I’ve recently begun listening to the “Myths & Legends” podcast and I was reminded of Matt Colville’s comment that “as creators, we’re only as good as the obscurity of the references we steal from.” The stories and creatures described in this podcast strike me as absolutely phenomenal references – at least some of which will be suitably obscure for your players.
In this series, I’ll be linking to an episode of Myths & Legends, and discussing how you can incorporate that story into your game. I’ll also make a D&D 5e statblock for the mythical creature featured at the end of the episode and suggest hooks and uses for that creature in your game.
Most of the stories we’ll look at in this series can be incorporated into your game a few basic ways. We’ll explore each of these possibilities in more detail.
- The players can be substituted into the story as characters. While making the players the protagonists of the story may be the most straightforward choice, making them the antagonist can help make your references more obscure.
- A character connected to the story can be an NPC who they meet before, during, or after the events in the story.
- The events of the story could be historical with their long term consequences playing out.
- The events could be a myth or legend in your setting that can be referenced in the world through idioms, art, stories, and so on, in the same way they are in the real world.
I’m looking forward to diving into these stories and finding ways to build richer game experiences with these classic stories.
Designing Games 