06-21-2019, 08:18 AM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2010
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[Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
Low-Tech overhauled the rules for bronze armor, making it as good as iron armor but much more expensive. However, I can't find any similar update to the rules for bronze weapons. The Low-Tech books seem to imply that they shouldn't for example, be penalized for parrying iron weapons, but this isn't explicit. And there are other related questions left unanswered: are bronze weapons any more expensive than iron ones? Are TL3 steel weapons really that much better than bronze ones? Do we have quasi-official answers to the questions anywhere—even in a Pyramid article?
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06-21-2019, 10:06 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
I've always just put bronze and raw-iron weapons fell under the topic of "cheap" weapons.
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06-21-2019, 05:16 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
Not sure about the official rules, but bronze weapons are really weaker than iron and steel ones. While bronze armor does pretty well, the softer nature of bronze makes it so that steel and iron weapons cut into them pretty badly (there are some Youtube videos that show this with good quality replicas). I think counting them as "cheap" for breakage is very fair. IMHO they should also have the same CF as bronze armor.
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06-21-2019, 06:05 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
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06-21-2019, 09:26 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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06-22-2019, 02:40 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
Iron didn't replace bronze because it was better. It replaced bronze because it was cheaper and more readily available. The performance of ferrous blades didn't begin to surpass bronze until the intricacies of quench-hardened steel was understood (a thousand years after the Iron Age began). I think it was Neil Burridge who tested a mild steel sword against one of his bronze swords and the steel one came off the worse.
Tin-bronze (of a composition typically used in the Bronze Age) has similar mechanical properties as unhardened medium carbon steel, so it can't be used for fine quality blades. Treat bronze blades the same as ferrous blades except that price is 4x and restrict them to cheap and good quality.
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06-22-2019, 03:15 AM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2017
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
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06-22-2019, 04:04 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
In my Bronze Age Setting bronze weapons were just more expensive, no other effect. I worked out one rule of thumb for knives and swords, and another for hafted weapons based on the setting''s prices for copper and tin. The fact that some weapons are hard to make out of bronze is covered by the Thrusting Broadsword and Short Cutting Rapier being TL 2-4 (a few cultures had Craft Secret perks for making them).
Arsenic bronze was only used during the copper age, in the Bronze Age proper, with chariots and swords, and what not, bronze weapons and armour were of carefully designed high-tin alloys.
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06-22-2019, 07:16 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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06-22-2019, 08:11 AM | #10 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Low-Tech] Were the rules for bronze weapons ever updated?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are also some interesting but below Gurps resolution differences. Bronze weapons need to be sharpened more often than iron, can be bent back into shape more readily, and of course don't really corrode over centuries or possibly even millennia. They just develop a thin patina.
That last one is really cool for a realistic backstory for truly ancient caches of treasures.
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