LTC3 Hygenic Roman Baths

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Purple Haze

As opposed to: "I take a bath once per year, whether I need it or not." -- Elizabeth I.

A sentiment shared by one of the last of the old California prospectors 'Seldom Seen Slim'. ;)

I saw him once as a kid. My parents actually went out to Ballarat and had a meal with the man.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by nik1979

As for LTC3, I wish it detailed horses a bit more. Although I'm open to spending $3-$5 on a Horses Low tech companion.

As we've been saying from the beginning, horses deserve their own book. It's important to remember that horses aren't low-tech, as the GURPS tech series goes. They were vital for transport and agriculture well into TL6, far beyond the scope of the LT series. They need at least a 16-page volume, and it wouldn't surprise me if they could fill a very useful 32-page book.

[Purple Haze]

My grandparents were farming with horses well into TL7, though they had steam engines and later Caterpillar tractors as well.

My uncle, a police officer, kept horses to do his patrols in winter even mid TL7. Used to tell the eskimo joke: why do you hunt on dog sled? Can't eat a snowmobile!

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Lupo

The wikianswers site, above, says that
"The Danes are described as generally bathing once a week; the Anglo-Saxons less often."

So less often that the Anglo-Saxons frequently complained about the Danes (I presume this was in, or close to, the Danelaw), that their hygieinic practices were unfair and made it too easy for them to seduce Anglo-Saxon chicks.


As for bathing Danes in Denmark (which is not directly situated in the Gulf Stream), I imagine they had communal baths, each large farm stead having some kind of bathing annex (a separate building would mean more heat loss), with tubs, or else a steam house of some kind. Bathing indoors depends on available firewood (wood also being needed to build ships, to maintain the all-important tradition of violent tourism), rather than on how cold it is outside.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

As we've been saying from the beginning, horses deserve their own book. It's important to remember that horses aren't low-tech, as the GURPS tech series goes. They were vital for transport and agriculture well into TL6, far beyond the scope of the LT series. They need at least a 16-page volume, and it wouldn't surprise me if they could fill a very useful 32-page book.

Horses are extremely important for low-tech and pulp era settings, including from a player character perspective, so they certainly do deserve their own PDF.

I'm also imagining that it will be quite useful for non-GURPS GMs, similar to LTC1 and 3 (and parts of the main book). And it could make sense to name it LTC 4.

[Phil Masters]

There was a documentary about Pompeii on the BBC a few weeks back in which the presenter got to say something along the lines of "This is one of those famous Roman bath-houses. Very nice, isn't it? Now notice one odd absence. No drain in the bath."

Apparently, at least one Roman medical writer had the smarts to notice that people who went to the baths with an open wound tended to end up with gangrene.

And it's not quite fair to say that Roman bathing practices were lost until the modern era. After all, the idea was preserved in Constantinople. Which ended up as the capital of Ottoman Turkey. And today, we have Turkish baths. Though they do tend to have drains in the baths.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

There was a documentary about Pompeii on the BBC a few weeks back in which the presenter got to say something along the lines of "This is one of those famous Roman bath-houses. Very nice, isn't it? Now notice one odd absence. No drain in the bath."

That seems... I mean, it doesn't matter if you don't have a clue about disease theory, but wouldn't the water start to be mostly stewed sweat and assorted gunge, rather than water, after a while? Humans don't LIKE that smell, as a group. So how would they change the water when it started smelling like old socks?

[Purple Haze]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

And it's not quite fair to say that Roman bathing practices were lost until the modern era. After all, the idea was preserved in Constantinople. Which ended up as the capital of Ottoman Turkey. And today, we have Turkish baths. Though they do tend to have drains in the baths.

While Rome may have fallen in 476, the Roman Empire did not fall until 1453 and Byzantium was its capital from about 330.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Purple Haze

While Rome may have fallen in 476, the Roman Empire did not fall until 1453 and Byzantium was its capital from about 330.

No, Byzantium was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, although the point of view from Byzantium may have been that since the Western Roman Empire went to pieces that made the Eastern Roman Empire "the" Roman Empire, it's pretty important to track which Roman Empire you're talking about to avoid confusion. See also Holy Roman Empire and etc.

It's a popular name.

[nondescript handle]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

[...] And today, we have Turkish baths. Though they do tend to have drains in the baths.

If I remember correctly, one of the tenets of Turkish bathing culture is: "Only moving water cleans."
So it seems that they've avoided this pitfall of their predecessors.