Folklore/Mythology is your game?

[Aus_Snow]

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

I guess. Unless Wraith was really onto something.

No. I'm sorry, I had no idea he passed away so long ago. Seriously, no disrespect intended.


Regarding the Wraith book, I suppose it must have had Campbell quotes in it. My bad.

 

[Ry]

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.

To me it's more than fitting - it's about integrating. The Living Gods I made for the Last Age campaign setting are simultaneously historical, political, mythological, and religious. Player-facing Threats, Rewards, Assets, and Problems emanate from them. That's what makes it more than window-dressing. In other peoples' campaigns, I see this more in things like RC's use of faeries than most greek-themed campaigns I've seen (where the mythology is window dressing and the emphasis is on sandals in gladiatorial pits).

 

[Raven Crowking]

In other peoples' campaigns, I see this more in things like RC's use of faeries than most greek-themed campaigns I've seen (where the mythology is window dressing and the emphasis is on sandals in gladiatorial pits).

Aw, shucks. You really do care.

 

[Mokona]

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

QFT. Too bad D&D mostly gives us Good fey Radical Environmentalists.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

QFT. Too bad D&D mostly gives us Good fey Radical Environmentalists.

The pendulum has swung the other way, of late. The last few Monster Manuals have had progressively more and more evil fey, a lot of them quite swell. Since Feywild is a default part of 4E, hopefully the MM1 will be chockful of fey badness.

 

[Raven Crowking]

QFT. Too bad D&D mostly gives us Good fey Radical Environmentalists.

Only if you stick with WotC products, and even then, as Whizbang Dustyboots says, there is some motion in that pendulum.

 

[TerraDave]

In the 4th ed monster podcast, they where talking about fighting something called a "briarwitch dryad". One of them noted how they never fought dryads before.

 

[Ry]

Aw, shucks. You really do care.

My aims are entirely mercenary, sir. You'll understand in time.

 

[haakon1]

The good thing about folklore/mythology/religion is there's lots of fluff to steal and to get good plot hooks from. And finding all the connections inherent in different mythologies is fun.

It doesn't need to be all European. In my current campaign, I've been inspired by Indian mythology/Hinduism and Irish mythology within the same forest, and I was recently doing Wikipedia mythology research about how I could connect the Indian story to a very common Western mythical forest creature (common in the sense that it recurs in different variations in English, French, Eastern European, and Hollywood versions).

As Joseph Campbell might say, a good story is a good story, no matter where it comes from. And as George Lucas would tell you, it's fun to mix and match. Samurai movie/"The Searchers" scene stealing/WWII bomber movie scene stealing/Western/1930s Buck Rogers sci fi? Sure, mix 'em up and you got the most popular movie franchise ever made.

Favorite fantasy books:
-- JRR Tolkien, Hobbit and LOTR (English, Norse, and Celtic mythology with cool new stuff)
-- Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf (Old English/Norse tale, translated by Ireland's poet laureate)

Favorite fantasy movies:
-- LOTR
-- Thirteen Warrior (Beowulf reinterpreted)
-- Conan the Barbarian (the most D&Dish, closest to Gygax's pulp inspirations)

College Majors:
-- History (Modern, Ancient, and Medieval)
-- Political Science (Comparative Politics, Int'l Relations)

MA: Political Science (British and European Union political economy)

Summary: Me like castles, and stories related to them. Me no like gamey stuff.

 

[gizmo33]

I like the way that 1E did it. Be aware of the folklore, use it where it makes for an interesting game, and don't use it (except maybe for a monster name) where another idea seems better. Real-world folklore is told from the perspective of people who haven't read Earth's PHB, so to speak, so I would expect it to be garbled and inconsistent anyway.