#FollowFriday: Ed Greenwood

In my efforts to expand my knowledge of the Forgotten Realms, I am going to Master Sage himself, Ed Greenwood.

Official YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@edgreenwoodofficial

Patreon Page
https://www.patreon.com/EdGreenwood

X/Twitter
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ed.greenwood.142

I am not a subscriber to his Patreon page, but I hear wonderful things about it. It sounds like a great forum for his ideas and of course exclusives.  I'm a fan, but not at the level I need exclusives before everyone else.

The real treasure trove for me in my explorations of the Realms has been his YouTube page.

Now, typically, I really hate videos. I don't have the time to listen or watch, and frankly, most of the people doing video neither have the voice nor the presence to do them. This is not so for Ed. Ed, among everything else, is a natural storyteller. The Realms are his canvas.

He has had a few I have found really interesting too. 

This one because I a. remembered the picture, and b. loved the idea that Ed could use this channel to talk about things he could not before.  Plus he says "Drau" like Cow. Actually one of the best things about his videos is knowing how he pronounces some of the names he comes up with!

This one because I loved the background on this character and was a fan of Symgharyl Maruel, aka The Shadowsil.  But this one is also fun because Ed has such a love for all these characters.  

That was always obvious to me reading his books and Dragon articles. And he extended that love to characters he was borrowing.

Gary loved my portrayal of Mordenkainen, which was a great relief to me at the time. Dalamar vanished because of publishing timing: we didn't know his fate in Margaret and Tracy's DL novels at the time, so had to sidestep. (And the series was an editorial assignment.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2020

And extends to others who treat his characters with the same love.

I LOVE these portraits!!!!! Spot on!!!!

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2022

So give the Father of the Realms a follow. I hope you find him as entertaining and as educational as I find him.

Review: Forgotten Realms Campaign Set

 I have asked this before, but it bears repeating here and now. How does one review a classic? Better question. How does one review a genre-defining classic?  Because that is what I have sitting in front of me now. A genre-defining classic. Eighteen-year-old me back in 1987, ready for his first year at university, would not have thought so at the time, but that is what much older me thinks now. 

The Forgotten Realms was the foundation of the "new" TSR, the one without Gary Gygax and many of the other founders on which they would build their new home. We can debate the merits of this and financials ad nauseam, but by any stretch of the imagination, the Forgotten Realms were very successful. So successful that the biggest video game of 2023 is set there.

This review will cover the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set, the Boxed set from 1987. Written by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb and edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. But any insight to this product knows that the genesis was with Ed, and he first brought it all to life in the pages of Dragon magazine. At least that is alive to us. Many other authors have contributed to Realms over the decades, but here is where it begins.  

How do we begin? Let's take Ed's own words, which he scribbled into my Cyclopedia of the Realms as our opening.

"Welcome to the Forgotten Realms!" - Ed Greenwood

Forgotten Realms Campaign Set

by Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb and edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. 1987. Boxed set. Full-color covers and maps. Cyclopedia of the Realms 96 pages. DMs Sourcebook of the Realms 96 pages. Maps and clear hex overlays.

For this review, I am considering the physical boxed set from 1987 and the PDFs from DriveThruRPG. There has yet to be a Print on Demand version.

The DriveThruRPG PDF combines all this information into a 230-page book. Maps are broken up and scanned in at letter size.

Cyclopedia of the Realms

96 pages. Color covers. Sepia-tone pages and art.

"Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start." - Maria von Trapp nee Kuczera, Bard/Cleric

This book is an introduction to the Forgotten Realms, and maybe the most important bit here is the introduction by Ed Greenwood/Elminster and the About this Product.  We start immediately with the "voice" of the Realms, Elminster. He is no ersatz Gandalf, nor is he a more approachable Mordenkainen, and certainly, he is more interesting than Ringlerun. He is our guide, but sometimes I still like to think of him as an unreliable narrator. These are the Realms in his eyes. More (if the not the most) knowledgable, but there are still "small stories" to tell that are beneath his notice. Those are the stories (aka games) I want to know about.

This book covers the timeline (I do love timelines!) and ways of keeping time in the Realms. The date for this set is the end of 1357 DR (that's Dale Reckoning or Dalereckoning). For full context, the Baldur's Gate III video game takes place in 1494 DR, with the current year of the D&D 5e titles at 1496 DR. There is a bit of discussion about holidays and how the "weeks" are grouped as Tendays (3 a month). It feels different and I like it.  The money system is rather AD&D standard, with some proper names to the coins. This is fine because this IS supposed to be an AD&D world, and the authors want people to feel familiar with it all, if not right at home.

Languages and scripts are up. Some of these are still being used in current versions of D&D. 

The Gods are next. These were already familiar to me, not just because this is an old product, but because Ed talked about them in Dragon magazine back in 1985.  See "The Dragon Connection" below. While these gods have "Earthly" sources, it actually works out great and ties into the mythology of the Realms as one being connected to Earth. Something it shares with Greyhawk's Oerth. The connection between Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms is strong. They share almost all the same demi-human gods. By extension of the rule-set they also share all the same demons and devils. This makes moving between worlds a little smoother. The gods and their relationships are detailed well here and there is just enough unknow to keep them interesting.

Next section is about Adventuring Companies. So here is one thing that the Realms does better than Greyhawk (well there are more, but the first thing in this book). Adventurers are baked into the system. The world doesn't just need adventuring parties, it demands them. These parties can be used as models for your own adventuring parties. All these parties have names as well. I'll have to think about how Sinéad and Co would fit this format. Plus, the back cover of this book has a grid for the adventuring party! Room for 10 characters even.

We get into the "Cyclopedia" part of the book now. This is an alphabetical listing of major topics within the Realms. These include things like the various character classes, races, countries, towns, areas of interest and other topics. There is a narrative piece describing it, Elminster's Notes for the point of view of the most knowledgeable native (even when he admits to not knowing much), and Game Information.

I rather like it, to be honest. Hit me with facts, and let me build some adventures around it!

DMs Sourcebook of the Realms

96 pages. Color covers. Sepia-tone pages and art.

One of the best things in this book is the Introduction. We get words from Ed (as Ed) talking about the World of the Forgotten Realms and how it is now our world too. Yeah it is trademarked by TSR and now WotC/Hasbro, but this is an open invitation to do what you want with this world now. This is a foreshadowing to all the great Ed Greenwood content we would get over the next almost 4 decades. Honestly reading Ed's own words make me excited for all the exploration ahead of me. This is followed by words from Jeff Grubb, who also had a hand in shaping the AD&D version of the Realms. And more by editor Karen S. Martin who adds her experience and excitement to this world.

So much better than any puff-piece bit of gamer fiction!

We get right into it. Information on how to use this as an AD&D campaign world is started from the word go. Overview again of the boxed set. How to set up campaigns for new players, new campaigns for experienced players, and bringing in characters from other campaigns. Hmm...I should try all of these to be honest. Maybe a character from one of my Greyhawk or Mystara campaigns could come on over. I DO like the idea that Elvish and Dwarvish and some others are mostly the same languages. Would really help bring the worlds closer together. 

A bit of coverage on the maps and how to use them. Nice comparison of the map of Faerûn compared to the continental United States. And a section of various wandering monsters. The Forgotten Realms may be Forgotten, but they are very much alive!

The next 20 pages detail NPCs of note. Any to drop in as background, enemy, or ally. 

Speaking of living. A really nice section on recent news and various rumors starting in DR 1356 to 1357 are presented. With or without your characters, the Relams live on. 

Another plus for this boxed set is the ready-run adventures for low-level characters. The first, The Halls of the Beast Tamers, is a nice dungeon crawl. Next is Lashan's Fall, which appeared in Dragon #95 as "Into the Forgotten Realms," and even the maps are the same! Mind you I think this is a bonus since that is the adventure I always wanted to use as an intro to the Realms. I still can come to think of it. 

The next section is a "Pages from the Mages" style entry.  Lots of spells books to be found with plenty of new spells. I think some of these were in "Pages form the Mages" to be honest. That's fine, they work well here.

Honestly, the ONLY thing missing here are some new monsters, and this would be complete.

Maps & Plastic Hex Overlays

There are four gorgeous maps of the content of Faerûn. While it doesn't quite live up to the artistry of the Darlene World of Greyhawk maps, they are more practical. The plastic hex overlays also make it easier to read the maps and then do your hex crawls in whatever area you like.

The Dragon Connection

One of the great things about doing my This Old Dragon feature and concentrating on the period between 1980 and 1987 is watching the Forgotten Realms develop and grow as an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons world. From Ed's musings on gods in Down to Earth Divinity to magical tomes and spells of the Pages from the Mages and The Wizards Three features to adventure Into the Forgotten Realms, all of which would find homes in an official Forgotten Realms product in some shape or form.

I mentioned already that Dragon #95's Into the Forgotten Realms makes an appearance here as an introductory adventure.

As I mentioned, all we were missing were monsters. Well, Ed penned enough monsters in the pages of Dragon Magazine that were explicitly for the Realms, so collecting them all is worthwhile. In addition to monsters, there are magic items, more spells, blades, shields, and even musical instruments, and I know I am nowhere near collecting it all. I do know I will run out of room in my box for them all.

My Thoughts

There is a lot packed in this box. It's like a TARDIS really; bigger on the inside. In truth, nothing of what I thought was going to be here was here. Yes, there are NPCs, but they are background, and your characters may never ever run into them. They are the background noise of the Realms until the characters are the big noise. I certainly unfairly judged the Forgotten Realms. 

A lot of this stemmed from me thinking that Gygax had been done wrong. Yes, that was true, but the Realms really had nothing to do with that. The New TSR was working to relgate Gygx to the past and Ed was just the guy in the right place in the right time with the right idea. I was also unfair of me to judge the Realms on that.  If reading Ed's "The Wizard's Three" has taught me anything that Abier-Toril and Oerth have more in common than not.

This is, of course, just the start. A big start, to be sure, but a start all the same. This is a canvas to paint on. This is a great set, not just for its time but also for now. Minus some of the stat blocks and spells, everything here can be used with any version of D&D or similar game with little or no effort. 

While I am somewhat overwhelmed by the task before me, I am also excited about it.

Honestly, I am going to pull out some dice and roll up some characters now.

Witchcraft Wednesday: New Witch Sheet

 I am not exactly sure why I didn't do this one already.

I was working on something else and needed an AD&D (Dragon #114) witch for it.  It then dawned on me that I didn't have a proper AD&D character sheet for a witch.  Well. I fixed that today.

I edited an existing PDF and ran some off on my printer. Proper Goldenrod, of course, but also salmon and blue since they came in those colors as well (NPC and permanent character records, respectively) and, because I can, some in purple. All my important witches have sheets in purple!

They are not perfect by any means. Just a quick edit job in Affinity Publisher, but I really like them. 

New Releases Tuesday: Adventure Time!

 Normally, Tuesday is a great time to talk about the sort of RPG goodies I got in the mail. But nothing new this week (or last), and I am waiting for the local Games Plus RPG auction before buying anything else.  So, imagine my delight when one of my recent adventures got published over the weekend.  Then, my delight doubled when another adventure I wrote got its own stand-alone treatment!

Frightshow Classics: Golem is published by Yeti Spaghetti & Friends and is for the Chill 1st Edition RPG. It also works with Chill 2nd Edition, Chill 3rd Edition (with some mods), and Cryptworld and can even be used as a rules lite adventure. 

A rabbi and a neo-nazi have been found murdered in Queens, NY. Is there a connection? People have spotted a large figure near the synagogue and a former professional wrestler is being held for questioning. But is something stranger going on?

I really loved writing this one and it made really appreciate all the great things about New York. As a Chicagoan, I don't give New York enough credit. But I approached this with the frame of mind of "write this with the same love as I would if this were Chicago." Cause one thing I know for sure. New Yorkers LOVE their city, and I wanted that to show.

Adventures in Aldea: Witching Weather from Green Ronin is older, but I discovered it while working on my Blue Rose characters last week. This adventure appears in the collection Six of Cups. But here, you can buy it as a stand-alone adventure for Blue Rose AGE 2nd Edition. 

A group of orphans have turned up in Garnet, and now the weather is out of control, and the forces of darkness want them. One believes they are his children, and another wants to eat them to gain even more power. You have to stop them both. 

This one was so much fun to work on. Blue Rose is sometimes described (somewhat unfairly) as a "Fantasy Seattle," but my Garnet here is "Fantasy Alton, IL," a blue-collar river town (now sea town) with a deep history and pride. And maybe a monster or two hiding in the bluffs. In addition to the adventure, there is a gazetteer for the City of Garnet with some history and background on some major NPCs.

Grab both if you can! I already got paid, so I don't get anything more from the publishers, but if the sales are good, they can hire me back! 

Monstrous Mondays: Thunderbird (and Basic Bestiary updates)

Work on Basic Bestiary has picked back up. I have 360 completed monsters for it now. I still have my next pass at editing and mechanics tweaking to complete.  What I really need is art. I don't have any, and while I am happy to use some PD art for it (and it fits the look I want), I will need more. A lot more. While I don't mind AI art (and appreciate the computer science that went into it), I can't in good conscience use any in this. 

Still playing around with stat block ideas. Since this is a "Basic" Bestiary, I figure I should get closer to the Basic-era stat block details as I can. I am adding some "modern" ideas like creature size and type (something we see in BECMI and RC, but not BX), and Ascending AC (Basic Fantasy, OSE and LL).  I need to decide if I want to include other details like Advanced era alignments (I am leaning towards yes), Languages (also yes), and Frequency. I am also still considering hp adjustment due to size. I like it a lot, and it makes creatures a lot tougher.

I believe I have settled on using BX/OSE style XP awards and having a table in the back for all the other games I think people might want to use this for, as long as they are OGC.  Edited: I noticed my math might be off on some higher HD monsters. 

The stat block below is what I am thinking so far. Love to hear some feedback on it.

Yes. I am still going to use the OGL for this one. I have gone too far down that road to go back.

Here is one of the last monsters I worked on for the book. As always, the final version might be different.

Thunder Bird
Gargantuan Beast (Magical)

Armor Class: -5 [24]
Hit Dice: 17d8+68 (145 hp)
   Gargantuan: 17d20+68 (264 hp)
Move: 90' (30')
   Flying: 360' (120')
Attacks: 2 claws, 1 bite, special
Damage: 1d12+5 x2, 2d8+5, special
Special: Lighting bolt, thunder, wing buffet
No. Appearing: 1 (1, or 1d4+1, mated pair with chicks)
Save As: Monster 17
Morale: 10 (12)
Treasure Type: None, See below
Alignment: Neutral (True Neutral)
XP: 6,600

Languages: Avian

Thunderbirds are gargantuan birds that appear as storm gray-colored eagles. They have a 70' wing span that can blot out the sun and talons that can carry off livestock, usually one or two cattle each. Their eyes flash with electrical light and can shoot lightning bolts. When their wings flap, they can cause storms and thunder. Natives of the lands the thunderbird calls home to revere the bird as a messenger of the forces of good and liken it to a spirit. It is a mortal animal, albeit a very powerful one. 

The thunderbird can attack with its massive beak and talons.  It swoops down from their mountain homes, which can be hundreds of miles away, to attack its prey. It prefers large cattle, like horses, cows, and bison, and can carry off up to 2,000 pounds worth at a time. Thunderbirds that live near oceans will even make a dinner out of whales when they can catch them. They do not attack humans if they can avoid it. They do not like the taste and attack humans since humans often return in greater numbers and with weapons. If attacked by humans on the ground, the thunderbird will often just opt to fly away. Thunderbirds and Rocs do not get along as they tend to go after the same prey. Their relationship is similar to that of eagles and hawks.  

The thunderbird gets its name from the magical storm-creation powers it has. By flapping its wings and remaining stationary, it can create a thunderclap that does 10d6 hp of damage; Breath Weapon saves for half the damage. Which will also define anyone within a 120' long cone, 60' at its widest.  Targets outside of the 120' are unaffected by either the damage or the deafness. It can also 3 times per day cast a 10d6 lighting bolt from its eyes. The range on this is 100', save vs. Breath Weapon for half damage. Ranges outside of 100' to 300' are at half-damage or save for no damage.  The thunderbird will not use this attack against food prey but rather to defend itself from humanoids or other large creatures it finds itself engaging with.  A thunderbird can also summon storms as per the Summon Weather spell. 

Thunderbirds have no need nor interest in treasure. The feathers of the thunderbird are highly prized as a main ingredient for a staff of lightning bolts and other magical staffs. Their feathers are also used in other magic item creations, typically Wings of Flying. Any item that requires a roc feather can use a thunderbird feather instead for a 50% increase in either speed or duration. The feathers of a thunderbird usually can bring in 1,000 gp on the right markets (usually only 2d6 are viable for arcane use). The eggs of thunderbirds are so rare to discover that bounties of 12,000 gp and more are sometimes offered. The lairs of the thunderbird are usually at the tops of mountains so high they are very nearly impossible to reach. 

Tales tell of a great thunderbird so large that when it flies, the land below is thrust into night. This could be a single unique specimen or an undiscovered variety.  

Character Exploration with Blue Rose 2nd Edition: Duchess and Candella

 A side-step today. I have been working on my reviews of the Forgotten Realms products, but my next one is not yet ready. I was reading over my material for this week, and I thought maybe I should put my money where my mouth is and explore some more relationships within my own games.  

I don't have that ready yet, either! But I did go through my goto game for all things romance, Blue Rose. Since I have a few characters I currently use for various explorations, I thought I would try starting them up in Blue Rose AGE 2nd Edition.  This is also good since last year I was doing some D&D 5e conversions to other systems as D&D replacements.  Blue Rose 2nd Edition is a wonderful replacement for D&D.  

Duchess and Candella for Blue Rose

My two current fun characters are Duchess and Candella. I wanted to explore some more about their characters, especially since I already had plans to run module B3 Palace of the Silver Princess as a Blue Rose game. Back then I mentioned that they were caria daunen, or lovers, but I am not getting that vibe from them now. I mean, yeah, they could be certainly, but I think for these builds, they are not. Or at least not yet. Let's see where they end up.

Blue Rose only has three classes. Adept, Expert, and Warrior. Fantasy Age 2nd Edition adds a new one, the Envoy, but I am sticking with these three. The great thing, though, is even with only three classes, there are lots of ways to customize characters. In D&D Basic (which only had four human classes) they are thieves and their stats are fairly interchangeable. Here I can start them both out as Experts and then through Backgrounds, Powers, Talents, and Focuses (Foci?) they can become very different. I abuse that in my second batch of characters later on.

Concept-wise, some things came up while doing my research the other day.

Candella is:

• The older one
• The smarter one (but plays dumb)
• More acrobatic / higher dexterity

Duchess is:

• The younger one
• Has a better constitution
• Higher wisdom (so acts older)

Their weapons are more or less the same. They are not averse to using poison. Also an interesting note. While done to save space, they have the exact same treasure, save for a pearl necklace Candella has. What is the implications of this for the game? They steal things, but with each other, they are fair; the treasure is split 50/50. The pearl necklace can be explained by having it be something Candella had before they teamed up.

Blue Rose, in addition to what I consider "class" customization, there is a lot of interpersonal customization as well. This is in the form of Blue Rose's Callings, Destiny, and Fate. The relationship mechanics are also great to use. All of these can be ported over to another game. For the example of D&D 5, anything you do to gain Conviction in Blue Rose can be used to grant Inspiration in D&D.

Duchess
Female Human Expert, Level 3 (Age 19)

Accuracy: 2 (Primary)  Focus: Light Blades
Communication: 3 (Primary) Focus: Deception, Gambling
Constitution: 4 Focus: Drinking
Dexterity: 3 (Primary) Focus: Stealth
Fighting: 2 
Intelligence: 2
Perception: 3 (Primary) Focus: Searching
Strength: 1
Willpower: 3 

Speed: 13
Defense: 13
Armor: 3
Penalty: 0

Health: 42
Conviction: 4

Powers, Talents, and Specializations

- Pinpoint Attack (+1d6 damage)
- Light Armor training
- Starting Talents: Thievery (Novice), Carousing (Novice)

Arms and Armor

Sword (Fighting) 2d6
Dagger, Melee (Accuracy) 1d6+1

Crossbow (Accuracy) 2d6 30/60 Major
Dagger, Ranged (Accuracy) 1d6 6/12 Minor

Leather (Light Armor)

Persona

Calling: The Wheel, Wealth
Destiny: Knight of Chalices, Charismatic
Fate: Manipulative
Corruption: 0 (but likely to be 1 soon enough)

Relationships

Candella (3), "We are sisters in crime. I am closer to her than my own kin."

Candella
Female Human Expert, Level 3 (Age 21)

Accuracy: 3 (Primary)  Focus: Brawling, Light Blades
Communication: 2 (Primary) Focus: Persuasion
Constitution: 3
Dexterity: 3 (Primary) Focus: Acrobatics, Stealth
Fighting: 2 
Intelligence: 3 Focus: Evaluation
Perception: 2 (Primary) 
Strength: 2
Willpower: 2

Speed: 13
Defense: 13
Armor: 3
Penalty: 0

Health: 40
Conviction: 4

Powers, Talents, and Specializations

- Pinpoint Attack (+1d6 damage)
- Light Armor training
- Starting Talents: Thievery (Journeyman)

Arms and Armor

Sword (Fighting) 2d6
Dagger, Melee (Accuracy) 1d6+1

Crossbow (Accuracy) 2d6 30/60 Major
Dagger, Ranged (Accuracy) 1d6 6/12 Minor

Leather (Light Armor)

Persona

Calling: The Fool, Adventure and Excitement
Destiny: Eight of Swords, Free Spirit
Fate: Stagnant
Corruption: 0 (but likely to be 1 soon enough)

Relationships

Duchess (3), "We are sisters in crime. I am closer to her than my own kin."

--

Ok, this is fun. It also helps me think about who these characters are a little better. I have always gotten a Harley and Ivy vibe from these two, with Candella being Harly Quinn and Duchess as Poison Ivy. Or maybe even a Fire and Ice (from DC) vibe. Duchess certainly looks more like Fire, but Candella has her personality.  I can see a common tactic where Duchess gets a bunch of adventurers drunk, Candella distracts them with a strip tease, and then Duchess robs them all blind. The two run off laughing with all their ill-gotten gains. 

I made them a year older and a level higher. While they are both 3rd level Experts with a Talent for thievery, they have enough differences to set them apart.

At 4th level, they both will take a Specialization. There are many great ones in the Blue Rose book and more in the new Second Editon Fantasy AGE book. But none feel quite right to me.

I think, and I am not 100% sold on this idea yet, but I might go with Assassin for Duchess, though Hunter might be a better choice. Candella could take the Razor from FAGE2, but in reality, I want something more akin to an Acrobat. 

Still. A lot of things I can still do with these two.

The Enchanted World: The Lore of Love

 I saw an online conversation in an old-school RPG group a bit ago. This guy was boasting that his games never had romance, sexuality, or anything at all like that. My first thought was, "How sad," and my next immediate thought was, "How boring his games must be!"

Without the stories and contributions of love and romance or just plain good old-fashioned sex, we would loose most of the works of Shakespeare, many of the Greek myths, and practically all of modern music. Ancient Greeks to Motzart's Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte, to "Silly love songs" by Paul McCartney to most of Taylor Swift's catalog. Love just might make the world go 'round.

That is the topic of today's The Enchanted World. I mentioned before that I am not going in publication order, save for the first, and instead going to post the titles that have some connection with when I post them. Today is February 14th, Valentine's Day, so let's look at Love...Enchanted World style. 

Lore of Love 

by Editors of Time-LIFE Books, 1987 (144 pages)
ISBN 0809452812, 0809452820 (US Editions)

This is a later one and does not have a single author. Tony Allen is listed as "text editor" and Ellen Dupont is listed as "staff writer." Of note, in the US, the cover is purple. In the UK, this book had a green cloth cover. 

Like the others in this series the art is a mix of newer pieces with a lot of classical ones. There are for example a lot of John William Waterhouse. The bibliography for this one is also rather impressive. I imagine that as they went on there were a lot more texts collected that they could reference.

Like Wizards and Witches, this one is divided into three larger sections. These can be roughly described as "Finding Love," "Love Gone Wrong" and "Keeping Love."   That's not a perfect match, but it will do.

Chapter One: Destiny's Playthings

This covers love as a shaper of destiny. The six stories here involve the gods getting involved with the love lives of mortals to some degree.  "A Groom for the Sea-Lord's Daughter," for example, tells about the fairest sea nymph of all, Thetis, and how she spurred the lust of both Poseidon and then Zeus, only to be given to a mortal Peleus because it was prophesized that her son would defeat his father. As an aside I noticed that Thetis' requests of Peleus are very much the same as we see in later mermaid and selkie tales of Northern Europe. 

Tales of the problems when mortals try to avoid their fate abound as in "The God of Marriages" a Chinese tale of a man who sees his bride to be as a toddler and tries everything to avoid his fate, and just playing into it. Or the Indian tale of "A Love Forgotten" of two lovers reunited at last. 

Sometimes, love, though meant to be, is also tragic. Such is the tale of a German knight in "The Cursed Embrace" whose betrothed is already dead.

Chapter Two: Blighted Passions

The story of love is not always about happy endings. Romeo and Juliet aside, there was Popocatepetl and his love Princess Iztaccíhuatl. When an army could not stop Popocatepetl the Jaguar Knight, his own spread lies about his death so they could possibly claim his bride. When she heard her love had died she died herself. When the Jaguar Knight returned and learned of her death and why, he killed all his men.

Across the ocean in Spain we are treated to the story of Don Juan and his ill-fated affairs. Of the tragedies of Narcissus, Daphne, and Thisbe of Ancient Greece. 

Though not was all tragedy. There were times when love went wrong and it was comical. Such is the tale of the Warlock's Comeuppance. A warlock found a young women he wished to put a spell on, so he convinced his young Latin pupil to get three hairs from her head. The girl caught her brother trying to steal the hairs and instead gave him three hairs from their young heffer. The warlock performed his dark arts spell and soon had a lovesick cow following all over the town!

Chapter Three: True Love Triumphant

Of course the best tales are the ones where true love wins out over all odds. Tales like Aucassin and Nicolette the Saracen Maid. They were separated by wars, pirates, and separation of years. Or of Hiku, the Polynesian hero who was so brave he went to the underworld itself to find his lost love Kawelu.  Can your characters claim that? (Yeah. Mine can.)

I am a little surprised that the tale of Cupid and Psyche is not here, but maybe that one is so well known they dropped it in favor of these other stories.

Like all the ones I have read through so far, this one is wonderfully illustrated and amazingly researched. Combining the bibliography for all of these would provide a lifetime's worth of reading.  

This one might have fewer "game-related" details than others, but there is undoubtedly a treasure trove of ideas here. 

Next time: There is a land beyond the veil