You’ll have noticed that if you stick around a holding in Mythic Bastionland then the land is, well, less mythic. In fact, Myths kind of pause when the Knights aren’t out exploring.
That’s the way of this mythic world. Go ask the Seers if you want to know why.
Still, perhaps you want to have a session where the Knights don’t leave the holding at all, but you want some surprises thrown in there beyond what you can get from a spark table.
Create a Thread for each Holding in the Realm, including the Seat of Power. Then create a Thread for the Realm as a whole. These are just like Myths: six omens that will occur in order if left unchecked. They don’t need to be existential threats, just something interesting that could unfold, generally more mundane than Myths. They could even be shorter than 6 Omens if you want to keep things easy. There’s a set of examples at the end of this post.
As with Myths, remember the Primacy of Action and that locals will have variable levels of knowledge of these Threads.
You don’t typically get Glory when a Thread “resolves” but I could see the argument for it in certain cases.
While there’s no Wilderness Roll to make when you’re in a holding, make a Thread Roll at the end of the Morning Phase. This often lines up with open court, when the ruler (or one of their court) is expected to speak with visitors and vassals.
THREAD ROLL 1: News arrives of the next Omen from the Seat of Power’s Holding Thread having come to pass. 2-3: Trigger the next Omen from this Holding’s Thread. 4-6: Court is quiet enough, no big surprises.
Unlike Myths, Threads should sometimes progress even in the absence of a Knight to manifest them into reality. Make a Progress Roll when you return to a Holding where you’ve already witnessed an Omen from its Thread and you’ve been away for more than a few days.
PROGRESS ROLL 1: You are informed about the next two Omens that occurred in your absence. 2-3: You are informed about the next Omen that occurred in your absence. 4-6: No Omens have passed.
Okay let’s do some examples. Keeping this as broad strokes, as I’d generally want to note a cast much like the Myths have before taking it to play.
A Sickly Throne 1: The ruler coughs and sputters, finding themselves tired and weak. They pardon themselves from court today. 2: Farmers complain about plants faltering. A drought begins. 3: Ruler and land deteriorate further, their conditions now intertwined. Improvement or deterioration in one affects the other, but whichever is worse will drag the other back down with it. 4: A scholarly healer from a distant Realm arrives in Court, pledging to help the ruler. They secretly hope to poison them, weakening the realm further. 5: If the drought has not been broken then starvation sparks violent unrest amongst the vassals. 6: Unless the land has been restored to health the Ruler dies. The health of the land now depends on their successor.
A Voice of Doubt 1: The ruler, or another Knight, speaks of having not seen the City in their dreams lately, asking if the other Knights have. 2: The doubtful Knight has lost all faith that the City exists, renouncing their oath and allegiance to the Seers. They publicly pledge a new oath to only serve their holding. 3: The doubtful Knight calls a Feast. Over the modest feast they interrogate the other Knights, trying to get them to see that the City is a Lie. 4: The doubtful Knight pledges that all Knights arriving in the holding must renounce their oath to the City and the Seers, acknowledging that they are false. 5: A gathering of other Knights from the Realm arrives to challenge the doubtful Knight, laying siege if necessary. 6: The Seers declare that the doubtful Knight should be killed. The other Knights of the Realm move to carry this out.
A Rebuke from Nature 1: Farmers complain of green-faced “forest folk” attacking passers by and stealing their goods, though not causing serious harm. In reality these are youths being paid by the Marshall to stir up fear and increase their leverage. 2: A “forest folk” attack has killed part of a group of traders travelling up for the market. The Marshall secretly calls them off, knowing it’s gone too far. 3: The “forest folk” attacks have continued, this time with a more gruesome death, impaled on a sharpened branch. The Marshall’s lackeys had nothing to do with this. 4: The Marshall gathers a force to hunt down the forest folk, but they find nothing in the woods. 5: The Marshall is missing, their bed littered with leaves and dirt. Nobody wants to take on the position as Marshall now. 6: The Marshall returns, claiming they were lost in the woods. They resume their office with a new modesty, refusing to talk about their time in the woods.
A Feast Too Far 1: The most recent Knights to arrive at the Holding are invited to a three day welcoming Feast. Refusing the invite will insult the ruler. 2: Another great feast, this one less formal but significantly more rowdy than the last. 3: A representative of a local Seer arrives and orders a Season of modesty for the Holding. No more feasts! 4: The Ruler throws another feast, citing pressure from their court and other influential vassals. 5: The local Seer announces their withdrawal from the domain of this Holding, requesting Knights to escort them to a new Sanctuary on the other side of the Realm. 6: The Ruler calls all Knights of the Realm to a feast, calling upon any brave enough to find a new Seer to replace the previous one.
What makes up a Feast? Three things, as you’d expect.
Ceremony - How is the official purpose of the feast observed? Spectacle - How is the host showing off how wealthy, powerful, or important they are? Revelry - You think anyone would show up if you weren’t providing food and drink?
And, naturally, feasts in Mythic Bastionland fall into three broad categories: Great Feasts, Old Feasts/Masses, and Declared Feasts.
Expect the full post here and on the blog next week.
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You should publish a second book that is an expansion of Mythic Bastionland. I know that you like to keep your writing brief and leave a lot of room for the GM and players to fill in the gaps, but these new tools and techniques are useful as actual rules. They are tools to improve the game and a book that had different tools would be a very valuable resource that would make the game more fun. Think “Deep Cuts” by John Harper. You need not make something that amounts to a second edition of Mythic Bastionland, you could simply publish a book of creative, yet concrete, extras that players could take or leave, incorporate or not into their games.
You should publish a second book that is an expansion of Mythic Bastionland. I know that you like to keep your writing brief and leave a lot of room for the GM and players to fill in the gaps, but these new tools and techniques are useful as actual rules. They are tools to improve the game and a book that had different tools would be a very valuable resource that would make the game more fun. Think “Deep Cuts” by John Harper. You need not make something that amounts to a second edition of Mythic Bastionland, you could simply publish a book of creative, yet concrete, extras that players could take or leave, incorporate or not into their games.
We just finished a Myth that has led to significant change in the Seat of Power. Definitely going to create a Thread to move the story forward.