Escafarc Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Here's a list of real life secrets taken to the grave: http://listverse.com/2008/12/02/top-10-fascinating-secrets-taken-to-the-grave/ that could be used as adveture seeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Re: 10 Ideas for... Some of these are a little overstated. It isn't, or shouldn't, be a mystery who William Franklin's mother was, for example. It was revealed to be a "useful" Franklin family servant named Barbara way back in 1763. The actual mystery is why so many people pretend not to know that. Folderol about Barbara being non-White aside (embarrassing in the late 1800s, perhaps, but certainly not in the 1700s), the inference I draw from the adjective "useful" is that Franklin married* the boss's daughter (probably a Penn byblow). While that doesn't really change Franklin's status as a "self made man,"** it does get in the way of naive attempts to make Franklin the original of the American Dream. *Anyone in for a discussion of ecclesiology, marriage law, and social change in 1720--60? **A surprising number of Horatio Alger and G. A. Henty "self-made men" marry the boss's daughter, too, after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escafarc Posted February 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Re: 10 Ideas for... I agree that in the real world these are over stated. But with some work they could be used in a campaign. One of my oldest characters (the 2nd one I ever made back in '82) is the illegitiment son of Ben Franklin who got mixxed up with the Freemasons and gained an exended life-span and can summon the spirits of the Founding Farthers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Re: 10 Ideas for... Some interesting stuff there. The Swedish code-breaker who gave advance warning about Operation Barbarossa would (IMO) have had to fight through the crowd to tell anyone. A lot of what I have read points to Barbarossa being, along with the German invasion of France and the Pearl Harbour attack, very arguably the WORST kept secrets of ww2. Then there is Stradivarius's artistry in creating stringed instruments. It may not be the only reason, but at least part of his achievement had to do with the special wood he selected for use. A major cold spell, just a few centuries before, radically affected European tree growth rates (and, hence, their interior rings). This resulted, by Stradivarius's time, in quantities of wood with unique acoustic qualities for any artisan skilled enough to make use of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Re: 10 Ideas for... The Little Ice Age? I thought I was baiting controversy by taking aim at Ben Franklin. It might perhaps be pointed out that if we had such definitive evidence of the Little Ice Age as an easily-identified tree ring trend, we wouldn't be arguing about it so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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