Roleplaying games from historical research
Another little episode for Christmas Week 2021. For the last year or so we’ve worked through The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany. In an odd coda, we find the unicorn horn from it turn up in the biography of Benevenuto Cellini, which is the replacement for next year. Thanks to David Lazarus and…
Read MoreA Merry Christmas. I hope this poem finds you well. Thanks to Craig Franklin for the read, and his Librivox production team. Two old Bachelors were living in one house;One caught a Muffin, the other caught a Mouse.Said he who caught the Muffin to him who caught the Mouse,–‘This happens just in time! For we’ve…
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In this brief section, Cellini suffers what may be a miracle for his murders, or it may be a spell effect. Note his travelling companion tries the Miserere, which we’ve discussed in an earlier episode. Thanks to Joyce Martin and her team for the recording. We were one day distant from Lyons, and it was…
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Fitz-James O’Brien monsters are great for Ars Magica, but he was extremely racist. In this story, for example, goes after Jews, Romani and Neopolitans, and that’s just in the first four sentences. That means I can’t record them for Librivox, because we have a policy of not bowdlerising the text we are recording and I’m…
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You’d be be amazed how bad tradecraft is in Elizabethan England., Seriously, some of the techniques they used are now games for children. Let’s think about what they were doing, and what your character can do about it. The basic technique of sigint that Walsingham uses is interception of mail. There’s no postal system as…
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Sapia the Glutton, as Burton calls it, has the following faux Jacobean summary “Sapia with her ability maintaineth herself in all honour, in spite of the bad example of her sisters, their father being away. She laugheth at her lover, and foreseeing the danger which overshadoweth her, she surpasseth it; and at last the king’s…
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Cellini was a Florentine goldsmith who lived during Elizabeth’s reign. He wrote a lengthy biography in which he confesses to serial murder and necromancy, but its the little boasts which make him particularly charming. If you’re an Ars Magica player his petty pride is perfect for a Verditus magus, and if you play Magonomia, his…
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A ghost story with a cheat at the end, which could still be a great Ars Magica monster. Statistics eventually. Thanks to Dale Grothman and his team at Librivox. *** “Happy” Bill Ransom of struggling Medical College days is now Dr. William Ransom, world renowned surgeon, and collects thousands in fat fees every year. But…
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Some simpler stories this time. The creatures from a version of the Seven Pork Rinds were used in Realms of Power: Faerie, so no new stats. I like this because its a very early, particularly successful, confidence trick. Let’s start with some Burtonish faux-Jacobean. Seven Pork Rinds An old woman, a beggar, giveth a good…
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Thinking about stories of spycraft in Elizabethan England, there’s a question that needs to be discussed at each gaming table. Are your agents more like George Smiley or like James Bond? Either’s a fine choice, ands so long as you flag it properly, players can mix these types, but it needs to be discussed. Let…
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Games From Folktales 