History, Mythology, Art and RPGs

[Dannyalcatraz]

Ah well, it's a cool name but ... I think he rocked a lot harder when he was in his old band.

But as you know pirates used flags to scare their enemies, I wonder if the old Peter Von Danzig flew anything like this...

G.

And what if the ship's captain sounded like the "Evil Elvis" himself?

"Captain...
Tell your sailors not to come my way.
Tell your sailors they can sheathe their swords
If they fight
we will slay,
Captain...

Captain!
Can you keep them from the plank of death?
Can you keep them from those hungry sharks?
Oh, Captain!"

 

[Galloglaich]

Ok speaking of modern pirates and shall we say, misfits?

Here is a new innovation from my local fencing group, which hearkens back to ye olde punk rock 80's and our adolescent obsession with Mad Max, I peresent a totally retarded creation, as of yesterday:

The SDA NOLA Zompoc urban survival uber-Dussack

Coming soon to an apocalypse near you...

G.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Looks cool!

When you said "local", I had to look at where you said you're living...I'm from New Orleans!

...barely- I'm an army brat who moved away when I was 4, but made frequent trips back to see the rest of the family up until Katrina hit.

Good to see that gaming in some form is alive in my old hometown.

 

[Galloglaich]

Wow.. no kidding? Small world huh brah?

I was born and raised here, left town for a while in the mid 90's but came back about twelve years ago now, a few of my old friends from the old scene (like the guy in the photos above), live nearby now in the same neighborhood. A bunch of them are in my fencing club.

To be honest I don't do a lot of gaming any more, sadly, just a trickle here and there. This quasi-blog is my main gamer outlet these days. I have this fencing club doing HEMA fencing and that is where most of my Medieval instincts go to these days. It also keeps me from getting in trouble because i can get my aggressions out.

I'm hoping to start something up again soon though, everything and everybody got so scattered since katrina it's only now starting to come together... hopefully we can get through this year without a real bad oil soaked storm coming ashore. But I'm going to try to put together a group next month actually to do some beta testing of this canned adventure I'm doing for the Codex. If it goes well enough maybe I'll try to run an actual campaign.

If you are ever coming back to the 504 send me a PM or an email we can get together for a pint of Guinness and talk RPG nerd stuff

G.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, post-Katrina, I don't get back to the Crescent City that much- almost everybody in my family who lived there in 05 moved to D/FW where I am!

But I still have a couple of cousins there. If I get an invite, I'll drop a line!

 

[Wolf1066]

First and foremost, a heartfelt thanks to you, Galloglaich, for starting this thread and your many extremely informative, thought-provoking posts herein. Likewise thanks to the other contributors. This has pretty much got to be the best thread on any forum I've been on (and that's coming from a veteran "Forum Whore").

Subjects near and dear to my heart - it's taken me a number of days to read the thread with "minimal" side-trips to chase up some of the interesting links I've found here.

One of the myths we English-speakers live with is the idea of historical progress, a legacy of Victorian thinking. So in order to feel right about the world we have to believe our ancestors were nastier, more brutish, and shorter* the further back we go in time. But when you look closer, you can clearly see, this was not necessarily the case.

Well said. I note that a lot of people have the attitude of "but people were more ignorant/stupid/savage/uncivilised/etc back then" and it's quite common to be dismissive of our ancestors' capabilities - to the point, it seems, of being prepared to believe crack-pot theories that the ancient wonders had to have been built by aliens "because there's no way those ignorant savages could have built it..."

In fact, you listen to half the fad-diets these days and you would be forgiven for wondering how we managed to survive for so long as a species, given that everything we've traditionally eaten is "gunna kill us for sure". Our poor ancestors must've had a hard time surviving without the benefit of having half a dozen quacks pointing out where they were going wrong with their food every fifteen minutes...

People latch onto anything they can to feel that we've improved as a species, that we're smarter, more civilised, better, than those who came before us.

The reality is far far more interesting.

My favourite cultures/periods of history are "Pre-Christian "Celtic" Europe" and 1700s.

A bit of a contrast in some ways. But the thing that doesn't change is the inventiveness and complexity of people.

 

[Galloglaich]

Interesting tidbit for anyone who thought of using spider silk cloth in their campaign:

check it out

Spider Silk | American Museum of Natural History

notable quote:

"For its weight, spider silk is stronger than steel, but—unlike steel—it can stretch up to 40% of its normal length. Scientists are trying to produce this intriguing material artificially on a large scale for possible uses on the battlefield, in surgery, for space exploration, and elsewhere. Since raising spiders has proven difficult, researchers are investigating ways to replicate spider silk to avoid harvesting. However, spider silk is difficult to mimic in a lab because the silk begins as a liquid in the spider's gland, becoming a remarkably strong, water-resistant solid after following a complicated course through the spider's interior."

G.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have long dreamed of becoming the world's first spider-rancher. Alas, besides the problems with harvesting spider silk, protecting my investment would prove difficult. Every try branding one of those suckers?

 

[Galloglaich]

Found a cool research website while doing background on the Medieval Baltic for my new canned module for the codex, though I would share:

All to do with the interractions of Wolves and Teutonic knights for example, spooky....


http://www.beasts-in-the-woods.org/index.html

G.

 

[Galloglaich]

First and foremost, a heartfelt thanks to you, Galloglaich, for starting this thread and your many extremely informative, thought-provoking posts herein. Likewise thanks to the other contributors. This has pretty much got to be the best thread on any forum I've been on (and that's coming from a veteran "Forum Whore").

Subjects near and dear to my heart - it's taken me a number of days to read the thread with "minimal" side-trips to chase up some of the interesting links I've found here.

Thanks a lot Wolf!

Well said. I note that a lot of people have the attitude of "but people were more ignorant/stupid/savage/uncivilised/etc back then" and it's quite common to be dismissive of our ancestors' capabilities - to the point, it seems, of being prepared to believe crack-pot theories that the ancient wonders had to have been built by aliens "because there's no way those ignorant savages could have built it..."

This makes me think of a documentary I saw about Machu Pichu. After listening to the confident explanations of some people that the stones in a particular wall were so strait they could only have been cut with lasers, a local archeologist walked the camera crew over to the nearby quarry where all the stone came from, then using traditional techniques took a half finished block, straightened it out with nothing other than another stone, and added it to an unfinished wall. It was every bit as flat as the others...

Yes I agree this is a disease of modern perceptions, which goes to a deep emotional level with many folks. I have this argument with a lot of people including some good friends.

In fact, you listen to half the fad-diets these days and you would be forgiven for wondering how we managed to survive for so long as a species, given that everything we've traditionally eaten is "gunna kill us for sure". Our poor ancestors must've had a hard time surviving without the benefit of having half a dozen quacks pointing out where they were going wrong with their food every fifteen minutes...

It's funny how much they are going back to old Mediterranean diets etc. for heatlh now, having gone full circle through the 1950s improvemetns likke margarine..

The reality is far far more interesting.

My favourite cultures/periods of history are "Pre-Christian "Celtic" Europe" and 1700s.

Have you ever seen the film "With fire and Sword"?

A bit of a contrast in some ways. But the thing that doesn't change is the inventiveness and complexity of people.

Both are fascinating and evocative periods. Pre-Christian Europe is particularly enigmatic, but a huge amount of material has been published by Archeologists in the last 10 years, particularly out of Spain.

G.