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-   -   [Low-Tech] Material or quality (https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=134554)

DanHoward 04-25-2015 03:27 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders (Post 1894303)
Dan, as one of the authors of Low-Tech, can you tell us something about the original question?
I don't know. I had so much on my plate that I didn't even read most of the rest of the book until the playtest was over.

Peter Knutsen 04-25-2015 03:49 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward (Post 1894300)
There is no such thing as a sword "evolution". The kinds of swords used on the battlefield have changed very little for thousands of years. No sword can cut through armour and the only sword that can stab through armour are specialised weapons such as the estoc/tuck. Whether armour was common or not had little influence over which swords were chosen by soldiers. If you chose a sword to fight someone in armour then you were likely to lose. Polearms were king on the battlefield. A sword is just a sidearm, like a pistol in modern warfare.
So you're saying that a broadsword (what we fairly normal roleplayers understand as a broadsword) is as useless against an armoured foe as a rapier (what we fairly normal roleplayers understand as a rapier) is?

Peter Knutsen 04-25-2015 03:51 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony (Post 1894285)
Nah, there's probably some metallurgy issues involved (not that easy to make a long thin stabby thing that doesn't just break),
Yup. No rapiers in my 10th century Ärth setting. Some places actually have the metallurgy to make them (the equivalent of GURPS' TL4 in metallurgy and smithing, sometimes even TL5) but it hasn't happened yet.

That's also why their presence bothers me in D&D and in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. I don't think metallurgy was contemplated. I don't think anybody remembered to ask "hey, can a medieval smith do a rapier?"

Flyndaran 04-25-2015 04:18 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
D&D has the armor and metallurgy of TL 4-5, government of European TL 2-3, etc.

DanHoward 04-25-2015 04:23 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen (Post 1894308)
So you're saying that a broadsword (what we fairly normal roleplayers understand as a broadsword) is as useless against an armoured foe as a rapier (what we fairly normal roleplayers understand as a rapier) is?
There are plenty of ways to take out an armoured foe with a sword. It is just that none of them involve cutting or punching through the armour.

DanHoward 04-25-2015 04:27 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen (Post 1894309)
That's also why their presence bothers me in D&D and in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. I don't think metallurgy was contemplated. I don't think anybody remembered to ask "hey, can a medieval smith do a rapier?"
The best La Tene Celt smiths could do a rapier. We have extant examples of their swords with the required metallurgy. There is at least one that can still be flexed almost double and spring back straight even though it is over two thousand years old.

Anders 04-25-2015 04:30 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen (Post 1894309)
That's also why their presence bothers me in D&D and in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. I don't think metallurgy was contemplated. I don't think anybody remembered to ask "hey, can a medieval smith do a rapier?"
Dungeon Fantasy is not particularly concerned with historical accuracy...

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward (Post 1894307)
I don't know. I had so much on my plate that I didn't even read most of the rest of the book until the playtest was over.
I thought you were in charge of weapons and armor? Ah, well...

DanHoward 04-25-2015 04:36 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders (Post 1894316)
I thought you were in charge of weapons and armor? Ah, well...
I wrote chapters 6. Defenses and 7. Security & Covert Ops. Peter wrote Chapter 5. Weapons.

evileeyore 04-25-2015 10:47 AM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen (Post 1894309)
That's also why their presence bothers me in D&D and in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. I don't think metallurgy was contemplated. I don't think anybody remembered to ask "hey, can a medieval smith do a rapier?"
Of course not. What they asked was "Will anyone want to play a Buckleswasher?"

Flyndaran 04-25-2015 04:14 PM
Re: [Low-Tech] Material or quality
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by evileeyore (Post 1894378)
Of course not. What they asked was "Will anyone want to play a Buckleswasher?"
Who would ever play one that left his swash unbuckled? That's scandalous.


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