The Fairy Tale “The Mighty Monster Afang” and the RPG

           This fairy tale in the written version begins with a description of early life in Wales, talking of the wars the Welsh went through to take the land and the struggles to carve out the wilderness. This makes this story significant for the creation of RPG or fantasy worlds because it is written much like the stories any creator of such worlds should make for the creation of their lands. Or as another interesting possibilities the early parts of this folktale can describe what the people within the fantasy world are currently trying to do. The story of forging a place for a civilization can be one of the more interesting within the fantasy worlds, and it is worth reading many of the Celtic tales fro inspiration on this.

            One can of course tell that “The Mighty Monster Afang” was written in the early 20^th century as much of that time periods thinking has infected the story. One must be careful when reading to either not allow as much of the racial elements influcance their story line or to do so in such a way that would allow for the creation of a positive message (much as Huck Finn, Uncle Toms Cabin and other stories with negative themes allow for contrast.)

            The fairy tales back story however like much of that within the fantasy world is merely set up to help make what is occurring in the story more significant, for the world after much struggle has finally become a happy and beautiful place. There is however one challenge that rises again which the people have no means of facing, it is the Might Monster Afang. A dreadful giant creature that devours people. No man can face it so a women must.

            It is interesting to note that the girl who saves the Welsh people is not what most people today would expect from a heroine, for rather then being a tom boy, or a rough and tumble in any way she is a girl with many fine dresses and wonderful smelling perfumes. She is a wealthy girl who spends a lot of time to make her self look pretty. She is however very smart and courageous. As with most books and fairy tales victory comes through cunning more then strength, humans all seem to like the idea of cunning for victory. For many people who run RPG’s there is the thinking that combat should be the primary means of victory, perhaps this is from the concern that the players may not be cunning enough to win. However in tabletop RPG’s the GM can feel the players out and adjust the game to fit their needs. The GM can even provide help as needed for it is not the great warrior that defeats Afang alone, he gets help from an unlikely source and it is ok for the GM to provide such sources. After all RPG’s and fantasy worlds are about the story.