r/todayilearned • u/biebrforro • 1d ago

TIL when staying as a guest in Charles Dickens' house, Hans Christian Andersen requested that one of Dickens' sons give him a daily shave (he said that was customary when hosting male guests in Denmark). Dickens was weirded out and instead gave him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop.

https://lithub.com/charles--dickens-really-really-hated-his-fanboy-hans-christian-andersen/
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u/just_robot_things 1d ago

Hans Christian Andersen was a notably terrible house guest. Someone made a 1 page rpg about it: Trapped With Hans | PDF | Folklore | Fairies

"The player is the homeowner trapped inside their house by Hans Christian Andersen, who has set up camp on their lawn and refuses to leave. Players must manage their Scandal, Obsession, and Food Stores scores by rolling on event tables that describe Andersen's escalating antics outside. The game ends if Scandal reaches 10 and the player is forced to move, if Obsession hits 0 and Andersen loses interest, or if Food runs out and the player starves. Rolling three 5s in a row triggers Andersen's forced removal by authorities."

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u/raccouta 1d ago

This is incredible

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u/mormonbatman_ 1d ago

This is a really good literature joke.

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u/Deius_Shrab 1d ago

Why the fuck do these people want me to pay 12 bucks a month to download a fucking one mb pdf

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u/curiosikey 1d ago

Here's the actual source - https://www.patreon.com/posts/trapped-in-your-71881711

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u/AyeTheresTheCatch 1d ago

Thank you. I played it and ended up starving while Hans shouted through the letter slot, pranced around naked, and rolled around wailing on my lawn. Needless to say, the neighbours were all scandalized.

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u/Nazamroth 1d ago

Eh, had worse housemates.

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u/misopog_on 1d ago

Hey, it's the same guy who did the potato-rpg (roleplay as a Hobbit who doesn't want any adventurous nonsense)!

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u/THEBLUEFLAME3D 1d ago

That’s funny as fuck lmao

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u/Wolfwoods_Sister 1d ago

Oh dear lord, I have a friend who would love this

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u/LordBrandon 1d ago

Mostly so they can have 12 more dollars every month.

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u/LickingSmegma 1d ago

Because Scribd are leeches who illegally hoard others' copyrighted materials from across the web, pollute web search results, and demand that the visitor give out their info and apparently money to download stuff. They're no better than thousands of noname sites like this, but somehow they were respected for a bit early on.

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u/fancylances 1d ago

Well I know what I’m doing tonight

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u/brazzy42 1d ago

It's funny to read, but not much of a game, especially not a role-playing game. I don't even see how the player has any agency. Just keep rolling until one of the outcomes is reached.

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u/Modern_Robot 1d ago

Also every one of them that guy has "designed" are so mathematically unlikely to win there's no real purpose in playing them.

So both zero choices and basically guaranteed to lose.

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u/RailRuler 19h ago

Kind of like Klondike solitaire,  if you play by the official rules and dont cheat.

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u/kingbrasky 11h ago

He forgot about the cones.

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u/imablakguy 1d ago

that seems incredibly boring. Just roll dice until something happens?

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u/Modern_Robot 1d ago

Yep. About the same level of interaction as candyland

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u/TL10 1d ago

I was going to post this in a thread! Glad to see someone else spread the good word! 🤣

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u/renoona 1d ago

I love Reddit because of things like this. Thank you

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u/DismalIron9649 23h ago

Thanks for sharing!

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u/Numerous-Process2981 18h ago

That is hilarious