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Andrekan
Seeker
65 Posts |
 Posted - 15 Mar 2011 : 06:23:19
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I've often used a lot of gore in our games when combat came around. In films and tv we are often fluffed against seeing or thinking about such horrors that are encountered in a battle. Floors become slick with blood. Hot spray issues from your foe. The numbing fever in a fresh wound. It also might take along time for something to die which most good players use a coup de grace. However when a fellow Player is lying on the field of battle with negative Hit Points writhing in the agony of death someone may fight their way over to lend healing or help stabilize their friend.
The Zulu had a spear with a large spear tip so they could thrust it into an enemies gut and twist it to disembowel their enemies.
Impaling was a horrible practice used to serve as a warning to invaders.
A decapitated head could be hung at a city gate. The decomposition time of these things can be surprisingly long. At least with animal hides and skulls.
There were the numerous cruel Inquisition Techniques and Tools.(I may or may not get back to post these)
I also remember hearing about people being skinned alive, rolled in salt and released as punishment for their crime. Don't remember the source.
The Mongols cut the eyes out of everyone in a town except one person who only had one eye. Then they lined them up with the one eyed person at the front of the line nailing the hand of each person to the persons should in front of them. The Mongols then directed the first person to travel to the next city and instruct them to tell the city we are coming. Psychological Warfare is very useful for Zhents during the days of open conquest or by the Tuigan during the invasion from the east stopped by glorious Alliance of Cormyr, Zhent orcs, Dwarves, Sembians, and Dalefolk.
Mid-evil battles were bloody and when striking or being struck by a NPC the player gets a sense of being in that bloody cruel element. I think being chewed up by a troll, dragon, or otyugh would be pretty bad also. 
Gore is a useful element in proper gaming situations.
The Nail was a useful tool when capturing heavy plated knights. It didn't cost as much or require as much work to get and with a hammer; placement to a knights skull with the nail. If the ransom wasn't received they would render the knight useless or dead...This was along the time of the development of the long bow.
Most of these are right off the top of my head. The gamer also enjoy great detail about smells and temperature to set the mood.
Well that is enough gore for now.  |
"Those two talk only of drink, riches, women, brawling, and magic, so ye've a one in five chance..." Quote from "Elminster in Hell" |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 15 Mar 2011 : 06:30:15
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I suppose that gang green and burnt hombre must be two of your favourite colours, Andrekan.  |
[/Ayrik] |
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chamber101
Seeker
57 Posts |
Posted - 15 Mar 2011 : 18:56:44
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Just adding to the gore factor so you can have realistic entrails when disembowling a victim (or vividly decribing the quartering part of a grruesome execution) though I am sure Andrekan already knows this!
The small intestine in an adult human measures on average 6 meters (about 19 feet). It can measure around 50% longer at autopsy because of loss of smooth muscle tone after death.
(hail the great sage Weekee Peedaya) |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 15 Mar 2011 : 19:24:54
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Interesting that this came back-around.
Especially the plague discussion - I want to use a variation on that theme for my own setting: I am thinking about tying it to either vampirism or lycanthropy (but I wouldn't use either of those real-world terms).
Maybe both, but I am not sure how yet... I don't want to use Underworld's 'take' (although I loved those movies, their core-concept was a bit too modern for my tastes). I do love the term 'Lycans' (wonder if I can use that without getting in trouble).
I may make it so that the thanocrosis (place-holder name for my own vampirism) might inhibits the lycan transformation, thus making the infected folk beholden to the vampire-lords. Still toying with this one.
Strangely, my Vampirism IS a disease, and an artificially created one at that (but with a fantasy spin). The Lycanthropy is derived from Elvish blood (my elves all have alternate forms).
Anyhow, that's how I prefer my fantasy. I do not like the today's idea of 'High fantasy', even though its precisely those types of stories that got me into the genre. Now I prefer a grittier feel to my worlds... I suppose the genre itself has matured (although that is a bit disingenuous - there have always been 'gritty fantasy', but it usually took the form of Pulp).
I like the 'points of light' concept introduced in 4e (an old idea with a fancy new name, really), and that has become my focus - to create a dark, forbidding world with pockets of civilization and huge stretches of untamed wilderness filled with peril in-between.
I don't want pretty vampires, sagely dragons, and goodly dark elves - I want my monsters to BE MONSTERS!!! 
Its pretty sad that D&D (and fantasy in-general) has reduced adventuring to 'having fun'. REAL Medieval Europe was filled with adventure... but it was never fun. It was a matter of survival. That's the spirit I would like to capture in my games.
Remember when Orcs were scary?  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Andrekan
Seeker
65 Posts |
Posted - 15 Mar 2011 : 20:06:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Arik
I suppose that gang green and burnt hombre must be two of your favourite colours, Andrekan.
Yes and I like using Boiling linseed oil with them when painting gatehouses. |
"Those two talk only of drink, riches, women, brawling, and magic, so ye've a one in five chance..." Quote from "Elminster in Hell" |
Edited by - Andrekan on 15 Mar 2011 20:07:14 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 16 Mar 2011 : 02:12:57
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There was another great one I heard about.
You stake a person to the ground over a badger hole, and then use the second hole (supposedly there are always two) to smoke it out. The critter goes nuts and 'digs' its way through the person.
And my all-time favorite - stake someone to the ground in the path of (or near) a swarm of army ants. If you really want to speed things up, cover them in something sweet, like honey.
Then again, just staking someone to the ground anywhere is fun... deserts... sewers... anywhere.
And yeah, the Inquisition 'witch hunters' were the worst of the worst - they particularly enjoyed grabbing all the little girls in a village, dragging them into a barn, and torturing them for hours until they confessed (although they normally started by cutting out the tongue, so there'd be no chance a quick confession would spoil their fun).
Oh, and if the men got 'excited' by their activities, that was just proof they had real witches (because a good, god-fearing man would NEVER become aroused by that if it wasn't 'dark magic'). Naturally, they always got turned-on, so I suppose they had a 100% success rate... funny how many normal-seeming villages were filled with witches. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 16 Mar 2011 02:13:52 |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 16 Mar 2011 : 02:41:13
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| I much prefer the witch trial style presented by Monty Python. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Realistic Role-Playing
