Roleplaying games from historical research
There are three techniques for whaling in Mythic Europe. Covenants might participate in each. Whales beach themselves, or die in the Atlantic and are washed onto the western shores of Europe. Beached, living whales can be eaten. Sometimes the frigid sea keeps dead whales fresh enough to harvest their meat and oil. Often they have…
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We know where magic comes from. When the Nephilim fell, they had children with humans, and taught them useful arts. One of these was magic. God drowned all of the children of the Nephilim in Noah’s Flood, although rumours persist that one of the wives on board had tainted blood, and magic continued through her.…
Read MoreIt’s a bit cheeky to be quoting the same vlog twice in a week, but over on Infinite Series, they are dealing with the question of whether prime numbers really exist, or if they are just something that happens because people are playing a game of symbols, and the pieces just happen to fall that…
Read MoreThank you for listening, reading, commenting and generally supporting the GFF podcast in 2016. I’ve collected the transcripts in one place here: I still can’t find a free way to cut them into an omnibus edition, for which I apologise.
Games From Folktales December 2016
Games From Folktales November 2016
Medieval Europeans knew that China existed…well, they knew there was a place out there that silk came from, and they called it “Seres” or “Serica”, both meaning “silk”. There are records of several groups attempting to make contact between the two empires. It might be said fairly that the Chinese had better information about the…
Read MoreI’d like to note the following video for Ars Magica players. It’s a bit too visual to make into a podcast, but it demonstrates something of interest to Crimaon players, particularly those who are mathematically inclined. If you draw a circle within a square, such that the circle just touches the sides, and then you…
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Each community in Europe has a slightly different story about who brings gifts to children at Christmas time. Let’s not review them when David Sedaris has done such a brilliant job. If you haven’t listened to “Six to Eight Black Men” go do that now. Seriously. Pause this. Actually, no. Don’t. His work’s a…
Read MoreHank Green discusses moral luck. In a podcast in February, which I’m scripting now, I’ll be covering how the existence of actual demons in Ars Magica adds a wrinkle to moral luck. We’ll cover Paul, who didn’t believe in it (for him the desire was a deed) and Oregin, (who took Paul’s injunction to strike…
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Time travel stories are scarce in Mythic Europe. They are a mainstay of our genre fiction now, but they were revolutionary when, in the Nineteenth Century, they became popular. Folklore does allow a limited form a time travel, in that the faerie-led can be held far from home for centuries, effectively moving forward in time…
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Do you know where you are right now? A better question is: do you know how you know where you are right now? What’s happening is that your body is providing haptic feedback to your brain. That is, you have a sensation of touch from your skin, and your joints are also sending signals to your…
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