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I feel like I see way more attention paid to Electric Bastionland and Mythic Bastionland than Into the Odd, and I also feel like I see lots more eyes on ItO hacks than the game itself.

I’m curious if I’m just not looking in the right places or if the original game — even in its remastered form — has been effectively surpassed by these other titles.

I just don’t see much vanilla ItO, I guess, when it comes to modules or discussion. Mostly hacks or adjacent games.

I played Traveller at school in the early 80s and absolutely loved it. The little black and red books were probably responsible for many hours that should have been spent doing homework.

I spent evenings designing ships, creating worlds and dreaming up adventures. Ran my first campaign one summer holiday sitting in a friend’s garden.

Desperately trying to make them follow the hook I gave them whilst they did everything but.

I’ve recently come back to Traveller after all these years and the books are stunning. The artwork, production values and support material are leagues ahead of what we had back then.

But it got me wondering.

Is modern Traveller actually better, or am I just remembering being 14 years old with endless free time and a huge imagination?

For those who’ve played both, what do you think modern Traveller gained, and what did it lose?

Hello! I'm Polish, and in our country, the most popular RPG system has always been Warhammer Fantasy, especially the first edition, mainly because it was the first system most people experienced.

This has always led to conflict between fans and fans of other systems. For a very long time, they first fought DnD 3.0/3.5 fans, and then the second edition fans, who were, incidentally, called DnD-like.

To tell the truth, this admiration has always been completely incomprehensible to me. Especially when it comes to the first edition. Maybe because my first system included Werewolf: the Apocalipse, and then Earthdawn and Fading Suns.

The system is so popular in Poland because it's hard to play anything else. So I recently coined a saying: to hate Warhammer, you just have to dislike it.

I really like the rhythm of Blades in the Dark’s sessions proceeding from Score to Downtime to Score again.

To me, Downtime rules are a great way to make a game more player-driven. Players pick a Score to “zoom in on”; resolve it; use their Downtime to pursue personal goals, heal, or identify new Scores; then pick a new Score to run. I love that. It cuts through the “dead air” created when players need to discuss what objective to pursue next, and it gives them an explicit period where they can speak up.

What are your favorites? How do they work?

I've heard good things about the game but haven't played it myself. This seems like a steal.

I am working on a few tight setting guides for a game system I'm designing, and I want to look at how others have approached this.

The Fate Worlds anthology books for Fate Core and Daggerheart’s frames are on my radar, but I’d love to see more examples.

What other games or supplements are great at setting up a specific mood, premise, and conflict in a compact format?

(i.e. All those GURPS books are great, but much too hefty for what I'm looking for.)

I want to study layout and structure, so specific recommendations are appreciated.

I just wrapped up a 12 session campaign of Mythic Bastionland and I want to start off by saying we really enjoyed it. I agree with all of the positives that have been laid out in other reviews: the fantastic art (to my taste, the best of any RPG book I have seen), the concise and elegant ruleset, the strange and evocative knights and myths, and the combat system that manages to make fights even faster than bare-bones OSR games, while offering more tactical depth.

That said, by the end of the campaign I was struggling. I felt like I was fighting against the very systems that so impressed me at the start of the game. The rest of this review is going to sound very critical, because my issues with the system are what I wanted to talk about, but I want to reiterate that we enjoyed our time with Mythic Bastionland and I would encourage anyone curious to check it out for themselves.

A part of me worries that this review pulls back the curtain a bit too much, and it might spoil some of the magic for new players. If you intend to play (not GM) a game of MB, I would probably encourage you not to read further.

The core system

At its heart, Mythic Bastionland is a hexcrawl. Hexcrawls have several big issues that can make them difficult or awkward to run. One, which MB handles excellently, is resource management. Quinns covered this well in his review, so I won’t repeat him. But another issue, arguably the biggest issue, is that hexcrawls just have a lot of hexes! If the choice of which hex to travel through is going to be a meaningful one, those hexes need to be different, which means either a ton of preparation (the majority of which will never be used), using a premade hexcrawl (which won’t be to everyone’s taste), or using randomly generated content (which can feel, well… random, and isn’t the most conductive to storytelling).

MB’s solution to this issue is its Myths, which provide six short events each (called Omens), along with a couple of stat blocks, a random table, and a gorgeous illustration. While travelling, the party has a chance to encounter the next Omen from one of the six Myths active in the realm. Myths and Omens vary wildly, from unexpected weather, to an undead tyrant subjugating the entire realm, but they all have a coherent narrative, which will be experienced in order. Of course the PCs will usually steer the course of events, but the GM will always have an Omen ready to go, no matter where the PCs decide to go. This provides interesting content that tells stories without needing much prep and still giving the GM wide latitude to create a world.

Though this system can be slow to get going (early Omens are often quite vague and lack the hooks I would want to inspire my players to action), a few sessions in I really started appreciating it. The amount of prep it would have taken to balance six competing stories in parallel would have been significant, and my players started getting invested in the narratives. I liked how varied the Myths felt, in tone, content, and pacing. But as time went on I started to have more and more problems with the system.

First off, is it really a meaningful choice which hex to travel through if what happens is mostly random? Are Myths just “quantum ogres” that randomly pop out, independent of player agency? The book suggests using its spark tables to generate content while travelling, which can provide flavor, but does it make the players’ decisions meaningful? Also, as more Myths are introduced the number of bread crumb trails started to overwhelm my players and they began to lose track of the various threads. The narrative felt scattered and random.

This is probably where I should reveal what I meant by running the game “wrong”. At my core, I am a “trad” GM. If one of my players has a long-lost father or an obsession with ancient tomes, I want to reveal the villain is the PC’s father or tantalize them with a hidden library. The Myths in the book are fascinating, varied, and great at sparking the GM’s imagination, but I found myself desiring a unified narrative, woven to draw in and interact with the PCs specifically. MB tends towards the OSR end of the RPG spectrum: random generation is core to play (the majority of the book is in fact, a giant random table of knights, myths, creatures, moods, dwellings, etc) and the core motivation of the players gets one sentence that provides a pretty unambiguous direction: knights want glory, glory comes from Myths. More and more I started tweaking Myths, changing the results on the exploration table, and trying to come up with ways to steer the ship. By the end I wasn’t even rolling the die. I was using an OSR-style system to run a trad-style game and I felt it.

Balance

MB doesn’t provide any tools for balancing encounters, or even hints at how dangerous its various foes will be when taking on PCs. Quinns brought this up in his review and a pretty common response I saw was that Quinns is just a trad GM looking for balance and fairness in an OSR system that is mostly unconcerned with those factors. “Combat as war” means that the world isn’t balanced around the players, and they need to learn how to deal with it. With the admission that I am another trad GM experimenting in the world of OSR, I have to say that I just don’t buy it.

The desire to understand how threatening a creature is doesn't mean everything in the world must be fair and balanced. If I want a big horrible monster to be terrorizing the realm, but a junior knight PC kills it handily, not only is that unsatisfying gameplay, it's a narrative issue. If the monster was that much of a pushover, how was he such a threat?

If this sounds like an extreme case, know that throughout my campaign I never once felt like a group combat challenged my players. They went toe to toe with some of the biggest threats in the book (with some additional buffs improvised to make them more dangerous) and always came out victorious and often with 0 vigor damage. My read was always that the combats were balanced around 2-3 PCs and my group of 5 was simply too powerful to be threatened.

In MB in particular, I think power scales very fast with party size because of how Feats and strong gambits work. While I think I was getting close to figuring out how to balance a combat by the end, I really wish there had been something in the book that saved me the time. The frustrating thing is that combat in MB is excellent, but at my table it only really shined in one on one duels where 5 knights weren't bullying some hapless monster. Once again, maybe this is not the OSR mindset, but to me being able to craft a threatening encounter without a ton of trial and error is important.

Conclusion

Mythic Bastionland pulled me in with its art and evocative Knights and Myths and impressed me with its tight systems and snappy combat. But I do think that the core of MB is OSR, while I prefer the trad style of GMing. I enjoyed my foray into a style of gaming I hadn't really experienced before, but for now, I will probably be returning to systems more aligned with my personal style.

SPOILER ALERT!: Lost Mine of Phandelver module - Minor spoilers for the Stonewalkers campagin and major spoilers (kinda) for the Stormlight Archive saga

I'm running both the "Lost mine of Phandelver" (D&D) and Stonewalkers with two different friend groups. They're my first time DMing (and playing any TtRPG for that matter) so my experience is limited to these past months running those.
My Stonewalkers group is going pretty fast so I recon they'll be done in a month or two, tops. So I was thinking what to do after, if they decided to continue playing in the Cosmere RPG setting and system. Now, I'm a Stormlight fan, but I dare not to homebrew with so little experience in TtRPGs. And I thought: LMoP is a pretty standard layout for an adventure, I've been able to tweak stuff for my group. The pacing and the structure are well fitted to grab as a matrix and sketch any other story on that slate.

So I did, and this is my take on trying to adapt the D&D module's framework to the Cosmere RPG. I tried to be as thorough as possible so that all the NPCs made sense and so I wouldn't need to be juggling along as the PCs move away from the "main plot" or investigate around doing sidequests and whatnot.
Bear in mind that my PCs would be lvl 8 by the time they get to this and LMoP is a campaign set for lvl 1 to 5, so gotta adjust difficulty accordingly.

SETTING

• Phandalin: it can be really any place you like to set it in since, well, you don't really need a mountain to have a cave or things like that in Roshar (specially if it's Heralds/Desolations related). I set mine "near" Khabranth because I wanted to have some kind of excuse for scholar/pioneers/knowledge gathering shenanigans, also it's not super far from the main action happening after the Everstorm's first hit, and because why not? (there's probably plenty, don't answer that question)
• Forge of spells: an ancient fabrial workshop-ish with a giant Perfect Gem in its interior. Works as a massive soulcaster capable of easily casting bronze and steel (among other things). It's main purpose (The Pact of Phandelver) was to finally be able to preserve and rebuild super fast after a Desolation.
• Nezznar: a high rank Ghostblood trying to get their hold on the Perfect Gem (we all know their motivations) and I added a second in command: a listener/radiant much as Venli with some mixed allegiances (Odium or his/her freedom dream of joining the Ghostbloods). Note: now that I think of... this can also work the other way around, so suit yourselves. Can also switch the Ghostblood for a Makay-im, who's orders are to find an seize/destroy the workshop to hinder humanity's recovery if you wanna go just full vs Odium.
• Gundren: this will depend on your group, and if you want an emotional tie with them or more of a duty approach. In my group one PC has Adolin as a patron so he will most likely intsruct them to investigate this workshop rumor. And I'll probably talk to them and try to hook this Gundren NPC to any of the PCs past, probably a Thaylen PC and make him a Thaylen merchant or something like that.

NPCs

• Sildar Hallwinter: an Alezi officer, working as a Coalition Agent, tasked with the duty of escorting "Gundren" and helping him with preparations for the incursion. Of course he will suffer the same fate as LMoP Sildar and get ambushed alongside Gundren.
• Elmar Barthen: Thaylen merchant, worried about not getting any supplies because of the conflict (relatively unaware of the scale of the situation)
• The Redbrands: a band of ruffians as well terrorizing the town and extorting for "protection" they can't really provide. Their leader is a rogue Radiant (or just a Radiant with a different take on reality, maybe like Ylt.) that works with the "Cragmaw Castle" leader.
• Harbin Wester: lower dahn lighteyes, trying to hang on to what it's left, pays the Redbrands spheres to leave him alone and secure his "command" in town.
• Daran Edermath: a dark-eyed war veteran who fought at the War of Reckoning, "retired" but still has some contact with the now Coalition (you can decide his allegiance).
• Halia Thornton: a Ghostblood operative undercover as a sphere exchange/dealer (play with it, make it up lol) whose real goal is to help the party infiltrate the "Cave", either to asses if they can make them join the Ghostbloods in their attempt, kill them, or let them do the hard work and steal the Gem afterwards.
• Sister Garaele: I want to make her a Worldsinger (so she can also work as a lore dumper-ish), interested in what "Agatha" has to tell. But if that's too difficult to set, maybe I'll just make her a Devotary of the Mind ardent or somethig like that with the same interests.
• Linene Graywind: a Thaylen merchant company representative (you can make her Thaylen or not). She can swear these "Redbrands" are stealing her wares and hindering the town defenses.
• Qelline Alderleaf: a herdazian farmer whose son Carp is very good at sneaking around, and saw the ruffians dissapearing into a tunnel (i'm toying with the idea of including something in Shadesmar here... Maybe as a way for the Radiant to move the Redbrands around, or to hide)

ZONES AND SIDEQUESTS

• Triboar Trail: set it wherever you set your town, i'm thinking Singer patrols, human thieves and all those kinds of road perils, have fun with it.
• Wyvern Tor: a group of singers, maybe a Stormform with them (or multiple depending on your party lvl) that assault anyone/thing that goes through there.
• Old Owl Well and Hamun Kost: the ruin of an ancient watch-tower from the old Silver Kingdoms (or make something up for the part of the world you're setting it in). "Hamun Kost" is an agent of the Diagram (to spice it up, set him as you like, it's of little consequence) using Investiture to try and reanimate bodies (kind of like Ishar's experiments with spren) to try and replicate how the Fused "steal" bodies to reincarnate. He may have slaved singers or even humans with some kind of Investiture trance... Or none, just lackeys.
• Thundertree: this was a fun one to think about. I wanted to have fun with it since it's pretty wide section. Instead of Venomfang I blended a Thunderclast esque creature in the tower. Maybe it was there dormant and weakened from an old battle, or maybe it was sent there by Odium as a failsafe if things went wrong with the plan of seizing the gem/workshop. (you do you, any kind of relatively strong foe can be put in here. Maybe a Shan-im leading an advance post. Maybe a fragment of an Unmade that's bewitching the cultists...) and the Cultists are a wannabe group of Envisagers that think if they can awake the Thunderclasts the Radiants will be compelled to return.
• Agatha's lair: she's a Cognitive Shadow and her lair is a place where Shadesmar and the Physical Realm are really close (maybe because of "her", maybe it's just ghost story, maybe missing people have nothing to do with "her" or maybe she does have information about the Cognitive Realm and how to better access/use it).
• Wave Echo Cave: well here you can put in as many "monsters" as you want and set it as you like. I'd put one main reason why the main antagonist can't get to the workshop: some powerfull and old singer (thinking in someone like the Pursuer) or someone crazy (maybe Moash esque or something in that ballpark) that makes it so Odium can't get it there without a heavy commitment he just can't make at the time)

Well. That's about it for a rough sketch or outline.
I know there will be purists that will have comments about adequacy to the lore, canon and such, and you will probably be correct. But that kind of feeback is not the thing i'm looking for here. My players know very little of the Cosmere and most likely won't find any holes in the plot regarding the broader events of the War, the Everstorm, Urithiru and stuff like that. So as long as it makes some sense that the war hasn't still decimated my "Phandalin" town and what's going on around is not a complete inchoerent mess, I guess it's cool.
I'd still appreciate your comments, any other ideas for changes and turns in the sidequests, or the main quest, or the NPCs. Everything is welcome, even canon adequacy as long as it's not just pointing out it's "not what's happening or how it happened or how it works".

I hope this is useful for someone out there.
Also sorry for my English i hope it reads well enough, it's not my mother tongue.

Title!

For context I would probably mostly play this game solo, but I don't need it to be specifically made for solo play. In fact I'd prefer it not to be.

I'm also looking at this potential new game as an alternative to PF2e. I love that system, definitely my favorite, it just doesn't fit the flavor of every campaign I want to run even in the same genre (for example, it's not designed for largely improvised campaigns about a single character, as I sometimes would like to do for solo play).

Ideally something *lower* crunch than PF2e (which is not a high bar to clear), but not actually *low* crunch. I like learning rules and I don't vibe with narrative-only systems. Looking for something gamey with tactical and intricate combat, interesting character options and at least solid balance.

Also looking for a general flavor of adventurous High Fantasy. I'm not picky about the specifics, but grounded grity realism isn't the goal (even if it can be one ingredient in the final product).

Any good heartbreakers that come to mind?

Edit: Thanks for the responses! To narrow down the definition a bit, not very into:

A combat system in which the selling point is something like "Fast", "Lethal" or "Realistic". I respect what those are going for but in my experience, when that's the draw, me and the designers have different priorities.

A game in which it's common to have to buff up the monsters to go against the party.

A game in which spellcasters are overall stronger than martial characters.

Hello,

I am really into Persona 5 right now and my group is ending a Delta Green campagin. I would love a game that is a JRPG vibe. I really like in Persona how downtime is a viable mechanic. I would ideally love a game that captures the feeling of downtime actually having mechanical purposes.

My group used to be hardcore PF2E fans so we aren't afraid of crunch but we REALLY loved the more story focused parts of Delta Green.

Thanks