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11-06-2019, 03:56 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Occupational Forensics
I just realized that a Medieval Sheriff can tell if someone was a monk by looking at his knees or his writing hand. He could tell an archer from his upper arms. Obviously that has game implications, if for instance, someone is in disguise.
Any other ideas along that line?
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
11-06-2019, 05:25 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Occupational Forensics
The swordsman's callouses, or the lutenist's. The dyer's stained fingers. The distinctive odors of many trades (Turtledove and Tarr discuss a man who uses urine professionally as a mordant, for example). Bow legs for certain occupations.
Sherlock Holmes observes the flattening of a young woman's fingertips and concludes that she may be either a pianist or a typist.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
11-06-2019, 06:18 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Occupational Forensics
Though it depends to what degree you think it should be possible to estimate capabilities based on appearances, because players might not want characters who actually look their attributes (high ST characters will have a lot of muscle, high DX characters will have a lot of muscle relative to their size. It's possible to have someone at ST 8/DX 15, like Dai Blackthorn, but he's not going to be 5'6" and 115 lb, he's going to be 4' and 60 lb).
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11-06-2019, 06:35 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: Occupational Forensics
A shepard's soft hands.
A mason's or lime burner's cough(?) A sailors tan (reflected sunlight) A milkmaid's strong grip or cow pox scars(?). A washerwoman's skin A poor person's dietary deficiency or tanned/toughened feet. And then there is blurring the line with outright stereotypes. A shepard's skill with a sling. Fat butchers etc
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Waiting for inspiration to strike...... And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn |
11-08-2019, 08:18 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: Occupational Forensics
A hatter's madness.
A beat cop's saunter. Getting away from the medieval era, but it's always distracting for me when a movie or show has a media scrum scene, with extras all holding their SLR cameras the wrong way. People used to compact cameras hold the body with both hands, but photographers hold an SLR with one hand supporting the lens, to control the zoom and hold the camera's weight more evenly.
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Collaborative Settings: Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting! Last edited by Daigoro; 11-08-2019 at 08:23 AM. |
11-08-2019, 12:07 PM | #6 |
Icelandic - Approach With Caution
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Reykjavík, Iceland
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Re: Occupational Forensics
Left hand under the lens with fingers on the lens, right hand on the grip. Yup, it's a dead giveaway if a person holds a (D)SLR camera any other way.
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11-06-2019, 10:38 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Occupational Forensics
I believe that one. And one of the hazards of getting a newly sharpened knife is that it always wants a blood offering. Though at least it hurts less than a cut from a dull knife.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
11-07-2019, 01:45 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
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Re: Occupational Forensics
It's not occupational, but class-related. Today, the rich tend to be well tanned, in some cases even in winter. For long times in history and in many civilizations, the rich, especially rich women, are not tanned - farmers are.
Also class-related: the feet. The poor have thick-skinned and calloused feet; they often walk around barefoot, or in poor-quality sandals or rags. The rich walk less, and when they do it's with good footwear. --- Since the OP mentions disguises, I think it's important to observe signs that don't tell who the victim was, but who he was not. I.e., signs on the body that are indicative of the victim having recently begun an activity that was, however, not habitual for him. If the "knight" is dressed as such and even seems to have owned that horse in the stable, but his buttocks and thigs and calves show he was actually not accustomed to the saddle, maybe he was no knight, after all. If the "porter's" body show signs of chafing and bruising on the shoulders, and open sores on the hands, then either he had just begun with that job, or he wasn't a porter. |
11-07-2019, 04:20 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Occupational Forensics
There are a couple of "medieval CSI" series out there for inspiration: Bernard Knight's Crowner John series feature a first generation coroner, Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael, Michael Jeck's Bailiff Simon Puttock and Susanna Gregory's Dr. Matthew Bartholomew are all also various forms of medieval investigator who do this sort of thing a lot...
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11-07-2019, 05:58 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: Occupational Forensics
Building computers is the same. IME those tend to be cuts and scrapes on the back of the hand.
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