China’s Shang dynasty ruled a Bronze Age proto-state that used a lot of divination to inform the king’s decisions. The pyromancy that Shang officials wielded to understand their world left a rich trove of documentary evidence: oracle bones covered in burns and writing. They’re a great fit for RPG campaigns, even ones that don’t have magic! This post is brought to you by beloved Patreon backer Arthur Brown. Thanks for helping keep the lights on! If you want to help keep this blog going alongside Arthur, head over to the Patreon page – and thank you! Image credit: BabelStone. Released under a CC ..read more

Between 1811 and 1873, Wayne County, Indiana had three different capitals and six different courthouses. Each time the county seat moved, it was incredibly contentious, involved lots of guns, and one time a cannon. The stakes were high – these events led to one town’s irrelevance and another’s outright dissolution. Yet the stakes were also trivial. In all these shifts, the county seat moved a total distance of seven miles. It’s one of the pettiest feuds I’ve ever encountered, and people cared about it passionately. It makes great inspiration for an RPG adventure. I’m running a Kickst ..read more

Material more than one year old is available to Patreon backers at the DEEP TIME ($2/month) level and higher. If you'd like access to this piece and hundreds more like it, consider becoming a patron! I'll even write you a handwritten thank-you card. To view this content, you must be a member of The Molten Sulfur Blog Patreon at $2 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source ..read more

Material more than one year old is available to Patreon backers at the DEEP TIME ($2/month) level and higher. If you'd like access to this piece and hundreds more like it, consider becoming a patron! I'll even write you a handwritten thank-you card. To view this content, you must be a member of The Molten Sulfur Blog Patreon at $2 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source ..read more

Material more than one year old is available to Patreon backers at the DEEP TIME ($2/month) level and higher. If you'd like access to this piece and hundreds more like it, consider becoming a patron! I'll even write you a handwritten thank-you card. To view this content, you must be a member of The Molten Sulfur Blog Patreon at $2 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source ..read more

Material more than one year old is available to Patreon backers at the DEEP TIME ($2/month) level and higher. If you'd like access to this piece and hundreds more like it, consider becoming a patron! I'll even write you a handwritten thank-you card. To view this content, you must be a member of The Molten Sulfur Blog Patreon at $2 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source ..read more

Material more than one year old is available to Patreon backers at the DEEP TIME ($2/month) level and higher. If you'd like access to this piece and hundreds more like it, consider becoming a patron! I'll even write you a handwritten thank-you card. To view this content, you must be a member of The Molten Sulfur Blog Patreon at $2 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source ..read more

Material more than one year old is available to Patreon backers at the DEEP TIME ($2/month) level and higher. If you'd like access to this piece and hundreds more like it, consider becoming a patron! I'll even write you a handwritten thank-you card. To view this content, you must be a member of The Molten Sulfur Blog Patreon at $2 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source ..read more

The Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather (1663-1728) is one of the boogeymen of early American history. Among his many sins, he helped fuel the Salem witch trials that executed 20 people for witchcraft. In the trials he successfully argued that the contents of magical visions should be considered legally admissible evidence. Mather was a prolific writer. His religious history of New England, the Magnalia Christi Americana, contains many stories of witchcraft, demon possession, and hauntings. It’s a weird text to read. On the one hand, it contains several ghost stories very suitable to adapt and put ..read more

The homeland of the Ibibio people is the delta of the Niger River in southeast Nigeria. In the mid-1960s, anthropologist Iris Andreski visited Ibibio villages in the rainforest and swamps between Calabar and Port Harcourt to interview the oldest women she could find. Her book, Old Wives’ Tales, is a collection of biographies of these women, told in their own words. They had lived through a remarkable transition. While the Niger delta was ostensibly a British colony as early as 1885, the British didn’t occupy most of it until decades after. Many of these women lived through the British takeover ..read more