Roleplaying games from historical research
The first of two short episodes for the week. This is a statue found in Venice that I’ll be redesigning as a demon. Stats eventually. The description comes from William Dean Howell’s “Venetian Life”. *** There would be nothing to say, after Mr. Ruskin, in praise or blame of the great monuments in San Giovanni…
Read MoreLast week was the sixth anniversary of the podcast, so it’s time for the annual report. If you are new to the podcast, start anywhere else. The Patreons are covering the hosting fees of the podcast, so it is financially stable. There has been a permanant price change in my podcast host, so now instead…
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This is the second episode of Lucian’s “True Story”. My comments on it are at the beginning of yesterday’s episode. One trigger warning: it being an ancient Greek text there’s a brief mention of child sexual abuse. Thanks again to Terry Kroenung and his Librivox production team. *** Upon this we began to be weary…
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This being the week that the podcast celebrates its sixth anniversary I am allowing myself the luxury of two, long, perhaps pointless, episodes. I started playing Ars Magica decades ago and the second thing I tried to rework as source material was Lucian’s “True Story”. It doesn’t work because its fantasy level is far too…
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A not-very secret society serving the Doge and Dogaressa directly, that overseas festivals, Originally they were called the Order of the Beret because of their cool hats. Later they changed the name to the Society of the Sock, or perhaps Hose. Edgecum Staley says there were 40 societies, but they were likely contemperaneous. A handful…
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It’s our monster of the month! Demon or dark faerie? The following recording was released through LibriVox by Dale Grothmann. *** SO FAR as parties go, Jocelyn’s were no duller than any others. I went to this one mainly to listen to Paul Kutrov and Frank Alva bait each other, which is usually more entertaining than…
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I like this story as a basis for an odd Ars Magica faerie species that workshops its role on isolated humans before encountering society. In Magonomia, I like the idea that they grab shipwrecked people and use them as audience. Escaping the island would be a way for characters who lose a sea fight to…
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This brief article was released in Adventure magiazine back in the 1920s. The readeri s Dale Grothman. Thanks to him, and his production team at Librivox. *** A general rule, oppression in the Middle Ages was strictly a one-way affair; the lords oppressed the people, and that was all there was about it. But there…
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This Samhain night, a little poem. You may be thinking “Timothy, it is April.” but I remind you, dear listener, that I am in the Southern Hemisphere. Thanks to Roslyn Carlisle for her recording which was released via Librivox. Where mandrakes, crying from the moonless fen,Told how a witch, with eyes of owl or bat,Found,…
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There’s one device that seems like spy gear that I’ve not been able to include in Magonomia, and that’s King Henry VIII’s walking stick. True walking sticks don’t develop as a British fashion accessory until the reign of one of the later Edwards, where their function is basically to hit muggers. This differentiations them from…
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Games From Folktales 