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Old 01-27-2021, 12:57 AM   #51
safisher
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Default Re: cauldrons

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
High-Tech says that a group mess kit for 4 people, including a skillet, bowl, and pot, costs $15.
Hi Bill, hope you are well. I didn't see in your post if you specified Tech Level, but the HT one you mention is listed as TL7. It's going to be made of aluminum, something like this.

Assuming, perhaps, you want a more low-tech one, that's not lightweight, look at this:
https://www.townsends.us/collections...e-c4515-p-1242

If you want a cast-iron one look at this:
https://www.potjiepots.com/cast-iron-cauldron-PT1355
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Old 01-27-2021, 01:43 AM   #52
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Default Re: cauldrons

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Originally Posted by safisher View Post
Hi Bill, hope you are well. I didn't see in your post if you specified Tech Level, but the HT one you mention is listed as TL7. It's going to be made of aluminum, something like this.
I don't know if I specified TL, but the campaign is set in a world where the technologically advanced societies are bronze age (so TL1).

However, if I look at the Basic Set, it lists "group basics" as including a cookpot for up to 8 party members. There doesn't seem to be any restriction on TL. I have the impression that items in GURPS are supposed to be the same price regardless of TL; so a cookpot ought to cost the same whether your society is TL1 or TL8, even if the materials are different. Of course, there is the possibility that a "cookpot" may not be available at sufficiently low TL; but I have the impression that cultures that eat grain are likely to have some way to make porridge of it, which seems to imply something like a stewpot or cauldron.
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Old 01-27-2021, 08:35 AM   #53
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Default Re: cauldrons

A quick googling points out that cookware of some kind existed 10k plus years ago, so I would imagine at any TL that's worthy of playing you could find *something* to cook in. Even if it's hot stones boiling water, it's still cooking food in a vessel.
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Old 01-27-2021, 11:02 AM   #54
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Default Re: cauldrons

Mightn't a standard TL1 cookpot be ceramic with copper/bronze being a high status item?

As for a iron pot, I seem to recall that whilst it was possible to forge a cauldron from bloomery iron, the introduction of the blast furnace and the ability to cast really helped. IIRC cast iron cauldrons (know in the trade as Guinea kettles) were a significant item in the African trade as European iron foundries could produce bigger, better cheaper than the locals (to whom iron was not unknown). For reference, these are the sort of cauldrons that cartoons sometimes depict missionaries being boiled in ... which adds a certain irony to the whole business.
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Old 01-27-2021, 11:12 AM   #55
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Default Re: cauldrons

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Mightn't a standard TL1 cookpot be ceramic with copper/bronze being a high status item?
I had been starting to think about that. Perhaps standard cooking vessels are either ceramic or leather (heated perhaps with hot stones dropped into water), with copper being Fine and bronze being Very Fine. Or maybe bronze is Fine because it protects against the toxic effects of copper.

If a ceramic pot is $50 for some size, a bronze pot would be either $250 or $1000. Have to figure what size goes with a typical "group basics" pot, though.
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Old 01-27-2021, 01:42 PM   #56
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Default Re: cauldrons

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I had been starting to think about that. Perhaps standard cooking vessels are either ceramic or leather (heated perhaps with hot stones dropped into water), with copper being Fine and bronze being Very Fine. Or maybe bronze is Fine because it protects against the toxic effects of copper.

If a ceramic pot is $50 for some size, a bronze pot would be either $250 or $1000. Have to figure what size goes with a typical "group basics" pot, though.
I recall a TV show featuring the experimental archaeologist Ruth Goodman where she cooked for a TL3 medieval family using a ceramic cooking pot.

Heh ... here it is on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydoR...xOaN_g&index=1

...go from about 33:19 for the cookpot.
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Old 01-27-2021, 02:38 PM   #57
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Default Re: cauldrons

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Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Mightn't a standard TL1 cookpot be ceramic with copper/bronze being a high status item?

As for a iron pot, I seem to recall that whilst it was possible to forge a cauldron from bloomery iron, the introduction of the blast furnace and the ability to cast really helped. IIRC cast iron cauldrons (know in the trade as Guinea kettles) were a significant item in the African trade as European iron foundries could produce bigger, better cheaper than the locals (to whom iron was not unknown). For reference, these are the sort of cauldrons that cartoons sometimes depict missionaries being boiled in ... which adds a certain irony to the whole business.
Yes, before the 20th century, most cookware was ceramic, and most of that was earthenware. Some earthenware bowls and mugs seem to have been as disposable as our paper plates and plastic cutlery and aluminum trays for grilling a meal's worth of fish or sausages in the BBQ. We find sites where they threw all the bones and all the tableware in a pit after the feast.

But the problem for travellers is that earthenware is heavy and fragile, which is why indigenous peoples were so excited to be able to buy iron pots. The Roman army issued brass mess kits for example. Métis sites on Turtle Island are littered with scraps of imported tea services. So TL 1 travellers will want expensive bronze cookpots, if they can get them.
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Old 01-28-2021, 01:07 AM   #58
safisher
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Default Re: cauldrons

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I don't know if I specified TL, but the campaign is set in a world where the technologically advanced societies are bronze age (so TL1).
I see.

Quote:
However, if I look at the Basic Set, it lists "group basics" as including a cookpot for up to 8 party members. There doesn't seem to be any restriction on TL.[I have the impression that items in GURPS are supposed to be the same price regardless of TL; so a cookpot ought to cost the same whether your society is TL1 or TL8, even if the materials are different.
I think that's probably a useful rule in some cases, such as it goes. That's certainly not the approach I have used; I can never recall being instructed to do that in any book. Regardless, I used both "historic" prices and generic prices, in some cases eyeballing it.

Quote:
Of course, there is the possibility that a "cookpot" may not be available at sufficiently low TL; but I have the impression that cultures that eat grain are likely to have some way to make porridge of it, which seems to imply something like a stewpot or cauldron.
I would assume a bronze pot would be fine for that use.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collec.../H_1861-0309-1
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Old 01-28-2021, 02:01 AM   #59
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Default Re: cauldrons

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...but I have the impression that cultures that eat grain are likely to have some way to make porridge of it, which seems to imply something like a stewpot or cauldron.
Soaking cracked grain overnight works, though just about everyone with other options (such as boiling it, turning it into bread, etc.) preferred those other options.
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Old 01-28-2021, 02:04 AM   #60
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Default Re: cauldrons

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Soaking cracked grain overnight works, though just about everyone with other options (such as boiling it, turning it into bread, etc.) preferred those other options.
Yep. "You can live on it, but it tastes like..."
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