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Casting the Runes: Occult Investigation in the World of M.R. James
Casting the Runes is an investigative roleplaying game based on the stories of the supernatural by M. R. James. It uses the acclaimed Gumshoe system to place the investigation and research at the heart of the game. The characters are investigators of the occult and uncanny: scholars, historians, archivists, academics, parapsychologists, or even occult detectives in the mould of Carnacki or John Silence.
Set in the Edwardian Era, Casting the Runes is a complete roleplaying game and includes everything needed for evoking the period and investigating the uncanny. With an extensive list of professions, investigative and general abilities, plus rules for Stability, Social Class, Magic, and of course, ghosts, demons and creatures of the supernatural. It also includes extensive sections on the nature of clues, how to structure them, and detailed insights into the social strata of the Edwardian period.
The game rounds out with two introductory adventures: The Coptic Lamp and The House With the Brick Kiln - both fascinating scenarios in the vein of traditional M. R. James ghost stories!
Set in the Edwardian Era, Casting the Runes is a complete roleplaying game and includes everything needed for evoking the period and investigating the uncanny. With an extensive list of professions, investigative and general abilities, plus rules for Stability, Social Class, Magic, and of course, ghosts, demons and creatures of the supernatural. It also includes extensive sections on the nature of clues, how to structure them, and detailed insights into the social strata of the Edwardian period.
The game rounds out with two introductory adventures: The Coptic Lamp and The House With the Brick Kiln - both fascinating scenarios in the vein of traditional M. R. James ghost stories!
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
2 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Paul StJohn Mackintosh
27 books9 followers"Paul StJohn Mackintosh is one of those writers who just seems to quietly get on with the business of producing great fiction" - Paul Michaels, This is Horror
Paul StJohn Mackintosh is a Scottish poet, writer of weird and dark fiction, translator and journalist. Born in 1961, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, has lived and worked in Asia and Central Europe, and currently divides his time between Hungary and other locations.
Paul's first collection of dark/weird/transgressive fiction, Black Propaganda, appeared from H. Harksen Productions in May 2016. His second story collection, The Echo of The Sea & other Strange War Stories, was published by Egaeus Press in October 2017. His novella The Three Books was published by Black Shuck Books in March 2018. Paul's dark, fantastic and Lovecraftian fiction has appeared in numerous formats and journals worldwide, including Weirdbook, Ghosts & Scholars, and a number of anthologies.
Paul's short story 'The People of the Island,' in Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales, from H. Harksen Productions, received an Honorable Mention from Ellen Datlow in her 'Best Horror of the Year Volume Two' list for 2009, and his story 'The First Circus of the New Year' received the same in 2016. His acclaimed first poetry collection, The Golden Age, was published by Bellew Publishing in 1997, and reissued on Kindle in 2013, and his second poetry collection, The Musical Box of Wonders, was published by H. Harksen Productions in 2011. His co-translations from the Japanese, done with Maki Sugiyama, include The Poems of Nakahara Chuya (1993) and Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (1995) by the 1994 Nobel Prize-winner Kenzaburo Oe, which won a Japan Festival Award. He translated the poems for the Japanese photo-travelogue and exhibition catalogue Utamakura (Asuka Historical Museum, 1998). He also co-translated Superstrings (2007) by Dinu Flamand from Romanian with Olga Dunca.
Paul is an Associate Editor for the US books, publishing and literary website Teleread.org, writing regularly on cultural and publishing matters, and has been rated #1 of "The 12 Publishing Shakers You Should Be Following" by The Independent Publishing Magazine. He writes and reviews regularly for outlets including Strange Horizons, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Weirdbook, the Lovecraft eZine, See the Elephant, Ginger Nuts of Horror, and elsewhere. He has co-produced award-winning short films with his ex-wife, the Hungarian filmmaker Lilla Bán. He is an active member of the BDSM community and an occasional contributor to Skin Two. He is also official clan poet of Clan Mackintosh.
Paul StJohn Mackintosh is a Scottish poet, writer of weird and dark fiction, translator and journalist. Born in 1961, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, has lived and worked in Asia and Central Europe, and currently divides his time between Hungary and other locations.
Paul's first collection of dark/weird/transgressive fiction, Black Propaganda, appeared from H. Harksen Productions in May 2016. His second story collection, The Echo of The Sea & other Strange War Stories, was published by Egaeus Press in October 2017. His novella The Three Books was published by Black Shuck Books in March 2018. Paul's dark, fantastic and Lovecraftian fiction has appeared in numerous formats and journals worldwide, including Weirdbook, Ghosts & Scholars, and a number of anthologies.
Paul's short story 'The People of the Island,' in Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales, from H. Harksen Productions, received an Honorable Mention from Ellen Datlow in her 'Best Horror of the Year Volume Two' list for 2009, and his story 'The First Circus of the New Year' received the same in 2016. His acclaimed first poetry collection, The Golden Age, was published by Bellew Publishing in 1997, and reissued on Kindle in 2013, and his second poetry collection, The Musical Box of Wonders, was published by H. Harksen Productions in 2011. His co-translations from the Japanese, done with Maki Sugiyama, include The Poems of Nakahara Chuya (1993) and Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (1995) by the 1994 Nobel Prize-winner Kenzaburo Oe, which won a Japan Festival Award. He translated the poems for the Japanese photo-travelogue and exhibition catalogue Utamakura (Asuka Historical Museum, 1998). He also co-translated Superstrings (2007) by Dinu Flamand from Romanian with Olga Dunca.
Paul is an Associate Editor for the US books, publishing and literary website Teleread.org, writing regularly on cultural and publishing matters, and has been rated #1 of "The 12 Publishing Shakers You Should Be Following" by The Independent Publishing Magazine. He writes and reviews regularly for outlets including Strange Horizons, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Weirdbook, the Lovecraft eZine, See the Elephant, Ginger Nuts of Horror, and elsewhere. He has co-produced award-winning short films with his ex-wife, the Hungarian filmmaker Lilla Bán. He is an active member of the BDSM community and an occasional contributor to Skin Two. He is also official clan poet of Clan Mackintosh.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 8, 2021
Trail of Cthulhu, but without the tentacles. And a bit more streamlined. Really a fantastic game and sourcebook. Creepy and eerie, not shockingly terrifying, if you're playing it the way it was intended. Combat need not even take place to have a fully enjoyable game (and a great change of pace from "hack and slash" or "shoot the shoggoth"). My kind of game, through and through. So glad I sprang for the deluxe edition. It's a fabulous book, physically speaking, one of the more elegant RPG books I own (Carcosa beats it out, but . . . Carcosa).
Displaying 1 of 1 review