MOB:
>I agree, it would! I remember reading somewhere that ideally, the booster
>rockets for the space shuttle should be a little bit larger, but because
>they have to be transported by rail through tunnels of a certain size, they
>cannot be any larger or they wouldn't fit. The tunnels are the size they
>are because the railway lines are standard gauge. Standard gauge
>originated from the ruts of a horse-drawn wagon, which are based on the
>width of a horse's arse. So, humanity's progress into space is restricted
>by the horse-drawn transportation of thousands of years ago...
It's a little more specific than "the width of a horse's arse," which is a prety nonstandard measurement if you think about it. Standard railroad gauge is actually traceable to the Roman chariot axle length, which had to be standard to use the road ruts.
To return this discussion a bit to Glorantha, Col. David Grossman in his excellent book "On Killing" states that chariots continued to be used in warfare long after they ought, on pure military grounds, to have been ineffective, because of the psychological benefit of having this big, noisy, dangerous looking thing hauling ass across the battlefield. In general, RPG's ignore the psychological aspects of warfare. Grossman shows how the psychological aspects actually _predominate_, especially with regard to the inherent human reluctance to kill. Pendragon has some psychological aspects in its virtue and battle systems, but morale in RQ is left to the GM's uninformed whim. I'd like to work on that but don't (frankly) have the time right now.
Oh, and would the person who mentioned a Star Wars-based system for Glorantha tell me where I can find it?
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