Hag Quest

When we encounter hags in RPGs, they are invariably villainous. They're cruel, manipulative and selfish creatures. We see so much of this archetype that I think it has become the prevailing conception of what a hag is. It's tempting to shrug this off as a symptom of the gameplay requirement for opposition in RPGs: The child-eating crone in the woods makes for an engaging adversary for heroic player characters after all. 

But this issue isn't particular to RPGs. In films, TV, books and games it's hard to escape the sinister hag. Which leads me to think the real reason for this is societal. A hag is not just an old woman, she is a powerful old woman. As such, she's been historically side-lined and vilified to the extent that her negative aspect is all that survives. Which sucks.

So what can we do about this in our RPGs? One thing for starters is to find a representation of the hag as something other than yet another flavour of "nasty old witch who does curses". 

I'm running some D&D games based in my own setting which is inspired by Scottish folklore. Hags are a big feature and yes, in the old tales, sometimes they are antagonists. But the pre-Christian myths and legends, where these stories have their roots, are seldom so clear-cut. There's another side to the hag that we seldom see. The wise-woman. The supernatural guide. The Goddess.

So this was one of the things I wanted to explore with my game setting. A hag inspired by the writing of Sharon Blackie and Lucy H Pearce, and the art of Red K Elders. I wanted to prominently feature hags who are powerful, ancient, and have a meaningful connection to The Otherworld. Hags whose wisdom and experience is honoured and respected, rather than feared and reviled.

As I was planning the campaign, I was also reading the preview for Chris McDowell's Mythic Bastionland. I love the treatment of Seers in this game: Cryptic oracles dwelling in distant sanctums, who know the past, present and future. Players are mechanically and thematically motivated to seek them out for advice and guidance. The Seers are also weird, each changed by their unique gift of Sight. In the presence of a Seer, players will be aware they are in the presence of something not quite of their world.

All of this has led me to a version of the hag I'm having a lot of fun with in my games, and I look forward to sharing this in a future post!