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Why are Gun based RPGs so much more rare then the sword rpg's

spectre

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But the idea that for most of the Middle Ages people in plate armor didn't have to worry about swords really goes against physical reality.
Not sure what sort of "physical reality" you are referring to, but swords weren't really the go-to weapon for medieval warfare. Basically because it was expensive and sucked against armor.
It was more of a status symbol. An iPhone if you will.

The whole "Feat: Armor Training: you've learned how to move your body so blows just glance off your armor. +2 AC" thing is another gamist myth, but one that you seem to support.
No sane person would have actually tried to catch blows with their armor unless desperate for an opening in the enemy's defence.
Are you seriously contesting the fact that one needs to train using armor to actually utilize it? How to move around, how to take blows?
I thought the "gamist myth" was more along the lines of: hurr durr, I has pleet armer, I am invinsibel now.

Legs? Casualties? Unless you actually severed the femoral artery and then waited for the guy to bleed out, you're not going to cause many casualties here.
Well would you look at that, apparently leg wounds accounted for 70% of casualties buried there. But hey, you're free to dispute that, do your own research, get it published.
Artery cut drops a nearly immediately because of the decrease in blood pressure and shock. Femoral artery bleeds you out in under one minute . Not sure why are you dismissing it so lightly, as it's a legitimate target when you want to kill a guy.
And that's just the femoral artery, peroneal artery isn't too bad as well.

And this doesn't even work against riders (which is really the only way I can see Medieval soldiers hitting people in the leg regularly) because the femoral arteries are not on the outside of your thighs.
It's actually the only way you're doing anything to a guy on horseback while on foot. Help yourself to some medical drawings (or don't, looking things up is bad for you), the artery network in the legs is quite sprawling.
And yes, you need to aim for it to actually have effect. That's why people need to train with their weapons and that was what armor was all about - protecting vital areas as much as possible.

Another protip: people can easily take fatal abdominal wounds that leave no evidence on the bones.
So, no marks on the ribs? No marks on the spinal column? Dude pls.
Evidence of what actually was there trumps make-believe in my book, but hey, you do you.

Lichtenauer: 14th or 15th century (unknown). You really are hellbent on supporting your argument only with examples from the Late Middle Ages bro.
That doesn't work because it's generally accepted that armor at that time had grown to enormous (almost comical) proportions (attributed to ranged weapons), and this is generally not the kind of setting we have in games.
Wat? 14th to 15th century (e.g. the 100 Years War) is exactly what a good chunk of the rpg settings model themselves on - you have well developed plate armor, longbows, nobles and politics, the whole shebang.
It hasn't really changed until the Italian Wars, pike and shot formations, but that's 16th century.

The techniques in the manuals were also used in unarmored combat and dueling. It changed a bit when the rapier was introduces as the more fashionable dueling weapon,
but until then, I'd doubt much has changed about the fundamentals of handling longswords and arming swords in the last few centuries.

In any case, do you have any better sources for how people fought with weapons at that time? There's an entire group of historians out there awaiting your insight.

How's that time machine project going on? Until you can make that happen, that's what we have to work with, reading between the lines if we must. That's studying history, in case you missed it.
Bully to you, you found the wikipedia article. What it doesn't tell you, people in the olden days tended to do funny shit like this, make up rhymes to help with learning, to set up a rhythmic pattern (something you do when you practice combat)
make shit obscure on purpose so that random cunts won't steal their knowledge. Now, read some more on german and italian school of fencing, and you may learn something.

The discussion is About equipment, especially wether certain equipment allows certain people to capitalize on their strengths but maybe shouldn't be used by people without those advantages.
Fair enough. Are we still talking about military and militia equipment? That would be most of the stuff we discussed here. Such weapons would be geared towards the "average" fighter, because that would be the majority
of blokes in the militia and the army. It makes no sense to design a weapon that only works with narrow set of physical traits, say a polearm for guys above 190 cm only - you want it to be mass-produced and used by many.
This reduces the cost of training and equipment and makes sense economically.

A notable exception that was mentione were the greatswords, which are an example of a specialized equipment, issued to the biggest and strongest. These are the guys you wanted in your royal guard (if only to show off and look intimidating),
the weapon itself also favors defensive applications - fighting many opponents in narrow passages, something royal guard would do.

Obviously, rich people could and would ask for custom weapons with certain traits like point of balance, length or weight to give themselves an extra edge or match their preferred fighting style,
but that's not exactly the norm. Various unique items in fantasy rpgs fill that niche nicely.

So yes, there were specialized pieces of equipment, but they were expensive and not very common. A scrawny guy has no business wielding a greatsword, so that would be an example of such equipment.
If you want to discuss fantasy settings a halfling or a dwarf has no business of handling a two handed sword either, but that's because of the limited arm reach and not because of the strength score.
You're not doing much to a guy who can just pin you down with a pitchfork and keep you out of reach.
 

Lonely Vazdru

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Problem solved.
 

vota DC

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Talking about guns... why this always seems to be a discussion between Medieval Greatswords vs Assault Rifles?

There is actually a period in history where guns & melee (and crossbows) were pretty balanced and used at once - the period between 1400-1700.

- Firearms were slow, big, hefty one-shot weapons.
- Heavy armor could be heavy enough to stop bullets.
- Firearms had short range and shit precision
- Combat was a mix of shooting, melee combat, cavalry and artillery
- Even more primitive weapons like bows, atlatls and obsidian swords could still cut it against the more advanced ones, especially in situations where they were locally superior.
- In the later period, you get early rifles (better for long-ranged shooting, but slow) and bayonets, which fuse the gun with the melee weapon.
- Crossbows were as good/almost as good as guns for a good while.
- Bows had longer range and could arc their shots.

And yet this era is not only neglected in RPGs but also in strategy games where eras as diverse as ancient Rome, High Middle Ages, 18th century, Napoleonic wars, American Civil War, WW1, WW2, Modern Warfare are repesented...

... but usually it's the 16th to 17th centuries that are neglected, which are the centuries of absolute coolest weaponry :negative:


WW1 is less represented than 1400-1700.
Anyway main reason few rpg with guns is lack of shields. Bad positioning and lack of cover means you are dead while you can survive with ancient weapons: a thing is if only a third of your enemies has bows and you have a shield, another is if EVERYONE has a ranged weapon that you can't block it at all.
That means guns are more for strategic or turn based rpg.
 

laclongquan

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I thought about it long time ago and I think it boils down to several things.
3. Power curve - with guns it's just going to be flatter no matter what, unless you go full bethesda. Like in the example above - having high level wizard casting stronger fireball isn't very creative but it makes sense, but why would high level grenadier throw stronger grenades? This will inevitably end in sort of randomness which I'll make the 4th point of.

Dawg! A high level grenadier get more perks so either throw farther, or more precise (more crit damage). A grenade explode on your back (overthrow a little so it land behind) is certainly weaker than one explode on your groin, or right in your face.
 

Bigg Boss

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Found the solution here.

People joke about that gun but essentially they are channeling magic power through the blade. It is why there are so many occult references.
Is the barrel for different GF's to be "loaded" into?

I'm trying to recall how they depicted the drawing of the summons tbh. I don't think they looked like materia. Anyway you could draw different types of magick through those I wager, so the summons could junction about the same way.
 

laclongquan

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I am not sure how they depict the physical body/vessel that contain GF/summon. The two initial GF they got from desk, the third by defeating it in volcano, the fouth Diablo by getting out of a bottle? Some others by drawing from monsters.
 

Bigg Boss

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I am not sure how they depict the physical body/vessel that contain GF/summon. The two initial GF they got from desk, the third by defeating it in volcano, the fouth Diablo by getting out of a bottle? Some others by drawing from monsters.

If they got it from a desk then that is something tangible that could be placed in the slots.



The wiki states as much in regards to Rinoa too, so pretty much they are magic wands, with magic crystals that contain elementals.



Notice the gesture he does when he summons. There are tons of occult references in that game that the fanboys were too retarded to notice.
 
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laclongquan

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I am not sure how they depict the physical body/vessel that contain GF/summon. The two initial GF they got from desk, the third by defeating it in volcano, the fouth Diablo by getting out of a bottle? Some others by drawing from monsters.

If they got it from a desk then that is something tangible that could be placed in the slots.

bitch please~ GF can be drawn even from monster/bottle. A school desk is nothing. Also nothing say it must be physical item, as that should show in our inventory of items.

Semi-proof seem to point the vessels out as something intangible. If it's something you can touch, I'd like some citation here.
Notice the gesture he does when he summons.
That seem to be squeezing their head to cast the spell or something. Also nothing can be said to be using wands or shits.
 

Bigg Boss

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I am not sure how they depict the physical body/vessel that contain GF/summon. The two initial GF they got from desk, the third by defeating it in volcano, the fouth Diablo by getting out of a bottle? Some others by drawing from monsters.

If they got it from a desk then that is something tangible that could be placed in the slots.

bitch please~ GF can be drawn even from monster/bottle. A school desk is nothing. Also nothing say it must be physical item, as that should show in our inventory of items.

Semi-proof seem to point the vessels out as something intangible. If it's something you can touch, I'd like some citation here.
Notice the gesture he does when he summons.
That seem to be squeezing their head to cast the spell or something. Also nothing can be said to be using wands or shits.

Haha. See what I mean? You have to be told things instead of knowing them due to your own knowledge pool.

---

Each Guardian Force possesses special characteristics and can appear in multiple forms as mighty autonomous energy bodies. Guardian Forces exist in specific energy fields and can reside within objects and living organisms.

SeeDs have a signature salute used to greet others of the profession as well as clients. It is used by both SeeD and White SeeD, and Headmaster Cid has also been seen doing it in response. It is used as a formal greeting when meeting for the first time, after a prolonged absence, or when reporting for duty. The salute involves standing in formation and bringing the right hand in front of the saluting person's face, covering their right eye.

---

I'm going off occult lore which they obviously drew from. Even in high school I could tell they used some Masonic symbols and the like. Only to find out it was more complex.

That is not him holding his head dummy. Their weapons are obviously used to channel magic energy. You think they glow just to look pretty? If the faggots were all holding wands you wouldn't second guess it. You see a wand is not necessary, it can be a fucking baseball bat if you want. As for the containers of the GF's, if they dispose of it, it will go to where they junction it. Like transferring a spirit from a person to a goat for instance.
 
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Bigg Boss

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They don't even talk about the games story elements due to fans being so negative towards the game. What you want me to quote occult sources that verify what I am saying? The Japs don't work like that.

I really don't feel like getting into metaphysics due to how much I would need to explain. Shits real. When you know that you don't need to have a citation. They draw magic energy from the elements just like in real life. The Deity grants power and it is channeled through a magic object.
 

Nalenth

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Players and developers being boring and unimaginative nerds who like shitty and derivative fantasy settings (calling them medievalesque is an insult to history and Tolkienesque to proper fantasy literature) .

You should cut them some slack, most of them are using (old) D&D settings. Now, most post-2000 "original"/Tolkienesque fantasy settings are a different case.

Medievalesque fantasy settings are not necessarily Tolkienesque at the same time.
 
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Kliwer

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World of Aden: Thunderscape, developed by SSI and published in 1995 after SSI had lost the license to make AD&D-based games (except possibly for the Ravenloft setting).

8948-world-of-aden-thunderscape-dos-front-cover.jpg


280223-world-of-aden-thunderscape-dos-screenshot-what-s-this-spoiler.png
280224-world-of-aden-thunderscape-dos-screenshot-in-a-shop.png

280239-world-of-aden-thunderscape-dos-screenshot-especially-the-way.png
356320-world-of-aden-thunderscape-dos-screenshot-auto-mapping-system.png

Ok, thank You. This game looks very interesting to me. Available on GOG.

I cannot find many information in Internet. Could say something about this title? Is it good? What about levels design and encounters?
 

laclongquan

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They don't even talk about the games story elements due to fans being so negative towards the game. What you want me to quote occult sources that verify what I am saying? The Japs don't work like that.

I really don't feel like getting into metaphysics due to how much I would need to explain. Shits real. When you know that you don't need to have a citation. They draw magic energy from the elements just like in real life. The Deity grants power and it is channeled through a magic object.
Hell, you can even post the Japanese sources and I can manage some TL myself.
I done it many times before, for old JPN games, it's not as if I dont get how those work~
 
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Sacred82

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But the idea that for most of the Middle Ages people in plate armor didn't have to worry about swords really goes against physical reality.
Not sure what sort of "physical reality" you are referring to, but swords weren't really the go-to weapon for medieval warfare. Basically because it was expensive and sucked against armor.
It was more of a status symbol. An iPhone if you will.

so that's why YOU keep bringing up swords/ "fencing techniques" when we talk about Medieval weaponry? :lol:

Define go-to weapon. Any army before modern times - and still quite often in modern times - consisted of a central core of highly trained professionals on the one hand, and regular troops and indeed a whole bunch of rabble on the other hand. Using the sword effectively took time and practice - and some proper physical conditioning too. It's another weapon, Kind of like the halberd (but less exclusive because the physical requirements were lower), that was a specialist weapon. You couldn't put it in the hands of a peasant even if the costs involved allowed it (which they didn't) and even in the hands of Joe Schmuck Soldier it wouldn't have been used to full effect (even if the costs allowed it, which seems to have been true depending on time and place, but even then sword may not have equaled sword when it comes to quality).

The whole "Feat: Armor Training: you've learned how to move your body so blows just glance off your armor. +2 AC" thing is another gamist myth, but one that you seem to support.
No sane person would have actually tried to catch blows with their armor unless desperate for an opening in the enemy's defence.
Are you seriously contesting the fact that one needs to train using armor to actually utilize it? How to move around, how to take blows?

I am in fact contesting that anyone would seriously try to learn "how to take blows" with their armor. The point of armor was never that you would actually stand there and let people hit you like you're a poppinjay.

Let's imagine someone has to learn how to fight in close combat fight with Medieval weaponry: so there are blows raining down on you (in your general direction anyway). What are you going to do? You're going to try to dodge. It's the first thing a human being does when something dangerous is aiming for your body. Even learning to block with a shield must have been counterintuitive at first. And then you had to learn to decide in the blink of an eye wether you should try to dodge or try to block depending on the situation, maybe even coordinate the two. Enter armor. Armor is more of a last ditch defense when the more preferrable options have failed. Trying to gauge wether a blow coming at you from any kind of weapon could or couldn't penetrate your armor would have been practically impossible in most cases, unless your opponent's strength is already failing and he's hitting you in slow motion. All martial arts rely heavily on muscle memory and mind/ body connection. You don't want to condition yourself in the wrong ways, like in the example of that powerlifter you mentioned. And conditioning yourself to catch blows with your armor would have turned out to be a pretty big mistake very quickly probably.

I thought the "gamist myth" was more along the lines of: hurr durr, I has pleet armer, I am invinsibel now.

You mean just in case of a sword attack? :lol:

Legs? Casualties? Unless you actually severed the femoral artery and then waited for the guy to bleed out, you're not going to cause many casualties here.
Well would you look at that, apparently leg wounds accounted for 70% of casualties buried there. But hey, you're free to dispute that, do your own research, get it published.

Get published, get bitches. You can even tell people you can clearly determine that 70% of the people buried over a wide area died from wounds to the leg by looking at some marks on their centuries old bones.

Artery cut drops a nearly immediately because of the decrease in blood pressure and shock. Femoral artery bleeds you out in under one minute . Not sure why are you dismissing it so lightly, as it's a legitimate target when you want to kill a guy. And that's just the femoral artery, peroneal artery isn't too bad as well.

That might still be one minute too long for you to not get killed. Who drops when from a drop in blood pressure and shock is certainly different, shock =/= shock and your blood pressure probably decreases more in a constant fashion as there's less and less blood to go around, not in the very first moments after the cut.
And then there's still the problem of doing it in practice. Two fighters facing each other with melee weapons; and now you go for the legs? Even if you had good reason, e.g. the legs being less protected, you'd put yourself in a very vulnerable position close to the enemy and beneath him with your head down. Probably a good way to get yourself killed as well even if you mortally wound the other guy. Unless you had way more reach with a spear type weapon; that would actually make some sense in very specific circumstances.
I've discounted the abilty of spears to penetrate armor on the open field, but let's go with a hypothetical scenario: you have one line of infantry with melee weapons on one side, facing a line of infantry on the other side. However, behind line 1 on side 2, you have a line of spearmen, ready to jab at the enemy from the gaps between solders in line 1. Let's say line 1 is just bracing for an enemy charge with their shields, and the poor saps on side 1 don't get what we're up to. So they kind of crash into us, but our line doesn't break, we mostly just block them with our shields. So they fall back a step and then start whacking at line 1. That means… they're going to put one foot forward. That's how you swing at things for maximum momentum; doesn't matter if it's an enemy or a rock. So now, they have one thigh exposed and basically pinned to the ground; a perfect target for a spearpoint coming down from above. Even if you just jab basically horizontally at the very upper part of the thigh… for all practical purposes, the femoral artery is pinned against a wall :lol: You can really lean into that jab to penetrate whatever armor there may be. And by aiming just at the middle of the very upper part of the thigh, you can be pretty sure to cut the femoral artery with a broad tip. And then the guys in line 1 just have to hold the other guys off while they're bleeding out.
A very specific scenario, but it may have worked (in fact it may have worked time and time again).

Btw the peroneal artery could only be "accessed" with a melee weapon if you hit a guy from behind... good ol' hamstring IOW. But probably not that practical on a battlefield.

In a 1-on-1 fight with axes/ swords etc., I don't think the legs would have been a prime target, quite the contrary. I mean, if I can literally pulverize your leg(s) out from under you with some firearm or explosive, that's a different story, and in that case, the evidence may clearly be interpreted as a fatal leg wound. Uh, speaking of which... is it possible that those "casualties" who died from "wounds" to the legs simply had their legs missing? Because that would open up a whole different line of interpretations (some of which are relevant to our discussion here and some are just interesting for other reasons :lol:)

It's actually the only way you're doing anything to a guy on horseback while on foot. Help yourself to some medical drawings (or don't, looking things up is bad for you), the artery network in the legs is quite sprawling.
And yes, you need to aim for it to actually have effect. That's why people need to train with their weapons and that was what armor was all about - protecting vital areas as much as possible.

I did look up exactly where the femoral artery runs in the thigh, and it's surprsingly easy to locate (if not necessarily to hit) in an enemy because it starts right in the middle of the front part of the thigh.
Like I said, it doesn't run on the outside though; it quickly winds around towards the inside of the thigh. So like I said, that's just not something you're going to hit on a rider... unless you severe the fucking thigh. Can you point me to that paper you cited?
 

Cael

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I just want to point out that for the longest time, only Ultima tied your ability to hit with non-blunt weapons to your Dex. Blunts were tied to Str.
 
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Sacred82

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Lichtenauer: 14th or 15th century (unknown). You really are hellbent on supporting your argument only with examples from the Late Middle Ages bro.
That doesn't work because it's generally accepted that armor at that time had grown to enormous (almost comical) proportions (attributed to ranged weapons), and this is generally not the kind of setting we have in games.
Wat? 14th to 15th century (e.g. the 100 Years War) is exactly what a good chunk of the rpg settings model themselves on - you have well developed plate armor, longbows, nobles and politics, the whole shebang.
It hasn't really changed until the Italian Wars, pike and shot formations, but that's 16th century.

Uh-huh... no nobles and no 'politics' before the 14th century.

:kingcomrade:
:nocountryforshitposters:

and no longbows either O.o :lol: bro. BRO.

Granted, most gaming fantasy settings are a hodge podge. You have pikes, full plate and advanced crossbows on one side... and then a horde of Barbarians in loincloths breaks out of the underbrush, yelling war cries and swinging huge clubs. So we can't just refer to one specific era to say what should and what shouldn't work here.

The techniques in the manuals were also used in unarmored combat and dueling. It changed a bit when the rapier was introduces as the more fashionable dueling weapon,
but until then, I'd doubt much has changed about the fundamentals of handling longswords and arming swords in the last few centuries.

I doubt nothing changed. Sword =/= sword and plate =/= plate, and those two didn't exist in isolation from other weapons and armor, from training, strategy and tactics. Duels were more or less regulated fights (sometimes heavily so), in fact in many cases they were just matches. We can't just accept that that kind of thing is indicative of the reality of what happened on the battlefields.

In any case, do you have any better sources for how people fought with weapons at that time? There's an entire group of historians out there awaiting your insight.

I doubt all historians simply accept fighting manuals as evidence rather than just interesting documents. Interesting not least of all because the prettification of real world situations and the art of bullshitting weren't invented in modern times.

The discussion is About equipment, especially wether certain equipment allows certain people to capitalize on their strengths but maybe shouldn't be used by people without those advantages.
Fair enough. Are we still talking about military and militia equipment? That would be most of the stuff we discussed here. Such weapons would be geared towards the "average" fighter, because that would be the majority
of blokes in the militia and the army. It makes no sense to design a weapon that only works with narrow set of physical traits, say a polearm for guys above 190 cm only - you want it to be mass-produced and used by many.
This reduces the cost of training and equipment and makes sense economically.

The idea that a lot of rabble can go up against a small army of professional soldiers and win is more of a modern one as far as I can see. Starting from the 18th century, lots of criminals seem to have been 'given the chance' to serve in armies. Before that time, the only similarities I can emember off the top of my head are oddities like the Persian slave armies. This kind of development is almost certainly due to not just technological advances in weaponry, but also the speed at which those developments were happening... in other words, professional armies hardly had time to catch up with all the advances and changes that were going on to form an informed opinion on what works and what doesn't work on the battlefield and to what extent.

I've already said I'm sure swordfighting =/= swordfighting for the entire length of the Middle Ages, but those changes would have occured slower, and we could say that the basic design of the (European) sword never really changed. There's a reason for the attempts to ban the crossbow from European battlefields; it simply threatened to shift some of the old balance. The transition from the Middle Ages to Renaissance to modern times wasn't least of all brought about by a shift from wars being decided by highly trained elite troops oathbound to nobles to mercenary corps with some training but most of all practical experience with shifting allegiances based on money and influence and eventually to 'conscripts' who were handed firearms and some instructions on how to use them, who were bound to noone in reality and bound only by their own very short term interests (even if those included simply feeding themselves or avoiding punishment for desertion).
 
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Sacred82

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A notable exception that was mentione were the greatswords, which are an example of a specialized equipment, issued to the biggest and strongest. These are the guys you wanted in your royal guard (if only to show off and look intimidating),
the weapon itself also favors defensive applications - fighting many opponents in narrow passages, something royal guard would do.

Obviously, rich people could and would ask for custom weapons with certain traits like point of balance, length or weight to give themselves an extra edge or match their preferred fighting style,
but that's not exactly the norm. Various unique items in fantasy rpgs fill that niche nicely.

So yes, there were specialized pieces of equipment, but they were expensive and not very common. A scrawny guy has no business wielding a greatsword, so that would be an example of such equipment.
If you want to discuss fantasy settings a halfling or a dwarf has no business of handling a two handed sword either, but that's because of the limited arm reach and not because of the strength score.
You're not doing much to a guy who can just pin you down with a pitchfork and keep you out of reach.

well… yeah, they're specialist weapons, not everyone should get them. Speaking of games, that's fine, your characters are supposed to be speshul. As for reality, my idea of what a halberd really was and who it was used by already would make it very exclusive.
 

Twiglard

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Any nerd can shoot a gun

A nerd won't be able to aim an M4 or even a scoped BB gun. The barrel's heavy enough to make the sights drift all over the place.

Then there's emphasis on squad tactics over the singular act of shooting. I've little idea why JA2 is considered an RPG here, though.
 

spectre

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so that's why YOU keep bringing up swords/ "fencing techniques" when we talk about Medieval weaponry? :lol:
Yes. Because that's the only weapon where we have written evidence how it was historically used.

Define go-to weapon.
A weapon that was reasonably commonplace, the equivalent of the battle rifle of its time, as much as we can assume for times before mass manufacturing. Something like the spear.

Kind of like the halberd (but less exclusive because the physical requirements were lower), that was a specialist weapon. You couldn't put it in the hands of a peasant even if the costs involved allowed it (which they didn't) and even in the hands of Joe Schmuck Soldier it wouldn't have been used to full effect (even if the costs allowed it, which seems to have been true depending on time and place, but even then sword may not have equaled sword when it comes to quality).
Ok, so here we go, no escaping the halberd. First of all, that's totally your misconception that the halberd was a specialist weapon and wouldn't be put in the hands of peasants. There were many design variations, varying from place to place, which all operated on a similar principle, like the English bill. It was commonly used by militia and entire formations. If you ever wanted an example of a "go to" weapon, this was it.

As for reality, my idea of what a halberd really was and who it was used by already would make it very exclusive.
Ok, this one is gold. Do tell, what is YOUR idea what a halberd really was?



I am in fact contesting that anyone would seriously try to learn "how to take blows" with their armor.
Which means you need to do a bit more learning.

Let's imagine someone has to learn how to fight in close combat fight with Medieval weaponry: so there are blows raining down on you (in your general direction anyway). What are you going to do? You're going to try to dodge. It's the first thing a human being does when something dangerous is aiming for your body. Even learning to block with a shield must have been counterintuitive at first. And then you had to learn to decide in the blink of an eye wether you should try to dodge or try to block depending on the situation, maybe even coordinate the two. Enter armor. Armor is more of a last ditch defense when the more preferrable options have failed. Trying to gauge wether a blow coming at you from any kind of weapon could or couldn't penetrate your armor would have been practically impossible in most cases, unless your opponent's strength is already failing and he's hitting you in slow motion. All martial arts rely heavily on muscle memory and mind/ body connection. You don't want to condition yourself in the wrong ways, like in the example of that powerlifter you mentioned. And conditioning yourself to catch blows with your armor would have turned out to be a pretty big mistake very quickly probably.
Ah, and supposedly I am the armchair guy here.

No, your first instinct is not to dodge. The actual human reflex is to cover the area where you think the blow will land. And shield is actually quite simple - you present it in the direction of the attack and it does its job on a very basic level.
There's obviously much more to fighting with the shield than static defense: you can cover specific angles of attack, bash the weapon out of the way, etc.
When it comes to armor, the entire point behind plate is there are certain areas on your body that are outright impenetrable to some kind of attacks, and there are parts that are protected enough not to worry about jabs and glancing blows.
Stronger blows are telegraphed (that's how the body works) and can be anticipated, then you have split seconds to decide what you want to do about it, parry or get out of the way.
If the other guy wants to get past, he needs to aim for specific locations and employ specific techniques, as we established earlier. You as the armored guy can control the way you present openings in your armor to the opponent.
Raise your arm to strike, there's an opening right there.
This is what happens when you're learning to fight with armor, and working out what can hurt you is a big part of the training. Better do it then rather than figure it out in combat.

That might still be one minute too long for you to not get killed.
You may want to re-read what I wrote. A minute is an eternity in close combat, but the minute is what it takes to bleed out. The shock and pressure drop puts you out of combat almost immediately.
Yeah, "almost" being the key word, which is why you can't 100% guarantee results in combat. There were guys who kept going after being hit or shot multiple times, already dead, but that didn't get to their brain.
These were niche situations of course.

And then there's still the problem of doing it in practice. Two fighters facing each other with melee weapons; and now you go for the legs?
I'd say, killing the other bloke is awfully problematic in general. They tend to use armor, move about, not let you kill them.

Even if you had good reason, e.g. the legs being less protected, you'd put yourself in a very vulnerable position close to the enemy and beneath him with your head down. Probably a good way to get yourself killed as well even if you mortally wound the other guy. Unless you had way more reach with a spear type weapon; that would actually make some sense in very specific circumstances.
Again, how very armchair of you. No, you don't lower your head when going for the legs. You tend to have a 1m long hurty-stabby thing in your hands, it's as simple as attacking from a slightly different angle.
There's things like shields, armor and the opponent's stance to consider, sometimes a leg strike will be impossible, but that's fighting. You gotta work for effect.

Yes, how to kill the other guy without getting yourself killed is actually a big thing in close combat. There's a lot of "double kills" when you practice, and a big part of the training systems is how to strike while keeping yourself
relatively safe. That's the entire point behind the "fencing manuals" you mock, the stances and techniques. It also looks like you're close to figuring out why reach advantage is a good thing to have. We're making progress here.


I've discounted the abilty of spears to penetrate armor on the open field, but let's go with a hypothetical scenario: you have one line of infantry with melee weapons on one side, facing a line of infantry on the other side. However, behind line 1 on side 2, you have a line of spearmen, ready to jab at the enemy from the gaps between solders in line 1. Let's say line 1 is just bracing for an enemy charge with their shields, and the poor saps on side 1 don't get what we're up to. So they kind of crash into us, but our line doesn't break, we mostly just block them with our shields. So they fall back a step and then start whacking at line 1. That means… they're going to put one foot forward. That's how you swing at things for maximum momentum; doesn't matter if it's an enemy or a rock. So now, they have one thigh exposed and basically pinned to the ground; a perfect target for a spearpoint coming down from above. Even if you just jab basically horizontally at the very upper part of the thigh… for all practical purposes, the femoral artery is pinned against a wall :lol: You can really lean into that jab to penetrate whatever armor there may be. And by aiming just at the middle of the very upper part of the thigh, you can be pretty sure to cut the femoral artery with a broad tip. And then the guys in line 1 just have to hold the other guys off while they're bleeding out.
A very specific scenario, but it may have worked (in fact it may have worked time and time again).

While it's anybody's guess how actually fighting in shieldwall and phalanx formations worked out, I'd say what you're describing isn't outlandish. You stab at what you can and hope to bring the other guy down. Then you do it again, until their formation collapses.

Btw the peroneal artery could only be "accessed" with a melee weapon if you hit a guy from behind... good ol' hamstring IOW. But probably not that practical on a battlefield.
It's not always about hitting arteries and killing the guy in one blow. These areas will A cut to the leg severely limits your mobility, which means the opponent now has one hell of an advantage and can do bad things to you.



Uh-huh... no nobles and no 'politics' before the 14th century.

:kingcomrade:
:nocountryforshitposters:

and no longbows either O.o :lol: bro. BRO.
BRO, are you high? The period of English longbow prevalence starts in 1250. 13th century. You can even find that date at the wikipederasts.
And "nobility" as in persons holding fiefs under vassalage. That's fucking Charlemagne. And "politics" was around longer than the fucking Roman Empire.
I was referring to the 100 years war, which seems to be the period "most" fantasy settings "tend" to model themselves after, nothing more.


I doubt nothing changed. Sword =/= sword and plate =/= plate, and those two didn't exist in isolation from other weapons and armor, from training, strategy and tactics. Duels were more or less regulated fights
(sometimes heavily so), in fact in many cases they were just matches. We can't just accept that that kind of thing is indicative of the reality of what happened on the battlefields.
You are right and this is a known limitation when researching historical martial arts.
HOWEVER, consider this, would folks bother to learn entirely new skills, not applicable elsewhere? Or would they use and adapt existing weapons, tactics and techiques when dueling?
Especially when we consider people who are expected to fight wars. People in the olden days tend to be quite practical.
Nobody claims the "reconstruction" is 100% accurate. People who do it will be the first to admit it probably isn't, but until you build that time machine, that's what we have.


I've already said I'm sure swordfighting =/= swordfighting for the entire length of the Middle Ages, but those changes would have occured slower, and we could say that the basic design of the (European) sword never really changed.
400px-Oakeshott_types.png

Depends on what you understand as "basic design". Yes, there was a handle, pommel, cross-guard and a blade. In this sense, all swords were the same.
On the other hand, if you look closely type XXII is an entirely different animal than type XVa when it comes to how it's wielded, what techniques you can use with it and what types of targets was it intended for.
 

Lonely Vazdru

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This technical discussion is fascinating (or is it ?) but I just rewatched "Excalibur" yesterday (fantastic movie btw) and realistic or not, this :
9g8fWUW.png

is the kind of thing I want in my medieval RPG. Keywords being "fantasy" and "epic".
 
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Sacred82

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so that's why YOU keep bringing up swords/ "fencing techniques" when we talk about Medieval weaponry?
Yes. Because that's the only weapon where we have written evidence how it was historically used.
Mhm. That already tells us something, doesn't it?

You discounted the viability of the sword as a weapon in your last post (after having talked about how to fight with a sword before). You called it simply a status symbol. That doesn't seem to be the reality of it, to put it mildly. I mean, I've already indicated that I expect lots of bullshit from historical documents in the Middle Ages, not unlike you can expect a lot of bullshit in documents from modern times. So we could have a little conspiracy theory on our hands that would boil down to spears reigning supreme on the battlefield for thousands of years, but at least in the Middle Ages people simply loved to write about swords because those were coveted status symbols carried by people from the upper social strata (who would also have been the people to do or commission most of the writing at that time).

I'd say the reality is somewhere in the middle; and I also think that this is the accepted history of the Medieval sword. The sword was a status symbol for, among other things, the costs and craftsmanship involved. But it was also a very effective and very versatile weapon; the versatility of it can't be debated. However, to make full use of that, you needed lots of practice, experience (not the same thing) and physical conditioning. It was therefore both a status symbol in terms of money or importance of those who carried it, but also a status symbol in terms of fitness, skill and simply dangerousness of those who actually wielded it - as intended. So we can agree it was not simply the a go-to weapon when you were planning large scale military operations from your own territory. Those who were carrying swords were doing so all the time; either because they were self-important noblemen or actually highly trained soldiers.

Define go-to weapon.
A weapon that was reasonably commonplace, the equivalent of the battle rifle of its time, as much as we can assume for times before mass manufacturing. Something like the spear.

uhm… the equivalent of the spear when it comes to the function and requirements of the spear could only be… just a spear.

Ok this is the old spear vs. sword, which was more effective/ succesful debate. For our purposes, it's important to note two things:

1) in games, we don't just want one type of (melee) weapons, no matter how convinced the designer is that this weapon would reign supreme in their world

and

2) in reality, coincidentally, different weapons also have always co-existed in the same place at the same time. Seems like you didn't want all of your infantry to be carrying nothing but spears. Whodathunk.

Kind of like the halberd (but less exclusive because the physical requirements were lower), that was a specialist weapon. You couldn't put it in the hands of a peasant even if the costs involved allowed it (which they didn't) and even in the hands of Joe Schmuck Soldier it wouldn't have been used to full effect (even if the costs allowed it, which seems to have been true depending on time and place, but even then sword may not have equaled sword when it comes to quality).
Ok, so here we go, no escaping the halberd. First of all, that's totally your misconception that the halberd was a specialist weapon and wouldn't be put in the hands of peasants. There were many design variations, varying from place to place, which all operated on a similar principle, like the English bill. It was commonly used by militia and entire formations. If you ever wanted an example of a "go to" weapon, this was it.

seems like we have to sort out our definitions again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_(weapon)

That shit… is just a hook on a pole. No point at the top. No curved blade remotely comparable to the design of an effective axe. They call it "a hooked chopping blade", but was the end opposite the hook even actually honed for chopping in all cases? I repeat, this is a fishing implement used for hauling in people.

I actually would put that in the hands of peasants. For two reasons… first of all, they'll be at least good for something on the field. And secondly… that shit isn't an effective murder tool. If there's a peasant uprising backed by this kind of weaponry, I'll have them back in their fields the next day.

As for reality, my idea of what a halberd really was and who it was used by already would make it very exclusive.
Ok, this one is gold. Do tell, what is YOUR idea what a halberd really was?

The halberd was...

*dramatic silence*

A huge poleaxe to be used by an equally huge but specifically trained professional soldier. Probably some kind of elite trooper (because with reach weapons you also have to be somewhat light on your feet) and definitely not your grandma's old city guard.

Your grandma's old city guard would be exactly the kind of goofball who really really wants that impressive looking weapon that those impressive looking elite soldiers are carrying, without having the physique or training for it, let alone actual applications in the cramped confines of a city. A somewhat long spear and some short blade for close quarter fighting would be just fine. Instead him and his drinking buddies are now carrying a long spear with an axe head on it that they couldn't use effectively if their lives depended on it - literally. And because you sometimes get guards who are even more useless than that, you need a bill-like weapon for them so they can do something - theoretically. But because the English Bill is already established as a weapon of useless peasant miitias, you now have to issue your long spear with a useless axe head AND a hook on the other side. And later generations are going to look at that thing and go "wow, that's some Transformers shit. It must have taken incredible skill for one soldier to master all of those three completely different weapon types and intuitively switch from one application to another in combat while maneuvering that friggin huge pole around because you just can't hit someone with an axe blade if you were just holding them at spear point a moment ago.

I am in fact contesting that anyone would seriously try to learn "how to take blows" with their armor.
Which means you need to do a bit more learning.

You need to stop listening to your re-enactment buddies. "I can block most strikes with my shield, and I can dodge the occasional blow, but I can also just stand there letting blows rain down on me because I'll suffer some bruises at most". Yeah, and maybe no oversized lump of a man ever took a serious swing at your armored arm/ shoulder/ torso with a huge sharpened axe blade seriously trying to mangle you. The thing you do with your armored body to avoid damage is exactly the same as you'd do without any armor; you're trying to move out of the way, quite simply. Maybe I have to back off a little less than I'd have to if I was in the nude because a sword tip grazing down my mail coat isn't goint to prick my skin, but that's it. Never ever would you seriously train to "intercept" blows using your armored body.

Let's imagine someone has to learn how to fight in close combat fight with Medieval weaponry: so there are blows raining down on you (in your general direction anyway). What are you going to do? You're going to try to dodge. It's the first thing a human being does when something dangerous is aiming for your body. Even learning to block with a shield must have been counterintuitive at first. And then you had to learn to decide in the blink of an eye wether you should try to dodge or try to block depending on the situation, maybe even coordinate the two. Enter armor. Armor is more of a last ditch defense when the more preferrable options have failed. Trying to gauge wether a blow coming at you from any kind of weapon could or couldn't penetrate your armor would have been practically impossible in most cases, unless your opponent's strength is already failing and he's hitting you in slow motion. All martial arts rely heavily on muscle memory and mind/ body connection. You don't want to condition yourself in the wrong ways, like in the example of that powerlifter you mentioned. And conditioning yourself to catch blows with your armor would have turned out to be a pretty big mistake very quickly probably.
Ah, and supposedly I am the armchair guy here.
No, your first instinct is not to dodge. The actual human reflex is to cover the area where you think the blow will land.

Are you... are you fucking kidding me? Have you even ever been... in a schoolyard fight? Have you ever even been outside as a kid?
One of the first human experiences when it comes to people hitting you is that you can't "cover the area" in most cases. Try to cover your lower body when you're about to get kicked. That's how early people learn to try to move out of the way of things that are going to make an ouchie when they hit. We're both armchair guys here when it comes to medieval combat, but right now you're armchairing at being a human being O.o

And shield is actually quite simple - you present it in the direction of the attack and it does its job on a very basic level.
There's obviously much more to fighting with the shield than static defense: you can cover specific angles of attack, bash the weapon out of the way, etc.

yeah yeah, it's all very simple, really. The HEMA guys told you so.
"It's quite simple but there is much more to it" failed logic detected.

you present it in the direction of the attack and it does its job on a very basic level.

yeah that's... about the most retarded description of how to use a shield I've ever read from anyone who actually seems to have an interest in historical combat.
"Yeah using a sword is quite simple really, you just stab in the general direction you assume your enemy to be. There's much more to it ofc but that's how it works at the basic level" :lol:

When it comes to armor, the entire point behind plate is there are certain areas on your body that are outright impenetrable to some kind of attacks

Yes. Or rather, maybe. And even then, "some kind of attacks" can only mean "those kind of attacks which won't penetrate the armor". Which is flat out impossible to know beforehand in most cases. And as we've both asserted time and time again, there's more damage you can do to the human body than sinking a blade into the flesh. Bottom line, you DON'T want it to become a habit - and when I say habit I mean for it to become ingrained in your muscle memory - to allow people to hit you because you assume you'll be fine afterwards.

Stronger blows are telegraphed (that's how the body works) and can be anticipated

--> speaking from your experience with the standardized human body, apparently.

What I can see e.g. is how far back someone is extending their weapon arm. Huge guy raising his huge axe/ club over his head with both hands = expect massive damage on impact. If only the world telegraphing were that easy.

But some people can land much harder strikes than their frame would have you expect; sometimes, it's the opposite. Weapons can be of different sharpness. You can be confronted with weapons of a type you've never seen. Facing an enemy with a bec de corbin for the first time when you've never even heard of such a weapon may have been bad news; it was definitely very bad news if you just
tried to "catch" those blows with your trusty plate armor.

If you've faced lots of untrained fighters maybe you've experienced that most people actually overextend their reach and you think that guy you're fighting right now is one of those cases; but he is actually skilled in using the weapon and brings it down at the precise time to cut into you just as you lazily try to stab him in the gut as you've done before. Bottom line, muh telegraphing as your go-to defense is an option for absolute professionals. Exactly not the kind of thing that would be advisable under the circumstances you've been proposing (producing lots of weapons in a short time and train people with them and then make them fight battles). And when we're talking weapons, there's very little reason to present your armored body to the enemy because you think that blow is going to do nothing. And there's definitely no reason ever to train for it, because training is used to ingrain patterns of behaviour in your body to be accessed instantly or even automatically.
 
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