Thread by @booksoflaw

How do you incorporate magic & magical elements from historical sources into a #TTRPG - especially when that game is intended to have a pedagogical role?

I'll look at this through the early medieval Lombard laws, which I'm (slowly) adapting into the #LangobardRPG

#MAMG23 1/12

Langobard is a #ttrpg where players investigate, resolve, prevent -or commit!- crimes and engage with Lombard socio-legal institutions, as outlined in the Lombard’s first written law-code, the “Edictus Rothari” (which was issued from the palace in Pavia in 643 CE)

#MAMG23 2/12

Magical creatures and things appear in 4 (of 388) of Rothari's laws (& 2 of Liutprand).

A sceptic might assume that magic doesn't exist, and its medieval proponents were simply irrational or being manipulative.

So how do we engage with magic in a historical game?

#MAMG23 3/12

The "Herbas quod ad maleficias pertenit" [herbs that pertain to maleficas/evil acts] of my title are named in Rothari §368.

A person fighting in a "camfio" [judicial duel/ordeal] may not have such herbs concealed on them...

(which as a plothook I find inspiring!)

#MAMG23 4/12

...if a fighter is accused of having such magical herbs on them, the camfio is paused, the judge searches them, and if any are found they are torn up and thrown away. Then the camfio continues

Not much magical effect - and not much in the way of legal consequences!

#MAMG23 5/12

One could say these are just herbs (or only that they are poisonous), and have no magical effect on the game mechanics.

But does this offer players any motivation to engage with them? Do rules that make magic mundane stop players from engaging in magical thinking?

#MAMG23 6/12

Making magic real in a #ttrpg is of course easy: just let the herbs add a modifier to the dice roll for a dependent skills and make the magic 'real' (if not dramatic!) in the game mechanics

-and if you don't want that to be 'magic', just call it a placebo effect!

#MAMG23 7/12

Magical beings may be harder to incorporate?

3 laws address claims that a woman is a striga/masca - a vampire/witch who eats men from the inside!

Roth. §197-98 are on accusations against free women, and §376 prohibits killing an enslaved woman on these grounds.

#MAMG23 8/12

References to magical beings/practitioners are also found in other texts:

* Later laws - soothsayers (Liutprand §84-85, 727 CE)

* Histories - cynocephali [men with dog's heads] who drink blood (Paul the Deacon's "History of the Lombards", §I.11, late-8th century)

#MAMG23 9/12

Including striga/masca, cynocephali, etc. as literal ‘monsters of the week’ (or PC options) seems fun, but surely crosses from historical into fantasy?

But the laws already also include denial that these exist. So uncertainty in magic strengthens the game's theme!

#MAMG23 10/12

Killing an unfree or half-free woman as a striga/masca is always deemed unjust, accruing a 60 or 100 solidi fine (~270g or ~450g gold)

And the law ends implying that it's not just ordinary people believing in magic & monsters - but high ranking legal officials too

#MAMG23 11/12

The laws contrast popular superstitions against the belief that monsters aren't real.

As a GM I take the 'X-files' approach and don't decide whether magic is real, but lay grounds that can be read both ways. Hopefully I can extend this duality into #LangobardRPG.

#MAMG23 12/12