Roleplaying games from historical research
This is a bonus episode. In following months we’ll be moving on from “The Stories of a Chinese Studio” by Pu to “Manx Fairy Tales” by Sophia Morrison. Morrison is kind of like the Brothers Grimm for Manx fairy tales: if you’ve heard manx fairy tales, you have heard her work. She also acted as…
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A quick story from Songling Pu: Formerly, when the Dutch were permitted to trade with China, the officer in command of the coast defences would not allow them, on account of their great numbers, to come ashore. The Dutch begged very hard for the grant of a piece of land such as a carpet would cover;…
Read MoreThe Coachman of Major Weir This creature takes the form of a wizened man in elegant clothes. It claims to be Satan himself, but that’s simply a lie. Order: Lord of the False Gods Infernal Might: 25 (Ignem)Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1 , Pre +1, Com +5, Str +0, Sta +5, Dex +5, Qik +2Size: -1: Usually takes the…
Read MoreIt’s that time: May 2019!
This week another recording from “Strange Stories From A Chinese Studio” by Songling Pu. Thanks to the readers from LibriVox who have read this book into the public domain. During the reign of Shun Chih, of the people of T‘êng-i, seven in ten were opposed to the Manchu dynasty. The officials dared not touch them; and…
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Last week we discussed a gustatory society that is run by House Jerbiton, which has subscription boxes, and I talked about how if the subscription boxes were lost they could be a sort of treasure, because you’re magi could use them to get past some of the lesser limits of Hermetic magic. I had, however,…
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This week another of our “Short Stories From a Chinese Studio” This episode went live early, so apologies for the late transcript. The reason I’ve decided to share this one with the Ars Magica fandom is that it shows what a mundane person of slightly greater than average intelligence, and with no understanding of Magic…
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Sometimes I notice I’ve missed an idea that’s obvious in hindsight. Given that the book this idea is from was published over a decade ago, I can only suggest that I’ve had a lot on… There’s a limit of knowledge in the act of Hermetic creation. Although, as some genius said on the forum, you…
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The main character in this story is Richard of Cornwall, the man who goes on to become the Holy Roman Empero, basically by buying the job using money he gains from banking. In the ashcan for the Cornwall material that’s already been released he gets several pages of material, but this story is one that…
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This week another one of our episodes from the work of Song Ling Pu’s “Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio.” If you read Wikipedia it will tell you that the Indian rope trick was invented by an American magician in the early 20th Century. It is difficult to reconcile this with an account of the…
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Games From Folktales 