Mythic Walkingland or my problem with overland procedures
Mythic Bastionland is a game of knighthood and exploration in a realm full of strange creatures and uncanny events. It is beautifully laid out, the artwork is exceptional, the rules are well explained and have plenty of examples of play. For a more thorough review, I recommend checking Amanda P.'s Weird Wonder blog
I have been eager to have this book in my hands – and also to play the game with some friends. And I did play the game, and I plan to continue playing.
The Game
The first thing I did, as a GM, was to get the basic map that Kyle Latino (aka Map Crow) made. I placed six different myths across the realm and that was pretty much it. I approached this game with the idea of improvising stuff as it developed.
The players created the Knights – each one is a really evocative piece of writing – and did a brief introduction (no more than 10 minutes) before starting the journey.
From reading the pdf I expected a tone of brave knights and high adventure. The art is so good that it had a strong weight on how I perceived the gamefeel. However, the overland travel procedures – and, admittedly, my lack of preparation – changed a big chunk of what I expected to be a session full of exciting action.
Procedures and the short/long run
The game tells you to do a roll to see if there is an encounter with myths every watch (roughly 8 hours) players are in the wilderness. Combined with weather rolls, the procedure felt invasive; I, the GM, was rolling every few minutes to see if something happened.
And things did happen, indeed, but during the game, they felt more like something that was not related directly to the players: warm earth, the sudden appearance of a citadel in the distance, a seer fleeing from someone or something... it just felt anticlimactic at the start. Probably because we had a session where the main action was to stop a fire in some woods: no combat, no death, no glory.
At the same time, looking back, we really have stuff to comment and stuff that we liked. We also think that a lot of things happened, but the main problem was that there was no climax. I do not think this is a flaw in Mythic Bastionland, but more likely a consequence of just playing a single session. It may be that a longer chain of events changes this perception.
Ultimately, this is the main challenge I have with (my game) of Mythic Bastionland: it requires a setup that one-shot adventures do not. When we follow an adventure module we quickly arrive to the conclusion of it – and if it is a dungeon there are monsters to fight and treasure to gain.– On the other hand, exploring a realm is not a task that can be done in three hours.
That said, I am really enjoying the game and I really like the vibes that the book produces. For me, it is a stunning piece of art.
PD: Today, Chris McDowall just put out a post on his blog about one-shot Mythic Bastionland and made me realize that, in part, what I was missing was an action-related climax, which will come for sure in later sessions.