From: ecrjbruce@economics.adelaide.edu.au
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: re: Bastard DM From Hell Pt 2
Date: 19 Aug 92 10:25:09 GMT
Organization: Economics, University of Adelaide

In article <phil.714118354@adam.adelaide.edu.au>, phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au (Phil Kernick) writes:
> ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) writes:
> 
>>All realism aside, let's compare it to the world that this game is being
>>played in.  In the standard D&D world, an entire suit of plate mail
>>weighs 50 pounds.  I cannot believe that you expect anyone to believe that
>>this book weighs 10 pounds more than a suit of plate mail, unless its pages
>>are made of stone.
> 
> You have clearly not thought about this.

Remember this when you read my posting below....

> 
> Firstly, although plate-mail is metal it is not solid.  It can be roughly
> approximated to a hollow cylinder.  Athough it's enclosing volume is large,
> the actually volume of metal is quite small.  So therefore although the
> density of metal is high, the mass it not that large.
> 
> Secondly, before anyone else flames me, *GO*AND*TRY*IT*.  I got the 1992
> Adelaide Yellow Pages, which measures 11"x9"x3" and weights 6lb.
> 
> The spellbook measures 24"x18"x6" and so has a volume of 8.73 times that
> of the phone book, hence would weigh in at 8.73*6 = 52.4lb

Hmm the book is vellum not paper.  I thought it was papyrus so my original
calculations are not correct however the principle is the same.  Vellum is
thicker than paper and correspondigly more difficult to get a truly flat
surface from.  Hence the phone book analogy is incorrect because you have very
fine paper laying flat on itself so it will give a greater effective density
because the spaces between pages is very fine compared to the spaces etc
between pages in a papyrus (as I observed in te state library - or at least as
close as they would let meto one) and vellum book.  Hence overall density would 
be decreased due to air spaces.  Anyway I am not overlyworried by this weight
it just seems that in a world populated by mages who are portrayed as pissweak
in sheer strength terms they would have books which weighed much less.  Maybe
they need to learn to write smaller or something.

As Phil pointed out we found it on a pedastal.  Now however I can't use it for
me.  I can transcribe spells from the book but not use the book to learn them
after I have comprehended them by use of spells etc.  According to the DMG this
must be done as each mage records the spell differently, and if this is so then
why bother with spell transcription anyway when you may as well make it up for
yourself.  Imagine making a text book about engineering and just recording it
slightly differently.  Whooops sorry about that bridge falling down....


> 
> As I have previously said it has a wooden cover on it that is about 1/3"
> thick and a large metal lock.  Does anyone really believe that this would
> not weigh 60lb.

heh heh heh..... see what I'm up against.  Those walls that I mentioned that
jumped from 6' tall to 8' tall, must be related to that spellbooks covers
shrinking from 1/2" to 1/3" heh heh heh.....

> 
> The characters found it on a large pedestal (not in a bookshelf) and it did
> not look as if it had been moved in a very long time (opened - yes,
> transported - no).
> 
regs

Rob
 
--
Rob Bruce    | "In the end, the decision was made in an office on Sixth Avenue,
             |  New York city, Eastern Capitalist Confederation, by a network
             |  logo design analyst. The overnight arbitrons on the numeral V
             |  looked strongly positive. The V looked sexy and might stand for
             |  Victory, so World War V it was.
             |  The next day, Sixth Avenue was vaporised" John Varley,`DEMON'