Trollish Measurements
Hathalfar holds the writhing troll down with his gloved fist and sword. The beast squirms at the touch of metal. 'How far is Kolm?' he demands for the third time. 'I said! A long way away,' replies the troll.
Trolls have difficulty counting because they're so thick, so their system of measurement might be less easy to follow...
Trollish measurement:
Despite their inability to quantify distance, trolls are nevertheless very good at judging it. Their small minds cannot cope with the metaphor of describing lengths with numbers. They simply have a good intuitive grasp.
# 'Near' corresponds to ~ 20m
# 'Not far' corresponds to ~ 1km
# 'A fair way' corresponds to ~ 5km
# 'Quite far' corresponds to ~ 10km
# 'A good walk' corresponds to ~ 30km
# 'A long way away' corresponds to ~ 100km
# 'As far as the eye can see' varies with visibility
So a city that's about 150km away would be described as being 'A long way away and then a good walk after that' which isn't too useful till you know how trolls think about distance...
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? Responses (10)
Funny. Simple, but funny :-)
This gives trolls lots of credit for understanding distances well, but it's well written and light to read. It also points out the fact that often npcs can't give info (not just that they wont). bravo.
I like this, simple but good. Not only does it function as a Trollish measuremennt post. But it sets of all kinds of other ideas and images.
People will ask, 'MH, why did you HoH this one?'
So let me explain. It is little quirky elements like that that help a place or species alive in the players' minds. They don't take much work (once you have the basic idea) and it can add much to your game.
Think about some of the good fantasy novels you have read. Didn't they have quirky details (like knights being called Ser, Clerics using musical metaphors and being called Dancers, and Little Folk measuring time in 'meals', fighters measuring time in beats (which could be heart beats...)? These are the things that caught your interest in the novel, even though you might not of been aware of them originally. They add depth and color to the setting, enriching the story. Eventually they 'click' in your head and you realize that they are interesting and important.
Now you don't have to put the total depth of background that an author puts into a novel into your game. No, you need more. Unlike the author who only needs to work on areas important to their story, you have minimal control over your story... thus need to be prepared for all the odd zigging and zagging of the characters. So yes, you will concentrate on things that are important to your PCs (and your projected storyline), but some other details 'on tap' might be handy.
That is what this site is for. So you can have someone else do the 'little bits of chrome' for you... and you can grab what you need.
That was a long winded explanation there Moon... I like it... but what about time?
Write up some. Arth has its own time system (that strangely enough dovetails with my game system....). But odd times are easy enough.
I luuve it. It is so simple that it's confusing. I must start giving ALL directions that aren't incredibly importent using this.
Me: 'My house is a fair way down 100. On the right, you can't miss it'
Other Person: 'O.o How far did you say again?'
yep, this is fun!
This is great!
I cook like this.
'How much salt?'
'Enough.'
'How long to cook?'
'Till it's done.'
etc.
:)
