Roleplaying games from historical research
In Ars Magica we have four elemental arts. The one which fits the magic system least well is Aquam, and because it doesn’t fit the system particularly well, there have been very few Aquam specialists designed during the game. The story of the Founders didn’t explain where Aquam came from: the druid Diedne perhaps, so…
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In one of Lord Dunsany’s stories, a merchant caravan pauses in the desert. They ask a man in rags to join them at the fire, and offer him food and drink. He tells them stories of the luxuries of the city to which they travel: ancient Babbulkund. In time they leave him behind, but because…
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In the Kalevala, the people from the village of the heroes are tormented by the curses of a witch. One is that she sends among them a terrible bear, to harass their herds. He is reffered to as Otso, and the people flatter him in the most extraordinary and duplicitous way. Vainomoinen, the chief wizard,…
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During the recent anniversary for Librivox, when we were pushing to create out ten thousandth freely available public domain audiobook, I did some reading for the Kalevala, which is some epic poetry from Finland. Essentially it is about three wizards who have a feud with a witch from Lappland. During the, slightly convoluted, story one…
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This is a transcript of the most recent episode of the podcast. Travel magic doesn’t work very well in Ars Magica, at least in the core rules. As the line has progressed many of the authors, me included, have found ways to sabotage that and allow your party to get whatever they want to go,…
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A quick excerpt from my reading this week. I knew a gentleman, who was so good a manager of his time, that he would not even lose that small portion of it, which the calls of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house; but gradually went through all the Latin poets, in those moments.…
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In roleplaying games, spellcasters generally make arcane gestures with their hands. In Ars Magica, spells are easier to cast if the character can make sweeping gestures. Spellcasting with subtle gestures is a hindrance, and casting without gestures deepy limits a magician’s power. Your character’s hands are doing something, and that something affects fundamental universal forces: what’s…
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Mass hysteria, for the purposes of this article, refers to the manias in which a group of people all begin to exhibit shared physical or psychological symptoms, for which there is no direct cause. The earliest recorded are the dancing manias which swept Mythic Europe. Mass hysteria is poorly understood, but documented cases have several…
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I’ve just finished recording some Ancient Egyptian folktales for Librivox, and I’m particularly interested by the story of Naneferkaptah, in which he steals the spellbook of Thoth, who is the god of wizardry. He does this using various spells that allow him to create the sorts of living statues which haunt so many dungeons. He…
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Clothing isn’t really a matter of choice in much of historical Europe. What you wear isn’t so much fashion as a method of telling people how you deserve to be treated. Many games don’t deal with this at all: people wear whatever, mechanically, gives their characters the biggest bonuses. Their clothes don’t look like a…
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Games From Folktales 