Roleplaying games from historical research
The gestures used in spellcasting in Ars Magica are not arbitrary, as they are in some other roleplaying games. We know this, because a magus who sees a rival casting a spell can deduce its effects from the gestures, and cast a counterspell for protection. This means the two magi share a semantic framework: the…
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Let’s continue the experiment of treating the works of Lord Dunsany as the reminisences of a redcap. This week we have one of his least coherent stories. My inculcations are in green. There are things that are known only to the long porter of Tong Tong Tarrup as he sits and mumbles memories to himself…
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Saki is one of my favourite humorous authors. His life was cut short by the First World War, so his output wasn’t vast, which has made him slip from consciousness. In this story, I’d like you to focus on something: is the boy using Free Expression to craft his desires onto a faerie, or is…
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The last mile problem was first discussed in communications but it also has applications in logistics. The redcaps in the early versions of the game were basically a postal service, but they are now essentially a logistical service: they spend a lot of time buying stuff for magi. They own merchant ships, for example, and…
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This episode went live early, so here’s the text! Sorry if it turned up twice in your podcast schedule. *** I’ve been listening to Saga Thing, a podcast about Icelandic sagas, recently and there are some ongoing tropes. One is this fun little power: if the character sees a sword, the sword becomes blunt. Let’s…
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This year, once the pdocast is done with the works of Lord Dunsany, we’ll be heading off into the works of MR James. One of his stories is an apology where he gives the brief details of stories he has tried to write, but failed to conclude. I suppose every Ars Magica author has some…
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This post went live before I intended it to, so I’ll briefly outline what I want this for. In Heirs To Merlin, it starts the Corruption of House Tytalus with a fallen covenant in Cornwall. I need to address that, and my first question was: given that demons lack any virtue, and thus cannot plan,…
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Dunsany’s work here describes a regio. It might be Faerie in origin, but could also be a covenant which has encircled itself with a spell like The Shrouded Glen. In this post, Dunsany’s words are in black, my interjections in green. Besides the old shepherd at Lingwold whose habits render him unreliable I am probably…
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Games From Folktales 