Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-16-2021, 07:26 AM   #41
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Actually some complications can be made from folklore. There can be sacred high-mana zones, Fisher Kings that cannot leave a certain territory, cannot dispense with his regalia, whatever. Invocations of a Corn King at planting and harvest.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 12:55 PM   #42
Saint
 
Saint's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saint Louis or thereabouts
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Actually some complications can be made from folklore. There can be sacred high-mana zones, Fisher Kings that cannot leave a certain territory, cannot dispense with his regalia, whatever. Invocations of a Corn King at planting and harvest.
The thread reminds me of the warnings in some works against accepting food and drink from the fairy-folk. Getting a mouthful of beetles and leaves might be the least of your troubles.
__________________
Professional soldiers are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs. - from Murphy's Laws of Combat
Saint is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 04:25 PM   #43
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saint View Post
The thread reminds me of the warnings in some works against accepting food and drink from the fairy-folk. Getting a mouthful of beetles and leaves might be the least of your troubles.
That's another thing that could be related.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 04:36 PM   #44
kirbwarrior
 
kirbwarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michele View Post
So this goes into GURPS Realm Management territory...
It's kind of fitting that book came out while I was thinking about this XD

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michele View Post
If you're on a tropical island and you can make food out of nothing, and there are no other tribes bothering you, why should you try and work stones, in order to create weapons, since you don't need hunting weapons or agricultural implements to start with? Why should you make a canoe flotilla? That sloooows down progress. To the point of stopping it.
Hmm, that was one thing I was thinking about. There is the whole 'necessity breeds invention', so I might have to figure out what pressures to put into place to cause certain forms of progress.



As for the whole slave labor thing, I'm not even quite sure how to put my thoughts into what I think of that.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish View Post
While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
kirbwarrior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2021, 04:39 AM   #45
Inky
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Anthropologically a culture, not a civilization - apparently building cities is the defining factor for a civilization (or it used to be, I may be out of date).
That, yes, I just meant they seemed to have a fairly well-equipped castle going on which implied either rather more going on than Tolkien suggests or else a lot of magical cheating.

I love the comments about the possible ways in which making food by magic might not be straightforward.
__________________
Looking for online text-based game at a UK-feasible time, anything considered, Roll20 preferred. http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=168443
Inky is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2021, 07:15 AM   #46
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inky View Post
That, yes, I just meant they seemed to have a fairly well-equipped castle going on which implied either rather more going on than Tolkien suggests or else a lot of magical cheating.

I love the comments about the possible ways in which making food by magic might not be straightforward.
Tolkien concentrates on the things he is interested in. He does not for instance tell how the fireworks were transported from the Lonely Mountain as the trip was unusually hazardous.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2021, 04:02 AM   #47
Inky
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Oh, goodness, yes, I'd forgotten about the fireworks being from the Mountain. I think the wilds were supposed to be somewhat less wild after the goblins and wolves had been almost wiped out in the Battle of Five Armies and the Kingdom under the Mountain was going again (until Sauron went seriously into action), but still, that's a heck of a journey.
__________________
Looking for online text-based game at a UK-feasible time, anything considered, Roll20 preferred. http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=168443
Inky is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2021, 07:53 AM   #48
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Not to mention Thranduil being at least somewhat less hostile while also being more able to patrol, and the Necromancer having been evicted and thus concentrating his efforts in his new abode rather than mirking up the Greenwood.

Plus, it may be somewhat less enticing for spiders to attack a wagon full of explosive fire projectors and rockets than some dwarves (and a hobbit) with hand weapons and thrown rocks. (Assuming they weren't actually escorted by a demigod with the Ring of Fire.)
Anaraxes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2021, 10:45 AM   #49
Irish Wolf
 
Irish Wolf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth, mostly
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

The trip may have been, as you say, unusually hazardous, but I'm pretty sure everything between the Lonely Mountain and the Shire has come to understand that attacking an old man in a grey robe and pointy hat is also unusually hazardous. They may not know the name "Gandalf" (or "Mithrandir"), or for that matter even have a language, but everything knows that that shape is dangerous.
__________________
If you break the laws of Man, you go to prison.

If you break the laws of God, you go to Hell.

If you break the laws of Physics, you go to Sweden and receive a Nobel Prize.
Irish Wolf is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2021, 11:47 AM   #50
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Create Food and it's effect on infrastructure

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
Hmm, that was one thing I was thinking about. There is the whole 'necessity breeds invention', so I might have to figure out what pressures to put into place to cause certain forms of progress.
This is part of why I suggested having the humans originally be from a more mundane world. The pressures of this one (and solution to those pressures) are markedly different from those of our own, so society evolving to look anything like the historical Medieval and Renaissance periods is incredibly unlikely.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
As for the whole slave labor thing, I'm not even quite sure how to put my thoughts into what I think of that.
While heroic characters who own slaves - even largely-benevolent societies where slavery is a thing - are certainly possible to create, this is difficult to get right - and even more so if the slaves are acquired via bloody warfare, rather than being punishment for crimes, a method of paying off debt (or provide for one's family), etc.

...

Of course even if magic is able to supply the necessary food, water, and raw materials to keep a city going, there are at least three very important resources one could fight over - location, location, and location. Areas that are more defensible against monster attacks, or where there is a monster shortage, would be in high demand, and if you've outgrown your own bastion of safety, you may need to take over someone else's.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Plus, it may be somewhat less enticing for spiders to attack a wagon full of explosive fire projectors and rockets than some dwarves (and a hobbit) with hand weapons and thrown rocks. (Assuming they weren't actually escorted by a demigod with the Ring of Fire.)
Weren't the spiders only a problem when the dwarves (+hobbit) left the path to try to beg food from the elves? I thought the paths of Mirkwood were safe (due to enchantment, patrols, etc), but you were in trouble if you strayed. It's been a loooong time since I read The Hobbit (or LotR for that matter), however.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul
Varyon is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
food, food preparation, magic, world design

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:39 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.