Look behind the curtain of our design process. Dangerous Magic is built upon decades of collective experience and real world experience. To understand the philosophy behind our engine, we invite you to explore this curated collection of our own external developer blogs and foundational reference articles. These writings document the creative breakthroughs that inspired us to step away from traditional games and build this sanctuary from the ground ground up.

  • Tournaments are not swordfigthing

    What is a Tournament for and How do I use them?

  • Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage – Stephen Budiansky

    The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas (Trans. Richard Pevear)

    Cyrano de Bergerac – Edmond Rostand (Trans. Anthony Burgess)

    The Complete Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Elizabethan Adventures – Matthew Wallhead

    Mortality, Magic, & The Ephemeral (Memento Mori)

  • Memento Mori – Muriel Spark

    Come, Lady Death – Peter S. Beagle (In The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle)

    On a Pale Horse – Piers Anthony

    The Lady of Shalott – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    A Midsummer Night's Dream – William Shakespeare (Eds. Barbara A. Mowat & Paul Werstine)

  • Plato's Universe – Gregory VlastosTimaeus (Dialogue) –Plato

    The Prince – Niccolò Machiavelli (Trans. Harvey C. Mansfield Jr.)

    Books that Matter: The Prince – Dr. William J. Landon (The Great Courses)

  • The Italians before Italy: Conflict and Competition in the Mediterranean – The Great Courses

    The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World – Dr. Robert Garland (The Great Courses)

  • The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing 16th-Century Dress – Ninya Mikhaila & Jane Malcolm-Davies

    Patterns of Fashion 3: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women c. 1560–1620 – Janet Arnold

    The Modern Maker: Men's 17th Century Doublets (Vol. 1) – Mathew Gnagy

    Moda a Firenze 1540–1580: Lo stile di Eleonora di Toledo e la sua influenza – Roberta Orsi Landini & Bruna Niccoli

    The Elizabethan Costuming Page – Drea Leed

  • Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma (1610) – Master Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli

    The Rules of Lord Baltimore's Challenge – Designed and authored by Lord Baltimore's Staff

  • The system mechanics governing self-compelled traits, situational consequences, and narrative resolution within The Life of the Party are adapted from the foundational concepts of the Fate Core System:

    This work is based on Fate Core System (2013), a product of Evil Hat Productions, LLC, developed by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Mike Olson, Ryan Macklin, and John Keller. The Fate RPG system elements are utilized under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

  • While this library reflects the immediate, conscious blueprints used to construct The Life of the Party, a work built on forty years of shared community history can never be fully quantified on a single page. This game is shaped by a lifetime of quiet influences: the half-remembered lines of poetry that look back at us from the dark, the unlisted fantasy novels read in our youth, the visual texture of a hundred different historical campsites, and the countless hours spent sharing stories, sweat, and steel with friends across the lyst field. To the unnamed authors, artists, trainers, and companions who have left an invisible mark on our hearts and our craft, your spirit is woven into every plank of The Siren's Wail Tavern. Thank you.