Re: (TFT) Outdoor Scale - Request for Comments

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/19/2006 9:25:44 AM Central Daylight Time, 
lifeisfun@aol.com writes:


> I can see how it is easy to look at the weapons table and determine your 
> own personal strength by seeing which weapon you could manage to use.  But, I 
> don't think that is really an accurate test of your strength.  
> 
> When I was maybe 16, I used to belong to a couple of midevil fighting 
> groups.  One of them used wooden weapons and real armor.  This group, called 
> Markland, taught technique, but the weapons were always too light.  

How heavy were they? How do you know they were "too light"? 

The weights given in TFT are mostly too heavy (due in part to Steve Jackson 
confusing kg and lbs). The weights given in GURPS are based on metal replica 
weapons, weighed on the SJG postal scales. 

> 
> Anyway, long story short, what I learned from this second group was just how 
> freaking hard it is to run around in armor and beat the crap out of people 
> all day with realisitically heavy weapons.  And, what I have to report is that 
> even though a short sword seems small and light when you pick it up and whip 
> it around a little, after a few minutes of trying to wield it in a combat 
> situation, you'd be hurting for technique.  


Truth. 

> 
> Now, I know that the Mele rules say that you need to have X strength to use 
> Y weapon.  But seriously, a ST 14 person "could" lift and probably TRY to use 
> a pike axe. 

By the book, a St 14 chacter who used a pike ax (St 15) would have -1 Dx: "If 
your ST is less than that requiared for the weapon  you are using, your DX is 
-1 for each ST point you lack, and the damage done is -1 for each 2 ST (round 
down) that you lack." - Advanced Melee, p7. 

> In the end, I think that if in a battle a 10 strength character was to 
break his hammer and there was a mace lying on the ground, I would probably allow 
him to 
> pick it up and swing it as a weapon every other round. But the mace would 
only do 1d+1 damage, the same damage as his hammer.  Much of the damage I 
> think is in fact the strength behind the weapon, not the shape.  The 
penalty of swinging every other round would account for the extra weight.  I would 
not 
> let him defend with it.  

This is much harsher than going by the book: A St 10 character using a mace 
(St 11) would have -1 Dx to hit, but would still do 2d-1 damage.

Of course, this makes it even harder to judge real-world St by "usable" 
weapons - does the guy swinging a broadsword really have St 12? Or St 11 and a -1 
Dx penalty? Or maybe St 10 with -2 Dx to hit and -1 damage? 

-- 
Erol K. Bayburt
Evil Genius for a Bettter Tomorrow
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