Pirate adventures and pirate codes

Piracy is as popular in RPGs as it is in the rest of mass-media - perhaps even more so.  A semi-criminal or outright criminal band primarily loyal to one another and devoted to acquiring wealth could describe a pirate crew about as well as it does a Gygaxian adventuring party.  The wealth-sharing agreements of most adventuring parties, where the principal figures (the Player Characters) receive a greater take than their subordinates has a parallel in the pirate's code as well.

The bath: a lively location for RPG campaigns

According to received wisdom about the middle ages, Europeans unfortunate enough to be born into that era were ignorant of the merits of bathing. As a result, public hygiene was poor and epidemics regular.  This could hardly be more wrong.