# Obdurium???



## DizzyKungFu (Jun 5, 2002)

I've seen this substance called "Obdurium" mentioned several times in Dragon magazine, but they never explain it. Apparently it is harder than adamantine? Can anybody educate me about this material?


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## Wolf72 (Jun 5, 2002)

maybe in Magic of Faerun?


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## James McMurray (Jun 5, 2002)

It is in the Stronghold Builder's guidebook. Don't have mine handy though, so I cn't give you the stats on it.


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## DizzyKungFu (Jun 5, 2002)

I HAVE the stats. I'd just like to understand what it's supposed to be. Where does it come from? How would I describe it to my players?


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## Limper (Jun 5, 2002)

Describe it something like orichalcum(sp). I believe in alchemy it was a metal composed of equal parts of each of the metals which represented the four elements (gold=fire, mercury=water, silver=air, and lead=earth).

This Obdurium could be Adamant, mithril, mercury, and arsenic... or something like that.

Just an idea.


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## Jesse Decker (Jun 5, 2002)

*Obdurium*

It's a new material described in the SBG.

Here's a quick summary:
Obdurium is an incredibly rare and hard metal that represents the pinnacle of nonmagical wall strength. Weapons and armor crafted from obdurium are treated as adamantine, except for the stats such as hardness, hit points, and price, which it sounds like you already have.


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## D. Armand Paltenan (Jun 4, 2007)

DizzyKungFu said:
			
		

> I've seen this substance called "Obdurium" mentioned several times in Dragon magazine, but they never explain it. Apparently it is harder than adamantine? Can anybody educate me about this material?



Obdurium is a verry rare material, harder and more durable than adamantine (hardness 30, 60 HP per inch). rougly guessing as adamant gives 1/3 more hp than normal items im guessing items made from this would have 1/2 more hp?


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## JustKim (Jun 4, 2007)

DizzyKungFu said:
			
		

> I HAVE the stats. I'd just like to understand what it's supposed to be. Where does it come from? How would I describe it to my players?



Obdurium is adamantine with flame decals on.
It still does not compare to Wuddonium (featuring LED lights).


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## Man in the Funny Hat (Jun 5, 2007)

Unobtainium decays into Obdurium.


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## JustKim (Jun 5, 2007)

I'm afraid we have been bamboozled. This thread is _five years old_. Babies who were conceived in the day of this thread are already speaking their minds about having to take naps in preschool. The ugly truth is that nobody cares about obdurium anymore.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 11, 2012)

JustKim said:


> I'm afraid we have been bamboozled. This thread is _five years old_. Babies who were conceived in the day of this thread are already speaking their minds about having to take naps in preschool. The ugly truth is that nobody cares about obdurium anymore.



I do! It was just mentioned in a 2012 thread, so I Googled to find out what it was, and ended up here. 

It was sort of disappointing.


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## Crothian (Mar 11, 2012)

So, what you are telling me is that after ten years we still don't know what Obdurium is?


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## Aeolius (Mar 11, 2012)

thread necromancium!


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## Nytmare (Mar 11, 2012)

I can't possibly be the only person to look 3 items down on the google search.

*Obdurium* is a pale violet metal which is harder than adamantine.  This incredibly rare metal represents the pinnacle of nonmagical metal  strength. It is also extraordinarily expensive, costing ten times as  much as carving stone walls and _sixty times_ what a normal wooden wall would cost to build.   
 The doors leading to the _Godtrap_ in Zagig's Prison beneath Castle Greyhawk are made of obdurium.

Obdurium - Ghwiki


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## kitsune9 (Mar 11, 2012)

Man in the Funny Hat said:


> Unobtainium decays into Obdurium.




I was waiting for this joke.


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## kitsune9 (Mar 11, 2012)

Crothian said:


> So, what you are telling me is that after ten years we still don't know what Obdurium is?




I didn't know about it until today myself. But it looks like I'm 1 1/2 editions behind the times since it came from the Stronghold Book.


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## Nytmare (Mar 11, 2012)

kitsune9 said:


> I was waiting for this joke.




Oddly enough, the post was made in 2007 and most people only know the term unobtanium from Avatar, which came out in '09.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Mar 11, 2012)

But engineers have been using the term since the 1950s- so if you know enough engineers...


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## blargney the second (Mar 11, 2012)

Apparently obdurium is a required component for a threadlich's phylactery.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 11, 2012)

Nytmare said:


> I can't possibly be the only person to look 3 items down on the google search.



I'm on a Google break, since I've grown tired of trying to outwit them when I just want unfiltered results. (Unfortunately, everyone else seems just as bad.)


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## Celebrim (Mar 11, 2012)

Obdurium (or Endurium as it is sometimes called) is a substance which can appear to be almost anything - metal, stone, or even wood - but which is harder and stronger than any other substance because it is embued with the power of plot.

See also: Techniques for railroading.


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## kitsune9 (Mar 12, 2012)

Nytmare said:


> Oddly enough, the post was made in 2007 and most people only know the term unobtanium from Avatar, which came out in '09.




Looks like someone took a certain flux capicitator or police box to make the joke.


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## D'karr (Mar 12, 2012)

I thought it was related to hardonium, but I was mistaken.

BTW, the movie The Core (2003) had unobtanium before Avatar, so it's a possibility that they needed to mine Pandora to continue to reach the core of the planet for a tourist attraction.  It's the type of thing that one of Cameron's Evil Corporations would definitely do.


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## Nytmare (Mar 13, 2012)

D'karr said:


> BTW, the movie The Core (2003) had unobtanium before Avatar...




Wait, there are people who actually watched The Core?


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## Mark CMG (Mar 13, 2012)

Nytmare said:


> Wait, there are people who actually watched The Core?





The writer of The Core is an EN Worlder -

John Rogers - IMDb

EN World: Your Daily RPG Magazine - View Profile: jonrog1

- though he's been very busy the past few years and hasn't even been around since last October.


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## D'karr (Mar 13, 2012)

Nytmare said:


> Wait, there are people who actually watched The Core?




I listened to it.


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## Nytmare (Mar 13, 2012)

I'm hoping that wasn't an attempt to spin a comment about a schlock action movie that made back about 2/3rds of its 60 million dollar budget into some kind of personal attack against one of the writers.

There's no need to rally to his defense.


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## Squire James (Mar 14, 2012)

No need to feel too bad about it... there are a LOT more movies with profitability like The Core than there are movies with the profitability of, say, The Titanic.  There are plenty of good products that just didn't make a profit (Planescape Torment, anyone?).


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## Pheonix0114 (Mar 14, 2012)

I feel ashamed that I liked The Core now, though to be honest I was 13 at the time.


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## El Mahdi (Mar 14, 2012)

To be honest, I'd be less ashamed to publicly acknowledge I liked _The Core_, than to pubicly acknowledge I liked _Titanic_...

_"My heart shame will go on..."_


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## Nytmare (Mar 14, 2012)

El Mahdi said:


> To be honest, I'd be less ashamed to publicly acknowledge I liked _The Core_, than to pubicly acknowledge I liked _Titanic_...
> 
> _"My heart shame will go on..."_




Could be worse:  Titanic II (2010) (V)

Long story somewhat shorter: a failing 20 year old bazillionaire decides to gamble the last of his fortune by celebrating(!?) the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic sinking.  He makes the Titanic II, packs it full of mega rich investors and important-type people and sets a course along the same route the original ship made.

Meanwhile, global warming makes Antartica fall into the ocean, creating _*an iceberg surfing a tidal wave *_that's headed straight for the once again doomed Titanic.

Adding to the otherwise noteworthy production values are the fact that 90% of the cast and extras look like they're in high school, the sets look like they were built in a school gym, and the cgi uses cutting edge technology from 15 years ago.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Mar 14, 2012)

That was probably so profitable, Titanic III will be set in space where it will collide with a comet...with xenomorphs on it.


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## El Mahdi (Mar 14, 2012)

LOL! Titanic III sounds like a good Dr. Who episode.

I looked Titanic II up on Wikipedia. It had a budget of $500,000. That's probably less than Cameron spent on catering for his film.

I was immensely surprised that it was written, directed, and starred by the grandson of Dick Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke.



Now if the Titanic (or the Titanic II) had been built out of Obdurium, perhaps we all would have been spared seeing such indignities.


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