thread: 2017-06-07 : Failure in RPGs (by Paganini)
On 2017-06-07, Vincent wrote:
My favorite true adventure book is The Ra Expiditions by Thor Heyerdahl. In it, Thor and company build a reproduction of an ancient Egyptian reed ship and sail it across the Atlantic.
To build the ship, they bring in a reed shipbuilder from Chad, who's built many lake-scale reed boats but never an oceangoing one like this one. With him they closely examine all the existing models and drawings of ancient Egyptian ships, and they show this rope tied for no apparent reason from the peak of the stern to the middle of the deck, right where everyone will trip on it all the time. They can't figure out why it's there. Finally they decide that the artist drew it there by mistake, and leave it off.
So then they cross out of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, and the first full-size ocean swell they roll over, the ship doesn't form a spring the way it would if the peak of the stern were tied to the deck - the rope made a bow of the ship, with itself as the bowstring - and the swell breaks the spine of their ship. The whole rest of the expedition, they have to work and struggle and fight to keep sailing.
HOW DO YOU GET THIS IN A ROLEPLAYING GAME?
This makes Pag go "I read about that..."
In an old NGS magazine. It was one of my favorite articles!
