From: David Smart (jurrubin@earthlink.net)
Date: Sat 13 Apr 2002 - 21:14:45 EEST
Steve Perrin wrote:
>
> While a lot of the support technology for serious mountain climbing is
> pretty modern, a lot of the actual materials used for making a climb, like
> rope and pitons and even cleats on shoes, could be approximated with
> Bronze-to-Iron-Age technology, even if no one ever did so in those periods.
>
> Magic is also important. A mountain-dwelling culture may well have folk
> magic (to use a Quest Rules designation) meant to deal with going up and
> down a lot.
Arrgh. Magic. Right. Duh.
Sorry, all..I'm deep into a local Traveller campaign and a job search
right
now so I've hi-tech and reality on the brain.
<view-point reset to Land of Ninja template>
The use of spells for rune metal would easily make soft iron tough
enough for
some uses. Bronze-strength tie-on cleats wouldn't be a problem nor would
the
nekade (ne KAH deh) used by ninja in the 16th century.
And there's all the wonderful material manipulation spells. Use them for
setting rope and other climbing aids (Spiderman anyone?)
Want to justify the higher tech items used by experts on mountains?
One word..dwarves.
> Not sure what is meant by "ice climbing."
Climbing up the shear face of a frozen waterfall, climbing glaciers,
etc.
Personally, I think it a form of insanity. <grin>
> Keep also in mind that climbing sheer faces is supposedly, in a fantasy
> world, what thieves do all the time. Doing it at 15,000 feet might be a bit
> much, but the techniques are there, almost by definition.
>
> When dealing with a fantasy setting, at least, sometimes the genre
> conventions have to overwhelm the real life limitations.
Absolutely. Conan could easily climb the cliffs and mountains of his
homeland using bare-hand/-foot rock climbing techniques. Heck, I'VE
done it and I'm no pro in any sense of the word. Heck, I'm not
even a dedicated amateur. For me it's more a matter of leg strength
and flexibility to go up than arm strength but the average veteran
sword-swinger should be able to handle it just fine with some
instruction as to placement/grip/jam techniques. Heaven knows they're
in much better shape than I've ever been.
David
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