Creation

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

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

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I've spent a lot of this week preparing for an upcoming webinar that I'm running. The pitch is "design an RPG in four hours" and the pressure is building as I see the attendee numbers climb.

In my previous career I designed and led a lot of staff training and instructional sessions for customers, and before that I was a schoolteacher, so I'm hoping the delivery won't be too much trouble. The part that really stumped me to begin with was "how do I actually teach somebody how to make an RPG?"

Like so many people, I pretty much started making games as soon as I realised rulebooks existed. I probably made my first rudimentary RPG before I'd even played something as thorough as D&D. I've learned a lot since then, but I'm not sure I was ever told how to make a game from scratch. It just... happened. 

RPG design exists in a very weird place compared to other creative activities. You've got to make up a decent amount of enticing creative content for your game, but you also need to make it a game. I know I've seen enough RPGs that only do one thing or the other. 

It's sort of like simultaneously teaching somebody how to fix a van's engine and airbrush a space-wizard onto the side. It's all working towards the same goal of "drive your wizard van around town" but you'd struggle to learn them at the same time.

For the webinar, I'm setting realistic goals right from the start. You're making the skeleton of a game, and a lot of that "engine tuning" only really happens later on. It's really more important that you get that space-wizard right. Make your game about something, not necessarily in an abstract way, but hone in on what this game is for.

When I was ten and hacking Warhammer Quest into something resembling an RPG, I knew what I wanted. To take those WHQ characters out onto epic journeys across a big overworld map, fighting monsters in the woods and swamps on the way. It was built out of desire for that game to exist on my bedroom floor, not through any sort of external draw. It was a desire that I couldn't fulfil elsewhere, with even D&D still firmly outside of my grasp. That limited my reference to this one hack and slash dungeon-crawler and the world it inhabited. 

In my own experience, that amalgam of Desire with Limitation is gunpowder for game design.

I won't go into the full scope of the Webinar, as some of you may actually be attending, but for any game design I see that as a good place to start. 

Primordial Wizard

Think this will be the last Primordial class for a little while!

We've had the Reverent and the Fiendish. So what makes the original spellcaster different?

Coincidentally, I've been thinking about magic a bit recently, and I like the idea that it's a force that drenches the whole world, not something restricted to an elite few.

So yeah, magic is everywhere, but words have a special ability to be able to tap into it in a number of different ways.

This wizard is just a big nerd librarian, weaponising their reading age to spectacular results.

Bit of a cheat this time, as this class is really nothing without the specific spellbooks that they tap into, which will be coming next time. This is more about understanding the truths of the world surrounding word-magic, and an excuse to use some very silly wizard-words. 

Primordial Wizard

Magic is everywhere. All parts of the world conceal it, and all people tap into it without even realising. Just as stories can help us to understand complex matters, words have a special ability to connect with magic. 

The Mystical Languages

You know two of these confidently, two of them passably, and one just barely. 

Grimnal: A difficult script that predates any recorded history, often requiring an entire page to accurately record a single word. Doesn’t hold innate magical power itself, but used in foundational and instructional texts for all magical knowledge. If you can read Grimnal you can read any mundane language by extension. 

Primotonic: A language that is easily read, but requires much practice to pronounce correctly. Allows small bypasses of the innate rules of our world such as gravity, momentum, molecular stability. 

Urunic: Cannot be held in paper, only in heavy matter such as metal, stone, or particular woods. Must be touched to be read aloud, awakening power in the item it is carved on or channeling it to a willing vessel.

Etheric: A language that cannot be spoken or written, only mouthed, gestured, and felt from within. Calls upon worlds beyond our own to bring forth elemental energies and beings.  

Metalingual: Not so much a language, but a deeper understanding of the power of syntax. Two words can sound identical, but carry entirely different meanings based on the context of their use. As such, any language can become mystical if the correct context is applied. All texts reveal hidden truths to you that would pass others by. Used in the casting of charms and curses bound by rigid laws.

Spellbooks

Your repertoire of Spells grows as you explore the world, held in some record beyond this sheet, typically multiple Spellbooks. Some of these can represent Spells learned from a non-written source.

You begin with a single Spellbook of your choice.

Casting Spells

Choose one that you are particularly experienced with, and one that you find difficult. 

• Recite: Reading a specific set of words, whether from your spellbook, an immovable tome, or an engraved object. Typically takes a long time, but is reliable if you know the language well enough. 

• Enact: Performing a specific method to cast a spell more quickly, typically requiring some expertise in Etheric and carrying a greater risk in the case of failure. 

• Discharge: This is typically a single word that “releases” a spell that was previously bound in some form. Often this is in a scroll or gem, which is destroyed in the process. This is also the method for dispelling ongoing spells, as long as you know the correct word. 

Implements

Choose one of the following implements.

• Wand: Aids greatly in the casting of any spell that calls for Etheric methods, and the precision of any spells that require a target.

• Staff: You can bind any spell you cast into your Staff, to be Discharged later on. Typically only one Spell can be stored in this way, but legendary staffs can hold more spells or even alter or combine them as they are Discharged.

• Familiar: An intelligent animal that can act as a vessel or point of origin for any spell that you cast.

Cantrips

These small, simple spells are impressive to outsiders, but really they are a single spell bound by a clear set of restrictions, which Wizards can manipulate to a wide variety of effects. Certain articles of Arcane Paraphernalia can even allow certain cantrip restrictions to be loosened or even ignored.

1. Ephemerality: The effects of a cantrip cannot last more than a few moments, during which you must be focused on the spell.

2. Unreality: Anybody that suspects an effect of a cantrip to be magical can clearly see its mystical nature. 

3. Modesty: Any force or matter conjured cannot exceed that of the caster’s physical form.

Magic

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

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

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With Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland I put most of what could be considered magic into the form of Arcana or Oddities, items granting weird abilities. The big inspirations were D&D's more memorable artifacts. Portable hole, immovable rod, decanter of endless water. Those are the sort that always stuck with me.

I wanted those weird abilities to be in the hands of every character, not just those that chose to be a wizard.

Generally I'm becoming less interested in magical characters, but more so in magical worlds. Stuff that isn't on your character sheet, you've got to go out and find it.

But I want to go further than just magic items.

And not just places explicitly rich with magic. Islands in the sky, talking mountains, the forest of living shadows. That's all fine. But rather than big splats of magical paint being thrown on the map, I'm enjoying settings that apply magic like a gentle wash over their world. It might pool here and there, but it soaks into everything.

Like a slightly altered source code to that of our own world. Different rules for for a different reality.

Undeath is a great example. Fantasy settings often have Necromancers, but aside from them there's a common assumption that the dead have a power that lasts beyond life. Spectres linger halfway between realities, vengeful spirits haunt those that wronged them in life, and those killed in a place rich with death can find themselves unable to rest.

It can be more subtle. Artisans so skilled that, despite no magical training, they can create goods with truly miraculous properties. Seasons that follow the mood of the realm, rather than a traditional calendar. Particularly stagnant pools serving as pockets of frozen time, where visions of the past can be caught by those with a strong enough stomach to dive below. And that old fairy tale favourite, where love is a force that can conquer anything, with rules and powers of its own.

Bastionland has elements of this. None of the parts of the world really hold up if you approach them through a mundane lens. The infinite, ever-changing city. The wilderness manifesting our shameful past. The tunnels beneath time and space.

This sort of magic appeals to me a lot more than a canon of spells sorted into levels.

Primordial Cleric

The other side of the coin to the Warlock. I wanted to focus in on the idea that clerics represent more of an organised religion than the individualistic bargaining of the Warlock or the looser affiliations of a Druid. 

Crafts are perhaps more suited to a cloistered monk type, but I wanted to draw on that side of things while maintaining the more heretic-smiting and miracle-performing side of things. So the result is something mashed together from those three archetypes. Let's see if it works. 

Cleric

Devotion

You are devoted to an organised faith until death, after which you hope to be rewarded. You will never receive concrete evidence that your faith is justified, but you have found some feeling or philosophy to justify your faith. 

Equipment - Choose 2

Rod: Proudly bearing your icon, inspiring the faithful and daunting your enemies. An impactful but clumsy weapon if needed. 

Sword: Highly decorative scabbard. You fight with fervent righteousness rather than martial skill.

Censer: Spreads a purifying incense or a concealing smoke. 

Ring: Your touch alone can soothe the faithful and cause sudden pain to those you deem unholy. 

Lantern: Never runs out of oil, and light intensity adjusts to your will. Holy oil is explosive in desperate situations. 

Shield: Utterly unbreakable by those that you consider to be enemies of your faith. 

Craft

Part of your worship is serving the community through your craft, and passing knowledge on to future generations. The products provide great comfort, relief, and even miraculous healing, to those that partake. 

Choose 2 for yourself, and 1 that is strictly forbidden. 

Brewing, Calligraphy, Carpentry, Horticulture, Pottery.

Icon

The symbol of your faith, which is marked on all of your personal equipment. You can mark this Icon onto products of your craft if you truly dedicate your full efforts into them. This enhances their beneficial effects further and creates a negative effect on unnatural enemies of your faith. 

Miracles

The effects of your crafts and services can seem truly miraculous, but they never appear outright magical. Effects take hold overnight when nobody is watching, or manifest through events that could be coincidence. 

Despite this subtlety, there is no upper limit to these miracles, though the will of the gods is never a reliable force. They may have other plans for you.

Services

These take an hour to prepare and the same to perform.

Judgement: You call down a condemnation of somebody that has wronged your faith. If they are present they may beg for forgiveness, which you decide whether or not to grant. Otherwise, they are considered an unholy enemy of your faith. 

Oath: One or more people make a lifelong promise, or reinforce an existing bond. Increases morale and dedication when enacting this promise.  

Prayer: You call for support in a particular course of action. If your faith is strong you will notice a guiding hand when you act in that direction. 

Consecration: A person, place or object is purged of unholy presence or sin, often through fire or water.  

Relics

Remains of the most revered martyrs of your faith. You do not wish to possess these, they belong under sacred protection.

Choose 2 that you know the location of, one safe and one not. The others are lost. 

Tome of ______: Encased in bones and lined in skin. Contains an order of service written in a mostly-forgotten dialect. When a Service is performed while reading from this book, the effects are enhanced by an order of magnitude. 

_________’s Halo: A lantern containing skull parts. When its light fills a room the walls become indestructible.

Eyes of ________: Preserved in frosted glass. If used in a Prayer ceremony, the Cleric receives visions of possible futures. 

The ________ Shroud: Rumoured to have the ability to return the dead to life.

_________ Urn: The combined ashes of martyrs slaughtered in vast numbers. Their vengeful spirits can be awoken in times when your entire faith is under threat.

Mattering

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

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

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You might think I'm anti-lore, based on some of the ways I've talked about those long sections of background prose that we've come to expect from RPGs. Timelines, pantheons, maps.

Well, I sort of am, but only when it just doesn't matter.

If the world was created millions of years ago by Elemental Titans then I don't really care what their names are... unless I can invoke their power by speaking them.

If the great city of Notlantia fell into the ocean in the great age of disaster then I'm sort of disinterested... until the drowned armies emerge from the seas for vengeance.

If the calendar of this land has a special leap-day every five years, where any remaining debts are claimed with blood... well if you're telling me about that then you'd better follow it up with "...and that day is today!"

I love lore and magic and religion in game settings, but I don't love them more than the game itself. I want it to matter, and while so much of that comes down to the specific way the GM is prepping, I've read enough lore that just feels incompatible with the reality of the game table.

I still largely prefer games that deliver their world through Tone, but when I want to dive into that rich well of Lore, I want it to really matter.

Primordial Warlock

Another Primordial Class. This time voted for by those of you on my Patreon, who are clearly accustomed to throwing in their allegiance with unsavoury entities.

When I get around to the Wizard I want there to be a big focus on spellbooks that you can actually print off and fold. Like a bunch of miniature version of Wonder and & Wickedness.

So for the Warlock I wanted to focus more on your relationship to your Patron, drawing a bit on the whole Chaos Gifts angle of the Warhammer. You can watch me going through the first half of the process over on last night's Bastionland Broadcast.

Playbook - Warlock

In a moment of desperation or ambition, you pledged yourself to a demonic force in return for unnatural power. 

From your past life you have a simple weapon and a tool of your former trade.

Fiendish Patron

Choose two titles for your Patron. These dictate their rules. Breaking them invokes your Patron’s wrath. 

• The Beast - Never show mercy.

• The Deceiver - Deny the existence of the Deceiver.

• The Fallen - Always respect a holy site. 

• The Conqueror - Never pass up an opportunity to show your superiority.

The remaining two are the rivals to your Patron. You can earn your Patron’s favour by carrying out a deed that majorly acts against one of their rivals’ rules. 

Eldritch Gifts

Choose two gifts from your Patron. You can swap them at any time by engaging in a ceremony of pleading or sacrifice to your Patron. 

Imp Familiar: A small, troublesome imp serves your every word, but ultimately serves your Patron. They can fly clumsily and start small fires.

Hellblade: A longsword that burns in the chaos of combat. Spooks animals and weak-willed people. When you kill another being with this blade your body is reinvigorated.

Book of Shadows: A grimoire of minor curses and incantations. 

Inferno: You can conjure bolts, blasts, and walls of fire, but cannot control the blaze once burning. 

Fiendish Resilience: When you receive this gift, choose one of the following to be immune to: Fire, Cold, Poison, Mundane Missiles, Arthropods.

Many Faced Mask: You can alter your appearance to any other humanoid you have met at will, but the illusion is only visual. 

Shadowform: You are invisible in dim light while stationary. 

The Cold Chains: Your touch infuses any chain with dark energy, its touch causing pain and feebleness to any spirits or otherworldly beings. 

Rituals

The Sculpture of the Flesh

• A living subject is placed in the centre of a circle of fresh corpse ash.

• The warlock and five others perform a chant lasting around six minutes. 

• The subject is twisted into a lesser physical form until the Warlock releases them or dies.

The Congress of the Crawlers

• The Warlock performs a loud, physically strenuous ritual lasting an hour.

• Insects and worms are summoned to share their knowledge of this place. 

• They speak in a tongue that only the Warlock understands. Their memory is poor but they know the land well. 

The Twisting of the Word

• The name of a recently deceased being must be written in their blood surrounded by infernal sigils.

• The name is infused with sinister power. 

• The next time it is spoken by the Warlock, all who hear it are compelled to kneel in submission until their mind can break free.

The Counsel of the Universal

• You must present a worthy sacrifice of one of your Patron’s enemies.

• At least twelve others must chant in exaltation of your Patron. 

• A greater servant of your Patron appears for barely a moment, answering one question with a single answer. They know all. 

The Eye of the Clouded Water

• Two cups are filled with water from the same impure source. Sewers or swamps work well.

• Both cups are placed in separate locations. The water must remain within, and an eye must be gouged at a point between the two. 

• The Warlock drinks from one cup and is able to view the area around the other cup as if they were there.

Primordial Trickster

More work on this Primordial thing. This time thinking about a combination of Thief and a little bit of Illusionist.

It's hard to show this in a blogpost format, but when I get these ready for printing I definitely want there to be blank spaces left in some of these sections, encouraging the players to add as they discover more about the world and their character.

Playbook - Trickster

Gear - At any time you can produce one of the following from your person. If you have had your possessions removed, then you know where to get a makeshift replacement nearby.

• Dagger

• Rope or Wire

• Hood and Mask

• Any tool that fits in a pocket

Alter-Egos - Choose 2 and name them. You have a good disguise and any papers required.

___________ the Guard: An upholder of the law. 

___________ the Servant: A loyal worker to a powerful employer.

___________ the Wretch: A pathetic nobody. 

___________ the Merchant: A wealthy business owner.

___________ the Traveller: A respected visitor from a neighbouring land.

Contacts - The remaining entries above are real people that you know and owe you a favour. 

Secrets - These apply to your own city, but after a day of immersion in a new settlement you pick up the local equivalents.

Thieves’ Cant: A code of slang used in criminal communication. Speaking in this dialect opens certain doors and lends you some credibility in unsavoury circles.

The Underground: Both literal and figurative. A network of organised criminals, often hiding secrets in the cellars and sewers of the city. 

Backdoors: Every building has a secondary entrance that few people know about, and a more secret way that’s risky even for experts.

Tricks - Nothing fancy, just old-fashioned ploys that can be taught to anybody pretty quickly.

Confidence: Speak in such a way and people will believe what you say, as long as they don’t get too long to think about it, or have disproving evidence staring them in the face. 

Stab: Every piece of armour has a weak point that a blade can slip through, easy to find if you can study it closely. 

Release: There’s a trick to every lock, knot, or binding method that lets you release it. Sometimes it just takes a little time. 

Shadowplay - Techniques that require an intimate understanding of misdirection and deception. 

Tranquillity: In dim light you can effectively become invisible and silent. Any sort of bright light dispels this effect. 

Distraction: You can make somebody look over their shoulder for a moment, or even compel them to take a few steps away to investigate. 

Transpose: You can reliably swap the positions of any pocket-sized items unseen, as long as they are in the same room as you for a few minutes. 

Illusions - For now you have only scratched the surface of this arcane art. 

Figment: You can trick somebody’s senses or memory for just a moment when you address them by name. For example, if they turn around expecting to see a fire then they see it, and even feel the heat. The illusion only lasts a moment, but the victim immediately acts as if it is real.

Haze: Requires an hour-long ritual, which gives you a hazy appearance for the rest of that night. Even if you’re caught red-handed, witnesses are never able to fully recall details about your identity, or even exactly what you were doing. 

Apparition: Through careful mixing of oils and powders, available in any criminal underground, you can manifest an illusory image that acts in a convincing manner for a few moments. Larger or longer-lasting apparitions require more concentrated reagents, which come with a heavy cost.