Emergent Mundane Bullshit

Randomness Blogwagon: June 14th, 5 = 2d6 paragraphs, King of Clubs = Goblin Punch

After they followed the realm creation procedure in Mythic Bastionland referees might look at the map and find it pretty empty (unless you think that traditional hexcrawls kinda suck [1] and need to be stripped down to its bare bones). Aren't you supposed to populate it with interesting things like dungeons and wandering monsters [2]? Where are the factions and encounter tables? How are the knights to fulfil their oath of protecting the realm if nothing is threatening its security apart from the Myths, that they have to seek anyway? The promise of a sandbox – emergent stories through the intersection of random encounters, faction play and player actions – seems to be undercut by the absence of traditional hexcrawling ingredients and the linearity of following Omens in chronological order to their conclusion.[3] 

2d6 = 2 paragraphs

I am cooking my Mythic Bastionland campaign with just three ingredients: Truths about the Realm I put in by hand, randomized realm creation and Spark Tables. Everything that emerges in play is the result of initial conditions, PCs reacting to the world, the world reacting to the PCs actions and random rolls to insert surprises into the experiment. The three truths [4] are:

• The King invaded the realm not long ago
• Holdings changed sides during the war.
• The wounds of war have not been healed.

There are no wise NPC to tell them what to do. The Seers are cryptic at best, often utterly opaque and annoying, and homicidal psychopaths at worst. There are no paths (or - oh the horror! - roads) to guide them through the sandbox, no quests to send them on their way [5]. So where does the complexity of a living world come from in Mythic Bastionland? Where do relationships, themes, moral dilemmas and stories emerge from? My answer is: The beautiful randomness of 2d12 Spark Table results [6]! For the relationship between two council members of different holdings I rolled on the drama table: Betrayal (theme) and Blackmail (detail) and I learned something important about the war: a Marshall betrayed the positions of her troops to prevent further bloodshed. For the son of another council member who became the squire to a PC I rolled his desire: Mastery (ambition) and Revenge (motive) and I learned that he lost someone in the war and his wounds have not been healed either. For the goods merchants were transporting to another holding I rolled Military (theme) and Pottery (type) and now they are transporting Greek fire in earthen jars to a keep and I guess another war is brewing. Do the PCs reveal the betrayal or punish the blackmail? Do they allow their squire to enact the revenge or teach them forgiveness? Do they try to prevent the war or throw their weight behind a warring faction? The randomness of spark tables gave me the permission to shape the history of the realm and to present them with moral dilemmas without putting in quests or hooks or stories by hand. I watch the experiment unfold and I am as surprised as the players by the complications the oracle of the dice conjures up.

[1] Hexcrawls kinda suck: https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2024/01/hexcrawls-kinda-suck.html

[2] Hex based campaign design https://welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-2/

[3] Although to be fair there is the Primacy of Action and the PCs might find ways to leverage one Myth against the other or other means to prevent the story from mindlessly marching towards the last Omen. 

[4] It's a Chris McDowall game of course there aren't two or five of them. 

[5] As you see I am a mad dog gardener Referee, let the seeds fall where they may: blown in by the wind or carried by bird droppings, growing tall in the sun or withering in the shadows.

[6] For more on the beauty of Spark Tables listen to The Smiling Fox episode with yours truly: https://podcastaddict.com/the-smiling-fox/episode/223082576

 

The Thrice-Ninth Kingdom: Summary and Trailer

A plateau in the mountains, devoid of colours, under an overhang barely wide enough to shield them from the winds. Heldris cuts down a small twisted tree and they huddle around the fire like lost children.

The Company of the Black Fleece travelled to the fae kingdom to rescue Ser Perilake's son Avert. But how did they end up in this wondrous and indeed quite perilous place?

~ Summary of events ~

• Tizra, the Herald of the Elf, gifts Sir Anastaz the Harvest Bow.

• Sir Anastaz defeats the Elf, the Steward of Seasons. The Elf banishes Tizra from his realm. Tizra plots his revenge on the Company of the Black Fleece in order to get back in the Elf's good graces.

• Sir Milos makes a pact with a fae lord who grants him knowledge and power … for a price. He later becomes the Fox Knight.

• Ser Perilake marries Lady Inga of Svenrik, the Envoy of house Kranach. Their son Avert is born.

• Perilake's squire Zoltan is knighted by the Frozen Seer and becomes the Pigeon Knight.

The Elf, the Steward of Seasons

• Tizra lures three children from Bohat, a nearby village, into his halls. He replaces them with Vyměněnec.

• The Fox Knight while travelling through Bohat hears rumours about children behaving strangely. The Company decides to investigate. Lady Inga takes Avert to Bohat to speak to the village's mayor.

• Sir Anastaz is lead by the Vyměněnec who replaced Marko to the nearby hills where Marko first disappeared. The changeling tries to kill him but later The Salt Knight gains his trust.

• Avert tells his father about “the moon” who tried to climb into his room. Ser Perilake decides to hide in his son's room and fight the intruder.

• The Fox Knight and The Dove Knight lay a trap for the Fae but it is too late: While they confront Biljana's Vyměněnec Tizra puts a spell on Ser Perilake and abducts Avert.

• Sir Anastaz frees two of the children, Bijlana and Marko from Tizra's Halls. The third one, Saša, stays behind and the halls collapse.

A Strange Kingdom where Winter reigns

• Ser Perilake travels across the Realm to ask the Seers for guidance but none of them can help. Until at last he visits the Veiled Seer who mutters a name: The Thrice-Ninth Kingdom.

• The Pigeon Knight uses his unique ability to lead the Company to a burnt down forest with a single old rowan tree and a small door in its trunk. They crawl through and emerge on the other side in the mountains of a strange kingdom where winter reigns.

Music

Academic Folk Choir of the Plovdiv Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, conducted by Vassilka Spassova - Мехметьо, севда голема (Mehmed, my love)

Chronicles of Barowia III

Season 6 teaser trailer

Music:

The Bulgarian Voices Angelite - Гаидине Свириат (Gaidine Sviriat)

Student Chamber Choir Plovdiv - Два тъпана бият (Dva tŭpana biyat)

Appendix N for my Mythic Bastionland

Apparently it is appendix-n-day on September 8^th and a good reason as any to mention the media touch stones of my Mythic Bastionland campaign. Grab a spoonful of halva and a strong tea from a samovar, listen to pilentse pee by the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir and get into the right mindset for Barowia

Costume by Agnieszka Osipa

Music

Le Mystère des VoixBulgares 

My Realm is distinctively not pseudo-Arthurian England but rather pseudo East-European pagan middle ages without roads. My houses are Szalai, Karpat, Barow, Masur and Urban

Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser Overture 

Ok, there is also Kranach and Altenburg to spice things up but they all get Slavic given names. Also my version of Mythic Bastionland is heavily informed by the way German Romanticism hallucinated the middle ages.

Literature

Wolfram von Eschenbach: Parzifal

Hans Bemmann: The Stone and the Flute

A story about a young man who is given a mysterious stone and a magic flute. Lauscher (listener) travels the world to find happiness. Full of stories within stories and dreams and songs. He is cursed and turned into a statue for ten years and later lives as a faun. Not particular well written and with 800 pages quite the challenge but beautifully captures the fairytale vibes of Mythic Bastionland.

Movies

Eric Rohmer: Perceval LeGallois 

Sergej Parajanov:  The Color of Pomegranates 

The Green Knight is always mentioned and for good reasons but I just love the look of these films, the stage design and the colours. Parajaov's film has exactly one knight but the vibes are 100% Barowia

Costume by Agnieszka Osipa 

Other media

Fashion: Agnieszka Osipa

Illustrations: ValinMattheis 

Mythic Bastionland: Example of Prepping a One-Shot

For a recent one shot I made a 7x7 map with half of the Realm creation Landmarks and three Myths. I use an uneven number of hexes so that I can start them on a random location in the middle of one of the borders. I also randomized the time of year with a d4 (1 Feast of the Sun 2 Sceptremass 3 Feast of the Stars 4 Eldermass). They started in the West and arrived at the Seat of Power on time for Sceptremass which was a neat coincidence that I wouldn't have felt comfortable of just deciding. Arriving from the South by boat and passing the sanctum of the Winged Seer during Eldermass would have given the one-shot a completely different feel and being surprised like that is what I enjoy about refereeing the most. 

The Myths

1 The Toad

2 The Forest

3 The Eye

The Rulers:

Lady Hedwig of Altenburg fortified pillars /solemn library / cauldron (centrepiece) heraldry (detail)

The Willow Knight (ancient sword)

Crest: rearing horse and star

relationship /w Gunter: Intimate supporter (she is in love)

drama: redemption brawl (two courtiers duel)

Sir Gunter of Orlow: Wild Dome / Immaculate Garden / Guards (centrepiece) Tapestry

The Cosmic Knight:

Crest: bale and sickle

relationship /w Hedwig: tumultuous peer (they were in the same company but fell out)

drama: ambition inheritance (son Andrasz wants to take the throne)

Landmarks

The Seers

The Cured Seer: echo caves

The Winged Seer: salt grotto

Ruin of The Sun

Ruins 

Dried up well (The Sun)

Collapsed Wall (The Wheel)

Hazards

Rat Territory 

Biting Thorns 

Curses

Smoke Clouds

Foul Shadow

Dwelling

Southcliff

woe: Prophecised famine (acolytes of the eye blame the Winged Seer)

Mouments

Elder Tree

Obsidian Henge

Pretty minimal prep as you can see but the game ran very smoothly. I delivered the 1^st Omen of all Myths as news / rumour to the Seat of Power, and they triggered the 2^nd and 3^rd Omen of the Toad. The players didn't resolve a Myth in the three hours we played but got a decent idea about how the game would look like in a campaign. If you prefer a more streamlined experience you could just use one Myth and start them at the Set of Power but if you enjoy the sandboxy feel of a campaign in your one-shot I recommend giving the above set-up a try.

Who is who in Barowia?

 The Company of the Black Fleece

active

Sir Perilake The Gilded Knight and his Squire Zoltan of Kranach. Proud and poised

Sir Anastaz The Salt Knight and his Squire Gundhilde of Szalai. Scowling and taciturn

Sir Heldris The Dove Knight, one-armed and formerly cursed by the Hound within. Calm and serene

Sir Milos The Fox Knight, who struck a bargain with the Fae. Charming and playful.

Sir Heldris ambushed by the Hound in Shadow

inactive

Sir Ludmer The Trail Knight

Cormorant The Gull Knight

Lady Dragana The Hooded Knight

Lady Cadwyn The Mule Knight (dead)

Sir Davith The Tome Knight

Sir Valamonte The Rune Knight

The Houses

There are 6 major houses (ancestral seat / crest): ruler

Barow (current Seat of Power is Castle Barow / buck-head and star): King Andrasz

Karpat (Karpat Fortress / Crown and Flame): Lady Lamberta

Kranach (Kranach Castle / Key & Crane) Lady Zdenka

Masur (former Seat of Power is Castle Loadstone / honeycomb and crescent moon); unknown

Szalai (Szalai Keep / Rearing Horse): Sir Adalbert

Urban (unknown / Lock and Quill): unknown

A short history of Barowia

The Realm is ruled by King Andrasz of Barow who claimed the throne after invading from the North and driving out the old King Tadeausz of Masur.  During the war Szalai and Kranach joined forces with house Barow, the former rather quickly, the latter after terrible losses. Karpat surrendered eventually but never changed sides. The wounds of war have not been healed.

Dwellings (resource: leadership)

Swinjo: Pig farmers and fishers: Mayor Bogdan
Kozamost: goat herders and peat farmers: Mayor Mira
Bohat: farmers and apiarists: Lady Wendela of Urban

Oakfell: woodcutters: Elder Vasily

Factions

The Beekeepers: A secret society of nobles and vassals loyal to the former King Tadeusz of Masur. Their crest is a Beehive and Sickle
The Merchants Guildry of Szolnok and Mohacs: An association of merchants from the North

Lady Lydia, Steward of Szala and Queen of the Beekeepers?

Notable NPC

King Andrasz of Barow The Ring Knight - invaded the Realm with the help of mercenaries from Svenrik, a neighbouring Realm. 

Lady Dagmar of Karpat The Snare Knight - Marshall of Karpat who betrayed the position of allied Kranach troops at the end of the war to prevent bloodshed and caused what she wanted to prevent. Landsknechts from Svenrik slaughtered the captured and the wounded.

Lady Bianca of Altenburg The Iron Knight - Sheriff of Kranach came to know about her betrayal and blackmailed Lady Dagmar. 

Timea - Guildmaster of the Merchants Guild

Sir Ulrich of Kranach - Envoy of Barow. Abstained from the title as ruler of Kranach and became a diplomat apparently as a gesture of friendship between the houses Kranach and Barow. 

Zoltan of Kranach - Son of Sir Ulrich and Squire to Ser Perilake.

Lady Lydia of Szalai - Steward of Szalai Keep. Suspected to be the leader of the Beekeepers. Cursed by the Grey Stone Hunter on behalf of Sir Anastaz. 

Lady Inga Svendottir - Envoy of Kranach and a Svenrik native who came to Barowia after the war as a gesture of reconciliation between Svenrik and Kranach. Has been courted by Ser Perilake.

Gundhilde of Szalai - Daughter of Lady Margaret and Squire to Sir Anastaz.

Neighbours

Barowian Crownlands. A vast Realm of warring Duchies
East Masuria. Ruled by house Masur
Svenrijk. Landsknechts from Svenrijk supported King Andrasz during the war.
Altenburg. Rich and powerful supporters of house Kranach
Waldochia. Home of nomadic horse people and ruled by house Waldoch

Thoughts on play-by-post

The play-by-post tournament of Mythic Bastionland was unexpectedly my gaming highlight of the year. I think the fact that we had an obvious ending – finding out who would win the tournament - and that two PCs were in the final, helped to keep the focus. I also really enjoyed the particular rhythm of jousting and interludes and I'm curious how pbp will work out in a more conventional adventure. 

Patience vs Flow

We had two general rules about posting: Post at least once a day (or let us know if you can't) and wait before posting again unless you are alone in the scene. While these are probably solid rules for a normal adventure in the context of the tournament they weren't really relevant: Most of the time a character was alone in a scene anyway either fighting or talking to NPCs.

When the PCs were together in a scene we largely followed the established rules but as the referee I sometimes had to balance adhering to the rules and keeping the momentum.

Synchronous vs Asynchronous

Although pbp is often described as an asynchronous way of playing there were several instances where we played at the same time, most notably during the pvp duels where we also made sure that at every step decisions and rolls were confirmed and made explicit before proceeding to the next step. As a player I enjoy pvp and never had a bad experience but I know that scores of players in the past have been scarred by pvp that went out of hand and I wanted to ensure that we wouldn't add to the trauma.

The horror of pvp

Other scenes that were played synchronously: Anastaz investigating the Iron Knight and Heldris discovering the secret door in the auditorium. In both instances the PC was alone in the scene, player and referee were online at the same time and we were both curious about how the scene would pan out. Watching the three dots of someone writing on discord definitely added to the feeling of suspense.

 

Prep and Improvisation

The only prep I did for the tournament was the list of participants. All the gameplay resulted from the interplay of prep during realm creation, random rolls on the spark tables, improvisation, player decisions and player rolls.

Example 1: Lady Hedwig's joust with Heldris. For her appearance I rolled 11 (Tall) and 6 (Traditional) so I described her as this imposing figure towering over young Heldris but when I later rolled her stats she had VIG 2 and GD 1! How was that possible with her imposing physique? Well I rolled on the ailment table and got: 12 (Obvious) and (8) Melancholy. She wasn't melancholic when Heldrid met her the first time so I assumed that she had this unstable personality that shifted between excited and depressed. With her mail and shield she had a decent chance of lasting at least the first meeting but I wanted to lean into her death wish and had her not denying the attack and using her shield to bash Heldris instead of defending herself.

Example 2: Anastaz and the Snare Knight. Lady Dagmar had amazing stats and she was my favourite to win the tournament so I thought to spice it up with a roll on the drama table. I got 1 (Betrayal) and 11 (Blackmail). As she is the Marshall of Karpat I wanted the Betrayal to be related to the war and the blackmail to be as obvious to Anastaz as possible. I improvised that she betrayed her troops in the war and was blackmailed by someone present at the tournament. The player then decided not only to follow up on the information but to take risks in uncovering the truth: He rolled for eavesdropping on the talk between Gunter and the Iron Knight - and failed which caused a scene in front of the other nobles - and rolled a save to persuade Dagmar to spill the beans (the danger was to lose her trust completely with potentially drastic consequences for the joust) - succeeded.

Anastaz dismounting the Gilded Knight in the final

Example 3: Heldris in the Auditorium

During Realm creation I rolled a detail for Holding, Keep and Bailey. One of the results for Barow Castle was 6 (Wild) and 8 (Dome) so I imagined an overgrown dome at the Castle. Why was it neglected? Probably the building was of no use for the new kings so I imagined something associated with entertainment like a theatre. I already had the information written down during realm creation so for the scene I could draw on my prep and improvise everything else.

I don't think I would have been able to make all the rolls in a live session and come up with creative interpretations. The extra time you have as a referee in a pbp game to consult your prep, roll on spark tables and think about the implications makes all the difference. Also in a live game the longer we play the more I tend to forget to add details like smell and sounds and the descriptions become kind of flat whereas in the pbp game I managed to keep the same level of detail.

Player Feedback

The players enjoyed having the extra time to get into character and to carefully think about how the character would react. Players also used the pbp as an exercise in creative writing and liked that the game stayed with them outside of active play e.g. when they were doing chores.

Conclusion

All in all we enjoyed the pbp so much that going forward we will alternate between live sessions and pbp. For the next pbp I could see either a proper hexcrawling session where the travelling itself becomes more zoomed in and detailed or playing the "downtime" winter season with lots of PC-NPC interactions and introspective journaling accounts of looking out of castle windows at the snow covered landscape. 

If you are interested in playing pbp you can read about our set-up or check out Yochai Gal's excellent overview about his ongoing play-by-post game.

The Tournament: Set up and Play-By-Post

In the last session we advanced the season to autumn. The players wanted their characters to reconvene at Barow Castle to celebrate the Feast of the Stars. As it is “a night of honours, unions and contests” I decided that Barow Castle would host a Grand Jousting Tournament and the players wanted their characters to take part in it. For scheduling reasons we decided to play the fourth session of the campaign as play-by-post (pbp). 

"I use Focus to dismount."

Play-By-Post

I set up a discord server with three channels: In-game, out-of character and the dice roller (dice maiden, which seems to be the most popular one on discord). We established some ground rules about posting frequency, etiquette and formatting: Post at least once a day or communicate in advance if on a given day you won't be able to. Allow other players to chime in before you post again, unless you are alone in a scene. Put what your character does in italics and “direct speech” between quotations. Out of character questions should preferably be handled in the ooc channel, although sometimes we would post them in the in-game channel to save time but we would put them between brackets or blacken them out through the spoiler formatting.

To prepare the tournament I made a list of 12 other knights with names, their houses and rolled on the Knights table for each of them to get unique types (there shouldn't be another Salt Knight or 2 different Iron Knights). I decided that half of them would be Knight Errants and the other half Gallant Knights (who roll their GD with 2d6). Gallant Knights would have a seat on the Council of a Holding, which allowed me to to impart setting information in a diegetic way. I then put all the names through an online random bracket generator and got the following pairings.

Oh-oh: pvp in the first round!

The Rules of the Joust

The knights are given a tournament lance (d10 long / hefty when mounted), they have armour and shields as established (if it is not on their character sheet they don't have it). They can take any other weapon from their possession into the fight if they wish to. Everyone has at least an additional dagger (d6).

The Knights ride towards each other trying to dismount the opponent. Whoever is dismounted loses. If both knights fall in the same meeting the fight continues on foot until first blood is drawn. Whoever harms their opponent first wins. If both are harmed at the same time the fight continues until one knight is incapacitated. It is deemed unchivalrous to kill or gravely wound the opponent ... but shit happens!

The price for this tournament (on top of the Glory of course) is a Longsword (2d8) and a Round Shield (d4, A1) with the crest of house Barow (a buck head and star).

They rolled 1 and 9: Betrayal (Family)

The Drama

Although the focus of the session was supposed to be the jousting I wanted the players to have enough opportunities to interact meaningful with the setting outside of combat. I didn't prep anything in advance but would roll on the drama table for the NPCs they chose to - or were (in the case of their jousting opponent ) forced to - engage with. I also wanted the drama to be relevant to the ongoing power struggle so I interpreted a lot of the results in the context of the war that had been taken place to topple the old king.

The text in the next couple of posts is taken verbatim from the in-game channel. There were a lot of questions and clarifications in the out-of-character channel that are omitted as are all the mechanical bits.

The Characters

For the online sessions I created a google sheet with a safety tab with lines and veils and the "romance matrix", where players can indicate if they are interested in romantic interactions with PCs, NPCs or not at all. Given that at later stage they might want to marry and have kids, it makes sense to clarify beforehand if they are interested in romantic complications. Maybe they fall in love with someone but have to marry into a loveless relationship? 

Unlike most online character sheets I've seen all the characters are on one tab, which I vastly prefer as it gives players and the referee a total picture of the company. Then a tab for the map, the excellent calendar by beardmancer and a tab for NPC portraits. The map was placed within a grid of A – L horizontally and 1 – 12 vertically. These coordinates are sometimes referenced in the session reports. Here are the four player characters of session 1 - 3 and the play-by-post.

On the search for truth: Sir Ludmer

Sir Ludmer the Trail Knight: Not blessed with physical or mental qualities, but holds fast to the virtues of truth. Had to flee when he exposed a cruel lord who stole from his people to the detriment of the land.

Steed: Věrný - serene steed (VIG 10, CLA 13, SPI 5, 3GD)

Ability: Strands of Past: By studying the ground for a whole Phase you can ask a single yes or no question about what happened here in the past few days.

Property: Crow-beak axe (d8 hefty), beaten gambeson (A1), Sanguine Lens (traces of blood appear obvious when viewed through this)

Personal Code: Value: Truth. Forged by: Killing a Tyrant

Passion: Fear Restore SPI when refusing to go into the dark.

What a corker: Ser Perilake

Ser Perilake the Gilded Knight: A vision of knighthood in his glorious gold cloaked armour. When his teacher drowned he could have helped but was tempted to go for the armour instead. It's what Cyrion would have wanted.

Steed: Blacwyn, majestic onyx charger (VIG 12, CLA 9, SPI 12, 4GD, d6 trample)

Ability: Martyr-in-Waiting. Use as a reaction to being Mortally Wounded. Allies fighting with you regain d6 GD and get +d12 against your attacker for the combat.

Property: Great mace (d10 long), gambeson (A1), gold cloaked plate (A1), gold-masked helm (A1, opponents who know the value of gold have their first ever Attack against you Impaired)

The Cost of the Armour: Where did the armour find you? The beach. What was left behind? A teacher, Cyrion.

Passion: Pride: Restore SPI when you take personal credit for a great victory.

Beneath the rough exterior ... Sir Anastaz

Anastaz the Salt Knight: Scowling and taciturn, but has a heart for the plight of the vassals.

Steed: Tibor, scaled steed (VIG 12, CLA 8, SPI 5, 3GD)

Ability: Inspire Ire: Activate at the end of your turn. Until the next turn, any enemies that Attack targets other than you lose d10 SPI after the Attack.

Property: Spined mace (d8 hefty), javelin (d6), coraline mail (A1)

Everflask (contains an endless supply of fresh water as long as its thirst is sated with each use)

Design: Mottled stone. Thirst: Music.

Passion: Mettle: Restore SPI when accepting a non-combat challenge with the odds set against you.

Still waters run deep: Sir Heldris

Heldris the Dove Knight: Calm and serene demeanour, floral tunic, prays to the Lady of the Lake.

Steed: Colmán - Mountain steed (VIG 14, CLA 5, SPI 5, 2GD, sure-footed on rocky ground)

Ability: Strike of Serenity: Make a melee Attack against a wounded target. Get +d8 to the Attack. If this defeats the target then all allies restore SPI.

Property: Stout blade (2d6 hefty), gambeson (A1), and winged scale

Winged Armour: Animals won't attack you unprovoked. Limitation: Only protects under daylight.

Passion: Vengeance Restore SPI when achieving a worthy revenge.

Well, the stage is set and the cast is ready. Time to raise the curtain and watch the drama unfold.

Mythic Bastionland: The Barowia Campaign

This is an account of my ongoing Mythic Bastionland campaign for anyone interested in running the game but also a reference document for new players joining the campaign and as such won't contain any major spoilers. I will talk about the setup of the campaign (realm creation, houses and the relationship between holdings) without going into much detail. After that I will make use of the notes one of my players took during the season 1 online sessions (thanks Will!). 

Agenda    

• Make the Realm feel real but use dark colours
• Present opportunities to disrupt the power balance
• Even the mundane should be mysterious
• Make the Seers powerful, strange, creepy, obtuse, disgusting
• Lean into the dreamy vibe of fairy tales

The setup

I picked “Wanderer” and “Saga” for start and scope of the campaign with the explicit goal to have the Knights qualify for the final Myth: The Myth of the City. I don't think the last Myth is that interesting in itself, after all the search for the Holy Grail is much more interesting than finding it.

I used the 12x12 recommended grid and followed the realm creation rules concerning the wilderness types (forest, hills, bogs etc.), holdings and landmarks but added or subtracted wilderness types here and there for aesthetic reasons. Then I rolled and added the Myths. I rolled on the d12 spark tables for the landmarks and holdings to give me at least one base level idea e.g. for Karpat Fortress I got “Ornate Bridge” and for Kranach Castle “Pristine Moat”. One monument got “Looming Arch”and another “Bone Reliquary”. I didn't flesh out the ideas quite yet in order to save time, but I changed the Fortress to be near a mountain and the Castle to be at a lake.

The Realm after the three sessions

For the naming convention of houses and dwellings I chose Austro-Hungarian with some German and vaguely Slavic thrown into the mix. 

Machinations

As I wanted to see the domain level play as well I took some time with preparing the sandbox for diplomacy and machinations. In order to create a fragile power balance I decided that there had been a relative recent change of rulership, where changing alliances and betrayals had played a role in toppling the old king. I picked six houses (Barow, Szalai, Karpat and Kranach for the holdings, Masur for the old exiled royal family and Urban an ambitious family without holding) so that every time I had to determine the affiliation of a noble I could just roll a d6. I also picked three neighbouring realms: Waldoch, Svenrik, Altenburg and I wanted both old and new king to have an outside-of-the-Realm territory belonging to their respective families as well. 

Why bother coming up with so many neighbours? Although it wouldn't be relevant until much later in the campaign - when they will have become the rulers of the Realm (assuming we manage to play that long) and will have to deploy diplomacy or wage war - I wanted the bigger picture to be already present, and I'm hoping that the larger world will slowly seep in through the unfamiliar names they come across. Furthermore there are some Myths where neighbouring realms play an important role.

Sir Vladislav of Barow the Banner Knight

I then used the “relationship” and “conflict” spark tables (as suggested by this excellent post on Chris's blog) to establish connections between rulers and rolled on the crisis table to determine whether the holding was troubled (in which case I rolled on the “woe” table) or not. For one relationship I got “estranged peers” maybe they were allied during the war or they were once travelling knights searching for Myths? But what made their relationship “estranged”? 

For the woes I also got some intriguing results: “religious negotiations” which I tied to the bone reliquary and “bloodfeud forgotten” which hints at some dark secret the PCs can uncover in order to influence the power balance of the Realm.

Getting Started

After the sandbox was finished I rolled d4 for the hex on which the players would enter the Realm, in the middle of one of the 4 sides of the grid. Choosing the starting point randomly communicated to the players that this is their sandbox, that they can freely decide what they want to do and that there is no preferred direction, perspective or course of action. The roll determined that they came from the North, which decided the nearest Myths and Holdings. They could have travelled down the river towards the Seat of Power but decided to visit the closest Holding instead: Szalai Keep.

Cogflower Campaign Post Mortem

When I got the pdf of the Ultraviolet Grasslands early in 2020 I didn’t read the whole thing. Instead I marveled at the illustrations, traced the roads to the Black City with my finger and decided to run UVG from beginning to end. I wanted to experience the Grasslands in a leisurely pace, travelling together with the players over the whole map. We left the Violet City, crossed the Trail of Vomish Dreams, descended into the Three Sticks Lake and climbed the Totem of the Sky. At the City Mountain we fought with the Veterans of the Psychic War and in the Umberlands we fulfilled the last wish of a depressed Autofac. A year later the caravan arrived at the Black City.

Below is a look back at memorable moments, comments on the specifics of our experience with the setting and suggestions about what I could do differently if I’d run it again. 

System and Characters: I love the d40 hero table and chose Whitehack mainly as a flexible system that made realizing these concepts easy, yet mechanically sound. We had a Redland District Folk Hero, Yellowlander Climate Migrant, Secret Azure Cultist, Metropolitan Accountant Monk, Volkan Diesel Dwarf, Purplefolk Doghead Anarchist, Black Gold Industrialist, Tumult Fisher Wizard, Cogflower Necromancer Lawyer, Wildfolk Demon Hunter and a Moon Mountain Witch, and they were all memorable characters. The heroes were rolled completely randomly although when in later stages of the campaign a player rolled a character type that was already chosen they would pick another of the three numbers to determine the hero instead. The two remaining results then decided the reason they were on the road and their starting item. Initially I wasn’t entirely convinced by the second column (Why are you on the road) but the quests turned out to be crucial for wrapping up the campaign and finding a satisfying end. Luka skillfully equipped many discoveries with potentially quest relevant content e.g. it is probably not a coincidence that there are plenty of replacement bodies to be found and a Mother Silicone in the Dark Hospital when “Finding a body for Mother” is one of the character goals. To incentivize pursuing their goal, the PCs earned XP when working towards it. In most cases it meant that there was a certain chance per Discovery they would find something related to their quest or that they ticked a progress clock when they used their action at a Destination to work on a project.

What I’d do differently: Maybe use a different system. The Whitehack “groups” that allow advantages on rolls worked well enough and performing miracles like Doodlebugging, Augury, Ghostly Brotherhood and Fishing in the Sea of Dimensions were fun to see in action and fitted the setting perfectly - but combat was slow and I never worked out how to make the Deft's attunement interesting. I’d probably try something simpler like Will Hilton’s Into the Grasslands or Mike Fernandino’s UltravioletWorld. 

Caravan and Travel: Travelling through the vast landscape felt appropriately epic, every leg of the journey taking at least one week. The travel procedure provided a satisfying structure and we got into the groove pretty quickly. In the beginning market research and trading was fun albeit not entirely successful. However they hit the jackpot when through some random rolls they first found Black Lotus at a discovery and then sold it at the Puce House for a multiple of its value. At that point market research and resource management became less of a focus but the players enjoyed the freedom their wealth gave them. Likewise when they arrived at the Behemoth Shell they encountered (again through a random roll) Great Folk Bone Farmers who sold them the nutritious marrow beets that solved their resource problems for large parts of the journey.

Seeing the caravan grow from one coach to several unique vehicles and numerous retainers was certainly fun. Most of the time I forgot to take vehicle speed into account, they only once accrued additional travel days and we handwaved it away.

What I’d do differently: I’d have more travel vignettes and campfire scenes, give retainers a bit more character by involving the players in establishing their irritating mannerism and alluring quirks. I could see giving vehicles traits as well and letting the players describe how they decorate their rides to make them more memorable. Maybe taking inspiration from Into the Odd and introduce a rival caravan.

Destinations and Discoveries: The stars of the show, incredibly evocative and visually interesting. The encounters and misfortunes helped to reinforce the theme of the place although the middle result of the misfortune table didn’t add anything immediately gameable. I really enjoyed the intro descriptions and often read them aloud as boxed text when the PCs entered a new destination. The weather descriptions were fun as well and further defined the feel of the place.

Memorable misfortunes include mysterious puncture wounds (Gall Grass), blinded by a speck of biomechanical garbage (Trail of Vomish Dreams) and a shard of hard light being lodged in one eye (Fractal Trees). The hands down best discovery was Johnny-7 who became a major NPC in the campaign, followed by the Lurid Pines - which took five sessions to clear out and bestowed Hamish with hamster reflexes.

What I’d do differently: It might be more interesting to replace the middle result on the misfortune table where nothing happens with a minor inconvenience that matches the theme of the area. I could also see adding a destination-appropriate faction encounter (to entangle the PCs with the factions) and maybe a caravan to the encounter table.

Factions: Early on the PCs aligned themselves with Syruss Sensible, blew up the Broken Line and stole a Porcelain Walker. At the Jade Baobab the PCs prevented members of the Second Hand Clan to sell Rainbowlanders into indentured service for the Porcelain Princes. In the second half of the campaign the Ultras organically emerged as the most influential faction of the campaign after the players encountered Soba de Garoba at the Gemstone Tomb in the Lake of Oil and Sama Zivani at the Lonely Lodge. Based on the rumor table on p. 167 it made sense to involve them in Azures plot to cause the end of the world. More important than the major factions were the groups the PCs belonged to, mainly the Cult of the Blue God and the Machine Humans. The setting with its apocalyptic cults, trade companies and revolutionaries has a lot of potential for faction play without actually involving the major factions.

What I’d do differently: To make the factions a bit more visible in the Grasslands I might add an entry to the encounter table that indicates to which sphere of influence an area belongs e.g. have one random encounter result for the Cat Lords East of the Porcelain Citadel

Statistics:

20 months of in-game time 

13 months of real world time from March 14 2020 to April 10 2021

15 characters, 14 players

100+ hours of actual play: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5BBgImD4UPRGy4yIEaL0HwYohPc-X8af