TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING GAME RESOURCES

The resources outlined on this page fall into two categories: folkloric and historic. Folkloric resources form the basis for imagining the fearsome creatures, artifacts, inhabitants and wondrous happenings of a fantasy-based world. Historic resources offer a depth of realism that builds upon the world’s less fantastical elements and ties the story together. As mentioned before, central to About Old Storytellers or A Game of Campfire Lore are the lumberjack, lost republic, secret society and invisible world. Resources on all of these aspects will be included here in time.

HISTORIC

LIFE WITH THE “JACK” IN THE NORTHERN WOODS (February 5, 1904) by Thomas H. Moodie

The winter home of the lumberjack, the healthy, happy, hearty, care-free, rollicking rowdy, athlete and character is nothing if not picturesque and it well suits the man who inhabits it. Deep in the heart of the pine belts the group of log shacks is reared far in advance of the winter.

AMONG THE WOODCUTTERS (May 04, 1883)

How the Hardy Woodmen Live and Work The Way in Which Various Trees are Cut--A Free and Healthful Life

FOLKLORIC

LUMBERWOODS, UNNATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Creative project to promote folklore, provide public access to rare texts, and renew interest in storytelling and a cultural heritage.

FEARSOME CREATURES OF THE LUMBERWOODS by William T. Cox

“Every lumber region has its lore. Thrilling tales of adventure are told in camp wherever the logger has entered the wilderness. The lumber jack is an imaginative being, and a story loses none of its interest as it is carried and repeated from one camp to another. ... Stretches of forest that once seemed boundless are all but gone, and many a stream is quiet that once ran full of logs and echoed to the song of the river driver. Some say that the old type of logger himself is becoming extinct. It is my purpose in this little book to preserve at least a description and sketch of some of the interesting animals which he has originated.”

THE HODAG AND OTHER TALES OF THE LOGGING CAMPS by “Lakeshore” Kearney

“It was in the bunkhouses of the American lumber camps that the art of story telling reached its peak. No other industry has added so much to story telling as has the lumber camp. Throughout the country, Paul Bunyon [sic] has marched with banners flying, having been adopted in practically every state, where camps have been found. He stands out as the supreme mythical figure of the North American continent.” ... “It is the hope of the author that this book may give a little insight into the stories which were told in old camp days and that it may renew old memories of those who took part in the story telling sessions during those early years.”

FEARSOME CRITTERS by Henry H. Tryon

“It is common knowledge that America has grown at a tremendous pace, so rapidly in that much true folk-lore was born, lived and died with no chance of ever becoming a part of our permanent records. Without doubt this has happened to a good bit of woods lore. Things have just come about too fast.” ... “To those who have held the bag on a Snipe hunt, who have jumped sideways at the call of the Treesqueak, who have studied the trail of the Side-hill Gouger, and who perhaps have had a ringside seat at a Badger fight, this little collection, sympathetically dedicated.”

YARNS OF THE BIG WOODS by Art Childs

“Up in the great lonesome woods of the North the old guides have invented many yarns to explain to the tenderteet from the cities the strange tracks and weird noises, and all the other new experiences of the great outdoors. Mr. Childs was formerly a game warden in the woods of Northern Wisconsin. The stories which he tells here are stories he collected from the old guides themselves.”