Roleplaying games from historical research
One of the earliest of MR James’s stories. This is interesting as an apprentice story, or as a plot hook about a Bonisagus who keeps losing apprentices. I’ll be spoiling this story on the way through with plot ideas. It was, as far as I can ascertain, in September of the year 1811 that a postchaise…
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I was listening to Rusty Quill Gaming, and a character they have, Sir Bertram MacGuffin, reminded me of Bertrand Russell. I have no idea why, but let’s charge on…Russell said some interesting things about the meaning of sentences, which may have effects in the spoken component of spellcasting. So, Russell starts off being big on…
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This short story by Lord Dunsany is a character study of a ghost. It demonstrates the tragedy of that type of undeath in Mythic Europe. Ghosts do not learn, and that means that sometimes their task cannot be completed. They linger on pointlessly: senselessly suffering. Imagine your covenant has a similar sort of ghost. Should…
Read MoreOh, my! It’s the GFF May 2018 transcripts!
If I were to say “Unicorns have wings.” you might reply “No, Timothy: that’s Pegasus. Unicorns have horns.” A third person, listening in would agree with you. Unicorns have horns. Pegasus has wings. The problem is: there are no unicorns: so how can that statement “Unicorns have horns” be more true than the statement that…
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There’s a little Dunsany left to do, from his short story collection called 51 Tales, but that will wait for a post-a-day challenge. To replace him, it’s time for a new author. M.R. James James wrote about one ghost story a year, to tell to his friends in a circle around a fire, as part…
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I was listening to a novel from the St Mary’s Chronicles, and a plot hook linked to Cornwall emerged. Let’s harvest it for the gazetteer. Curtana, the sword of Tristram, Prince of Lyonesse, was in the English royal treasury until 1215 when it was lost, along with most of the portable wealth of King John,…
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This is a bonus episode that is using up some spare minutes in my monthly podcast plan. It is unscripted, so apologies for the incoherence. I’ve just got home from Adelaide, a city in the far south of Australia. I took my children on a plane for the first time, and as I did, I…
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Thanks to all of the Patreons and listeners who have kept the podcast going for two years. This is a brief, bonus episode to celebrate the anniversary. For the 100th episode of Games From Folktales I posted a poem by Charles Swinburne that contained the initiation script for Dolores, the Infernal Saint of Sorrow. When…
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Hi, and welcome. I’m Timothy Ferguson, and I was one of the most prolific authors for the last edition of Ars Magica. Here are some hints to designing a character you’ll enjoy. Play style Get your group to decide if they are going to do the suggested thing, which is that each story has one…
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