@ Aliteri: Your quote kicks my butt and I concede. Faerom should make katanas. I will say FR lore is a mess and it is the result of having a bajillion writers. Still fun to read though and BG is still the best game ever made. One more thing though. Katanas require great sacrifice to be made magical so Faerom still should make a magic one.
Oh! No! You've just offended me! You hit me into my heart! Hold on, guys, just relax
I did not intend to offend any of you. My position is strictly defensive after: > I think he is a noob...
I'm really sorry if I have broken your world outlook by bringing some light. Enlightenment is too complex for some of us. Anyway, I love you all!
Fantasy was not introduced by tolkien. It was introduced the first time someone told a story that was not solely grounded in reality. As in, during the time of the dawn of the spoken word.
Consequently, 'fantasy' has been a worldwide phenomenon since.
The Swotd Coast is NOT 12th century Britain... It have a number of traits similar, but thats it!
So the "but this is wrong for 12th century britain" argument is completely flawed and useless.
Alot of the cultures and areas in Forgotten realms share traits and are probably inspired by real world cultures and areas. But that does in no way place them under the same restraints that we know from real world history.
Katanas and other far east weapons have been part of the forgotten realms setting since the setting were first published. And since the forgotten realms always (at least as far as the history in the setting goes back), have had alot of trade between the different parts of the main continent, weapons like the katana will be found in most areas. Will they be much more rare on the sword coast, than in Kara-Tur, Yes they will, but they will be there just like tea and spices from the far east were available in europe during the larter part of the middle age.
It's easier for me to say "So you've got Medieval Britain, that's the Sword Coast. You've got Amn, which is the Middle Eastern part of Asian. Then Kara-Tur is the oriental part of Asia."/blockquote>
Amn is Spain/Portugal. Calimport is the middle east
I can see how Amn could be related to Spain/Portugal due to how these countries used to have a monopoly in sea trade with distant countries, but as a Portuguese nothing in Amn ever made me think "Hey, this is Portugal in the past!".
I imagine trade is also a lot easier with spells like teleport (a level 9 mage can cast that 1-2 per day, depending on specialisation) and even better, teleportation circle (requires a lvl17 mage, but those are relatively common in Faerûn and can be made permanent and its costs are about 2500gp, just below the "not readily available" limit). The latter opens a permanent link between location A and B, making exotic trade a whole lot easier, therefore making it quite easy to spread exotic items around the globe.
Once again, a great conundrum can be solved by saying "A wizard did it".
I think that I once read an explanation in a FR novel as to why magical teleportation isn't used to ferry goods across the lands. Something about how items tend to disappear when using gates for travel.
@Drugar I think that I once read an explanation in a FR novel as to why magical teleportation isn't used to ferry goods across the lands. Something about how items tend to disappear when using gates for travel.
Clearly those people shopped at the Discount Spells R Us gnomish hedgewizard establishment. Wouldn't happen with any of my wizards, I assure you. Free and easy travel to where-ever you wish for only a...small fee.
It's easier for me to say "So you've got Medieval Britain, that's the Sword Coast. You've got Amn, which is the Middle Eastern part of Asian. Then Kara-Tur is the oriental part of Asia."/blockquote>
Amn is Spain/Portugal. Calimport is the middle east
Really, Amn always seemed more Roman inspired to me, with a touch of Moorish Spain.
It were a fleet from Amn that invaded maztica and did pretty much the same to that continent, as the spanish did to the cultures in middle and south america. That have always , at least for me, pointed in the direction that some of the inspiration for Amn were taken from Portugal and spain.
I think that I once read an explanation in a FR novel as to why magical teleportation isn't used to ferry goods across the lands. Something about how items tend to disappear when using gates for travel.
I believe it's just a lot cheaper to transport them in a traditional way than hire a mage to teleport them. Magic is expensive.
In my opinion Asian weapons/armor had no place in MOST of the AD&D works, and only belonged in the specific modules that took place is......asian style settings. (note no module was in Asia or Europe, they were in Greyhawk or Faerun not earth). I personally don't see why people try to imbue the Asian Weapons with some mysterious superiority over the weapons of other locations, if they truely were much better than any of their contemporaries they would have been adopted by other cultures or those cultures would have been conquered. For whatever reason some people seem fixated on elevating asian items above others....and more power to them, Ill play with other groups
Katana style swords were great slashing weapons and were ok for poking....but would have been less usefull against fully metalic armor than it was against the wood and cloth armors it was designed to go up against. At any rate in D&D you dont have to stick to realistic models or fashions.
Also in 2nd edition FR 9th lvl mages were rare. And 2500 gold for a permanent portal is considerable when food is bought with copper.
Not only that can you imagine carrying around 2500 of any metalic coin? say a standard of 1 ounce per coin your talking ...if we use "Troy" measurements as we do now for gold and silver your looking at 12 coins = 1 pound so 2500 coins would be 208.3 pounds......not something youd sling into your back pocket....even at 16 ounces in a pound your looking at 156.25 pounds.
A cubic inch of gold is about a half pound, a solid gold golfball would weigh about 2.2 pounds.....carry gold? meh give me gems any day much lighter.
Also in 2nd edition FR 9th lvl mages were rare. And 2500 gold for a permanent portal is considerable when food is bought with copper.
Not only that can you imagine carrying around 2500 of any metalic coin? say a standard of 1 ounce per coin your talking ...if we use "Troy" measurements as we do now for gold and silver your looking at 12 coins = 1 pound so 2500 coins would be 208.3 pounds......not something youd sling into your back pocket....even at 16 ounces in a pound your looking at 156.25 pounds.
A cubic inch of gold is about a half pound, a solid gold golfball would weigh about 2.2 pounds.....carry gold? meh give me gems any day much lighter.
I just had a look at the D&D 3.5 Edition Player's Guide. It lists 1 pound of gold as 50 gold pieces. So 2500 coins would weigh in at 50 pounds, so your estimate is a fair bit off. I can indeed imagine carrying around 50 pounds, my field gear in the military weighed far more than that... Incidentally, hardly anyone mints one ounce gold coins, most modern bullion gold coins are minted as fractions of ounces (quarter ounces, half ounces), when you get to as much as a troy ounce or more they are generally minted into ingots or bars. An ounce of gold is simply worth so much money that it wouldn't serve well as transaction medium except for very large purchases. This is also the case for D&D where the average unskilled worker makes roughly 1 silver coin per day, with a silver being 1/10th of a gold coin or 10 copper coins.
ahh I never played 3e so I used real world stats....I actually have Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum 1 ounce coins and I know their weight stacks up pretty quick.
There is no question as to real world inspirations for the Forgotten Realms sub-settings. And in my view there is also no question of a profound influence by J.R.R. Tolkien's work on FR (the presence of humans, halflings (!), elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, wizards, and indeed, an uber powerful and rather Gandalf-like wizard in Elminster, etc.)
The creator of FR, Ed Greenwood, says that he first envisioned the setting in 1967 at age the precocious age of 8 and began developing it extensively even then. He discovered D&D in 1978 and began writing source material for it with co-author Jeff Grubb. When Ed sold the Forgotten Realms setting to TSR in '86 or '87, it was elaborated for publication to include all the various lands across the globe of Abeir-Toril that have unmistakable real world inspirations.
Not too credibly, it seems to me, Ed tends to minimize the influence of Tolkien, as Tolkien was all the rage even when he was a child. Ed also chafes a bit at the observation that many FR lands are clearly derived from real world history. He emphasizes that the Forgotten Realms was always intended to be customizable by the DM. So just how derivative of real world inspirations is really up to the DM.
After all is said and done, to me, there is no question that Ed Greenwood is a creative genius and has done a superb job with the Forgotten Realms. (What will you and I be remembered for?)
I do not mean katanas should start out corrupted. I mean they should be taintable by the iron contagion just like any other non magical iron containing weapon in the context of the game .
Katanas should be suceptible to iron corruption, they aren't magic. They are just well made.
From my perspective Katanas are solely imported (also their ingame descriptions hint that) so they should not be affected by troubles on the Sword Coast
i only want katanas to exist for the sake of convienence, because one of my fighters is going to have full proficiency in katana, and it would be really lame going through all of bg 1 with no katanas and then waiting untill bg 2 before i get celestial fury
I do not mean katanas should start out corrupted. I mean they should be taintable by the iron contagion just like any other non magical iron containing weapon in the context of the game .
Katanas should be suceptible to iron corruption, they aren't magic. They are just well made.
From my perspective Katanas are solely imported (also their ingame descriptions hint that) so they should not be affected by troubles on the Sword Coast
Couldn't the game developers just say (write in description) that the non-magical Katana's available in BG1 have been recast by a local smithy using steel made from some corrupted iron ore.
You remember that the "corruption" isn't some air or virus that surrounds the metal or breaks it down. It's literally the liquid that the kobolds were dousing on the iron in Nashkell.
So, if the weapon wasn't made in the sword coast from Nashkell, why would it be corrupted?
I do not mean katanas should start out corrupted. I mean they should be taintable by the iron contagion just like any other non magical iron containing weapon in the context of the game .
Katanas should be suceptible to iron corruption, they aren't magic. They are just well made.
From my perspective Katanas are solely imported (also their ingame descriptions hint that) so they should not be affected by troubles on the Sword Coast
Comments
I will say FR lore is a mess and it is the result of having a bajillion writers. Still fun to read though and BG is still the best game ever made.
One more thing though. Katanas require great sacrifice to be made magical so Faerom still should make a magic one.
Consequently, 'fantasy' has been a worldwide phenomenon since.
So the "but this is wrong for 12th century britain" argument is completely flawed and useless.
Alot of the cultures and areas in Forgotten realms share traits and are probably inspired by real world cultures and areas. But that does in no way place them under the same restraints that we know from real world history.
Katanas and other far east weapons have been part of the forgotten realms setting since the setting were first published. And since the forgotten realms always (at least as far as the history in the setting goes back), have had alot of trade between the different parts of the main continent, weapons like the katana will be found in most areas. Will they be much more rare on the sword coast, than in Kara-Tur, Yes they will, but they will be there just like tea and spices from the far east were available in europe during the larter part of the middle age.
Yes there will be katanas.
The latter opens a permanent link between location A and B, making exotic trade a whole lot easier, therefore making it quite easy to spread exotic items around the globe.
Once again, a great conundrum can be solved by saying "A wizard did it".
I think that I once read an explanation in a FR novel as to why magical teleportation isn't used to ferry goods across the lands. Something about how items tend to disappear when using gates for travel.
Free and easy travel to where-ever you wish for only a...small fee.
Katana style swords were great slashing weapons and were ok for poking....but would have been less usefull against fully metalic armor than it was against the wood and cloth armors it was designed to go up against. At any rate in D&D you dont have to stick to realistic models or fashions.
A cubic inch of gold is about a half pound, a solid gold golfball would weigh about 2.2 pounds.....carry gold? meh give me gems any day much lighter.
Incidentally, hardly anyone mints one ounce gold coins, most modern bullion gold coins are minted as fractions of ounces (quarter ounces, half ounces), when you get to as much as a troy ounce or more they are generally minted into ingots or bars. An ounce of gold is simply worth so much money that it wouldn't serve well as transaction medium except for very large purchases. This is also the case for D&D where the average unskilled worker makes roughly 1 silver coin per day, with a silver being 1/10th of a gold coin or 10 copper coins.
If you had 2500 ounces of gold that would be like 4 million dollars, try carring that in scrap to the bank.
@immagikman
Sure there are one ounce coins out there, but for an actual circulation trade coin a full ounce would be excessive.
hehehe try hanging that from your belt in a pouch
The creator of FR, Ed Greenwood, says that he first envisioned the setting in 1967 at age the precocious age of 8 and began developing it extensively even then. He discovered D&D in 1978 and began writing source material for it with co-author Jeff Grubb. When Ed sold the Forgotten Realms setting to TSR in '86 or '87, it was elaborated for publication to include all the various lands across the globe of Abeir-Toril that have unmistakable real world inspirations.
Not too credibly, it seems to me, Ed tends to minimize the influence of Tolkien, as Tolkien was all the rage even when he was a child. Ed also chafes a bit at the observation that many FR lands are clearly derived from real world history. He emphasizes that the Forgotten Realms was always intended to be customizable by the DM. So just how derivative of real world inspirations is really up to the DM.
After all is said and done, to me, there is no question that Ed Greenwood is a creative genius and has done a superb job with the Forgotten Realms. (What will you and I be remembered for?)
Forgotten Realms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms
Ed Greenwood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Greenwood
List of Forgotten Realms Nations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_nations
You remember that the "corruption" isn't some air or virus that surrounds the metal or breaks it down. It's literally the liquid that the kobolds were dousing on the iron in Nashkell.
So, if the weapon wasn't made in the sword coast from Nashkell, why would it be corrupted?
Just by fighting people using weapons that are corrupted would be my theory.