Roleplaying games from historical research
Chaucer notes that roosters are natural astronomers. They innately know the time of dawn, dusk and the equinoxes. If your magus has a rooster familiar do they innately know when Sun and Year spells end, to the second? Is one of the astrological mystery cults led by a Bjonaer rooster? Many Bjornaers become a kaiju…
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I listen to a podcast called Lexicon Valley, which is about the way language changes. In a recent episode, the presenter suggested the words “gangster” and “gangsta” are now separate words. When you think about them, he posits, you are not thinking about the same sorts of stereotypes. Similarly, he then revels in breaking the…
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Welcome to Micro-Episode week! Here’s a poem by Walter de la Mare that I love, and think some redcap has repeated by an inn fire. The recording quoted in the podcast is from MarryAnn at Librivox. ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed…
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As always with philosophy episodes let’s start with defining terms. The Omphalos Hypothesis was defined in the late 19th Century by Phillip Gosse, but the same idea had cropped up for at least 1 500 years. It’s that at creation God placed evidence of false age into the world. We don’t need to plumb the…
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A story from Lord Dunsany, about a collection, of sorts, which the player characters may stumble upon. A redcap, Jerbiton or urban covenant may discover the Club, and find it necessary to defeat its members, or steal their treasures. Given that they are the treasures of distant fallen kingdoms they make excellent Arcane connections. They…
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This episode went live early: so here’s the transcript folks! Thanks to Imreal on the forums for the new tag line. Many early roleplaying games had a strong division between good and evil, so that violence was just. In Ars Magica, many sagas are more interested in the results of the use of power…
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To design a festival for your covenant, a tribunal or the entire order, answer the following questions. Shuffle the order of them if you like. Which community celebrates this holiday? What work ceases or continues? Where does the community gather to celebrate? What actions do they perform as part of their celebration? These can be…
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This is supplemental to Episode 100. which went live early. To quote it: The poem which follows is a prayer, and a mystery initiation script, for the cult of the Infernal Saint of Sorrow. I know that the D&D Planescape people have used it for their setting as well, but I’m not familiar with their work,…
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Games From Folktales 