"Realms" of competency and "Roles" within them, discussion

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

OK, so they basically stopped for long periods two or three times over the course of that adventure, in different locations around the coast, before getting back to Egypt, somewhere around 600 BCE.

Right, and they grew crops where they stopped, which were critical to their success. And that is what makes this an example of farming being important to an adventure.

Whether farming is an interesting part of an adventure or fun to play….

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Whether farming is an interesting part of an adventure or fun to play….

Is probably based on how detailed the GM wants to get about farming and how well they understand farming in order to get that detailed about it. As zoncxs pointed out: Harvest Moon is an entire video game about being a farmer. And while things that make good video games don't necessarily make good RPs, they could.

If I was going to make farming important to an adventure (and not just gardening) then I'd probably have the adventure premised on building up a village from scratch. I've run and played in games that involved interesting survival components, where finding food and shelter were gameplay challenges. Farming would be an extension of similar dynamics: a solution that had it's own complications. I bet it could be done. I'd personally make it in a fantasy world where supernatural threats to your village and your crops were very real issues to worry about.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Yes, "Libya" is the Greek name for the continent of Africa / Africa west of the Nile Valley. And there was a Suez Canal about 80 years after this story is set, the original one was finished under Darius the Great and the current one was made under someone who did not put up stelai in cuneiform and hieroglyphics so I don't remember their name.

Those earlier canals crossed from the Nile to the Red Sea, rather than the route of the modern canal directly from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The coastline was also different at that time (the Great Bitter Lake, today close to the middle of the canal, was then the north end of the Red Sea). And the early canals may not have been navigable year round.

[AlexanderHowl]

The Canal of the Pharaohs connected the Nile Delta to the Bitter Lakes to the Gulf of Suez. It would have likely not been accessible during the dry season because of the level of the Nile River, but it would have been a boon during the rest of the year. It is even more remarkable considering that it was created before the widespread use of iron.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

The Canal of the Pharaohs connected the Nile Delta to the Bitter Lakes to the Gulf of Suez. It would have likely not been accessible during the dry season because of the level of the Nile River, but it would have been a boon during the rest of the year. It is even more remarkable considering that it was created before the widespread use of iron.

I suppose that depends on what you mean by 'widespread use' - 6th century BCE Egypt was certainly Iron Age, but that doesn't mean there was a lot of iron in Egypt (and there was supposedly an attempt to dig a canal much earlier, by Pharaoh Senusret III, when Egypt was clearly in the Bronze Age). I do agree that the Canal of the Pharaohs was a great achievement, though.