This Week’s post looks at a completely different way to play Mythic Bastionland.
Want to play Mythic Bastionland, but don’t want to be a Knight?
Well, it’s probably the wrong game for... no... wait... what if you were a Raider from beyond the seas instead?
MYTHIC BASTIONLAND - RAIDER MODE
This is untested. To be honest it’s mostly written off the cuff.
Play the game as normal, but with the following changes:
Raiders, not Knights
Roll your character as normal, but do not take a Knight type. You do not automatically know Feats.
Instead pick 1 from each of the following lists.
Every raider hides a Blade (d6).
Birth
Ice: Take Monstrous Furs (A1, treat as plate).
Stone: You know Focus.
Sea: You can drink saltwater.
Childhood:
Toil: You know Deny.
Travel: You can Gallop as if you were a steed.
Thorns: Attack as 3d6 when unarmed.
Now:
Slaughter: You know Smite.
Sail: You can speak with your ship’s spirit.
Stories: Take a horn and masked helm (A1). The animal on your mask respects you.
If two Raiders in the same Company make the same choices then they immediately fight each other. Loser has to change one.
Gold, not Glory
You don’t gain Glory. Instead your reputation is measured in Gold.
Now this doesn’t necessarily mean gold, but represents the riches you have on taken and flaunted. Riches which you presumably gained by raiding. If a raider has a lot of gold then it’s usually safe to assume they carry a brutal reputation with them.
Even if you squander all your riches, the reputation rubs off. It’s like people look at you and think “yeah, if they wanted more gold they could absolutely take it”.
Gain 1 Gold when you successfully raid a Holding. Gain 2 if it’s a Seat of Power and you get some really good stuff.
Gain 1 Gold if you murder another Raider of higher Gold than you and take their stuff. Gain 2 if you totally humiliate them.
Trading and mercenary work might get you paid, but it won’t get you Gold.
0 Gold - Sea Worm: Other raiders see you as utterly disposable.
3 Gold - Sea Crow: Some raiders know your name, and you get a petty funeral if you die.
6 Gold - Sea Wolf: Even the greatest raiders know your name and will invite you aboard.
9 Gold - Sea Bear: Worthy of a proper funeral, and you’re in a few stories.
12 Gold - Sea Hawk: You should have died by now. It’s suspicious if you aren’t actively seeking death.
Ships, not Steeds
You serve on a Longship (7gd, A1) led by a Sea Wolf. Roll their Virtues on d12+6 and their Guard on 2d6.
The ship has enough axes (d8 hefty), shields (A1, d4) , and javelins (d6) for the whole crew.
The rest of the crew are a warband of Raiders: VIG 13, CLA 10, SPI 10, 4gd
Bad Reputation
Arrive in the Realm by water. Commoners who see you will hide, flee, or plead. If you consistently don’t kill them they might start to see you merely as dangerous traders.
If you return to a Realm you have already raided they have improved their defences.
Knights hate raiders as a whole, but you might be able to talk them around to you personally. Depends what you do. Are you really all that bad?
Wait, Vikings weren’t really like this
Who said anything about Vikings? See also my universal caveat: MYTH NOT HISTORY.
Enjoy!
Make sure to spread the word!
Elsewhere
Rise Up Comus wrote a fantastic post about making familiars into annoying little pests who you need to keep happy.
Black Rat Big Hat has a fun story about using a Wish spell to cause more trouble than you began with.
The Lady and Tiger reflects on running an OSR-style sandbox campaign.
Coming Soon
Over on Patreon I work through the process of adding conflict to your Realm.
So you've built a nice Mythic Bastionland realm where everybody lives happily alongside each other.
Let's fix that. Who do we have in in the four holdings of this realm?
The Amber Knight rules over Archforth, the Seat of Power in the centre of the Realm
The Boulder Knight rules over Buckwall, a fortress in the West
The Chain Knight rules over Castle Churn in the North
The Dawnfather, high priest of a sun cult, rules over the town of Daybreak in the EastWe'll use the Spark Tables in the Quickstart to make them nice and complicated.
First we'll give each one an internal conflict. The Drama, Woe, and News tables can all work for this, so we'll just jump between them.
Expect the full post here and on the blog next week.
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Oh now this sounds AWESOME
I love how quickly you can evoke genre with a few short tables. Awesome stuff!