The Heretic and the Pilgrimage of the Dead
This week, we have a remarkable tale from rural France in 1320 about the souls of the dead going on pilgrimage. The source of the story...
About
I present cool stuff from real history and folklore – things worth learning about in their own right! – and show how to file the serial numbers off and add them to your ongoing RPG campaign tonight. I do adventures, NPCs, puzzles, political machinations, combat encounters, adventure sites, and more! Material grounded in reality, however fantastical, is richer and more vibrant. Your players will appreciate the difference.
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Haley Lunde
- Jan 26, 2021
Cyrus the Great
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs....
Tristan Zimmerman
- Jan 19, 2021
Theobald Meyrick, Urban Villain
A good RPG villain often epitomizes the worst aspects of the game’s setting. For a campaign set in a big city, those might be crushing...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Jan 5, 2021
The Bishop-Rumors of Notker the Stammerer
Around 884 A.D., an anonymous monk (tentatively identified as Notker the Stammerer) in what is today Switzerland penned a compilation of...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Dec 22, 2020
Shen Fu's Complicated Family
Shen Fu and Chen Yu were a married couple who lived in China in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their relationship was remarkable...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Nov 10, 2020
Henry Stanley's Convenient Deaths
Of all the Western explorers in the ‘scramble for Africa’, Henry Morton Stanley was probably the most well-known and highly-regarded. Yet...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Oct 20, 2020
The Rose-Realm of Laurin, King of Dwarves and Giants
The Laurin poem is a Medieval German saga of adventure and conquest. While the story is pretty boilerplate, it has a truly remarkable...
Haley Lunde
- Sep 29, 2020
Ching Shih
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs....
Tristan Zimmerman
- Sep 8, 2020
NPCs in Wooden Screens: the Duein Fubara
Duein fubara (‘foreheads of the dead’) are ritual screens used by trading houses of the Kalabari people of the Niger delta. These screens...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Jul 14, 2020
The Contemptible NPC You Can't Say 'No' To
At first glance, the U.S. government’s war against the Modoc nation was a fairly typical Indian war. White settlers in California and...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Jun 9, 2020
More NPC Foibles from Suetonius
Let’s pick right back up where we left off last week! The ancient Roman historian Suetonius provides an amazing source for the foibles...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Jun 2, 2020
NPC Foibles from Suetonius
Foibles and eccentricities make good NPCs. Quirky characters are memorable, and they give the players something to riff on when...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Apr 7, 2020
The Scheming Landlord of Magomero
W.J. Livingstone operated a plantation in Malawi in the early 20th century. He was ruthless, capricious, exploitative, and cruel. He...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Mar 17, 2020
The Hoard of Sigurd Fafnir's-Bane
The Völsunga saga from late 13th-century Iceland is an amazing story of love, heartbreak, adventure, violence, and betrayal. It tells the...
Tristan Zimmerman
- Feb 11, 2020
Folkloric Villains
Folklore is full of villains and antagonists. By a striking coincidence, so are RPG campaigns! Here are four villains drawn from...
Haley Lunde
- Jan 28, 2020
Bob Bartlett
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs....
Tristan Zimmerman
- Dec 10, 2019
Extraordinary Folkloric NPCs
This post is brought to you by beloved Patreon backer Justin Moor. Thanks for helping keep the lights on! If you want to help keep this...
Haley Lunde
- Aug 27, 2019
Minik Wallace
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs....
Tristan Zimmerman
- Jul 23, 2019
The Missouri Leviathan
In 1840, a self-described scholar named Albert Koch excavated a great many fossilized bones from the banks of the Pomme de Terre River in...
Haley Lunde
- Jun 25, 2019
Olga of Kiev
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs....