The Feuding Goldmine Boomtown Choirs & Annual State of the Blog
The adjoining towns of Ballarat and Sebastopol in Victoria, southeast Australia, were gold rush boomtowns in the second half of the 19th century. They were home to a thriving Welsh immigrant community and a number of Welsh cultural institutions. Among these were two mens’ choruses: the Gomer Choir and the Cambrian Vocal Union. These choruses, […]
The Wreck of the Convict Ship ‘George III’
In 1835, the British convict ship George III struck an unmapped rock off Tasmania and sank. 134 people died, most of them prisoners being transported to Tasmania to serve their sentences at hard labor. The story has some interesting wrinkles that make this a very gameable template for a sea voyage at your table, and […]
Resolving Disputes the Tiwi Way
The Tiwi, an aboriginal group from northern Australia, have/had a unique way to resolve thorny disputes. This method – which involves old men throwing spears badly – is surprisingly gameable. If you introduce it in your campaign world, you can use it to resolve a whole bunch of loose plot threads quickly in a novel and […]
The Mystery Coins of Marchinbar
In 1944, a soldier on a remote Australian island found a handful of copper coins. He dropped them in a tin and forgot about them. When experts learned of the find 33 years later, they traced some of the coins to medieval Africa – very much out of place and out of time. It’s a great […]