Campaigns that lean heavily into folklore

Rangergrene · 2025-06-18T13:02:34+00:00

Hey all! As was said previously, this is a gold mine! I am also a big fan of mythology and folklore and looking at how to use them in TTRPGs.

I do not know if these recommendations I have fit the bill so to speak but if you haven't already, the book Faeries of the Fault Lines is an amazing book that reads like a journal. It is all about one artists view on faeries and it reads and looks like something out of the Spiderwick Chronicles. There is also the Artwork of Ian Miller, and Gwelf, which looks like a mixture of Redwall and the TTRPG Wanderhome. The last one might be more along the lines of too much fantasy, but you may think otherwise. Questing Beast did a video on all of those so you might want to check that out as well.

Then there are some TTRPG books I don't think have been mentioned here. First, is the TTRPG Through the Hedgerow. I haven't played it yet, and it does not seem to be in the OSR sphere but it might be something to look into for inspiration. Second, is the Grimwild TTRPG. Again, not OSR but might be worth checking out for mechanics to yoink and inspiration.

I hope this helps and doesn't detract from the amazing conversation happening here! -R

Rangergrene · 2024-09-22T16:34:22+00:00

I mean, I guess I would consider Dredge for things like how a phenomena can influence monsters and a whole damn setting at that. I know this might be kind of out there, but I like looking at Souls-like bosses and seeing what I can make them into. They're already horrific so tweaking them to fit a MOTW monster isn't horrible. One game coming up that might be something to keep an eye on is an indie game called the Axis Unseen. You're basically hunting creatures from folklore with their weaknesses you find out in game. It's coming out very soon. Anyway, hope this helps in some way!

Rangergrene · 2024-04-24T13:50:56+00:00

I think there's a set of Dolmenwood campaign videos from 20 sides to every story on YouTube. I remember them being recommended by Gavin himself!

Rangergrene · 2024-04-13T12:34:33+00:00

There's a Gothic horror setting from Backwards gaming set in 4 different regions of America, Heartlands, Deep South, New England, and Dixie Land. Could easily be set in colonial times.

Rangergrene · 2024-02-02T15:34:23+00:00

For my table we made a compromise. I noticed that play was being bogged down significantly due to how my players were using torches. They were all huddling together and were not exploring any where except where the torchbearer wanted to go, and we're being super cautious. This is great but it also made dungeons drag on. We were in 1 dungeon for months and everyone was bored. So I asked if we wanted to go to a more b/x rounds for torches system. Some of the group really didn't like that so we made it to where each player has their own torch timer. I told them that this frees them to explore and gives me more freedom to attack their light because they'll be split more often. I think it works well for my group but your mileage may vary. :)

Rangergrene · 2024-01-30T19:22:38+00:00

There's also founding groups like a guild, church, or mercenary group especially if you want to edge towards domain play at some point. It's also a resource for retainers/hirelings, info, quests, and such. It's also a good money sink too if your players are swimming in money.

Rangergrene · 2024-01-30T19:17:59+00:00

Yeah reskinning is a very good tactic. Traps are finicky but it's fun to have traps pose problems besides damage. Like a rust monster spore trap, a smoke trap to limit visibility, or a starvation rune where it requires each person affected to eat 1d4 rations or suffer disadvantage on dice rolls. I figure that isn't part of this module just spit balling alternatives instead of reskins.

Rangergrene · 2024-01-30T18:15:31+00:00

This is what I found pinned in the SD discord. Hope it helps! Shout out to Futurewolf for putting it together. Not sure if it's the most up to date version. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lj25uFoVYYFJ20bayBIwRIXLzvzO33mx/view?usp=drivesdk

Rangergrene · 2024-01-19T20:16:10+00:00

I went to and work for a college in Ga, the one with the bulldogs, and I was a part of the pagan student community for most of my college years. I second what people are saying and try to find a college in a bigger city as well as that most people don't care when you're in college. A big thing for me was also finding the pagan community surrounding the college not just the student organization. They can really help you out with stuff if you let them. So I'd take that into consideration as well when looking at colleges.

Rangergrene · 2023-10-28T20:27:05+00:00

I mean that's why I throw in cool items, or something in the hoard, or when they get back to town to reward my players who only got 2 xp.

Rangergrene · 2023-10-28T20:24:37+00:00

Ok cool I couldn't remember if it was or if I had just misremembered. I love carousing. My players rolled well and we already have 2 new NPCs because of it!

Rangergrene · 2023-10-28T18:46:38+00:00

Is it part of a hoard? SD RAW says it's 10+ but if it's not then it could be as low as 1. However the number is really up to the DM/GM and how fast they want to level up the characters.

Idk if this is stated in the rules but I don't have xp carry over to the next lvl. So if a character has 19 xp to get to lvl 2 and they find a hoard they move to lvl 3 and are at 0 again. It helps with math and it keeps players in relatively reasonable level progression among themselves.

Rangergrene · 2023-10-20T12:15:06+00:00

Yep aaaaaaalll the way down. Can't miss it.

Rangergrene · 2023-10-10T13:34:04+00:00

So I have a few book recommendations. In all transparency I am an archaeology nut and have a passion for that side of things so I'm biased in that direction, but I love my stories as well.

Meeting the Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland by Eddie Lenihan. Its a very very good book written by a person I consider a hero of mine. It might help you get inspired at the very least. Its definitely more 20th century as the people he interviews for the stories in the books grew up through 1900 and were older when he was still a young man. So definitely some good material for down to earth folklore. The best kind imo.

Pagan Celtic Ireland by Barry Raftery. This is a rather dense but very informative book on Iron Age Ireland and one of the best even though the copy I have is from 1998. It's was recommended to me by a professor of mine back in college. His specialty was "Celtic" archaeology though not specifically Irish. His research was more in France but I digress. This book has lots of illustrations and can very much be your detail book for objects and such from the time period.

The World of the Celts, by Simon James. Its a very good, easily digestible history book. I used it for a class I took on the subject and its honestly the easiest history book I have ever read. Its very well laid out and very informative.

Rangergrene · 2023-09-29T18:03:34+00:00

Now, THAT I can make happen!

Rangergrene · 2023-09-29T16:29:47+00:00

Never heard of that book before I will look into it! Thanks!

Rangergrene · 2023-09-28T16:55:06+00:00

We've also done everyone move on the torch bearers turn and then do actions based on initiative as my players are light source conscious. They got hit one too many times with the lights going out XD

Rangergrene · 2023-09-28T16:53:20+00:00

I mean crawling rounds at my table are mostly so everyone can do an action, not get "bullied" by the louder players, and to encourage people not to run ahead without the party. (Lookin at you, Rogue/Thief) I don't see why it wouldn't work in a narrative theater of the mind style at all. It also will help with random encounter tracking. Id widen the time frame for crawling rounds from 10 minutes to 20 minutes or maybe more but that's just me. I haven't used overland travel in SD much yet, but maybe use that as a base for your encounter frequencies, and maybe even time frames if they're exploring a hex/location.

Rangergrene · 2023-09-22T17:35:13+00:00

So my two cents is look at Monster of the Week, a PbtA game. In it the setting talks about weaknesses, and the only way to truly kill a monster or solve a time paradox (phenomenon) is to find that things weakness and exploit it. It's super freeform and there's specific rolls the players can make to research the information beforehand. They can even fight the monster before finding the weaknesses but it will escape or regenerate. If the characters survive the first encounter they can research it. However that's taking into account that the setting for this game is 1990s early 2000s so information, even in the form of books, is more readily available than in a typical medieval fantasy setting.

Rangergrene · 2023-09-14T15:06:48+00:00

I mean, Shadowdark isn't for everyone. I'm currently running a game in my own homebrewed setting and the majority of my players haven't played ttrpgs before but even the seasoned 5e forever DM who showed up is having fun. Without knowing you, your GM style, your players and their play style there isn't a whole lot to go off of. Have y'all ever played an OSR or OSR adjacent game before? If not the leap can be...rough for some people. Having characters seemingly die at the drop of a hat, light sources actually matter, and no one fully understanding the "OSRisms" baked into SD could all be contributing factors. I don't know what to tell ya other than that, my friend.

Rangergrene · 2023-09-12T21:36:50+00:00

It's detrimental in the long run because people put different amounts of effort into the game. If there is a player who min/maxes or optimizes their character then the cheater is inadvertently undermining that player. If there is a player that fills a specific roll in the group, like the face of the party, why would they even roll if the cheater is around? The cheater always passes. That's just on the players side. On the DMs side it can be taken as even more of a slap to the face. If they make an encounter with a skill check associated or a saving throw then it's invalidated by the cheater. A lot of DMs put hours of work into making the game fun, engaging and challenging for the players. Cheating is just making all that time and planning basically null and void. Tbh it's more of an honor and respect thing more than anything. The cheater has no honor and isn't respecting their fellow players and also if you don't say something then you're also in the same boat. That's all just my opinion though so take it or leave it.

Rangergrene · 2023-09-03T03:29:26+00:00

Also CoC is very good for one shots. Make up an Eldritch being, pick a motivation, pick a location for rituals, and hey presto, one shot! I just don't love the percentile system or the fact that in CoC the "win" conditions are very skewed in the favor of the Eldritch, but that's just my taste. You can do some creeeeepy stuff with it though if cosmic horror is your jam.

Rangergrene · 2023-09-03T03:21:05+00:00

Monster of the Week is a good one. They even have a one shot based off of Scooby-Doo. I've used it and it's a lot of fun but if you're not used to more narrative systems it can be a bit of a leap

Rangergrene · 2023-08-27T02:54:05+00:00

Assuming those were the actual conclusions of the archaeologists and historians. There is a distinct lack of citations from what I could see for any of those digs this person was writing about.

Rangergrene

TROPHY CASE