguish you from all the vassals you meet on your adventures.

Some of my favorite abilities:

Using abilities always feels special and cool. They are also another way to determine what your character is capable of and why. The Punitive Stroke ability tells you that you want to keep a list of people who lie to you, and you want to get your enemies to lie in battle if possible. Taking hints from your abilities can aid in how you roleplay and motivate your character.

Passions

All Knights have a passion which restores their Spirit virtue. In practice, this is a highly rare thing to need, but it is a tool to further inform your character. I like to think of this as a thing that your character wants. Another way to think about your passion is that it's the opposite of what you want; it could be something to avoid.

Some of my favorite passions:

Tables

On each Knight's page is a d66 table. Combining the results tells you some sort of unique thing about your character. It might further define your history, a piece of equipment, the steed you ride, the reputation your have, or the thing you need. These tables make it so even if you encounter the same Knight multiple times within a single adventure, they are guaranteed to differ.

Some of my favorite table outcomes:

The detail described for each Knight is invaluable. There is so much indirect history that you can immediately develop an idea about who this character is before you even start playing them. Next we'll look at why you are encouraged to explore and actually do Knightly things.

The Oath

Motivating your characters to do Knightly things is very easy. Everyone has sworn the same Oath and is therefore part of the same "team":

Seek the Myths

Honor the Seers

Protect the Realm

It's ambiguous but direct. You can interpret the words however you'd like. Your actions and those that witness them are what determines how well you are adhering to the Oath. In my experience, this Oath in itself provokes a certain reaction from players during almost every Mythical encounter. They have to make a choice about which section of the Oath to follow (and sometimes which section is more important than the rest). Choices are good. The Oath can make them especially tricky.

Myths & Seers

Now is a good time to talk about Myths. There are 6 Myths in any realm most of the time. While exploring, you'll encounter omens for nearby Myths. Each omen either has a decision for the players to make or a piece of lore to learn or a strange event that helps set the tone for the Myth. None of the Myths need to make sense. They are weird and fantastical and mythical. Only the Seers know the truths about the Myths. When you resolve a Myth (decided by both players and GMs, usually after all 6 omens have been experienced) you get 1 Glory.

Seers are another topic I've yet to mention. Think of them like oracles, prophets, soothsayers, etc. The key thing is that they know all the secrets about every Myth. Whether or not they can tell you is another question.

Each seer has a set of details they know and a goal they have. These details may be useful to you and they may not. For example, if a seer knows everything about the past and nothing about the future, are they guaranteed to know something about the Myth of the Order that's happening right now? Maybe they don't know about this specific Order, but perhaps an Order that formed a couple centuries ago?

An interesting dilemma that players will (often) face is when a seer wants something that could contradict the Oath. What if they want "to feed enough (on sorrow and aches and pain) to finally be satisfied" or "become even more rotten, filthy, and diseased"? Does that mess with your plans to Protect the Realm? Maybe. Maybe not. How are you supposed to honor a seer who is "physically pained by admiration or love (and) wants to become even more loathed"? Seems like a challenge!

The combination of weird Myths and weirder seers gives your adventures a mythical, fantastical, impossible feel. They also force action and choices onto your players. This is a good thing.

The City

Every character also has a second motivation. If you reach 12 Glory then you are worthy for the City quest. It is the final quest, the one to end all quests. It's written out in the core rules and is about three times as long as a normal Myth. Every company of Knights wants to start and end this quest because if you succeed, you will have found the City: a dope and awesome and cool place that is maybe called Bastion and maybe referenced in Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland. Or maybe you just find an empty plains, knowing that this is the land upon which the City must be built.

This is a group goal. No single person has to find the City. Everyone can share in its Glory. You are a company of knights. A team.

Having these two motivations is really important for players because there is no core plot. There is no rail to be roaded. You decide what is important to you.

In the game I played, we did not use the City quest. Instead, our goal was to find an artifact in each of four realms. If we had all four artifacts, we would be named the King/Queen/Emperor of all the realms. Each artifact had its own version of the City quest. You are right to think that is insane and a lot and "oh my good gravy how will you ever finish all of those quests with one character". The important thing to note is that only one person can wield all four artifacts.

This didn't cause as many problems as you'd think it would. We were still a team for the most part. I think only a select few of us were willing to make substantial sacrifices in order to carry all four armaments ourselves. In the end we all decided to forge our own future: they would be wielded together by the four Knights we trusted the most.

In this instance we actually could change destiny. Sometimes what you are told is different from reality, even in a game.

Final Thoughts

We looked at creating a character and how Knighthood immediately gives you ideas for roleplaying and interacting with the world around you. We also looked at why Knights are motivated to do anything useful, and how their decisions could become difficult.

In the future, we'll dig into the ways that the "team" falls apart or gets stronger.

Happy holidays!