No livestock

[Pielorinho]

the intake of CO2 would kill the plants too.

Not sure I follow--you're just saying that Cloudkill would kill the plants? True, but I'm not sure that's because of respiration (and note that plants "breathe" oxygen as well as carbon dioxide):

This spell generates a bank of fog, similar to a fog cloud, except that its vapors are yellowish green and poisonous. These vapors automatically kill any living creature with 3 or fewer HD (no save).

Note that there's no mention of whether something breathes in here. If you used this trick, it'd be to sterilize a field before planting, not use it during planting.

A day when I get to be pedantic about ecology, botany, and dungeons and dragons is a day well spent .

Daniel

 

[JEL]

Yep. As I understand it, forest rangers burn parts of forests too. 'Large' is a very relative term though. I don't think they would have burned down more forest then they needed to, but I don't know.

For an interesting look (and somewhat contraversial) at the use of fire by the early Americans, I recommend a book called The Ecological Indian.

 

[Voadam]

Voadam and Thornir, I think you guys are both missing the point.

The Black Plague came from Asia in the same way that AIDS came from Africa. They are diseases that were previously unknown in the world and that devastated all humans they came into contact with. Sure, you can argue that Asians carried the Black Plague and Africans carried AIDS, but its different because they were also subject to it. They are not carrying diseases that they themselves are immune to, while at the same time carrying on a mission of colonization.

Saying that smallpox was known in Asia and India (which happens to be in Asia) 3000 years ago is a nice bit of trivia, but has no bearing on the theory that the diseases that the Europeans bore with them was a major factor in the success of European Imperialism, as there was no European Imperialism 3000 years ago.

This isn't my theory, and I don't claim to be an expert in it. If you're interested, I'm sure a quick search on the web or on Amazon will come up with lots of reading material, and will be able to present the theory much better than me. As stated above, basically the theory is that Europeans, due to their culture (specifically living in close proximity, often in the same structures, as cows, pigs, and other domesticated animals), were carriers of diseases that helped them in their colonization efforts, all over the globe.

No, I believe you missed my point. You said, as I quoted earlier "America in particular was devastated by the diseases brought by the Europeans, but Asia was as well."

I responded that I heard of European diseases brought to the Americas and decimating the population but I have not heard of European diseases being brought to Asia and decimating the population.

Europeans had imperial interests around the globe. I've only heard of disease being a factor in the Americas. I'm asking when was European disease a factor in making asian countries subject to European rule? I've never heard of it being a factor in, say, the british ruling India.

I've never heard of European diseases decimating populations in Asia or elsewhere across the globe except in the Americas.

 

[diaglo]

Not sure I follow--you're just saying that Cloudkill would kill the plants? True, but I'm not sure that's because of respiration (and note that plants "breathe" oxygen as well as carbon dioxide)

it mentions that some living things are immune to poisons. this usually in the rules refers to things that don't breathe. i wasn't going into specifics just saying the same thing. plants take in air/gas... a cloud...

you got it right. during photosynthesis... plants take in CO2 and H2O and expel O2 as a by product along with C6H12O6 (sugar) and H2O

6CO2 + 12H2O -> C6H12O6 + 6H2O + 6O2

Calvin Cycle



and you also have Krebs Cycle giving off CO2...

2 pyruvate + 2 GDP + 2 H3PO4 + 4 H2O + 2 FAD + 8 NAD+ ----> 6 CO2 + 2 GTP + 2 FADH2 + 8 NADH


and then you have....





i just meant the Cloudkill would be harmful to most things in the area just like Agent Orange...

 

[Hand of Evil]

I was reading a theory recently that the big difference between native American culture and European culture was that the native Americans never domesticated a big, burly animal that could pull huge loads.

What happens to D+D settings if all the domesticated critters bigger than a dog get removed?

North Native Americian, South and Central had lamas.

I don't know that it would matter, a lot of wonders were performed by shear man power and even today we can't figure out how it was done. The question would be would their be the population to perform tasks. I guess it comes down to knowledge and need.

Constructions - while not cheap, I wonder about animated obects. You also have that whole use of the dead.

Elementals and creatures from other planes: Okay, cost is an issue but what work can you get done for the first born of every person in your area?

 

[Pielorinho]

For an interesting look (and somewhat contraversial) at the use of fire by the early Americans, I recommend a book called The Ecological Indian.

Another interesting book is Changes in the Land: it is a historical/ecological study of New England, and makes the very interesting point that the landscape prior to the arrival of Europeans wasn't unchanged by humanity, but was indeed very influenced by the regular fires that Indians set. These fires led to forests that were easier to walk through (as the fires cleared out the underbrush while leaving the larger trees intact), reduced catastrophic fires (again, by reducing underbrush, fuel didn't build up for big fires), and increased habitat for game animals like deer.

Early Europeans marveled at the almost museumlike quality of the American forests, thinking that the American wilderness was relatively hospitable compared to European wildernesses. What they didn't realize was that it wasn't a wilderness, but was simply a ecosystem managed in a fashion different from what they were used to.

Daniel

 

[d4]

What about the horse?

actually, there is some fossil evidence for horses in the pre-Columbian Americas. apparently, the early Native Americans ate them all.