Roleplaying games from historical research
Hunt scatters them a little in this chapter, but there are enough serpent charms to make a decent blog post, so I’ll gather them here. In advance I’ll flag that if you have a serpent Bjornaer magus or a snake familiar: these may refer to your character or your companion. Do charms scale? Hunt notes…
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In this chapter, Hunt begins to just throw miscellany together: a habit he continues for the rest of the book. This makes his work incoherent when boiled down into game notes. In general much of this chapter is made up of Cornish charms specific to a particular illness. Virtually all of them are Christian prayers,…
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This chapter has sections of uneven length, so I hope you’ll pardon that I use a series of long quotes, and then almost point form at the end. The Death Token of the Vingoes A quote from Hunt: “WHEN you cross the brook which divides St Leven from Sennen, you are on the estate of Treville.…
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Another fantastic tale from Lord Dunsany. The Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man. Their evil tower is joined to Terra Cognita, to the lands we know, by a bridge. Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use for it; they have a separate cellar for emeralds and a separate…
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This is a chunkier chapter, so the temptation is there to break it up into sections to meet the requirements of a post a day. I’ll give it complete, but can’t promise the other 29 posts will all be of this length! For this post, I’m working from notes, not directly from Hunt, so there’s…
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A quick bonus episode: a story from Lord Dunsany to celebrate Halloween. There are no plot hooks here, but I love this shaggy dog story, and it’s a perfect little Mystery Cult. Happy Hallowe’en! *** In the Hall of the Ancient Company of Milkmen round the great fireplace at the end, when the winter logs…
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This chapter is mostly worthless: what a disappointment. Hunt does mention some places that need fleshed out for a gazeteer. The places are: Sacrificing Rock at Carn Brae Main (or Men) Rock in Constantine The altar rocks in Treen and Rokestall The Garrick Zans (“Holy Rock”) in Ecols – a local family is cursed, after…
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Nozick’s Utility Monster is a thought experiment designed to poke a hole in the worldview of utilitarians, but it is adaptable to roleplaying games. As is becoming customary for these posts based on philosophy, I need to begin by oversimplifying a basic concept. Let’s talk about utility and cake. Imagine there is a cake. How…
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The oldest variety of biscuit in Britain appears in the historical record just after the game start date. The Aberffraw biscuit comes from Anglesey, that hothouse of Druidic magic, so what uses can it be put to in Ars Magica campaigns. This biscuit was developed near the town which bears its name. In 1220, Aberffraw was the capital of one of the Welsh kingdoms. It is said that the queen was walking on the shore and found a scallop shell. The king ordered biscuits to be made that had the shape of…
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The Adventures of Captain Shard are three interlinked stories by Lord Dunsany. They are so hugely long that I hope you’ll accept them as a PDF, rather than a more conventional post. Thank you again to all of my supporters who have made the podcast possible. Thanks to the Patreons, and the reviewers.
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Games From Folktales 