Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Sat May 17, 2014 11:23 pm

I remember that last one. It was a robotic harem Guard from an Al-Quadim Dragon article.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun May 18, 2014 1:40 am

Yeah, that one popped up one of my searches. It seemed ever so slightly too racist to really be usable.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Sun May 18, 2014 2:30 am

Prak_Anima wrote:vaguely hindi/arabic/persian mecha/robot/android?

Prak_Anima wrote:It seemed ever so slightly too racist to really be usable.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun May 18, 2014 2:34 am

There's a difference between trying to find pictures of robots with appearances influenced by a handful of on vaguely related cultures that were long ago thrown together by a setting's writer, and using a picture a of a robot that is full on stereotype.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun May 18, 2014 2:41 am

That said, making it look like a robotic whirling dervish (Turkey) would be a good move. It's a specific item within the vast array, so doesn't need to be concerned with any other elements from those cultures, and also, the dervishes looked awesome and when a robot dual-wields scimitars you know you're in trouble.

WILL IT BLEND?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun May 18, 2014 2:44 am

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue May 20, 2014 2:20 am

So I'm aware that half of Sigil's slang is just Cockney - berk = Berkley Hunt = the C word and so on.

Is "pike" (as in "Oh pike off you clueless berk") some kind of Cockney rhyming slang? Does it have any real-world origins or did they make that slang up all by themselves? (Patronising tone implied)

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue May 20, 2014 2:29 am

Magnus Pike = Dyke, although more likely they meant the archaic word pike which means "go away."

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue May 20, 2014 2:30 am

Project Gutenberg has the answer in its 1811 DICTIONARY OF THE VULGAR TONGUE.

1811 DICTIONARY OF THE VULGAR TONGUE: A DICTIONARY OF BUCKISH SLANG, UNIVERSITY WIT, AND PICKPOCKET ELOQUENCE.

UNABRIDGED FROM THE ORIGINAL 1811 EDITION WITH A FOREWORD BY ROBERT CROMIE. COMPILED ORIGINALLY BY CAPTAIN GROSE. AND NOW CONSIDERABLY ALTERED AND ENLARGED, WITH THE MODERN
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS, BY A MEMBER OF THE WHIP CLUB.

ASSISTED BY HELL-FIRE DICK, AND JAMES GORDON, ESQRS. OF CAMBRIDGE; AND WILLIAM SOAMES, ESQ. OF THE HON. SOCIETY OF NEWMAN'S HOTEL.

...

To PIKE. To run away. Pike off; run away.

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Tue May 20, 2014 5:44 am

Ancient History wrote:Magnus Pike = Dyke

But the rhyming slang doesn't work like that, the truncated form doesn't rhyme with the origin. The rhyme you pointed out would be truncated as bus or something like that.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue May 20, 2014 9:12 am

Is there a 'natural' factor that influences how much of an effect 'nurture' has on personality?

I remember hearing something about personality being a combination of 'nature and nurture'. I know twins are sometimes extremely similar to each other, while sometimes, not so much. I'm planning on writing a novel involving time travel and/or alternate universes someday and I was wondering if it was plausible if there were some people who are pretty similar in personality with their counterparts in different timelines, and others whose other selves are always vastly different. The people involved have the same DNA, but have gone through different experiences.

Edit: Whoops, accidentally deleted the question.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Tue May 20, 2014 5:51 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:
Prak_Anima wrote:Anyone happen to have an image of a vaguely hindi/arabic/persian mecha/robot/android?

A potential new player wants to play a warforged and I'm putting them into Greyhawk as creations of the Baklunish. Now I just need to find a vaguely fitting image until I get around to drawing something.

In the story of Garuda, the amrita is defended by a "murderous machine wielding spinning blades." Sorry, I don't know what the actual Hindi name for it is, and can't find a super great picture of it. But basically, it's a robot with buzz saw hands.

-Username17

I looked this up against my mom's sanskrit copy and the "murderous machine" comes up as a vahana -- vehicle.
-

Still pretty awesome but it's basically described as a giant wheel with a base and many spinning weapons.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Tue May 20, 2014 8:05 pm

I'm looking for good statistics on the prevalence of sibling-on-sibling sexual abuse.

I have gotten into a thread on the subject on another forum because I have a masochistic desire to educate some internet tough guys.

While I can find some sites claiming that it's the most common form of sexual abuse, I haven't found any hard numbers.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue May 20, 2014 8:11 pm

Most of the references I've found are unfortunately in books, but Wikipedia has a nice summary as a starting point.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed May 21, 2014 1:23 am

Thanks Maj, AH. My curiosity is sated.

Cynic wrote:I looked this up against my mom's sanskrit copy and the "murderous machine" comes up as a vahana -- vehicle.
-

Still pretty awesome but it's basically described as a giant wheel with a base and many spinning weapons.

So, the Shredder, my favourite unit from the RTS Dark Reign? I am okay with that. Did they also predict dudes with jet packs and acid cannons?

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed May 21, 2014 2:55 am

Koumei wrote: So, the Shredder, my favourite unit from the RTS Dark Reign? I am okay with that. Did they also predict dudes with jet packs and acid cannons?

Jet pack travel and acid cannons, you say? The Hindu Myth department of defense delivers that and more.

Hinduweabo fightan weapons

Aside from flying via giant birds and elephants, the Manavastra "Could overcome supernatural protections and carry the target hundreds of miles away. Can inspire humane traits in an evil being."

For acid cannons, you could either use the nagastra which has been described as both a shower of snakes and also as a shower of corrosive acid. If you want something a little bit more close in that sense the asurastra are apparently the equivalent of modern-day biological weapons. Incidentally the devastra (the weapon of the gods compared to the asuras/demons) was a nuclear bomb. So Hinduism tells you that nuclear weapons = divinely good and biological weapons = EVIL BAD!

---

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:50 pm

Does anyone know of a web app or something where I can plug in specific dice combinations and get a chart of likelihood of a given number turning up?

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:03 pm

http://www.anydice.com/

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:18 pm

ah, thank you.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 5:53 pm

Random question-- Would there ever be a scenario where a culture might use iron for money?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 5:58 pm

Outside of Dragonlance? It was a big thing in Africa for a while.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 5:58 pm

Prak_Anima wrote:Random question-- Would there ever be a scenario where a culture might use iron for money?

Under most circumstances, it's simply too useful in other roles to get used as currency, but if you were pre-Iron Age technologically, it might happen. Or if you had some crazy religious prohibition against using it more sensibly.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 6:00 pm

Yeah, I figured there might be a technological reason for it. Something along the lines of being just able to smelt it and shape it into rough coins, but not usable weapons.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 6:02 pm

Oh, and Spartans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obol_%28coin%29

As mentioned, it's not a preferred metal because it rusts and has other, better uses. But if you're running low on precious metals, steel pennies are always an option.

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 6:02 pm

Prak_Anima wrote:Random question-- Would there ever be a scenario where a culture might use iron for money?

We had that in Aleph-IV. (A fantasy 4x LARP I participated in)

Iron was (supposed to be) really rare as part of the setting, so it was tracked separately from the "generic" resource.

Fortunately or unfortunately, a lot of sources of iron wound up in the hands of a player who didn't really have much to do with it other than build window dressing and hand massive amounts of it to players who had the ability to build "cool stuff".