Being a non-english speaking GM (greek is my native language), I have two questions regarding some quotes from the books that I can't understand.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

1. The title of the adventure 'a day late and a shilling short'.

Certainly 'a day late' refer to the delay of the package. But what does 'a shilling short' refers to?

2. In the adventure 'Eye for an Eye' we get the following blurp from Aschaffenberg first encounter with the PCs

“... I’m not sure if it’s serious enough to bother the proper authorities
with yet. Don’t want to go upsetting the applecart over nothing, what?”

And then it says that Lord Aschaffenberg pauses to see if anyone gets the joke. Well, I don't

I know the expression 'upsett the applecart', but why is this funny in this situation? Perhaps I am reading too much into it?

Hi,

A schilling short is simply referring to a lack of money or coin. I'm not completely sure of it's relevance to the adventure other than the potential for the PCs to have to give up goods as well as money to obtain the package?

As for the applecart bit, well, I agree with it that its not generally that funny or a joke in the true sense. I think thie idea is that Aschaffenberg is making "light" of the situation, or treating it somewhat frivilously and as Aschaffenberg is being light hearted about the situation the PCS might laugh with him (out of politeness, if nothing else!)

That's my 10 schillings worth, anyway..

Thanks. I had almost the same understanding, but wanted to be sure, I wasn't missing something!

pumpkin said:

I don't have my books since I'm at work, but I think "a shilling short" refers to the price of [place object/service here, I don't remember what that was... for some reason, there's "boat transportation" that comes to my mind, but I dunno why; may not be it at all]. Premade characters starts "one shilling short" of being able to buy it.

Does that make any sense?

"A day late, a dollar short" is an English idiom that means that something was too late and not quite enough of an effort. They used "shilling" just to make it more Warhammery. In this case, it shows that the PCs' efforts really weren't enough to keep the coach from being attacked in the first place.

The "upset the applecart" is also an idiom meaning to mess something up. I can't think of a way that the concept of apples is symbolically relevant; the choice is more tonal. It has that silly, spacy, not-too-smart upperclass British sound of, say, Lt. George from Blackadder Goes Forth. It's making fun of the noble's privileged status. I think it's purposefully unfunny, because he's not supposed to be all that bright or socially adept (hence his placement at that godforsaken lodge.)

this is the best info i could find for you quickly:

“A day late and a dollar short” (a more expressive version of “too little, too late") means some effort that’s not only late, but also insufficient. “A day late and a dollar short” might be said of an athletic team that scores in the final minutes of a blowout game that was long since decided in the other team’s favor. The phrase dates to at least 1939 and has been popular in the American South. The earliest citations of “a day late and a dollar short” appear in the newspaper comic strip “Out Our Way” by James R. Williams (1888-1957).
"A Day Late and A Dollar Short." www.barrypopik.com; Popik consults for the OED so I trust him

Upset the Apple-cart

Meaning: To cause upset - to create a difficulty.

Origin: This allusory phrase is first recorded by Jeremy Belknap in The History of New Hampshire, 1788:

"Adams had almost overset the apple-cart by intruding an amendment of his own fabrication on the morning of the day of ratification" [of the Constitution].

"Upset the apple-cart." www.phrases.org.uk

the writers are just being playful, these kinds of phrases are just funny uses of English clichés. we don't really think about them too much when we read them and rarely think about where they came from. i think Llanwyre nailed it. lord ass-chafe is a ridiculous character and he says silly things.

Ass-chafe. Brilliant..!

I hadn't noticed that before and had been pronouncing it "Shaff-en-berg", with the sound as in Shave, but I am making it a hard sound now, with a ch sound as in Church to see how long it is before my group catch on!!!

Please, please, please let in have been intentional FFG...!?

Ass-chaf-en-berg, it is!

Being the party-pooper that I am, I'll say this: "ch" in german is spelled "sch".

if lord rickard aschaffenberg aka " lord **** ass-chafe" is a coincidence, then it is still a very funny one (in an admittedly highly juvenile way).

I would guess it is a coincidence since “Aschaffenburg” is the name of a city in South-Western Germany, so making it Aschaffenberg is just a light twist…

burg (ger.) = castle (eng.)

berg (ger.) = mountain (eng.)

that's even better, now we have "lord **** of ass-chafe mountain, lord of the most unpleasant mountain in all of bavaria umm...the reikland."

arsch in german is ass.

affe in german is ape.

berg in german is mountain, but i think "berg" is used for "burg" which is castle.

So I don't think it is too far off to say "ass-monkey-castle" if we are a little creative on the first "s". I choose to think so. Because it's the most funny

zarkzervo said:

Did a little more thinking after I saw someone said there is a real city in Germany called Aschaffenburg.

Asche in german is ash in english. So originally, I think it has something to do with the tree.

But the developers from FFG are probably aware of the ass-monkey-castle similarity

pumpkin said:

I'm not German, but I speak it. I'm sure it is pronounced ash-affen-berg. (Of course if the locals haven't their own way of saying things)

And for my previous post asch and arsch is pronounced so similar in normal speak so you will have to listen for context. If someone calls you an "ashloch", he probably said "Arschloch" and not "Aschloch". He's not speaking of the hole in the ash, that's for sure

Enough with the German language class. I'll stop now.

zarkzervo said:

this is correct!

From wikipedia on Aschaffenburg

The name Aschaffenburg (Ascaffaburc, Ascapha or Ascaphaburg in the Middle Ages) originally meant "castle at the ash tree river" deriving from the river Aschaff that runs through parts of the town.

(I tried to paste in the phonetic pronunciation, but the FFG database did not like that at all)

But it said preassure on the first a (and not on the second), so no ass-monkeys I'm afraid.

first you get my hopes up with ass-monkeys, then you take them away.