Getting tired of playing as mercenaries looking for the quickest route to gold? Looking for some quick character creation or easy flavorful world generation? Needing something with simple stripped down rules yet still full of possibilities? I’ve got just the game for you! Mythic Bastionland, designed by Chris McDowall, strips away the bloated rules of the more traditional tabletop RPGs. Instead, it replaces these with a stark, atmospheric, rules-light system where players decisions, skills, oaths and legendary myths take center stage.
In this article I’ll be covering some of the basic setup for the game including but not limited to:
- Knight Creation
- Map Setup
- Roleplay Tips
- And Referee Tips
Setting Up The Game: Realms, Myths, and Minimal Prep
When purchasing, along with the book you’ll get a few different files and one of them is the realm sheets. They have incredibly clear instructions on how to create a realm as well as detailed examples:
- Fill the map with the environments listed at the bottom of the page. You’ll roll a d12 for each one to see how many tiles of that environment you have. If you have some tiles that are still open then fill those with normal wilderness tiles.
- Remember to add a river or 2 leading to the lakes. Rivers shouldn’t have to span the entire map but they can present some interesting challenges such as blocking the path to a hold
- Add landmarks on top of that map, landmarks have different uses, some as resting points, others as traps, villages and holy sites.
- Choose 4 spots for holdings (Castles, cities and the like)
- Try to keep the holdings an equal distance apart
- Where the fun gets more interesting, adding myths to the map. Myths can be rumors spread across the realm, ancient evils that curse the lands, or cities being attached by vicious monsters. To find your myths, you need to roll 6 times on the Myths table with 1d6 for the column and 1d12 for the specific myth in that column.
- The Omens of these myths should come naturally as the players move around so don’t worry about finding specific places for those, if the players find a river due to an omen then just update the map if you can, or if you can’t just keep note of it.
Setting Up a Knight: Fast, Flavorful Character Creation
The knights of Mythic Bastionland have 3 stats called Virtues, Vigour, Clarity, and a fourth which is Guard (1d6) but not a main stat.
- Roll the Three Attributes:
- Players roll 1d12 + 1d6 for three core attributes: Vigor (physical strength and constitution), Clarity (perception, willpower, and wits), and Spirit (charisma, luck, and mystical attunement).
- Determine Hit Protection (Guard) (HP).
- Roll a single 1d6 to determine starting Hit Protection. In this system, HP is not meat and blood – it is a knight’s ability to avoid taking direct, lethal damage through skill, luck, and armor.
- Find the Knight you’ll be playing as.
- Using 1d6 to find the column on the Knights table then 1d12 for the specific knight in that column. Read the description of your knight as well as their abilities, steed, weapons, etc. You can use the table on that page for more specifics about the knight such as an ability activating if a person lies about their true identity.
A Key Takeaway: Character creation takes less than five minutes, but because the Knightly Profiles are so deeply tied to the lore of Bastionland, you’ll walk away with a character that feels like an organic part of a legend, rather than just a sheet full of numbers.
Knight Creation Example
I rolle my stats:
- Vigour
- 1d12 + 1d6 = 7
- Clarity
- 1d12 + 1d6 = 13
- Spirit
- 1d12 + 1d6 = 12
- Guard
- 1d6 = 5
- Knight
- 1d6 = Column 5
- 1d12 = The Vulture Knight
I see the Vulture Knight has something called Sinister Mail and a table to roll for on the material and details. My Vulture Knights armour is made from Barbed Scales and has some Blood Red embroidery lining it.
Roleplaying: Mood, Tone, and “Knight-Speak”
The atmosphere of Mythic Bastionland is eerie, legendary, and sparse. It sits a bit somewhere between the gritty realism of historical knights and the dreamlike quality of Arthurian folklore. I’ve written 3 pillars of roleplay that you can use to be the knightliest knight of the round table.
The Weight of Oaths
Knights in this world are defined by what they serve. They aren’t aimless mercenaries looking for gold; they are bound by duties, fealty, and sacred vows. Every quest should feel less like a “job” and more like a heavy burden or a path to glorious tragedy.
Direct, Intentional Dialogue
To sound like a mythic knight, try to avoid modern conversational filler (“like,” “basically,” “okay”). Instead, lean into Early Modern English structure to elevate the drama:
- Swap “you” for thou (when speaking to an equal/inferior) or ye (formal/plural).
- Use older verb endings (“Thou goest,” “the land bleedeth”).
- Drop auxiliary words for questions and negatives (“Knowest thou the way?” instead of “Do you know the way?”).
The Referee’s Cadence
The Referee should describe the world with stark, poetic brevity. Don’t read paragraphs of box text. Use heavy, evocative imagery. Focus on the weather, the age of the stones, the exhaustion of the horses, and the looming sense of antiquity.
- Use tables if you don’t know what else to say, there almost at least 1 table per page. Make sure to look at the words at the bottom of each knight and myth page. These words essentially turn the knights and myths tables into multipurpose generators. The weirder the outcomes the better is what I live by.
Conclusion
This has been a pretty lightweight overlook on the setup of a game and Knights, including some tips and tricks to play. If you’ve got any questions make sure to leave a comment below. I’ve linked some resources below for a fantastic review by Quinns Quest as well as a deep dive into Mythic Bastionland by the maker himself!
You can purchase Mythic Bastionland on itch.io or drivethrurpg.com
