Crones, Hedge Witches, Cunning Folk, Wise Women - Help needed for an RPG game

[Edifice Head]

Hi. I am wanting to run an OSR game set in a medieval authentic England only with fell beasts and malevolent spirits.

I'm planning to use elements of the Dark Albion setting (Dark Albion: The Rose War) alongside Graeme Davis' Vaesen: Mythic Britain & Ireland (Vaesen: Mythic Britain & Ireland), with Lion & Dragon as core rules (Lion & Dragon: Medieval Authentic OSR Roleplaying). But there's something I'd really appreciate some help with -

I want magic to be frightening, uncanny, and otherworldly. I like what Lion & Dragon does with Clerics (miracles, not spells) and wizards (the Magisters, alchemists and occultists). But I still need a well-developed folk magic tradition of the British Isles A female-led tradition of ritual magic attuned to the elements and the natural world. e.g.

Nature focused - connected to seasons, life transitions etc. Healing, divination, fertility etc. Like the crone in Karen Maitland's Company of Liars (phenomenal book by the way, and very much conveys the mood of the game I want to run).

A darker path - those whose craft links them with other powers, the dark faerie - or at least to uncanny and alien Fey with little regard for humanity

Any advice or guidance about any games or supplements (from any system) that do something like this? I'd love to follow up on any suggestions you have for inspiration and ideas. e.g. any Celtic or Viking-themed games I could draw upon?

Thanks!

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm in the middle of reading Witchcraft and Secret Societies of Rural England by Nigel Pennick. Not a gaming book, but full of all kinds of awesome potentially gameable content in the vein your looking for.

 

[QueenofElflandsSon]

I'm not sure I have particular supplements to share, though there should be a few witch classes you can hack into your game if they fit what you're looking for on Drive Through RPG, like this one (I haven't bought it; I just searched "witch class":

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

When I create a new class I often try to make it different by using different spell lists, and that may be useful here.

It might be interesting to have different spells available to a witch based on three factors:

1) The season of the year. This could very much have to do with life cycle stuff. Healing in the spring, death spells in the winter, etc.

2) The phase of the moon. You could do this in much the same way as I'm suggesting for seasons, with different spells, or you could have the strength of spells modulated by the phase of the moon.

3) Which patrons the witch serves. I would probably allow more than one patron, though that might introduce complications. The patron system in Dungeon Crawl Classics would probably work well for this.

The complication here is that you'll need a lot of spells if you're phasing spells in and out – and you likely also want spells of a particular flavor.

I would probably compile spells from different sources. There are about 15 pages of Druid and Illusionist spells in the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion; that's probably where I would start.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

The Realms of Crawling Chaos supplement is Lovecraftian, which isn't exactly what you're going for, but it might be a good place to get some more spells and add some chthonic flavor to the spell list.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Committed Hero]

There is also a recent nonfiction book called Cunning folk : life in the era of practical magic. It goes through the court records of England in this time for incidents involving magic.

Ars Magica will also have stuff about hedge wizadry.

 

[Jaeger]

I don’t think you need go to far afield; take a look at pundits Baptism of Fire. Same system as L&D.

He goes into pagan magic that should be relatively easy to re-flavor: astrology, talismans, banishing, cures, curses, folk magic, glamour, rune magic, and spirit magic.

I’d advise getting the pdf, as I think you can save yourself a lot of work not having to come up with these systems on your own.

 

[Fenris-77]

There's a great book on real-world magic translated for an RPG called Codex Superno, for a historical game called Codex Martialis. The research for the book is top-notch. I own a bunch of the stuff for the game, including this book.

 

[Edifice Head]

Thanks all.

That's given me a fantastic leg up. Witchcraft and Secret Societies of Rural England sounds very interesting. As does Cunning folk : life in the era of practical magic.

I did search through DrivethruRPG for the Witch class first of all and there was a massive array of publications! I bought some pdf's and I found them to have a few good things but they tended to to be rather spell-listy in a way that overlapped with other D&D spell tradiitons - not feeling very well-connected to a religious/ cultural context.

Fenris-77 - Codex Superno looks great. The whole series looks very interesting! Thanks for that. I never would have found it without the tip. And yes, Jaeger, Baptism of Fire does expand magic into the folk tradition of Poland. I'm rich in options.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Depending on how long this campaign runs/when it starts, the follow-up to Yoon-Suin will be a similar setting generator for fantasy Northumberland (northeast England) called The Great North.

 

[_Michael_]

Have you checked out Goody White's Book of Folk Magic? It's on DriveThru for free (A 64 page book) and seems pretty cool.

 

[Edifice Head]

Thanks all. Great to harvest so many good suggestions. Appreciated!