by Tristan Zimmerman Pelgrane’s forthcoming RPG Ballad Hunters — described in this Page XX article — is set in 1813 England and Scotland. This is the Regency era of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, of the Napoleonic wars, and of the Luddite revolts. It’s called the Regency because the reigning monarch, George III, is incapacitated […]
Tag Archives: ballad
by Tristan Zimmerman Pelgrane’s forthcoming RPG Ballad Hunters — described in this Page XX article — does something new for Pelgrane Press’ GUMSHOE games. Ballad Hunters adventures are only two or three hours long. Each adventure is centered around a single traditional folk ballad, and such songs contain only so many gameable details. If […]
by Tristan Zimmermann “Compass verses” are the best mechanic in Pelgrane’s forthcoming RPG, Ballad Hunters, a game described in this Page XX article. It’s the mechanic my playtesters consistently talk about after they play the game: how much fun they had with their verse, and how differently the game would have gone if they’d had […]
by Tristan Zimmerman ‘My boy was scarcely ten years oldWhen he went to an eerie landWhere wind never blew, nor cocks ever crewWoe for my son, Leesome Brand!’– Leesome Brand, Child Ballad 15 Britain, 1813. You are amateur folklorists working as agents of the Crown. Across the island, the folk ballads of the common people […]