Folklore/Mythology is your game?

[DrunkonDuty]

Oodles of folklore all the way.

For the reason Nellisir said. There's so much good stuff out there to rip off.

On the other hand William Blake did say something like: I must create my own mythology or be enslaved by another's.

Someday I'm gonna rip Blake off too.

But I wouldn't be comfortable gaming with JC at the table. I'd be worried he'd spend the whole time deconstructing my plot rather than playing it. And then in the 4th book he'd start going on about Thomas Mann. Oi vay.

GreatLemur: Oh please can I start you on bringing Egyptian and Norse gods into campaigns? Pretty please?

IMC (set in Greyhawk more or less) I'm using the official Dwarven gods names but they're all really just versions of the Norse Gods. Abbathor = Loki, Clanggeddin = Odin. I haven't made it obvious to the players, hell I doubt they'd notice, but that's whats going on in my head.

And I've ripped off tropes and plots from Norse mythology too, including Beowulf (they missed the references) and I tried a hook that was pure and simple the story of Frey's wooing of Gerd which the PC's completely refused to take. (Rest of night spent with me running lack-luster random encounters and sulking.) No, they didn't refuse it because it was mythological, they just had their own agenda.

As for Egyptian Gods: I LIKE 'em. But then I've had a hard-on for Egyptian mythology since I was a nipper. And Set is such a great villianous god. Even the good gods are scary (Anubis; Dead and Risen Osiris, creepy!) I haven't used them much in my gaming career, though, as most published game settings are mediaeval European in flavour and it takes a lot of work to create a fresh one on your own. But old Palladium had the Churches of Light and Darkness that were mostly the Egyptian gods and they got some air-time then.

There's just no way Pelor can compete with Ra and his journey through the 12 Hours of Night, battling Apepi and its monstrous children in order to be reborn as the glorious morning. And Kord is just a poor man's Thor/Dagda/Indra/Zeus.

Hopefully this sets Bast among the pigeons.

 

[Aus_Snow]

JC liked my house rules.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Aus-Snow: for serious? If so world's most coolness to you.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Aus-Snow: for serious? If so world's most coolness to you.

Heh, I wish.

I think he wrote an intro in a game book once, though. Was it Wraith?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I like my faeries to be evil, murderous, child-stealing bastards.

So yes.

 

[Soel]

Yes, indeed. I have elves who worship Ormazd in my Wilderlands. Folklore/mythology/history is fun to play with, and indeed, enhance with my own humble ideas. Thanks, Pliny!

 

[Ry]

I prefer to make the mythological elements tie really closely to other aspects of the setting, and I have a hard time synching up real world mythology to do that. So I make my own.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Um. In (gaming-related) reality I pretty much do that too. Though I'll sometimes draw heavily from real world myths and legends. And on occasion that'll come - more than usually - pre-filtered (lensed?) before I even get to it (like, from a mythology-based RPG book, say.)

But yes, it has to fit in well with the setting. I generally prefer either 'mythic Earth' of some kind or other, or straight out fantasy.

 

[Wombat]

Three antecedents brought me to rpgs:

My love of history
My love of speculative fiction
My love of mythology & folklore

Due to this, I often combine the three into my games.

Movies? A bit. Comic books? Rarely read them. Anime? Seen a few, but not that many. It's not that I don't like these and that I don't mine them for ideas, but the other three are my main stock for characters, plots, settings, etc.

I like recombining elements from various societies, periods, and locales. But the Good Neighbors always seem to find a way in, in one form or another.

(and, yes, I love Joseph Campbell's works -- far from the final word on the topic, but tremendously insightful, especially at reminding us of common elements within mankind)

 

[Samnell]

I think he wrote an intro in a game book once, though. Was it Wraith?

Can't have been. He died in '87 and Wraith came out in '94.