Roleplaying games from historical research
To design a festival for your covenant, a tribunal or the entire order, answer the following questions. Shuffle the order of them if you like. Which community celebrates this holiday? What work ceases or continues? Where does the community gather to celebrate? What actions do they perform as part of their celebration? These can be…
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This is supplemental to Episode 100. which went live early. To quote it: The poem which follows is a prayer, and a mystery initiation script, for the cult of the Infernal Saint of Sorrow. I know that the D&D Planescape people have used it for their setting as well, but I’m not familiar with their work,…
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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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I love reading about con artists. I’m an unskilled liar. They have what seems like a superpower to me. So, when I saw a conman in the Cantebury Tales, I wanted to share him with you. Technically to make this Ars Magica related we need a plot hook, so: Plot Hook: A conman pretending…
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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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Games From Folktales 