Dungeon Chatter

Forking Paths in RPGs Ars Arcana 2.3 Travis Joseph Rodgers Roleplaying Games offer the possibility of solitude and solidarity. This might sound paradoxical. On one hand, however, RPGs afford something sometimes pejoratively called escapism. In an RPG, the players get away from things, or at least screen off things for a time being. The etymology of solitude is instructive: in its most extreme form, an RPG offers an escape for one. At the same time, RPGs offer solidarity: a shared, kindred experience. One of the ways this was accomplished in the past was by a sort of transgressive move: the adventure books and games in which individuals separately explored a foreign world then traded the books and experienced the world the other individual had experienced, though with some individual differences. I’ll call these Forking Paths, for the Borges story (strong recommend), and I’ll explain what they are and what value they still possess. Forking Paths In Jorge Luis Borges’s “The...

The Magebanes In Brief The magebanes are a guild responsible for stamping out misuses of magic in Kura. Magebanes are trained in the investigation of the arcane and the containment of dangerous arcana. This means they often operate covertly, with only the council and/or the local hiring agent being aware of their presence. Magebanes almost never advertise. Heraldry The traditional symbol of the magebane is the opposed wands rune, presented either vertically or horizontally: >--------- ---------< This symbol is quickly produced and recognized. More advanced symbols include the hooded mantle of the upper echelon members, sometimes with a vertical wand in accompaniment. Membership Apprentice > Cap > Cloak > Mantle > Council A typical apprenticeship lasts for two years (apprentices are called apprentices), before the newly-titled cape is permitted to handle jobs on her own. After adequate service through approximately five years, the cap...