Magonomia – Games From Folktales

March 30, 2022March 30, 2022

Transcripts for January – March 2022

Hello, the scripts for the first quarter of 2022 are out!

February 21, 2022February 23, 2022

Magonomia : Elizabethan pistols

Lets talk Elizabethan guns. Pistols aren’t great in the start of the reign. The problem isn’t range or accuracy, both of which are bad, but they still trump swords and daggers in close combat, so that gives them a use case, the problem is the trigger mechanism. Early pistols are matchlocks. Time for some engineering.…

January 20, 2022December 16, 2021

Cellini: The murder, the familiar and the flood

In the section which follows, note that everyone is embarrassed to have captured a murderer. They live in an honour culture, rather than a legal culture, and so it seems to them that they are acting unjustly, at least according to the biased narrator. LI I WENT on applying myself with the utmost diligence upon…

January 3, 2022January 3, 2022

Clothing and spycraft for Magonomia

I started to write an article on trick gadgets for Magonomia, but I need to step back a little and give some basic information. Much as I’d need to explain what a cummerbund was if writing up James Bond’s gear, I need to define some terms as we go through, so the potential of clothing…

December 22, 2021December 16, 2021

Cellini and the hailstorm

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…

December 2, 2021November 26, 2021

Magonomia – Signals intelligence in Elizabethan England

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…

November 22, 2021

Magonomia – Alchemical terror and treasure-filled poultry (introducing Benvenuto Cellini)

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…

October 28, 2021October 25, 2021

Maganomia – Are you a Smiley or a Bond?

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…

September 23, 2021September 17, 2021

Lamia by John Keats

Time for the longest poem in GFF history. This creature has turned up at least twice in Ars Magica. In the first version of The Mysteries we are told about Apollonius. In Realms of Power: Faerie, I give this story as an example of a ghula that is not from (modern) Arabic countries. Keats, though,…

September 4, 2021September 4, 2021

Magonomia index for Worlds on Fire and Worlds in Shadow from Evil Hat

Time to tidy these up. Worlds on Fire Burn shift: Postapocalyptic setting. Burn shifts (mutations) 181-185. Community designs and actions (187-198] might suit us for groups like crews and conspiracies. Equipment 200-205 useful if reskinned. Beasts and obstacles [209-219} many of these are useful if reskinned – some can be directly lifted to our game.…