What are the in game (IC) mechanics for lighting fires?

Kit and Making Things
1

I found a couple of mentions of flint & steel in the forum, but can’t see anything in the Technology section regarding Flint & steel/matches/Lucifers/lenses/Magic/fire bows etc

2

I think that comes below the abstraction layer. I tend to use matches, plenty of people have lighters, and as long as the brightly coloured plastic is tidied up once used your good. But then I would generally expect anyone with firelighting materials to put them away from a safety perspective when not in use anyway.

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3

As CharlieP said, below the abstraction layer.

I suspect ALL of “Flint & steel/matches/Lucifers/lenses/Magic/fire bows etc” exists in setting to one extent or another.

I can certainly see League bravos using expensive matches, Wintermark Suaq using firebows, while Urizeni Sentinels demonstrate the utility of a tiny spark of pyrokinesic magics…

…I suspect that tiny shoulder dragons to light your fires would be pushing it though…

Was there a particular concern with something here, or are you just hunting for a little more worldbuilding detail?

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4

Just getting my head around some in world basics. Planning on being a Marcher, Beater from Ashill or Birchland area and I’m gathering pocket litter to help get into the spirit of things.

5

I’ve heard matches called alchemist twigs, fire sticks and sulphurs in the field. Lucifers wouldn’t make sense because of the Christian reference but brimstone would be a valid term as another name for sulphur. Telescopes are valid tech so using a lense for fire lighting seems perfectly reasonable.

For something more wilderness-savvy, as a Beater then you might find the fungus daldinia concentrica interesting, as it takes a spark really easily. As pocket litter you could include a vial of brown/black/grey powder (maybe coffee grounds or instead an opaque item) to represent this stuff - the real thing could be a fire hazard. I’ve only used it fresh so don’t know how it would behave dried in reality but hey, this is a fictional setting after all.

“King Alfred’s cakes” obviously isn’t a setting appropriate name but they could be Nicodem’s Cakes, in reference to the emperor who burned the libraries, or use their other common name of “cramp balls”.

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