cold iron

[Anthony]

I suspect you can blame film for the wolf man hybrid model of werewolves; it's a lot easier to put an actor in a furry suit than to get a wolf to act on demand.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by copeab

Not werewolves, unless you are only using the Hollywood version.

Well we're talking fantasy games aren't we? A silver vulnerability is pretty standard. And in fantasy games critters vulnerable to silver are actually more common than critters where iron is their kryptonite.

[copeab]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Well we're talking fantasy games aren't we? A silver vulnerability is pretty standard. And in fantasy games critters vulnerable to silver are actually more common than critters where iron is their kryptonite.

Why? There is not a compelling reason to ignore the myths and legends behind creatures and take the Hollywood version instead. For most creatures, myths and legends have result in more interesting encounters with often esoteric abilities, rather than the rather bland cookie-cutter versions of Hollywood that just focus on some incredible strength and speed.

[Flyndaran]

Iron is everywhere now and in most fictional settings. It's hard to get many players captivated if the big baddies are terrified of the metal buttons in your jeans, or killable with a cast off letter opener or rusty pair of scissors.
Not impossible, certainly, but not for mainstream RPG audiences, IMO.

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Iron is everywhere now and in most fictional settings. It's hard to get many players captivated if the big baddies are terrified of the metal buttons in your jeans, or killable with a cast off letter opener or rusty pair of scissors.
Not impossible, certainly, but not for mainstream RPG audiences, IMO.

Some creature myths just get diminished by the progress of technology.

Creatures only vulnerable to iron are certainly scary in a setting where the best weapons are made of brass. Also, they don't have much to fear from modern firearms (polymer or aluminum construction firing lead bullets).

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Iron is everywhere now and in most fictional settings. It's hard to get many players captivated if the big baddies are terrified of the metal buttons in your jeans, or killable with a cast off letter opener or rusty pair of scissors.
Not impossible, certainly, but not for mainstream RPG audiences, IMO.

Of course, the critters most concerned by iron were traditionally the fae … and if they let you get into a stand-up fight with them, something very weird is going on. But yes, part of the whole iron bane thing seems, mythopoetically at least, to be about the new world driving out the old. I've heard speculation it comes from a cultural memory of iron wielding Celts wiping out the aboriginal Britons (little people, used flint "elf shot", associated with the Neolithic tumuli all over the British Isles...) but there's also the mundanity of iron against faerie mysticism. Fae were warded off by a horseshoe nailed over your door, you could avoid being tricked into getting lost in the forest by keeping an iron nail in your pocket, iron in the crib prevented them stealing your baby and leaving a changeling or fetch in its place … (fresh bread was also said to absorb their magic as well though so go figure … souring milk might be the same thing, or a curse they laid, or a side effect of their magic). This is probably the biggest argument against "cold iron" being anything special.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Fae were warded off by a horseshoe nailed over your door, you could avoid being tricked into getting lost in the forest by keeping an iron nail in your pocket, iron in the crib prevented them stealing your baby and leaving a changeling or fetch in its place … (fresh bread was also said to absorb their magic as well though so go figure … souring milk might be the same thing, or a curse they laid, or a side effect of their magic). This is probably the biggest argument against "cold iron" being anything special.

That's the core of my objection to the idea of a magical (or anti-magical) special form of iron: There are too many beliefs about plain commercial ferrous materials having anti-magical effects or other special properties. It makes more sense to me to think that "cold iron" was just a poetic epithet for iron as such, based on its high thermal conductivity, and that the belief that there's some special variant of iron is an urban legend from people who encounter the phrase and aren't familiar with folk superstitions or poetic language, and imagine that "cold" is a modifier rather than an intensifier. It's as if people read about "black shame" or "bitter anger" and thought those were special emotions that ordinary people didn't feel, but that one might feel under special conditions.

[Inky]

I wonder if steel counted as iron for this purpose. Judging by a quick look at the Wikipedia page for "Steel", steel didn't become commonplace until the Bessemer process was developed in the 19th century - it existed, but was expensive and mainly used for high-quality swords and the like, not nails and that kind of thing. If the average peasant in the times most fairy legends come from wouldn't have had any steel objects lying around their house, the question might never have arisen. (Except maybe if a knight took on such a creature with a sword, which apparently might well have been steel as early as AD 1000 or earlier. Are there any legends mentioning that?)

If steel didn't work, it would cut down a modern-day hero's options considerably, as the majority of metal junk is steel these days, from kitchen knives to paperclips.

I've heard a few interesting variations on the fairies and iron legend in fiction. The Hounds of the Morrigan, if I remember rightly, uses the rule that iron is simply unaffected by magic - it's not dangerous to fairies or the like as such, but nothing can put a spell on it, turn it into anything, or anything like that. An iron box is used to contain the evil snake Olc-Glas, which would magic its way out of any other container.

The Tseiqin in The Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, meanwhile, can't do magic even in the presence of too much iron, which means that they're extremely resentful about the Industrial Revolution and anybody involved with it (looks like for them steel does count). They're not actually harmed by contact with iron, but can be harmed by contact with a magnet - a fittingly scientific twist for the book's magic-meets-science theme.

[whswhs]

In terms of chemistry, steel's composition is intermediate between that of wrought iron (which has less carbon) and that of cast iron (which has more). It seems a bit arbitrary to say that 100% iron has whatever the effects are, and so does 98% iron, but 99.25% iron doesn't. So on that basis I would count steel as "cold iron."

On the other hand, in some worlds, magic may work by folk categories, not by science, and then steel might be different.

[Flyndaran]

It would take some mythological justification for iron of low quality or items of the people repel/hurt fey but high quality iron/steel not to.