A revenant is more than just the title of a recent Leonardo DiCaprio movie; it’s also the name of a frightening kind of enemy more terrifying than any zombie, even most vampires. It haunted medieval lives and destroyed entire villages. It caused plagues and death. It was accompanied by the dead or packs of baying hounds. It caused so much mischief that special rites and rituals at burial were developed to keep the fiends buried. Unfortunately, those didn’t always work and pain and suffering followed in their wake (a nice little double entendre) – other than the undead baker who tried to help his wife with the business after his passing but rolling out the next day’s bread (some people just can’t let their business go). Within the framework of tabletop roleplaying, or even video gaming, this creature that was so evil whole villages were deserted out of dread has now been reduced to little more than a glorified zombie. This is not only a gross disservice to the historical myth of revenants but our ancestors’ terror. Appealing to history, a small recounting of the definition and its etymology will be presented, as well a few short stories to illustrate the power of “The Returned.” Finally, a short analysis of these elements will follow to come to a consensus on the most important elements of this particular walking corpse (because the tales are all over the place with abilities and motivations). To conclude the article, we’ll give a few general guidelines on how to incorporate a historic revenant into tabletop sessions.
Happy belated New Year! It's been a pretty busy one for us, mostly because of the prviously mentioned illnesses, but we're starting to get back into the swing of work. As mentioned last week, our posts with alternating free maps and story hooks will begin again. At the end of this post, you will find your free map: the Desert Map by James Curwen.
We at Skinner Games had a ton of fun last year with our first sessions of Retro Roleplaying. We started out fumbling through the First Edition retro clone called OSRIC to play through the original I6 Ravenloft adventure. We continued with a change of pace and played a Superheoes game for several sessions using R. Talsorian's Fuzion system. And we began our live-play review of Cubicle 7 Entertainment's 5e Lord of the Rings campaign setting, Adventures in Middle earth. We hope you're having as much fun as we are and that our experiences with the games inspire you to try them out yourselves. We have big things planned for the upcoming year. Although our schedule is subject to change, this is what we hope to bring to the proverbial table! Okay. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly felt that way sometimes. Our families have had flus, sinus infections, pink eye, fevers, vomiting, contenancy issues and all manner of varying illnesses since just before New Year's. We're surprised none of us were hospitalized. As much as we wanted to, we didn't get a whole lot done. I promise, we're still alive, even if it hasn't felt like it recently. On the bright side, one of us was able to jump off the unemployment wagon and snagged a new career. Hooray! However, all the plague and efforts to have a job that can actually support one's family has sort of thrown off our schedule. By a lot. it's tough to keep your consistency during the holidays and when you're struck down by death-plagues.
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It's like Patreon, but we receive 100% of your donation and you don't have to sign up for a monthly withdrawal. AuthorNiklas has been a dreamer for many years and has recently decided to join with long term his associate, James Curwen, to bring their dreams of cheap, fun games to the masses. Archives
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