A Butterfly Dreaming » Myth Direction

Fox Magic: Kitsune

Scott — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:33:53 +0000

A year or two ago, I wrote a couple of articles for Dragon magazine, back when Paizo was still publishing it as an actual print-on-dead-trees magazine. You won’t find those articles by looking through back issues, because they were never published. Something about Paizo losing the print-on-dead-trees license and Wizards releasing articles as PDFs to [...]

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Fox Magic: Kitsune

Myth Direction: the Faerie Courts

Scott — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:44:52 +0000

A quick thought experiment, today. The Manual of the Planes contains some information about the Faerie Courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie, in its Feywild section. I don’t plan to use that particular take on it in my game, since I have something else worked out. But it did inspire some ideas about a third [...]

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Myth Direction: the Faerie Courts

Myth Direction: Dragons’ Teeth

Scott — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:18:28 +0000

Dragons’ teeth figure in two tales from Greek mythology: the story of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and the story of Jason and the golden fleece. In both cases, the teeth, when planted in the ground, would grow into armed human warriors eager for battle. Cadmus, a Phoenician prince, arrived at the site of Thebes following [...]

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Myth Direction: Dragons’ Teeth

Myth Direction: The Great Con

Scott — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:00:18 +0000

In my last post, I mentioned The Lies of Locke Lamora, a novel dealing, in part, with a series of elaborate cons pulled by a master thief. Con artistry is a device that shows up in many stories; whether it’s tales of Coyote or Robin Hood or films about Bugs Bunny or Ocean’s Eleven, the [...]

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Myth Direction: The Great Con

Myth Direction: Excalibur

Scott — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:28:33 +0000

Arthur’s sword Excalibur (or Caliburn, in some translations) is perhaps the single most iconic of legendary weapons — its particular part of the Arthurian legend is fairly widely known among the general public, and of course Arthurian legend is a major influence for many fantasy campaigns. Anything with knights in shining armor probably owes at [...]

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Myth Direction: Excalibur

Myth Direction

Scott — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:43:04 +0000

Mythology is among the best sources of inspiration for a fantasy roleplaying game. Delving into myth and legend can help you develop both your scenarios and your worlds, and it can lend a sense of verisimilitude to your world if your players recognize the similarities. My recent series, Seeking, Defining, and Encountering the Raven Queen, [...]

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Myth Direction

Defining the Raven Queen

Scott — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:42:23 +0000

In yesterday’s post, I briefly examined some mythical entities that might serve as inspirations to those who intend to give the Raven Queen a prominent role in their campaigns. Today’s post presents a more fleshed-out, in-game model of the Raven Queen and her domain. Almost none of this is official in any way, of course, [...]

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Defining the Raven Queen

Seeking the Raven Queen

Scott — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:54:17 +0000

The Raven Queen is one of the most mysterious deities of fourth edition, and, judging by various forum posts, one of the most popular. This is what’s known of her: She’s the unaligned goddess of death; she’s also the goddess of fate and winter. She opposes Orcus and undeath in general. Unlike most gods, she [...]

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Seeking the Raven Queen