> Michael Hopcroft wrote: > > Onno Meyer wrote: > >>> I posted this on some newsgroups, but you can never have enough ideas. > >>> > >>> I need ideas for magic items that players might find in an ancient > >>> temple. the goddess is sort of an "feminist amazon queen". (Women > >>> shoudl be strong, women should be in charge, men are good for babies > >>> and manual labor and should keep their mouths shut, etc.) > >>> > >>> Whether the player buy into the philosphy doesn't matter a lot. I > >>> doesn't all need faith (and what is there is there). > >>> > >> > >> Fertility control, including fast/painless/safe pregnancies. Magic > >> might even bring the time down, so mom isn't tied down nine months at > >> a time. > >> A "cornucopia" of milk and baby food. Allows daddy to care for the > >> little darling while mom is off to war. > >> > >> A form of mind control so daddy likes changing diapers. > > "What are these "diapers" of which you speak?" > > > > I know what diapers are, of course, but I can imagine some fantasy > > settings (particularly at TL0 and TL1) at which they do not exist. > > Hunter-gatherers may not see a need for them -- their environment is > > surrounded by unpleasant odors and things to step in anyway, and pot > > training would be more "learn to hold it in until you're out of sight" > > in an environment when there are lots of bushes and the like even in > > settlements, and few people would have (or bother with) things like > > latrines and where pottery is too precious to be used to store ****. > > > > Not a pleasant thing to imagine, but I can. > > Not the case when mom or dad has to carry the baby all day to prevent > animals from finding and eating it. This includes rats in settlements, b > the way, not just wolves or whatever. You don't potty train a 2 month > old baby, but you don't want it peeing on you either. There's a huge > difference between sewers and putting a nappy on the baby to keep the > poop off of you. > > -- > Emily Smirle - Gal Dynamo > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> So let's get serious :-)
Those amazons need lots and lots of girl childs as future warriors (and to carry on the society). For men, fatherhood can be a matter of a moment. For women in a 'primitive' society, motherhood means nine months of pregnancy, the risk of death during childbirth and then more months of nursing. High infant mortality means that they have to go through it more than twice, during their prime fighting years. * Men can't do the pregnancy part without an uncommon degree of magical intervention, but they can do the nursing with just a little help. So give each family/homestead a 'magical bottle', self-cleaning and always full. While you're at it, enhance it to ensure strong, healthy kids - they'll want that for boys and girls alike. The temple will have workshops to enchant new ones at a moderate scale. * Unless they decide to go chaste, the amazons need magical birth control. You need one item (ring? amulet?) for each amazon, so there will be assembly-line enchanting. * It would be helpful if the amazons could select the gender of their baby, to adjust the ratio of warrior girls and worker boys to the fates of war. You could combine that with the birth control item, with the settings 'amazon', 'worker' and 'just for fun'. * Magically accelerating pregnancy and easing childbirth could be done in the temple, with perhaps one item per village. If pregnancy is reduced to four weeks, you need about one item per 300 amazons. Call it a golden crown, or a gown, or a bed. Those three items would allow MUCH more equality than we had in ancient times, but not female domination. So you could * add extra features to the fertility control item to make the girls smart and bossy and the boys dull and obedient. * brew a love potion that makes men fall in eternal love with the nearest strong woman. * invent more direct mind control magic, something that works only against men and only if used by women. Paired bracelets perhaps, with magical locks on the male version. For extra fun, there could be a third type for priestesses to control the warrior amazon bracelets. Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
