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rooted in blogs, linked in a ringBastionland
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On the ring since 2026-03-17
Latest activity 6y ago
762 posts
Brick
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This is the continuation of a loose series of posts about the relationship between a game and its setting. I've written before about how a setting should serve the game, but as...Linked by the ring
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I should stop giving my games stupid joke names that end up being impossible to shake. GRIMLITE is clearly a nod to wanting a rules-lite version of certain Grim Dark games. I...
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The settings that really grab my attention have a way of drawing you in with little details. Servo skulls in Warhammer 40k. Carrion Priests in Spire. The noise of a TIE Fighter...
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For those that missed the stream, my solo run-through of GRIMLITE is now up on the YouTube Channel for viewing.Also, don't be alarmed when I'm quiet for the next week, as I'm...
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The Bastionland Podcast is back for a second series! This series is dubbed Niche Explorer, and I'll be welcoming a new guest each week to dip into their particular niche of...
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Bastionland has a lot of weird stuff. The closest thing to an introductory adventure has, among other things:Dirt and worm worshipping teenagersA hedgehog judge with other...
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Working on a miniatures game has been an interesting contrast to RPG design. It's a narrative-focused wargame, but the fact is miniature games rely a lot more on their rules...
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With GRIMLITE's new focus on Horrors I wanted to do a quick battle report to show how they work in action and show how the rules work in a little more detail.As such this might...
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GRIMLITE now has a living document. Expect regular changes in there, so apologies to anybody that's actually trying to run a campaign with this thing.My goal was to make a game...
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At some point I suspect we've all sat down to read an RPG and gone through the following process:This setting looks neat, I'd love to run a game in it.Okay, there's quite a lot...
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Last week I wrote about how I found External Engagement was hindering my enjoyment of videogames.Again this is just my own experience. Some enjoy it as a part of their game...
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GRIMLITE was written to be generic enough to be used with a wide range of sci-fi miniatures. But as I tinker with kitbashing miniatures into free-form monstrosities I noticed...
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The Bastionland Broadcast is taking a short break, but this week saw the finale of the Electric Bastionland Demonstrations, where I run through the procedures included in the...
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Way back, videogame designer Soren Johnson wrote: "Given the opportunity, players will optimise the fun out of the game"I've noticed a similar effect in myself where, given the...
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The Living Stars above Bastionland are starting to take shape, but nothing stays the same up there. They're living in every sense of the word.Don't get too attached to any one...
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Aliens are here in Bastionland, some more obvious than others, but they're all here for a reason. They always have a means of communicating with humans, even if a piece of the...
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(Or, I think it's gonna be a long, long time)If you click the image there's a 32-page A5 booklet you can print and run a weird, unproven game called Space & Solitude.It's...Linked by the ring
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Do you have a great idea for something you could make inspired-by or written-for Electric Bastionland?Join in with the first Eclectic Bastion Jam over on itch.io. Just click...
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Talk around Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland inevitable spins back towards classes every now and then. I stand by the Foreground Growth philosophy of Electric Bastionland,...
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The 2020 Ennie Nominations have been announced, and Electric Bastionland is nominated for Best Writing. This is very flattering, and naturally we must destroy all rivals. If...
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I often get asked whether Electric Bastionland is an OSR game. Rather than try to define the OSR as a whole I'll point you somewhere that I think explains it well: The...
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If you've looked at Electric Bastionland at all you'll know that I think a good character creation process can give your game a jump-start that helps all the other pieces fall...
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We're at risk of just layering one bit of jargon on top of another here, but it's helping me focus down on the type of design that I enjoy in games.I spoke about Diegesis here,...Linked by the ring
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Just a couple of weeks ago there was the start of a plan to release an adventure compendium in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.Now it's a real thing you can buy....
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One of the more common queries I see towards Electric Bastionland revolves around adding a Sanity System to emulate Call of Cthulhu and similar games.I've spoken before about...
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A simple concept. Sum up some classic D&D monsters in three bullet points, invert those points, then make them into their own monster.As always, if your idea can't be summed up...
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I mentioned recently that back in the 2000s I designed three solo/cooperative games that I didn't quite know how to categorise. They weren't RPGs or boardgames, but had...
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On Sunday I ran Electric Bastionland for Sean and Alan from Tuesday Knight Games but was suffering with an extremely temperamental internet connection, so it's mostly just...
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Hot on the slithering tail of the worm queen, here's a brand new Electric Bastionland adventure for you to try out. This time you're cast against the hull of an unearthly...
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Last time I spoke about the two systems that inspired VOIDHEIST. Now I wanted to dig deeper into the actual mechanics that I've included in the game, some pulling from those...