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Post by hoffman900 on May 18, 2005 21:00:25 GMT -5
It just dawned on me that I have a copy of the Medieval Encyclopedia by the renowed french historian Viollet-Le-Duc. It's full of information: architecture, fashion, weapons and armors.
For example, did you know that the warhammer (along with other bludgeonning weapons like the mace and the flail) was considered dishonnorable to use in combat by the noble until the 13th century? Too much of an advantage against chainmail it seems....
Anyhow, I can lookup stuff if anyone needs it.
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Post by termite73 on May 18, 2005 23:37:19 GMT -5
Hmmm... how about rules of courting a lady?
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Post by Grozer on May 19, 2005 10:22:47 GMT -5
Hmmm... how about rules of courting a lady? Rules? bah... there are no rules!!
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RPR
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Post by RPR on Oct 28, 2005 8:12:41 GMT -5
Hey, i like these little details!
Can you find some more? It adds great oportunities to our chars to rp. But we need to keep in mind...The values of a noble lord are different to a peasent or even a barbarian. Not to mention from humans to elves and dwarves.
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Post by kenny26 on Oct 28, 2005 15:13:31 GMT -5
armors you say? well here's a little insight for you... the proper term for a medieval armor is actually spelled "armour" with the u. armor is an american expression from more recent years. another fact for you guys: fullplates are enourmous! no, i mean, really really enourmous! a fullplate consists of a full body leather armour, then a full chainmail, and then comes the actual plating that you see on all the armours... also, real medieval armours (at least fullplate armours to my knowledge) had to be assempled around the wearer's body, and the only way of taking it off was to disassemple it again. also, there was never anything called a longsword. the closest match for the longsword in dnd, is the broadsword. finally, the main purpose of armour plating was to deflect, not take impacts. they were designed to keep officers safe from ranged weapons by letting the smooth sides deflect the arrows, but the invention of the longbow meant that those days were over, because the longbow could actually pierce the fullplates with realative ease. also, swords were mostly used as blunt weapons because as sharp as they mayb have been (they could cleave metal if properly sharpened), they'd become dull after just a few blows were exchanged and frankly served better for bashing than cutting. but please don't go over these points with too much scrutiny, they're mostly based on memory...
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RPR
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Post by RPR on Oct 28, 2005 16:24:25 GMT -5
Thank you! Excelent!
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Post by Munroe on Oct 29, 2005 4:11:15 GMT -5
According to Wikipedia, longsword is the proper term for a bastardsword and broadsword is even more vague, being used to refer originally to claymores and later to arming swords, which are shorter than longswords.
By all means, don't let me discourage you though, that's an impressive dose of information off the top of your head.
I've also heard that rapiers were well suited to combating plate armour because they can more easily target seams in the armour.
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Post by Laurk on Oct 29, 2005 14:50:40 GMT -5
I know that in Japanese warfair, just before a battle, Samurai would chop their blades into sand over and over to dull them. The best way to beat an armored enemy was to thump them on the head, then while they are stunned or dying, to finish them with a thrust. A dull blade has FAR less chance of shattering than a sharp one. The whole "folding method" thing is fiction to an extent. It does create a higher quaility blade, but only by removing imperfections from the steel. The vikings practiced a superior method of braiding their steel. Now days, a forged sword is just as sharp and durable as a folded blade, because the steel we have today is of far superiour purity then back in the old days, so folding or braiding are no longer neccessary. Still, this is a fantasy setting. So, we tend to live more by myth than fact here. Thats why a guy with no weapons or armor can beat up an experianced swordsman. And a sword made by master dwarvish smiths can cleave through armor like butter and never dull. Personally, Id love to see swords that need to be sharpened... oh well.
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RPR
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Post by RPR on Oct 29, 2005 19:23:08 GMT -5
Hmm... Maybe a script could be made to give some durabilty to armour and weapons. I heard this idea before, in another server. Then, some blacksmither PC and NPC could work your gear and keep it alive. If not fixed in time or under enough damage, maybe the gear could be lost, broken.
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Post by kenny26 on Oct 29, 2005 20:02:03 GMT -5
the reason why gear never breaks or dulls in nwn is simple: if enchanted in any way (just to be +1) a suit of armour or a weapon becomes permanently indestructible. the only thing that can break a magic armour or weapon, is another magic weapon of the same enhancement bonus or better. put briefly, enchanted gear is considered to be invulnerable to any kind of nonmagical abuse and never dulls. a bit of info about the kukri: a friend of mine has family in nepal and travels there frequently. he's met a tribe of woodsmen who held on to their ancient traditions, leading the same kind of life as their ancestors did. this tribe had a kind of warriors who were highly specialized in wielding the kukri, and he just called them kukri warriors. these warriors had kukris in all sizes, not just the little thing you know from dnd that's the size of a dagger. they had kukris 3 feet long and even longer. some had giant kukris the size of a two-handed sword. they all had the same basic shape with the curved blade and were incredibly sharp. this story was told to me by my friend who told it based on his memory, so again, don't point your fingers at me if this turns out not to be entirely true...
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Post by Munroe on Oct 30, 2005 4:27:37 GMT -5
I've looked up information about kukris in the past, they are in all sorts of sizes, and a proper set also has a small straight blade that accompanies them, though I'm not actually sure what that blade is for. I think it has to do with sharpening.
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