I'm sure all of us use myths and legends and things like

>>54674397
Folklore is like wine, it needs both time, and the right conditions to blossom into something worth consuming.

Unfortunately Americans didn't really have enough time between colonization and the dawn of the modern age to get really good folk lore down. Best we got is stolen stories of skinwalkers from the natives, and maybe the mystery of the Roanoke colony or some shit. There's just not all that much to draw from honestly.

>>54674397
>paul bunyan the giant loli
Pretty sure that's a trap, anon.

>>54674551
Nani? We've got plenty of folklore. The people who don't have anything but stolen stories are the Canadians, whose cultural icons include... Coffee?

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>>54674397
>Paul Moeyan
Reminder that machine beats man, suck it nerds.

>>54674397
>American folklore

Big Rock Candy Mountain
Trickling Down Economy
The continent being empty
Classless Society

>>54674397
No.

>>54674723
>machine beats man
Tell that to John Henry, egghead.

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>>54674746
>dies because he couldn't handle the stress
Synthethicc puss wins again.

>>54674397
American folklore sucks. Native American folklore is fucking rad.

>>54674780
It's a moral victory, something a toaster like you can't understand.

>>54674702
We've got dumb shit like The Sidehill Gouger.

>>54674397

Yes, but only in Call of Cthulhu. It's the most AMERICA of games.

>>54674796
>moral victory
>the greatest among men cannot hope to compete with robutt
At least Paul took his defeat with some dignity, you could learn from him and Babe.

>>54674397
No. We've got plenty of home grown folklore, no need to import it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore_of_the_United_States

The US has a lot of folklore that lends itself well to campy or spooky or lighthearted story telling.

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>>54674397
Currently have a game where the party is dealing with the setting equivalent of the Jersey Devil, which is under the control of a witch that convinced it she's his mother.

Also, there is plenty of American folklore, even if has roots from other cultures. Various crytpids like Bigfoot and the Mothman, heroes of tall tales like Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill, countless ghost stories (The USA is considered to be one of the most haunted countries along with Japan and England), and more contemporary urban legends like Roswell, The Hook Hand Killer, and that Polybus.

Heck, in my area along, we got Civil War ghosts, the Mad Gasser, the Bunnyman, and Chessie the serpent of Chesapeake Bay.

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I always loved the way American folktales were set up. They're different than a lot of other folktales because in stories like John Henry or Paul Bunyan, they're just doing normal hard labor, but in some ludicrous or extraordinary way. I like to mimic this format when doing some backstory for my setting, so I can have some big historical figures, while still allowing the player characters to be able to be the Perseus or Jasons of the world. Also I use jackalopes quite often.

In my elementary school, we had a this crappy book of Paul Bunyan that was the first book I ever read. It was the normal story, but had crazier feats like the Grand Canyon forming because he was dragging his boots across the desert due to depression, and he then proceeded to fill it with pancake mix and make giant hotcakes. I've never found that book since then.

>>54674949
>bunny man
Isn't that just a loom in a bunny suit with an axe?

My current 5e setting pulls a LOT from the trappings and folklore of the Appalachians and the Ozarks.

>>54675011
True, but the close down Bunnyman Bridge every year on Halloween because of people claiming they saw him there, and meddling kids getting themselves hurt.

>>54675091
Better have the tailypo.

>>54674959
I think I read that same book,but I remember it being his a?e he was draging that cut out the canyon.

>>54674677
And?

>>54674677
She's a girl.

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>>54674702
Canadian here, can confirm, all our shit is stolen from the natives.

My personal favourite comes from my hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and it's the Sleeping Giant. Apparently it was Nanabozho, who got so depressed when a rich silver mine was revealed to the white men that he turned himself to stone.

Put the Goatman in your games. Freak people out.

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French canadian here. A lot of stuff is from native american, but in our culture we also have many thing from the European folklore. Witches (La coriveau), Werewolfs, Marsh-fire, Leperchaun, evil horses (Trois-pistoles black horse) and Satan himself doing shit during parties to make women look like sluts (for 18-19th century standard) until the priest stop everything by casting detect evil and throwing holy water fucking everywhere.

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>>54674959
Shope papilloma is no joke!

>>54676658
Goatman and Mothman are my go-tos.

>>54677128
Always forget how weird the early simpsons art style looks in hindsight

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>>54674397
WENDIGOS
AND
SKINWALKERS
NIGGA

>>54675011
It's the GHOST of of a loon in a bunny suit with axe. Totally different.

>>54679066
But skinwalkers aren't anything special anon. They're relatively harmless for one. We hardly ever interact with people.

>>54678411
You tried.

>>54678257
I never knew this. Have I been using cancerous rabbits in my campaigns this whole time?

I'm legitimately trying to make an American Frontier/Lewis and Clark-like adventure game except in an America where all American folklore and mythology is real and i'm having trouble placing it at that point because a lot of it actually has to do with the Civil War or Native Americans.

Ran a brief game for a hiatus in GURPS a while back. Basic premise was 'pirates of the caribbean but with cowboys'. Plenty of folklore; wendigos, corpse powder, skinwalkers, the party played dice with the devil.

It was good shit.

>>54676645
>>54674804
>MFW Im from Quebec and i have enough legends to build a whole setting around it.

Suck it, you canadafags! QUEBEC LIBRE.

>>54681995
>I'm legitimately trying to make an American Frontier/Lewis and Clark-like adventure game except in an America where all American folklore and mythology is real and i'm having trouble placing it at that point because a lot of it actually has to do with the Civil War or Native Americans.
Check out Colonial Gothic. Might give you a couple of ideas.

I see what you're saying, though. At that time, most of the mythology was just straight European stuff.

>>54674397
I've always loved the fuck out of John Henry. no idea why, but I like to put subtle nods to it in games that take place in modern-ish times.

as per usual, /tg acts like they know stuff when they don't know shit. Lots of American folklore has been branded so much that people seem to stop thinking of it as "American". There's a plethora of folklore that people discount because they heard the basic bitch version 100 times when they were kids and assume there's no depth to it. some sources, in no particular order
Mothman
Man in the Mountain
Jersey Devil
Champ
El Dorado
Paul Bunyan
John Henry
Johnny Appleseed
Salem Witch Trials
Pecos Bill
Joe Magarack
Coyote
Blood Clot Boy
Captain Kidd
Billy the Kid
Black Bart
Blackbeard
Pretty much every famous pirate
Buffalo Bill
Calamity Jane
Emperor Norton
Geronimo
St. Elmo's Fire
The Fountain of Youth
Hiawatha
Rip Van Winkle

As far as I can tell people don't like American folklore because it doesn't feel as "mythic" as old world folklore, aside from the entirety of Native American myth (which most people have little to no knowledge of) American folklore focuses on people instead of gods or monsters.

>>54682576
>coyote
?

>>54674796
It was also a pyrric victory, since all he proved was that a man could surpass a machine at the cost of his own life.

>>54682576
>El Dorado
That's South America.
>Salem Witch Trials
Literally not folklore
>St. Elmo's Fire
Literally a worldwide natural phenomena
>Native American anything
Valid but people are trying to avoid it in favor of settler/colonial folklore.
>Real people
Not folklore

>>54682703
Anon are you aware of the myth surrounding Blackbeard? He was literally a living legend.

>>54681047
This is correct, fleshgaits are the real terrors.

>>54674397
closest I ever did was a really powered down version of the cherokee legend of Spearfinger

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>>54682589
>Coyote
native american trickster god

on par with Loki for shenanigans if a little less promiscuous IIRC

>>54682960
Shapeshifters having babies. Not even once

>>54682576
>Salem Witch Trials

Pretty overrated, sure 20 hung witches might sound impressive but remember around the same time in Europe they're doing stuff like decapitating and then burning 70 witches in a single day.

>>54682960
I dunno, if vagina dentata didn't stop him what would?

>>54682976
Something, something, Zeus.

>>54682703
>>54683002
this is exactly the kind of faggotry I was talking about
>Salem Witch Trials
>Pretty overrated, sure 20 hung witches might sound impressive but remember around the same time in Europe they're doing stuff like decapitating and then burning 70 witches in a single day.
Yeah reality is pretty lame, good thing the story is about women holding black mass, fornicating with the devil, laying curses on the townsfolk. possessing people, attacking their souls, causing famine, turning people against each other, having trials and hangings creating paranoia as people try to survive and sell out their neighbors, so fucking boring.

>>54682976
Tbf out of those three two of them were fathered by him so he didn't go full shapeshifter degenerate.

>>54683137
wasn't he the mother in at least one case?

>>54683002
>Pretty overrate
Thats kind of the point, folklore and myth has grown up around it.

>>54674805
Does Sothothian Mythos count as American folklore?

>>54676018
I fucking LOVE the tailypo, that shit is tight.
Decided to pull it out when the party went all Dungeon Meshi.

>>54678406
Isn't goatman just a Satyr with an axe that hates dogs?

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>>54679066
Wendigo are pretty cool.

>>54683759
Nah. He's a shapeshifty woodland spook a la skinwalkers.

>>54674397
but American folklore IS foreigner shit I use to spice my games up.

what are you even saying?

>>54674816
wait, what defeated paul? Last time i remember, he was having three men wade into his beard with axes to try and trim back the unruly scruff.

>>54682576
>as per usual, /tg acts like they know stuff when they don't know shit.
>posts Paul Bunyan, the marketing mascot

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>>54684051
>all those fucking Americans always marketing their mythology, how disrespectful

>>54682576
>Emperor Norton
What's folkorey about him? He was a real guy.

tl;dr 19th century homeless crazy dude in San Francisco that declared himself Emperor of America and wandered around greeting his subjects. He was just so damn nice about it that the city council let him preside over their meetings.

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=43

>>54684049
>wait, what defeated paul?

The chainsaw.

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>>54678406
Mothman is the prophetic hermit that appears at night, standing in the trees or on the distant ridge. He always foretells doom and death to the party before flying away. all they can see of him is his great red eyes,luminous in the darkness. And his voice is Draconic, Dwarven, Orc and Elven (no humans in the party), spoken as one voice, with even tone.

It all started about a month into the campaign, with the party at level 5 and starting to feel confident. one night, while they were at camp, the orc passed his perception check, and saw pic related, standing on a distant boulder. Gigantic glowing red eyes, shaggy body, indistinct form with wings... but too distant and too concealed in darkness to see positively, except for the red eyes.
Being a good party member, he roused everyone else and made ready to bring divine fire down... except the Mothman stayed at a distance, unmoving, waiting for everyone to be awake and ready, and then spoke.

"Thirty two. They will not rest. At the next sunset. You can change the outcome."

And then he flew away.

Next day, the party came into a fairly big town, they were looking to find out what they whole thing meant, when the Rhombus Shirt Waist Factory (on the far side of town) caught fire, and all the workers were more or less locked inside. The party arrived just in time to see the first flaming spectre emerge from the fire, screaming curses at the cruel conditions that allowed her to die.

Yeah, Fighting off multiple waves of flaming undead (with assistance from the guard and firemen of the city) put things in perspective for the party. Made for a cool recurring NPC too.

>>54682576
Pecos Bill was an Exalt living in America. Raised by coyotes, he grew up speaking the language of the animals. until his brother with a matching tattoo found him and brought him back to society, by which i mean a ranch. When a wild horse proved too deadly to tame, he chased it on foot for three days just by running along behind it, and then, when he finally caught the horse, the horse said that he'd sooner die than be ridden by a man, but Pecos Bill told him that he was a coyote, so it was totally cool.

And then there was the time that he caught a twister and rode it across the great plains until it gave up and set him down, buck naked, in the middle of the mojave. The tornado was so fierce that it had reduced the five-dollar piece in Bill's hand to sixteen cents in change, and turned the knife he had clutched in his teeth into a nail.

>>54683002
>around the same time
Sure if you mean 300 years earlier and with "witches" you mean forgers, fornicators and heretics.

>>54683759
Dogman, frogman, deerman, goatman and apeman are pretty much the same creature with different animal features and considering skinwalkers/Wendigo has shapeshifting capabilities in some folklore, you could argue they're all wendigoes.

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Does anyone have stuff like pic related except with american fantasy stuff

Aside from all the amzing lore surrounding the hundreds of tribes in the New World, you also have Frightful Critters haunting the lumberjacks, voodoo witchcraft in the south, the whole of the new england area is the home of so much Lovecraftian literature. Throw in some stuff about cowboys and the supernatural and you have a pretty solid supply of lore to build off of. I remember a thread a few years back where someone had the great idea to include lich oil-barons who drew their power from the oil itself. Also, aliens, so many urban legends about the huge variety of aliens trying to probe human booty.

>>54682576
lets not forget the head less horseman the horror at Donner pass, the legends around HH holmes. the lovecraft mythosand most creepy pasta including slender man

>>54684488
Or the time his bride-to-be tried to ride his mule, and it bucked her so hard she hit her head on the moon.

>>54685073
I like the alien stuff but its hard to call that mythology because of their inherent disconnect from the culture; but alien conspiracies is very much an American invention

>>54683178

He was the female horse and gave birth to Sleipner

You don't need American folklore. Actual American history is fucking weird enough as it is.

Look. read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community

You cannot make this shit up.

>>54684279
Folklore doesn't become folklore out of thin air, anon, this shit is formed out of weird encounters or weird people.

>>54685365
>and eventually become a silverware company
lmao wut

>>54684979

Wendingos sound like furries.

>>54674397
Yes sometimes, but as someone who's not american that is me using fokelore from another country to spice up my games, so it's all a bastardised blend of a wikipedia page passed through the filter of insomnia fuelled session prep.

>>54685365
America has a long history of individuals deciding that they have diving providence and trying to make their own society
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemima_Wilkinson

>>54674551
Wasn't "The Mystery of Roanoke" literally that they all moved to a better site and even left a fucking forwarding address that said where they'd gone?

>>54674804
"When a clockwise gouger meets a counter-clockwise gouger, they have to fight to the death since they can only go in one direction."

Didn't Dr. Seuss write something like that?

>>54682052
I'd say that's a fair trade for having to be French.

>>54685712
something something political commentary

This is a pretty timely thread as I've been wrestling with something. I'm working on a wild west themed setting and I'm wondering if I should use general American folklore and urban legends, even if it's unrelated the west, such as Paul Bunyan or the Mothman and such. I plan on leaning heavily into native american stuff in general already as a theme (as it's kind of currently split between "wild west tropes" and "native american stuff" to exemplify "cowboys versus indians"), but I'm thinking, if I don't use American themed stuff in what's probably the most distinctly and iconically American setting, where else would you possibly use them?

The reason it's a bit of an issue is because someone else in a similar space also did a wild west themed world, and while that's normally not an issue considering there's many ways to diverge from such a broad concept, one thing they did was use general American mythology, and my worry of "where else would I use this if not for here" derives from that.

>>54685723
Eh, fair enough.

What magic system would you like for this setting
Louisiana voodoo- spirit protection magic, and occasional divination
Braucherei- Amish healing and protecting magic/ Cleric
Granny Magic- old fashion potions /alchemist
Witchraft- demonic deals/ warlock
Medicine Man- more protecting magic/ shaman

>>54685853
Deadlands would be my system of choice

>>54674959
I was more of a Pecos Bill guy.
Remember when he fucking Lassoed a goddamned tornado? Shit was sick as FUCK.

>>54675091
I assume it involves a lot of rape?

>>54674729
>Big Rock Candy Mountain

God dammit now I'm gonna have that song stuck in my head for the next week.

One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fires were burning...

>>54685809
Paul Bunyan would be a pretty good inclusion, historically he led the trail west and created the Grand Canyon when he headed north. His wrestling with Babe is what was said to create all the mountain ranges. Johnny Appleseed is also about westward expansion. Look to all the gold rush myths, since the history pretty much was that once the Rockies were crossed everyone rushed to California and then settled the "west" from all sides with missionaries heading back east, settlers from the west, and loggers from the north.

>>54686107
I actually didn't know Paul Bunyan was west related. But in general, what do you think about other american folklore that isn't related to the west? Do you think that stuff is enough to make its own setting? That's the part that's bugging me. For example, what I'm building for decided that Greek and Roman mythology was enough to seperate even though I think in most people's minds they are similar enough to combine, and the reason was that Greek mythology can be everything that encompasses that, whereas the Roman world would have enough space to sort of be a gladiator, polilitican-y world. That's the kind of difference I'm trying to see if I can make. I just don't want it to seem like I'm ripping off the other guy's western setting if I do use general American folklore as that's a pretty unique take on the wild west setting I think, whereas my take was mostly going to be an emphasis on native american stuff in contrast with the western tropes.

>>54682576
Alright alright, serious question
Who wins in a fight

John Henry or Joe Magarac?

>>54683178
He gave birth to Sleipnir, and I know I read a version of the myths that says he was the one who gave birth to Hel, as a result of the giantess who bore her brothers Fenrir and Jormungandr getting burned by the Aesir and Loki eating that giantess' heart.

>>54685809
You can always have the masked lawman, even though it was never really documented in the west.
Also moon men/ mars men...though no one ever agreed what they looked like... maybe MtG bunny people or even mothfolk.

>>54686300
I would actually really like an excuse to do moth people.

>>54686199
Isn't Joe Magarac literally made of steel? As much as I love John Henry I think Magarac's got this one.

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>>54686536
>Steel driver not beating the man literally made of steel

>>54685639
Yes. And when it was looked into a couple of decades later, the indians at that address were known to have the occasional blonde-haired kid.

The only mystery is why people still call it a mystery.

>>54686798
Why would they willingly move with injuns and start fucking them?

>>54686841
Gotta get that sweet, sweet pocahontas pussy

>>54682960
I swear that even from the original myths that Loki is a girl dressing like a boy.
>In a non-fucking-fetish way.
-Constantly changing into a woman
-Odin has a soft spot for woman... and and no forgiveness for dishonorable men. Except when it comes to Loki? Certainly forgives him enough times.
-Magic and tricks were considered woman's weapons in Norse mythos
-Has kids.
-Pining after thor's approval (cause she has a crush on him)

>>54674397
Man, fuck Fate.

>>54686841
To avoid starving to death over the winter. Their settlement was shit, so they packed up their valuables and left. Early America had far fewer racist shitters than people think, that was the conquistadors.

>>54686107
johnny is the inspiration for my Dionysus figure. that's why he planted apples.

>>54686607
A steel driver doesn't break steel though, he breaks rock. Unless John Henry's steel drill can drill through a steel man I think Magarac still has the advantage.

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>>54686973
>Conquistadors
>racist

Yes, converting to Christianity and integrating the natives to Spanish culture so much that modern South America is more Spanish than native makes them racist

But when France, England and later the US displace and nearly genocide the natives off their lands and just leave them in a reserve segregated from the rest of society nobody gives a shit

>>54685723
"French"

You know Johnny Appleseed, real name John Chapman, was a real person right? And he didn't just spread seeds around, he planted nurseries of cider apples, specifically for hard cider. A little loony, yeah, but still he was real.

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>>54674397
On the 4th of july, my DM told us to make a character based on a US state.
(Mine was new mexico, a tinfoil-hatted Warlock who received his powers form aliens)

In a dead-on Nicolas Cage impression, he gave us our mission- to rescue the spirit of freedom (a giant sentient eagle) who had been captured by the evil forces of big brother (a beholder who had a fortress hidden in mount rushmore).

Only a one-shot, but very fun.

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>>54674677
It's a girl, Jack has been quite literally inside her.

>>54683066
>Something, something, Zeus.

He's low-tier. Like his births were from his calf and from his brow.

>>54685853
All of thee above, it's just a matter of what you choose to practice.

>>54688332
He was also best friends with the guy who would become immortalized as Uncle Sam

>>54686199
How many hammers does John have?

>>54674729
It was mostly empty, Vineland colony may have failed, but they managed to spread smallpox to the Indians. By the time American expansion started the native population was reduced to just 8% what it had been 300 years prior.

>>54684204
>all those fucking Americans always marketing their mythology, how disrespectful
I don't understand what you're trying to say, but Paul Bunyan was invented by a marketing company in the early 20th century.

>>54692105
You literally have no idea what you're talking about. That's like claiming Coke invented Santa Claus

>>54688074
Because they aren't race mixing degenerates and there's not much in the way of a native population left to be upset.
Also I think something like 50 to 60% of native Americans marry outside of their own race.

>>54674397
Deadlands is literally american folklore the spooky spaghetti western.

>>54674397
Americans don't have folklore and culture, though.

>>54685205
Alien abduction is the modern day demonic possession. Carl Sagan wrote an article about the similarities.

>>54682576
My friend, I've read 30+ thick ass regional folklore books, I've got plenty of shit stored up here

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Here, its a list I made about American folk creatures, there's about 200 in there.

I've done a LOT of shit with American folklore, so if there's anything you want to know, just ask

>>54694960
How many of those 200 creatures are various regional variations of bigfoot?

>>54695006
I don't even have bigfoot on there, guy

But there's a fuck ton of big snakes

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>>54694960
this is fantastic, thanks bro

>>54674397
Paul Bunyon is nothing compared to the local hero Joseph Montferrand.

Mainly because Joseph Montferrand actually existed.

>>54674551
>Best we got is stolen stories of skinwalkers from the natives
And we can't use the legends of the people who inhabited this land for a few thousand years because...?
Native American mythology is interesting, especially when you start mapping the shares elements between tribes/geographic regions

I'm not American but I can think of quite a bit of folkore. Mothman, sasquatsch, jackalopes, wampus, snallygaster, headless horseman, sewer crocodiles. Not to mention urban legends

>>54685604
>deciding that they have diving providence and trying to make their own society
>Trying
The state of Utah and the City of Clearwater would like a word with you

>>54674397
nah, just apply dwarf fortress in every creature and then make their personality and objectives myself.
its easier that way, and more creative

>>54691626
>Uncle Sam
Speaking of American mythology, let's talk about the personification of the spirit of a country. It's not unique to America, but it's pretty amazing how quickly Sam took on a life and force of its own