The Viking sword

So the viking sword evolved from the migration period sword. This sword was shorter being around 28-32 inches in length, was slightly lighter, made of poorer material (especially the hilt) and had a more shallow fuller. As with the viking sword it was intended for one handed use and was very expensive.

This sword would have been more prone to wear and tear than the viking sword.

So basically for the viking period swords (more tomorrow) I will have three swords. These are particular to a region as they are not universally used. But basically between the 5/6th century to the 11th century the viking sword improves materials and make and design becoming a more efficient and better designed weapon. Length is one of the major changes in shape as it retains its basic appearance throughout. Eventually (many surmise) this becomes the knightly sword/longsword of the Middle Ages. (more on that later as well).

Three swords, unequal in quality, all lethal.

How will the world end - by Melancholia of course

Melancholia (warning, the website for this movie not only gives away a lot, it is a nightmare of navigation and overloaded graphics and crap and slow scrolling and blah - or maybe its just my computer. still worth a visit).

Melancholia is an awesome looking movie about the end of the world. The world ends when Earth and a wandering planet bounce into one another. As a general rule, as I age I tend to like my movies action packed and full of daring do. A movie that takes me away rather than pulls me in. Yet,every once in a while my youthful eagerness overcomes and I am dawn to a movie that pulls me in. This appears to be just such a movie.

Of course, everyone dies, so it's my cup of tea. And by everybody, i mean everybody.

My famous video

LOL, I had already forgotten about this. My daughter was blinking through our website and found it and started laughing. AT ME

The Immortals - movie

Looks good. Its from the producers of 300 so that is a plus.

I wish my games could be this exciting! Sadly we can't use real weapons and none of us has mastered the fine art of moving in slow motions and have no idea how to slow down objects we throw at one another. Though I have become good at dodging dice.

Patagonian bacteria gave us lager beer

Not only has Patagonia graced us with some of the most majestic landscape in the world, such as this

But it also spawned a wild yeast that migrated to the Old World to a monastery and some caves nearby to marry-up with a local yeast and produce little hybrid yeasty children that is used to make lager.

link - its science

Weapon Damage ranges

So I was sitting around thinking about weapon damage ranges for the weapons book. I want to use a scale of 1-10. So lets take small creature, a medium creature and a large creature. The medium (6ft tall) gets a 3 foot sword, the small (2ft) gets a 1 foot sword and the large (18ft) gets a 9 foot sword. All the swords are 1/2 the height of the creature bearing them. So I have a rating issue. Does the large sword do 3x the damage as the medium, 2x or what.

Castles and Crusades Book of Weapons

Thus it begins in earnest. I have dithered over this project for a year. But tonight I sit to start compiling notes and gathering information. This is an image of a classic viking sword (from this weapon maker). Viking swords are double edged, with deep fuller,  they are about 36 (they were shorter early in the viking age and longer later) inches long having a 6 inch hilt, they taper up the length of the blade but more pronounced towards the tip at the end (giving good balance) and weighed 2-4 pounds. Swords were very expensive (in Iceland about 16 milk cows worth). The blades were pattern welded. They could suffer in protracted battles.

Puzzlewood - must see forest in UK to see Middle Earth

Puzzlewood home
Some good pics  Says  that wikipedia says Puzzlewood inspired Tolkein. Didn't check. Don't care. Cool forest.

Classic Monsters for Castles and Crusades

Peter has forthwith sent over some images for the Castles and Crusades Classic Monsters book. There is still no solid release date but it is wrapping up. All the text is finished, the final stages of editing and layout are underway and Peter is hard at work cranking out some monster pics.

The tarrasque, nereid, disenchanter and boggart. Oh wait, I think one of these is supposed to be the cover for the 5th printing of the PHB. NOt sure. I'll ask Steve tomorrow.

Lot of copyrighted images on the net

Go figure. One works hard to create something and they want it copyrighted and not disseminated for free.

My two handed sword - of course its useful

Well, except here. I guess I can use it like a spear.