Roleplaying games from historical research
I’ve been loking forward to reading this for you, because it’s a lovely example of an infernal regio for Ars Magica. Clearly its the work of Architectus from Realms of Power : the Infernal. It also works for Magonomia, but as a particular creature, not a thing that a Realm of Power does as a…
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Now that Andrew has mentioned the Laidly Toad, and shared some art from the forthcoming bestiary, I can talk about the folklore used to design it. The Laidly Toad is the villain from “The Laidly Worm of Spindlestone Heugh” which is a story from the English Borders. I’ve also mixed in a little from a…
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I have COVID. The way my podcast plan is set out, however, I have to do some recording today. I’m recording a couple of episodes which will go live in August. By the time you hear this hopefully I’ve been well for a month. Today I bring you one of the earliest werewolf stories, even…
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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…
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In this brief section, Cellini suffers what may be a miracle for his murders, or it may be a spell effect. Note his travelling companion tries the Miserere, which we’ve discussed in an earlier episode. Thanks to Joyce Martin and her team for the recording. We were one day distant from Lyons, and it was…
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Vast oceans of time ago, I noted an almost-saint for Hermetic magicians. Cyprian was a student who sold his soul for infernal tutoring in spellcasting. He then turned on his tutor, and became a Christian martyr. In Hermetic Europe he became a saint. He’s the St Cyprian of Antioch after whom the church at Valnastium…
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A quick note to congratulate Librivox on its eleventh anniversary, and reaching a milestone. Librivox is a community of volunteers with no budget, offices, or paid staff. In the last eleven years we have recorded 10 000 books into audio format and released them into the public domain. You won’t find modern best-sellers on Librivox,…
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I recently finished recording the final volume of On War by Carl von Clausewitz for Librivox. Librivox recordings are legally available for free, and are in the public domain so you can reuse them for other projects. I’m really proud of how it has turned out, and the enormous effort that Linda and I put…
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A quick note to mention my latest Librivox recording: Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic is useful for Ars Magica players whose stories are set along the great Ocean, and is interesting for folkloristis generally. My part’s about Antilia, which I’ve been trying to shoehorn into Ars for a decade or so. Sadly…
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When you decide to solo a really large book, you are giving a huge portion of your life to something. The only reason it isn’t daunting is because you carefully conspire with yourself not to notice what you are doing. I’ve just finished The Gladstone Colony, other than a couple of hours of edits. In…
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Games From Folktales 