What are the wierdest things you've learned gaming?

[hero4hire]

I learned how long it took an (average sized) body to burn to ash on a bonfire.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I have learned about all sorts of weird and off-the-wall conspiracy theories about a variety of sujects. I have a supers game that flourishes when the characters chase down weird organizations and misfit lunatics. Some of my players' favorites involve bad guys that are conspiracy nuts or centers of conspiracies. For instance, there is a great conspiracy involving JFK which revolves around The Murder of the Devine King, suggesting that some arcane goofballs whacked him as part of a blood ritual. I just adopted that for some villains that were planning something similar.

 

[MonsterMash]

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.

That nearly put me into convulsions!

Back on topic - lots of odds and ends about probability (that I would have learned in school later), bits of vocabulary and odd knowledge, hard to say exactly what's from gaming and whats from other things.

 

[Sir_Syco]

I've leant that my real strength is 15 (AD&D2E) due to the max amount I can bench press.

 

[Shallown]

I learned why canabalism is bad beside the moral implications. Thanks to Aftermath I believe it was. It ha to do with Human flesh having all the same bad germs/diseases etc as the human eating so the likelyhood of it making you sick increases if not cooked properly. This is also why Pork is dabgerous if ill prepared becuase pig metabolism is similiar to human.

Later

 

[Frostmarrow]

I learned that some things man wasn't meant to know.

 

[Ravellion]

The imperial measurement system.

 

[WayneLigon]

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.

I was trying to find confirmation of that. I seem to remember it can, in fact, pee an amazing distance. Like 10 feet or something absurb like that; they mark their communal burrow like that, by urinating on a rock wall. The calcium carbonate left behind when it evaporates serves as a visual marker. Along with the smell, I suppose. But I couldn't find the page I saw that on long ago when I was doing a few writeups for desert/arid animals for my desert-based D&D campaign at the time. 'Poop' was the first thing that came into my mind after trying to find the blamed thing for a half-hour or more.

 

[mythusmage]

Hyrax: Closest relative, the African Savannah Elephant. Of the placental mammals has the largest range in body temperature during the course of the day.

Pigs: Has to be fully cooked (and I do mean fully) thanks to a parasite commensal with the pig. Eating under cooked pig results in trichinosis. Which is nasty.

Stuff I learned.

Words like 'dweomer'. Measures of distance such as 'rod' (16.5') and 'chain' (66' or 4 rods). The fact a Create Water cast by an 8th level cleric in a 10 by 10 room with four small fire elementals produces a lot of water vapor, and four dead small fire elementals.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

While researching the history of firearms for my game, I learned that Henry the Eighth had bodygaurds with shields that incorporated a pistol into the design.