Why Space?

 A good chunk of Intergalactic Bastionland's current iteration focuses on the element of living and working on a starship, managing relationships, negotiating the hierarchy, and trying to keep your job or maybe even get ahead.

There's a lot of fun in that, but that could just as easily take place in Electric Bastionland, in some vast factory, office block, or prison.

But that's missing the other half of the game.

Space holds a special allure. Rolling out a star map and saying "yeah, each of these is a whole solar system. Where do you want to go?"

It's an utterly different scale to the realms of Mythic Bastionland. I wanted those to feel big, but they're grounded enough that you can generally plan out what exists where. Those "empty hexes" are easy enough to handwave with some vague descriptions like... Trees? Squirrels? Yeah, it's just some woods.

This is trickier when you suddenly need to improvise an entire world. Yeah you've got your zero-atmosphere dusty rocks, but what about when you've got a planet with a population of a billion and an exotic atmosphere you don't fully understand? That's where your improv skills are really put to the test.

I found this to be a challenge when running a Traveller sandbox. Look, I enjoy the Universal World Profile codes, but it rarely gave me enough of a hook to improvise, instead relying on a good bit of prep between sessions.

So the plan for Intergalactic is to have twelve star systems, each with six "worlds" which could be planets, moons, stations, or weirder things. Each of these gets a two-page spread, which still isn't enough to document an entire planet, but hopefully gives the Referee what's needed to run things on the fly.

But what about the places that aren't included?

If you asked the same about Mythic, asking what happens if the players wander out of the Realm, I'd give some advice about pounding your fist on the giant map in the middle of the table and reminding them of their oath. In essence, I don't expect the Knights of Mythic Bastionland to go and wander off the map just for the fun of it.

Put those players in a spaceship? Now there isn't really an end of the map. Sure, players don't start the game with much control over where the ship goes, but rest assured they'll find a way, or one day throw it all out and go it alone.

The stars extend beyond the home cluster, and even within each of those systems there must be planets and moons that aren't written up aaaaand even in the detailed worlds there's an entire globe of locations that could be explored.

The referee inside me is shaking, but I want to encourage this feeling within the players.

It goes back to why I'm drawn into space at all. It's being 9 years old and unfolding this map.

Image from www.abandonwaredos.com

Frontier: Elite 2 was my first space sandbox, which I've written about in passing before. It's a relatively pure sandbox in that you can go anywhere, and you aren't really given any goal or story to follow. Generally you want to make money, improve your reputation, buy a better ship.

Each of those stars on the map is a system, which will hopefully have orbital stations and planetary ports you can land on, do some trading, pick up some odd jobs, then move on. There isn't much worth sticking around for. You can't leave your ship to wander the station or visit the cities looming on the horizon. While impressive for the time, the settlements themselves look suspiciously small, especially when visiting earth.

Still, the experience of a journey made it feel real. You seamlessly take off from one planet (after requesting docking clearance, of course), take the ship into orbit, set a destination in a neighbouring system, jump through hyperspace, cruise over to your target planet, request docking permission, and drop down into the atmosphere to set the ship down on a new world. The docking doors slide open and you're transported over to one of the bays before being met with the familiar screen showing your renewed options for trading etc.

It's kind of mundane, but it feels like travelling through a real place, and the option was always there to just go and land on a random patch on Mars, or load up on fuel and see how far into unoccupied space you can go. There usually wasn't anything interesting to see out there, but the feeling of being able to fly there was key to Frontier's appeal for me.

Something is lost when space games land the ship for you (No Man's Sky at launch) limit themselves to orbital bases (Elite Dangerous), or lack any real mundane spaceflight altogether (Starfield).

Okay, back to TTRPGs. How to create this feeling in Intergalactic Bastionland without melting the Referee's improv-node? That's the tricky part, but I have plans. More on that another time.

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Big Companies

I've had a few people ask about playing Mythic Bastionland with larger groups of players. I've found the game flows at its best with 2-4 players, but getting up to 5 or more starts to raise a few noticeable effects.

• As discussed previously, Knights are powerful, so this effect is compounded when you've got six of them riding into battle. With so many gambits and smites and denies they can be tough to challenge, martially. Whether this is a problem or not is open for debate, but it certainly creates a different feel to playing with smaller groups.
• Combat often involves everyone throwing their dice into a pool and working out what to do with their dice. The larger the group, the more chaotic and crowded this can feel, sometimes even sluggish, so I think you lose a bit of the dramatic effect it usually causes.
• With so many Knights in the group it's less appealing to have additional characters tagging along like squires or other NPCs, and they can create some interesting contrast to the Knights.

So what do I recommend if you want to play with, say, a company of six players?

First of all, you don't need to change anything. I think the game still works, it just feels different. But if you want to try something new I have two options.

Rookie Knights
Everyone makes a Young Knight as normal, but apply the following changes:

• Virtues are rolled on 2d6 instead of d6+d12
• Each combatant can only be targeted by a single gambit from any given attack, no matter how many attackers were involved.
• Bolster is the exception to the above, and can be applied multiple times to the same target.

So the end result is more fragile characters with fewer Feats and Gambits being thrown around in combat, while keeping those systems intact.

Grand Company Setup
Tear up nine scraps of paper and label them as the following:

• 3 x Knight
• 3 x Squire
• 3 x Raider

Each player draws a random character type. Now personally I'd rig the draw so that there's a guarantee of at least one of each type to keep things interesting. So build a pool with one of each type, then randomly add the other types until you've got a pool of character types equal to the number of players.

Knights roll a character as a normal.

Squires roll a squire as detailed in the book, also rolling here to get an extra detail.

Raiders make a character using this method, representing raiders who have been converted to the wisdom of the seers, but have not taken the Oath. They still track Gold, not Glory, but they're more inclined to mercenary work than raiding the holdings of the realm. Ignore the stuff about the ship, you have a pony instead and an axe (d8 hefty), shield (A1, d4) , and 3 javelins (d6).

Players pissed off about being a squire and not a Knight? Is it weird that there are semi-converted raiders lumped in here? Yeah, I guess, but lean into it. Give the Squires some sort of path to Knighthood, play up the philosophical conflict between Knights and Raiders, maybe the company hate that one player who got to be a cool Knight so much that they consider murdering them.

Have fun!

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Threaten Me with a Bad Time

This was prompted by hearing a discussion about tracking torches in a dungeon crawling game. This is something that I find that adds work, rarely becomes impactful, and the threatened impact is a scary but eventually uninteresting event.

It reminds me of a boardgame I've been playing.

Gazebo is a fantastic game by Reiner Knizia. It's a redesign of his 2012 release... actually, none of that matters.

A simplified explanation of the game: You place tiles to build areas of the same colour, bigger areas being more desirable. If you connect an area to a smaller area of the same colour then it absorbs that area. In essence I can connect my area of 4 red blocks to your area of 3 red blocks and steal it. This is very powerful, and can act as a big swing with lots of beneficial side effects on my progress to victory.

It's also one of the more complex rules. The rulebook notes five main mechanics that are the ways to progress towards victory. The first four each take half a page of explanation, but absorbing another area takes a whole two page spread, with several examples given. It's noticeably more fiddly than the other entries.

After playing the game three or four times we noticed that this absorption rule hadn't come up. Setting up the move is tricky and usually easy for the opponent to spot it and block your efforts.

We played some more, maybe up to ten games now, and I think it's happened once? Maybe twice? The only time I remember was following a very stupid move on my part, leaving a clear opening for my opponent to absorb one of my areas.

So you remove that rule, right?

(psst, don't let boardgame people hear you talking about changing a Reiner Knizia rule)

No, I think the threat of a mechanic can be just as impactful as seeing it come into play. It limits where I place my tiles, teases me with a potentially huge swing when I'm way behind, and I can waste an opponent's turn by making them respond with a purely defensive play.

Of course, this relies on the players being aware of the rule. I wouldn't teach Gazebo and tell the other player "you can absorb each others' areas but don't worry it never happens". They need to know the rule to have the fear and have that fear affect their play.

Threaten them with a bad time and let the good times roll.

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Intergalactic Bastionland Public Playtest

Intergalactic Bastionland is now ready for public playtesting. 

Go here to find everything you need.

We're a way off the Kickstarter yet, but you can be first to follow here.

Dock Work

Dock is the second spoke on the Wheel that makes up crew life, between the drudgery of Transit and the enterprise of Layover.

I'm aiming for a good clear procedure to work through here. As with the other phases of the game, there are times when this will breeze past and others when it will make up a substantial part of the session.

Orbitals and Landings
Each world lists six locations, and the first is always the starport. Generally a ship can only dock at orbital facilities called Orbitals. Landings are docks on the surface, relying on smaller craft  to ferry crew and cargo, or an orbital transfer facility.

Rewards
While reprimands are always administered during transit, rewards are given immediately upon docking.  If the specific reward is in doubt, roll d6.

1. Public Commendation - The whole crew is told what a good job you did. 
2. The Captain’s Table - An invitation to dine with the Captain at the next opportunity. 
3. Prize Goods - A material prize is carefully selected by your superior. 
4. Medal - Only to be worn on ceremonial occasions. 
5. Promotion - Rarely up to the next tier of the crew, but something to give you a little authority over your peers. 
6. Note of Pardon - Forgiveness for a previous dereliction of duty, or held for future use.

Portside News
Worlds are never static. Much like unresolved incidents, a roll is made when arriving in dock to check on the status of the world. Each world entry details a lingering threat, which should factor in the news. If returning to a known world, consider the problems that were established last time the ship visited the world when describing the result.

1: Things have reached a crisis point.
2-3: Things are getting worse.
4-5: Things are steady.
6: Things have gotten slightly better.

Crisis Point
When a world reaches Crisis point they may close off exports, cease all trade, or even close off to outsiders altogether. A crisis left unchecked leads to a radical change in the world, sometimes its complete destruction. 

Duties
Officers are expected to carry out their portside duties relating to the ship, often delegating these in part to their heads. Even if the duties are small, Officers will want to interfere in the business of their rivals, or find a way to otherwise get ahead. 

The Arch Merchant is responsible for trading  and seeking out other financial opportunities. 

The Marshal in Arms checks the security of the world, improves their own armoury, and makes sure the locals are suitably intimidated.

The Commander-at-the-Helm manages the ship’s boats going out to other locations. 

The Mate of Papers is responsible for updating all records and data relating to this world. 

The Peoples Executive is responsible for recruiting new crewmembers and ensuring those going on shore leave behave themselves. 

The Technical Prime acquires any parts and work that needs doing on the ship and may offer engineering services to the world. 

Delegation
Officers love delegating these tasks down to their heads. It’s a chance to test their capability and loyalty, and means the Officer can stay in the comfort of their quarters.  These tasks may drift beyond the head’s normal sphere of responsibility, or even beyond the Officer’s own jurisdiction.

Portside Laws
Most worlds have a border between port and the rest of the world, so that passing business can operate without friction. Generally, weapons and armour above service grade are not allowed in port, but are permitted to pass securely through the border if the visitor’s business justifies it. 

Freight
The safest but least fruitful transport work is in shipping pre-sold freight between two worlds. The number of containers available is equal to 1% of the population rating of the smallest of the current world and the destination. Each container pays 1 Frag on arrival, or a fee of 5 Frags if lost.  

For example, available freight between a world of hundred-thousands and a world of thousands would be 10 containers (1% of 1,000). 

GM Focused Playtesting

That's right. When you run a playtest it's not about those parasitic players. You're the one who should be under the microscope.

Not exclusively, and I talked about player feedback from playtests before, but I want to stress the importance of examining your own experience as the person running the game.

I'm looking out for two things:

Unfulfilled Wishes
Those mid-game GM moments when you think:

• "I wish I'd prepared X"

• "a random table of Y would be so useful right now"

• "I wish I could just roll a die whenever Z happens to see how it goes"

A lot of the random generators in Mythic came from this, and the broad guidelines for Exploration Actions, which were introduced as a replacement to a rigid set of actions (set up camp etc).

Glimmers of Gold
I like to note cool moments that happen in the game, even if I feel like they emerged from outside of the rulebook, and think "how can I make stuff like that happen more often?"

In an early version of Mythic, each player had their own set of quests, and it was fun when they lightly contradicted each other. The Oath ended up being a better way to give the knights a set of objectives that occasionally felt mutually exclusive and forced interesting choices.

The Link
The link here is that I'm often testing for content as much as I'm testing the rules. Yeah, numbers will need tweaking, mechanics can get tweaked or stripped back, but I'm just as interested in everything else that goes in the book, and how that gets used in preparation and play.

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Toolfeel

Sometimes it matters which tool we pick up.

It's 1981. The Roland TB-303 is a new bass synthesiser. It was designed to act as a substitute for a bass guitar player, much like a drum machine for a drummer. In 1984, after poor sales, it was taken out of production. The way you programmed sequences of notes was counterintuitive and arranging a proper multi-section song on this thing was a frustrating experience. More vitally, the sound was more angry toad than bass guitar, and many of knob settings could produce sounds so extreme that they wouldn't fit in any genre.

Some years after its discontinuation, people found a use for it doing this. The cybernetic meow sound was embraced. Short, hypnotic dance loops bypassed the need for long sequences of notes and even then the fiddly programming served a purpose, nudging towards simple single note sequences with a few accents or octave leaps or untamed basslines keyed in at random and taken for their imperfections. Those wild sweeping knob settings could now be tweaked gradually or impulsively, giving long form movement to those looped sequences.

I bought one of the more affordable clones of this machine last year, and when I sit down to use it I create very differently than I do with other tools.

Yes, you can plug in an external keyboard or sequencer to bypass the annoying programming. You can sculpt a wider range of sounds than you might think, especially using external effects. Hey, you can even bypass the inconvenient machinery entirely and use one of the dozens of software clones, bending the virtual device entirely to your will. Even with just the basic device, you can learn the ways of its sequencing to make complex tracks, and hone its settings to find hidden sweet spots of subtle melodic sounds.

But I generally don't. When I plug it in, I smash in a few random bars of notes, blindly apply accents, glides, and octaves, and let it loop while I twist the knobs going BAAOW WAPPA BAPPA BOWA BOOOOWAPA BA BA BA WA.

It's not a sound I would have chosen on a more flexible device, or in the creative infinity of a digital workstation, but when I have that machine in front of me I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

I'm the same with RPGs. Sit me down with Traveller or 2400 and I'll run you a sci fi game, but the feel of each of those sets of tools pushes me in a slightly different direction. Of course I bring my own way of preparing and running a game, whatever the system, but the toolfeel is still there.  

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

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