Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - DR of shields? Why so much higher than ordinary slab of wood?

aesir23 · 06-06-2009, 05:56 PM

Shields were in use in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the America's right up through the invention of gun powder and heavy plate.

The primary reason why they're underrepresented in both western and eastern martial arts traditions is that most of the surviving martial arts are designed for civilians, very few people walked around with shields off the battle field.

They were, however, disposable in many of these cultures (certainly not the heavy bronze shields of the Greeks, i.e. the legendary Spartan wife who said, "come back with your shield or on it".)

The vikings in particular didn't expect a shield to survive the fight and trained to use the shield boss as a buckler after the rest of the shield had been destroyed. I'm not sure how much of a standard that was, it is possible that the vikings used particularly light and disposable shields.

I think DR 1 or 2 is quiet reasonable for a viking shield, perhaps twice that for a "fine or very fine" shield; i'm confident that Low Tech will fix it.

06-06-2009, 05:56 PM	#17
aesir23 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Vermont	Re: DR of shields? Why so much higher than ordinary slab of wood? Shields were in use in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the America's right up through the invention of gun powder and heavy plate. The primary reason why they're underrepresented in both western and eastern martial arts traditions is that most of the surviving martial arts are designed for civilians, very few people walked around with shields off the battle field. They were, however, disposable in many of these cultures (certainly not the heavy bronze shields of the Greeks, i.e. the legendary Spartan wife who said, "come back with your shield or on it".) The vikings in particular didn't expect a shield to survive the fight and trained to use the shield boss as a buckler after the rest of the shield had been destroyed. I'm not sure how much of a standard that was, it is possible that the vikings used particularly light and disposable shields. I think DR 1 or 2 is quiet reasonable for a viking shield, perhaps twice that for a "fine or very fine" shield; i'm confident that Low Tech will fix it. __________________ My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters.