The Alesia Gauntlet
The Battle of Alesia (52 B.C.) was a pivotal moment in Roman and French history. But the ruins of that battle set the stage for an amazing fantasy adventure! The physical remains of the Roman siegeworks present a wonderful obstacle and puzzle, and the history of what happened there sets up some excellent roleplay and […]
Crowning Claudius
The unexpected murder of the Roman emperor Caligula in 41 A.D. is a great template for a political catastrophe the PCs can turn to their gain. In the chaos after the assassination, a small band armed with a plausible candidate, sweet tongues, and sharp swords could ram through their selection for the next emperor. It […]
The Dancing Plague of 1518
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post, about the Dancing Plague of 1518, is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! The Dancing Plague of 1518A Bad Case of Hot Blood […]
Icelandic Sea Monsters
In 1570, the Belgian mapmaker Abraham Ortelius published Europe’s first atlas of maps: the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. The book is remarkable for its accuracy (relative to the maps that had come before), but it’s also full of monsters, both in the descriptions and in the illustrations. The seas in his map of Iceland are particularly […]
Olga of Kiev
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post, about Olga of Kiev, is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! Olga of KievVengeful Saint The story of Princess Olga of Kiev is […]
The Catiline Conspiracy
When Julius Caesar seized power and overthrew the Roman Republic, he was not the first to make the attempt. Not all the earlier attempts succeeded. One such failure, the Catiline Conspiracy, makes great inspiration for an investigation-style adventure with a strong political component! In 63 B.C., the Roman Republic was in its last years. An […]
Pagan Ghosts Don’t Fear ‘Turn Undead’
An Ottonian chronicler in the 11th century A.D. recorded an odd ghost story in the town of Deventer, in the modern-day Netherlands. In it, a band of ghosts ignore the sacred power of a Catholic priest and do him great harm. The story’s a good one in its own right, but it’s also a great […]
Wrangling Reform in the Roman Republic
In 133 B.C., a Roman tribune named Tiberius Gracchus attempted to ram through a law redistributing land for the benefit of poor at the expense of the rich. The process was… contested. There were some exceptionally clever political maneuvers, several murders, and a wide array of skulduggery on both sides. It’s amazing inspiration for an […]
Weird Medieval Monsters
Monsters aren’t just for fighting! They’re also for roleplaying with, puzzling out, and adding color to your campaign. With that in mind, here’s four weird monsters from Medieval Europe: one righteous, one villainous, one puzzling, and one silly. The Good Cephalophores are saints who were martyred (usually beheaded), but nonetheless kept walking and talking. St. […]
Germanic Barbarians As Orcs
There’s been kind of a thing in the RPG blogosphere of recasting standard fantasy monster races. Two that have stuck with me are Hayami Rasenjin’s hobgoblin and Monsters and Manuals’ Lamarckian orc. This is my version. The Roman historian Tacitus gives us another version of the orc in his portrayal of Germanic barbarians: a bunch […]
Robert the Weasel, the Bandit King
Bandits and pirates are great opponents for PCs in almost any genre. Robert Guiscard (1015-1085), a bandit – and later duke! – in southern Italy is a wonderful example of the type. He was a medieval nobody who became an outlaw, and through scheming and pillaging wormed his way into the highest levels of power. […]
Magic Items From Arthurian Myth
Magic items! No fantasy campaign is complete without them – and medieval stories about King Arthur and his knights are full of them. Here, then, are seven enchanted weapons and pieces of armor from Arthurian myth! Bronllafyn Short-Broad, the sword of Osla Big-Knife, from Culhwch and Olwen (ca. 11th-12th century). When the sheathed sword is placed […]
Three False Dmitrys
Once a month on the Molten Sulfur Blog, we have a post taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post, about a remarkable Russian museum, is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! Three False DmitrysTime of Troubles In 1584, Tsar Ivan the Terrible died […]
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 […]
Kunstkamera
Once a month on the Molten Sulfur Blog, we have a post taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post, about a remarkable Russian museum, is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! KunstkameraHome of the Tsar’s Curiosities The Kunstkamera is Russia’s first museum, founded […]