Mythic Metals Versus Real Ones?

[Samloyal23]

How do metals in rpgs, such as mithril and adamant stack up against real metals like titanium and tungsten for strength, hardness, resistance to heat and corrosion, rarity, and weight?

 

[Zhaleskra]

Well, without being alloyed, titanium is very soft. There is something close to real world adamantium, but I forget its name.

 

[Umbran]

Likewise, on it's own, while tungsten may have a high strength under tension (tensile strength), it is usually extremely brittle, and dense - so objects made out of it are heavy for their size - not so hot for armor and weapons. In pure form, it has the highest melting point of any metal, iirc.

The usually most useful form of tungsten is in tungsten carbide (half tungsten, half carbon) - the stuff is hard (in the mineralogical sense - it is very scratch resistant), and has a high melting point, making it good for cutting surfaces of high-speed cutting tools and drills. Swords and arrows, though, don't need that kind of protection most of the time.

It is hard or impossible to rate fantasy metals against real ones, because we are never given good comparisons in the fiction.

 

[Samloyal23]

I found some relevant semi-official crunch for this issue. In an article for Dragon #245, "Heart of the Forge", Wolfgang Baur makes the following footnote:

"2. Iron melts at 1539 C, platinum at 1773 C, mithril at 1904 C, and adamantite at 2280 C."

I have not found any other in game information on fantasy metallurgy but I am sure it is out there somewhere...

 

[Umbran]

Okay, so Tungsten melts at 3422 C. Titanium at 1668 C.

There are a fewer things with higher melting points than Adamantite, but not many. Melting point does not speak much to the other physical properties, I'm afraid.

 

[BigVanVader]

Doesn't matter. Uru metal beats everything else.

 

[neonagash]

I would compare adamantium to depleted uranium because of its hardness and density.

And Mithril to magnesium. Its 50% lighter then titanium and still pretty strong when worked correctly. Which is admittedly a difficult and very modern process.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Given its name, I would expect adamantine to be some form of metallic diamond with a hardness >10 on the Mohs scale. Metallizing carbon takes 3 terapascals of pressure, and I don't think it can be stable under ambient conditions, so it must be innately magical.

Mithral, I've no idea.

 

[Samloyal23]

Any other materials literature or games with more information on them that we can make some comparisons to? Is there some source where it describes the tensile strength of the metal in Wolverine's skeleton for example?