Roleplaying games from historical research
Our monthly return to Cheshire, to patch together a saga book. May I offer the ghost of a witch in a ruined cottage? Thanks to Doc DL Martin and her Librivox production team. N the township of Godley, on the fringe of what was formerly an unenclosed common known as Godley Green, stands an old farm,…
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A further link in the chain of stories to create a story book set in Longdendale. Proof of a constant culture of magic in the valley. We have a story that will seem familiar to fans of early Americana. Thanks to RandyReads and their Librivox production team. ONGDENDALE has always been noted for the number of…
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In the depths of the market is a shop with a narrow frontage. It has a single mask, of a gilded gorgon, above the door. It has eyes made of red glass which seem to follow everyone in the street. People say that no-one has ever tried to steal anything from this store. People say…
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Let’s keep running around with a butterfly net through the folklore of Cheshire, grabbing things to use in a setting. There’s a local magical tradition of multi-form shapeshifting witches. Thanks to Brian Fullen and his production team for this recording. This is a pretty simple style of magic to create statistics for: the person gets…
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One of the team from the other Ars Magica Venice book reached out to me and asked if I could support their Backerkit campaign with a podcast episode, and I’m happy to. I’d like to quickly note this isn’t a paid advertisement and I don’t have any access beyond my status as a subscriber to…
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For our monster of the month, two merfolk variants. One is a vicious triton similar to the Daughter Summoned To the Comb in Mythic Europe Magazine #1, with an added power to enthrall via eye contact. The other is a faerie seducer. These recordings were made for Librivox by Dale Grothmann and Alan Mapstone. Thanks…
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I heard this poem and was developing it as a monster. I was preparing a sort of Frankenstein’s monster figure, a revener that, when you killed it, turned out to just be a vessel for a demon that was sitting in its chest cavity. Then I realized I’d seen something directly similar: this is the…
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This is more of a puzzle than a story. The magi want the confession under the hand of the skeleton of Lord Lovel. An influx of air will destroy the pages. How do they use their magic to read or transcribe them? Thanks to Shrimpfish and their Librivox production team for the recording. ***Francis Lovel…
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Cheshire is a traditionally English county that’s just to the north of Wales. Its county town is Chester, which is in the far west of the county. Chester was a Roman fortress used to pacify the people in what’s in modern north Wales. In 1220 Cheshire is a different shape to what you’ll see on…
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There’s an idea in Ars Magica, stolen from period texts, that sometimes demons attach to a person and cause all joy to be sucked out of their life. This is called “oppression”. The following story is set far after the game period, but it shows how simple oppression can wear a person down by stealing…
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Games From Folktales 