Gm Word Of The Week

As lost episodes go, this one has been pretty lost. For at least a year. But, never fear. We found enough bits laying around unused to make a healthy episode just for you. Together we can learn about poisoning, moose, some kind of owl goat cross breed, and bits of the sea. It’s all good fun on this episode of GM Word of the Week podcast. The Angry GM article on Bear Cavalry To find ways you can help support the podcast, check out our support page at https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/

The Chimera has what one might call a complicated genealogy. But that’s okay because we like complicated things around here. No, really, we do. And nothing is more complicated than trying to figure out how the Chimera got to be like it is. So, that’s what we’ll do in this episode, figure out how the Chimera got it’s weird mix of traits. Along the way you’ll hear about Chimeras both real and imagined and learn a thing or two about genetics while we’re at it. Your support is important to us and keeps this show ad free. Check out https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/support to see how you can help.

It’s the end of August and we have no idea what we’re doing, so we pulled a listener request and here’s what we came up with. In this episode you can find out about horses named Silver, horses that might be dragons, and horses that fly except when attacked by a horse fly. And to get there, we only have to discuss a bit of genetics, a bit of Greek mythology, and bit about horses on hills. If that makes no sense to you, welcome to this episode of GM Word of the Week. Have a listen. If you would like to help support the show, go to https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and click the yellow banner at the top of the page. We’ve added new support options and some merchandise.

Oh we all know where this is going. Obviously, we’re going to discuss Robin Hood. Big whoop. Except, we’ve already talked about Robin Hood. A lot. Quite a lot, in fact. So, we’re going to have to do something else, something entirely unique within the world of games and gaming. We’re going to have to discuss reality. And what it really meant to be an outlaw in medieval times. That whole Robin Hood thing, as we have mentioned before, is definitely the product of a later time that had clearly swallowed the non-specific flavored sugar-water children’s drink of choice. Once again, we relied on Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives by Terry Jones and Alan Ereira to help inform this episode. You can find the book at our Amazon link here: https://amzn.to/3hbdHZj. Join our Patreon and help support the show by clicking the yellow banner at the top of the page on our website: https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/home.

How can you talk about the people of medieval times, if you don’t include the most important people in them, the kings. We discuss three kings that we all think we know everything about, but few folks actually do. In part because one of history’s most famous writers, turns out not to have been too truthful when he wrote about them. But it isn’t his fault as we’ll see, he just believed all the things everyone said about them and then wrote it down. And that’s why even the one he didn’t write about was still mistreated by those who did write about him. We’ve got merch! Check it out at Teepublic This episode was informed by the incredibly interesting book that is Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives by Alan Eriera and Terry Jones. Available on Amazon through our link. You can support the show and find our full episode descriptions at https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/. Clicking the yellow banner at the top will take you straight to our support page.

We consider them the lowliest of the low and just using the word peasant can cause offense in some circles. But it’s only because we don’t really know what we are talking about. If we did, using the word might be considered a good thing representing, as it does, a move towards independence, status, a greater freedom as well as an acknowledgement of where the real power lay in medieval society. But to find out about all that, you’ll need o listen to this episode. And, if you enjoy this episode, head over to https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and click he yellow banner at the top to join our Patreon.

We’ve talked about natural disasters before, but we definitely left out one big one: the tornado. Let’s correct that. Amid the discussion about how tornadoes work and why they always hit trailer parks, we’ll talk about the history of tornado science, what '“F numbers” really mean, and explain why for 40 years tornadoes didn’t exist. It’s a complicated business, these tornadoes, and we’re all a-whirl to talk about it. Help support the show by going to gmwordoftheweek.com and clicking the yellow banner at the top.

Keeping track of what day it is is the least of our worries. But it is the most basic and therefore, the most important. Without keeping track of the days we can’t keep track of anything else but, how hard can it be? Well, come to find out, pretty darned hard as we’ll explore in this episode in which we discuss the development of calendars and just what makes it so difficult to have an accurate one. Join us, won’t you? Today. Matt Parker’s book Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World can be found through our Amazon Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3hnjc6T Support the show on Patreon, by going to https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and clicking on the Yellow Banner at the top of any page.

In our favorite RPGs, there is always a bit about sailing and naval combat. And that bit is usually wrong. Well, not entirely wrong, just mostly misplaced when you think about when our pseudo-medieval worlds are supposed to happen and compare it to when the sort of naval ships we’re meant to be sailing in were around. Once you do that, you start to see the problem: They weren’t around. So, let us help you sort the problem out by outlining the evolution of naval combat in three easy battles. You can grab a copy of Sons of the Waves: The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail by Stephen Taylor from our handy Amazon Link. If you’d like to help support the show on Patreon, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/GMWordoftheWeek.

Spectacles are important. So important that they’ve been around a lot longer than anyone thought. They had a rough start though and several of the things we take for granted about eyewear were a long time coming. But at last, here they are and in this episode we talk you through their history. We take you from early Egyptian eye glasses to totally useless decorative eyeglasses all in the same show. And by the end, we hope you see our point. You can grab a copy of The Clock and The Camshaft by John W. Farrel from Amazon with this link. And you can support us through Patreon by clicking on the yellow banner at https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/home

Consider the aurumvorax. It used to be, in D&D, that you could make some use out of the various parts of some of the monsters you defeated. But you had to be careful with this one. Really though, we wanted to talk about fur trapping and trading as it developed throughout history. In doing so, we pay particular attention to Russians, beavers, John Jacob Astor, and the political turmoil of the 19th century. All of which are interesting and exploitable dynamics for your own D&D game. Assuming they still do that sort of thing. You can get Robert Silbernagle’s book The Cadottes: A Fur Trade Family on Lake Superior by clicking the amazon affiliate link located in the episode description here or on our website. You can support the show directly by following the yellow banner at the top of our home page at GMWordoftheWeek.com.

We’ve long relied on water as a means of transport and sustenance, but let’s not forget it is also a source of power. And no medieval machine was better suited to take advantage of that power than the waterwheel. And thanks to the waterwheel, the dark ages were made a little less dark and took less time than they might have. It’s thanks to the harnessed power of water, via the waterwheel, that we can even be here today to hear what we have to say. To support the show, head to https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and click the yellow banner at the top. Get The Clock and the Camshaft by John W. Farrel with our Amazon Affiliate link.

Melted, shredded, grated, sliced we don’t much care, any cheese is nice. Well, almost any cheese. Some run afoul of our cultural expectations. But, that aside, most people enjoy a nice bit of cheese on a fairly regular basis. So what is it about this stuff that makes it so special? And why do we make so much of it? And how can I possibly make some of my own? You’ll never guess how many of those questions we answer inside this episode, so you should definitely listen. But first, some nice bouzouki music. Head over to https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and click the yellow banner at the top to find out how you can help support the show.

We’ve known about butter for more than 10,000 years. It’s been a well understood product of the cow for at least that long. Well, sort of. Understood is maybe a stretch. We knew how to make it, but understanding how and why it happened took longer than that. In fact, it took so long, that some folks worked up quite an extensive mythology to ensure that butter would keep happening. And then they threw it all away, along with the butter. Just like we’ve done in more recent times, so much so that fewer and fewer people know what actual butter tastes like any more. And all because some people were so well intentioned. Maybe we can fix that. Find out inside. Butter us up with some support on Patreon. Head over to the GM Word of the Week website and click the yellow banner at the top.

n this episode, part 2 of our cow-centric series, we take a look at one of the greatest, and worst, products of the cow: milk. It is pretty great. From serving as a substitute for our earliest foods to the basic ingredient of so many others. But it’s not just cows milk we talk about in this episode. It’s all milks and the things milk does for us, and to us. And frnakly, if it weren’t for one particular man, we probably wouldn’t care about milk at all, really. But first, pigeons. Check us out at https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and help support the show by clicking on the yellow banner at the top.

Cows? Really?? Cows??? Yup. Cows. Because there’s lots of interesting things to know about cows that are off the general cow knowledge beaten path. In fact, we promise not to tell you anything about cows that you could have learned in primary school. Promise. We’ve got genetics and breeding and etymology and more in an episode you can really…. ruminate over. You can support the show by going to https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and clicking the yellow banner at the top. We’d love to have you join us on Patreon or support us in any other way that works for you.

A bit of the history of wood finishing and the contributions of one tiny insect. But it goes beyond even that. The lac bug is a marvelous source of one of the most useful naturally occurring substances known to man with applications not only across a variety of fields, but back through time as well. So listen in as we tell you all about shellac, make a bet we’re pretty sure we can win, and explain why you probably wouldn’t be able to listen to the show without it. We set the record straight on shellac. Head over to https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and click the yellow banner at the top to find out how you can help support the show.

There’s more to the drum than just keeping the beat. In fact, so much more that we had to really dig in to appreciate its full versatility. As humans, we respond to drums in a variety of ways, but we’re not the only ones and it’s not all about marching. So on this tour we examine some of the uses of the drum through history, and look at the latest science to see what drumming and tapping can do for us. Along the way we talk about some boys and what used to be one of the fastest communication methods around. All that and more, inside. Join us on Patreon to support the show by clicking the Yellow Banner at the top of our website at www.GMWordoftheWeek.com

In all the talk we’ve had about specific swords over the years, we’ve never really talked about swords as a group of things all by themselves. So, let’s fix that this week. In this episode we talk about the history of swords, how they developed, and which ones were really important. It’s an overview of the whole things from their primitive beginnings to what we know think of when we think about swords in fantasy and gaming. And even fantasy gaming. Along the way we discover something very important about swords and discussions of them, and maybe ghet some insight into why D&D doesn’t really bother explaining much about them. You can support us on Patreon if this is the sort of thing you enjoy, and we hope it is. Find it at: https://www.patreon.com/GMWordoftheWeek

Any time you experience some form of entertainment and want to bring it to your gaming table, you’re thinking about adaptation. Taking something from one form of media and moving it to another is no easy task. So, in this episode, we decided to take a look at the process of adaptation and examine some of its pitfalls and some of its triumphs. And you’d never know it to listen to it, but even this episode is an adaptation of something entirely other. So adapt yourselves to a slightly different episode than usual and give it a listen. And if you like what we do here, come visit us at https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/ and follow the yellow banner at the top to join our Patreon.