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Doomboy911
2014-02-08, 01:36 PM
Alright so I'm working on being in my second pirate game and it occurred to me that it would help I understood the lingo. I started reading into boating terms when it hit me. Why don't they have this for gaming. What if there was a book with diagrams and definitions for all kinds of stuff we find in medieval settings. You could sell short little books that focus on certain parts like metallurgy and armor, to combat terms and different types of soldiers. I feel that it would be an idea worth buying what about you?

Rhynn
2014-02-08, 01:39 PM
There's reams of books like that. For actual medieval material, there's tons of scholarly and pop-scholarly sources, and there's even RPG-specific sources, like Lisa J. Steele's Fief and Town.

You'd do well to ask in the Real-World Weapons & Armor thread about good and light books on medieval warfare, for instance - I can't recall the name of this one series...

Airk
2014-02-08, 02:47 PM
I'm guessing it's probably because most people don't understand many of the terms anyway, so giving you a book that explains "fantasy lingo" doesn't actually really aid in communication.

Now if you wanted a glossary of GAMING terms, that might be valuable, if only to keep us from getting into fistfights about terms that are generally accepted but which some people insist are wrong, but it's unlikely that just printing definitions in a book would influence the people who insist the definitions are wrong, so... uh... I guess there might be value in just explaining the terms to people who don't know them, but how many people would actually pick up such a 'book' anyway?

inexorabletruth
2014-02-09, 03:09 PM
Alright so I'm working on being in my second pirate game and it occurred to me that it would help I understood the lingo. I started reading into boating terms when it hit me. Why don't they have this for gaming. What if there was a book with diagrams and definitions for all kinds of stuff we find in medieval settings. You could sell short little books that focus on certain parts like metallurgy and armor, to combat terms and different types of soldiers. I feel that it would be an idea worth buying what about you?

Hey Doomboy911! Long time no see! I presume you're talking about D&D 3.5 since that's what you played last time we were in a campaign together. So, I'm almost 100% positive the book you're looking for is Stormwrack - Mastering the Perils of Wind and Wave.

Lingo can be found throughout the book, but many nautical terms and some of the roles can be found in the chapter titled Narrative Naval Combat. A more detailed list of seafaring roles can be found on page 81-83 in the chapter titled Marine Skills.

The various types of boats are described, statted and mapped out in Chapter 5: Ships and Equipment. The diagrams you're looking for (with complete multi-level battle grids) can be found on pages 98, 101 and 102. While they don't cover every possible boat, they give information about the three basic sizes of ships, so you can make your own adjustments for width, length and levels for all the in-betweens.

Personal Equipment starts on page 105. That will tell you everything you need to know about metallurgy and armor.

If you're looking for a more historical book… textbooks on sailing in the medieval can be found everywhere. The best place to look is your local library or navy base, but you may be a bit disappointed. Trans-Atlantic sail wasn't really a thing yet, unless you count the Vikings, so ships weren't all that big or impressive. Most ships capped out at 30 feet (if I remember, you may want to check that) and stayed within sight of the shoreline.

For those big, impressive Pirates-of-the-Caribbean style ships, you really need to get more Elizabethan to Victorian. 1500s and up are ideal for the really impressive ships that stretched over 100 ft. There are some exceptions to this rule, like the Thalegamos (sp?) that was being used like 200-300 years B.C. (you'll have to forgive me if my data's not perfect on these; it's been 15 years since I learned this crap, so my facts are getting blurry) But those are rare wonders of the earth.

Anyway, to get you started, here are some Wikipedia links:
Medieval Ships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_ships)
Medieval Maritime Culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_maritime_culture)

I hope this helps with your next campaign! :smallsmile:

Doomboy911
2014-02-09, 06:07 PM
Hey Doomboy911! Long time no see! I presume you're talking about D&D 3.5 since that's what you played last time we were in a campaign together. So, I'm almost 100% positive the book you're looking for is Stormwrack - Mastering the Perils of Wind and Wave.

Lingo can be found throughout the book, but many nautical terms and some of the roles can be found in the chapter titled Narrative Naval Combat. A more detailed list of seafaring roles can be found on page 81-83 in the chapter titled Marine Skills.

The various types of boats are described, statted and mapped out in Chapter 5: Ships and Equipment. The diagrams you're looking for (with complete multi-level battle grids) can be found on pages 98, 101 and 102. While they don't cover every possible boat, they give information about the three basic sizes of ships, so you can make your own adjustments for width, length and levels for all the in-betweens.

Personal Equipment starts on page 105. That will tell you everything you need to know about metallurgy and armor.

If you're looking for a more historical book… textbooks on sailing in the medieval can be found everywhere. The best place to look is your local library or navy base, but you may be a bit disappointed. Trans-Atlantic sail wasn't really a thing yet, unless you count the Vikings, so ships weren't all that big or impressive. Most ships capped out at 30 feet (if I remember, you may want to check that) and stayed within sight of the shoreline.

For those big, impressive Pirates-of-the-Caribbean style ships, you really need to get more Elizabethan to Victorian. 1500s and up are ideal for the really impressive ships that stretched over 100 ft. There are some exceptions to this rule, like the Thalegamos (sp?) that was being used like 200-300 years B.C. (you'll have to forgive me if my data's not perfect on these; it's been 15 years since I learned this crap, so my facts are getting blurry) But those are rare wonders of the earth.

Anyway, to get you started, here are some Wikipedia links:
Medieval Ships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_ships)
Medieval Maritime Culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_maritime_culture)

I hope this helps with your next campaign! :smallsmile:

Afraid I can't recall you InexorableTruth there were a good deal of individuals in the last campaign was this game where you played as a dread pirate captain? The one with the talking mast head?

inexorabletruth
2014-02-10, 05:03 AM
Afraid I can't recall you InexorableTruth there were a good deal of individuals in the last campaign was this game where you played as a dread pirate captain? The one with the talking mast head?

No… but that sounds like a seriously fun campaign. I was very briefly in one of your campaigns with air pirates. I played the DEX based halfling, and my wife played the Winged Elf. Once you started doing the arena it was hard for my any character not in the arena to get it some game time so it puttered a little, then I opted out of the campaign.

Still it was a fun premise and I enjoyed the elaborate setting while it lasted. :smallsmile:

Jay R
2014-02-10, 09:48 AM
It certainly would have prevented one problem if Gygax had owned an index explaining that a philtre is a love potion.