Roleplaying games from historical research
When the podcast does these episodes on philosophy, it’s often necessary to begin by explaining terms. In 1998, Clark and Chalmers released a book called “The Extended Mind” in which they posited that material objects beyond the skull or skin could be part of an environment which, when coupled with the mind, formed a system,…
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Preparing the ortolans Ortolans are tiny, so they need to be trapped, not shot from the sky with a bow, or torn by a falcon. They don’t flock, which makes this even more challenging to collect in numbers. Trapped orotolans are kept in the dark. This tricks them into thinking it is night, when they…
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I’ve been saying in various episodes the next Dunsany will be Tale of Pombo the Idolater. The problem with that is that the plot hooks it offers overlap strongly with the Three Literary Men. They seem to have been written as companion pieces, and so I don’t want to bore listeners with the same set…
Read MoreI pressed the wrong button and the episode for August 26 has gone live early. I’ll be putting the notes up closer to the day. I also plan to replace it with an episode on Cornish mermaids. So – accidental extras!
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This is the first time I’ve done a two part episode. Last week I covered Cornwall’s Small People, who are the faerie tribe with the greatest footprint in Hunt’s Popular romances from the west of England. This week, the other four of Hunt’s tribes. I’d repeat that Hunt’s taxonomy clearly doesn’t include at least two…
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This is the second in series of posts designed to flesh out Cornwall as a setting for Ars Magica troupes. . It uses as its core text Popular romances of the west of England; or, The drolls, traditions, and superstitions of old Cornwall by Robert Hunt. Hunt divides Cornish faeries into five types: small people, spriggans, piskies, buccas…
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Sometimes the Thames freezes over. It was more common in the Eighteenth Century, when temperatures were a little colder than now, and the bridge over the river had pylons more closely placed. People held markets on the frozen river. During the final frost fair in 1814, a book was printed on the ice. I’ve gone through it…
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Let us continue our supposition that the works of Lord Dunsany are the reminisces of a redcap recorded, perhaps, in The Book of Places You Must Not Go. First, the story: the version given in the podcast was released into the public domain through Librivox by Sandra Cullum When the nomads came to El Lola…
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