Expanded map resources on Magonomia Wiki

One of the great things about playing in a historical setting is that you can find a lifetime’s supply of source material in the nonfiction section of a library or bookstore. I’ve just added three great new map resources to the Historical Resources page of the Magonomia wiki:

• The Old Maps Online digital compilation site

• The digital version of Ralph Agas’ 1561 map of London

• A link to the paid download, London Map from the Elizabethan Adventures RPG.

Please refer to the wiki page for the links. If you’re interested in historical England, you might want to bookmark our historical resources wiki page — or contribute to it!

Beyond Battles 2021 Video, Slides, and Notes

Shewstone Publishing presented SEM21197813 Beyond Battles: Overloooked History for World Builders at Gen Con Online on September 17, 2021. This year’s topics were:

• The legend of King Arthur and how it conflicts with archaeological evidence of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.

• Real-world clerical necromancy, an underground of monks and priests who practiced black magic and mostly got away with it.

• The “taming” of English nobility by the Tudor dynasty at the end of the fifteenth century.

Our Historical Fantasy RPG

We publish Magonomia, the RPG of Renaissance wizardry. Everyone plays a wizard wielding magic based on authentic Renaissance lore.

Video

Slides

Here are the slides of the presentation.

Notes

Here are the notes and follow-up from each section.

Legend of King Arthur

Although the legend is no longer considered factual, it makes a great adventure setting. Andrew recommends the Age of Arthur RPG.

A good science fiction novel set against an empire’s decline is A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.

Here’s a direct link to the Secrets of the Dead episode “King Arthur’s Lost Kingdom.”

Wikipedia’s article on the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain summarizes recent discoveries about the period.

Clerical Necromancy

We didn’t mention it in the presentation, but an excellent overview of (European) historical magic is Magic and superstition in Europe : a concise history from antiquity to the present by Michael F. Bailey.

A more focused book about medieval magic (containing no actual spells) is Magic in the Middle Ages by Richard Keickhefer. Kieckhefer also has several other books about the history of magic that are worth a look.

An audience member asked about books with actual spells that pre-modern people believed would work. We didn’t research actual spells from the medieval period so we’ll have to direct you to your search engine or your friendly local reference librarian. We do know quite a bit about fifteenth and sixteenth century spells. Two books we used heavily while researching our game Magonomia are:

• The Book of Oberon: a sourcebook of Elizabethan Magic by Daniel Harms et al.

• Making Magic in Elizabethan England: two early modern vernacular books of magic edited by Frank Klaassen

Also, we touched on the investiture conflict, the 500-year struggle between the Western church and monarchs over how much influence the Crown will have over selection of priests and bishops. It’s a big topic; for a good overview of this and other important historical trends, we recommend Civilization in the Middle Ages by Norman F. Cantor.

The Taming of the Nobility

There wasn’t any discussion of sources during the seminar. Many history books give surprisingly light treatment to Henry VII, which is perhaps the way he would have wanted it. I’ll refer the interested reader to The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer.

Also I found a good documentary about Henry VII on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1ZKruLTJQ2Y

Shewstone Publishing Events at Gen Con 2018

Shewstone Publishing will be hosting three events at Gen Con 2018.

We'll host one seminar: Beyond Battles: Overlooked History for World-Builders (SEM18126818) and two "sneak preview" sessions of Magonomia™ : Queen Elizabeth's Astrologer is Missing! (RPG18132553 and RPG18126814).

We're greatly looking forward to meeting some fans and trying Magonomia™ with new gamers. And this trip won't be all work for us -- we'll be playing a fair few games ourselves over the weekend, and enjoying the warm hospitality of the city of Indianapolis, which genuinely seems to like getting invaded by a horde of 60,000 gamers every summer!

We hope to see you there!

Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge

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

I found a lovely web site called Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge 1558-1603, subtitled Elizabethan Commonplaces for Writers, Actors, and Re-Enactors. Just the thing for creating a sense of atmosphere in your Eldritch Realms games! Many thanks to the author, Maggie Pierce Secara, for sharing her work online. The site is also available as a book.