Electric Bastionland Pledge Manager Closing Date

The Pledge Manager for Electric Bastionland will close on Thursday 23rd April, 5pm GMT, so if you want to get on the first batch of shipped books then go and get your order in before then.

Prison of the Worm Queen

Into the Odd came with a dungeon (the Iron Coral), wilderness area (The Fallen Marsh) and town (Hopesend) so that you can leap straight into a game.

With Electric Bastionland I wanted to encourage the reader to create their own scenarios, and realise how easy it is to convert existing material on the fly.

But I appreciate that sometimes you just want to grab something ready-to-go.

So, here's a mini adventure about rescuing a (worm) Queen being held captive beneath Bastion's filthiest borough. I've found it works well for one-shot introduction games, and generally lasts around 2-3 hours if they take a relatively direct route. Naturally, there's lots of room for going off on tangents.

The adventure is described in broad strokes, leaving lots of room for interpretation and improvisation. Because of this I've managed to fit each surface location on a single page and each Underground level on a single spread, but it does mean you're going to have to get creative.

Download Prison of the Worm Queen

Cheap Tricks

There's a lot of good GM advice out there at the high end. How to ensure the players are engaged, that they have agency, that your world feels alive. Really lofty stuff.

These are the cheap little tricks down in the lower decks, the little things that can grease the wheels of your game if things start to stall. The salt of the RPG earth. They aren't going to win any awards as groundbreaking RPG theory, but I find it useful to keep some of them on-hand when running a game.

Cheap is not used here to mean unfair. Rather quick and easy things you can use without any forward planning.


Cheap Feelgood Tricks
Sometimes you just want to revel in the good times. Maybe you need a touch of relief after a tough situation or just want to reward the players for doing something really well.

• Amplify their competence: When they do something well in an area the character should be competent in, make sure you really show well they do it.
• Show how their planning paid off: If they put a careful plan in place and don't leave any loose threads, you don't always have to throw a spanner in the works. Let them revel in their master-plan going off without a hitch. Of course there will be a challenge to follow this, but reward them for their planning and put them in a strong position to move forward.
• Shine a spotlight on a past good-deed: If they did something good a while back, show how it's paying off for them now. Think of strong relationships they've built and let them rep the benefits, or show how somebody they've previously helped is now flourishing.
• Have the NPCs remember them: Everybody wants to be remembered. Have NPCs ask about something from their last conversation. You might know the answer, but the NPC doesn't, and it gives the players an opportunity to relive a positive moment in brief.

Cheap Failure Tricks
On the other hand, sometimes the players willingly put themselves in a situation ripe for consequences. These aren't things you should throw in without warning, but negative outcomes that should feel like the natural consequence of the players taking a risk and failing.

• Show the collateral damage: Maybe they do what they wanted to do, but at the cost of hurting somebody else or damaging a valuable resource.
• Start a ticking time-bomb: Immediate consequences are fine, but I like to set up for worse consequences and start a ticking clock (something literally). 
• Exploit a flaw of a person or gear: Put the blame for the failure squarely on a piece of gear or an allied NPC, pinning it down on a weakness that the players knew about. 
• Put somebody inconvenient in their way: Think of the person that the players would least like to see in the present situation and put them right there. This could be an old adversary, an inconvenient witness, or a friend that's now in the line of fire.
• Cut a connection: You might avoid consequences yourself, but one of your allies or resources is now completely cut off. It won't be permanent, but you're going to have to operate without them for a while.
• Leave a loose thread hanging: One of my favourites. Have things stay fine for now, but maybe you owe somebody bad a favour, or you left behind a trail that leads an enemy back to you. Do you risk leaving it, or waste valuable time going back to clean up after yourself?

Cheap Humour Tricks
Not every game benefits from humour. For more traditional D&D I like the idea that the game acts as the straight-man to the players, who will inevitably find certain situations funny. But for Bastionland I have some dark and absurd humour baked into the setting, so sometimes it's fun to lean into that. Humour is one of the hardest areas to apply universal cheap tricks to, but these have worked for me in the past.

• Establish a genre trope before subverting it: Set up an expectation and then subvert it. This is a building-block of comedy. Maybe you're waiting to meet with a private detective in a smoky bar, soft jazz music is playing, the lights are dim and then... think of the least likely person to stroll to the table and announce themselves as a detective. Or maybe they've got the classic look, but their behaviour is utterly against type. Rather than hard-boiled they're more soft-poached. 
• Have somebody treat a situation with a totally inappropriate tone: Somebody treating a trivial matter with the utmost gravitas, or somebody being jovially unconcerned about their house burning to the ground. 
• Indulge in a silly amount of detail: In Bastion this is often done through Bureaucracy. I don't want to sit my players down and actually make them complete paperwork, but I like to show a window into that side of the city. This is a tricky balance, and if you mess it up you might bore your players, but sincerely describing every detail of the meticulously prepared afternoon-tea spread can also double as the perfect setup to having the ceiling collapse in and smash it to pieces.
• Have the world drag the players down to its level: Put them in a position where they need to impress somebody that they wouldn't normally give the time of day to. Your only hope of chasing a new lead on the lost treasure of the narrow-boat-graveyard is to attend a meeting of the Fellows for the Discussion of Tug, Barge, and Other Civic Waterway Vessels and put up with the personalities within. 

Cheap Horror Tricks
Humour and horror are a often more similar than it might seem. Hear these are tricks mainly focused on building tension and creeping players out rather than causing sudden shocks.

• Keep things in shadow: Use vague descriptions of your horrific elements and let their fear fill in the blanks. The bucket is filled with wet meat. The face beneath the robe looks like gnarled wood. Then before they can ask too many questions...
• Cut off mid-sentence: The wardrobe is covered in cobwebs. You slowly crack it open and you feel the air get cold around you. You smell rotten wood and see...
• Don’t give them time to look properly: Somebody is approaching from the other direction. Are you going to stick around to examine this wardrobe or find somewhere to hide? Maybe you'll just throw the doors open?
• Have an NPC massively overreact or under-react: A widow that seems somewhat chirpy about the recent death of her husband in a mine collapse. The shopkeeper yelling till they're hoarse at the pigeon that won't stop perching on his sign, tears streaking down their face. 
• Place something unusual next to something very mundane: The classic severed hand in the toy-box or untouched flute of sparkling wine in the middle of a pub levelled by an artillery barrage.
• Equipment glitching out: More of a sci-fi thing, but we have electric devices in Bastion now. From the basic flickering lamps to record-players stuck on a looped phrase or radio static that sounds like screaming.
• Give them the opportunity to escape at a cost: Put the doorway right there, the light becoming them back to safety, but they can only take it if they leave something behind.

Mash-Up Character Method

People worry a lot about worldbuilding and creating an evocative setting for their games. Locations are great, but in my experience a setting is best delivered through its Characters.

Its a philosophy I've taken to the extreme in Electric Bastionland, where a large amount of setting is delivered through the Failed Careers section that makes up two-thirds of the book. Understanding these people is the way to understand the world that they live in, and it doesn't exist without them.

So I wanted to talk in a longer form about how I create characters for my own games, and how they generate the tone of my own games.

Start with what you know.

First, I create a short list (let's do three of each for this example) of concepts that I could use for characters. These aren't interesting on their own, but we're going to combine them to make something that's easy to conceptualise but has a little depth.

I'll start with the most obvious, which is that of played-out character archetypes like you've seen used a thousand times before.

1. Thief with a heart of gold
2. Wise woman of the village
3. Used-car salesman

These ideas are easy to run with, but they aren't interesting on their own, so let's do two more. Another easy one is animals. It's easy to project animal characteristics onto a person, imagining the equivalent human behaviour.

1. Snake
2. Terrier
3. Thoroughbred Horse

Your lists might look different, but you're looking for any concepts that can be projected onto a person. You might be able to imagine the personality of a certain type of car, genre of music, or a typeface if those are your areas of expertise. You can dive into straight-up character traits if you wish (cowardice, anxiety, envy) and I find the negative traits work well here. Better still if you dare to draw on your own negative traits. 

If you want a real challenge just grab completely random nouns, but that's very much hard-mode for this.

Mash them Up

Now we combine our lists to get:

1. Snakelike thief with a heart of gold
2. Terrier wise-woman
3. Thoroughbred used-car salesman

This, but backwards.

The ideal here is that you get two ideas that juxtapose each other. I'd argue that the snake-like thief is a bit too redundant, as we're probably already imagining the thief to have some of the same characteristics as the snake. Similarly I think the sort of preening behaviour I'd expert from a thoroughbred horse are redundant with the overly confident used-car salesman cliche. Let's mix them around a bit.

1. Thoroughbred thief with a heart of gold
2. Snakelike wise-woman
3. Terrier used-car salesman

I'm happier with these combinations as they move the initial archetype away from its cliche. You've got a thief that might have a heart of gold, but perhaps their vanity and showmanship creates some conflict. The wise-woman isn't going to be the helpful, maternal figure I was expecting, and instead can be cold and downright threatening with her snakelike elements. Finally the used-car salesman can be sleazy like we'd expect, but also persistent, excitable, and even a bit adorable.

Describing the Look

I don't like descriptions like this.

They're around 5"9 with hazel eyes and medium-brown hair worn in a rough bun. Their overalls are typical of an engineer, and they carry a selection of tools on their belt. They have a confident gait with...

Yeah you've lost me. Just give me two things.

Give me the overview of their appearance in two or three words. I do the same with locations. If I describe an "abandoned warehouse" then your imagination can fill the gaps as well as any description I give of dusty crates and faded paint. Not everybody will imagine the exact same picture, but it gives you a foundation.

Obviously at the table you've got room to expand on this description, but I'd save that for if you need it. Certainly for your notes you should be able to summarise it to two or three words.

Most importantly, draw on the two elements you used for this character for this description.

1. Slender, handsome man. (thoroughbred/thief)
2. Oily old woman. (snake/wise-woman)
3. Scruffy little man (terrier/salesman)

But wait! I don't even know what colour this scruffy little man's hair is?

Wait and see if anybody asks. You've already pictured somebody in your head, and your players are quite capable of doing the same.

Now just as I liked having a juxtaposition in the elements, point out one element of their appearance that stands out against the broad strokes you just painted.

1. Slender, handsome man wearing scruffy patched-up clothes. (thoroughbred/thief)
2. Oily, elderly woman with a mechanical arm. (snake/wise-woman)
3. Scruffy little man wearing gold-rimmed glasses (terrier/salesman)

What would cause you to notice them in a crowd?

The Voice

Voices become difficult if you overthink them. Maybe you have a range of flawless dialects and voice-actor-worthy performances, but I tend to stick to more earthy limits and go into any character's voice with the goals that it be:

• Easy for me to maintain and repeat
• Easy for the players to recognise as a particular character

So with that in mind I stick pretty close to the original elements, but make sure they're both being represented. Even if you don't nail what you were going for the key is that you can easily repeat it. 

1. Slender, handsome man. (thoroughbred/thief) - Here I'd mash up the high-society aspirations from the thoroughbred with the fact that this man is clearly just a lowly thief. Think of the most down-to-earth person you know and imagine how they'd sound trying to fit in at a fancy day-at-the-races.
2. Oily elderly woman. (snake/wise-woman) - Sssslow with a predatory precision, but keep that old-lady warmth and overly familiar side. Lean hard into the "oh I could just eat you up" side of the grandmother stereotype for something veering between creepy and comforting.
3. Scruffy little man (terrier/salesman) - Fast and excitable of course! Yappy even! They're so glad you're here and maybe their attention span isn't great so hey, come and look at this. But throw in all the lingo you'd expect from somebody trying to bombard you with car specifications.

Remember to include physical behaviours as part of their voice. Our thoroughbred is always trying to stand taller and prouder. Our snake is licking her lips and almost gliding across the room. Our terrier is bounding from one thing to the next and snarling at bigger rivals like he's trying to prove something.

Their Place in the World

This is how we tie them into the world. You might be creating these characters for specific gaps in the game you're planning. Maybe you need somebody to serve the characters at the shop they just wandered into.

This is where things get really interesting! You might think that our thief is obviously a professional burglar in Bastion. Our wise-woman clearly occupies some hut out in Deep Country dishing out potions. Our used-car salesman is trying to convince a tram company to upgrade to a new model on behalf of his bosses.

Yeah, this works, but why not put them into the gaps you already have? Gaps you wouldn't expect to see them in?

Our thoroughbred-thief might be working in the dive-bar the characters just went into.
Our snake-woman might be a professor at the university.
Our salesman might actually be the mayor of a borough, surrounded by people he can boss around.

Think about how they can bring their existing personality to a role you wouldn't expect to see them in. You'll be surprised how readily the players accept characters that might initially seem like a bad fit for their role in the world. It even makes both the person and place more memorable.

Their Goal

Now you know the character, and you know their current situation, think about how they would want it to change. Nobody is ever completely happy, after all. Consider all the ways that they are an ill-fit for the role you put them in, or ways in which their initial potential appears to be unfulfilled. Lean into those and give them each one really clear goal that they want to achieve. This doesn't have to be some grand scheme, in fact the basest desires often work best of all.

1. Slender, handsome dive-bar waiter (thoroughbred/thief). Wants to work at a much finer establishment.
2. Oily, elderly biology professor (snake/wise-woman). Wants to taste all sorts of taboo meats.
3. Scruffy little mayor (terrier/salesman). Wants to embarrass the mayor of a neighbouring district that he feels talks down to him. 

Finally, I give them a silly memorable name (just one name) that nods to their original concepts. It might feel on-the-nose but remember the goal here is to make something memorable. 

1. Derby the dive-bar waiter
2. Professor Piver
3. Mayor Ratter

As with other methods I use, it might take you a little while the first time, but it's easy enough to do on the fly if you just think of a few core elements ahead of time. 

Electric Bastionland Free Edition

There's now a 42-page free version of Electric Bastionland that you can download from the sidebar.

It has the rules for playing, equipment lists, and ten of the hundred-plus Failed Careers from the full book.

Grab it from Itch or Google Drive and share it with your friends that you're dying to convert.

Have fun!

Question-Focused Artwork

For Electric Bastionland I gave Alec a brief that was both specific and broad. I had a few key things that I wanted to feature in there, and gave an overview of the mood of Bastion, Deep Country, and the Underground, but wanted to give him lots of room to throw in any weird ideas he had.

He definitely delivered on that.

As the pieces poured in I was so focused on getting them into the document and looking at the figures in the foreground that I missed a heap of details in the background. Only now the book has gone to print have I had the time to go back and indulge in the fine detail.

I wanted artwork that raised questions, but just throwing every idea against the wall isn't enough. Bastionland doesn't have much canon, but those that exist are deliberately left broad enough to cover a wide range of elements.

For locations you've got four: Bastion, Deep Country, Underground, Living Stars. If you have a cool idea for a location there's definitely somewhere you can fit it.

For weird beings you've got three: Mockeries, Aliens, Machines (and Monstrosities are usually derived from one of the three). Some are more focused (Mockeries tend to look like muppet animals, but not always) but others are left wide open (Aliens are barely described at all in terms of appearance, behaviour, and abilities).

Even mundane people and animals are established to have wildly diverse variety, and some of them have even received augmentation, modification, or mutation.

So I've pulled out some of the hidden details that I think bring the world to life by asking questions. I refuse to give canonical answers, but I've tried to think of three possibilities that would fit.

What are these squirrels doing emerging from this weird cave?

• They're shadow-squirrels, forged out of darkness itself by a Machine to covertly snuff out all light on the surface. 
• They're trained by a tree-worshipping cult to carry nuts into the Underground, planting trees that have no hope of ever growing.
• They're native to the overgrown tunnels and are fleeing some Alien monstrosity that's wandered into under-squirrel territory after fleeing their dead star. 

Who keeps a lion on their roof?

• The lion performs a call to prayer from a different roof each morning, causing the unfortunate building to be overrun by members of The Feline Church.
• The lion actually owns the building and is keeping the woman as a pet.
• It's just a statue, but the tenant believes it to be alive and replenishes its food and water bowls every morning.

What the hell is happening with all the vermin?

• The swarm is being cultivated by the Verminator company to keep them in business.
• The building sits on an underground connection to a star where all varieties of vermin have overrun every liveable space, and now they're spilling over. 
• Genuine rats and bugs are mixed in with Mock Spiders and Mock Possums that are hiding from their debts. The Verminator can't take care of business until these sapient beings are removed from the swarm.

Did somebody draw the constellations in the sky?

• Aliens are trying to send us a warning.
• A ridiculously wealthy star cult managed to fit giant beam-projectors to the stars themselves to make their stargazing easier.
• They're the light-trails of a cosmic crusade currently occurring between the Living Stars. 

What's up with this person?

• It's just fashion, you know?
• An Alien that's struggling with the Bastionate Climate
• They're a remote terminal for a gigantic Underground Machine, living on the surface an an ambassador for their interests. 

Also some questions I'll outright refuse to answer.

Is this cat following fish-tank-head with the intention to eat the fish should they fall over?

What exactly is going on in here?

Is that a Mock Koala watching the Amateur Dramatist perform?? No substantial questions here, I just love him.

What's making this frog so happy? Is he a permanent fixture on her head?

Who would settle on this as their staircase decor?

Why is there just a regular old squid sat on a bench waiting for a train?

What's going on with box-head here? Is there a special place he could get a better fitting hat?

Uhh, what?

Basically every poster in the background is packed with ideas.

Are these people doomed to run away from this train in an endless loop?

Next time you're stuck for inspiration, consider looking in the background of your favourite pieces of artwork as a nice alternative to a random table.

The Bastionland Manifesto

Mission

Break the barriers between your imagination and your game.

When you learn about a new game your mind races with what could be possible. The reality is often a compromise. I want to remove everything that stands in the way between how you imagine a game could be and how it plays at the table.

Tenets

Design for Tables
The games are meant to be played, not read like a novel. Books should be useful for having on the table during your game.

Break Barriers
The games ask for as little as possible from the players. Learning is easy, you don’t have to wait for the good stuff, and everybody is welcome.

See Rules as False Idols
Use dice mechanics and technical terminology as little as possible. Numbers are not the answer, and wherever possible plain speech is preferred.

Methods

Distillation

• Replace multiple rolls with one roll
• Replace boring rolls with interesting decisions
• Replace modifiers with dice variation
• Replace mechanical effects with diegetic effects
• Replace rules requiring referencing with principles to internalise

Infusion

• Somebody reading the book should be hit with flavour even if they aren't going to play
• Flavour should be infused directly into the rules wherever possible
• Anything that could be forgettable can be infused with extra flavour

Filtration

• If everything you need to use at once doesn't fit on a two-page spread then it's too complicated.
• If a concept can't be expressed as a short set of bullet points then it's too unfocused.
• If an idea would exclude people from the game then it can be replaced with something that doesn't.

What is this For?

This is meant to keep me on track. It is not a universal treatise on game design. The games I write aren't meant to replace D&D, Call of Cthulhu, or Traveller. They occupy a specific place on the spectrum of game design, and this manifesto is written to keep my focus there and let you know what to expect from me.