Maximising Omens and Myths

Advice for running Mythic Bastionland

An ongoing attempt to maximise narrative potential.

I would like to think that over time I have developed a specific style of running the award-winning game Mythic Bastionland. This is the first post out of 3 or so where I’ll summarise some things I do that I think might be of use to others.

Chris McDowall has an almost obscene love for doing things in 3's and as an ode this blogpost will present things in 3's as much as possible.

The Wyvern will be used as an example throughout. The first omen from the Demon and from the Wight are also included. So spoilers obviously follow.

I. Expanding Omens

The book does a pretty good job of presenting omens in an evocative way. Nonetheless, having a procedure to assist improvisation can help.

This section shows how to do that by asking three W-Questions, by thinking about Chronology and finally by Cross-Pollinating Myths! 

The Three W-Questions

The following questions are a structured way to beef the omens up: 

• Where? Hexes are large, when the Company stumbles upon an omen what about that specific spot makes it interesting?
• What? Focus on the main object(s) and work out some extra detail about it.
• Who? Focus on NPCs and what makes them interesting.

I won't fault you if this seems somewhat vague, so here are some examples that use the first omen from the Wyvern myth. The omen reads as follows:

"Crowned stag, crawling, poisoned. Its antlers are known to burn scaled beasts."

Where?
This should be partially answered by the biome, but detail can be added by looking at the omen. The stag is poisoned, so it probably fought the Wyvern, are there signs of a battle such as uprooted flora or claw tracks in the dirt. The Company might stumble upon the combat area before finding the stag.

The stag is crawling, but where to? Possibly to a stream or does it fear the return of the Wyvern and it is crawling towards a canopy to be obscured from the skies?

The dressing in this scene has always stuck with me. There is no need for that head to be behind Frodo. But it is and it's just such a cool detail.

What?
The crowned stag. We don't know much about the crowned stag. It makes sense that most referees will consider some obvious characteristics like size and colour (spicing that up from time to time is neat). More interesting questions are: How common is it in the realm? Does it speak? What are its personality traits? A good question is to always ask: what makes this crowned stag different from the crowned stags that show up in other games?

I ran this myth when I was just starting out with Mythic Bastionland and looking back I wish I had given the crowned stag antlers of pure gold (but it's lighter and harder than non-mythic gold, for obvious reasons), hence the "crowned" moniker. I also feel it would be fitting if it were the size of a moose and you gotta earn its trust to be able to ride it. Now it has a much stronger mythic vibe.

Who?

This question often calls for someone (or something) to talk to. Adding NPCs is great and you have a lotta tables to help you come up with something on the fly.

This Wyvern omen doesn't have an obvious character to talk to. Possibly the crowned stag can speak, or an NPC shows up (possibly riding a different crowned stag!).

NPCs are great for at least three things: information ("the antlers are known to burn scaled beasts", "the winged beast is often seen north of here"), assistance ("I can join you, but I can only use a bow", "while you ride north I can ride to the hamlet and warn the farmers") and side-quests ("take a slight detour to deliver these golden antlers to John the hunter and surely he will assist you").

Chronology

When expanding omens it also helps to think of past (How did the Wyvern come to the realm? Does a noble house have a crowned stag as part of their crest?), present (the Wyvern is now active in the realm, how are people and animals responding?) and future (if you are aiming to run a capstone myth like the City then any omen can foreshadow that, the stag can have a plastic ear tag with the logo of Ferrous Labs and "in case of escape, please return").

Chronology might be less useful than the 3 W-Questions, but it comes up often enough that its inclusion in this blogpost is warranted. It functions more as on-the-fly world-building that can make omens more connected to the realm.

Cross-pollination

Aside from the 3 W-Questions, the 3 elements of Chronology, omens can be maximised by adding in other elements from different Myths. Once this Wyvern omen has come to pass any future omens in this region can be abruptly altered by the Wyvern entering the stage. The Wyvern can swoop in to snatch up the slaughtered goat featured in the Demon. It passing overhead will surely give Catfold (from the Wight) reason to halt his washing duties.

II. Lingering Omens

Just a heads-up: this segment is probably of more use to referees who don't mind their notes snow-balling over time.

Omens could maximally change the realm.

Anyone that shows up during an omen could persist and should show up in future omens. They should also travel around and show up in other hexes.

Anything that comes into existence during an omen that could be considered a minor landmark should persist. If the Company returns to a hex with said minor landmark and an omen triggers, that omen could take place at that minor landmark.

Example: if the Company stumbles upon Catfold (from the Wight) under a Grey Willow, concludes the omen and later on the crowned stag omen occurs in the same hex, well now you can have Catfold who saw the battle between the Wyvern and the stag happen, he might be trying to calm a panicked stag, maybe trying to dress its wounds. The crowned stag omen has been expanded with content from an already concluded omen.

Front and centre should always be to maximally reflect the players’ decisions. If the crowned stag dies and is left to rot, this could be reflected by a dark ground caused by the poisoned blood that leaked into the soil. If the Company gave the stag a glorious burial the land could reflect that with a patch of golden daffodils frequented by hummingbirds and chuckling foxes.

Luckily. many omens include things like houses, bridges, ruins, trees, ponds, etc. Make it weird and unique to your realm and let it persist!

Ever Evolving Minor Landmarks

When my Company encountered the slain goat from the Demon they gave it a respectful burial and planted a sapling upon the grave. It made sense to have some special tree as a minor landmark in this hex. At some point Catfold (from the Wight) triggered in this hex and I opted to blend the omen with the goat's grave. The sapling had grown and Catfold was not labouring under a mundane grey willow, but a tree with goat hide for bark.

Obviously the omen of Catfold now persists too! The minor landmark is now the Goat Tree and Cleaning Pond, where Catfold shows up when needed. This location reflects an omen from the Demon and an omen from the Wight! And will hopefully evolve more in the future!!

One session my Company came upon the Goat Tree and Cleaning Pond and it did a surprisingly good job of setting the vibe for players new to the game.

Pros and Cons

Admittedly, out of the three techniques listed in this blogpost, Lingering Omens might be of use to the fewest amount of referees. It requires some after session work, there is a chance the minor landmarks will never be visited again, etc. But a substantial benefit is that it increases the impact your players have on the realm. I have found that players generally appreciate the idea that their shenanigans will change the realm for any future games. Plus it is easy to have the realm become more and more mythic over time!

III. The Long Tail of the Myths

Myths are (obviously) not automatically resolved after omen 6. They can linger until all declare resolution!

But myths can (and should) linger after they are resolved. Ideally starting big and tapering off over time, the Long Tail of the Myth is a lizard's tail, not that of a lion, a whale or any kind of thagomizer.

Here are three examples of how the Wyvern could affect a realm even after the myth has been resolved:

A Loss of Livestock

The Wyvern could have set up shop close to a cattle ranch and every morning it heads out and plucks a plump cow for breakfast. You can’t really fault the Wyvern for doing this, it has to eat after all, but obviously the farmer would be somewhat perturbed. The farmer becomes so disgruntled with the ruler for not providing swifter relief, that he becomes an outspoken dissident and unrest grows!

The Ruler dislikes the dissent, ergo tension.

A Wyvern Slain

Concluding the Wyvern myth with brilliant violence leads to the question, what does the company do with the corpse? If the corpse is brought to a village, the locals could dress their market square with the skeleton of the Wyvern. Now pilgrims come from far and wide to see the skeleton of this mythic beast, to walk through its massive ribcage, the tourism industry swells, the village prosperous economically, blooms in size and takes its first steps to being the next holding.

The Ruler feels threatened, ergo tension.

Wyvern Eviction

If the Wyvern is not slain but instead chased from the realm, surely it will settle in a secondary realm thus creating problems over there and causing refugees to flee from that secondary realm to the realm where the Wyvern came from. Low and behold! the drama that unfolds when these refugees learn the invading creature was the fault of the Company.

Also, the Ruler dislikes the pressure these refugees place on logistics, ergo tension.

All these examples have an initial moment of high impact followed by potential ripples out into other aspects of the realm.

A quick example from my game is when the Mist (spoilers ahead) abducted a Seer to a secondary realm. The Seer managed to stop the misty portal from fully closing behind her. Many sessions later the Company stumbled upon this passage and proceeded to sail right through it. They found the Seer and manged to reinstalled her in the primary realm. All in all after the Mist concluded there were three sessions that dealt with the Seer's return.

It should probably be noted here that maximising myths by giving them a long tail means you are peppering the realm with flavour, showing impact of player decisions and laying down quest threads. A tail need not fill a session. Many tails can brew over time, possibly resolving during a time jump. Alternatively it could get worse, truly spiral out of control. At that point you might just have a thagomizer!

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Mythic Bastionland