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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 11:19AM
#221
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2006
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On an unrelated note...one of my son's favorite books right now is "How the Tiger Lost His Stripes". I am very upset about this. Not only is the book completely unrealistic (I mean, how would the tiger lose his stripes in the first place? That just can't happen! And how would the python gather up the stripes to make the nest-thing? And how do the animals talk to each other?) but it displays a total disregard for appropriate flora and fauna! The book surely takes place in India (because of the tiger), but the elephants are depicted as Loxodonta africana! I'm sure I don't need to explain how completely rediculous that is. And the tiger's name is "General MacTiger"? It just completely ruins my immersion and suspention of disbelief. I've tried explaining to my son (he is almost 3) why he shouldn't like the book, but he just ignores me! I blame the internet...it is turning kids these days into ignorant morons!
Tiger? Thats a strange name for a creature. I would have called it a Chuswozzla.
Absoutely! Because then it would make more sense. Everyone knows a Chuswozzla has removable stripes...
Duh!
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 11:39AM
#222
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You know what I want? Weapons with multiple damage types. A long bladed yari would easily fit under the slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning categories, and is a reach weapon. I never get what I want, though, do I?
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 11:47AM
#223
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Didn't the Birthright campaign try to address some of the OP issues in the past?
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 11:52AM
#224
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Date Joined:
Jul 17, 2003
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''' If you really wanted to put the armor in the equivalent of a local vernacular ...
You don't mind if I crib from this post, do you? That will make a great start that we can build on.
Be my guest.
As for how I'd do it I'd present the generic terms and then under the description give real world examples. For example...
Knife: Simple melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d4 slashing or piercing damage; off-hand, finesse, thrown. A weapon with a short handled and short blade. Often used as a backup or off-hand weapon. Examples: dagger, dirk, main gauche, stilleto.
Small Sword: Martial melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d6 slashing or piercing damage; one-handed, finesse. A sword designed to be used exclusively with one hand. Examples: gladius, rapier, sabre, ninjato.
Large Sword: Military melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d8 slashing or piercing damage; versatile. A long-bladed sword designed to be used either one or two-handed. Examples: bastard sword, katana, scimitar.
Great Sword: Military melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d10 slashing or piercing damage; two-handed. A heavy sword that can only effectively be wielded with two hands. Examples: claymore, zwiehander.
Pole Sword: Military melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d10 slashing or piercing damage; two-handed; reach. A long blade mounted on the end of a long pole. Examples: glaive, naganata.
In essence, you could put all but the most exotic of swords somewhere on that general continuum.
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 12:03PM
#225
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Date Joined:
Jan 10, 2012
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''' If you really wanted to put the armor in the equivalent of a local vernacular ...
You don't mind if I crib from this post, do you? That will make a great start that we can build on.
Be my guest.
As for how I'd do it I'd present the generic terms and then under the description give real world examples. For example...
Knife: Simple melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d4 slashing or piercing damage; off-hand, finesse, thrown. A weapon with a short handled and short blade. Often used as a backup or off-hand weapon. Examples: dagger, dirk, main gauche, stilleto.
Small Sword: Martial melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d6 slashing or piercing damage; one-handed, finesse. A sword designed to be used exclusively with one hand. Examples: gladius, rapier, sabre, ninjato.
Large Sword: Military melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d8 slashing or piercing damage; versatile. A long-bladed sword designed to be used either one or two-handed. Examples: bastard sword, katana, scimitar.
Great Sword: Military melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d10 slashing or piercing damage; two-handed. A heavy sword that can only effectively be wielded with two hands. Examples: claymore, zwiehander.
Pole Sword: Military melee weapon; +3 proficiency; 1d10 slashing or piercing damage; two-handed; reach. A long blade mounted on the end of a long pole. Examples: glaive, naganata.
In essence, you could put all but the most exotic of swords somewhere on that general continuum.
That's a good start
but what about the Rapier? You can't use that two handed all that well. You can't slash with a stilletto either.
I think there would be a few more.
Large 1H Sword
Large 2H Sword
Large 1H or 2H Sword
And even more for each combination of piercing and slashing.
You might also want a few variants that help perform a parry like a trident dagger. A sword breaker is interesting too.
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 12:27PM
#226
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Date Joined:
May 27, 2012
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I'm a big fan of words and their meanings, so I want to agree with the OP. I will happily say that D&D is so inspired by Medieval Europe that our weapons and armors look and function very, very similarly to their weapons and armors (magic aside)*. The short sword which my half-elf wields is virtually identical to a gladius produced in the year 12, except that obviously my short sword doesn't actually exist.
Where I'm forced to agree with everyone other than the OP is because D&D is single-handedly responsible for inventing the lexicon of the genre (and the literature inspired by it). So it's not so much that "scale mail" is a historically inaccurate term (which it very well may be) as that, what historians refer to as "scale armor" or "pretentious foreign term", the term for that item in modern English is "scale mail". Because D&D said so.
*The one area where I disagree that our gear is like their gear comes with leather armor. Their leather armor, having apparently been boiled to be nearly as hard as iron, would not provide the functional equivalent of +1 or +2 AC with zero penalty to flexibility. Thus, our leather armor is probably something closer to modern depictions there-of - a leather jacket or vest, and soft leather pants.
The metagame is not the game.
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 12:34PM
#227
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Lacquered leather armor is surprisingly effective, considering it being lightweight, relatively flexible, and very protective. Throw some maille in where the joints are, and it should definitely be at least a +3 AC or +4 AC with virtually no mobility penalties. Heck, I've seen people do cartwheels in plate armor.
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 12:55PM
#228
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Date Joined:
Nov 19, 2007
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''' If you really wanted to put the armor in the equivalent of a local vernacular ...
You don't mind if I crib from this post, do you? That will make a great start that we can build on.
Be my guest.
As for how I'd do it I'd present the generic terms and then under the description give real world examples. For example...
[really great suggestions snipped for brevity]
In essence, you could put all but the most exotic of swords somewhere on that general continuum.
That's a good start
but what about the Rapier? You can't use that two handed all that well. You can't slash with a stilletto either.
I think there would be a few more.
Large 1H Sword
Large 2H Sword
Large 1H or 2H Sword
And even more for each combination of piercing and slashing.
You might also want a few variants that help perform a parry like a trident dagger. A sword breaker is interesting too.
Thanks to both of you! I'll definitely bring your suggestions to the table when we hash this out. Chris24601, that's pretty much what we were looking at as far as organisation of the groups goes -- broad names in the table, and specific examples in the descriptions. I'm sure we'll have all the weapon and armour books all over the table, and I'll hand out lots of blank sticky notes to bookmark pages with. 
In memory of wrecan and his Unearthed Wrecana.5e should strongly stay away from "I don't like it, so you can't have it either."
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 12:56PM
#229
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Date Joined:
Nov 19, 2007
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... Heck, I've seen people do cartwheels in plate armor.
And backflips. I mentioned things like that in a recent survey.
In memory of wrecan and his Unearthed Wrecana.5e should strongly stay away from "I don't like it, so you can't have it either."
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7 months ago ::
Nov 16, 2012 - 1:01PM
#230
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Date Joined:
Jul 29, 2012
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Just reflavour/reskin (excuse the generalisations):
-Dagger (cestus, katar, tanto, etc)
-Short Sword (basilard, gladius, wakisashi, etc)
-Shuriken (throwing star, chakram-but slashing, etc)
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