Red Moon Roleplaying

In Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti, a play from 1920 by Karel Capek, we are introduced to the idea of artificial people called roboti that are used as workers. The R.U.R factory makes these roboti from synthetic flesh and blood, even enabling them to think for themselves and be mistaken for human. The word "robot", especially its use in sci-fi, come from these roboti. As has become the patt...

In the beginning of the 1900’s the villagers in Rupal in western Nepal were being routinely attacked and eaten by a Bengal tigress. The attacks happened in broad daylight and life across the region became paralyzed as men refused to leave their huts for fear of the attacks. Hunters and soldiers were sent after the tiger and managed to chase her into India, where she began her killing yet again. Wh...

The Strand was a monthly magazine published from 1891 to 1950 featuring fiction, illustrations and puzzles. At its peak it sold half a million copies every month. Sir Athur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes began its life in The Strand through the serialization of “The Hounds of Baskervilles” and it was during that time the magazine reached its peak in sales. Other contributors included Rudy...

Piers Gaveston was a nobleman, earl of Cornwall and favorite of King Edward II of England. The two were like brothers, inseparable and the king relied upon Gaveston as a sort of deputy, although he had no such official title. The two were even so close that rumors began to fly about them being lovers, something that later chroniclers have reinforced. This, and more importantly Gaveston’s exclusive...

KULT: Divinity Lost has been released in to the world today and to celebrate this we have created a mini-campaign with Helmgast where Hjalmar, Craig and our dear friend Jenny Bremberg play through the adventure “The Island of the Dead” together with KULT’s Lead Game Designer Robin Liljenberg as the Gamemaster. This adventure was written by Robin and is found in the scenario book “Taroticum and Oth...

It’s the 22nd of December 1892 at Sandburn prison in Clapham in the southwest of London. It’s almost Christmas… and a hell of a time to be burying a body. Thus begins our journey through the legendary KULT campaign “Taroticum”, written in 1992 by none other than our favorite people Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén. Taroticum is our second Patreon bonus campaign and this is the first of three e...

In 1402 the Bohemian priest and scholar Jan Hus denounced the Catholic Church as corrupt and began preaching about reformation of the church in the land. The people listened as the church was indeed corrupt and so many, especially Czech’s, supported this cause that the pope ultimately had to declare a crusade against these “Hussites” who had even had the gall to occupy the castles of Prague. Using...

The Lincoln County Regulators was a deputized posse that included the famous outlaws Billy the Kid and Charlie Bowdre. They had been sent to New Mexico to hunt down anyone involved in the murder of merchant and rancher John Tunstall. A buffalo hunter called Buckshot Roberts had been implicated and caught the interest of the Regulators and on April 4th 1878 he ended up in a standoff with the Regula...

The Sword of Light is an object that appears in many Scottish and Irish folktales. In the tales the hero is usually set upon a quest to perform three tasks to win his bride and is aided by animal companions, supernatural beings and also very often the woman he wishes to marry. The blade is said to burn like a candle with a fiery blaze and is very often kept by a giant. This giant is usually invuln...

Park your brooms at the door and come sit for a spell. It’s All Hallow’s Eve and we are delighted to present you with something special and truly ghastly to get you in the mood on this night of terrors. We had the distinct pleasure and honor of being joined by game designer, writer and podcaster Robin D. Laws who came by to GM us through the adventure “Candlewood Crescent” for "Fear Itself&qu...

Skull-Face is a novella written by Robert E. Howard in 1929 and was published in the ”Weird Tales” magazine. The main villain of the story, the eponymous Skull-Face, is a resurrected necromancer from Atlantis determined to awaken all of the remaining Atlanteans, sleeping in their submerged sarcophagi, and creating a new world order with them as the ruling elite. The hero of the story is Steve Cost...

The Garuda is a massive eagle-like creature, described as the king of the birds, that appears in Hinduism and Buddhism. Portrayed as the god Vishnu’s mount or as a dharma protector in Buddhism it seems as though the myth about this powerful bird predates both religions. Garuda can swiftly fly anywhere, appearing where it’s services as a protector are required. It is a sworn enemy of the serpent an...

In 1911 Captain Robert Scott led an expedition of adventurers that were dead set on being the first to reach the South Pole on Antarctica. They had received funding for the expedition from the public with the support of a government grant. The admiralty provided transportation and experienced seamen for the journey. It was supposed to be a heroic success proving to the world yet again the superior...

A wormhole is a speculative structure that connects two points in space-time, either separated by vast distances or by time. Their existence is hypothesized based on a solution of Einstein’s field equations and a number of possible types of wormholes have been proposed to exist by different scientists. If we imagine space-time as a sheet of paper, and draw two separate dots on one side of the pape...

We delve in to the world of Andrzej Sapkowski’s “The Witcher”, guided by gamemaster, and game designer, Cody Pondsmith from R. Talsorian Games showing off their new tabletop RPG set in this world. The adventure is called “A Part of our World” and we get to follow two dwarves, the Mahakaman man-at-arms Golan and the bard Sigurd from Skellige, as they travel to Kerack with a very dangerous cargo. Ch...

A shortcut in accounting is to book overhead costs based on sales volume of products rather than by activity the cost was related to. Through this, when analyzing profitability, high volume, successful products end up looking less profitable than they actually are, and low volume sellers inversely look significantly better for the profit & loss than they actually are. This then tends to cause...

The Molossus is a now extinct breed of dogs that are believed to be the ancestors of today’s Mastiff-type dogs. Originally a sheep-herding dog used in ancient Epirus (today parts of Albania and Greece) these vicious and muscular dogs were described by the poet Grattius thus ”...when serious work has come, when bravery must be shown, and the impetuous War-gods calls in the utmost hazard, then you c...

The word “coach”, describing a covered horse-drawn carriage for passengers or mail, is derived from the name of the Hungarian town “Kocs” where the coach is believed to have been invented. Hungarian villages still today hold competitions for “Coachman of the Year” and the coachmen have even found their way in to Hungarian Folklore. In the stories the “Clever Coachman” appears out of the blue durin...

Under Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled from 1522 to 1566, the Ottoman Empire reached its apex, conquering Belgrade and most of Hungary until finally being stopped at the gates of Vienna. The Ottoman fleets dominated the Mediterranean and reached as far the Indian Ocean. The empire also went through a golden age of culture and literature under Suleiman's competent watch. He went against traditio...

Striking at an enemy before they can strike against you is known as ”pre-emptive self-defense” and traditionally two conditions, known as the “Caroline test” need to be fulfilled to justify such an action. The "Caroline" was an American steamboat used to supply settlers rebelling against the British Colonial government in Canada in 1837. American sympathizers provided weapons and food to...

Memories are believed to be stored in two separate parts of the brain, the hippocampus and the amygdala. While normal memories are stores in the hippocampus, the amygdala, which is an emotion center, is where memories created by traumatic events live. If you are the victim of violence and your brain and hippocampus has been damaged, this means you might not be able to clearly remember the person t...

The ”solemn sacrifice” was a sacrificial rite conducted by the Incas on the order of the Incan emperor to celebrate important events in the emperor's life or to prevent natural disasters. It was a human sacrifice done with the intention of sending humanity’s best to join their deities. To ensure that the souls given were pure, children were typically used for this purpose. Until the sacrifice woul...

We had the honor of welcoming the Swedish RPG legend Anders Blixt on the show. Anders has 42 years of experience in the RPG business and is the man behind Drakar och Demoner Expert and a whole heap of fantastic Swedish games. In this interview we talk about the module “The Kin-strife” that came out in 1995 for Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP). Mattiaz was joined by Andreas Lundström from Tärningen...

We have something special for you today. We have played the short adventure “The distressed husband” from the classic MERP module “The Kin-strife” using the rules from The One Ring by Cubicle 7. "The Kin-strife" is a module about the civil war in Gondor between traditionalists and loyalists that took place about 1600 years before the events in “Lord of the Rings”. “But Valacar far exceed...

Orcus is a god of the underworld in Etruscan mythology. He is often portrayed as a blind, bestial, gigantic, tusk-faced monster who eats human flesh; similar to the Cyclops, and is said to be the punisher of broken oaths. Primarily worshiped in the remote countryside people continued worshiping him well in to the Middle Ages. His connection with the underworld has led to his name being connected w...