Combat styles for Mythras?

[Verderer]

The rule book gives out some combat style examples, and I guess it wouldn't be hard to come up with some by myself. But may I ask some of you experienced RQ6/Mythras GMs to help me with some new ones, so I can quickly flesh out my ongoing campaigns, please?

I have two campaigns I mainly need them for, one is 12th century medieval Europe, a combo of Val du Loup, Stupor Mundi, and Deus Vult. So I'd need combat styles for Norman/Frankish knight, Man-at-arms (foot and/or cavalry), and some skirmishers / bandits or other paramilitary types. Which traits would you recommend (weapons are a little easier)?

The second one is a pirate campaign, so obviously pirates/sailors, some marine/musketeers, and officer types. I guess it would be best to differentiate shipboard melee styles from more regular military ones? I was also thinking of introducing schools of fencing, something like in Skull & Bones (d20) - it mentions continental European fencing styles, and Spaninsh and English ones.

Any help would be appreciated!

[groovyclam]

Mongoose have "Pirates of Legend" available at DriveThruRPG.com.

RuneQuest6 was a refinement of the Legend system so I would think the book would be very compatible but I can't vouch for how good the content is.

[Verderer]

Sure, I have both Pirates of Legend and the RQII version of it. But the trouble is, they don't handle combat styles quite the way Mythras does. They're more narrow in focus, liks rapier, sword & pistol, etc.

But For a historical knight I think something like:

Knight (Sword, Lance, Shield, Mace) - Trait: Mounted Combat

Assuming Mace or some chivalric weapon would be appropriate in addition to sword? What about dagger?

Bandits would use something more down & dirty, I expect?

As for the fencing schools, your average pirate wouldn't know any such nonsense, but a more gentlemanny type might? Skull & Bones goves me Diestro (Spanish), Master of Fence (English), Master of Scrimia (Italian & continental) as prestige classes. I am not versed in fencing, so for now I'll go with this, and try to create some different combat styles. How does it sound? Since I use Legendary abilities in my Pirate campaign, I might do some fencing specific 'secret moves'?

 

[g33k]

Hmmm.  For medieval, I'd go with something like:

Knight (sword, mace, spear, sword/shield, mace/shield, spear/shield, greatsword, mounted lance, Mounted Combat)

Peasant Levy, or Bandit (sword, spear, sword/shield, spear/shield) -- NB this is usually a low-skill soldier, possibly conscripted and trained for just a few weeks before being thrust into battle.  Occasionally given other training, depending on the foe levied to fight.  It's also probably a decent take on many "bandit" types, who get no formal training.  Add "Club" to the bandit's armory!  Sometimes, they don't have metal weapons...

Man at Arms (sword, mace, spear, sword/shield, mace/shield, spear/shield, bow or crossbow) -- This would be a soldier of the "standing army" -- originally one of the Levied peasants who caught the eye of a noble or a senior MaA, and gets extra / ongoing training, returning from the farm/village/etc year after year.

Mercenary Soldier (sword, mace, spear, sword/shield, mace/shield, spear/shield, Pole-Arm, bow or crossbow, maybe others) -- the classic "professional soldier" with a well-rounded suite of skills.  Note the "pole-arm" -- this would be something that can engage with a mounted knight & pull him off his horse!

Pikeman (pike, shortsword) -- Although your time is about 100 years before the rise of the "Swiss Pikeman" of late-medieval fame, specialized mass-pike-formation training was still one of the common answers to the knight.

Genovese Crossbowman (crossbow, dagger, pavese) -- Originally part of Genoa's civil defense force, they gained fame in the Crusades & became a feared&courted mercenary force by the mid/late 1200's.

Welsh/English Longbowman -- arguably, they don't belong in your setting.  The battle of Cressy/Crecy in the mid 1300's was their first notable use.  Many argue that the "great bow" or "war bow" was a late refinement or the original Welsh hunting-bow that so hurt the English; Northallerton (1138) saw decisive bow effects by the English against the Scotts, but it appears to have been a lighter bow, used in a more-scattered (not massed bow-fire) fashion.

Edited September 30, 2016 by g33k
bandits get clubs!

[g33k]

6 hours ago, Verderer said:

As for the fencing schools, your average pirate wouldn't know any such nonsense, but a more gentlemanny type might? Skull & Bones goves me Diestro (Spanish), Master of Fence (English), Master of Scrimia (Italian & continental) as prestige classes. I am not versed in fencing, so for now I'll go with this, and try to create some different combat styles. How does it sound? Since I use Legendary abilities in my Pirate campaign, I might do some fencing specific 'secret moves'?

Sword, Sword-and-dagger, sword-and-buckler, sword-and-cloak (though more-famous in the Renaissance, it's known medievally)

 

[rust]

1 hour ago, g33k said:

Knight (sword, mace, spear, sword/shield, mace/shield, spear/shield, greatsword, mounted lance, Mounted Combat)

Looking at the descriptions of high medieval German knights, I would tend to delete the spear and to add the battle axe instead.

[g33k]

16 minutes ago, rust said:

Looking at the descriptions of high medieval German knights, I would tend to delete the spear and to add the battle axe instead.

Really?  I wouldn't; at least, not in 12thC...  I might allow the axe in addition, but Google  "12th century" OR "twelfth century" "german knight"  shows me a lot more spear than axe.

[Belgath]

As I understand it all the Knight carried daggers designed the slide or punch through the small opening in the  armor to finish off their opponents or compel them to surrender.

 

[rust]

40 minutes ago, g33k said:

Really?  I wouldn't; at least, not in 12thC...  I might allow the axe in addition, but Google  "12th century" OR "twelfth century" "german knight"  shows me a lot more spear than axe.

Hmm ... perhaps this is a language problem. In Germany a weapon is usually considered a Speer (spear) when it is primarily used for throwing, and a Spieß (no English equivalent term ?) or Lanze (lance) when it is primarily used for thrusting, especially by mounted fighters. 

[g33k]

8 hours ago, Belgath said:

As I understand it all the Knight carried daggers designed the slide or punch through the small opening in the  armor to finish off their opponents or compel them to surrender.

I believe this is more of a "tool" than a "weapon" -- the foe isn't expected to be mounting an effective defense.

[g33k]

7 hours ago, rust said:

Hmm ... perhaps this is a language problem. In Germany a weapon is usually considered a Speer (spear) when it is primarily used for throwing, and a Spieß (no English equivalent term ?) or Lanze (lance) when it is primarily used for thrusting, especially by mounted fighters. 

In English, a "lance" is usually a mounted-charge weapon.  A "spear" is indeterminate, a general category from thrust-only use, mixed-use, or even pure-throwing (although usually the term "javelin" would be used for a pure-throwing variety of spear).  Also, short -- sword-length -- to quite long (3-4 meters) is all "spear" territory.

[golem64]

The newish Thennla campaign world sourcebook has a bunch of combat styles you could pick and choose from:

http://thedesignmechanism.com/resources/Thennla PDF.pdf

[Verderer]

Thanks for the suggestions and advice, guys! This is just the thing I need. How would you suggest I convert existing characters with several combat skills/styles which have very narrow weapon selection? Should I just combine them into one, and give a littel skill bonus, so they don't feel they 'wasted' exp points? Or should they just feel lucky they got one combat style which now covers even more weapons?

Speaking of knights, I am thinkin how does one handle cavalry in combat rounds? Obviously war horses would have actions & combat style, so does when does a horse move and act, and how does it gel with the rider's actions & movement? (Especially with the alternate move in CF?)

I will read that Thennla books, I do have the MRQ version of teh Age of Treason.

And about swashbuckling & pirate weapons, would the stats from Legend & MRQII (Clockwork & Chivarly is very Pike & Shotte with the alternate English Civil War) be still valid? I am thinking of the longsword, rapier, and cutlas from Pirates, and pistols and muskets of course. Would they work as is, there seem to be little differences in stats, like force & penetration size for pistol shot etc.