Woland hexflower 6: every book is a hexflower

William from Half a Worm and a Bitten Apple has designed a collaborative realm creation project for Mythic Bastionland and it's my turn to add some weirdness to Woland.

As an experiment, I've decided to explore the idea of "every book is a sourcebook". I first saw this phrase in the FKR (Free Kriegsspiel Revolution) Discord. (They made a zine about it here: The Neverending Drachenschwanz.) The idea is to draw ideas from any source and homebrew them into your game.

I recently read The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami and I'll be using that to build my part of the realm.

Big ideas

The novel begins with a man looking back on a teenage romance, and the imagined town which he and his girlfriend talked about when they were together. It has three ideas which I think could work well in Mythic Bastionland:

1. An imaginary place can become real, and can be visited by those who are enchanted by it.
2. An individual human can be split into multiple independent conscious beings.
3. Certain animals can thrive in summer but be vulnerable in winter.
   

I'll be looking for ways to apply those ideas across the region of my hexflower. For lower level detail, I'll be trying something else.

Random sentence sparks

This is inspired by regular spark tables and by Tana Pigeon's "Deconstruct the Known" method which I heard about here Playing Published Adventures with Tana Pigeon. I pick two sentences at random from the novel and combine the ideas (or just use them as vague inspiration) for any prompts I need. I initially planned to use dice to pick pages and locations within a page, but it was much easier just to flick through and put my finger on a sentence without looking. Once or twice I stepped on to the next sentence if it seemed helpful to do so.

The hexflower

I rolled a d20 and got hex 6. I was pleased to get one without a holding, as I wanted to try focusing on wilderness.

I'd like to name the whole region. I find naming places hard, but I'm turning to Murakami again here. Before he was a novelist he owned a jazz bar which he named Peter Cat after his wife's cat (maybe he also finds naming things hard). Welcome to Peter's Lowlands. Who is/was Peter in this realm? I'll leave that unanswered.

The lore of Peter's Lowlands is inspired by the first Big Idea from the novel (an imaginary place can become real). In the past, the daughter of a wealthy family had poor health. She spent much of her youth bed-ridden, with a maid from Peter's Lowlands for company. Throughout the long hours of each day, the maid would tell stories of her homeland while doing her needlework. The young girl added fanciful elements and descriptions and the maid would simply say, "Indeed, that is also true."

Years later, the girl having grown into a healthy adult, she traveled to Peter's Lowlands for the first time. She was stunned to discover that every detail of their shared descriptions were true. The place was just as she had imagined it, perhaps because she had imagined it so.

Since I don't have a holding in my region, I won't say who that character is, but someone later in this project may like to add her to a council or something.

I'll step through each hex now, starting at the top and working downwards.

D4: The North

Spark sentences:

• 'As winter deepened, their golden fur turned a bleached white, making them one with the snow.'
• 'And the girl in the library used the apples to make a sweet dish for me.'
  

There are mountains in the northern part of the hex. In the Grey Season, herds of golden buffalo turn white and migrate to the mountains. When the grasslands are frozen over, the scrubby plants of the mountains sustain them. Some herds are joined by nomadic people who spend the Grey Season with the animals, protecting them from predators. The people brew a hearty cider for vitality during the winter nights. In the Green Season, the people shear the white fur from the buffalo and travel to holdings where it is a prized resource. The buffalo are not tame, but they allow this shearing after building trust through the season.

Threat: Poachers want to kill the buffalo in the Grey Season, to take their white furs. (The golden fur of other seasons is not valued.)

Valuables: A skinful of the cider, along with ritual heating and serving, is a Remedy for restoring Vigour. The nomads wear heavy white coats of buffalo fur. They are warm and offer excellent camouflage in a snowfield.

C5: The Northwest

Spark sentences:

• 'This is merely my imagination, of course, and I have no way of knowing what sadness is.'
• 'Your bare, slender shoulders under the strap of the green dress trembled under my arm.'

These are so focused on people that I think it has to be a Dwelling Landmark.

Dwelling: lovers' escape

A simple cabin, home to a couple whose love was forbidden by their families. The area is mostly grasslands with some lightly wooded areas. The couple gather flowers, mineral rocks, and even forest beetles to extract pigments for dyes and paints. They travel to the nearest holding to trade these, hoping never to be recognized by those from their former lives.

Threat: Repeatedly handling the forest beetles, from which an exotic purple dye can be made, slowly drains a person of their ability to feel emotion. The couple are in the early stages of this and they are unaware of it.

D5: The Centre

Spark sentences:

• 'As I entered the room some of the dark knotholes in the wooden walls looked at me, as if sending out a warning.'
• 'The hallway made a series of complex turns until we emerged in a dimly lit spot that I could hardly recall seeing before.'
  

A dry barren plane. The surface is fractured by countless cracks. There is little hope of traversing the plain without descending into these cracks and the network of labyrinthine canyons below. (If the Company choose to remain above, add a phase to the travel time for finding places to cross the cracks safely.) Very little vegetation grows but in the shadows of these canyons you may find patches of glarewood - stubby trees that produce eyeball-like knobs on their bark. The rock walls of the canyon are, here and there, marked with symbols by previous travelers.

 

Threat: The symbols scratched into the canyon walls do not always guide travelers to safety. (Consider using a Luck Roll to determine whether the marks are helpful or misleading.)

Area of interest: With a map, a guide, or pure luck, travelers may find their way to a nexus point among the canyons. The area is ringed with glarewood. Here, the wooden eyes turn and blink. An altar at the centre indicates this place has been used for Eldermass ceremonies.

E5: The Northeast

Spark sentences:

• 'Usually it was the job of someone else on staff, not Mrs. Soeda, to bring over tea for the boss, but I predicted that she'd bring over the tea and muffins herself.'
• 'This sense of freedom reminded me of something I'd experienced before, and I tried to remember.'

A pleasant forest, filled with birdsong. In the Gold Season, a tea-like aroma may lead travelers to a natural hot spring. Leaves of many plants, falling into the heated waters, fill the air with rich flavours. In the Grey Season, small primates relax in the waters, taking little notice of visitors.

One who eats a meal at this spring may experience a vivid memory of another meal:

1. The first meal with a current companion.
2. The last meal with a distant (or lost) loved one.
3. A great banquet.
4. A much appreciated meal, after a long hunger.
5. A reluctant meal, shared with a rival or enemy.
6. A foreign memory, from the mind of a previous visitor to this place.
    

C6: The Southwest

Spark sentences:

• 'There were lots of things about the town where my memory was fuzzy.'
• 'The moon was beautiful that night, and I was still a bit tipsy from the whisky and beer.'

(I've gone a little wild with this one.)

This hex has the appearance of the surface of the moon. Lifeless rock, craters, stark areas of light and shadow. At night, one can see an earth-like planet moving across the sky. There is no wind, nor weather of any other kind. The air is chill and motionless. Footprints and other tracks remain in place unless they are disturbed by other travelers.

Threat: It is peaceful here. Impossibly peaceful. Knights who tire of the demands of their oaths may wish to remain here and pass from all tales of the realm.

Valuables: Roll for a Knight, and choose a single item of their property to place here. It rests on a grave with an inscription on the headstone: 'I gave all I could, and they asked for more.'

D6: The South

Spark sentences:

• 'One rainy afternoon, when I was finally starting to regain full awareness, the old man sat down on a chair by the window, and as he sipped an ersatz coffee made from dandelions, he told me some stories of his past.'
• 'For various reasons, we couldn't see each other more than once or twice a month.'

(The aspects I'm focusing on here are dandelions/history and visibility/seasons.)

Vast meadows of grass and wildflowers. In the height of the Green Season, the ground is vivid with colour. As Gold Season approaches, the air is so thick with dandelion seeds, that travelers can lose sight of their companions. In the Grey Season it rains here constantly (weather rolls determine the strength of the rainfall). Mud slides down the gentle slopes of the low hills, sometimes revealing old ruins and bones.

Threats: In the Green Season, poisonous caterpillars (1d4 VIG loss if sleeping on the ground). In the Grey Season, sinking mud (impossible to Gallop and attacks made while mounted are Impaired).

Seasonal barriers: The barriers surrounding this hex appear in the Grey Season. Shifting muds reveal old unholy sites that cannot be crossed. They are hidden again when the season turns, unless someone disturbs them.

E6: The Southeast

I don't have sparks for this final hex - I'll make it an area of small mountains with sparse tree cover - but I do have a second landmark I want to use, inspired by one of the Big Ideas from The City and its Uncertain Walls (a person can be split into multiple independent conscious beings).

Hazard: The Soul Splitter

A piercing wind, recognized by its high-pitched whistle and the accompanying dizziness and headache. Most travelers flee from the Soul Splitter, or take any shelter they can find. Those that choose to push through risk being changed completely. For many ages, philosophers have speculated that the human soul is composed of three Virtues: Vigour, Clarity, and Spirit. This dread wind seems to confirm this, as one person facing it may leave as three people.

Mechanics: A character with VIG 11 CLA 8 SPI 13 GD 4 is exposed to the Soul Splitter wind. There is a 2-in-6 chance that they will be transformed into three characters, identical in appearance and knowledge. Their Virtues are:

• The self of Vigour: VIG 11 CLA 1 SPI 1 GD 4
• The self of Clarity: VIG 1 CLA 8 SPI 1 GD 4
• The self of Spirit: VIG 1 CLA 1 SPI 13 GD 4

Common clothes and items are duplicated. Special items are not duplicated, and remain in possession of the character whose Virtue seems most fitting or is allocated randomly. Each character's personality is similar to the original, though with their particular Virtue being more dominant. An affected player and the Referee should decide together who takes on the role of each of the three characters.

Art

I tried drawing something digitally but I didn't like how it was turning out, so I broke out the pen and pencils. There is a mix of aerial views and scenes from the locations. I haven't tried that approach before, but I think it's an interesting result.

Player-facing map

Referee-facing map (barriers in red)

For the other drawing, I tried to do something in a medieval style, to associate with the Soul Splitter hazard. The figure is bearing his soul to reveal his three Virtues. (I recommend trying to draw in this style for anyone who usually worries about proportions and realism! It is quite liberating.)

Wrap up

That's all for this part of the realm! Thanks again to William for running this project. I'm excited to see what comes next.

Feel free to let me know in the comments if any of these ideas make it to your table.

The Endies 2025

I like a good end of year wrap up, so I was happy to see the idea for a personal awards post "The Endies" by Lady Tabletop. First things first, I have used one notebook to keep my notes for (almost) all my games this year, so gathering this info has been relatively easy and fun. I'm pretty good at noting the date and game (the remainder of my notes are often more opaque). 📘 For folks who are interested in such things, my RPG notebook is a LEUCHTTURM1917 medium A5 hardcover.

Here's everything I played, in alphabetical order. For each I have completed the sentence "play this game if you..."

1. Age of Vikings - like the combination of a grounded historical world with a touch of the supernatural
   
2. Blades in the Dark - want to run a heist and like getting straight into the action
   
3. Cthulhu Dark - like atmosphere, investigation, and super-light but effective rules
   
4. Dialect - want a complete story in a one-shot, with thought-provoking ideas about community and language
   
5. Dolmenwood - want a huge area to explore, completely packed with adventure hooks
   
6. Fully Automatic - want to jump into fast-paced modern tactical action
   
7. Ironsworn - dabble with solo or GM-less play
   
8. Ironsworn: Starforged - like sci-fi world-building and narrative tools
   
9. Kala Mandala - are inspired by great, flavourful art
   
10. Mausritter - like the idea of exploring the day-to-day world but where everything bigger than a mouse could be a danger
    
11. Midnight of the Century - want a dark and character-driven story about a manhunt for a killer
    
12. Mörk Borg - clicked on the link to the Mörk Borg website and thought "YES!"
    
13. Mythic Bastionland - have listened to me talking about or playing this game on The Smiling Fox or Luck Roll for hours and hours and wondered "Why is this guy talking about this so much?"
    
14. The Unofficial Highlander II: The Quickening Roleplaying Game - are either interested in Highlander or have absolutely no interest in Highlander (in other words, a game for everyone!)
    
15. World of Dungeons - want to play D&D without reading a book
    

 Here are some stats:

• Live sessions ran as a GM: 22
• Live sessions as a player in a group: 12
  
• Play-by-post games ran as a GM: 1
• Play-by-post games as a player: 2
• Solo sessions: 23

And now, on to the awards 🏆

• Most played / least surprising inclusion: Mythic Bastionland
  
• Funniest game: The Unofficial Highlander II: The Quickening Roleplaying Game
• Best achievement in delivering on a (not straightforward) goal: Dialect
  
• Most memorable ending: Cthulhu Dark
• Most satisfying crunch: Age of Vikings
  

Tabletop intentions for 2026:

1. More frequent Luck Roll episodes. I've done 6 episodes this year, and expect to get a 7th released in December. The pace is pretty slow and I'd like to speed it up (without making it too onerous for myself, as it is very much a hobby). But I've kind of worked out my process for it, and I think it will come together a little more smoothly next year.
   
2. Stay focused on ongoing stuff! The TTRPG space has a lot of distraction fuel. It's very easy to have my attention pulled in many different ways, so I want to find a better balance of concentrating on projects I have started while also having some time to explore new things.
3. Get better at connecting threads together. I have plenty of experience now with using RPG tools to generate new story threads and characters and locations, but I think I would benefit from using a little more GM fiat (or something more random) to start pulling those disparate parts together.
   

Play to (incrementally) find out

There are RPGs that ask you to think of complications, setbacks, plot twists etc. in response to certain results. I've sometimes experienced fatigue with this. It feels difficult to keep coming up with complications, even when the game provides prompts for doing so. I think I've worked out the fatigue problem, in my case, and at the root is the idea of playing to find out.

"Play to find out" is one of those things that I've heard and read so often that I took it for granted that I had internalised it when actually, I don't think I had.

At first impression, "play to find out" means "don't plot out a complicated story before the game starts". But there's a risk that you take that advice and focus on the timing element. So, during play, you get to a moment when you're asked to introduce a narrative element, and you start plotting something complicated. You may think you're still playing to find out, because the complicated plot you are devising is being added during play rather than before it.

I think this interpretation can easily lead to fatigue. I've done this, and essentially it is taking the challenging work of plotting a story and moving it from the low pressure context of prep to the higher pressure context of in-game improv.

A fuller interpretation of "play to find out" is freeing and less likely to cause fatigue. At those moments when you need to introduce a complication, you don't need to approach it as if you are writing a story, where disparate threads are tied together in a satisfying way. You just need an incremental change. And you don't need to understand what that change means yet, because you'll play to find out.

Here's an example. I was playing a solo game where my character was tracking a thief who had taken something valuable. At the outset I didn't define what the valuable thing was, or any details about the thief. That all sounds reasonable from the perspective of playing to find out. My character entered a building during the pursuit and I rolled a result that prompted a new story element. I then did the work of defining the faction that had hired the thief, and some detail on what was stolen and what they want it for.

That was just traditional prep, moved from before the session to during it. It's a lot of decision making and consideration to be prompted by one die roll.

Consider this alternative: The character pursues the thief into a building and there is a complication. The complication is "you hear them talking to someone else". That's an incremental change that ultimately may lead to the same plot, but it's mentally easier and it is more playable. The PC now has choices about confronting the other characters or waiting to assess who they are first. Instead of thinking about information unknown to the PC, I'm just presenting them with the next thing they are aware of.

The writerly instinct may say "Yeah, but I'll still need to come up with who that other person is. Why not do it now?" Not necessarily. Maybe the PC will think they are outnumbered and retreat. Maybe they'll go in guns blazing and this new character won't last long enough to do anything. Maybe the pursued thief is just playing a recording, Home Alone style, to make it seem like they have reinforcements. Play to find out!

The other type of fatigue that can arise here is a kind of repetitive distortion and twisting of the story itself. If you introduce an elaborate narrative element every time you roll a complication - new characters, factions, plot twists - then the result is a story that becomes so twisted that it's like a worn piece of metal ready to snap. Incremental changes or hints at new circumstances, are far better at maintaining the integrity of the story.

The writerly instinct may pop up again now and say "Yeah, but eventually you have to do some work of tying things together." Yes, I think so too. But (I hope) the longer you hold off on "writing to find out" the more pieces will have fallen into place. The mental energy required to complete the puzzle should be lower. Remember, I'm not trying to solve the problem of how to write the best story, but rather the problem of how to spend mental energy while playing a game.

One more example that I think is useful is from the Ironsworn move Pay the Price. The move gives you the options of suffering the most obvious negative outcome, rolling to choose between two negative outcomes, or rolling on a d100 table to choose the outcome. In the past,  I tended to shy away from the first option of the most obvious negative outcome. It seemed like the lazy option with the less twisty and interesting outcome. And, I suppose, it is that. But sometimes lazy and less twisty means things progress smoothly.

At some point, when you're always reaching for the more challenging answer to a question, you've got to ask who is actually Paying the Price. Ahhhh.

Mythic Bastionland - Knotte - Session 6

This is the sixth session of my Mythic Bastionland campaign. At the start of the episode I mention a second Mythic Bastionland podcast which I am co-hosting. It's called The Smiling Fox and you can subscribe here:

📡 RSS feed
🍎 Apple Podcasts
▶️ YouTube
🎵 Spotify

Meanwhile, Knotte, Maldita, and Dorka ascend Broken Peak in their hunt for the vulture. As in the previous epsiode, this takes place at the Site which I have shared here.

The recording is here and you can subscribe to the podcast feed through one of the links here.

Music credits:
'Echoes Of Home', 'The Distant Sun', 'Meanwhile', and 'The Fury' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/
'Trauma' and 'City Quest'  by PrismaticNoiseProject, used with permission.
'Ancient Rite' and 'Drums of the Deep' by Kevin MacLeod - released under CC-BY 4.0. https://incompetech.com/
'Phantoms of War' by Brian Vaughan, used with permission.

Sound effects:
Wind (Artificial) by freesound_community https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/wind-artificial-18750/.

Timings:
00:00 Intro and The Smiling Fox
01:15 Recap
02:45 Ascending Broken Peak
14:38 A vision at camp
27:33 Lair in the mountain
33:08 Dorka's tale
38:58 To the monastery
48:44 A meeting
01:01:43 The hunt
01:23:00 Outro

Solo RPG Day 2025

Today is the first Solo RPG Day!

I've had a great time with solo play this year, so I wanted to make a small contribution to the day. My main solo game is the Mythic Bastionland one that I'm sharing on my podcast (episode 6 is nearly ready!), but recently I've been trying to make time for a private solo game. I love Starforged and a sci-fi game is a nice contrast to other stuff I'm playing, so that's what I settled on.

What I want to share is the approach I've taken to journaling this one.

A photo of 2 d10s and a d6 on my notebook, with some nearly illegible handwriting.

Journaling can be a stumbling block for playing solo. There are a lot of different approaches, none universally right or wrong, but I'll share something that has been working for me.

I'm thinking of my own memory as being the main artifact of play, rather than the words written down in the journal. A fragment like "Bustling; silent alcove" is enough to remind me of a location in a busy spaceport, and the private conversation that happened under the protection of a sound-dampening force field. I'm not trying to create a document that I could show to someone else to convey the events or feeling of the game, I'm just trying to capture enough so that the next time I play I will remember enough to jump back in. Maybe in a year I'll look at this and find it incomprehensible. But during that year I'll probably have played more than if I was writing more verbosely.

The lines in the journal begin with symbols which, for me, help with a bit of structure, to constrain my writing:

- A dash indicates an action taken by my character.

. A dot indicates some detail about the world.

+ A plus is something new injected by the game system (the resolution of an action, decrease of resources, etc.)

O A circle with a little line under it (like a head on a neck) is for introducing a new NPC.

That's all I have so far. Maybe I'll add more symbols as I need them.

Here's an example from the start of my second session:

+ Vignette: unrelated situations connected. Election & Unisphere. Governor brought them in. Info control & hack opponents.

O Gov. Spatz. regal attire. Pet panther. Discussing w/ aide.

. [μ=5] Seon, stakeout. Sees Unisphere coming and going.

- Identify Unisphere activity, by watching.

+ [μ=7] (Advance, Pride). Jade escaped with an item. Unisphere want to use it.

. Seon picks up, directional mic, a Unisphere agent mention Jade. They head on & Seon follows.

I don't expect that to make sense to anyone other than me, but for me it triggers a fairly clear memory of a scene from my game. The journal feels like a tool, and not an intrusive one, rather than being the focus of play.

As I said, there's no right or wrong way to do this. There are people out there writing novels fueled by Starforged play and that is very cool.

Anyway, happy solo RPG day!

Wanderlust

I'm thinking about making a game that focuses on traveling between places, and the end state of the game (or of one PC) is the PC settling down and ending their journey.

The mechanic I'm currently considering is to have a character attribute called wanderlust. It has a value between 1 and 20. When you roll equal or under (d20), you are content to travel onward. If you roll greater, then you have a connection to this place, and traveling onward is affected.

Rather than tracking this with a number alone, I'm thinking of drawing 20 cards (standard playing cards, face down). The player holding this hand has a tactile representation of their character's desire to travel. 20 cards feel substantial. As the hand is diminished, I would hope that it feels significant. The character is visibly coming to the end of their journey.

My thought is to have a "push your luck" feel to the journey. Engaging with a location means playing a card and diminishing your wanderlust. When you later plan to leave, there's a possibility that your interest in the place will hold you back.

The cards come into play as prompts for new aspects of locations. I'll need to write some tables for handling this part. For example, 8 of Clubs could give the prompt "Their history is based on a lie". If you want to learn more about a place, or significantly impact the place, you have to spend more cards.

When you fail a wanderlust roll, it means you have a newfound connection to this place and you hesitate to leave. I'm thinking of a checklist you can use to resolve that and move on. If you run out of items to check, then you have no choice but to stay in the location. The checklist could be something like this:

• Take a memento with you, to remind you of this place. 
• Leave something you cherish in this place. 
• A companion from this place joins you for the onward journey.
• Make a promise to someone who lives here.

And so on...

With a wanderlust that can only be reduced, it would limit the play time. If you wanted to extend it, you could have events that allow you to recover wanderlust - it could be something as simple as draw d4 cards when you travel onward. Or perhaps it would be linked to encountering wondrous things on the journey which inspire you to continue.

To summarize:

1. During character creation, set the wanderlust attribute between 1 and 20. A dedicated traveler can begin with 20.
2. Draw a number of cards (face down), equal to the wanderlust score.
3. When taking an action that shows personal interest in a place (investigating, protecting, challenging), turn over a card and resolve the associated prompt. The card is discarded and the wanderlust attribute is reduced by 1.
4. When deciding whether to leave, roll d20 versus wanderlust. Equal or under is a success and travel can proceed without issue.
5. On a failure of the wanderlust roll, either end your journey in this place, or check one of the unchecked prompts for connections to places you have visited.
6. Optionally, recover your wanderlust when you travel onward.

I have a little more in mind for the game this might fit into, but it might also make sense as a MOSAIC Strict text that could be used in different games.

My idea for Mythic Bastion-Jam

A Mythic Bastionland game jam will be launching soon on itch.

My enthusiasm for game jams tends to exceed my follow-through, but just to put something into the ether, this is what I have in mind.

A mini-game for advancing time between Seasons and Ages

This isn't something that I think is needed. The rules for advancing time are simple, clear, and work well. I'm just exploring the idea of switching gameplay styles briefly, and the gaps between Seasons and Ages might be a nice place for that. Plus, everyone gets a bonus character!

When advancing time by a Season or Age, everyone (players and referee) will play in a GMless mini-game, inspired by Wanderhome. Everyone takes on the role of a storyteller or chronicler who lives in the realm. The goal is to collaboratively give a little more detail to events in the realm. Each chronicler has opportunities to add to the narrative - "I met a farmer who was saved by the company..." Maybe some lesser consequences of the Company's actions can be fleshed out.

This isn't a replacement for the existing rules (players still need to choose pursuits for their knights, and the group still needs to find out how Unresolved Situations progress. It is just a way to add some additional gameplay and roleplay into that framework.

Some things I would want to include, if I get around to doing this:

• Inspired by Wanderhome, define actions that allow you to gain a token or spend a token. 
• Define traits ("things you can always do" from Wanderhome) for each chronicler. Maybe (eek) d72 of them?
• Define places that the chroniclers may come together to discuss the changes in the Season / Age.
• A gentle mechanic for protecting elements where the group doesn't want to share complete narrative control - the Referee may have something in mind for some drama in a holding, for example, or a player may not want their knight dragged into some scandal.
  
• Maybe something about the idea of unreliable narrators. The meeting of these chroniclers may not reveal the factual history of the realm, but just their version of it. (And the realm can be pretty hard to pin down anyway.)

That's it for now, but I hope to return to this.