Re: (TFT) Attribute ratings for real people

[raito@raito.com]

Quoting Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>:

> IQ is also possible to estimate, simply by adding up talents.  I'd be
> a little careful about claiming weapon talents, but then modern
> coaching in fencing, e.g. is probably a lot more effective per unit
> time than what medieval swordsmen got. Many of the other talents

I disagree. Recent research (in the last 20 or so years) indicates that 
mediaval
combat, among the nobles at least, was not just big guys bashing each other.
More and more manuscripts of fighting manuals are being studied, with very
interesting results. The earliest shword and buckler manual bears some close
resemblance to Filipino styles. Fiore's manual states that wrestling is the
basis of all fighting. The anonymous Jeu de la Hache describes a 
precise system
for the use of the pollaxe (there really is no pole ax). And there's a host of
others. I'd have to say that by the end of the practical use of the sword for
battle.there's several hundred years of written instruction to draw 
from. We're
just starting to scratch the surface there.

I'd also say that modern fencing has little or nothing to do with 
combat (not to
mention that the weapons are completely different). It's all about getting a
light to light up before the other guy's. In fact, I'd go out on a limb 
and say
that most points scored in mdoern fencing would result in the death or 
injury of
both parties if played with sharps. This has made some go in for what is being
called classical fencing, where the idea is to see what would happen if the
weapons were sharp. Even Silver says don't take your rapier onto a 
battlefield.

Really, our modern society is just skewed in what Talents normal people have,
just like the usual fantasy milieu is skewed. We're more prepared to learn
Mathematics, and so it's likely that a modern could do so without as high an
IQ, whereas learning Sword isn't as likely.

And again, I prefer consistency to accuracy in mechanics. If a player says,"My
character does thus and so", I just want to be able to figure of how to 
rule on
it.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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