Bar a little tidying up, I think Escape to the Tin Islands is done, and so its time for a new poll to see what new freebie people want. The winning option from last time (intro adventures for cons) has been taken out, because I don’t want ot write the same sort of stuff over…
Read MoreDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire : odd little note I’ll be using for Ars Magica
In Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire there are two little pieces I tthink will be very useful for Ars Magica. The first is this: some ancient Romans apparently had cloaks made of the beards of shellfish. Ars has always lacked an Aquam founder, although one pre-Hermetic maga who was a water specialist was…
Read MoreEscape to the Tin Islands shudders forward
I need this done for Auscon, since I’ll be running it twice, and so I’ve made many additions to Escape to the Tin Islands. Stats for grogs, and outlines for scenes two and three have been added. The sessions are four hours long, so I think I may need an additional scene. As it lies now the…
Read MoreArs Magica is looking for new authors
Over at Atlas Games’s site, there’s an open call for a book of story hooks. I’d encourage fans of the game to throw their ideas into the pot, because it makes the game world richer for everyone. Once you have an approved submission, ask around, because many of the authors, myself included, are very happy…
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The Literary Taste Lists: How Complete is Librivox? The Nineteenth Century
This is the third, and likely last, post which compares the Librviox database of free audiobooks with the lists provided by Arnold Bennett, a Nineteenth Century literary critic. So far Librivox has been sparse on the Seventeenth Century, and solid on the Eighteenth Century. How will it do in this, final*, list? As before, items in…
Read MoreThe Literary Taste Lists: How Complete is Librivox? The Eighteenth Century
A second post analysing Librivox’s completeness, from the perspective of Arnold Bennett’s Literary Taste: How to Form It. Librivox doesn’t have a lot of Seventeenth Century coverage, but I think it may do somewhat better in the Eighteenth. Let’s see, shall we? As before, black is for unrecorded works, orange for partially completed works, and green…
Read MoreThe Literary Taste Lists: how complete is Librivox? The Seventeenth Century
This month the Librivox book club is listening to Literary Taste: How to form it, by Arnold Bennett. In that book, among other things, he lists 339 works which he believes are essential to having a sound library. The obvious question was asked: how many of these books has Librivox recorded? Can you grab your MP3 player…
Read MoreTheodeoric’s signature: One of those minor things which I’ll use later for Ars Magica
Theodoric, Lord of the Ostrogoths and virtual Emperor of Rome, was illiterate, so he had a rude mark that passed for a signature. To enable him to write it, he had a plate of gold made, with his signature punched in it, and to sign he merely drew his pen within the spaces.
Read MoreOutline for Escape to the Tin Islands, scene two
So, a brief outline for scene two. It’s predictable, given that the players are on board ships, but I think it shows the difference between, say, Dungeons and Dragons and Ars Magica quite well. In Ars, non-combat magi can defeat a hundred warriors, provided they have a little cleverness, a pile of vis and a spare few minutes.
Read MoreNew details on Soqotran Metaphysics, for Rival Magic
Normal service has been resumed, which is to say I plan to post four times a month, at minimum, from now on, until I once again run into a tight deadline. I’m up to date on my paid work, have finished all of the LibriVoxing I’m signed up for, other than my solo and a…
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Games From Folktales 