Why is your train delayed? Gameable Tables For Electric Bastionland

You're stamping your feet on the platform. You are becoming intimately familiar with the face of your watch when a tinny voice interrupts your anti-reverie: "Please will the passengers waiting on platform one-" and everyone groans. You don't even wait to listen further before forming into a grumbling mob to descend on the help desk...

Why was your train delayed? (D6)
  1. A shortage of train crew
  2. A signalling fault
  3. A fault on the train
  4. A scheduling conflict
  5. Inclement weather
  6. An incident on the tracks
Caused by: (D6)
  1. Tenth Century Vikings, they travelled through the Underground into Bastion and got stuck here.
  2. The Ticket Bastards, a gang that violently extort fare-dodgers with giant hole-punch devices.
  3. Antelapes, red creatures with the head of an antelope and the arms and legs of a gorilla, territorial.
  4. Psychics Anonymous, religious fundamentalists, they make each other miserable in perfect silence.
  5. Veterans of the Sodor Uprising, failed to save the steam engine, well-armed but missing limbs.
  6. Witch-Hares, their idea of a holiday is cursing people with boils and rashes. Skittish and tricksy.
Wait, how does that work? (Use the result from the first table)
  1. Kidnapped 2d6 crew and holding them to ransom. One hostage every other hour is killed.
  2. Barricaded themselves in Signal Control. They're performing some kind of ritual?
  3. Ripped out and stole the toilets. They've left a trail of bog roll into the Underground.
  4. Lying, all the station staff have been replaced, they're buying time to hotwire and steal a train.
  5. Stole a Cloudbuster, they've broken it and it's stuck on the 'apocalyptic' setting.
  6. Tore up and modified the tracks the night before to travel directly to their lair in the Underground.
-
Inspired by real events (sorry Juniper, vote for 'What is an OSR?' in the bloggies to make up for it). I have a Mythic Bastionland recap in the works and a guide on making tokens out of Magic the Gathering cards and buttons in the works, but for now please do read my short story: CHANGELINGS featured in the zine 'neuromyths'. Download it for free from itch.io and get a ton of other great contributions on the subject of neurodiversity and mythology here. Thanks!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Chapel of the Green - Hexmas Blogwagon 2025

Image
I’ve been meaning to start a TTRPG blog for a while and the Hexmas Blogwagon from Prismatic Wasteland seemed as good an excuse as any. In short, you write a hex for this winter wonderland and place it adjacent to another blogger’s hex! This particular hex sits directly south of Orcish Toy Factory by Magnolia Keep. By the way, did you know Sir Gawain and the Green Knight takes place at Christmas? THE CHAPEL OF THE GREEN When you enter this hex for the first time, begin at encounter 1. Then when you re-enter, go to encounter 2, and so forth. A knight with a greataxe bars your way. His skin is green and veiny like the underside of a leaf and his beard has mistletoe growing in the curls. His horse is shaggy like a willow tree. He steps down to greet you and wish you a pleasant festive season. He wants to play a game. You take his axe and strike him as hard as you can, then you meet in two days time and get struck by him in turn. If you win you get to keep his axe! If you deny him his gam...
Read more

Letting your players win is GOOD (and what Mythic Bastionland has to do with it)

Like most people who have played it, I'm a Mythic Bastionland evangelist. I want to put an example of my thesis from the title at the start for two reasons: one, I hope it convinces you to try Mythic Bastionland if you haven't already; and two, it gives me a chance to talk through what I was thinking at the table and how that resulted in the gameplay. THE GAMEPLAY The players spent most of the session encountering omens from the Chariot myth. Huge craters, destroyed farmsteads with displaced families, things of this nature. Eventually the Charioteer himself descends from the Heavens and starts boasting to the players about how powerful he is. "I shaped the moon, my hammer blows carved its cratered surface! I dug out the sea and terrified the trees with my strength so they no longer wander as people do..."  Amy (a player who has lost a character in every single game we play) calls his bluff and he lands in front of the party. I knew that Amy would probably die in a str...
Read more

Selkies and Seals for your OSR Adventures

Image
 Hello again! It's been a while, I've been writing a submission for a zine called 'Neuromyths' on the subject of neurodiversity and mythology. It's a short story called 'Changelings' and I'll link it and drum up a commentary when everything is in place, but for now I'm going to share a player class and monster stats all to do with Selkies! Selkie Hedge Mage, by Larry MacDougall for Magic: The Gathering WHAT IS A SELKIE? Selkies are mythological creatures from various folklores around the UK, but they tend to be particularly associated with the island of Orkney off the coast of Scotland. The tale I have heard (there are numerous variations) goes like this:     Once upon a time, there lived a lonely fisherman. He had no crew, no friends, no family. He would go out onto the sea in his one-man coracle and catch fish to feed himself, sometimes taking the extra haul to the market on the other side of the island, but never staying longer than his business d...
Read more