tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615826467198003068.post158750031211630047..comments2024-03-27T14:19:47.931+00:00Comments on BASTIONLAND: A Setting to Serve the GameChris McDowallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11717684225248546716noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615826467198003068.post-53907827680624376582020-09-04T07:41:35.413+01:002020-09-04T07:41:35.413+01:00I like vague settings intended to serve the game. ...I like vague settings intended to serve the game. One of the things I dislike most about current W40K is the HUGE amount of lore. I just don't have the time for that, and it also feels stifling. But others love just that. I know a guy who's recreating a particular large battle from the Horus Heresy in almost the same way historical gamers do the napoleonic wars. Not for me though.<br /><br />The realm of chaos books were great, but the idea that you would convert your miniatures (or replace them) as they acquired new mutations never worked out in practice. Hardly anyone ever did that, because it would mean redoing and potentially ruining finished miniatures you might actually like. Sure, you could buy the same base miniature again and do a new conversion model, but still.Ghasthousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07401924351959645260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615826467198003068.post-11605057386079957212020-08-14T21:56:26.036+01:002020-08-14T21:56:26.036+01:00"presumably the big-budget TV series and movi..."presumably the big-budget TV series and movies are only a matter of time away." <br />Funnily enough there are two series on the way for 40k - one based on Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn, and an animated space marine one.<br /><br />I feel similarly to you about the game and have always rationalised away the disconnect as being something that just happens when the galaxy is so big, and the bureaucracy is so slow that essentially every fleet can only trust themselves, especially when you consider what could happen when you have shadowy agents like inquisitors or rogue traders pulling the strings behind this. Maybe the battlefield is too chaotic and things have gotten lost so even when it's Imperial Guard on Imperial Guard, these could be thinking they're fighting the enemy when it's actually just another company of their regiment whose position was unknown. If you're expecting an enemy, them shapes in the smoke sure look like an enemy.<br /><br />Even following on from Rogue Trader, the background then seemed much more interesting when it was just a line in a codex somewhere referring to the Badab War - and giving essentially no other information than it was a civil war that caused the death of billions when some space marines seceded. The vagueness gives so much more room to play than when the parameters have been defined.cardboardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15962021336430176905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615826467198003068.post-66432243680257325342020-08-04T20:34:05.439+01:002020-08-04T20:34:05.439+01:00I spent the last 7 months making a three level dun...I spent the last 7 months making a three level dungeon for my Into the Odd sporadic game using more or less these same principles described here, to fit the world into the system. It's like a weird/gonzo/horror version of the real world if the apocalypse and the aliens had occured during the Victorian Era and only London, Bastion of Civilization, now called simply Bastion, remained (and who knows what happened on the other sides of the world).<br /><br />All of these are mere hints found on notes, books, and lore fragments the explorers uncover when they travel searching treasure and Arcana.<br /><br />There is not a coherent worldbuilding here, it's only scattered hints that might make sense if one really tries, but that in general make no sense at all.Vagabundork (Chaos Magick-User)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10945302216491852035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615826467198003068.post-72949398359727029702020-08-04T20:08:29.937+01:002020-08-04T20:08:29.937+01:00Oh nice, that sounds awesome! I'll keep an eye...Oh nice, that sounds awesome! I'll keep an eye out for that.maxcan7https://www.blogger.com/profile/12504030224075149157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615826467198003068.post-16974791435430200752020-08-04T20:05:11.647+01:002020-08-04T20:05:11.647+01:00Looking forward to checking out the Bastionjam ent...Looking forward to checking out the Bastionjam entries. I'm avoiding them at the moment so that I can jump in blind on a stream!Chris McDowallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11717684225248546716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615826467198003068.post-45786565082537485092020-08-04T17:48:26.976+01:002020-08-04T17:48:26.976+01:00You are excellent at this sort of thing. I'm o...You are excellent at this sort of thing. I'm one of the people working on a game for your <a href="https://itch.io/jam/eclectic-bastion-jam" rel="nofollow">Eclectic Bastionjam</a> and I've found that trying to fit my setting within an ItO/EB framework has been enlightening on how to match a setting to a system. I've been narrowing the focus of the setting and how it expresses itself as I've written and playtested my game (the playtest went excellently and we're actually going to keep running the campaign!), and everything just works, and it's because of how well designed the ItO/EB system is, and how intrinsic diegesis is to it.<br /><br />Shameless self-promotion here's the draft of <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bxz5Xsy7CeXfkrJjNKXRyH3vUuCrUhyXBZlPRL4Df-o/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow">Maximum Recursion Depth</a> ;). Given limited time and energy I think my jam entry is going to have to be an "ashcan" edition but I'm really hoping to do something more with this down the line.maxcan7https://www.blogger.com/profile/12504030224075149157noreply@blogger.com