I've been practicing historical western swordsmanship for a long time now and I still have yet to see one historically accurate depiction of swordsmanship in and rpg, heck even the sword weights and shield use are insanely misjudged. Ah well, I guess this is just a rant, any discussion on western swords would be welcome.

it cant be realistic
if it was, your character would die in 1 hit instead of being able to take many heavy hits, and a single cut would lead to progessively weakened state (loss of blood).
Naturally, your platemail etc would be damaged beyond repair after only a few battles.

Welcome to Ironworks, Azimaith! [img]smile.gif[/img] Very interesting topic.

Sorry, I know diddly squat about swords, but alot about RPG's, 2e D&D in particular. The way martial combat is portrayed in a RPG can be open to interpretations. For example when I DM PnP only the last 10% of hit point damage is counted as actual lethal wounds, barring critical hits. The other 90% of "damage" represents fatigue, stress, armor blows and glancing shots that wittle an opponent down. This allows alot of room for descriptive flavor when describing the scenario rather than "swing, hit, damage, repeat"

I do agree, Gabrielles, one clean sword hit and your fairly well done in. At least I would be. [img]smile.gif[/img]

That's a really interesting way of looking at it! I never considered it like that before, I suppose because in RPGs like say BG or something you get the whole blood spurt with hits so obviously there's cutting going on there, which I always thought was pretty unrealistic, especially when they're still coming at you the same. Do you have it so that if you're a certain amount 'damaged' (ie fatigued etc) you fight worse? Because I also always thought it was pretty stupid that someone with 2 hps left fought as strongly as someone with 60hp. Perhaps when you get really low you get a second wind, out of desperation! No one ever seems to get their arm cut off either, or their weapons or shield knocked out of their hands.

I was referring more to the way it looks rather than damage wise. I understand the need to take multiple hits but the way it looks when you fight is in many cases ridiculous.

Aha, I see your point, in CRPG's for sure! I am no expert, but I like how Neverwinter Nights portrays the visuals of combat. Lots of dodging and clashing of blades. Saddly the limitations of game engines, even if well done, usually leads to all the characters fighting exactly the same.

Not really, though the extensive critical hit charts I use from the combat and tactics book do allow for all sorts of detriment ranging from loss of limbs, to becoming blind, stunned , ect if a character gets critically hit. I suppose a creative DM could develop a system for penalties based on low hit points.

To be honest I haven't thought of it before. I have a bunch of newbie players, so I have been easing them into all the tactical rules, we have just started using weapon speed even though we are into our seventh gaming session. I'm all for tactical rules as long as they make the game fun and challenging. I'll sacrifice realism if it makes the game fun, but not the other way around! [img]smile.gif[/img]

In CRPGs, the basic limitations of the game engine determine how realistic or fantastic the combat is. My only experience here is making modules for NWN. I supose a clever module designer could impliment some of these rules via scripting, but that out of my current leauge. Hmmm, an interesting rules variant I havent seen implemented before, as far as CRPGS go.

First off, Welcome to the land of insanity [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]
and second, it is sad that they can not make sword fighting look more like something that is real and less like something in an old 60 cartoon :D , but they have limitations on technology, someday we will be able to put on headsets, and see the other guy as a real person :D , and then it should be alot better

Having played BGII, all I can say is the thought of that makes Anomen hitting on you really quite an alarming prospect. [img]graemlins/saywhat.gif[/img]

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Epona, I think that would be preferable to having to sit and listen to Jahera's rambelings or Aerie's Whining....and oh god, don't get me started on Lilacor in 6.1 Dolby Surround [img]smile.gif[/img]
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[ 07-08-2003, 07:50 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]