Pharra

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The Keel, the Sheer and the Rudder

I have been doing far too much reading on pre-cannon era ships...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_rig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Points_of_sail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windward
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broach_sailing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clew#Clew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigantine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermaphrodite_brig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_building

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 is great at confusing me. A two-masted, square sailed ship, from 100 to 150 tons traveling at 2mph. What?

First of all, strickly square sailed ships can't sail agains the wind, ever, unless they have oars. Secondly, that speed is abyssmal. But, as my Dungeon Master pointed out "While the metric might not make sense, we can rest assured it's balanced with the rest of the movement rates in the system."

What have I learned so far? I've learned that there is a lot of terminology I need to learn to play my next character.

Superheroes without TIghts

Someone put up an excellent slideshow that shows snips of comics that have worked at telling the real story of superheroes, usually without tights. From an ex-villian in a witness protection program trying to live with his ex-villian mind reading wife to an ex-superhero who delves into politics and has to face the harsh reality of compromise over his earlier years of truth, justice, and no mercy.

I found it here on "Slate" which states the premise of the list, among other things.