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Welp, that dampened my enthusiasm for the game. I won't preorder it, and maybe wait until it is on a Sale for a reduced price.

In modern media portrayals, the Devil is often portrayed as this suave mastermind who is always several steps ahead of any mortal. But in German folklore, his portrayal was rather different - quite frequently he was the butt of jokes. The following tale serves as a good example (and one which would not be out of place in an old Warner Bros. cartoon):

The Huntsman and the Devil

A huntsman once went into the forest with his loaded rifle, and smoked a pipe with tobacco while doing so. Then the Devil suddenly appeared, and called out to him: “Let me try as well, for I want to know how smoking tastes!” “You shall have this joy”, said the huntsman, “but my little pipe will soon go out. I will give you my large pipe.” And with these words, he took his rifle off his shoulder and put it into the Devil’s mouth. The latter started to suck on it, but he could not get any smoke from the barrel of the rifle. Then he became angry and started to scream: “Huntsman, you have tricked me! The large pipe doesn’t smoke at all!” “Wait,” said our huntsman, “I shall give you fire”, and pulled the trigger of the rifle. Oh, how the Devil was able to puff now! He forcefully shook himself, threw the large rifle pipe far away from him, and screamed: “Listen, my dear huntsman, I don’t want to smoke with you. For your tobacco is too strong for me!” As soon as he had said this, he was suddenly gone.

Source: Pohlmann. Sagen aus der Wiege Preussens und des deutschen Reiches, der Altmark. 1901, p. 15.

So what other folk tales do you know off where the Devil comes off as rather foolish?

Die Kommentare unter dem Artikel sind mal wieder unterirdisch. Ist es echt so schwer zu begreifen, daß Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland zumindest für ein paar Stunden mal Ruhe vom Bullshit der weißen Mehrheitsgesellschaft haben wollen?

Für Leute, die sich an deutschen Sagen und Legenden interessieren: Viele der alten Sagensammlungen aus dem 19. Jahrhundert sind inzwischen digitalisiert und online erhältlich. Wikisource hat eine Link-Liste für diese Sammlungen (falls Ihr noch andere kennt, bitte hinzufügen!).

Diese Liste war extrem hilfreich für meine eigenen Recherchen und Projekte, und man kann da sehr viel Zeit damit verbringen, die Sagenwelt bestimmter Gegenden zu erforschen. Einziger Schönheitsfehler: Die meisten dieser Bücher verwenden Frakturschrift. Aber auch daran kann man sich gewöhnen!

Since we discussed polytheism recently, I thought this article series might be of interest.

Confession time: I am not overly enamored of "rules-lite" RPG systems. As long as the system is coherent and well-thought out, I prefer it when the system has rules for all sorts of things - from tactical combat to running chases to social encounters to falling damage and so forth. I like GURPS, I like D&D5E, I like Pathfinder 2E (although I haven't gotten a chance to try it as much as I'd like).

However, one thing that I want to be as simple as possible: NPC/monster creation. When I am the game master, I want to churn out the stats for enemies that the PCs can overcome as quickly as possible. Any time I spend on building NPC stat blocks is time I can't spend on working out fiendish adventure plots.

Here are a few examples of NPC creation in different systems:

Horribad: D&D 3.X, Pathfinder 1E. Too damn many derived values, templates, and so forth. Far too much math for far too little to show for it.

Bad: Exalted 1E/2E. NPCs have all the same stats as PCs, of which there are lots. Plus lots of charms with overly long texts, in the case of Exalted NPCs.

Decent: GURPS, D&D5E. The math isn't too complicated, and you can easily recycle and modify existing stat blocks - though you have to be careful so that these NPCs are balanced in a fight. Exalted 3E edges into this territory with their "Quick Character" concept - but they spoil it with insisting that "significant NPCs" should be built with all the same rules as player characters.

Good: Storypath System, Exalted Essence. I love how they boil down all skills to: "This dice pool is for what the character is good at, this is what the character is okay at, and this dice pool is when they have to do something they have no real competence at" - and the GM can define these however they like, and even improvise this. Then you have a very few other stats like Health and Defense, and you are set apart from a few special qualities! I've started running Scion very recently, and I am very impressed with this.

So, what other examples do you have of RPG systems that do NPC creation well - and which do it badly?

Modern media portrayals of the Wild Hunt have a fairly consistent portrayal - a huntsman on his steed, surrounded by his hounds. But when you actually start looking into European folk tales of "Wild Hunt"-type phenomena, you quickly notice that the portrayal is rather more diverse than you'd think. Here is one of my favorite examples:

Frau Gauden

There once was a rich and lofty woman by the name of “Frau Gauden”. She was such a passionate huntress that she did not restrain herself from saying these sinful words: The hunt was better than Heaven, and as long as she was able to hunt for all eternity she would never want to enter Heaven. Frau Gauden had twenty-four daughters, and all of them shared the same desire. Once, when mother and daughters again hunted through forests and fields in wild abandon, their joy reached its highest pinnacle and once again the reprobate words left their lips: “The hunt is better than Heaven, and as long as we are able to hunt for all eternity we never want to enter Heaven.”

And behold: Before the eyes of the mother the beautiful clothes of the daughters transformed into shaggy hair, the arms into legs, the human forms into those of animals and - twenty-four she-dogs barked around the hunting wagon of the shocked mother. Four of them took over the role of the horses, and the others roamed around the wagon as hunting dogs. Then the wild hunting party soared forth into the clouds and then, just as they wished, they hunted without end between the sky and the earth, from one day to the next and from one year to the next. But they have long since tired of their wild chase and now regretfully bemoan their sacrilegious wish. Especially the mother grieved not only for her own sad fate, but also that of her unfortunate daughters. But they all must bear their self-inflicted fate until the hour of their salvation. Until then, they may only make their wailing heard before the children of man.

For this reason Frau Gauden steers her wagon to the homes of humans during the Twelve Nights of Christmas, for at other times we children of men cannot perceive her activities. She favors traveling through the streets of the village during Christmas Night and New Year’s Eve, and wherever she finds the door of a house open, she sends one one of her companions into it. A small dog now wags at the inhabitants of the house the next morning and harms no one other than disturbing the peace of the night through its whining. It can neither be calmed nor chased away. If it is killed, it transforms into a stone during the day which, if thrown away, is returned to the house by an invisible force and transforms into a dog again during the night. But now this reanimated dog retaliates by whining throughout the entire year and bringing disease and death over people and animals of the house alike as well as the risk of a fire. Only with the return of the Twelve Nights will peace return to the house, if it has evaded complete doom until then.

Those who do not wish to host such an eerie guest in their house take care to carefully lock the main entrance of their homes during the Twelve Nights. Careless people sometimes neglect to do this, and it is thus their own fault that Frau Gauden pays them a visit. This happened to the grandparents of domestic servants currently living in Bresegard. They were even so foolish to kill the small dog of Frau Gauden, and in return there were neither good tidings nor fortune in the house until the house itself went up in flames. Those who performed a service to Frau Gauden were more fortunate. Occasionally she loses her way in the dark of night and happens upon a crossroads. Crossroads are a bane to her, and every time she comes across one something on her wagon breaks that she is unable to repair by herself. She once visited a farmhand lying in his bed at his farm, woke him up, and pleaded for his assistance in her emergency. The farmhand let himself be persuaded, followed her to the crossroads, and discovered that one of the wheels had fallen off her wagon. He quickly restored the vehicle to motion, and as thanks for his labors she commanded him to gather all the dog droppings into his pocket that her companions had left during her stay on the crossroads. The farmhand was annoyed about such a proposal, but let himself be persuaded when assured that this gift would not be so worthless to himself as he surmised. Both disbelieving and curious he took several droppings with him. And to his considerable astonishment the pickings had turned into gold the next morning. Now he regretted deeply that he only took a few dog droppings with him, instead of all of them, for during the day there was not a trace to be found of the riches he had left behind.

Another time Frau Gauden rewarded a man in Conow who set a new drawbar into her wagon, and at another time still she rewarded a woman in Göhren who carved a new whippletree for her wagon. Both received all the wood shavings which fell down from the drawbar and the whippletree, which turned into pure, splendid gold. Furthermore, Frau Gauden also loves children and at times showers them with gifts. For this reason, children sing the following verse when playing “Frau Gauden”:

“Frau Gauden gave me a little lamb, with it I shall live in happiness.”

Nowadays she no longer favors anyone in this area but has completely turned away from us for the following reason: Neglectful people near Semmerin once left their front door wide open during New Year’s Eve. For this reason they discovered a small black dog lying down on their fireplace which tormented the ears of the residents with its wailing. Thus they desperately needed good advice on how to get this unwelcome guest out of their house. And indeed they found advice from a wise woman who was well-versed in secret arts. She told them that all home-brewed beer should be brewed through an eggshell. So they did - an eggshell was placed into the bunghole of the brew kettle, and as soon as the unfermented beer had run through it, Frau Gauden’s little dog rose up and spoke with clear and understandable voice:

“I am as old as Bohemian gold, but I never dared in my life to brew beer through an eggshell.”

And as soon as it had said that it vanished, and since that time nobody in this region has seen either Frau Gauden or her dogs.

Source: Bartsch, K. Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg, 1879. p. 20f.

So, religions in Dungeons & Dragons fantasy settings usually have some weird "Greek-style pantheism as viewed through the lens of Christian monotheism" thing, with worship of particular deities being fairly "standardized" and big religious conflicts occurring between the worshipers of different gods within the same pantheon. Because you gotta have religious crusades, I guess.

I'm not telling anyone that this is BadWrongFun, but personally I am getting a bit tired of this approach. So instead, how about people worshiping the same pantheons - but interpreting the nature of the gods and the cosmos differently, as well as how to worship them based on their own philosophies and cultural and theological lenses?

As a student of German history and folklore, I can point to the Thirty Years' War - which was one of the longest and most vicious wars in the history of the country, and was triggered in part by religious differences of people worshiping the same God.

Thus, if there is a religious conflict in my setting, I don't want it because people are saying: "You are worshiping the wrong Gods!", but because they are saying: "You are worshiping the Gods wrong!"

Any thoughts on how to interpret the same pantheons in different ways?

Many legends and folk tales can be linked to specific real world locations. Here are my modest efforts at mapping the location of German folk tales, and I have included a few similar maps I am aware of in a links list.

If you know of any such interactive maps, please share the link with me!

Two years ago, I decided to make a list of all the public domain, English-language folk tale collections I could find, and deposited them at Wikisource. If you need to research the folklore of any given region, then I hope that this list has you covered!

Just take some of these works with a grain of salt - especially if the authors discuss a culture that is not their own. Most of these are from the 19th century, after all.