Real-Life Weirdness

[William]

A popular wish in pre-modern games is some sort of ancient hand grenade, a weapon which GURPS High-Tech dates to TL4. Welp, tell your GM to take a gander at this, in PLoS One from four researchers at Lakehead University in Canada:

The sherds derive from four small, thick-walled, sphero-conical vessels recovered from a destruction layer, dating between the 11th and 12th century, Jerusalem. ... The unique fourth sherd is from a stoneware sphero-conical vessel with very thick walls, no decoration and the residue supports the possibility it was used for the storage of chemicals or may have held the chemical ingredients for an explosive device, consistent with a medieval grenade.

11th/12th century is square in the middle of TL3, so this could push the timeline back at least one TL. Of course, there's no evidence that they were widely used, and the tech wouldn't be very mature yet, but as an advanced oddity from those wacky Holy Land scholars at the crossroads of East and West, hey, your would-be medieval mad bomber could yet ride!

See also the phys.org commentary, and acknowledgement that I was pointed to this by the latest Kobold Courier.

[J Crocker]

Was it near Antioch?

[awindeyer1226]

Most of the game ideas that inspired our favourite games today are made from possible bugs that became features. Now we only get bugs that breaks the game.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by J Crocker

Was it near Antioch?

'O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.'

I think there were some basic "iron bombs" in GURPS Low Tech that were available at TL 3, although I could be mistaken. I don't recall there being any grenades contained in pottery in there, however - just some paper bombs (giant firecrackers, really) and the above ones with thin iron shells.

And I kinda feel like awindeyer might be some sort of weird spam, but not 100% certain...

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Or maybe just for kicks.

Y'know, when it comes to using bleak humor to try to find laughter in the most horrific of circumstances, the Ukrainians demonstrate absolute mastery.

These people need to win the war, because a free Ukraine, clearly, will make phenomenal contributions to Western culture.

For instance, you could set a really good Twilight 2000-type game, there, and read https://ukranews.com/en/news for campaign ideas and unique NPCs.

Content warning, though. the site, Ukraine and World News, Today, has a lot of stories that are really hard to read.

[Anders]

7 square kilometers of land in the middle of Europe remains unclaimed. Why?

Is it haunted? Does it have ritual significance? Do several leylines cross there? Is it home to... something?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anders

7 square kilometers of land in the middle of Europe remains unclaimed. Why?

Is it haunted? Does it have ritual significance? Do several leylines cross there? Is it home to... something?

Can you tell me where it is so I can read about it?

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Can you tell me where it is so I can read about it?

I believe the reference is to the disputed border between Croatia and Serbia. Each country favors a slightly different technical definition of the border, and both definitions happen to exclude a particular small area (while including more valuable disputed areas). There's a similar (and significantly larger) mutually unclaimed area on the border between Egypt and Sudan.

If your PCs are considering claiming this land as their own nation, they're too late- some weirdo already has.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

I believe the reference is to the disputed border between Croatia and Serbia. Each country favors a slightly different technical definition of the border, and both definitions happen to exclude a particular small area (while including more valuable disputed areas). There's a similar (and significantly larger) mutually unclaimed area on the border between Egypt and Sudan.

If your PCs are considering claiming this land as their own nation, they're too late- some weirdo already has.

A forest on the shores of the Danube sounds like it might have seen a lot of history in the roughly 50,000 years modern humans have lived in Europe. Could have been all sorts of shrines there and rituals performed...

And Egypt and Sudan, well, that could be even older.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Can you tell me where it is so I can read about it?

Some clown claimed it for a sovereign state called “Liberland”, and you can perhaps find details by searching on that term.