Impossible Tasks From Arthurian Myth
One of my favorite things to do as a GM is to set my players against a problem I don’t have a solution for. The answers they come up with are always cooler than mine, and the lack of a prescribed solution guarantees they’re engaging in fun, creative problem-solving, rather than playing ‘guess-what-Tristan-is-thinking’. Medieval stories […]
The Grail Castle
A remote castle that appears and disappears at will. A bedridden lord who lives like an emperor. And an unknown inhabitant with possibly supernatural attendants – the grail castle in the 12th-century Arthurian tale Perceval is a great way to inject a bit of adventure on the road in your fantasy campaign. On the way […]
Encounters With the Medieval Dead
This post is exactly what it says on the tin: three encounters suitable for an undead-themed dungeon or any fantasy campaign where undead are present! We’ve got three stories from 1100-1200 A.D. – one from Denmark, one from Britain, and one from Italy. To start with, we have a tale from The Deeds of the Danes, […]
Checkpoints on the Road
Checkpoints are points along roads where military or paramilitary forces screen travelers. Some are allowed to pass through. Some are sent back. Checkpoints are omnipresent in modern conflicts, because they give the occupying force some amount of control over the movement of people and weapons in the area. (Here’s a great New York Times article […]
More Visions of Hell to Use as Encounters
I’ve done two or three posts before about how historical visions of Hell can be turned into encounters that fit well into dungeons and extraplanar adventures. This time, let’s look at facets from four different visions of Hell, not just one! To start with, we’ve got First Enoch, a non-canonical Jewish text. First Enoch 18:12-16 […]
Standoff in the Mud
This stretch of terrain between two branches of a river in Mongolia offers an excellent site for a standoff. Whether you want a social encounter, a combat encounter, or one that can shift between the two, this site’s combination of difficult terrain and exceptionally long sight lines promises to create a tense situation. Mongolia’s Gorkhi-Terelj […]
White Squalls
Now it’s a thing that us old-timers know, in the sultry summer calmThere comes a blow from nowhere, and it goes off like a bombAnd a fifteen-thousand-tonner can be be thrown upon her beamWhile the gale takes all before it with a scream. – Stan Rogers, White Squall It’s been a hot minute since we […]
Hunting the PCs Like Buffalo
The Native American nations of the Great Plains have many remarkable cultural practices. One historical practice, the collective hunt, is relevant to the gaming table. The same tactics Native hunters used against herds of bison can be used in combat encounters to hunt your PCs. Let’s look at four. When we think about hunting large […]
A Logic Puzzle on the Ebro Delta
This week, we have a cool logic puzzle that can be easily inserted into any ocean journey! Failing to solve it has memorable (but not catastrophic) consequences. And at the end, we have a way to turn the logic puzzle into the start of an easy-to-improvise adventure! Noted sailor, writer, and delightful liar Tristan Jones […]
What Tundale Saw in Hell
The Vision of Tundale is a 12th-century vision of Hell and purgatory reported by the Irish knight Tundale. Unlike in other visions of Hell, Tundale actually experiences many of Hell’s torments rather than simply witnessing them. Because Tundale isn’t just a spectator, his vision is better fodder for RPGs than, say, Dante’s Inferno. Much of […]
Holmes’ Bonfire
Holmes’ Bonfire was a 1666 British naval raid on a Dutch merchant fleet and small town. The British burned the town and sank 150 Dutch merchant ships, but lost only a half-dozen men and killed about as many. Thus, using a sack based on Holmes’ Bonfire at the gaming table lets you play for high […]
What Aeneas Saw in Hell (pt. 2)
Last month, we looked at four memorable things the Trojan hero Aeneas saw in the Underworld, and we turned them into encounters fit for dungeons and extraplanar adventures. Let’s look at four more! After Aeneas enters the cave to the Underworld, he encounters a cluster of minor Roman deities. Most fall into the standard Roman […]
What Aeneas Saw in Hell
Virgil’s Aeneid was Rome’s sequel to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Written almost a thousand years after the first two works, it continues the story of Trojan hero Aeneas after the end of the Trojan War. At one point, his wanderings take him down into the Underworld. Much of what he saw there makes great […]
Ambush in a Barn
This encounter is meant to turn a relatively straightforward fantasy combat (a fight with a wizard and her goons) into something a little more challenging and dynamic through the use of mundane terrain. Lure the PCs into a barn, then trap them inside with opponents who are ready to make good use of the terrain. […]
Encounters with Ghost Ships
A ‘ghost ship’ is a ship at sea with no living crew aboard. Some are found adrift. Others are still under sail or steaming along under power, but with no sailors to tend to the sails or engine. Many different kinds of incidents can kill off a crew but leave the ship intact or force […]