Choose your path to greatness, obscurity or death. A multiple choice LP

[Kashmir Slippers]

B

 

[Vernydar]

If realism is what your are aiming for, then the armor skill doesn't make much sense. A well made armor will not restrict movement or make its wearer clumsier. The only problem of heavier armor is its weight, and no skill is going to help you with that, only strength will. Instead you should be keeping track of encumbrance and adjust the speed and dodge appropriately. But even a person of average strength should be able to wear something like chainmail effectively. Sure, encumbrance would be significant, but the damage resistance would more then make up for that.

The armor skill was an idealization of how used Kyoss is to wearing encumbering armor. So that highly skilled people would have somewhat reduced penalties to complex movements. If you guys prefer, I can take it away and consider it a flat penalty, it's not a problem.

Regardless of what various roleplaying system are saying, in any somewhat realistic combat scenario involving the armored but slower fighter and a mobile lightly armored fighter you should be betting on the armored guy.

Regarding this, it heavily depends on the situation. But anyway, I do not force you in any direction. It's up to you what you want to use

 

[Curufinwe]

Regarding equipment, I'd say we at least buy the 1) leather cap.
Can afford it and it's stupid to go around without any sort of head protection.
Regarding the job, I'll go for B as well.
I'm still expecting a siege sometime soonish, don't want to starve to death because we were too lazy to check the town's stores.

 

[Zero Credibility]

If realism is what your are aiming for, then the armor skill doesn't make much sense. A well made armor will not restrict movement or make its wearer clumsier. The only problem of heavier armor is its weight, and no skill is going to help you with that, only strength will. Instead you should be keeping track of encumbrance and adjust the speed and dodge appropriately. But even a person of average strength should be able to wear something like chainmail effectively. Sure, encumbrance would be significant, but the damage resistance would more then make up for that.

The armor skill was an idealization of how used Kyoss is to wearing encumbering armor. So that highly skilled people would have somewhat reduced penalties to complex movements. If you guys prefer, I can take it away and consider it a flat penalty, it's not a problem.

It's your show man, and I have to say, a mighty fine show so far. I only mentioned this because as I said it is a pet peeve of my and you used the word realistic. If for some reason that escapes me you want my advice, make armor simply reduce speed (and dodge) because of encumbrance. High strength would let you carry more, reducing or negating these penalties. There really is no skill to carry armor. But regardless of the way you want to do this, light armor should not get a free pass. A leather armor with metal studs may be lighter then chainmail, but it still has considerable weight.

Regardless of what various roleplaying system are saying, in any somewhat realistic combat scenario involving the armored but slower fighter and a mobile lightly armored fighter you should be betting on the armored guy.

Regarding this, it heavily depends on the situation. But anyway, I do not force you in any direction. It's up to you what you want to use

If there is a huge skill difference between combatants or the armored guy is immobilized somehow, or the lightly armored one gets a very lucky hit, then maybe - otherwise, 1 on 1, the lightly armored guy is going to get cheesed. If we ever find ourselves in this situation, the only reasonable course of action really is "RUN AWAY!". If we are talking about the setting technologically equivalent to medieval Europe, armor is a lifesaver. A heavily armored combatant will shrug off blows that would have disabled an unarmored one.

Now, obviously what armor we should use depends primarily on the situation we are in. If all we are doing is going to buy a loaf of bread in a shop, then no armor is necessary. If we are going scouting or investigating and we are not expecting imminent combat, then a leather armor sounds perfect. But if combat is likely or unavoidable, then we should take the heaviest armor we can carry.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Armour
1 - buy small leather cap

Weapons
1. - A better sword than our old one, buy good quality. I'm keen on better parry than offense, I think bastard sword might be over-kill
3 - A knife's useful not just for stabbing folk
5 - Great for tight fixes and as a back-up weapon. Shouldn't weigh us down too much. If we get caught in close quarters, we'll wish we had it

Voting C, good for practicing our outdoor and administrative skills both, more danger, but if we act cautiously we should survive. It also seems the most important task, I'm curious what this installation is, and we might learn more about what's happening than we would in Bitak. Seems the best option alround

 

[GreyViper]

2 We could use a flexible weapon like bastard sword, its never to late to start learning 2 handed decapitation.
C Others will probably result in investigation and some withe collar crime. Outdoors one should probably result in more combat or advancing our tracking skills.

 

[ScubaV]

Armor: 1 and 3
Weapon: Good quality sword 1
Job: C

We already have a good quality knife, no need for another. And I'm not keen on either a short or bastard sword. The former will just weigh us down more with more to carry and at this point I'd rather not sacrifice defense for offense with the latter. Considering Vernydar's intent for realistic combat I think investing in some better armor will suit us as well.

 

[Baltika9]

Well, enough bad jokes for now. Clotstein is right, we can't become a desk jockey. Kyoss's currently gives me an impression of a budding spec-ops commando. Intelligent, yes, but also active, good fighter, good survivor and good planner. We must capitalize on that. As for choices:
3 and 1- a little more armor couldn't hurt, beside, we already have a studded leather jacket.
As for weapons- 2(good quality) and 3. A bastard sword is versatile, besides, we'll always have our regular sword with us. And a knife is not just a weapon, but a versatile tool, too.
C- I imagein we'll be interacting with people. Time to put charisma do good use.

 

[Bloodshifter]

Armor
-1 Leather hat
-3 studded leather pants
Weapons
-2 bastard sword
-4 Throwing Knives preferably 5-8 we will be losing some also this gives us some ranged weapons

C we are outdoorsmen

 

[Kalin]

Kyoss with cap.

Kyoss flying solo.

Preserve the integrity of our hero - say NO to leather caps!


3) Studded leather pants - 2 silver

4) 2 x Good quality throwing knife - 3.2 silver

C) If we're lucky we might just meet Irene our bro Kalz again.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

voting C)

and I'm ok with our current equipment.

 

[Monty]

Yes, I can picture us walking around covered in leather looking like the Gimp....

I say we invest in a good quality sword (1), and we already have a knife. Carrying a bastard sword too is surely too much unnecessary weight.

Job: C

 

[Bloodshifter]

Yes, I can picture us walking around covered in leather looking like the Gimp....

I say we invest in a good quality sword (1), and we already have a knife. Carrying a bastard sword too is surely too much unnecessary weight.

Job: C

we would sell the sword no? if we got the bastard...

 

[GreyViper]

We can always go Geralt style 2, bastard swords on our back. But jokes aside i think we need the reach and flexibility that bastard sword offers, on other occasions knife is a option. Good point in investing into throwing knives, they don't weight much and don't take much space to. Good for killing or interrupting casters.
Edit: We can keep the old sword as backup with our things if we lose the other sword.

 

[ScubaV]

Bastard sword. Can be used 2 handed, less parry and slightly more damage than normal sword if used one-handed.

I think less parrying is the last thing we need when Kyoss literally has 0 dodging skill.

 

[Urist McLurker]

1 and 3
1(good quality)
C
I think we ought to stick with just the basic sword for now, we've got a good knife, time to get a good sword. Kind of pricey though.

 

[anver]

1) A small leather cap
3) Studded leather pants

1. Good quality sword

C

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

I was thinking about something, and I wanted to know what you as the writer has to say, Vernydar.

What is the view on looting? If we kill someone in a just fight (like the battlefield in the earlier update) can we search the body and take valuables or weapons, or is that frowned upon in our society (and would cause some type of reputation/psychological hit)?

Sorry if it has been asked before.

 

[Vernydar]

Kashmir Slippers there is no particular problem with looting. You can do it, nobody will complain much. This is not true for regular armies though, who do not allow random looting, in order to keep discipline. They usually have rewards after battles instead. For this reason, you might want to avoid blatantly looting in front of soldiers, since they can't do it. By blatantly I mean, going around looting from body to body presumably after the soldiers killed whatever enemy is down

Zero Credibility I have thought about it, and I think we can do without the armor skill. I have no problems changing the rules if it makes sense. So, there will be no armor skill (uh, better write it in next update, doubt everyone will notice this). I will just go with a set penalty for encumbrance which can be reduced (but never brought to 0) by high enough strength.

But I will keep to the fact that light armor is a viable, if risky choice for many situations. If you have a rather large or prolonged conflict, at least medium armor is a good idea. There can be arrows, stray hits, and you have continuous fighting. In ones on ones or other situations, light armor could do depending on the situation. Supposing two people of similar skills, the one wearing light armor must try to avoid hits at any cost. But the lesser encumbrance can be enough to get a first hit, and sometimes the first hit is all you need. A bleeding wound, since I'm going for somewhat realistic combat, can be all you need to finish a fight. So, riskier, yes, but not completely one-sided.

Of course the point is rather moot. You should wear, as we both said, what is appropriate considering what you expect to face. And what your strength is, right now I can tell you'd have the maximum encumbrance penalty considering your rather low strength, so best keep medium armor only for inevitable combat situations

 

[Zero Credibility]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. And as I said, it is your game, your settings and your rules, no matter what any GURPS fanboy like me might say.

Also, say no leather cap! I wouldn't be caught dead in that ugly thing. And besides, it's not like it will be effective against any determined attacker. If protection of head is what concerns us, I suggest that we buy ourselves a nice steel skullcap instead - something that looks like it came from an old Conan movie and is a hell of a lot more effective at stopping damage then a piece of soft leather can ever be.​

​

And what's the deal with choice 1? Don't we already have a sword like that? Why would we need two? Or is this a higher quality weapon?​

 

[Vernydar]

People are voting for buying a good quality sword, yes. You have an average quality one

 

[Smashing Axe]

At the risk of self-aggrandisement, a saxon helm like the one in my avatar would be pretty sweet.

 

[Zero Credibility]

At the risk of self-aggrandisement, a saxon helm like the one in my avatar would be pretty sweet.

Well, it's certainly a hell of an improvement over a leather cap, but I was thinking of something that would leave the face open and not restrict our vision. A combination of metal and leather that would also look like a piece of clothing and not just an obvious armor. Something to give us some decent protection and at the same time not look that dorky. Think Conan the Barbarian (spikes or horns optional).

 

[Arpad]

1,3
1(good quality sword) , 2x4 (throwing knife.)
B

 

[Hoodoo]

1(good quality sword) , 2x4 (throwing knife.)
B

with B Im sure combat will pop up somewhere, it also gives us a chance to familiarize ourselves with Bitak.