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Virtues of each weapon in various uses. Medieval context, but probably applicable to earlier times as well.

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47 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

how do Humakti feel about this?

"OK! Time for some training!" 😆

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17 minutes ago, Godlearner said:

The big Hero Wars campaign book ... huge undertaking. I can see it being done, but such a huge effort may not financially feasible

I have a vague recollection of this being mentioned by Greg in the early 2010s. Something along the lines of a GPC type campaign book. 

No clues as to how far along it ever got, but it would certainly be fun to have.

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2 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

Hasbro purchased the HeroQuest trademark about 2 years ago. We cannot sell any product using that Trademark. We are rebranding the core material as Questworlds. That conversion has been slowly progressing. The rebranding includes the Coming Storm and Eleven Lights. If we had an ETA I would have included it in this reply.

Rick, is the plan to re-brand these two items, or to produce new versions with errata integrated? 

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8 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Agree. Merely striking first - if you even do - isn't a massive deal. It was weird if you can attack more often with your pike than with a dagger, though...

Easy fix though. Pike is a Battlefield/Formation weapon, and thus is outside SR progression. 

IF a SR value is needed (PC in the front ranks anyone?!) I would say that its more along the lines of 3 (mass, unwieldiness, and all).

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1 hour ago, icebrand said:

Yes swords can parry. I was asking about 1h axe/mace/spear, who can all parry 2h, but 1h i just can't picture it.

There was one of those videos on YouTube, where they interview a weapons expert. This one was interviewing Matt Easton (Schola Gladiatoria). They had him watch several flics and comment on the fighting scenes. One of the movies was Troy, specifically the fight between Achilles and Hector. He stated that for the most part, it was a fairly accurate representation of Spear and Shield dueling. There are several instances within the fight where they use the spears (1h) to parry or block the other spear. In fact, he states that Medieval treatises often show how one would use a spear in just such a manner.

In other Schola Gladiatoria (proper) vids, Easton has stated that parrying with axes and maces is possible, but the forward heavy nature of the weapons makes it awkward at best.

So, yes-ish? Probably in duals, as the movements would not be conducive to a shield wall or phalanx.

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Hello All,

Tod's Workshop is coming back with another round of testing of Longbow vs. Plate armor. Sounds like they are going to side and back shots this time, along with a French Bascinet if they can get the funding. They have set up a Kickstarter to try and get said funding, so head on over! They are at $15K of $50K at this time, with 28 days left.

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12 hours ago, Eff said:

Well, they do have certain minimal functionality requirements! Slashing cuts are a bit difficult to use with a big shield formation where each person is partially covering the right side of the person on their left- you just have limited room to maneuver. And if the shield formation is broken, your unit is collapsing, not fighting back.  Something that can poke as its primary method of use is pretty handy, and you can make a more triangular blade and say it's a really stretchy Law Rune if you want to introduce meaningful symbolic overtones. 

A single edge sword doesn't preclude stabbing. In fact, because of the back, it could be more rigid, and actually better at stabbing.

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11 hours ago, g33k said:

Does anyone use -- can anyone recommend -- any better tools than the plain old MS-Word, OpenOffice, GoogleDoc, etc (or MS-Paint, etc, on the "art" side of things)...?

Affinity Publisher. Seriously capable, and iirc what @Loz uses for Mithras layout.

In fact, looks like they are running a sale now! Their other apps (Photo, Designer) along with Publisher make a decent replacement for the core Adobe apps.

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Something that cropped up today:

Admittedly, he is talking about iron/steel weapons of the Middle Ages, but the design philosophy and implementation still applies.

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And, just for some completeness, to show how robust these things were/are!

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The thing is, if something is published under a gaming company's imprint without any sort of disclaimer or sub-branding (Jonstown Compendium), then it is generally considered canon. It certainly doesn't mean that things can't change, but is considered canon.

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51 minutes ago, Monty Lovering said:

Duel wielding is not attacking “simultaneously” and confusing your opponent.

It’s often a substitute for a shield because shields are a pain in the butt to carry.

Correct. However, it confers upon the wielder the ability to attack from either position, using the other weapon as both a device to deliver a feint, and to function as a replacement for a shield.

54 minutes ago, Monty Lovering said:

There’s a video game and RPG obsession with it as people think it means you attack twice as often.

It doesn’t.

Also correct. It confers the ability to choose to attack from differing vectors, or perhaps more accurate a wider range of differing vectors.

57 minutes ago, Monty Lovering said:

Your offhand weapon is your parrying weapon. If your opponent misses their attack THEN you should be allowed to attack with the offhand weapon. If you want to attack with both weapons you get no parries.

That is the thing. When you have two weapons, if you have enough skill with your off hand, you can choose to use that hand instead.

If the opponent misses their attack, that shouldn't allow attacking with your off hand, which in your method is for parrying. This is because during your opponents attack, you have (more than likely, unless you are well armored) you have committed the parrying hand to parrying. I would posit that it would be more "realistic?" to allow repost on a significant parry result, such as a Critical Parry. This would denote that your parry has created a significant opening or thrown your opponent off balance enough that you can get an additional blow in.

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3 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Yes, in movies you see warriors smacking each other with their shields all the time. This never happens in RQ because there's never a mechanical advantage to doing it.

Maybe something could be done with the special success on a parry. If there was a result that prevented the attacker from attacking with their main weapon for one round, then they would have to kick, punch, shield-bash or cast magic instead, giving a reason for more varied combats.

I'm toying with the idea of simply lowering the parry chance of the defender if they are facing a dual wielder. Reasoning is that they have a more difficult time predicting the vector a successful attack will come from. 

So, the purpose of dual-wielding is NOT to confer any real advantage on the person fighting that way, but to confuse the defender in their attempts to parry/block things.

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9 hours ago, Monty Lovering said:

Compared to a sword cut, spears are better against armour. Arrows too. I started with the + only being in place for more than 3AP. Dropped it as too complex for my group - they were all newbies. Might work with another group. 
 

And shortsword gets a +1, as does dagger, as does 2H long sword and greatsword, all based on historical styles of usage where the point was used against armoured opponents. 

Because the general mode a spear is used in, the thrust, it has the potential to be better against armor. If you get a good, clean, perpendicular hit against the plane of the armor.

Arrows, the same.

A sword in a thrust could have the same advantages, because they are not only used to cut.

The problem is, that most weapons in these categories are not (traditionally) designed to do this. If you look at most spears, arrow heads, and sword points, they are broad blades. Broad blades are not good at penetration against rigid items. They can penetrate, but the design of the head is not actually designed for that.

There are some spears, arrows, and swords with specialty points that are designed for armor penetration, but certainly not the majority.

So giving all spears (or any other weapon) a cart blanche +1 to all damage because its good against armor, feels a bit... off.

And back to my shortsword reference. My question actually was (should have been?), if a shortsword is NOT used in a thrust capacity (or if a Hewing Spear is NOT used in a thrust capacity), are you still giving it a +1 in your system?

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5 hours ago, Monty Lovering said:

... 1H spear 1d8+1, because a spear is better vs armour... 

But in general, they aren't. They just give you the advantage of reach. 

Even assuming they were, would you then lose the additional +1 if you were fighting someone without armor? Same for the other weapons mentioned.

And if you going this route, does something like a Gladius do more when thrusting? That's what it was optimized to do. 

6 hours ago, Monty Lovering said:

I also have death taking longer to happen; below 0 THP, you lose 1HP per MR and die at negative 1/2 CON. So with you on that one.

I'm all for this. Currently, I do envision it a bit differently though:

• If you are brought to 0 or below Total HP through normal damage, then you have CON – (amount taken below CON) Hours to die
• If you are brought to 0 or below Total HP due to a Major Wound*, then you have CON –  (amount taken below CON) to die
• If you are brought to 0 or below Total HP due to a Critical Wound**, then you have CON – (amount taken below CON) Melee Rounds to die

* A single blow that exceeds the value of the location

** An actual Critical Hit that takes you below CON

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20 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Pro: simple, easy;   Cons: too simple ; a sword + shield master is ridiculously unable to fight with only a sword , and of course without a sword and a shield

I wouldn't say unable. If one of the pair is missing, perhaps a 20% penalty?

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9 hours ago, Jeff said:

No matter how you slice it, the pre-Monrogh Elmal cult had far less magical power and range than the post-Monrogh Yelmalio cult.

Perhaps, YGWV. But it certainly does add a little bit of flavor to each region and make it less like one overarching myth imposed [Holy Grail French Axent] by nasty God-Learner types [/Holy Grail French Axent].

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1 hour ago, davecake said:

kopis

Yes, more like a Falcata.

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42 minutes ago, davecake said:

I don’t really understand this. Could you explain a little? A dagger thrust with a real fighting weapon is absolutely capable of stabbing through to the heart, and thus both disabling someone and very quickly killing them.

The way I read this is that they think the damage should come from skill and strength as opposed to the weapon itself. So think of it somewhat like Pendragon (or PDP) modified somewhat by skill (though I could easily be wrong about skill, and they were just thinking success level).

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14 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Some kind of generalized mental stress rule could fit well, though. 

Yes. Delta Green/Apocthulhu Sanity rules can pull this off at a relatively low level; they have Fight/Flight/Freeze rules at the core. Can bolt on all the other stuff as needed (perhaps in the case of a Fumble).

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17 hours ago, icebrand said:

Yeah im gonna use that -or something like- with POW rolls. I suppose ill wing it as we go (as usual). It's not a "permanent" rule anyway, it's just for the Chalana RL heroquest when she becomes priest... Can't have a lord+priest without an epic "fight" and the CA will have to use lots of spells to keep her panicking people trying to hold the line till she defeats the malia champion in a magic duel and saves the day (or dies horribly, that works too)

I would mix it up a bit depending upon the Stress. Perhaps something along the lines of a personal passion with POW for Helplessness for example. Or POW + INT for Violence, or something like that. Of course it depends on what you are using for Stress sutuations.

You might want to give your CA player some additional skills or spells that act as temporary psychotherapy. 

I would also advise you take a look at Delta Green, and Apocthulhu. They both have a D100 take on using this kind of Stress/Sanity system.

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9 hours ago, g33k said:

My standard advice here is to look at the "Madness Meter" mechanic, from Unknown Armies.

CoC's SAN rules are really quite underwhelming, for a variety of reasons, and don't feel particularly apt to RQ, at all.

This. If you have access to UA2, it can port over somewhat seamlessly. And based on your other posts, it sounds like it models more the kind of madness that you're after.

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12 hours ago, icebrand said:

The back ranks can freely attack the elemental,

Not so much. You don't want to lower your pike into the back of your comrade in front of you; also if pikes in the rear ranks are lowered, you diminish the protection they provide from missile fire (and remember only front ranks might have medium to heavy armor). Which means dropping the pike, using a secondary weapon, closing (breaking formation) and attacking the elemental. 

Depending, it has the possibility to disrupt the formation. At the very least, those in front will wonder what's going on, and slow down a bit, or look back and possibly panic.

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1 hour ago, Atgxtg said:

I think anyone who wants to run a game based around the RQ3 ruleset can do so. They don't need to provide handouts to the players either. Most of the stuff we had to deal with in our groups was told to us by the GM. At least the stuff that our characters would be expected to know about. 

If you played in the game of one of us Ol' Timers, and were seriously impressed, and wanted to get a set of the rules so you could run it for your crew, how would you go about doing it if you didn't have $100+ to blow on a falling apart book on eBay?

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