Roleplaying games from historical research
Clark Ashton Smith is one of my favorite authors, but it is difficult to use his material for roleplaying games. The intellectual property for many of his works, in TTRPG settings, is held by Wizards of the Coast. TSR based the module X2, Castle Amber, on his Averoigne stories. It’s a sort of proto-Ravenloft story…
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Our last dive into the “Legends of Longdenale” by Thomas Middleton, collecting folklore sites and monsters for a saga book. Boggarts are sometimes faeries, but here it seems to be a ghost. Thanks to Tony Scheinman and his Librivox production team. T would, perhaps, be difficult to find in all England a tract of country of…
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Our monthly foray into Longdendale to find material for a saga book. There’s a barguest the size of a cow! Thanks to the reader, Tony Scheinman, and his Librivox production team. NTIL the latter half of the nineteenth century there might have been numbered among the curious old buildings for which the township of Godley has…
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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…
Read MoreI’ve had COVID for the past two weeks and I’m not over it yet, so there will be some delay in transcripts being available. Sorry for that.
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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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There are four sites near Longdendale that seem obvious as covenant locations. These are suitable either for player characters or, if they are settled in this area, a rival covenant. Highstones The simplest of the four suggested settings is at Highstones. This location was a Roman “fortlet”, a sort of waystation between the large fortress…
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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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The collection of interesting trivia around Cheshire continues. A magic book, a likely regio, and a bound spirit. Thanks to Nick D and his Librivox production team. HERE is a spot prettily situated near the town of Glossop, known as Mossey Lea. It is notable as having been the home of a great magician, who dwelt…
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Games From Folktales 