The strange research DMs do...

[Katana_Geldar]

I write fiction every so often, but I have found that my gaming sessions have brought about the strangest research so far.

For example:

I know that hanging someone with the "long drop, short stop" method wasn't really used until the 19th century. Before that it was the slow strangle which could take about twenty minutes (and I talked to my sister, a med student, about what this would look like). So this was plenty of time to shoot the rope.


Any other stories? I think there's one I did for Star Wars, but can't remember it.

[Tvtyrant]

In a group that got in a fight over gold coin weight conversion with a merchant in a city with a different currency and spent months fighting with the DM over the conversion rates used by medieval Venice to prove their point.

End result; they burned the city down. But we did discover the Venice reminted all coins brought into the city as their own currency.

[Asheram]

I must note that research isn't just for DM's.

As a player I once spent a few weeks reading up on medieval economics, the forming of deserts and four thousand year old farming techniques.

[Tengu_temp]

I mostly run modern day and futuristic games. I spent so much time looking up various cities all over the world and notable buildings in them that one'd think I'm studying architecture.

[Poil]

I researched a lot of ancient Egyptian mythology for my current Shadowrun mage. All lot of stuff about the various gods and their domains. Why anyone would use the two boring default traditions is beyond me (unless you only have the core book of course). :smallsmile:

[Eldan]

In a group that got in a fight over gold coin weight conversion with a merchant in a city with a different currency and spent months fighting with the DM over the conversion rates used by medieval Venice to prove their point.

End result; they burned the city down. But we did discover the Venice reminted all coins brought into the city as their own currency.

Oh god, don't remind me. English and French minting techniques?. How to clip money without it being too obvious? Testing metal quality of a coin? How to mix something that looks like silver? How to prevent clipping? I read up on all that when one of the players tried to make fake silver coins.

Of course, there was also the time I had to read up on the silk road and all the stops on the way. Or how different ships were rigged for different weather. Navigation with and without watches. Babylonian mythology. Irrigation techniques. Various alchemical experiments. Different chemicals that could possibly qualify as "Greek Fire".

[Jerthanis]

I was actually going to reenroll in college to take a History class about the Cold War and intelligence/counterintelligence operations specifically for a game taking place at that time and in that climate... but I couldn't find what I was looking for.

[Solaris]

I've looked up everything from Akkaddian clothing to biots for my games.

Then the players, they just try to burn the town down. Le sigh.

[Lilithgow]

Roughly four hours, in a non-air tight coffin, varying for amount of panic and body type. That's how much air is in a coffin.

The average wooden coffin also ways around 250lbs.

This makes my game sound a little grim, I realize.

[Eldan]

Roughly four hours, in a non-air tight coffin, varying for amount of panic and body type. That's how much air is in a coffin.

The average wooden coffin also ways around 250lbs.

This makes my game sound a little grim, I realize.

You could just watch Mythbusters for that :smallwink:

Oh, and there were apparently some baroque and victorian coffins with air slits. Which probably doesn't help underground, but at least until they bury it.

[some guy]

Though I don't do all that research for D&D, for Call of Cthulhu all the more. How much a corpse will decay in a certain time, legal issues, how morgues work, strange rituals and beliefs about organs, how tranquilizer darts work. Sometimes during jogs or bike rides I look around for creepy, abandonded place to set the adventure. I once thought of buying The Serpent and the Rainbow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_and_the_Rainbow_(book)) just for the game.

[Eldan]

Seems like an interesting book to own in any case. Really, a lot of the research I do is just as much personal interest. I love little bits of knowledge I?ll probably never use.

Sometimes, I can also apply university lectures creatively. Botany lessons are interesting if they give you access to the medical herbarium. Though more than half of all plants there apparently just help with unspecified "stomach problems".

[Yukitsu]

I mostly do crop yields, urbanization, population demographics. I'm the guy at the table that will lampshade the strangely tiny armies and cities DMs tend to add to their settings.

"And this great capital *insert description here*"
"What's the population, including the farms?"
"About 10,000."
"And this is 1650? We're really out in the boonies."

I also read up a ton on period warfare. Less the weapons in particular, more manuevre, deployment and so forth.

[evirus]

Popular Victorian era poisons. Specifically what would be involved making them, how tracable, what are the effects before/after death and ways to apply them.

I then sent a summary to one of my players investigating a murder. My google targetted ads have never been the same since...

[Asheram]

Popular Victorian era poisons. Specifically what would be involved making them, how tracable, what are the effects before/after death and ways to apply them.

I then sent a summary to one of my players investigating a murder. My google targetted ads have never been the same since...

This is why every PC should have a silver spoon on hand. :P

[Traveler]

Temperate swamp ecosystems, crops and how weather effects them, realistic trap designs, basics of a growing economy, these just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Why must my players feel the need to build a fort and start a town in every campaign?

[HappyBlanket]

Tangetial Learning, mate. Don't fight it, embrace it.

[Traab]

I mostly do crop yields, urbanization, population demographics. I'm the guy at the table that will lampshade the strangely tiny armies and cities DMs tend to add to their settings.

"And this great capital *insert description here*"
"What's the population, including the farms?"
"About 10,000."
"And this is 1650? We're really out in the boonies."

I also read up a ton on period warfare. Less the weapons in particular, more manuevre, deployment and so forth.

If I were the dm, id harumph and point out that most medieval towns back in the day didnt have to deal with goblins, liches and lamias keeping the commoner population down. Then tell you you just tripped and fell face first into a 10 foot deep pit full of sharp pointy rocks and deadly scorpions. :smallbiggrin:

[darkpuppy]

Yup, lots of lovely research done when you're a GM. I have an absolute buttload of tour guides, science books, and history books, not just as fuel for my games, but because, heck, it's interesting stuff!

I think the best one was a mirror of "Dolan's Cadillac", the Stephen King story... somebody was planning to make a pit trap for a large vehicle, and this immediately came to mind, whereupon we spent a good hour working out exactly how to really screw over a siege tower... xP

[Yukitsu]

If I were the dm, id harumph and point out that most medieval towns back in the day didnt have to deal with goblins, liches and lamias keeping the commoner population down. Then tell you you just tripped and fell face first into a 10 foot deep pit full of sharp pointy rocks and deadly scorpions. :smallbiggrin:

Extreme dangers tend to cause increased congregations of resources, not diminish it. :smalltongue: If there were some podunk kingdom with a cap of 10K dudes vs. a goblin army lead by an insane lich riding an angry lamia, you wind up with a nation that is far more boned than a realistic one. Constantinople standing up against that would be far better off, even if ultimately doomed, and about 400 years older than the 1650s. (Lichdanbul was once Constantinople now it's Lichdanbul and not Constantinople).

[Aricandor]

Mostly things related to how nebulae would look from the surface of a planet if you were close enough that they'd take up most of the night (and day!) sky.

Also, how lava really affects us poor mortals (convection and gas is a biiitch).

[MickJay]

I once calculated how much grilling charcoal would be needed to burn an average-sized human female body in a baker's oven, for a nWoD Hunter game. It was a rather grim case we were investigating.

[Traab]

Extreme dangers tend to cause increased congregations of resources, not diminish it. :smalltongue: If there were some podunk kingdom with a cap of 10K dudes vs. a goblin army lead by an insane lich riding an angry lamia, you wind up with a nation that is far more boned than a realistic one. Constantinople standing up against that would be far better off, even if ultimately doomed, and about 400 years older than the 1650s. (Lichdanbul was once Constantinople now it's Lichdanbul and not Constantinople).

Ah true, but you are thinking pre lamia riding lich army population centers. These are the survivors of the last great purge of humanity, struggling to rebuild from the ashes of the last campaign of evil. Like the black death that swept through europe, killing off an estimated 30-60% of its total population, the world of D&D is constantly fraught with large scale death and destruction. Oh sure, in europe, with a population of something like 200 million, 10,000 in a capitol city is a backwater. But here in whatever world they are in, its one of the last thriving major population centers in a world that is constantly being picked apart by monsters, demons, and angry gods. And sure it might make sense from a statistical standpoint for the survivors to all band together, but id like to see the reaction of 14th century england and france if someone suggested that they merge together to survive!

[LibraryOgre]

I still maintain that the ultimate example of this is David Chart, line developer for Ars Magica. IIRC, he went back to school to get a degree in medieval studies so he could play Ars Magica better.

[Yukitsu]

Ah true, but you are thinking pre lamia riding lich army population centers. These are the survivors of the last great purge of humanity, struggling to rebuild from the ashes of the last campaign of evil. Like the black death that swept through europe, killing off an estimated 30-60% of its total population, the world of D&D is constantly fraught with large scale death and destruction. Oh sure, in europe, with a population of something like 200 million, 10,000 in a capitol city is a backwater. But here in whatever world they are in, its one of the last thriving major population centers in a world that is constantly being picked apart by monsters, demons, and angry gods. And sure it might make sense from a statistical standpoint for the survivors to all band together, but id like to see the reaction of 14th century england and france if someone suggested that they merge together to survive!

That would make sense, but sadly my DMs never run post apoc campaigns. :smallfrown: Games would make a lot more sense if they were though. Instead we get civs that have been population/tech/culture locked for 5000 years. :smallfrown:

[Traab]

That would make sense, but sadly my DMs never run post apoc campaigns. :smallfrown: Games would make a lot more sense if they were though. Instead we get civs that have been population/tech/culture locked for 5000 years. :smallfrown:

Ah that definitely makes sense to complain about then. The way I see it, the various worlds of dungeons and dragons and its related games are ones that are under constant threat of total annihilation. How many campaigns have been run against the forces of darkness? How many towns, cities, or villages have been decimated by the various threats that exist? That HAS to keep the total population low. These worlds werent in stasis until your party of adventurers came along after all.

[Yukitsu]

Ah, it's not so much that I complain, or that it bothers me. I just hang lampshades on everything the DM does that seems rather odd or sometimes rather stupid.

[HappyBlanket]

Ah, it's not so much that I complain, or that it bothers me. I just hang lampshades on everything the DM does that seems rather odd or sometimes rather stupid.

Fact; not every dm enjoys having a flood of lampshades hanging over his gametable.

[Volos]

I've DMed all sorts of games in many different formats. I never do any research. I have only had one player who was a history buff, and he got really upset that I wasn't representing X properly. X would change from session to session; be it gladiatorial battles, style of boats, type of drink, face paint on the barbarian tribes, or anything else he felt like nit-picking at. I got fed up with it and told him flat out, "Show me where it says that you can't have these style boats in this bay, show me where it says that those barbarians wear blue rather than red paint, and show me where it says that they wouldn't be brewing beer instead of mead here! Oh that's right, this isn't 'Earth'. This is my campaign. Want to see the history? It's right here!" And I dumped my campaign notes into his lap.

Now I have played with DMs who do their research because they want a more 'accurate' game and I've had fun playing with them. I have played with history buffs who weren't calling out every 'discrepancy' and have had a great time playing with them. There is room for research to be done, but in my opinion research isn't necessary. In a world where humans aren't the sole sentient species, wars are fought against monstrous humanoids or dragons as often as against neighboring nations, magic abounds in the form of natural talent as well as in magic items, and the gods can be very active participants in the happenings of the world... research doesn't really do that much good. If your game has only humans, no monsters, no magic, and no active gods... then I can see where research can be of use and will actually make the game fun.

[shadow_archmagi]

I still maintain that the ultimate example of this is David Chart, line developer for Ars Magica. IIRC, he went back to school to get a degree in medieval studies so he could play Ars Magica better.

I always get Ars Magicka mixed up with Arx Fatalis, often with disastrous results

[Tvtyrant]

That would make sense, but sadly my DMs never run post apoc campaigns. :smallfrown: Games would make a lot more sense if they were though. Instead we get civs that have been population/tech/culture locked for 5000 years. :smallfrown:

Because nothing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kingdom)like long term technology lock has ever happened before. :smallwink:

[Saintheart]

Extreme dangers tend to cause increased congregations of resources, not diminish it. :smalltongue: If there were some podunk kingdom with a cap of 10K dudes vs. a goblin army lead by an insane lich riding an angry lamia, you wind up with a nation that is far more boned than a realistic one. Constantinople standing up against that would be far better off, even if ultimately doomed, and about 400 years older than the 1650s. (Lichdanbul was once Constantinople now it's Lichdanbul and not Constantinople).

Intentional pun?

[Kalirren]

LOL Lichdanbul!

I once started off a Mulhorandi priesthood campaign with the Biblical story of the slaughter of the Midianites (Numbers 31) as a moodsetter. That went -very- well.

Other strange research: how to grow vanilla; how the Indian caste systems work; the history of Gibraltar; the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; following Marco Polo's route on Google Earth.

Edit: the global history of brothels for my current campaign (and I'm not even DM'ing)...

[Solaris]

Fact; not every dm enjoys having a flood of lampshades hanging over his gametable.

No kidding. Player keeps it up, I'll have to invite him to knock it off, leave, or DM because clearly he can do it so much better than I. There's a tremendous amount of differences between the real world and D&D settings. Population density is pretty much the least of them.

[Yukitsu]

No kidding. Player keeps it up, I'll have to invite him to knock it off, leave, or DM because clearly he can do it so much better than I. There's a tremendous amount of differences between the real world and D&D settings. Population density is pretty much the least of them.

Actually, that's pretty much what I manned up to do. Strangely, in a case of truth being stranger than fiction, it's some historic things that break my player's sense of versimillitude, like crude torpedoes being around in the 13th century, and my refusal to let them have plate armour, but other than things that did exist in reality, the DM did admit I didn't do anything that seemed internally incoherent, despite my complete lack of setting preperation.

It's not hard making a setting that feels real. It's just something a lot of DMs fail to do, and it honestly leaves places feeling artificial and incidental.

[Swordguy]

I'm honestly shocked that nobody has mentioned this yet: Steve Jackson Games vs the Secret Service (http://www.sjgames.com/SS/).

Short version (IIRC): while conducting research into their next splatbook, GURPS Cyberpunk, the Secret Service raided Steve Jackson Games and the book author's house because the research had been thorough enough that it had tripped flags warning the government that SJ Games was writing a "handbook on computer crime".

Say what you want about the GURPS system itself, but damn if they don't do their research.

[Seerow]

In a shadowrun game we once spent several hours looking up the terminal falling velocity of a Wyvern.


Come to find out there is a skydiving team known as the Wyverns. Who knew?

[Serpentine]

They did, I presume.

I've done some research on American art (for treasure and decorations), religions, and in particular the Mayan number system for my game.

[Yora]

That would make sense, but sadly my DMs never run post apoc campaigns. :smallfrown: Games would make a lot more sense if they were though. Instead we get civs that have been population/tech/culture locked for 5000 years. :smallfrown:
I learned the rough timeline of the prehistoric age system with neolithic, bronze age, and iron age precisely to have some guidelines for my homebrew setting. The "cave men" age ended just 10,000 years ago and the bronze age lasted just abour 2,000 years. So even with slowed down development, pre middle-ages settings have only about 10,000 years of humanoid history to work with at the most.

Working for sci-fi games, I learned a lot about the inner workings of guns from all ages and all sizes. Including several experimental technologies.
Or the basics of starship cloaking devices. :smallbiggrin:

[Eldan]

Oh, and the exact effects of Scurvy.

"Phh. The guy is ripping us off. Why else would that kind of ship ration's be twice as expensive, just because it has some fruit and stuff included?"

Edit: I even included a shipboard surgeon who urged them to drink Vitriol to fight the effects.

[Jarawara]

I once had a DM who would dock you 100xp if you didn't stay in character or otherwise make reference to something "not of the appropriate era and setting".

One player was then describing to his teammates the color of an item he had seen. It was a deep blue, so he described it as being "Navy Blue" in color.

He was docked 100xp, because "Navy Blue" didn't exist in the middle ages.

He (and I) didn't stay in the campaign long.

[Godskook]

-Population growth over time, accounting for immortal patriarchs.
-Cartography, Geography
-Evolution of an ecosystem over time
-Ninja rituals of L5R
-Foreign languages(french/spanish/mandarin)

[Heliomance]

-Ninja rituals of L5R

Ninjas? What is this? You dare accuse the Shosuro of such? Ninja do not exist, no samurai would behave in so honourless a manner. Draw your sword, dog!

[Ormur]

Mostly the standard stuff like climate, ocean and wind currents, demographics, early modern economics, law and politics. I'm studying history so most of that wasn't exclusively for my game.

I remember I spent some time looking for information on river sailing, pre-steam. I wanted to know what methods of propulsion and speed were plausible upriver. I knew barges were sometimes dragged by oxen but that didn't seem reasonable for a 1000 km long trip up a calm major river. I didn't really find any detailed information on this but I concluded oars and wind were enough, especially since the prevailing winds blew against the flow.

[Serpentine]

You looked up travel on the Nile, didn't you? That'd seem the obvious place to start.

[Solaris]

Boning back up on sunlight-independent ecosystems has been somewhat interesting.

[Serpentine]

Heh, yeah. Good exercise of my memory of ecology classes, too.

[Jarawara]

Bugs.

Ok, I admit it, I like bugs. They are curious, vicious, yet somehow serene and aloof from the machinations of mere mortals like ourselves. And yes, they're also icky, which is part of their charm.

So I look around at the bugs in my yard, the spiders in my eaves, the anthills in my garden. I watch them, I study them... and I emulate their behavior in my games.

(No... the DM hasn't become as a bug, though I'm sure some of my players have claimed so from time to time. No, I mean I emulate the behavior of bugs *when playing giant bugs* in my game.)


I started down this journey of buggyness after I saw several DMs play their bugs just... wrong. We enter a room with webs on the ceiling, and sure enough, spiders would drop down and attack. In numbers.

Spiders don't normally leave their webs to attack enemies. And spiders are not usually communal. Meaning they wouldn't attack in a force of numbers. They would be solitare, and attack that way.

And more than that... study the spiders in a web for a bit. Take a piece of straw, and poke at the web. What do the spiders usually do? THEY RUN. Spiders are big on self preservation. If you don't feel like an insect to them, they will flee first, hunt later.

Beetles, on the other hand, are much more dangerous. Some of them are downright voracious, needing food all the time. But then again, some of them are herbavoir, so as long as you don't look like a leaf to them, you're prolly safe.

Giant Bees might or might not be dangerous. You'd think a sting would be something to fear... but try standing next to a bee's nest. They simply ignore you, as long as you ignore them. Now of course, unless you have giant flowers with giant pollen, you have to presume that giant bees have developed a more carnivorous appetite than their miniaturized cousins.

But even then, the mythical "cooridinated attack" of bees is just that, a myth.

That means, if you get into a fight with a next of giant bees, the logical result would be several dozen bees taking flight... and maybe half a dozen bees actually attacking the characters. The rest are just flying around in confusion. 10% tops are going to actually find and respond to the threat.

Of course... if several *hundred* bees take flight... :smalleek:


In my games, I put quite a few giant insects. Lack of lungs be damned, I like big bugs. But my players have learned to move amongst them, learned to avoid them and not antagonize them, and develop tactics of fighting them that takes advantage of the curious behavoirs of some bugs. And occasionally they get pounced on, because life can be brutal in the insect world. But my players are also good at pouncing back, so all is well.

Heck, the other day I even saw one of my players staring at a spider web, studying the spiders reactions.... I was so proud, my young player is growing up to be a bug freak like me. :smallbiggrin:

[Solaris]

Heh, yeah. Good exercise of my memory of ecology classes, too.

Those I mostly remember from endless (and rather pointless) debates about economics... and from having worked on extraterrestrial ecosystems for a SF game.

[Radar]

Not very detailed yet, but I won't be satisfied, until I fine-tune all date about the star system, where my precious setting is located: orbits, albedos, tidal forces on moons of a gas giant, temperature changes on those moons due to planet eclipse and light refracted from the planet, angular size and location of every significant astronomical object... If I won't stop myself, I might go into geophysics to plan the continents properly.
Note: this is not Sci-Fi - players won't be space-faring or anything like that, unless they will be very resourceful. Also: the campaign world is actually a moon of a gas giant.

Unfortunately my real research saps most of my mental capabilities, so the project is on a hiatus. :smallfrown:

[Solaris]

I thought about doing that, then I decided that the payout wouldn't nearly be worth the effort.

[Radar]

I thought about doing that, then I decided that the payout wouldn't nearly be worth the effort.
I was already told, that nobody would even notice all this, but how is it different from regular DM preparations? Besides, I find it too interesting too pass the opportunity.

[Solaris]

I tend to only have preparations which actually show up. Cultures, critters, even clothing all show up, but the players (unless one's playing an astrologer) wouldn't notice what's going on in the night sky - those few nights they're not mucking about some underground labyrinth.
But if you're doing it as an exercise in and of itself, then it's its own reward.

[SuperFerret]

I once stood staring at a draft horse trying to figure out just how much a bite from a Tyrannosaurus would take out.

[Radar]

I tend to only have preparations which actually show up. Cultures, critters, even clothing all show up, but the players (unless one's playing an astrologer) wouldn't notice what's going on in the night sky - those few nights they're not mucking about some underground labyrinth.
But if you're doing it as an exercise in and of itself, then it's its own reward.
I'm actually planning a bit more then just that: most of astronomical events I'm interested in for this project are going to have an impact on the campaign world (unusual day/night cycles due to frequent eclipses, temperature shifts might affect agriculture, tidal forces increas tectonic activity and make seafaring night impossible. This in turn has impact on culture, transport and mythology.
In a way, by researching in detail cosmic-scale events, I'm fishing for neat ideas to add texture to the setting.

[DontEatRawHagis]

Though it doesn't really count, I liked how the Orks are in Warhammer 40k so I read all I could on their culture and habits to make better D&D orcs. So far I would say mine are definitely more than one dimensional killing machines.

Imagine a warrior race(similar to Warcraft's) that are born into the world as adults, survive and grow on combat, and one of their many religions is based on the prediction of wars that they will fight in.

Couple of unique orcs I created: the pacifist who looks like he is a hundred years old but is only three, a large orc who is the captain of a legion of men, and a weak, young orc who paints himself black in order to pretend to be strong.(In this world Orcs grow darker with age as well as grow taller)

[Popertop]

Bugs.

Ok, I admit it, I like bugs. They are curious, vicious, yet somehow serene and aloof from the machinations of mere mortals like ourselves. And yes, they're also icky, which is part of their charm.

So I look around at the bugs in my yard, the spiders in my eaves, the anthills in my garden. I watch them, I study them... and I emulate their behavior in my games.

(No... the DM hasn't become as a bug, though I'm sure some of my players have claimed so from time to time. No, I mean I emulate the behavior of bugs *when playing giant bugs* in my game.)


I started down this journey of buggyness after I saw several DMs play their bugs just... wrong. We enter a room with webs on the ceiling, and sure enough, spiders would drop down and attack. In numbers.

Spiders don't normally leave their webs to attack enemies. And spiders are not usually communal. Meaning they wouldn't attack in a force of numbers. They would be solitare, and attack that way.

And more than that... study the spiders in a web for a bit. Take a piece of straw, and poke at the web. What do the spiders usually do? THEY RUN. Spiders are big on self preservation. If you don't feel like an insect to them, they will flee first, hunt later.

Beetles, on the other hand, are much more dangerous. Some of them are downright voracious, needing food all the time. But then again, some of them are herbavoir, so as long as you don't look like a leaf to them, you're prolly safe.

Giant Bees might or might not be dangerous. You'd think a sting would be something to fear... but try standing next to a bee's nest. They simply ignore you, as long as you ignore them. Now of course, unless you have giant flowers with giant pollen, you have to presume that giant bees have developed a more carnivorous appetite than their miniaturized cousins.

But even then, the mythical "cooridinated attack" of bees is just that, a myth.

That means, if you get into a fight with a next of giant bees, the logical result would be several dozen bees taking flight... and maybe half a dozen bees actually attacking the characters. The rest are just flying around in confusion. 10% tops are going to actually find and respond to the threat.

Of course... if several *hundred* bees take flight... :smalleek:


In my games, I put quite a few giant insects. Lack of lungs be damned, I like big bugs. But my players have learned to move amongst them, learned to avoid them and not antagonize them, and develop tactics of fighting them that takes advantage of the curious behavoirs of some bugs. And occasionally they get pounced on, because life can be brutal in the insect world. But my players are also good at pouncing back, so all is well.

Heck, the other day I even saw one of my players staring at a spider web, studying the spiders reactions.... I was so proud, my young player is growing up to be a bug freak like me. :smallbiggrin:



Awww, this was touching. :)

[Vknight]

I looked up the strength of obsidian and amber and onyx. Once I had that I planned out the evil layer and then tossed all I learned cause I didn't care and ruined some of the fun.

On a different note figuring out the strength and skill to wield a pair of shotguns one in each hand. The force all that to justify a character in a renassiance pirate style D&D game dual-wielding them.
Totally worth is especially when once per encounter he can fire both with an encounter power then follow up with 'Dragons Breath' and an action pointed twin strike firing them both again.
Hitting the same area 5times for 2d6+CON+8d6(Brutal 1)+DEX x 2

[DontEatRawHagis]

I have players with a ridiculous knowledge of physics, I once had to look up if camera's could be steamed up enough so that everything would come out blurry. The answer, no, while the image might be a bit watery it would be similar to having a window shield with little droplets on it. Even if their faces didn't show the security guards would be able to get their height and skin/hair color.

[Godskook]

Ninjas? What is this? You dare accuse the Shosuro of such? Ninja do not exist, no samurai would behave in so honourless a manner. Draw your sword, dog!

L5R material is classified and is above your paygrade. Knowing classified information is treasonous. Please report to your nearest self-disintegration chamber for processing, Citizen. Have a nice day!

[Jubal_Barca]

A lot of the time for me the research comes first, I read random stuff all the time then throw it into games when I'm writing the plots. :smallbiggrin:

[Serpentine]

Oh, different armours and weapons of native Americans, too.

[Gnoman]

For my current campaign setting, I started to try to calculate the growth rate of a civilization with a 1:7 male:female ratio, then determine how adding the 200 surviving elves into the mix would slow the growth rate of the surviving human population (roughly 80,000 global.) Sadly, I ran out of time and never finished.

[Cyrion]

A lot of the time for me the research comes first, I read random stuff all the time then throw it into games when I'm writing the plots. :smallbiggrin:


Yes. I built a plot around using anamorphosis to hide information in a painting.

(Anamorphosis is when a flat image, usually very distorted, resolves itself into something sensible when viewed in the correct reflecting surface such as a cone or sphere.)

[Velaryon]

Bugs.

Ok, I admit it, I like bugs. They are curious, vicious, yet somehow serene and aloof from the machinations of mere mortals like ourselves. And yes, they're also icky, which is part of their charm.

So I look around at the bugs in my yard, the spiders in my eaves, the anthills in my garden. I watch them, I study them... and I emulate their behavior in my games.

(No... the DM hasn't become as a bug, though I'm sure some of my players have claimed so from time to time. No, I mean I emulate the behavior of bugs *when playing giant bugs* in my game.)


I started down this journey of buggyness after I saw several DMs play their bugs just... wrong. We enter a room with webs on the ceiling, and sure enough, spiders would drop down and attack. In numbers.

Spiders don't normally leave their webs to attack enemies. And spiders are not usually communal. Meaning they wouldn't attack in a force of numbers. They would be solitare, and attack that way.

And more than that... study the spiders in a web for a bit. Take a piece of straw, and poke at the web. What do the spiders usually do? THEY RUN. Spiders are big on self preservation. If you don't feel like an insect to them, they will flee first, hunt later.

Beetles, on the other hand, are much more dangerous. Some of them are downright voracious, needing food all the time. But then again, some of them are herbavoir, so as long as you don't look like a leaf to them, you're prolly safe.

Giant Bees might or might not be dangerous. You'd think a sting would be something to fear... but try standing next to a bee's nest. They simply ignore you, as long as you ignore them. Now of course, unless you have giant flowers with giant pollen, you have to presume that giant bees have developed a more carnivorous appetite than their miniaturized cousins.

But even then, the mythical "cooridinated attack" of bees is just that, a myth.

That means, if you get into a fight with a next of giant bees, the logical result would be several dozen bees taking flight... and maybe half a dozen bees actually attacking the characters. The rest are just flying around in confusion. 10% tops are going to actually find and respond to the threat.

Of course... if several *hundred* bees take flight... :smalleek:


In my games, I put quite a few giant insects. Lack of lungs be damned, I like big bugs. But my players have learned to move amongst them, learned to avoid them and not antagonize them, and develop tactics of fighting them that takes advantage of the curious behavoirs of some bugs. And occasionally they get pounced on, because life can be brutal in the insect world. But my players are also good at pouncing back, so all is well.

Heck, the other day I even saw one of my players staring at a spider web, studying the spiders reactions.... I was so proud, my young player is growing up to be a bug freak like me. :smallbiggrin:

I don't know whether to be disturbed or amazed. I'm going to go with a little bit of both. Should we call it "dismazed" or maybe "asturbed?" Neither one sounds very good.

For a Star Wars game I ran a few years ago, I ended up researching the Hellfire Club (the historical one, not the Marvel Comics one). I basically flipped the concept - instead of a faux-Satanic cult that was really mostly into hedonistic stuff, there was a group that masqueraded as a bunch of harmless hedonists, but the leadership were actually Darksiders who were out to subvert and conquer the galaxy out from under the Empire. They made a nice third party in the campaign's conflict.

I tried reading up on sailing for a seafaring campaign I was in, trying to learn all the nautical terms, what all the bits and pieces of the ship were for, and so on. Then I found out the DM didn't know any of that stuff and was mostly handwaving it, so I was a bit disappointed. :smallfrown:

For the same game, I also did some research on famous pirates, and ended up basing my initial character concept somewhat on Bartholomew Roberts.

Way back in my first campaign, I did some research on medieval torture devices when my PCs invaded the castle of an evil baron. The expressions on their faces when I explained to them the various implements of torture was priceless. :smallbiggrin:

[Cisturn]

Due to a player wanting to base his character of the guy, i had to do about an hour of research on Gary Busey.

[Serpentine]

Yes. I built a plot around using anamorphosis to hide information in a painting.

(Anamorphosis is when a flat image, usually very distorted, resolves itself into something sensible when viewed in the correct reflecting surface such as a cone or sphere.)Like that stretched-out skull at the bottom of a fairly normal-looking portrait of royalty, no? Any other examples of that you could direct me to?

[Cyrion]

Like that stretched-out skull at the bottom of a fairly normal-looking portrait of royalty, no? Any other examples of that you could direct me to?


Indeed. Here's a site that shows it being used on dinner plates (http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2009/04/29/anamorphosis/) and this site (http://www.hemmy.net/2007/07/02/anamorphic-art/) has some examples where the reflected image is well hidden in the flat art, which is the kind of thing I was after.

[RebelRogue]

Cool. I've been wanting to put anamorphosis puzzles into games before, but was unsure about how to do it in practise. How did you approach it, more specifially?

[Yukitsu]

Laser fusion, electric ion propulsion and plasma conductivity.

[LeshLush]

I'm a linguistics nerd, and I usually spend inordinate amounts of coming up with coherent phonologies and naming schemes. I'm sure my players don't notice at all, but at least I get some satisfaction out of knowing my fantasy names make sense.

[Cyrion]

Cool. I've been wanting to put anamorphosis puzzles into games before, but was unsure about how to do it in practise. How did you approach it, more specifially?


Since I knew that this was something that I couldn't reproduce properly, and my group would have no idea where to go with it, I relied a lot on dice rolls yielding productive information.

There were other people trying to acquire an otherwise unexceptional painting, so the party got curious about why. I let people make the equivalent of a Spot check (this was a GURPS campaign) to notice tht part of the painting looked odd and distorted. I then let the ones who wanted to spend time on it make rolls against skills that could potentially be useful- artist, history (with a small penalty), occultism (with a stiffer penalty; I let this one count because of what the painting was hiding), etc. In order to make the roll, they had to suggest why the skill might be useful- this way they had to do some work to solve the puzzle and it wasn't pointless roll play.

This got them to an explanation of what anamorphosis was and they were able to start working on finding the appropriate refelctive surface. Again, I handled most of this by rolling against appropriate crafting skills.

What I liked about this was it allowed the party to get active use out of miscellaneous skills that they'd added as character flavor or background. My group also took the opportunity to have a lot of fun with it- anything not tied down that had a reflective surface got tried at first, and they were creative about what they dragged in. It was because they were willing to play with it that it was a fun addition.

[DeadManSleeping]

I researched the dig of Tutankhamun's tomb so that I could make a Spirit of the Century adventure based around it (I fudged half the facts anyway, but at least I made the effort).

I can't recall any other examples, but I do a big RPG-related research splurge every month or two.

[RebelRogue]

Since I knew that this was something that I couldn't reproduce properly, and my group would have no idea where to go with it, I relied a lot on dice rolls yielding productive information.

There were other people trying to acquire an otherwise unexceptional painting, so the party got curious about why. I let people make the equivalent of a Spot check (this was a GURPS campaign) to notice tht part of the painting looked odd and distorted. I then let the ones who wanted to spend time on it make rolls against skills that could potentially be useful- artist, history (with a small penalty), occultism (with a stiffer penalty; I let this one count because of what the painting was hiding), etc. In order to make the roll, they had to suggest why the skill might be useful- this way they had to do some work to solve the puzzle and it wasn't pointless roll play.

This got them to an explanation of what anamorphosis was and they were able to start working on finding the appropriate refelctive surface. Again, I handled most of this by rolling against appropriate crafting skills.

What I liked about this was it allowed the party to get active use out of miscellaneous skills that they'd added as character flavor or background. My group also took the opportunity to have a lot of fun with it- anything not tied down that had a reflective surface got tried at first, and they were creative about what they dragged in. It was because they were willing to play with it that it was a fun addition.
Ah, ok. I was wondering about making actual handouts and stuff, but this sounds cool too. It tends to be rather satisfying putting those 'obscure' skills to some use :smallsmile:

[Serpentine]

I'm a linguistics nerd, and I usually spend inordinate amounts of coming up with coherent phonologies and naming schemes. I'm sure my players don't notice at all, but at least I get some satisfaction out of knowing my fantasy names make sense.I always have a lot of puns and things that could be hints, or at least relate to their personalities, hidden in my names. For example, one of my current characters' name means something along the lines of "Beloved Love Love Love" (an aasimar who is the son of the Celestial equivalent to a succubus, who is a hopeless romantic in love with the very idea of love), or Shea (a Rogue/Catlord - "Shea is the cat's mother").
Usually noone notices or cares to find out, but once I had a girl NPC whose Aztec (I think) name meant "running stream" or something else relating to water. The name was too complicated for them to remember properly, but one of the characters could tell what the name meant, so they called her Brooke instead. I thought that was quite clever...
(I fudged half the facts anyway, but at least I made the effort).Hey, you can't know how to break the rules without knowing 'em :smallwink:

[TheCountAlucard]

I always have a lot of puns and things that could be hints, or at least relate to their personalities, hidden in my names. I often put in-jokes on my character sheets. My cleric's race is "Filthy Humie," my Wizard has a bonus against enchantments from "elfy stuff," et cetera.

[Yanagi]

I read all sorts of stuff that supplement RPG ideas--history, culture, philosophy, science, occult--for my own entertainment.

The most labored, out-of-my-comfort-zone DM research I ever did was...market economics and taxation.

I had players talking about launching a half-legal, half-shady business operation in Calimport. Because they were about putting actual GP into this, I figured it was only fair I that I sort out enough details that they get their money's worth.

[Pisha]

I once made a list of things I've researched for various characters. I don't have it at the moment, but it included things like:

* The role of devadasi during the Vijayanahara Dynasty
* Panchaloha singing bowls
* Hindu mudras
* The shipping and fishing industries in and around St. John's, Newfoundland
* The precise rules governing a Viking holmgang
* Nahuatl poetry
* Tow-in surfing
* The mating habits of otters

[EccentricCircle]

Recently while researching Privateering I discovered that the American government still has the power to issue Letters of Marque, as they never signed the treaty that abolished privateering. It didn't help with finding out how much of their gold the party would have to give to the duke if they kept the letter of marque, but it was still interesting.

Also during a first aid training course I made enough notes to greatly improve the health and injury rules for the system i'm designing. and, you know, learnt how to resuscitate people which I hope i'll never need to put into practice.

[Alchemistmerlin]

Due to the nature of my world and the conflicting cultures therein I have spent far too much time with my head buried in philosophy books on morality, sociology books on cannibalism, and books on cultural observations and treatment of death/the dead.


It has proven far more productive than making threads on these forums asking if Necromancy or Cannibalism are inherently evil.

[LeshLush]

It has proven far more productive than making threads on these forums asking if Necromancy or Cannibalism are inherently evil.
This made me laugh. I can't stand those threads.

[randomhero00]

I researched how they used to make concrete back in the day to see if it was possible (it is very possible; they were making it thousands of years ago).

[Jay R]

When wondering what kind of mine a non-human race might be jealously guarding, I discovered that Cobalt was named for kobolds.

I learned that planets are stars (planetes asteroi = wandering stars), that the sun and the moon are planets, and the earth is not, in medieval astronomy. Also that the seven known metals were associated with the seven planets:
moon = silver
Sun = gold
Mercury = mercury
Venus = copper
Mars = iron
Jupiter = tin
Saturn = lead

This was necessary for an adventure involving seven artifacts - staves bearing the power of the seven planets. I even named the elf-maiden who started off with the moon staff Isilvendë (moon-maiden in Elvish).

[Heliomance]

When wondering what kind of mine a non-human race might be jealously guarding, I discovered that Cobalt was named for kobolds.

I learned that planets are stars (planetes asteroi = wandering stars), that the sun and the moon are planets, and the earth is not, in medieval astronomy. Also that the seven known metals were associated with the seven planets:
moon = silver
Sun = gold
Mercury = mercury
Venus = copper
Mars = iron
Jupiter = tin
Saturn = lead

This was necessary for an adventure involving seven artifacts - staves bearing the power of the seven planets. I even named the elf-maiden who started off with the moon staff Isilvendë (moon-maiden in Elvish).

In the Name of the Moon!
I'm sorry, I'm a very bad person.