Hawkes-Robinson's RPG Research Project

I thought I'd just post a quick link to W. A. Hawkes-Robinson's (this is an impressive individual) RPG Research Project.  He's doing some really great work and it's worth taking the time to check out.

Here's a blurb from his site:

"RPG (Role-Playing Game) Research is an ongoing long-term series of projects that include studies on the therapeutic and educational aspects of role-playing games, with additional emphasis on determining any causality related to participation in role-playing gaming. This research includes tracking any other projects around the world that use role-playing games as educational or therapeutic intervention modalities...

Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, including disciplines from recreation therapy, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, education, and many other perspectives. RPG Research is a project of RPG Therapeutics LLC founded, and is the umbrella name under which the projects, website, communities, and other resources are identified. To date, this is a non-profit project founded (and funded) by William Hawkes-Robinson, with the helpful support of many others. This website is dedicated to supporting role-playing game research in general, and any other individuals or organizations interested in sharing research information about the therapeutic or educational aspects of role playing gaming."

Dang.  I'm impressed.

Some Thoughts on RPGPundit's Gnostic Musings

The thoughts that follow are a response to RPGPundit's post on his blog, titled “Real Magick” in RPGs, Continued.. To recap Pundit's post briefly he is writing about how one might go about creating an RPG Rules System for "Real Magic" the way it is actually practiced by real world Magicians.  He's done a lot of research on the topic, and has really great insights, which are absolutely worth reading.  So I have to recommend reading his post before you read this reply.   It's worth the time you'll take to do so.  And what I say below won't make very much sense if you don't read his first, as well.  This post started out as a reply, but then I felt it became too long to reasonably post as a comment on Pundit's blog, so I am posting it here. 

Additionally, you may want to read my previous post on the Elthos Alignment System as well, as this explains the basis of some of my comments to follow...  Ok, here we go...


I really admire Pundit's concept. It contains a number of really great insights and it raises truly fascinating questions. Here are my thoughts on it.

One is that I don't think every Gnosis is produced necessarily by what I would call a "Shock". Some events, like Satori, are simply an experience of Enlightenment, and so calling them a "Shock" would not necessarily reflect the nature of the experience, which may be more like a sudden awakening to truth than what we think of as a "shock" (ie - a harmful jolt). I'm not sure what word to use that would cover both extremes ... Illumination might work, as it suggests throwing light on something. Sometimes it can be shocking, sometimes it might be revealing. So I can see an Axis of the impact of Illuminating experiences.  When Pundit uses the word "Shock" by the way, he means that it jolts you out of "normal" consciousness.  My objection is that exiting "normal" consciousness is not always best described as a "shock" though it certainly can be.  I prefer something more of an umbrella term.  Illumination may be better for me.

Another distinction I’d like to draw is that I don’t think that Gnosis only comes from the Illuminating ‘shocks’ or ‘satori’. It was said by Jesus that “unless ye become like these little children, ye shall in no way find the Kingdom of Heaven.” My feeling is this is an allusion to the idea that children, infants in particular, are born into a state of Awareness that gets diminished over time. The Quest for Gnosis is the Quest to find what one has lost, and no longer can remember. So in that sense I question the proposition that Gnosis is a product of “Shocks” but rather I wonder if the “Shocks” don’t actually work the other way – they are the ‘Hard Knocks” of life that eventually whittle away Gnosis, and so by the time you are a rational young person who goes to school and does their homework on time, you’ve significantly lost touch with the Mystical / Spiritual Universe. So I’m kind of tossing that around in my head as well. It seems to fit in with my thoughts regarding the use of the word “Illumination” for events that cause Gnosis. “Shocks” might be considered as events that diminish Gnosis and produce Ego, instead. Still tooling, but that seems like it might work for me.

Another thought that this brings to mind is that I think there is a conflation in Pundit's analysis between the Spiritual and the Magical impulses. I might prefer to separate those two. To my mind the Spiritual path is related to the quest for Enlightenment. On the other hand, while Magicians may wish to seek "Oneness with the Universe", for them the problem may be one of over-adherence to the Ego, and hence perhaps the Magician is really seeking Power, not Enlightenment.

In my original Elthos Rules system (prior to the ODS), I had a distinction between these two in the realm of mysticism, in so far as there is a mystical energy called Mana. This can either be aligned (by a God, aka Elkron), or unaligned, requiring the will of a Magician to shape it into a useful form. Clerics are those who draw on the Aligned Mana of their Deity, while Magicians are those who use their Ego to align Mana into a form themselves. In every case, it requires an Ego to Align (or shape) the Mana into a useful form. So for my concept I'd be likely to want to separate the quest for Enlightenment (Gnosis) from the quest for Power (Ego), and this would be the fundamental distinction between the Spiritual and Magical paths.  As such Clerics would be trying to subdue their Ego in a drive towards Gnosis, while a Magician would be trying to enhance their Power by augmenting their Ego, with a disregard for "whatever Gnosis might be".  Not that I would, as GM, sit in judgement ... both have their uses, and both are necessary in the Universe. After all, even the Gods have Ego, and without Ego there would be no development of civilization, no social interaction, and basically nothing much of interest at the finite level of existence. Then again, it also clearly causes problems as well. But that's the nature of life, and those conflicts are a natural by product of distinction to begin with, and without it we would, as beings, not have the opportunity to surpass our current state, learn anything, and evolve.  So in my view, both Gnosis and Ego are imperatives of the Universal Order.

So from a system point of view I am thinking of the following based on Pundit's insights, but with my own slant on it.

Awareness (Gnosis --- Ego)
Rationality (Sanity --- Psychosis)

Compulsion, for example, would be one of any number of possible effects of psychosis.  Other possible effects could be hallucinations, delusions, and/or schizophrenia.  (As an aside I should say that these would be very interesting to Gamesmaster.  Would you tell the Player "Your Character begins to suffer from psychosis"?  I think I would rather play it out ... so I explain the Character sees such and such white rabbit on the window sill with a red ribbon and red pupils and it stares at him and then hops away.  The Player wouldn't necessarily know if the Character is suffering hallucinations, or if the rabbit is some mystical totem he's been obsessing over meeting.  The possiblities are endless, and rather amusing, so long as it is handled well.  And of course, that utterly depends on the style of campaign, the genre, and many other factors besides.)

On the Sanity side I agree with the idea that Pundit puts forward that to be a socially successful person you need to have Sanity.  People who are in a state of Gnosis, but have no grounding in reality, wind up being, from the point of view of everyone else, weird, incomprehensible and ultimately unapproachable.   And yet Society needs people who have achieved Gnosis in order to learn what to aspire towards.  Concepts of Peace, Justice, Goodness and Compassion all come from those who had once upon a time achieved Gnosis, and Society owes an everlasting debt to them.  Otherwise we would still be living with The Law of the Jungle, wherein only Might Makes Right, and that would, in a word, suck.

I think for this system I might consider having 0 as the center point, and positive and negative values on each end of each axis, lets say 10 to -10.  So with this in mind I could give a Character a value such as (2, -2) which would suggest a Liberated level of Gnosis, yet a falling into some kind of mild form of psychosis (a tendency towards Obsession, for example, would certainly do).

Such a system would parallel my Elthos Alignment System and make it easier for me to integrate into my existing game rules. It also strikes me as a somewhat simpler framework than what Pundit suggests in that I would have fewer variables to account for and maintain, but would not necessarily lose any of the flexibility of his design, nor its basic fundamental insights.

In the modified framework, the pursuit of Magic would suggest a trip down the Ego Axis, while Clerics would be heading towards Gnosis and ultimately Enlightenment should they get so far. To my mind this division makes a certain amount of sense, although I admit, it is certainly debatable.  Pundit may completely disagree.

That said, we should note that my suggestion would be in direct contraction to the Magician's conception of himself as someone who is seeking "Oneness with the Universe".  To this one might say that the Magician is living in the Illusion of self-justification, which would fit in neatly with Pundit's comments about the consequences of ultimate Ego. The Magician thinks he has embarked on the path of Enlightenment, but this is simply an Ego-Delusion. He is really in pursuit of the Will to Power, and his "True Will" is the endpoint of that goal. This could be contrasted with the Cleric (of whatever religion) who is seeking to subsume himself in the "Oneness" of his God, and whose goal is not "True Will", but "True Self", which sounds the similar, but isn't quite the same. That "True Self", ultimately, is God, and by this the Cleric seeks to unite with God and thus, "do God's will", not his own.

This raises another interesting issue… one could argue that by pursuing a Pantheistic religious path down a particular Alignment path (where ultimately the various Elkron of each Alignment resides) one is not getting any closer to Oneness either. Philosophically, I would say this is quite likely true. The answer to this may be that all of the Elkron of the 16 Alignments are really only partial reflections of The One True God, who embodies all of these things in the Great Oneness that is All. So Clerics in the end will either become “One” with a particular Alignment’s Elkron, or perhaps they will truly make the leap towards Universal Truth and find Enlightenment itself, which is Oneness with All.

But what about Good and Evil Clerics? This also needs to be reflected on. We have Evil Alignments, and Evil Elkron, do we not? There so there are those Clerics who want to unite with an Evil Deity, perhaps out of the anguish of their personal pain and a hope for revenge against those who they feel wronged them, or because they believe that True Power is to be found there, and so their Will to Power may compel them in that direction. Or perhaps the Evil Clerics are those who have fallen off the True Path, failed to "Cross the Abyss", and have consequently fallen prey to their "Black Brother" within, and thus have marched far down the path of both Psychosis and Ego. It makes me think there may be a one to one correlation between the Alignment Grid and the Mystic Disposition Grid.  Possibly, possibly.  I'm not sure.  I will  have to think about that more.  If so, and they overlap, then maybe there is no need for two separate systems, but I can incorporate both concepts into one system.  Perhaps.

Lastly, what are we to say of those who are not mystical at all? Those who perhaps have a relatively normal existence, who do not rise above the common lot? I would place them toward the center of the grid, hovering around the 0, 0 region of the chart.  While we can understand them not achieving Gnosis, nor falling headlong into Ego, nor Psychosis, why do they not achieve Sanity? Because perhaps real Sanity, ultimately, requires a deep level insight, and a certain amount of Gnosis is required for that.  The rest of us, as it happens, are simply normal.  Some good, some bad, some understanding, but still caught up in our egos.  Sometimes sane, sometimes not so sane.

Anyway, all of that said, I want to compliment Pundit and say thank you for some really wonderful writings on this topic. It’s really thought provoking, and who knows? Maybe I will derive an adjunct system for Mystical Evolution out of it, or fuse one into my existing system. 

Much more tooling required, though, of course. But still, I feel there are good seeds here to cultivate. So once again, Pundit, thanks!  Great stuff!  :)

And now, to reflect on all of this ...

On Creating A Campaign Setting

I generally take a top down approach to designing my world, meaning that I start at the higher level and drill down where I want or expect play to actually happen.   So I will start with an area of the continent, and create the geographical environment.  I will consider terrain from the point of view of the races that will inhabit it.  What are the strategic points?   Often strategic points are located at passageways into a region, such as a mountain pass, a harbor, or on a high point overlooking a fruitful plain.   I will select several of these, in the mode of pre-history, before any races populated the region.  Wild beasts roaming there will not usually pay much attention, but later intelligent races will.   But in the meantime, there are, for the sake of this example, three locations of strategic import:  ‘The Head of the Pass’, ‘The Harbor’, and ‘The Tall Hill’.

I will then consider the avenues and barriers between them.   In this case, for my example, I think I will create a triangle of pathways since there are three strategic locations.   Between the ‘The Head of the Pass’ and ‘The Harbor’ I will have an avenue that one day will become a road but in the beginning starts out as an animal trail.  I will also add a barrier, which is a forest that may be populated later with any number of beasts, or villains.   The avenue therefore passes through the forest which sets up that pathway as having an avenue and a barrier.  I like to combine them.

Between ‘The Harbor’ and ‘The Tall Hill’ I will put another avenue.  This time I will have a river as a barrier, which at first cannot be crossed except by fording, or swimming, but later I imagine there will be a bridge built at the ford.   This avenue will be little traveled for a long time, until there is a town placed on the hill and the harbor discovered.   That may take many centuries.   So that pathway also has one avenue and one barrier.  So far so good.

Between ‘The Tall Hill’ and ‘The Head of the Pass’ I may put only a barrier to create a challenge for later and keep things interesting.  Let’s say a peat bog.   And how about a nice big mountain lake, in which dwells a monster, or perhaps a band of Nixies?  That will make for some fun adventures later.  I might even put a treasure at the bottom of the lake.  How about a rare magical gem that happens to have fallen from the mountains there?  If one day a hero should slay the lake monster, or defeat the Nixies (I have not decided which yet, and maybe I'll have both), then the gem might be found, and a new magic item for the World crafted from it.  Could happen!

So to get to ‘The Tall Hill’ from 'The Head of the Pass' one must go to ‘The Harbor’ and then cross the river, or one can dare to attempt crossing the peat bog (a bad idea, probably, unless you happen to be an an especially hearty adventurous sort).

So at this point I have this:

I am now able to begin developing a history of this region.  I can begin it quite arbitrarily, actually, by posing that there are three primary races that occupy the region.   The first comes from the West, and occupies ‘The Tall Hill’, and I’m going to say this is a hearty band of farmers who decide to start planting along the lower rim of the hill at the base of the fruited plain, wisely led by some priest of the Elkron of the Earth to do so, no doubt.   Eventually that Hill may become a Fortified City, but at first it is just a poor little hill town trying to eek out a living along the edge of the plain.

At the same time, a hero of a band of Elves living in the forest for ages is taught fishing by the Elkron of the Sea, and so decides to occupy the rocky land on the north shore of the harbor.  He and his ilk eventually create rafts to help them fish and ferry, and go on to become boat builders, and are destined to rule the seas thereabouts (unless something goes horribly wrong for them - don't laugh, it could happen). And so the Elves split into two tribes, one of the forest, and one of the sea.

On the pass, I will put two small warring tribes, say of Ogres and Trolls.   These folk are only semi-intelligent, but use a rude form of earth magic, and can hide in the ground, mostly occupying caves and waterfalls.   They're cruel and hunt anything that moves.  Fortunately for the region neither tribe is very large, and they mostly feud with one another, and leave everyone else alone.  Unless they get too darn hungry, in which case some one or a few might venture down the slopes.

On the other side of the pass is another rich land with many wonders to be discovered one day… but not for a long time, no doubt.

And so it came to pass that the Elves of the Sea met the Farmers of the Plain, and began a mutually beneficial trade of fish, and produce.   Things progressed and eventually two towns were built up nicely, Hill Town and Harbor Town.   At some point they collaborate on building a nice stone bridge over the river.  All is well.

This mutually beneficial relationship worked very nicely for a long time, until one day an ogre of ill repute, and worse manners, wandered hungry from the mountain.   First trying the peat bog, he lived a rough existence for some time, until he’d hunted all the game there.  He moved on, wretched creature, until he came to the forest, in which he dwelled for some time with his equally loathsome wife.    This began to impact the Elves as they recognized a change in the forest, and were loath to go there, since the Ogre was very cruel, and powerful, and his wife was even more so, and a mystic of evil intentions.   The northern forest began to be populated by wolves, and bats, and stinging insects, and storms gathered over it, and it became brackish and unwholesome.   It was then, finally that the Forest Elves decided it was high time to send some hero or other to rid the wood of the Ogre.  But who would dare to face such a grizzly couple as the Ogre and his wife?

And so, we have a basic setup for a Campaign.  It was not very difficult, once the groundwork had been laid, and things followed along rather easily after that.   And so, for those who wish to create their own Campaigns it is not so difficult really.  It just requires considering a few aspects of the geography, the history, what races, and adding some history.   Of course, this is a very simple and basic example, from which a lot more history and whatnot could be derived, and you can consider that the Campaign action could take place anywhere along the timeline.  Note that if you do chose to pick a middle spot in your timeline then that would give you the ability to provide foreshadowing or perhaps "prophetic" insights to the Player Characters along the way, as well.  Not a bad option, if you do so with discretion and care.

The next thing I would do to fill things out further is create the Primary Non-Player Characters of the Region.  I would consider the King of the Ogres, the King of the Trolls, the Lord of Hill Town, and the Lord of Harbor Town.   I would create Non-Player Characters for each, and their immediate families, whomever is important and plays a role in the setting, such as the Hill Town Lord’s selfish wife, or his heroic eldest son perhaps.   I would create a few colorful NPCs to fill in the towns a bit.  Some of them would be famous for something, while others would be ordinary folk, such as the corner baker, his daughter, and the local snake oil peddler, and his ilk.   And so on.

Over time once I've filled in the towns with various NPCs, and given them little histories, and some aspirations, perhaps, I would then add villains, a few monsters or really rotten people to spice things up, and then finally add the essential important artifacts over which the people squabble.   Is there hidden gold in that there Hill?  Is there a magic sword that the Elkron placed anywhere as a Seed of Destiny?   Is there a wizard who has created magical artifacts that have created troubles here and there?   Or a famous sword smith who happens to be very talented at his craft but whose dark sense of humor has infected his swords with a curse of some kind?  All of these things will get added to the setting over time.

And voila, the Campaign setting is ready, and even has something of a life of its own.   Now when the Player Characters go adventuring in the region there is an underlying layer of coherence to things, a story that is already going on beneath the immediate concerns of the Player Characters, and so the world has a much better chance of feeling ‘real’ for them than otherwise.  This is what I have found works for me.

And that’s generally how to go about creating Campaign settings, more or less.  When you want to go whole hog, you can also add mythic dimensions to your Campaign (I often try to do this) by reading classical literature, mythology, old folktales and fairytales for inspiration.  Works like a charm!  :)

Best wishes on your Campaigns!

Hobgoblins of Elthos

I take a traditionalist view of creatures and monsters in my world.  And so I spend a good deal of time combing through old fairytales and folklore trying to discern what our forebears thought the creatures of myth and legend were like.   As it turns out, modern views of creatures like Hobgoblins differ quite a bit from the traditional versions.   As an example I'll take Hobgoblins.

First off, the view that Hobgoblins are larger, fiercer fighting-monsters than Goblins is quite a new conception it seems.   Rather, in the old days, Hobgoblins were thought to be rather small, and in many cases simply another, and somewhat diminutive version of Goblins (which have a very wide range of types themselves, as Goblins appear to be a species with many sub-species associated to it).   Hobgoblins were about one foot, sometimes two feet tall.   They had great heaps of hair, most often brown, gray or black, though sometimes red, with huge mustachios, and large bushy eyebrows.  They wore, mostly, brown or gray rags, and often went barefoot.   They mostly lived in people's houses, and could be rather helpful, doing dishes while their patrons slept, or cobbling shoes, or sweeping or any number of other useful household tasks.   What they expected in return were small gifts of food, such as honey-cakes, to be left on the "hob", which was a rocky protrusion that would be attached to the fire place, from which they derive their names... they were Goblins of the hob, or Hob-Goblins. 

Hobgoblins were fond of pranks, especially if they felt slighted.   Failing to leave a cake on the hob would certainly cause the household to run into troubles.   One famous Hobgoblin by the name of Hob-Robbin, when angry, used to steal all of the keys in the house and hide them until a honey-cake was left on the hob for him.  Then he would throw the keys at the wall and they would all clatter to the ground in a jumble.   Other pranks would include tying the horses manes into knots, throwing pots and pans around at midnight, clogging up the well, and other nuisances.  They could be mischievous, but I have yet to hear of a single case where a hobgoblin actually physically attacked anyone, or caused a death.  The most certainly did not carry weapons or wear armor as far as I've been able to discern.

I like to use traditional folklore as a basis for my world's creatures because they feel more authentic to me, and I feel they add a more interesting and colorful flavor to my world, just as they did for our father's father's fathers.  The Fey, of which Goblins and their ilk are members, can be mischievous, helpful, friendly, rude, hostile, or deadly depending on the type and the circumstances.  One general rule, however, that seems to hold in most cases, is that being polite to the Fey makes a big difference in terms of how they will treat people. 

So, in Elthos, Hobgoblins are not the fearsome fighting-creatures of contemporary fantasy-lore (though there are plenty of other creatures which are, of course).  Hobgoblins are instead rather amusing, sometimes helpful, magical little creatures who in fact often have quite a bit of knowledge that can be coaxed out of them with the right kind of talk and gifts.  That knowledge can be extremely valuable at times.  So if you should meet a Hobgoblin in Elthos, remember that they are fond of honey-cakes, clever riddles, and interesting local gossip... perhaps you will be rewarded with a bit of news, or folklore, or other tidbit, that could be quite helpful.

To find out more about the traditional folklore creatures you might like to read Nancy Arrowsmith's book, Field Guide to the Little People.

Recommended Reading for GMs

This list focuses quite a bit on ancient and classical literature because I have found a great deal of inspiration from the classics, though I also include some more modern works that are also suitable.   The criteria for books being added to this list is if the book inspired ideas for my Campaigns, or helped provide considerations for the Back Story of my World.  Pick and choose as you see fit, and I'm sure that there will be something to appeal to almost every Gamesmaster somewhere in the list...

So without further ado, here is my list of recommended readings for my fellow Gamesmasters.  Best wishes on magnificent Worlds!

1. The Holy Bible [King James] (1)(2)(3)(4) *
2. The Travels, M. Polo (2)(4)(3) *
3. The Quest of the Holy Grail, Walter Map [Mattarasso] (2)(3)(1)(4) *
4. Parzival, W.V. Eschenbach (1)(2)(3)(4) *
5. Willehalm, W.V. Eschenbach (1)(2)(3)(4) *
6. The Death of King Arthur, Walter Map (2)(3)(1) *
7. Divine Comedy, Dante (3) *
8. La Vita Nova, Dante (1)(3)
9. Piers the Ploughman, William Langland (3)
10. The Nibilungenlied (1)(2)(3)(4) *
11. The Mabinogion (2)(3) *
12. Arthurian Romances, Chretien de Troyes (1)(2)(3)(4) *
13. The Aeneid, Virgil (1)(2)(3)(4) *
14. Lysistrata, Aristophanes (3)
15. Sir Gwaine and the Green Knight (1)(2)(3) *
16. The Pearl, Anonymous (1)(2)(3) *
17. Tristan and Isolde, Strassburg, Beroul, Thomas, & Morris (1)(2)(3) *
18. The Song of Roland (1)(2)(3)(4) *
19. The Lady of the Lake, Sir Walter Scott (1)(2)(3) *
20. Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross (3)
21. The Ladder of Perfection, Walter Hilton (3)
22. Shrimad Bhagamatam (Volumes 1-14) (3) *
23. Dharmapada (3)
24. Bhagavad Gita (3) *
25. Tao te Ching, Lao Tzu (3)
26. The History of the Kings of Britain, Georffrey of Momouth (3)(4) *
27. Idylls of the King, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1)(2)(3) *
28. The Knights Templar, Stephen Howarth (4)
29. The Laxdaela Saga (2)(4) *
30. John Dee, P. J. French (4)(3)
31. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Frances Yates (3)(4)
32. The Essays, Francis Bacon (4)(3)
33. Tales of King Arther, Sir Thomas Malory (1)(2)(3)
34. Oxford History of the American People (vol. 1,2), S. Morrison (4)
35. The Histories, Herodotus (2)(4) *
36. Combat World War I, Assorted Authors (2)(4)
37. The Epic of Gilgamesh (3)(2)(1)(4) *
38. The Scarlet Pimpernel (2)(1)(3)(4) *
39. Selected Essays, Emerson (On Nature) (3)
40. Metamorphosis, Ovid (3)(2)(1)
41. Fables of Aesop (3) *
42. The Prince, Machiavelli (4)(3)
43. The Republic, Plato (3) *
44. The Meno, Plato (3)
45. The Crito, Plato (3)
45. Metaphysics, Aristotle (3)
46. Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (3)
46. Lives, Plutarch (4)(2) *
47. The City of God, Augustine (3)
48. The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (4)(3) *
49. The Early History of Rome, Livy (4) *
50. The Age of Alexander, Plutarch (4)(2) *
51. The Symposium, Plato (3)
52. The Politics, Aristotle (3) *
53. The Laws, Plato (3)
54. The Fathers of the Church; Homilies on Leviticus, Origen (3)
55. The Clouds, Aristophanes (3)
56. Beowulf (2)(3) *
57. Confessions, Saint Augustine (3)
58. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede (4)(3)(2) *
59. The Faerie Queen, Edmund Spenser (1)(4)(3) *
60. The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis *
61. The Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides (3)(4)
62. The Art of War, Sun Tzu (4)(3) *
63. Anderson's Fairy Tales *
64. Grimm's Fairy Tales *
65. Mythologies of the Ancient World, S. Kramer (4) *
66. Myths from Mesopotamia, Stephanie Dalley (4) *
67. Dracula, Bram Stoker (1)(2)(3) *
68. Frankenstien, Mary Shelly (2)(3)
69. Vathek, William Beckford (2)(3) *
70. Castle of Oranto, Horace Walpole (2)(3) *
71. The New Atlantis, Francis Bacon (3)
72. The Dragon and the Unicorn, A. A. Attanasio (1) (2) (3) (4) *
73. The Eagle and the Sword, A. A. Attanasio (2) (3) (4) *
74. The Wolf and the Crown, A. A. Attanasio (2) (3) (4) *
75. The Serpent and the Grail, A. A. Attanasio (2) (3) (4) *
76. Rosslyn, Guardian of the Holy Grail, Tim Wallace-Murphy (3) (4)
77. Bloodline of the Holy Grail, Laurence Gardner (3) (4)
78. Tolkien’s Ring, Allen Lee (3) (4) *
79. The Norse Myths, Kevin Crossley-Holland (2) (3) (4)
80. The Return of Merlin, Deepak Chopra (2) (3) (4) *
81. The Cup of Destiny, Ravencroft (3) (4)
82. The Spear of Destiny, Ravencroft (3) (4)
83. Paradise Lost, Milton (2) (3) *
84. The Golden Bough, Fraser (3) (4) *
85. The Rise of the Roman Empire, Polybius (2) (4) *
86. Caesar and Christ, Will Durant (4) *
87. Warriors of God; Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the 3rd Crusade, James Reston, Jr. (4)
88. The Grand Alliance, Winston Churchill (4)
89. Alexander the Great and His Time, Agnes Savill (4) *
90. The Lensmen Series, E. Smith (2) *
91. Caesar: The Civil War, Jane F. Gardner (4)
92. The Bible as History, Werner Keller (4)
93. The Ancient Engineers, L. Sprague De Camp (4) *
94. Bureaucracy, Ludwig von Mises (4)
95. The Anti-Capitalist Mentality, Ludwig von Mises (4)
96. Omnipotent Government, Ludwig von Mises (4)
97. Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman (4)
98. The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek (4) *
99. The Works of Walter Scott, Walter Scott (2)(4)(1)(3) *
100. Lord of the Rings, J R Tolkien (2)(3) *
101. The Illiad, Homer (2)(4)(1)(3) *
102. A Leap in the Dark, John Ferling (4)
103. Alexander Hamilton, American by Richard Brookhiser (4)
104. George Washington's War by Bruce Chadwick (4)
105. Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (2)(4) *
106. Invincible Warrior by John Stevens (4)(3)
107. The History of Money in America by Alexander Del Mar (1899) (4) *
108. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment by Frances A. Yates (4)(3)
109. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs by Adrienne Mayor (4)(3) *
110. The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter (4)(3)
111. Fire in the Head, Tom Cowan (3)(2) *
112. A War Like No Other, Victor David Hanson (3)(2)
113. Coyote Wisdom; the power of story in healing, Lewis Mehl-Madrona (3) *
114. Celtic Myths and Legends, Peter B. Ellis (3)(4)(1)(2) *
115. Gods and Myths of the Viking Age, H. R. Ellis Davidson (3)(2) *
116. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe, HR Ellis Davidson *
117. Collected Works of Lord Dunsany, Lord Dunsany (2) *
118. The Gods of Pegana, Lord Dunsany (2) *
119. Time and the Gods, Lord Dunsany (2) *
120. Taliesin; The Last Celtic Shaman, John Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
121. The Song of Arthur, John Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
122. Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, John Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
123. The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Myth and Legend, John Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2)
124. Arthur and the Sovereignty of Britain, Caitlin Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
125. The Western Way, Caitlin and John Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
126. Ladies of the Lake, Caitlin and John Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
127. Mabon and the Mysteries of Britain, Caitlin Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
128. Sicily; Three Thousand Years of Human History, Sandra Benjamin (4) *
129. Black God’s Kiss, C.L. Moore (2) *
130. The Song of Arthur, John Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
131. King Arthur’s Raid on the Underworld, Caitlin & John Matthews (3)(1)(2) *
132. The Phoenix and the Mirror, Avram Davidson (3)(4)(1)(2) *
133. Occult America, Mitch Horowitz (3)(4)
134. Walkers Between the Worlds; The Western Mysteries, Caitlin Matthews (3)(4)(1)(2) *
135. The Masks of Odin; The Wisdom of the Ancient Norse, Elsa-Brita Titchenell (3)(4) *
136. A Dark History, The Kings and Queens of England, Brenda R. Lewis (3)(4) 
137. Elves, Wights, and trolls, Kveldulf Gundarsson (3)(4) *
138. Futhark; A Handbook of Rune Magic, Edred Torsson (3)(4)
139. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett (3)(4)(1)(2)
140. The Book and the Sword, Louis Cha (3)(4)(1)(2) *
141. The Greater Trumps, Charles Williams, (3)(2) *
142. On Stories, C. S. Lewis, (3) *
143. Age of Wonder, Richard Holms (3)(4)(1)(2)
144. Journey to the West, Anonymous (3)(4)(1)(2) *
145. Narnia Series, C.S. Lewis (1) (2) (3) *

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(1) Romance Literature / Love Story
(2) Adventure / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Fairy tale
(3) Mystical/Philosophy
(4) History/Economics
* - Particularly Good For Gamesmasters

Some Thoughts on GMing Great Story

Maighdean-Mhara (the Sea-Maiden)

All went well for three years until one day the young couple were walking by the loch shore again.  This time the monster rose out and it was Finnseang who was dragged under the waters before Murdo Og had a chance to defend her.  Murdo Og was wailing and lamenting his lost bride when an old man walking by asked what was wrong.

Murdo Og told him and the old man said: “I will tell you how you can rescue your wife and destroy the monster forever.  In the center of the loch is an island.  On the Island is a white-footed hind, slender and swift.  If you catch the hind, a black crow will spring out of her mouth and if the black crow were caught, a trout would fall out of her beak, and in the mouth of the trout would be an egg.  Now in the egg is the soul of the monster.  If you crush the egg, the monster will die.”  

When I read this passage I was struck by the simplicity and natural forthrightness of the flow of the story. Here is magic at its most enigmatic, and it is at the same time handled without flourish or frills. We are told that the magic is of a certain nature and we are expected to accept that this is magic of an enchanted realm and that the magic works as such. I liked the matter of fact-ness of the way the scene is described and my feeling is that it is the attributes of simplicity and forthrightness regarding an enigma that makes the story not only work, but moreover, great literature, as is evidenced by its vast longevity.

Then I was thinking about how a Gamesmaster could make such stories.  Is it legitimate, for example, for the Gamesmaster who might be playing out this above described Adventure to show up as the old wise man Non-Player Character with the magical knowledge, and even the exact solution to the problem?  Well, almost it does, but it becomes something of Deus Ex Machina, one feels, and I think we can legitimately question if that would be truly satisfying in a game-play sense.  After all, it is the seeming spontaneity of the events in the story that make them charming.   So how does the Gamesmaster go about creating truly literary quality stories, where the Characters (both Player and Non-Player) act in ways that convey the same kinds of qualities as we find in the fairytales and ancient legends of old?   The author of the ancient stories was able to imbue his tales with a depth of meaning and his characters with a significance that makes them accessible to everyone who reads them, even now after many centuries, though the world has changed so incredibly.  The stories still carry the power to speak to us out of the depths of time.  They still have meaning for us, even if we don't quite understand consciously exactly what they are whispering to our hearts.   This is the nature of Literary Quality stories.  They flow with the currents of an inner and often hidden universal significance.

But in a Role Playing Game it’s hard to achieve this.   Naturally, the author has a great advantage over the Gamesmaster and Players in this regard – for the author every Character is far more likely to do what he wants and expects and directs them to than in an RPG where the Gamesmaster does not control the principal Protagonists (Player-Characters).  It is not far fetched to argue that this fundamental difference makes it much more difficult to achieve truly Great RPG Stories.  However, it can be done, and it’s our job to see that it is done.  The question I keep asking us to consider is, How?

Well there’s so much RPG Theory out there, and yet my feeling about the vast majority of it, in summary, is “hogwash and fiddlesticks”.   Honestly, I do not think we can find the answer to that question via RPG Theory.   What the Theorists seem to wish to do is to establish rules by which RPGs can be made into a Science of Story Creation, but that is more than I think is possible for the Art.   They seem to believe that through rigorous analysis of RPG Players and Gamesmasters behavior (and feelings) can be factually and accurately defined, process flowed, and manipulated, just as a biologist might describe the interactions of a microbe, or a psychiatrist describe a patient’s spiritual epiphany.

But RPG Stories are not subject to this analysis any more than is art or spirituality.   In fact, it really comes down to the fact that you cannot codify the Spirit of Beautiful Art.  As such, I do not believe in a 'Science of the Spirit of Beautiful Art'.  Science is based on facts and measurements, and art is based on intuition and spirit.   You cannot measure intuition and spirit, so there can not be a science of it.  There is a great deal of scientific (or analytic) commentary on Literature, its styles, modes, periods, forms and the myriad of other things that Academics and Scholars like to study.  And all of it is well and good and interesting stuff.  But I think the Ancients went to school to learn the craft of authoring the immortal myths learned that craft in a very different way than what we think of as School today.  The myth-maker was, in the most ancient of times, a Shaman, and his education was obtained by two means.  The first was technical.  He learned the tools of his craft, which were complicated and difficult to learn and use well, with many technical details to be mastered.  But there was another side to their education that I do not think is generally understood today.   And that has to do with the Mythic-Journey.  The entering, spiritually, into the Other World to glean wisdom, and winning such pearls of wisdom, bringing them back to our ordinary world as the gems we have handed down to us in the ancient myths.

The ancient Shaman-Poet-Myth-Maker wrote from the genius of his heart, mind and spirit, and he took the world around him in all of its glory and pain and translated it into words for the sake of creating beautiful art.   I do not believe it was a science of art that made him great.  In fact, were he to have tried to do this via a scientific method (or in our case Gamesmastered according to RPG Theory) I seriously doubt he would have produced the wonders he did.  So that’s my criticism, anti-Intellectual as some people may find it.   Nor do I think we will find that RPG Theory alone can produce Great RPG Story, try as it might.   What I do not find when I read RPG Theory is what I'm seeking - how to create RPG stories that have the qualities of great literature or ancient myth.  There is something deep and profound hidden within and behind the mythos of the ancient stories.  I would like to know how I can bring this quality into my RPG World, and allow my players to experience something similar to what we experience when reading the ancient works of literature.  I do not feel that I will find the answer in RPG Theory as I find it has been discussed thus far.

What I think is required, instead of Analytics, is actual Life Experience.   Gamesmasters who wish to create Great RPG Stories should read great literature in abundance, and learn to distill out from it what makes those works Great Story, or Great Art.   But moreover they should seek to live a life full of experiences that can help them to shape their Inner Vision of the World, and make their inner light gleam with the pearls of wisdom so necessary to creating Meaning in Story. Then they can begin to add elements to their RPG Worlds that may begin to cultivate a landscape in which Great Story has a chance of growing.   It is not an all or nothing thing, but I see it as an evolutionary process.  You simply start with something that has literary qualities, and you keep watering it, cultivating it, and letting it grow with your players until you begin to see that your World bears the fruits of Great Story over time.

Sea-Maiden

Another aspect that I think may be helpful is for the Gamesmaster to learn to develop a vision of the world based on their own life experiences.   To do this requires living a life in which experiences lead to insight.   I recommend this in the same sense that Shamans would head off into the other world via their dreams and obtain wisdom from the spirit world, and bring that back to their community in the form of healing stories.   I read a great book on this named “Coyote Wisdom”, and highly recommend it for Gamesmasters to read and consider.  Spend some time reading the classics and contemplating the stories of the ancient world.  In them you may find hints of Shamanistic experiences from the long forgotten swell springs of inspiration.

Now back to my questions:  How can Gamesmasters and Players create truly literary quality stories via their games?  And really, is it legitimate for the Gamesmaster to show up with the Deus Ex Machina, and for the Players to follow certain pathways pro-forma?  Well yes, sure, of course – it all depends on the timing, the mood, the Players, the phase of the moon, and how many butterfly wings flapped along the beach on the coast of Hawaii in the year 1200 BC.

But I also think that Gamesmasters who have insight, who have through their life experiences obtained a certain wisdom, can, and indeed do, foster Worlds from which Great RPG Stories can emanate.   I am seeking that path, and encourage my friends to do the same, as I believe in that direction Great Story is to be found.   Many say "it is impossible", and "Games can never be art" and other such nonsense.   I don't believe them.   And so I will continue my search, alone, perhaps, but happy in the delusion of my Great Story Dream.

If you care to read the outcome of my latest effort in this direction you may find links to my 2009-2010 Elthos Game Story here.   Enjoy.

Fantastic Imagination

This article was written by George MacDonald, a member of the Inklings.

The natural world has its laws, and no man must interfere with them in the way of presentment any more than in the way of use; but they themselves may suggest laws of other kinds, and man may, if he pleases, invent a little world of his own, with its own laws; for there is that in him which delights in calling up new forms--which is the nearest, perhaps, he can come to creation. When such forms are new embodiments of old truths, we call them products of the Imagination; when they are mere inventions, however lovely, I should call them the work of the Fancy: in either case, Law has been diligently at work...

His world once invented, the highest law that comes next into play is, that there shall be harmony between the laws by which the new world has begun to exist; and in the process of his creation, the inventor must hold by those laws. The moment he forgets one of them, he makes the story, by its own postulates, incredible. To be able to live a moment in an imagined world, we must see the laws of its existence obeyed...

Link to The Fantastic Imagination:
http://george-macdonald.com/fantastic_imagination.htm

George MacDonald in this article is talking about the creation of Imaginary Worlds, though in reference to the creation of Fairytales, of which he wrote some wonderful examples. I highly recommend reading the article as it provides some very good advice for Gamesmasters who might want to create Worlds that are works of Art. I also even more highly recommend reading George MacDonald's works, as he was a fantastic writer!