05-27-2020, 09:24 PM | #42 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: cold iron
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.
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05-27-2020, 11:59 PM | #43 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: near Houston
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Re: cold iron
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.
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05-28-2020, 08:31 AM | #44 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: cold iron
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.
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05-28-2020, 09:06 AM | #45 | |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: near Houston
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Re: cold iron
Quote:
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).
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05-28-2020, 10:25 AM | #46 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: cold iron
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05-28-2020, 10:45 AM | #47 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: cold iron
Quote:
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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05-28-2020, 06:35 PM | #48 |
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
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Re: cold iron
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.
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05-28-2020, 06:46 PM | #49 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: cold iron
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.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
05-28-2020, 08:44 PM | #50 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: cold iron
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.
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