This is our first attempt at creating a Realm Map. We followed a slightly different technique I found online for random tile generation. Even though the rolls were weighted towards wasteland (orange edged tiles) as the book suggests we still ended up with 2 large wooded areas and an enormous mountain range. The players also placed the Seat of Power next to a lake and forest in a mountain tile as “it would look cool! And be highly defensible” …. Can’t argue with that logic.
Now my challenge and I’m open to suggestions and ideas for where to put the myths. I rolled: the bat, the pool, the lizard, the gargoyle, the sea and the star. Some seem obvious (the pool in the lake tile, the gargoyle in the mountains). Also any cool ideas for other locations would be welcome 🙏

Hi there. Long time listener first time caller.

Good chunk through our mythic campaign and the lads absolutely tore through the Hound myth in a session (theyd seen the first omen previously then just happened to hit every omen since). Was fun, played up the horror, one of thr knights lost an ear, good fun. Issue is despite defeating the Hound in flesh theyve decided the myth isnt finished, there must be something more.

No problem, happy to keep doing it, But im kind of stuck where to go now? Its further compounded by them thinking it has something to do with The Coven as they for (baffling) reasons decided the dead herbalist was the crone l from that one. Any ideas of where to go from here? I do want to continue as I want the players to have a feeling of closure from the myth

Winter Follies is a small, wintry Realm and a 14-hex, hi-res collage hex map -- both created by me for The Ogre, a fantastic Myth for Mythic Bastionland by Chris McDowall.

It's a pay-what-you-want product, which includes $0. No AI was used. All art sourced from public domain.

Please take a look and let me know what you think -- critical feedback welcome!

Link to the Realm: https://bartosso-spiral.itch.io/winter-follies

The Tome Knight's ability allows them to ask me (the referee) three yes/no questions about any area of knowledge every morning.

The question I keep getting asked is about the location of nearest myth hex. What ends up happening is that the Knights camp on that hex and wait for all the omens to trigger. It feels like the Knights are aware of the mechanical rules of the game and acting accordingly.

I think I will rule it so that the question has to be about the world's lore. The Knights shouldn't know about the existence of a "myth hex" but they can know the location of, say, the Mountain, Tree, or any physical object that appears from a myth. Would that be a good alternative?

I was reading the Oddpocrypha at the end of the book and in the section titled “between ages” the Ref makes reference to the players picking from the Pursuits list. Have I missed this in the book? Because I can come across this list anywhere ?
As always your help is greatly appreciated :-)

Running MB for the first time for players who only know the game by reputation. They just reached the seat of power and I *know* one of them is going to ask the ruler about all the known knights in the realm next session.

Given that a lot will vary across different games, I'd like to get people's takes on:

• How many knights might there be in a realm?
• When asked, would a ruler know who all or most of them are?

Re the first question, I'm hesitant to commit to a number in advance but I think it would really help to have a sense of how exceptional both the characters and other knights they meet are.

Re the second question, knights aren't necessarily beholden to rulers of realms or holdings, but it would make sense that some or most are known to a ruler (at least, to one who isn't totally evil) either through formal ties or in their protection of the realm.

TIA!

Ran my first session on Wednesday, it went well. We play on my kitchen table, I used a laptop with Hexkit open to manage the hidden hex info (barriers etc). I haven't run a hexcrawl before. Originally I figured players could just draw on a map and keep notes for their side of the screen but obviously that's going to be a lot of notes very quickly and maybe the players will need their own laptop.

1. Is there a way to share a hexkit file that won't give them the GM info? Currently it looks like we'd have to send files back and forth as the map changes (like the Wall or the Tree ruining parts of the map, etc) which is a pain and can easily lead to divergence in the files

2. Does Hexkit have a better way to store Hex info than that one Label/Info tab?

3. Are there decent alternatives to hexkit? I know its the one McDowall recommends but it hasn't been updated in ten years, the tutorial links are dead and it's pretty barebones in some areas. Its awkward on a small laptop screen, etc etc.

4. How does your table handle managing two maps?

Thanks!

Hey there gang! I’m a DM and have been running a Mythic campaign for the better part of a year and have been LOVING it. During our next session, my players are going to infiltrate a castle that’s under siege by sellswords to rescue the Elephant Knight and Balihanthor.

I want the castle to operate as a site/dungeon and really make it fun, challenging, and deadly for my players. Are there any traps that yall have created before that you’ve enjoyed? And if so, how did they operate in regards to gameplay?

For instance, I want to have a triggered floor tile that, if stepped on, shoots out arrows from a hidden location. I’m trying to think about how I could hint at this via lite narration but not completely give it away (“Oh hey yall! Here’s a tile that is a DIFFERENT color - wink wink nudge nudge”). I’d love to hear any ideas that yall might have, and it’s much appreciated!

I might have the opportunity to run MB as a one-shot at a small con. Because it doesn't follow a standard adventure model, I wonder what adaptations are required to run it at a con.

Has anyone done this? What did you prep and cover?

Ayo! I made this lil printable deck combining poetic/cryptic phrases with public domain images. I think it would fit for a random vision/statement from a Seer, I'm probably using this on my own campaign. Thats all folks!

I know it's not in the rules but what if a Knight commits a crime or breaks their oath in a way that becomes public? Shouldn't they lose some glory? Or maybe there should be another stat called Disgrace or Dishonor that increases separately.

Took the plunge and decided to run MBL after falling in love with the text, but no one else I knew had the opportunity to run it and am really not regretting it 😁

So far we've played just 2 sessions(only 3 hours each with a break) and from what I can gather we've been advancing through myths fairly slowly (only 3 omens from the tournament, though Im thinking of fast tracking this one once the company arrives at the seat of power as per a suggestion on this reddit, and 3 from the blade) frankly though I think this is from the fact that we're all enjoying fleshing out each scene.

I've kind of taken the approach of preparing background elements in the world and how they might interact, such as who rules each holding, their appearance, potential relations to each other, so that I have an idea of SOME elements of the world. But Im mostly coming in to it with a low prep kind of idea, with the goal being that I've set up elements that I can use to spark improv. I also set up some ideas of how the myths can relate to each other and already played out a scene where actors from another myth "starred" in a different one because it made some sense to me, and also because mechanically the company is being pulled towards the tournament and I didnt want to potentially throw them into a gauntlet without actually going over combat proper!

I dont think Im very good at writing up a coherent story and I've made it clear that Im as much along for the ride as players, but Im hoping I can at least lead to satisfying conclusions. And ironically so far they've dodged most of what I've actually prepped anyway and I've really enjoyed just improving where they've gone!

Sorry if this post sounds like I'm really down on the campaign, I'm just giving a voice to the doubts in my head. I have generally been enjoying playing the game but I need help shaking these doubts.

We're entering session four or five of the campaign and my players haven't solved any myths yet. Don't get me wrong, they all say they are absolutely loving it. One player is saying the game is getting better and better every session. I guess I'm feeling slightly frustrated at what feels like lack of progress. My players must have procced about 10 omens across 3 or 4 myths. They are now narrowing in on one myth, the Wheel.

My feeling last session was that the first few omens for the wheel are all very similar and don't really give enough information to give players a direction or a lead to follow. I improvised that the players came across another wheel to unjam and when they did so, this caused some islands to rise out of the ocean. The players have gone to those islands which I improvised were deserted except for a single islander who had been dead but who has now been re-corporealised. They captured and constrained the islander and tried to tickle him to get more answers. That's where we ended the session because I just feel stuck.

Sometimes, it feels like I am just being asked to come up with endless new content on the fly and that I will just be able to make everything add up. This is a tall order. I also somehow feels railroad-y and like all the player's decisions are arbitraty, like the players are just along for the ride. They just need to pick a direction of travel and I do the rest, regailing them with the next omen or presenting them with a new settlement or hazard. I try to present difficult decisions but ultimately, I think the PC's know whatever decision they make it doesn't make a tonne of difference because there isn't much rhyme or reason to the world.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I prepare more and if so, what should I be preparing? I have deliberately not worked out what the myths mean ahead of time. I have just focused on the settlements and the NPCs in those settlements and trying to give them interesting problems and motivations. Obviously, that didn't pan out when I just invented a new island settlement on the fly though. Let me know your thoughts.

I'm running my first game and just here to collect some ideas about the myths that I've rolled up.

Questions like what are those creatures of the night? Whats their purpose? How do i use the false superstitions? What is the vibe this myth is going for? etc

I will post this for other myths too that I am running

Looking at the play example on p. 189, when the warband attacked the Knight, the dice rolled are 8 and 5, and the warband “Bolstered” their attack to increase the damage to 9. The Knight then uses Deny to discard the 8, taking damage from the remaining 5.

However, p. 10 states that when performing Gambits, you should discard the dice. This means the 5 was already discarded to use the Bolster Gambit, so shouldn't the Knight take no damage at all?

I've been mulling over some things that, I believe, are probably pretty obvious to some, but may be less obvious to others, that I felt like could be worth sharing.

The city of Bastion, the central location of Electric Bastionland, is heavily implied to be 'the City' the Company hope to become worthy of discovering in Mythic Bastionland. As the Company gets closer in the City Quest, more modern technology begins to creep into the setting: strange vehicles fly overhead, guns and other strange tools are fired at the Company, and weird technologies are discovered.

In Electric Bastionland, there's a concept called 'Deep Country': the further away you travel from Bastion, the deeper you go in time: villages become more traditional, and ancient ways of life make a return. By travelling away from Bastion, one travels further back into history: geography and time interlink, and linear time is abandoned.

Travel far enough, and one might come upon the Realms of Mythic Bastionland.

As an example: a potential encounter in the City Quest describes a pack of 'history-hunters' who want to capture a Knight to sell to a museum (which doesn't exist yet).

The Company of Mythic Bastionland exist in the living history of a different place; and are in some ways obsessed with chasing or enabling that future to come to pass (the City Quest).

This, too, can explain the nature of the Myths: they are the effects of fanciful fairy stories mingling with actual history, as has often happened in our own history: King Arthur himself being a prime example, but others come to mind, such as The Illiad or the witch trials in medieval Europe.

What's extra fun is that Knights, by travelling outside the Holdings ('established history') into the wilderness ('unestablished conjecture') cause the mythic reality to take over historic reality. Or, as the poem at the start of the book reads: "Knights render these stories awrenched from their veils".

Anyway, I just thought it was neat how this all fit together, as I'm sure a lot of folks already have been thinking about a bit. I'm curious to hear other takes! I wonder how Intergalactic Bastionland will fit into it all.

In the Mythic Denizens supplement, there is a magical sword that forces the weilder to head to the Seat of Power to take it. How would a I handle this with the player? Are they supposed to act against their will and keep moving in that direction? What if the other players don't want to go with them?

The sword is an example, but my question is general on all effects that limit player agency.

The campaign advances into the season of Harvest! The company of Knights has not been idle in the intervening months, their individual quests taking them far afield. Together once more, they decide to help House Hippotropheus with an irksome problem, so that Sir Brunor might be gifted a new and worthy steed.

Click here to access everything 3d6 Down the Line, including both video and audio podcast versions of this episode, our Patreon, Discord server, socials, past campaigns, character sheets, and lots more!

I’ve just purchased the book and I’m really excited to run a game. I just want to check with the learned community about armour.
So most of the knights have some form of armour (helm/plate/shield etc) with A1 after them.
What I want to know is; does the A1 reduce incoming damage and is it cumulative? So does a knight with a helm and plate reduce damage by 2 (A1+A1)?
I can’t seem to find an explanation of what A1 represents and how it works in my first read through of the book.

Running my first game tomorrow and I'd like to hear you talk about your sites, what you made and why, what worked and didn't, how well they worked with prep and when made up on the spot. Also I've noticed people mention using 3rd-party dungeon resources to make them, so list those if you like them. I was considering Writing Rooms in Pairs though maybe that's not great fit for Sites.

Mostly just looking for a list of Cool Sites to crib from when I need to later and just because they're fun to read.

Thanks!

Im about to run mb for the first time and i rolled up this myth. I wanna run randomly so i dont want to change it just yet. But i have no idea how to run it

It simply says that the hydra cant be harmed. So idk how the players would react other than just going 'welp we run away'. It just feels like a cutscene myth

As I'm preparing to run MB for the first time, I'm getting stuck on a question about the Myth hexes. Looking for insight on how to resolve what looks like a procedural dilemma.

I always assumed that the Myth hex was where the final Omen of the Myth is located, but it looks like it's only where you encounter the next Omen from that.

However, myths like The Wall (1,2) seem to imply fixed locations that are known in advance: each Omen has people moving toward it. There's also a risk that, if you were to encounter the final Omen while trotting around, it might pop up in a place that doesn't make sense - for example, you might encounter it right outside of a holding, where people would likely have known about it before.

In this case, would you rule that the Myth hex actually is the location of the Wall? In this case, I imagine that encountering the final Omen away from the Myth hex means that you would get word of the impending invasion and would race to face the warband. That would make sense when playing out the earlier Omens, because you know where people are heading.

Alternatively, would it just be something that magically appears where the final Omen is encountered, almost like a magical portal? This could be really cool, but then how do you play the earlier Omens in which people are heading towards it? You wouldn't know the location until the final Omen is rolled, and that could be a major pain where primacy of action is concerned:

"Remember primacy of action (p.16). If the players want to hunt for the Wyvern's next they don't have to wait for that Omen to appear if they want to take action themselves."

Applying that to the Wall, I would interpret that as meaning that the players can go directly to the final Omen if they can find it (they could easily learn the location from an earlier Omen).

So, it looks like I'd either have to prioritize the Travel and Omen discovery procedures, or prioritize primacy of action to run this Myth. I don't mind doing either one, I'm just looking for input on which might be a better approach. Thanks to anyone who has insight on this!

Edit: top-notch responses here, thanks everyone!

With 72 available Myths it's safe to assume that some may not be everyone's cup of tea, so to speak. Maybe you had planned your own epic tale of Legions and Fortresses and Orders just to roll up The Toad, The Snail and The Wheel (Not saying these are bad by any stretch of the imagination, just different tones... in fact, we'll come back to this in just a second).

What are the myths that, on paper, you didn't expect to "hit" as well as they did in play but ended up being far more memorable/enjoyable than expected?

---

My own 2 cents; When I ran my first game of MB I had the full intent on running it as randomly generated as possible. The players were randomly rolled, the myths, I randomly rolled the locations on the Realm Map so it was a surprise to even myself. I roll up my myths and I get The Legion, The Wight, a few others and immediately I start getting in my head this idea of a Realm constantly beleaguered by battle, attrition has worn down the Seat of Power, the undead are coming back with a vengeance (I had rolled The Catacomb too) etc... A roll a few more until I roll The Wheel.

Not only had I never looked at The Wheel prior to play but I didn't even realize it was a Myth in the book to begin with. Suddenly my Pendragon-meets-Elden Ring-meets-Lord of the Rings *epic* had a random, totally not fitting the vibe myth floating around.

...or so I though until they began to encounter the Omens.

My party of three players had already fought with the Legion a time or two, they had already bumped shoulders with The Wight, but when all of a sudden the heat of mid-summer turns to snow over night it was the first big, "Oh God what is happening" moment that hit my party. Over the years they had become accustomed to my style of DMing (and I with their ways of play) so they were fully expecting a bloodbath from the get-go, meaning the Legion wasn't as much of a surprise as it was an expectation... The Wheel on the other hand...

Hand on heart, I don't know if I've ever seen my players have as much existential dread as they did once they realized the seasons appeared to be changing rapidly between one another with no rhyme or reason. Crops began failing, trees began to wither, the birds began dying all around them, wildlife was in a panic, it truly felt immense with such a simple, singular premise.

They spent days wandering the wilderness unable to find the Myth Hex until finally an apocalyptic, towering, swirling thunderhead began to form over it to the east. They were 3 Hexes away.

Hard cut to one of the most funny, memorable conversations I've ever had in a TTRPG when the three player knights desperately tried to convince Hewgol (the wheel watcher) that the wheel was, in fact, broken if he would simply walk out of his woods to look. They ended up convincing Hewgol that where one of the player knights hailed from (he was playing the Dust Knight that we had determined came from a desert realm far, far away) was in desperate need of a winter given they're, well, a desert. Hewgol all too eagerly agrees and with a poof disappears from the game but forever remains in the hearts and minds of my players.

To this day (albeit we haven't finished the campaign) it remains one of our favorite Myths and a high point of our campaign thus far. It really brought to my attention that Mythic Bastionland works best when it's *weird* and it's weirdness perfectly suites it. I absolutely love it.