Roleplaying games from historical research
Hunt provides us with a series of festivals in this chapter, which he has placed into near- calendar order. That’s very convenient, and it means that this will eventually be the skeleton of a chapter in the gazetter, giving seasonal ideas for the covenant’s life. Some of these festivals just need to be flagged so…
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In the last third of this chapter, Hunt just throws it his research together and hopes it congeals. Let’s fossick it for roleplaying hooks. Fire, Light, and Lightning Hunt has various folktales about fire. These include the spitting test for truth, seen in a previous chapter. There’s a tradition that if people light a bonfire…
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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…
Read MoreAs is becoming the tradition in Ars Magica fandom, I’m trying to do a post a day for November. These short pieces will be collected for an omnibus podcast episode each week. The posts will be a mix of Cornish folklore and short Dunsany posts. I know that as concepts go, its not nearly as…
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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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Games From Folktales 