Real-Life Weirdness

[Anders]

I had snails as a kid. They breed like crazy.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

Patricia Highsmith had a thing for snails. She admired their self-sufficiency and found it “relaxing” to watch them copulate, delighted by the impossibility of distinguishing male from female.

That's because they are almost always hermaphrodites, and even capable of self-fertilization...

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

If I ever make the Economist, I want a cool starting sentence like that.

If you accurately synopsized the article, hopefully it won't make you look as clueless as the above quote does her...

[Anders]

How much blood do you need to forge a sword?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anders

How much blood do you need to forge a sword?

I question their methodology. Notably, they take the amount of total iron in blood (4g), and then assume that one could extract that in the form of something akin to iron sand... but if the total is 4g, that's not iron sand, it's iron. Looking things up, it seems good iron sand is a bit under 50% iron by weight, so if they got that from blood, you're looking at more like 8g per person, and thus ~2g of workable iron ingots from each exsanguinated person. Assuming 1/3rd of the workable iron is lost in the process of making a sword (as in their example), a 2 lb GURPS Broadsword would require 3 lb of workable iron ingots, which is around 1360 g of iron, or 680 - we'll round up to 700 - people exsanguinated.

I kind of wonder what you'd end up with if you took blood, boiled it down (to get rid of all the water), then took the resulting blood powder and processed it like low-quality iron ore.

[William]

This is definitely a question that has come up on the GURPS boards several times, often in the context of making a metal weapon out of once-living material for use with the Staff spell.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by Anders

How much blood do you need to forge a sword?

Originally Posted by Varyon

... 700 - people exsanguinated.
I kind of wonder what you'd end up with if you took blood, boiled it down (to get rid of all the water), then took the resulting blood powder and processed it like low-quality iron ore.

Originally Posted by William

This is definitely a question that has come up on the GURPS boards several times, often in the context of making a metal weapon out of once-living material for use with the Staff spell.

Well that's got to give a bonus to the Necromancy collage for sure... Could either be the McGuffin for an adventure (destroy the cursed Blood Staff) or a signature weapon for the Big Bad at the end of a campaign arc.

[Dalillama]

Does it have to be human blood? Perhaps not as good for necromancy, but harpoons made of whale blood could have some strong hunting magic on them, while a dragon's blood sword is suitable for fire related enchantments.

[Johnny1A.2]

I'm not certain about the gaming applications, though it might have some, but it's very definitely weird (assuming it's for real, sometimes it's hard to tell):

Driving Cars Reduces Stress In Rats

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Does it have to be human blood? Perhaps not as good for necromancy, but harpoons made of whale blood could have some strong hunting magic on them, while a dragon's blood sword is suitable for fire related enchantments.

Is dragon blood iron-based? I mean, a lobster the size of a man might have as much blood, but the copper in it wouldn't make a very good blade, I wouldn't think. And if dragon blood uses, say, cobalt (or maybe uranium?), that could be even worse.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

Is dragon blood iron-based? I mean, a lobster the size of a man might have as much blood, but the copper in it wouldn't make a very good blade, I wouldn't think. And if dragon blood uses, say, cobalt (or maybe uranium?), that could be even worse.

Depends on your dragon. I'd guess at least 40% of them across fiction and RPG's have iron based blood, if not more, given the whole reptile/dinosaur/tetrapod thing. The rest have some sort of venom instead of blood or some mystic substance with odd properties.