Roleplaying games from historical research
Let’s lead out with Burton’s summary:Belluccia, daughter of Ambruoso de Ia Varra, being obedient to her father, and acting prudently in his commands, becometh the wife of a rich youth. Narduccio hight, the first-born of Biasillo Guallecchia. Her sisters, being poor, are dowered by Biasillo, and given in marriage to his other sons. There was…
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Sapia Sapia, to me, seems like an early version of the The Taming of the Shrew story, but it ends with a stronger reconciliation. Then again, the Taming of the Shrew has an unofficial sequel (The Woman’s Prize by John Fletcher). Let’s start with Burton’s faux-Jacobean synopsis: “Sapia, daughter of a baroness, teacheth Cenzullo. the…
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Let us start with Burton’s faux-Jacobean summary of this story: Cecelia. ill-treated by her stepmother, is well entreated by three fairies. Her envious stepmother sendeth her own daughter to them, and she is scorned by them, for which reason she sendeth her stepdaughter to watch pigs. A great lord falleth in love with her, but…
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A quick poem to start festive week in 2021. Thanks to the Librivox production team. Sometimes I dip my pen and find the bottle full of fire,The salamanders flying forth I cannot but admire.It’s Etna, or Vesuvius, if those big things were small,And then ’tis but itself again, and does not smoke at all.And so…
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Another avatar of our old friend the Infernal Saint of Sorrow. Thanks to Winston Tharp for the recording. Dark as a demon’s dream is one I love—In soul—but oh, how beautiful in form!She glows like Venus throned in joy above,Or on the crimson couch of Evening warmReposing her sweet limbs, her heaving breastUnveiled to him…
Read MoreA Merry Christmas. I hope this poem finds you well. Thanks to Craig Franklin for the read, and his Librivox production team. Two old Bachelors were living in one house;One caught a Muffin, the other caught a Mouse.Said he who caught the Muffin to him who caught the Mouse,–‘This happens just in time! For we’ve…
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Fitz-James O’Brien monsters are great for Ars Magica, but he was extremely racist. In this story, for example, goes after Jews, Romani and Neopolitans, and that’s just in the first four sentences. That means I can’t record them for Librivox, because we have a policy of not bowdlerising the text we are recording and I’m…
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You’d be be amazed how bad tradecraft is in Elizabethan England., Seriously, some of the techniques they used are now games for children. Let’s think about what they were doing, and what your character can do about it. The basic technique of sigint that Walsingham uses is interception of mail. There’s no postal system as…
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Sapia the Glutton, as Burton calls it, has the following faux Jacobean summary “Sapia with her ability maintaineth herself in all honour, in spite of the bad example of her sisters, their father being away. She laugheth at her lover, and foreseeing the danger which overshadoweth her, she surpasseth it; and at last the king’s…
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Cellini was a Florentine goldsmith who lived during Elizabeth’s reign. He wrote a lengthy biography in which he confesses to serial murder and necromancy, but its the little boasts which make him particularly charming. If you’re an Ars Magica player his petty pride is perfect for a Verditus magus, and if you play Magonomia, his…
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Games From Folktales 