[Runequest] Advice Sought re Damage & H

[Styopa]

On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 5:04 PM, Bjorn Stolen <stolenbjorn at hotmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm not ignoring your experience, and I'm sure that with adrenalin and
> stuff that people can endure edged combat, but blades are pretty nasty...
> This one is done by a person probably a lot less well versed in the use of a
> longsword than the averidge Rune Quest hero:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4j3mvrDyQ (I know, it's skinned, and it's
> not defending itself, but I think this one illustrates what max rolled on
> the dice is.
>

Hi Bjorn,
I see your point, but I think it's significant to note:

1) the first guy is NOT untrained, or he has remarkably natural form.  I
would suspect that he is a practiced kendo artist, or has trained with
medieval weapons, based on his arm postures through and after the swing, as
well as his excellent step-timing.  Also, we're talking a healthy 20th
century man who is probably a good 15-20% taller, 20% heaver, and 10%
stronger than an AVERAGE medieval-era fellow.

2) they are cleaving a gutted deer.  Granted the viscera wouldn't add much
resistance compared to muscle, but the deer is also a fairly fragile beast.
Look at the vertebrae, it's barely the diameter of the man's index finger.
I sincerely doubt he could accomplish the same with a boar carcass of
similar weight, which is much more like a human.  I expect it's CONCEIVABLE
that a razor-sharp sword, on an unwitting or unresisting target, swung by a
strong, skilled wielder *could* slice through a person.  But given the
averages of a d8+1 sword and standard RQ mechanics, a no-strength-bonus
person could cleave another person in half 25% of the time? (8 or 9 hp to a
4 hp abdomen)


> As for daggers; remember that we're talking about serious stuff, not
> bowie-knives (who do 1d3 dam)
> We're talking rondelldaggers, like this one, often as long as 40 cm:
> http://www.deltin.it/i6.htm
> -or stuff like the scramaseaxes, like this one:
> http://www.drakkaria.cz/images_items/scramasax---replika-pro-serm_3.jpg
> -This is 1d4+2 damage :D
>
> Anyways, realism and roleplaygames are seldom a match IMHO, and as I do
> HEMA myself, I have given up to let all aspects of sparring combat be
> reflected realisticly in roleplay-rules (but I regard the RQ3 system as one
> of the better ones for melee).
>

3) I understand your point about the daggers, that's what I was thinking
too.  But the nature of the "+2" means that the MINIMUM damage of that
weapon is more than the minimum damage of a broadsword?  Than a POLEAXE?
(And BTW, I'd agree that anything over 16-18" is really a shortsword, not a
dagger, no matter what it's named, and anything over 30" is probably a
broadsword, generally speaking.
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