What are the wierdest things you've learned gaming?

[shilsen]

That a human being can get depressed/angry when his fictional character's fictional sword gets eaten by a fictional monster

 

[coyote6]

Considering that it's wrong, yes it is Arcane Knowledge. AFAIK, gauge refers to the number of identical balls that it would take to make one pound of lead shot--12 guage 12 balls, 20 gauge 20 balls, etc.

If a ball weighs (say) 1/10th of a pound, then 10 of those balls would weigh 1 lb; if something weighs 1/X, then X of them are going to weigh X pounds. Thus, he was correct, and so are you.

Meanwhile, somewhat back on topic . . .

"Stuff learned through gaming" is going to overlap with a lot of other interests -- gun enthusiasts might know shotgun gauges, or formulas for black powder; SF fans might also know the latter, too.

 

[Elephant]

I've forgotten most of the little tidbits I originally learned when I researched castles and such. Nothing was very practical, since by the time I started playing D&D I was pretty much past the 'make a report on something' phase of school. Otherwise I would have rocked when we got to the middle ages.

One of the weirder things:

The Rock Hyrax can sound exactly like a screaming human baby. They are a mammal but cannot control their body termperature. They are so unlike any other animal that they have their own Order. Their congealed urine and poop is used to treat epilepsy and convulsions.

What is the Rock Hyrax's range?

Also, you chose an odd choice of words. I would have picked either 'pee and poop' or 'urine and feces' but not a mixture of the two.

 

[der_kluge]

Lots of words. And some I'd never get to use outside of gaming - verisimilitude, for example, or gestalt.

I learned a lot when writing Artificer's Handbook. For example, the vikings used a gem called iolite as a rudimentary compass, because it has a special property that reflects light a certain way if it's position is stable, thus you can tell the precise location in the sky with an iolite gem. Weird stuff like that. Or that the corpse flower is an enourmous flower that only grows in one place in the world naturally, is like 5 feet in diameter (it's actually thousands of small flowers combined) and smells like rotting corposes. It also only blooms like once every 14 years or something like that.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I've learned alot about alot of stuff. I don't know where to begin. Gaming has also indirectly helped increase my knowledge by getting me interested in something that I will further investigate only to usually find out that I think the gaming book is incorrect or implemented an idea improperly.

 

[Stone Angel]

The origin of the term "a buck" derived from pelt traders and early forms as trading vs. currency.


I also have had the pleasure of playing with two different people that had their doctorate in physics, and I have learned a lot of stuff that has leaked out of my brain since then, like that glass is a liquid, or a semi-solid or something


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[Pants]

I learned that mispronouncing the word 'brazier' can result in lots of laughter...

 

[Krieg]

How shotgun guages are derived (it's in Grim Tales). Basically, an X-Guage shotgun is a shotgun with a bore just the right size for a 1/X pound lead ball. Now, that's pretty much the definition of 'Arcane Knowledge,' at least in non-gaming terms.

City folk. *shakes head*

 

[Wycen]

My contribution to this thread:

Druids worship poo.


That is to say mistletoe means "dung on a stick".

 

[jgbrowning]

I learned that conscience isn't pronounced con-science. Thanks Star Trek the role-playing Game (1st Edition).

Hey, I was young

joe b.