Random ideas for things

[The Ubbergeek2]

1. The Dark Eye and the Dragon Warrior (not the (Square-)Enix console rpgs, a system written by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, and that are to be re-reissued and updated by Mongoose Publishing) RPGs. They both fascinated me as a kids, as the books were sold in France (both first editions) amongst a megacollection of gamebooks (the Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy kind).

Anyone tried to adapt their worlds to other rpg systems, specially D&D? How did it go, it fits well? I am thinking at least of stealing some ideas... I loved their worlds.

2. And linked to this. Those two RPGs, but more, their worlds. I remembers that they where doing good, more on the upside and Points of Darkness in light (or at least Points of darkness with much greyness around and some lighty areas)...

Since the current D&D philosophy is to have a dark era and such generally... I wonder if there is ways to make those worlds darker. If not to a Post-Apocalytical level (in places), a Dark Age of sort at least. Kind of an alternate universe...

Is there any plots hooks, BBEG, some Ennemy useable to bring this in a believable, flavourfull way, in Dark Eye and DW? Demons hordes in the shadows, invasions and wars, unholy plagues, cosmic events brooding, magic screw up?


3. Odd idea...

Petroleum and related things were known since ages, if I remember well. In Antiquity, tars were used to seal the ships's bodies, and I think raw petroleum were used in places in lamps (must have reeked..).

So, what if in a fantasy world, an alchemist had ideas about this stuff? Creating maybe naphtalene, *that jelly* and even primitive plastics?
Wonder if it could be done with alchemy, would that be costly, and... Especialy for this 'magic' plastic, would that be usefull in weapons and armors?? How fare plastics in general as armors, would that be good against steel?

And semi-related - the raw product in rl can come from jungles trees, how about rubber? Could vulcanisation be done with primitive science? Alchemical production of a rubber? Would that also be good as an armor material?

 

[Whisper72]

On 3.

Well, the greeks had napthtalene (Greek Fire), so they could make it.

As for rubber, I dont think the ancients would see the need for such a material (the speed at which carts go makes wooden wheels plenty OK on the wheels side).

As for other 'science' stuff, take a look at the stuff Mr. Michealangelo and the ancient Greeks designed.
- massive war engines
- the use of parabolic mirrors and lenses to set stuff on fire at range
- primitive flying machines resembling modern day paragliders
- primitive submersibles / submarines including the design of torpedo like weapons
- clocks, timers etc.

The romans already used clay pots with burning oil to throw at enemies with smaller siege engines...

The Egyptians were known (and most likely earlier civilizations such as the sumerians etc also had this 'technology') to use primitive forms of biological warfare. Poisoning water wells with dead/diseased animals and using biochemical gases as traps for their Pyramid tombs...

The Chinese had gunpowder already over a thousand years ago, and used it as weapons in the form of rockets...

It took the Europeans to craft guns, which in the beginning were simply wooden guns, kinda like barrels with heavy iron bands around them (they exploded as often in your face as fired, but hey, such is the price of progress...). The more primitive cannon were also already present in the mid to late dark ages, perfectly situated within the 'time zone' where most fantasy adventuring takes place...

It is good to consider that the inventiveness of the human mind has not really increased over the millenia, it has been there all along. Only the 'pyramid' of knowledge available has grown over time. Even in ancient times, people were plenty able to invent and build stuff. Think on the Antykythera (sp?) machine for example...

 

[NewJeffCT]

On 3.

Well, the greeks had napthtalene (Greek Fire), so they could make it.

As for rubber, I dont think the ancients would see the need for such a material (the speed at which carts go makes wooden wheels plenty OK on the wheels side).

As for other 'science' stuff, take a look at the stuff Mr. Michealangelo and the ancient Greeks designed.
- massive war engines
- the use of parabolic mirrors and lenses to set stuff on fire at range
- primitive flying machines resembling modern day paragliders
- primitive submersibles / submarines including the design of torpedo like weapons
- clocks, timers etc.

The romans already used clay pots with burning oil to throw at enemies with smaller siege engines...

The Egyptians were known (and most likely earlier civilizations such as the sumerians etc also had this 'technology') to use primitive forms of biological warfare. Poisoning water wells with dead/diseased animals and using biochemical gases as traps for their Pyramid tombs...

The Chinese had gunpowder already over a thousand years ago, and used it as weapons in the form of rockets...

It took the Europeans to craft guns, which in the beginning were simply wooden guns, kinda like barrels with heavy iron bands around them (they exploded as often in your face as fired, but hey, such is the price of progress...). The more primitive cannon were also already present in the mid to late dark ages, perfectly situated within the 'time zone' where most fantasy adventuring takes place...

It is good to consider that the inventiveness of the human mind has not really increased over the millenia, it has been there all along. Only the 'pyramid' of knowledge available has grown over time. Even in ancient times, people were plenty able to invent and build stuff. Think on the Antykythera (sp?) machine for example...

And, with their Greek fire, most people think it was put into a catapult and launched at people. But, the flamethrower has been around for about 2,000 years now:

The concept of throwing fire as a weapon has existed since ancient times. Early flame weapons date from the Byzantine era, whose inhabitants used rudimentary hand-pumped flamethrowers on board their naval ships in the early 1st century AD (see Greek fire). Greek fire, extensively used by the Byzantine Empire, is said to have been invented by Kallinikos (Callinicus) of Heliopolis, probably about 673. The flamethrower found its origins also in the Byzantine Empire, employing Greek fire in a device of a hand-held pump that shot bursts of Greek fire via a siphon-hose and piston, igniting it with a match, similar to modern versions, as it was ejected.[4] Greek fire, used primarily at sea, gave the Byzantines a substantinal military advantage against enemies such as members of the Arab Empire (who later adopted the use of Greek fire).​

Flamethrower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[The Ubbergeek2]

And, with their Greek fire, most people think it was put into a catapult and launched at people. But, the flamethrower has been around for about 2,000 years now:

The concept of throwing fire as a weapon has existed since ancient times. Early flame weapons date from the Byzantine era, whose inhabitants used rudimentary hand-pumped flamethrowers on board their naval ships in the early 1st century AD (see Greek fire). Greek fire, extensively used by the Byzantine Empire, is said to have been invented by Kallinikos (Callinicus) of Heliopolis, probably about 673. The flamethrower found its origins also in the Byzantine Empire, employing Greek fire in a device of a hand-held pump that shot bursts of Greek fire via a siphon-hose and piston, igniting it with a match, similar to modern versions, as it was ejected.[4] Greek fire, used primarily at sea, gave the Byzantines a substantinal military advantage against enemies such as members of the Arab Empire (who later adopted the use of Greek fire).​

Flamethrower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some Discovery(?) or History channel show (the guys who try to remake forgotten inventions of the past to see if they were forgotten for good or bad reasons) shown a chinese flamerthrower cart, kinda tiring to use though..

(Peoples forget how China got so advanced at first - some historians points at a possible proto-industrial revolution (the parameters for it) that could have started in Song dynasty... And so, to my last point lower, I may make the 'East' actually the most advanced nations of this world for a change.)

Now, my gameworld wouldn't be too advanced, maybe the early start of Eberron-style techmagic (or mudane tech) - still poundering on things like Warforged and Gunpowder.

But also, one of my rpg influence is alternate history - the intelectual hobby of doing What if? to history and create timelines and such (a very good source of rpg ideas, peoples should look at it). And such, I dont always have my techs as set blocks as 'original timeline' had - like a game of Civilization, some techs may have come later, earlier, or not yet... And there is the thing called Magic as shown in Eberron who is a wild card of sort.

 

[The Ubbergeek2]

More

4. GURPS.

I heard a lot of good will toward the quality of the supplements for it, at least for the researches on the subjects, fluff and all.

What are books, suplements, files, magazines articles, etc... That a D&D or other fantasy DM would really like and would give ideas and stuff to use - settings, plots, monsters, etc? Anothing GURPS really worth to get, GURPS Fantasy or general GURPS?


5. Okay....

There is many non-europeam. non-medieval historical periods and places to use, and the offers of less common fantasy tropes is augmenting. Got some notes from here, EnWorld and other places...

Still, there is a bit of a few holes...

By example, I'd have a sort of vague Australia in my world, and a precolonial America of sort of as well. is there any settings based on both from which to get good ideas and stuff?

I saw a thread once on someone here who had ideas about a precolonial-colonisation fantasy "australia", and I heard about the 7th Sea rpg and its sibling lines, Nyambe and Northern Crown - NC interest me, but it seems quite a close(r) copy of real world unlike Nyambe and 7th sea, with a Secret History and some magic added; anything more fantasy even?