In a Haunted Countryside
I've published a new module for Electric Bastionland, Into the Odd, or Cairn
Something new and creepy for your RPG table
If you’ve never read one of M. R. James’ ghost stories, I recommend you do so right now. They’re all available online, and they are masterful and creepy stories that give you a little chill up your spine.
Most are set in the English countryside, and most involve a scholar who finds out a little too much about some ancient text or object or place. M. R. James was a Cambridge scholar, and his ghost stories reflect that.
Whether you’ve read his stories or not, you may enjoy the TTRPG module I have newly released online which attempts to give the players some creepy moments in a quasi-English countryside, as they try to collect powerful artifacts. Those artifacts, as in an M. R. James story, come along with some creepy creatures that bother those who disturb them.
The design of this module is intended to present a sandbox for the players, while still giving them a specific goal to aim for, something I previously discussed in a post about the TSR module N3: Destiny of Kings.
The new module, which is designed to be played with the games Electric Bastionland, Into the Odd, or Cairn, can be found at https://joseburrito.itch.io/the-dark-tools. I am charging $2 for it, but there are community copies available for free if you feel you aren’t in a great place financially but want to try this out. Depending on what need I see, I’ll add more community copies.
I hope that you enjoy it as much as those who I have played it with seem to have.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that there are some other options for creepy English countryside adventures, including some specifically based on M. R. James’ writing. Using the Gumshoe system, there is Casting the Runes: Occult Investigation in the World of M.R. James, which was published in 2021. There is also English Eerie, which was initially a solo game of English countryside horror and in its second edition can be used by up to four players, GM-less. I haven’t read or played either of these games, but they have definitely gotten some accolades.
There is also a recently funded Kickstarter for a system-neutral set of adventures called This Blighted Isle: Darkened Hill and Dale. Those may tend more toward folk horror or cosmic horror than the specific kind of horror that M. R. James tended to write about, but that’s somewhat splitting hairs.
In short, I hope there are some creepy things in your gaming future. I’ll just note that due to uncertainty about copyright, I wasn’t able to include an image of one of the wandering monsters from my game, the turniphead, which is based on traditional jack-o-lanterns from Ireland and Scotland, but I think for the purposes of this newsletter I can include an image of a preserved one from the Museum of Country Life in Ireland.
Sounds great!