In-depth Guide. Guildwars

Hello and welcome to the Role-play In-depth Guide.

This guide was hand crafted in an attempt at giving those role-players that wish to bridge the gap of Realism and fantasy, to understand how their characters would struggle, experience pain, handle combat, and simply live day to day life in the world they are placed within. What has started out as a humble guide, placed on display for such a lovely community of role-players has grown into something more, a community slate where knowledge and info can be shared with open arms. I hope you enjoy what is to come as much as I did and still do. Happy Reading!

Take note, this is not meant to be law, simply guidelines that should be taken with a grain of Salt. Along with the fact that this is a general guide and I want it to stay that way.

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Outline:

1. Plate-Armor:
2. Various Weapons:
3. Guns:
4 How much pain will you be in:
5. Bows(Of all sorts.):
6. Alcohol!(Partying, Partying, Yeah!):
7. Healing and injuries:
8. Dental Hygiene:
9. Poisons:
10. Tattoos:
11. Corsets(Beauty is Pain, right?):
12. Baking:
13. You Want to be an Assassin?:
14. Explosions; Boom Boom baby!:

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1.Plate-Armor:

-Plate armor is not that heavy nor restricting. A full suit of well-made plate is approximately forty pounds, and a wearer can fairly easily run, jump, roll, duck, and even dance. The main reason plate wasn't more common in real life was the expense and availability, not for any reasons of weakness. It's very effective, and very strong. The only real danger from wearing it is a matter of overheating, which is definitely worth keeping an eye on but very manageable.

Binidj wrote:
Because of the extremely thick padding worn under both chain-mail and plate armours, they were actually very comfortable. Unlike what we are told in a number of tabletop roleplaying games, sleeping in armour can actually be quite comfortable. I have had a very good night's sleep whilst wearing a chain hauberk and felt no ill-effects the following day.

Although heavy armours do not restrict movement, and feel quite comfortable when properly fitted (plate armour that's too big or too small is horrid), when one takes the armour off at the end of the day there is a strong feeling of levitation! You don't notice how heavy armour is while you're wearing it but you certainly do notice when you're suddenly not.

-Plate is also mostly designed to counter slashing and chopping blows. If you want to penetrate plate armor, your best offense is a thrust from a thick blade or a blunt weapon to deal trauma -through- the armor. Thinner blades will just bend against it, so your best bet are shorter swords and daggers.

-Plate armor and shields are actually fairly redundant. Plate armor is an excellent defense by itself, and was actually made so that knights could favor two-handed weapons like zweihanders and flails. A shield can be useful in guarding from arrows during a charge, but has little role in actual melee combat for a plate-wearer.
-'Direct' blocking is a move you rarely want to do with any kind of defense, whether it be a sword or a shield. The absorption of shock risks damaging or breaking what you're holding, and the strain can fracture or even break bone. Even with a durable shield, it's best to deflect and redirect blows, not tank them head-on. This is less risk for the defender and provides an opening for counters.

-Plate Armor and Guns
While with the rise of guns came the demise of armor, for various reasons. Plate armor can still hold its own against the merciless rain of bullets from a gun. Rifles are the greatest threat to one clad in Plate armor as they can fire at a distance and generally pass through the metal of the armor, though usually with slowed velocity.

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2.Various Weapons:

-Katanas are two-handed blades. Due to their lightness, they're actually not very effective in one hand, as they require the leverage and power of a two-handed grip to utilize their extreme sharpness. While a katana -can- be wielded in one hand, you sacrifice a lot of cutting power, and it won't do much against anyone in any kind of armor. Not to mention the blade is rather thin, which could be dangerous to the unskilled. It's best to aim for vulnerable parts of the armor, such as the underarms, neck and joints.


-Two-handed swords, maces, and flails are surprisingly light and fast weapons. In real combat, mobility was king, and slow weapons got you killed. A few specific tips about each:

A six-foot zweihander actually only weighs about 7-9 pounds, and can be swung quickly and recover from missed attacks quite well. The bottom 25-30% of the blade was often dulled into what was called a ricasso, which allowed the wielder to grip the area for more well-balanced thrusts and even to invert the blade to strike out with the pommel in a move called a mordhau - murder strike. This was an effective way for sword-wielders to counter heavier armor that their blades couldn't pierce.


-Flails were surprisingly practical weapons. As I mentioned before, plate armor was actually very durable and rather light. A knight with a two-handed flail could still dodge and evade fairly well while he was winding up strikes, and a single blow from a spun flail could absolutely shatter bone through any kind of armor. Even when not wound up and just swung like a mace, flails were still very effective, and their chained heads made them difficult and unpredictable to defend against.

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3.Guns

Before modern times guns had many flaws, including, heavy fail rates, bad aim, not working when wet, and very long reload times. It is also important to remember that one had to carry around ammo and gun powder as well.

-Powder Reloading: This could take anywhere from 10-20 seconds or longer depending on the marksman’s skill.

-Pump Action reload: this sort of reloading allowed one to typically fire as fast at one could pump and still have bullets in their gun.

-FlintLocks/Pistols: particularly flintlocks and its kin are known for misfiring, not so great range, and the chance to explode in the owners hand if they had gun powder on their hands. Still a nasty weapon to deal with up close, once fired, one would most likely require a rapier or sword as reloading far too long in the fray of battle.
Diavel's Sexy Gun Info: Show

Duel Wielding

-It's rarely, if ever viable to dual-wield two full-length blades. In the same sense that very few people are ambidextrous, very few will benefit from having two swords of equal lengths, and even with ambidexterity, it's not really worth it. Often, the weapons will actually get in each other's way, and the effort of tracking the movements of both weapons can be a distracting and dangerous effort
-When dual-wielding, it's best to complement the weakness of a main weapon with a smaller, secondary one. A good example would be a sword and dagger combination. Swords are excellent slashing weapons that have a lot of trouble penetrating heavier armor with their thrusts, and can often be a bit too thin to directly block heavier attacks. Daggers, with their shorter, thicker blades, are excellent for parrying and penetrating plate. Furthermore, the different attack patterns - slashing and chopping for swords, thrusting with daggers - can keep them from getting in each other's way too much

-Brawlers, please be aware that speed and grace are not always winning traits in a fight. You need a solid center of gravity and balance to really win a fight. You must take into account how much you can handle, as well. Your balance is not going to be there if you've just been clocked in the head... It's not.

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4.How much pain will you be in:

Slammed on your back - If you were lucky enough not to have your head slammed in too, you will notice a large pain shooting through your arms and neck. Your back itself will not feel much pain till much later. However, this move will drastically slow down your movement if for a few moments while the nerves recover from the shock. If you were flipped also allow for the sensation of leveling yourself, you might not realize you're on your back right away. If you slammed your head, this process of recovery might take minutes or you'll simply black out.

-Blunt force to the upper back - You will be left gasping for air, but you won't be able to breathe in for a bit. When you do get that gasp, it will be accompanied by sharp pains, almost like a side stitch for your lungs. The area that was hit will be in pain, mostly a throbbing sensation. Congratulations, you just got struck where your lungs are.

Punched in the eye - You will not be able to use that eye for a while. Your eye will see stars, or nothingness, or white light, and that side of your head will have a massive amount of pressure which will spread slowly outwards. Think about how it feels to poke your eye, now multiply that by 15 and add a headache.

Punched in the gut - You will stumble backwards and double over. If you haven't thrown up by now, you will probably feel as if a small nuclear bomb just went off in your stomach. You might not be able to breathe for quite a while, and when you finally do it will be painful. We breathe with our diaphragm, which is that splendid muscle right in front of the stomach. Sure, you could clench that muscle, but if you didn't reflexively do that already you would be puking blood right about now or dead.

Clocked in the head - For a moment, you might not even remember which direction you need to face. If you are still standing, your head will be pounding. You might have an adrenaline rush from the fight, however this is bad because that is going to add to the pressure building in your head that's causing the nausea, dizziness, and pain. It might take a moment, but you will most likely topple over. If you don't and keep on fighting, your reflexes will be hilariously slowed.

n0proxy wrote:
Falling on your side- Assuming you fall sideways from a standing position, giving you little chance to roll at all, you would land on the elbow you instinctively raised to land on and your hip and thigh. On a semi-flexible surface such as (cheap) wooden flooring or (not super hard-packed) dirt, the impact would mildly bruise your elbow, and jar your shoulder and neck. Your thigh would be bruised as well and you'd get a jolt through your hip, perhaps twinging the tendons in your opposite hip - this would make your opposite leg painful to put weight on for a few days, but not debilitating. If you landed on a harder surface, like stone or very hard dirt, you could strain your shoulder, chip the bone in your elbow, and/or fracture your hip, which would make it impossible to stand at all. Wearing padded or leather armor would soften the impact only slightly - properly worn plate would actually disperse the force of the fall enough to negate most of these injuries.

Mind you, these are basic guidelines to pain as someone who deals with this in a real time setting. If you've trained your body to handle these sorts of direct blows, you are also continuing to subject yourself to such things in order that you never loose said ability. You are not made of steel, you are soft and squishy.
Here's some fun information about archery.

5.Bows(Of all sorts.)

Longbows- as mentioned before, actually required a great deal of physical strength to draw back. Beyond that, archery was an intensely technical and difficult art; it took years to train a competent archer, making them specialized and highly valued soldiers. Here's a little bit about bow types and the differences between them.

A conventional longbow trades convenience for reliability. These bows can be obnoxiously large and difficult to draw, but are also extremely durable. They rarely break and can endure a lot of strain, typically being made out of very stiff, strong woods.

Recurve bows- are smaller and stronger, allowing the same draw power as a conventional longbow while not being nearly as large. The problem is that this puts more strain on the bow itself, meaning that they're made out of more flexible (and not as durable) wood and require much more maintenance.


Composite recurve bows- were a blend of the two types, which used a mix of stronger and more flexible woods as a compromise between the recurve's size and the conventional bow's strength. These were more expensive to make and more difficult to repair, but extremely versatile weapons.

Crossbows- were essentially a 'peasant's bow'. A crossbow is much easier to use than a longbow, requiring not nearly as much training to wield. What many people don't know is that crossbows, as a tradeoff, are slower, less accurate, and less powerful. They take dangerously long to reload, don't penetrate armor very well at long range, and are generally just clumsy weapons. Most of the time in larger battles, crossbowmen were set behind either a sort of metal shield or what other defenses were available to lessen the strain from having longer re-load times. The real use of the crossbow was that a peasant solider could now take down a knight in full armor, if they were close enough.

References:


n0proxy wrote:
Flatbows- Very similar size and profile shape to longbows, but much more efficient. Instead of the wood being rounded and thickest near the handle (as in a longbow), flatbows are wide-lipped and 'flat', becoming narrower around the handle, which is rounded and not flexible. Looking at a flatbow in profile, it looks thinner than a longbow despite how they share the 'D' shape. However, looking at it head-on or from the perspective of the person drawing it, you can see how the wood is wide and flat. The wikipedia page is pretty good, has some nice pictures for comparison.


Now, regarding arrows and the strengths against certain armors, here's a few tips.

Arrows vary -greatly- in size, from about a foot and a half to five feet long. Smaller arrows are lighter, and fly much farther, making them great for bombardment or sniping, but they lack the penetrative power and concussive force of longer ones.

The stiffness of an arrow shaft has a profound effect on where it excels. The higher-draw the bow [ie the more powerful it is], the stiffer the shaft needs to be. Shortbows can have flexible arrows that are very easy to make, but more powerful bows need strong arrows that can be more expensive and difficult to make.

As for arrowheads, it gets really fun here.

Bodkin points are your standard, easily produced arrowhead. They're not terribly sharp, but are fairly heavy. They are capable of penetrating chainmail, but have little effect on plate and lack the sharpness to really punch deeply into armor unless attached to a stiff shaft.

n0proxy wrote:

Arrowheads- the broadhead is the 'standard' tip used on the battlefield. It's made usually from steel, with three or four sharp blades extended out, and tended to be slightly expensive. The tip was strong enough to pierce most armor, though that bled off a good deal of its kinetic energy, and the blades caused massive damage on flesh, leaving a big, messy, torn-up wound. If not hampered by armor, the tip could completely penetrate flesh to the point where the other sides of the blades would hook on internals when the arrow was pulled out. Standard fixed-blade heads were one shape of unmoving steel and were slightly less accurate. Mechanical-blade heads flew much better as the blades were swept back against the arrow shaft in the air, but had less impacting power as the blades 'sprung' out on impact to widen the wound as it's made.

6. Alcohol!(Partying, Partying, Yeah!)

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. That means, it's the CNS that it will be affecting first (loss of stimuli, coordination, speech impediment, balance). It's distributed very quickly, even in small amounts, and the effects are noticeable almost immediately. The stages of intoxication are usually marked by the blood alcohol content, that is generally directly connected to the water weight of the body.

It's also poison! Your liver works to filter out and oxidize it to to acetaldehyde to acetic acid to carbon dioxide and water. If you can remember and pronounce this sentence while addled, you are most likely a-okay as far as intoxication levels go.

How does tolerance play into this?

Heavy drinkers develop a tolerance. This means that their bodies are able to metabolize alcohol quicker than the usual person, which leads to lower blood alcohol level spikes and generally means that they will require more to get drunk, on average. This is usually paired with functional tolerance, where the drinker's systems have actually adapted to higher rates of alcohol consumption.

A bit on body weight

As mentioned before - body weight plays into how drunk you are. In general, lighter and smaller people will clonk out much faster than someone with sufficient body mass. This is because alcohol has a high affinity for water! People with more fat have more water weight to account for, so if one of two people of the same weight is better-built, they will not be as affected.

Concentration

Concentration of alcohol in the body depends on both the amount consumed, and on the rate at which it was consumed. Since you need to metabolize it in order for the effects to wear off, spikes in blood alcohol levels are caused by large, rapid ingestion of high-alcohol content beverages.

Don't chug your mouthwash.

And what if I'm eating?

Food makes you absorb alcohol at a slower rate! Most of it is delivered to the blood stream via the small intestine, the opening towards which will close once your stomach begins digestion. Since the level of alcohol in your blood, as a result, is lower, it will also metabolize more efficiently.

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7.Healing and injuries!

Shot in the Shoulder: Despite what you see in the movies, getting shot or stabbed in the shoulder, shoulderblade, or collarbone area is not a walk in the park, and you're probably not going to want (or be able) to move that arm if it does happen. In fact, you're probably going to be on the ground and screaming like a little girl. There's a lot of bone and muscle, as well as many tendons and ligaments, and bullets tend to fracture bone and send sharp chips through the adjacent tissue.

Chest Wounds: A puncture wound to the chest can easily kill you, even if it doesn't hit your heart. The space between the lungs and rubs (the pleural space) is airtight, and breathing depends on the vacuum created by the diaphragm. If you get a puncture wound, you'll develop what we call a sucking chest wound. Each time you breathe, air will be sucked into that wound (and it makes a really nasty sound), and it will eventually collapse your lung and displace the contents of your chest to the other side. Your trachea will shift to one side, which is the visible sign of altered pressure inside the chest cavity, and you'll feel like you can't breathe. That's because you...can't breathe. All it takes to cover a sucking chest wound, however, is a piece of airtight material placed over the wound and sealed down on 3 sides (you don't want to seal it on all sides, to allow trapped air to escape).

Fractured Femur: A fractured femur is among the most painful injuries a person can receive, and if the break is bad, it's basically a death sentence. The marrow and blood vessels in/around the bone bleed profusely, and the femoral artery also runs very near there and can be sliced open or compressed (cutting off blood supply to the leg) by a compromised bone. If the femoral artery is nicked, you'll bleed out in 3-5 minutes and there's nothing you can do.

Mangled Hand: You have a lot of tendons and muscles in your hands. If you slice a tendon, it snaps back and retracts into the tissue on either side. Sometimes the tendon can be found 3 or more inches away from where the initial break/cut happened, and it takes a surgeon skilled in microsurgery to retrieve that tendon and repair it. Even if they do repair it, it's forever going to be weakened, and you may never regain full range of motion.

Head Wounds: If you break your skull, the biggest danger isn't the immediate trauma to surrounding brain tissue. It's actually the blood vessels and the cerebrospinal fluid that swell or build up and increase intracranial pressure. Your brain tissue is approximately the consistency of firm Jell-o, and if you squeeze Jell-o, what happens? Yep. That happens to your brain. If you manage to survive the initial injury and swelling without major physical/mental deficits, your next issue is the possibility of infection. There's something called the blood-brain barrier, and it makes it difficult for infectious agents to cross from the bloodstream to the brain. Unfortunately, it also works in reverse, so if bacteria or parasites are introduced to the brain through an injury, the antibodies and white blood cells in your blood won't be able to cross over and fight the infection very easily.

Back Wounds:You do not always get paralyzed if your back gets broken. If, like me, by some miracle the spine was not crushed or damaged too much, you still have a chance to recover if that area is stabilised and left to heal. Unfortunately, without (again) a healer's intervention, that healing will require years, along with physiotherapy to re-strengthen the back muscles and repair any damaged nerves. Arms and legs might tingle, face might get numb, etc, as stuff heals.(Ardeth)

Gut Wounds: You don't die when your intestines are hanging from your body. At least not immediately, as long as the blood flow is intact. You can also survive the loss of a good amount of intestine, as long as the doc is skilled at re-attaching the ends to each other. If the stomach or intestine is punctured but not hanging outside of the body, the biggest problem is infection. Peritonitis is the infection of the lining of the abdominal cavity, and it's extremely painful and can be deadly. Appendicitis can result in this if left untreated, as the infected organ can burst and spew all that lovely bacteria everwhere.

Gun shot Wounds: It's important to note cases where someone is shot, people aren't usually thrown back when they're shot. Being shot more then once, or even at specific locations rarely mean certain death, particularly with the possibilities of Magic. Saying that, many times people who were shot (they didn't have magic or the medicines that we take for granted every day) had to of course stop the bleeding, then have the bullet removed if possible, if not, it was left in(This still occurs today, there is of course the danger a piece of metal could slip into ones blood stream and kill them.) Once the wound is bandaged and the bleeding there is of course, the chance of infection.-(With help from Ardeth!)

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8.Dental Hygiene:

Believe it or not, people actually did care about dental hygiene in pre-industrial societies. Many native cultures use(d) something called a chew stick, which is the end of a stick that is frayed into tiny wood fibers (like toothbrush bristles), and they brush their teeth with that. Most use tea or alcohol as mouthwash after they've brushed.

9.Poisons:

There are commonly agreed, four types of poisons. Inhalent, Ingestive, Insuitive, and Contact

Inhalent: is just like it looks like. This is a poison which requires the target to breath in, to see the desired effect. Take note, this is a highly iffy type. It depends on so many different factors. Are you indoors or outdoors? If outdoors, is there wind, rain, or other ill effected weather? This will disable the use of the Inhalent poison. If indoors, how close in proximity are you to the target? If close, do you have your own protective mouth wear? An Inhalent Poison is just as dangerous to the target as it is to the assailant.

Ingestive: is the same, it is applied to foods, wines, and other items that would be found to be placed in contact of prolonged time with the mouth. This could even be a mouth piece used by a doctor while performing medieval surgery.

Contact: is just that. Bare skin that contacts the poisoned surface, becomes poisoned. Useful for railings, items that the target regularly uses, and even the clothes they wear. If that's a stain, be careful, it could be worse then just a bit of wine and some water.

Insinuative: is something, rogues, use constantly in game. They go on your blades, arrows, quarrel bolts, et cetera et cetera. Take note, they require the weapon to open a wound, so they can be directly injected into the blood stream. A syringe does count as an insinuative poison. Please, again take note however. Unlike in the game, a true insiuative poisons effectiveness is lost around an hour or so after the weapon either A: Leaves the Scabbard keeping it wet, or B: Is used unsuccessfully upon a target, such as a parry to that clever dagger thrust of yours. Poisons of this nature are wet generally, and must remain so. Thus, glinted steel or metal when seeing a poisoned blade.

Poison delivery and effectiveness varies by type and its application: - ultimately, you would want it into the bloodstream and across the systems as soon as possible. Be careful with contact-based poisons, as those are rare and require very concentrated doses. More often than not, contact poisons have been used with the assumption that the victim will ingest it sooner or later by licking their fingers, rubbing their tear ducts, etc.

"Poisons" are classified as anything from neurotoxins to inhibitors to just about anything that causes disturbance in an organism. Be creative! A substance can give your target the shakes, or have them temporarily paralyzed in one area (do consider how rapid and how easily the substance will spread), or cause rapid dehydration, or (in case of cyanide) rapidly rob the body of energy by making it cease the production of ATP.

It's also worth nothing that "poison", "toxin", and "venom" have different connotation as far as zoology and naturally derived substances are concerned. A "toxin" is a poison generally produced by the organism as self-defense (think the poison dart frog). A "venom" is a poison that an organism injects into their victim (snakes, scorpions, etc.)

There are numerous poison delivery systems as well, which I encourage people to research! Hidden rings, powders, beads, needles are only the tip of the awful awful iceberg.

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10.Tattoos:

Regardless of the period method, the ink does not go very deeply into the skin at all. Skin has a total of 3 layers: Epidermis, Dermis, and subcutaneous tissue. The tattoo needle depth should penetrate into the Dermis layer -between 1mm and 2mm into the skin- because this is just under the thin layers of epidermis that constantly regenerates itself. Deeper than that and you get what's called "blow outs" because the subcutaneous tissue is sponge-like and the ink spreads out in it causing a blurred effect.

The shallowness of the needle causes a tattoo to typically feel like a rug burn or cat scratch rather than a hospital needle.

It is NOT a good idea to drink alcohol or take pain killers before a tattoo. It thins the blood and causes the wound to bleed more, which can also make the ink bleed out and not take properly. It's a pain for the artist and bad for the tattoo process and will likely end in a crappy tattoo that needs to be redone.

A healing tattoo is basically a shallow open wound and very vulnerable to infection. It needs oxygen to heal but also needs to be protected from things like staph that's on pretty much everything. It's imperative that it's kept clean.The best method of doing this -and people do debate and have their own favorite methods, but as someone prone to infection - is a loose clean shirt or pants that don't smother the tattoo but do keep out germs, dirt, pet hair, etc.

Some people let their tattoo dry heal while most prefer an unscented lotion. Lotions should be applied as a very thin layer and help protect the area. Too thick and you risk smothering it and causing an infection. Swiming, soaking the tattoo, and letting it sunburn will also suck for your ink and possibly lead to infection. Adventuring in Morytania is not recommended.

Pretty much all forms of armor would be bad for a tattoo. Sweat is also bad for it, because sweat is full of toxins.

Ever see The Hangover 2? I was so distracted by how infected that tattoo should have been by like day 2. Infections can set in fast too. It gets very very red, hurts like a mofo, and if it gets really bad can look like the skin is eating itself. Anything can cause this. Like I said, staph is on literally everything. Pet dander, brushing against something, putting lotion on without washing your hands first... Better safe than sorry!

The healing process on healthy skin is a lot like a sunburn. It'll sting for a while but then it gets to the peely itchy stage. Picking at it is a no-no. You just have to deal with the itch.

Basically, if your character is going to get some ink, they may want to do it whilst vacationing in Varrock or something.

Also, cover ups. You can't really "white out" a tattoo and cover ups are tricky as they have to be bigger than the original tattoo and darker. Black and red are difficult colors to cover. You can't really cover a piece with just whatever depending on what it is. And it will show through a bit even if well done, but usually just to someone to already knew it was there.

Different areas of the body DO hurt more than others. Ribs, elbows, feet, and stomach are pretty notorious. Behind the ear is SUPER painless. Hardly feel that. The upper bicep is also generally pretty easy. But everyone is different.

11.Corsets(Beauty is Pain, right?):

A true Renaissance corset tries to make your torso conform to a conical shape. There would have been no curved seams. Secondly, Renaissance corsetry was designed to minimize the chest. There would have been a silk collar with your gown to cover any offending cleavage. Thirdly, a corset was underwear. You would never, ever see a lady wearing a corset on the outside of a gown. SCANDEL! So unfortunately, if you head to the Renn Faire and see the young ladies with their chest pushed up to their chins all heaving and out there, they are doing it wrong.

Now, of course as time went by, corset styles changed. By the Victorian era, corsets were curved to accentuate the female form- enhance the bust and make the waist appear as tiny as possible. And again, corset were still underwear. There were not an outer layer of any outfit.

Wearing a properly fitted corset is not painful. For those with "cups that floweth over" or for ladies with back problems, a corset can be advantageous since it provides much more support than a traditional bra ever could. But again, a corset must be PROPERLY FITTED. Your chest should never form a "muffin top" that spills over your corset. If this is happening, you have either laced your corset too tightly or you are wearing a corset that is not made for your cup size.

Wearing an ill-fitting corset can be dangerous. By over-lacing you risk cracking a rib, having difficulty breathing, and loss of consciousness. If you are new to wearing a corset, do not try to achieve more than a 2-3 waist reduction. As you grow accustomed to wearing one, more reduction can be achieved, but it is a slow process and depending on your body type, you may never safely achieve more that a few inches in reduction.
There are health risks from long term corset use- especially tight lacing. If you play a character as having worn corsetry from a young age, it is possible your organs are no longer where they should be.

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12.Baking

1. As Questionable Content says, "Baking is science for hungry people." Baking is a lot less forgiving than cooking, where as long as you don't char the mess out of something, you've got a lot of wiggle room to have an edible dish. Baking is science where you have to know the role of an ingredient to get a desired effect. Example? Both sugar cookies and crepes need butter, flour, and eggs, but the cookies need a mess-load of leavening to be puffy (baking soda and baking powder), crepes leave it out for a paper thin texture.

2. The further back in time you go, the simpler the baked goods because there weren't even-heated ovens or precise measurements (i.e. "a cup of flour" was... a cup, and your cup might be bigger than mine!). It's estimated modern iced cakes didn't spring up until mid-17th century or so because of better ovens and food molds/pans.

3. Homemade goods have no preservatives which, while probably better for you, drastically reduces their shelf life. 3 days? Your bread is stale. 5 days? It is a rock.

4. High humidity or moisture means mold mold mold! Just think about all the food sitting around at the bottom of your character's bag... ewww. The modern invention of plastic goes a long way in keeping microbes out, which we can assume our characters don't have. Even if your character does have the foresight to wrap their leftover mulgore spice bread in paper first, high humidity or moisture can result in it molding in less than a week.

5. Food, including baked goods, was valued much more highly in a pre-industrialized world, because the consumer knew how much time and effort went into that food. Folks of lesser means either grew that wheat for the flour and hand picked those eggs, or they had to pay/barter dearly for it. Sharing your food is thus more significant when you can track the weeks it took to get to your plate, versus paying a few bucks at a grocery store.

13.You Want to be an Assassin?

Armor:

With an Assassin, Stealth User, Thief, Padfoot, or what have you, you're looking at lightweight armor. Very light weight, and generally either able to become form fitting, or already form fitting. Those big honking robes from Assassin's Creed? Actually, not that helpful. What they do not show you in running scenes and what not, is how easy a Templar could have lunged forward as you were turning to run, and yank your rump right to the ground. Even the True Hashashin, who the Assassins were based off, wore a simple tunic and pants set that were bound tight around their ankles, wrists, and waist, with the sash tucked in so as NOT to be used as leverage against them in a fight. These were totally one minded, trained killers against folks in chainmail, and very rarely, plate. So, they had to take as many advantages as they could.

Your basic armor make up is actually going to be cloth. Especially for the foot coverings, or if leather, it will generally be padded with a type of cloth. This muffles movement, a must have. A couple of leather pieces sewn into the tunic or jerkin would be acceptable, or more likely you would go the Saracen Guard Route from Assassins Creed, and wear Padded Cloth.

Now what is Padded Cloth? Literally as it is described. There are several squares of folded cloth, over and again, before sewn into the actual form of the tunic or leggings. While not as useful against Archers, it could at times turn a curved blade. But do not count on it. This would afford more protection from someone punching you, then trying to stab you. But again, stabbing would likely get through, slashes would offer that chance for it to be turned.


And now, onto the famous weapon of the Assassin, a DAGGER:

Now, I personally am a big fan of daggers. BIG FAN. I own a rather sizable collection, and I like to practice with them as well. That being said, I have a fair amount of knowledge when it comes to their use.

Now, your always seeing some rogue or what have you, with those big fancy daggers. Curves all over to make it wicked, serrated edges and all, maybe an ornate hilt with some wolfs maw wide open.

To put it this way for those of us who are nostalgic about their cartoons, let me quote Rockos Modern Life.

"Aww, so cute...BUT ITS WROOOONG!"

That thing has so many inherent flaws, its likely to kill the wielder with its own ineptitude, then the target. One, Curves and Serrated do not mix all that well. Most of our targets wear chainmail and plate. That gets hooked on a link, and we are sitting ducks.

This is what you want in a dagger:

One: Double sided. Both sides, edged and ready to go. Also, serrations are not that good of a silent tool. Creates too much of a jagged rip, which creates undue pain, blood splatter, and eventually you create a screamer, a silent killers worst nightmare.

Two: Curves are fine, as long as they are not too drastic. Often times a curve can actually aid you in the kill, as it allows you to get past that pesky rib cage when going for the underhanded finisher, the stab underneath and up for the heart. The sweet spot.

Three: Pommel needs to be clean and smooth. Easy to grab, grip, and then holster again in quick succession. That's what you want for a dagger. If your busy fumbling about because your hands got caught on that big honking jeweled tooth of your dragon mouth on the dagger, you deserve to be killed good would be rogue, you hear me, deserve it!

---

14.Explosives
Explosives, I'm not sure about you all, but I've seen explosives used so very wrongly while role-playing with others, obviously most people haven't experienced explosions, and I can safely say, neither have I. On that note, there are several misconceptions when it comes to explosives, thanks Hollywood and the like.

Myths

Firstly, most explosions are not -that- big. If you're like me, then you've seen various explosions and the like from Hollywood, and from what I can tell, they all produce fireballs. This of course, is actually not very common. In most explosions there is no giant flame ball, just shrapnel, injured people. The flame balls come from flammable liquids and gasses, burning with O2 in the atmosphere.

Secondly, Fire is hardly the only thing one has to worry about if one is in the vicinity of an explosion. Shrapnel can be far more deadly, when something explodes, even small pieces of wood, metal, or glass, can cause serious damage as it flies towards your body at blinding speeds.

What does it feel like?
When an explosion goes off, a shock-wave is released, this varies on the type of explosive, and components involved. Depending on the size, a good amount of oxygen may become displaced, and one could expect to "lose their breath" as that oxygen is displaced. That shock-wave, typically propels shrapnel, possibly fire, and heated air in all directions as well.

Running and diving to the ground, like in movies, while admiral, and truthfully what one should do in such a situation, is not at all a preferred place to be, thanks to all that shrapnel. At the same time, if one manages to survive an explosion, one might experience loss of hearing(Ringing) for a time, and depending on if they were caught in the explosion, bleeding, burns, sharpnel wounds, and concussions, the norm.

(This part is definitely a WIP, so I apologize if it's not up to par.)
Pestilence wrote:

Great read. I think it would be hard to add anything. I'll try to give some insight about Explosives I'm no expert just a little reading here and there and watching eight seasons of Mythbusters.

There are two types of explosives, Low explosives like black powder and High Explosives like Dynamite.

High Explosives detonate faster than the speed of sound this shock wave produced causes the massive damage we all know.

Low Explosives combust at a very fast rate causing a much slower pressure wave that is great for pushing objects like bullets.

High Explosives weren't discovered until the late 1800's so I think in-game most bombs would be Low Explosives. But with Engenieers having magnetic shields and Rocket boots who knows.

The primary weapon of explosives is shrapnel. Tiny bits of what ever just blew up coming at you, well, has fast as a speeding bullet. Modern grenades can throw shrapnel as far as 200 m away.

Along with flying debris the concussive blast can and will cause hearing loss.
Hearing loss starts at 140 Db and the hear drum will rupture 50% of the time at 195-190.
At 6ft one pound of TNT gives a blast at 194 Db at 15ft it is down at 180 Db.
A balloon popping is at 154 Db

Point being if you see a blast without protection your ears will be ringing if you feel the blast you may go deaf for a while.

References are several pages in Wikipedia and http://www.makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt


The End...

Shout out to the community, Diavels master gun info, and the like for all the work that's been put into this!

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