Draft introduction for Eldritch Realms

Note 2018-06-05: Eldritch Realms has been renamed to Magonomia

Hot off my keyboard, I have a first draft of the introduction to Eldritch Realms.  This will no doubt be revised and may end up being rewritten entirely. That said, here is what I have to say about the upcoming game.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. --

William Shakespeare,

Hamlet,

Act I, scene 5

The Alchemist by Sir William Fettes Douglas, 19th cent. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The European Renaissance was a golden age of magic. Alongside the blossoming of art, mathematics, and natural philosophy was a corresponding flourishing of astrology, alchemy, and mysticism. Queen Elizabeth I of England (reigned 1558-1603) had, for many years, a court magician: not a mere entertainer, but a serious adviser named Dr. John Dee. Alchemy was not merely a quest to turn lead into gold, but the noble science of transforming matter, which was hoped to cure sickness and perhaps even extend the human lifespan. Astrology was a required subject at medical school so doctors could diagnose patients' ailments from their horoscopes. Yet magic was not just for the elite: astrological almanacs were best-selling books, second only to the Bible in popularity.

We now know that natural philosophy, which modern people call simply “science,” was the branch of knowledge that would bear fruit, while the branch called “magic” ultimately proved barren. What if it had been the other way around? What if, in an imaginary world, it was magic that contained the keys of truth and gave mankind mastery over nature?

This is the world of Eldritch Realms: a world of historical fantasy where the magical lore of Renaissance Europe is basically accurate. The stars do guide people's fates. Conjurers can call spirits to project images of distant places into a crystal ball. A host of invisible spirits, good and evil, swarm through the world and can be commanded by those who know their names and the proper rituals.

The world of Eldritch Realms has all the perils and villains of historical Europe -- tyrannical barons, conspiracies against the Crown, war, rebellion, fanatical witch-hunters, corrupt businessmen and officials, highwaymen and pirates -- with an added layer of the supernatural. Rival wizards scheme to steal your magical secrets. Fallen sorcerers become the pawns of evil spirits in their subtle and wicked games. Werewolves prowl the moors and forests. Vengeful ghosts torment the living. Faerie princes lure mortals into their hollow hills, never to be seen again. Eldritch England is a place of wonders and perils, ripe for adventure!

This book contains all the information you need to create adventure stories in Eldritch England, our fantastical version of Britain during Elizabeth I's reign. Your character is a wizard, one of the very few who possess the cleverness, dedication, and strength of character necessary to work magic. If she knows the right spells, she can wield the powers of legend: to turn invisible, spy upon distant places with a crystal ball, to become nearly invulnerable in battle or even to forecast the future. The story you create will be partly about how your character chooses to wield this great power. Together with your friends, you decide how your character's destiny unfolds!

I would love to hear your feedback on this. Please use the comments to share your thoughts!

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October update on Eldritch Realms

Note 2018-06-05: Eldritch Realms has been renamed to Magonomia

The development team and I are continuing work on the magic system. This, of course, will be the defining rules section of the game, so it's important to get it right. Where we stand is that we have a roughed-out framework for how magic generally works and are starting into the details of creating spells.

Everything is still subject to change. I can say with confidence that the design of the magic system is inspired by historical (alleged) magicians such as Christian Rosenkruetz, Paracelsus, and Doctor John Dee. These are magicians of the intellectual tradition of European magic called Hermeticism, which shares a name, but little else, with the high-fantasy magic portrayed in the great RPG Ars Magica. So Eldritch Realms is inspired by (historical) Hermeticism, but I want it to also be inclusive of other kinds of magic from different places and times. If I get the design right, you'll be able to play a folk magician or a Turkish mystic and have just as fun and interesting a game as if you had played an Hermetic "magus".

On an unrelated note, I read The Elizabethan Underworld by Gāmini Salgādo last month as part of my research for Eldritch Realms. It's an accessible and interesting book full of inspiration for any GM. It's definitely going on the list of recommended reading in the back of Eldritch Realms.

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Introducing Eldritch Realms

Note 2018-06-05: Eldritch Realms has been renamed to Magonomia

On Sunday, my team of freelance designers and I had our first play session of the new tabletop RPG we're developing.

As I've said before (and told everyone I met at Gen Con), this will be an RPG of historical fantasy set in Renaissance Europe. The concept of the game has firmed up enough that I can make some more details public.

The working title of this game is Eldritch Realms. We may change that title before we're finished with development, but for now, it will serve.

We've chosen Elizabethan England as the setting, because it's awesome. Another reason for this choice -- second only to its awesomeness -- is that it should be familiar. Anyone who's completed high school in an English-speaking country has read some Shakespeare. Maybe you loved it, maybe you hated it, but at some point you had to pass a test on Shakespeare and his time: and that of his sovereign. Very likely, you already know all the history you need to dive into the setting and feel comfortable role-playing there. And if you've been to a Renaissance fair, you've already visited that world.

Well, almost. Eldritch Realms is not about historical England. It's about fantasy England and, specifically, playing a wizard in fantasy England. Eldritch Realms is a game about wizards and werewolves and King Oberon and Queen Titania and clandestine alchemical experiments and secret societies and probably giants on the Yorkshire moors. History is the starting point for understanding the setting. The game is a fantasy game, where you play a wizard and go on adventures and save the good people of England from supernatural menaces.

We're just getting started on developing the magic system, but our approach is to try very hard to capture the flavor of Renaissance folklore. This means magic is going to be subtler than in D&D or other fantasy games (including Ars Magica) because historical magicians didn't claim they could throw fireballs around. Don't worry, there will still be plenty of options for magical powers. The designers' research so far shows that Paracelsus claimed the power to levitate objects into the air. The Rosicrucians could reputedly read minds, turn invisible, and communicate magically over great distances. Dr. John Dee possessed a shewstone, which was the inspiration for the name of my company.

Our current thinking is that all the player characters are wizards, and will probably have a choice of different kinds of historical magic to specialize in.

We have a great development team, whom I hope to introduce in a future post.

It is much too early to talk about when the game will be ready. It's still more than a year away, and possibly more than two. We are working on the game now, writing the rules in rough form and playing as we go. Eventually we'll have a rough draft ready to try out at conventions. Please keep following us on Google+ or Facebook, and we'll post updates as often as we have news to report. We're going to take our time with this and make the best game we possibly can. How long that will take, my shewstone can't tell me.

About the Working Title

"Eldritch" means "spooky" or "eerie" and, according to Merriam-Webster, is a word about 500 years old. When gamers see the word "eldritch," they often think of H.P. Lovecraft, because "eldritch" (along with other gems such as "squamous" and "cyclopean") was among that author's favorite words. Eldritch Realms has nothing to do with the Cthulhu Mythos. It has to do with England about 500 years ago. Well, 450 years ago, around the time the word "eldritch" must have been hitting its stride. I think of this name reclaiming a word at risk of becoming Cthulhu Mythos jargon, and putting it back to work as a general-purpose and really cool way to say "eerie."