[Low-Tech] Smallsword with the Bronze Age 'Rapier?'

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Before this thread vanishes completely I want to pose the question of "What about fencing with shortswords?".

We'd be talking about TL2 blades with real tangs and pommels being used by adventurous types without heavy armor (to the extent it even existed in the time period) or shields (most of which were quite large and bulky).

This would be the sort of thing you saw in many of the movies of the "sword and sandals" genre of the 60s because the available swordmasters didn't know much outside of western academic fencing.

In favor of the proposition the blades in question were faster and better balanced than later long swords. Smallsword Skill also says "Any light thrusting sword". You would be excluding the heaviest swords of the gladius type (most of them over 2 lbs) and non-thrusting blades like the khopis or falcata.

Other than those I'm not seeing huge arguments agist it.

Well, in GURPS RAW you see if the weapon in question is listed in GURPS Low Tech under the appropriate skill. IIRC, GURPS Martial Arts preferred Shortsword skill for styles like this.

In my proposed house rules, you could try it, but it does not offer good hand protection and lacks length for rules like Contesting Waits and A Matter of Inches (GURPS Martial Arts). And defaults between Melee Weapon skills would be much less punitive anyways (although i think Sword to Fencing is not so harsh).

Realistically, in situations like that you wrapped your cloak around your left arm. Ancient art, biographies, and novels show this.