[Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

GURPS Low-Tech (4e) makes mention of hobnails on p98 (text box), but while it does mention the improved footing in general, and reduced Stealth on hard surfaces, it does not mention the rather important point that they also reduce footing on hard, relatively-smooth surfaces, as Lindybeige notes in this video, helpfully citing an example from Josephus's The Jewish War (Book VI, Chapter I). I'm reasonably sure that other examples can be found, but I have not seen the problem dealt with in GURPS.

Of course, if you're doing Yrth or another non-historical game, the GM can just say that this culture nails/glues strips or discs of leather to the bottom of their shoes/sandals, which does a 'good enough' job of imitating the fancy rubber soles we use (if they don't have rubber, themselves). If you are doing a historical game, though, and you want to go that far in simulating historical accuracy, an appropriate rule for this could help.

Thoughts?

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

Yrth has enough cultural cross-contamination with Earth that I expect them to include innovations in shoe design - never mind that they've had 500 years since the medieval period so they should have 500 years more tinkering even without cross-contamination.

I have a pair of rubber strap-on ice-cleats for my boots for foul weather - they allow me to convert my big stompy mukluks into hobnailed boots (they use screw heads instead of nail heads, but the same effect). They give absolutely amazing traction in treacherous conditions.

They are also a death sentence on tile floors; that was the first place my mind went when I read the hobnails entry. They're a little alarming on even well-maintained concrete (worn tarmac roads and crappy shattered crumbling sidewalks are fine).

They're incredibly loud on tiles too. They make the sharp, high-frequency sounds that make it easy to pinpoint your location.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

You can't have anything like that (including rubber) without negating the point of hobnails (unless you're just using a completely different technology; hobnails for climbing shoes have been pretty well replaced by special sole materials).

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

The easiest rule would be that they make tile floors and the like bad footing, increasing movement costs as per B387, and imposing a penalty on attack and defence rolls as per B547-49.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

No, not "relatively smooth" surfaces. Lindybeige presented one of the few exceptions, which is polished stone and glazed ceramics. Hobnails improve traction on pretty much every other surface including regular stone and concrete so long as they aren't covered in water.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

Thank you. I was having trouble finding (or remembering) the pages for bad footing.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

Well, depends on your definition of relatively smooth. Also what you're comparing it to. Hobnails have a poor coefficient of friction on most surfaces, but make up for it by catching in dents and holes in the surface, either preexisting or (in the case of soft surfaces) made by the hobnails, so they're heavily dependent on just how uneven the surface is.

Note, also, that hobnails on smooth relatively soft surfaces (such as wood) do this by damaging the surface, thus making them unwelcome. In general if you aren't damaging the flooring, you'll be slipping about indoors.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

How do you feel about the Youtube medieval channels? Any you think are really good or bad but popular?
I don't have the education to easily tell quality from opinionated nonsense.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

I realize that this question was meant for Dan.

However, Matt Easton who has the channel Scholagladiatora trained as an archaeologist and generally sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

Yeah, Matt knows his stuff.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

Sweet. I love his channel, and he seems to know his stuff as well as using that professional scientist's tendency of carefully partitioning the spectrum of solid evidence to reasonable conjecture to complete guesswork.
But nice to know that I'm not barking up the wrong tree of knowledge.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

Lindybeige has done a few joint videos with Scholagladiatora, so he at least hasn't made enough big errors for Easton not to want to be seen with him. In addition, all the facts that he's given that I've been able to check have been correct, so that works pretty well.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

Lindybeige is not that bad, at least in the majority of his videos, but he has some bad habits: for example, too often he takes as proven facts mere hypothesis, sometimes he uses unreliable sources and, worst of all, he doesn't accept not even constructive critics. Personally I prefer to follow Matt Easton, Skallagrim and Metatron because they're by far more competent and open to debate, and if they make a mistake and someone reports it to them, they apologize and correct the wrong parts.

Re: [Low-Tech] Hobnails and footing
 

I vaguely feel like I've replied to this already, but as it isn't here, either I haven't, or I tried and my computer ate the reply without me noticing (in which case I was probably tired enough that we're better off without that reply). So, I apologise for the late response:

When Lindybeige catches himself in an error, he puts it in white text in the video itself, so he's at least willing to admit himself capable of screwing up. Also, as already noted, he has done videos with Matt Easton, and Skallagrim, and even has one on The Tank Museum's channel. So again, his flaws are not big enough for them to not be willing to do videos with him, so in my opinion, are unlikely to be too bad... though to be fair, I do tend to take internet videos with a grain of salt anyway. I tend to watch him for entertainment as much as information, and if I intend to use the information in a game, would be likely to try to look it up (something I recommend for all GMs when you can, even if the video is by a respected expert - unless you're doing a cinematic game, and your players are unlikely to be pedantic about it, in which case you may not need to bother).