Gloucestershire Earth Mysteries

This maybe one of the most eclectic magazines I have ever come across, Gloucestershire Earth Mysteries, issue 5 from 1987.

I picked it up from an Oxfam charity shop earlier this week and at just 79p, it's been a real revelation, let me explain.

"Earth Mysteries is a term used to describe a loosely connected area of research dealing with ancient wisdom and lost knowledge regarding the landscape, ancient sites and cosmological science." Don't worry - I'm not trying to convince you to become a Vegan, hug trees or start eating organic sprouts, this book offers loads of gaming ideas for anyone looking for original scenarios for D&D, Call of Cthulhu or Lord of the Rings. For example;

Landscape Geometry in Goucestershire - A Templar Legacy? Need I say anything more! As well as being very well written it offers ideas on how the placement of key geographical or man-made structures could have been influenced by man and placed in either actual pentagram patterns or modified patterns. GM's will find the idea of patterns on maps very intriguing.

A Botanical Mystery at the Omega Ring - A study of plants and their placement around an oval structure on Rodborough Common. Once again I would expect the placement of different types of plants, herbs and trees to be used as a clue to the alignment of the structure.

The Hyporeans - Possibly the best written and most researched article in this issue, the origins of the Aryan tribes, their distribution around Europe and how their culture has influenced modern European cultures as well as North American cultures. I could easily write a complete gaming background based on this four page study.

Neolithic Barrows in the Cotswolds (part two) - Another article full of gaming (and modelling) potential.

Investigating the Paranormal at Littledean Hall - If I have to write how this can be used in a CoC game - then my readers are not who I have imagined them to be! Bring your divining sticks for this one.

The Great Pavement - The study of the symbolism of the Orpheus mosaic of Woodchester.

Plus there are others - like the study of Ladywell spring with radioactive Geigertellers to check the radioactive nature of ancient sites!

I have checked the Internet for more stories - try Googling Gloucestershire Earth Mysteries. I came up with this little gem;

http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/undream.htm

A real 'find' and one that I would recommend to any GM, particularly you BigLee. I am sure that you will find much to interest your gaming group in such a magazine. For more info., you could try;

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~rebis/ts-mags.htm

Tony