Playing Mythic Bastionland
My group has just about finished a Mythic Bastionland westmarches campaign that began in Spring 2024. After playing the game for many, many hours I'd like to share my thoughts on the incredible experience it has provided me.
My intentions are to summarize my thoughts in this post, then spend time delving into specific things I learned in the future.
What is Mythic Bastionland?
Mythic Bastionland is a tabletop roleplaying game about knights exploring a vast realm full of myths, politics, and strange landmarks. It is my favorite game I've ever played.
The game was designed by Chris McDowall (of Into the Odd & Electric Bastionland fame) and illustrated by Alec Sorenson (illustrater for Electric Bastionland too).
The rules are minimal and direct, the adventures are easy to run, the art is beautiful. The overall quality of the game is beyond amazing.
You can find a free quickstart demo on itch.io that you can use tonight with your group.
The Core Experience
The majority of the game is played theater of the mind with exploration as the core gameplay element.
Lots of time passes in-game. Sometimes its a few months, other times its a few years. We call this the passing of Seasons and Ages.
Exploring brings you face to face with Myths. These are written out in the book. You experience up to 6 Omens throughout the duration of one Myth. It's up to the players and GM to decide when a Myth has been resolved.
The core assumption is that your character seeks 12 Glory to then be worthy of a final quest. Finish that quest and you win.
As Knights you have sworn an Oath: To Seek the Myths, Honor the Seers, and Protect the Realm. It is up to you how you follow that Oath.
There are no attack rolls. You just roll damage.
There are no skill checks and rarely any saving throws.
Death is to be expected.
How I Found It
In Spring 2024, a westmarches campaign was launched by someone I vaguely knew. The game we would play was called Mythic Bastionland. I didn't recognize anyone at our session zero, but they seemed pretty nice. One session turned into two. Then four. Then six. More players started to join. We started getting dinner before sessions. We all became good friends. The final session is next week. I'm both excited and incredibly afraid.
Up until I joined this game, I'd only ever played Dungeons and Dragons and FIST. I didn't know much about other systems, but I thought playing a Knight sounded fun and the art we had looked cool (this was back before the game officially released, so we were playing with the prerelease rules). This was also the first time in a few years where I would be a player instead of GM in a long-term game. Usually it's me in the GM role for my friends.
Playing in a Campaign
The westmarches campaign lasted about a year and a half. I don't think everyone's game will last this long, depending on how often they get together. My guess is 6 months and semi-weekly play can get you through that final quest. The scope of the campaign was also different from what the book assumes, which I'll explain the details of another time.
The short and simple story is this:
- we had a large group of players and multiple GMs
- over 100 years passed in-game from the first session
- we resolved over 60 Myths in the book
- we expanded across four realms and the lands between them
- an emergent storyline connected threads across the Ages
My personal experience involved:
- living the lives of 7 different Knights, some related by blood
- seeing the impact of my actions evolve across time and space
- collecting around 85 Glory across all my Knights
- mapping entire realms with a hex map
- roleplaying impactful & emotional interactions between players
- playing multiple morally gray and evil characters (without creating a negative experience for other players or my GMs)
- making new friends in real life
Running a Campaign
On my own time, I ran small games for my local tabletop club and as a summer mini-campaign. Each of those games lasted about two and a half months. The summer one concluded with multiple players at 12+ Glory and the final quest complete. I didn't want to spoil too many of the Myths for myself, since I was still a player in the westmarches game, so I created my own Myths.
Some things that I learned from the experience:
- almost everyone will enjoy this game
- the game flows quickly, but pacing matters
- procedural exploration (with a hex map) is fun for everyone
- creating realms is an addicting past-time
- Seers are catalysts for change and action in the players
- the core book has everything you need for multiple campaigns
- spark tables are your friend
Final Thoughts
Th experience that Mythic Bastionland has provided me has been revolutionary for how I interact with other players, run my own tabletop games, and even think about game design in general. It has inspired me to try many more roleplaying games, many of which from the OSR. It has helped me learn which game mechanics I like and which I don't.
This game will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Please check out Mythic Bastionland if you haven't already. The design is incredible. The artwork is gorgeous. The experience is worth it. You can even get started for free.
Happy holidays folks, please stay warm and enjoy spending time with your friends and family!