I did the unthinkable. I was sick this week and actually spent my sick time at home catching up on RPG reading! My brain was only at about 40% capacity, so it was a good way to spend the time. What did I read?
- CAS-1: Trouble in Twin Lakes by Yochai Gal (free to download here)
- CAS-2: Rise of the Blood Olms by Yochai Gal (free to download here)
- Pendragon Core Rulebook by Greg Stafford
- Mythic Bastionland by Chris McDowall
I’ll have reviews of Yochai’s adventures for Cairn soon enough. Today, I need to talk about Pendragon. I gotta get it out of my system.
A Brief Review and Comparison of Pendragon and Mythic Bastionland
Pendragon (6th Edition) is a crunchy, simulationist RPG set solidly within the Arthurian mythos. Mythic Bastionland is a rules-light OSR RPG, focusing on knights gaining glory. In sum, both games are trying to do the exact same thing—in very different ways.
Pendragon (6th Edition)
6e Pendragon is one of the most beautiful RPG books I’ve ever owned. From the era-appropriate art to the passion you can feel in the prose, it’s clearly an act of love. Pendragon has been around for forty years, each edition building on the one before. But despite the passion and beauty, this book is fundamentally flawed.
Two troublesome things about the ruleset are:
- This game is simulationist crunch to the MAX. I’ve never done fractional division for a game until now. I ran a solo adventure for my PC, and it was remarkable how much the math slowed me down. Get ready to forget rules, look up rules, and do math! Woohoo!
- The requirements for a GM are wild. You can run the pre-published adventures—like the Great Pendragon Campaign that spans 84 game sessions!—or you’ll need to develop more NPCs and courtly intrigue than I’ve ever seen expected in an RPG. You think running a 5e WotC hardback takes homework? This game is like writing historical fiction.
But these aren’t fatal flaws. Some of my readers are already getting out their debit cards! No, the real bummer is this: the ruleset is incomplete. You see this most often in the constant refrain of “This rule is included in [unreleased book] for your reference.” And these aren’t advanced rules—it’s basic character creation and GM options.
This “Core Rulebook” was released Jan. 19, 2024. But it doesn’t seem to have the core rules! I can’t run the game as it’s intended without purchasing old edition rules and updating them—or waiting for the new books to release. That’s goofy. This Youtube review really gets into the weeds, if you want more details.
And yet—I still think some of you should get this book, which might sound crazy. If you’re interested in the Arthurian mythos—or a chivalric knight campaign in any system—the passion and imagination in this book will stir up your creative juices. When I was done reading it, I knew I had a few options:
- Buy a pre-published Pendragon campaign, like The Grey Knight
- Wait for the Gamemaster’s Book (releasing May 23, 2025) and hope it includes the missing rules
- Find another ruleset to bring the Arthurian mythos alive
I decided to try the last option, which leads to…
Mythic Bastionland
Chris McDowall, author of Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland (free here), has previously said that Mythic Bastionland (full version here; free Quickstart here) was inspired by Pendragon. I believe he was being generous. It seems more like he was trying to make a Pendragon that wasn’t so burdened by its rules.
In both games you’re a knight seeking glory. But what takes Pendragon 270 pages to explain, McDowall does in roughly 75. Granted, I only have the Quickstart—and I plan to buy the full version when it releases in print later this year.
Where Pendragon requires a Master’s in Accounting, Mythic Bastionland gives us a lean, functional ruleset more focused on glory than detail. If you’re familiar with Into the Odd or Cairn, the system feels similar. The biggest differences I’ve noticed:
- Feats, Gambits, and Mounted Combat (Quickstart, pg. 10) add flavorful combat rules that lean heavily into knightly themes—and they fit on a single page. That alone is a huge contrast with Pendragon.
- The ruleset also gives some interesting travel rules, including McDowall’s take on hexcrawls (Quickstart, pp. 14–15).
I skimmed through the Quickstart last year, but it didn’t click. That’s because knights are fundamentally different from D&D adventurers. I wasn’t expecting that difference and was left scratching my head. Knights are about legacy and loyalty. In Pendragon, each session covers a whole year, focused only on the great deeds that gained glory. In Mythic Bastionland, it’s similar:
“A Knight’s journey largely focuses on travelling great distances to seek the guidance of seers and uncover myths” (Quickstart, pg. 15).
Both games are about glorious quests and noble names.
Do you see how different that is from other fantasy RPGs? It calls players to a more noble way. Pendragon invites you into the tension between moral code and personal desire. Mythic Bastionland has less of that by necessity, but still invites a better way. While D&D adventurers inevitably become the Knights of Ni, these games are encouraging you toward something greater.
My Takeaways from Reading These Two Books
1. Complex rules can be fun.
The TTRPG community (like every human community) is full of gatekeepers. We define ourselves by what we aren’t. And so many OSR aficionados crap on games for being complex. But let’s get real: complex games can be fun, and simple games can be dull. Plus, different folks like different things.
I liked a lot of the crunch in Pendragon. I particularly enjoyed the process for rolling up your character’s family history—that’s a fun little dice game I want to play again. I also liked the tension between opposing traits (like Honest vs. Deceitful), and how characters improve over time. That’s fun!
But if you’re going to have complexity, have it for a reason. Much of Pendragon’s complexity serves the theme. But some of it—combat, for example—feels like it survived forty years of development without a modern editor. I’m confident the feel of the game could remain with simpler mechanics. It doesn’t have to be 5e roll-over or some sketchy OSR ruleset. Just… less math would be nice.
2. GMing takes effort—no need for the rules to make it harder.
I swore off WotC hardbacks for this reason. Running Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden felt like studying for a test every week, because I tried to include everything. That was a mistake. Running The Great Pendragon Campaign would be even harder, due to the sheer level of detail.
Now, if you’re an Arthurian fanboy—go for it! It’s absolutely the campaign for you. But it’s not for me.
I’ve got a job, three kids, and a wife. TTRPGs have to be fun and fit my life. Running Pendragon would be like playing Warhammer 40k—two hobbies in one. Instead of painting minis, I’d be reading novels on the side. That works for some people. For me, it feels like work.
GMing is always a challenge. It takes thought and effort. So I need a ruleset and adventure that fit within my world, or it won’t make it to the table. That’s why I lean toward OSR systems—without rejecting crunchier ones entirely. There’s a lot to appreciate in a game like Pendragon without actually running it. Just like there’s a lot to appreciate in AD&D 1e or 5e.
But I’m done with my hobby feeling like work.
3. GM Tip: Start simple and add complexity to taste.
If complexity adds fun, use it! If it doesn’t, why burden yourself?
Here’s my recommendation: find a simple ruleset you like, and add the complexity you like. I’m planning to port some Pendragon mechanics into Mythic Bastionland. Same thing with using 5e domain rules in an upcoming Shadowdark campaign.
It’s always easier to add complexity than to remove it.
How about you?
What level of complexity do you enjoy in games?
What are your favorite crunchy rules in TTRPGs?
And what simple systems do you like as a foundation for
homebrewed depth?
Sound off in the comments below! Let’s get a conversation going.
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