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Comrade Gorbash posted:This is sort of true, but its kind of a cop out. Sword technology does advance over time. Sometimes its because other factors change - you start to see a lot of big two-handed swords when pikes come into vogue. In this respect, I think the admiration some people have for katanas is in certain respects justified: the katana might well be the best sword Japan could have created with their very limited, very poor quality iron ore and knowledge of metallurgy. For that, the katana does deserve respect - and it did as well as anyone asked of it given the combat and general warfare environments it existed in. Biggest fish in a small pond, essentially. Europe, Africa, and the Middle East had far more access to iron, and access to much higher-quality ore than Japan did. This alone makes swords from this region very different, as it does the whole combat environment they existed in - metal armor as I understand it was virtually unknown in Japan for those same geological and metallurgical reasons, but common in the West. I think you could write an interesting book looking at how military forces and technology evolved differently in geographically isolated parts of the world simply due to what materials were and were not available. The macuahuitl was basically a sword and a very dangerous weapon, but it's a whole different thing from the typical mental image of a sword.
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Aug 23, 2016 21:50
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Should be noted: the Romans used spears aplenty, too.
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Aug 23, 2016 22:10
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Cythereal posted:I think you could write an interesting book looking at how military forces and technology evolved differently in geographically isolated parts of the world simply due to what materials were and were not available. The macuahuitl was basically a sword and a very dangerous weapon, but it's a whole different thing from the typical mental image of a sword. And again, it was a weapon of it's era and area. It was almost useless against a steel shield and not very good against even ringmail as any amount of metal just made them into big clubs against the conquistadors. They were, however, apparently frighteningly good against their horses. That said they were also pretty aware of the limitations and functions of their weaponry in battles against their contemporaries. They had versions with wider spacing on the teeth that would leave survivable wounds (For capturing sacrifices) and using the flat of the blade to incapacitate.
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Aug 23, 2016 22:30
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Huh. The more you know.
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Aug 23, 2016 22:41
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The Machahuitl had a spear(Well maybe more like a spearaxe?) equivalent that was capable of piercing armor but only barely and while Obsidian is very very sharp it's as fragile as glass.
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Aug 23, 2016 22:52
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One possibly-apocryphal story I've heard about how the katana came to have such a fearsome reputation in the west is that the popular conception of the katana comes from US naval officers who visited after gunboat diplomacy opened Japan. The officers compared the katana against their own swords and found the katana far superior. Their own swords being ceremonial swords not intended for combat.
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Aug 23, 2016 22:54
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Cythereal posted:In this respect, I think the admiration some people have for katanas is in certain respects justified: the katana might well be the best sword Japan could have created with their very limited, very poor quality iron ore and knowledge of metallurgy. For that, the katana does deserve respect - and it did as well as anyone asked of it given the combat and general warfare environments it existed in. Biggest fish in a small pond, essentially. Speaking of which, I'm writing a Mediterranean setting which helped me discover the existence of the flyssa. It was a North African Berber sword specifically designed to break open metal armor, most commonly chainmail.  The katana's a pretty neat weapon, I won't deny, but it would be nice to see admiration for other types of weapon ingenuity throughout the world. Lord knows D&D and fantasy RPGs are more than willing to borrow monsters from all sorts of cultures, we should do the same with kickass swords.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:00
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Kurieg posted:The Machahuitl had a spear(Well maybe more like a spearaxe?) equivalent that was capable of piercing armor but only barely and while Obsidian is very very sharp it's as fragile as glass. The Inca had a unique spear-like weapon called the macana. Instead of using a sharp point to pierce armor, though, they used metal or stone in a star shape for the macana's tip - the idea was not to pierce armor, but to to maximize impact force and break bones.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:03
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Comrade Gorbash posted:
While full body armor never became common, munition armour is a thing in early modern Europe. During the age of pike and shot, people put in orders for tens of thousands of one-size-"fits"-all steel breastplates. While while-spread armor didn't completely drive out the shield, there is a movement from huge kite shields to smaller stuff like bucklers.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:05
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Kurieg posted:The Machahuitl had a spear(Well maybe more like a spearaxe?) equivalent that was capable of piercing armor but only barely and while Obsidian is very very sharp it's as fragile as glass. The atlatl, on the other hand, was reported to punch right through a conquistador's breastplate. It doesn't matter as much if the obsidian tip is fragile if it only has to work once.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:06
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Libertad! posted:Speaking of which, I'm writing a Mediterranean setting which helped me discover the existence of the flyssa. It was a North African Berber sword specifically designed to break open metal armor, most commonly chainmail. Weren't Flamberges designed for use against unarmored opponents because they left uneven tearing wounds that hurt like hell and didn't heal?
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Aug 23, 2016 23:07
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Mors Rattus posted:Should be noted: the Romans used spears aplenty, too. Spears for melee combat were mainly used in the earlier days of the Roman Legion. They then moved on to javelins, keeping a shortsword for shanking duties. LatwPIAT posted:One possibly-apocryphal story I've heard about how the katana came to have such a fearsome reputation in the west is that the popular conception of the katana comes from US naval officers who visited after gunboat diplomacy opened Japan. The officers compared the katana against their own swords and found the katana far superior. Ironic considering industrialisation did the same for Japanese officers, unless they kept their family katana. Tendales posted:The atlatl, on the other hand, was reported to punch right through a conquistador's breastplate. It doesn't matter as much if the obsidian tip is fragile if it only has to work once. Throwing weapons in general seem to get the short end of the stick in modern media. Even something like a sling can be downright evil, especially if you use lead ammo with nasty edges. That'll burst your head like a melon in no time. Doresh fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Aug 23, 2016 |
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Aug 23, 2016 23:09
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I'm thinking whatever sharp thing you come up with, I don't want to get stabbed with it. They all sound pretty awful!
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Aug 23, 2016 23:10
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I'm thinking whatever sharp thing you come up with, I don't want to get stabbed with it. They all sound pretty awful! It's no better if they're going the bludgeoning option, be it an Incan macana, a European mace, or a Japanese tetsubo. If there is one endeavor that every human civilization from the beginning of time has applied a frightening amount of time, resources, and ingenuity towards, it is the maiming and killing of other human beings.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:15
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Doresh posted:Throwing weapons in general seem to get the short end of the stick in modern media. Even something like a sling can be downright evil, especially if you use lead ammo with nasty edges. That'll burst your head like a melon in no time. The real reason to use a sling is so that you can write crude insults on the bullets.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:18
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I prefer Damascus Steel to Hanzo Steel.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:21
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Oh what's that, your iron is too low quality to hold a proper edge? Okay Make a loving club out of it  Uses of a Kanabo include shattering legs.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:22
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It should really be noted that one of the major differences seen in spear vs sword usage is class. The spear is, in most cultures, a peasant's weapon - they're cheap and plentiful, and to become competent (if not good) with using a basic spear is not especially difficult, particularly in massed groups. Swords are considerably more expensive and require considerably more training to use before competence is achieved. Thus, they are typically only found in the hands of professional soldiers and warriors, who would have the time and funding to actually get good with a sword. These professionals also typically form an upper class over the peasantry because of their skills - knights and samurai both count here. It's part of why the European sword achieved an image as a nobleman's weapon, and from there we moved to duels and then to sport fencing.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:23
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Tendales posted:The real reason to use a
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Aug 23, 2016 23:26
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It's the difference between twitter and blogging, really.
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Aug 23, 2016 23:34
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Tendales posted:It's the difference between twitter and blogging, really. So is hurling a load of garbage and waste over their battlements the equivalent of a food selfie? "Here's what I ate today #slightlyused"
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Aug 23, 2016 23:40
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Kurieg posted:So is hurling a load of garbage and waste over their battlements the equivalent of a food selfie? And throwing a several pounds of manure is literal shitposting
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Aug 24, 2016 00:03
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It doesn't actually take that much weapon to injure or a kill a human, as far as I am aware.
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Aug 24, 2016 02:09
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Crasical posted:It doesn't actually take that much weapon to injure or a kill a human, as far as I am aware. With enough bloody-minded determination, anything in the world can count as enough weapon, really. Improvised weaponry in prisons gets flat out impressive.
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Aug 24, 2016 02:48
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All this stuff about swords and combat is sort of why I have a soft-spot for OD&D's combat: if you hit, you deal 1d6 damage, full stop. No BS about 1d4 unarmed damage, or armor check penalties for wearing plate, or arguing whether a katana should have an 18-20 x3 crit multiplier and 1d12 damage dice.
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Aug 24, 2016 04:27
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LatwPIAT posted:One possibly-apocryphal story I've heard about how the katana came to have such a fearsome reputation in the west is that the popular conception of the katana comes from US naval officers who visited after gunboat diplomacy opened Japan. The officers compared the katana against their own swords and found the katana far superior. That's funny as well because the katana was mostly relegated to a ceremonial role in Tokugawa Japan. It was still a functioning sword, capable of decapitating uppity commoners, but most samurai by that time were bureaucrats, glorified desk clerks, storehouse managers, or tax collectors.
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Aug 24, 2016 05:10
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Legend of the Five Rings First Edition Way of the Crab: Fortunate Sons  "Well you didn't say it was going to be a FANCY party." Presently, the Crab continue doing what they've always done: fend off the Shadowlands and keep the rest of the Empire safe. But lately, there's been some mumblings about the Crab taking a more active role in Rokugani politics. It is an open secret that Hida Kisada, the clan daimyo, holds the Emperor in contempt and loathes the lack of interest of the "old man" in the Shadowlands issue. Kisada feels that with Crab leadership, the Empire could finally stand as one and crush the Shadowlands once and for all. Rumors of the Crab planning a coup have flown all over and the Emperor himself has voiced his "distress" in private. The rest of the Empire hopes that with the recent surge in Shadowlands activity and increased number of skirmishes, the Crab's saber rattling will cease.  The Hida mon, the est crab.The Crab's families all have very old histories, all but one founded during the reign of the first Hantei. With this kind of history there come old traditions that aren't easily broken. While sometimes you can find Kuni bushi or Kaiu shugenja, by and large they stick to their stereotypes most of any other Clan. The Hida are the largest and strongest family, and they dominate the Clan's politics. There's no practical distinction between "Hida" and "Crab Clan," really. They represent their Clan at its best and at its worst: brave warriors and decisive generals, but also impulsive bullies and hotheads. The rest of Rokugan would rather have the Yasuki or Kaiu in charge of the Crab but the Hida don't care, and sometimes even flaunt their coarser aspects. At the end of the day, it's them who lay their life against the darkness. The other Crab families have never questioned the Hida's rule, and in turn the Hida grant them enough autonomy to pursue their interests and defer to them in their fields of specialization, but when the Hida make a call the decision is final. Hida children train from the earliest of ages both as warriors and as leaders, and they relish combat like no other - observers often speak of the "cackling madmen" that they witness along the Kaiu wall. The Hiruma come from the first samurai that swore fealty to Lord Hida. It was Kaiu that forged the blade that killed the demon and Kuni's spell that bound it, but Hiruma was the one to actually slay it. He became Hida's second in command, but instead of resting on his laurels he volunteered as a forward scout, and his family has followed that legacy. They are the military spies of the Clan, blending with their surroundings while armies pass in front of them and relaying intelligence to far-off Crab army units. Unfortunately, they have paid dearest of all families for their service: the Maw's forces took their lands and their castle, and their shame follows them to this day. They are fatalist, many of them berserkers that throw themselves into battle with heedless abandon. To die under the death trance is the greatest honor a Hiruma may receive. They have no school, except for a branch established for them by the  The Kaiu mon, a crab claw surrounded by bricks. Can crab claws even grab a brick? The Kaiu are very unlike their brethren. Soft-spoken, quiet and reserved, acting with foresight where the rest of the Crab charge into action. The Kaiu are the builders, planners and smiths of the Clan: the great war machines that defend the Wall were made by Kaiu engineers, as well as the great road through the Twilight Mountains and the defense network in general. They keep the Clan's defensive structure together, which leaves them little time to seek their own glory, but that suits them just fine. Their engineers train to build castles and other defensive emplacements, as well as traps and obstacles that line the Saigo river and the Wall itself. In fact, the Wall was built over and around the Kaiu palace, and there is no telling now where one ends and the other begins. They see things in the long term, considering the consequences of their actions ages down the line, and have a fascination for building toys and puzzles; other Clans regret that the 'genteel' Kaiu are so focused in military matters. If a Kaiu gives you something made by their own hands, it is a sign of genuine friendship.  The Kuni mon, two crossed crab claws on a cream-colored field. It's supposed to mean that they seek the MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE but to me it's more like they're NOPE forever. The Kuni family are some of the most enigmatic and feared sorcerers in Rokugan. Their founder was ordered to discover a way to combat the dark magic of the Shadowlands and ventured several times into the darkness to obtain the knowledge needed to defend the Clan against the Taint. Little by little Kuni lost his sanity to this forbidden knowledge, and he died locked up in his own quarters beaten by the toll of his research, but his sacrifice is not forgotten. The Kuni are skilled in the physical form: biology and anatomy are their specialties. Their magic tends towards binding and warding. They have no centralized school due to the destruction of their original castle: instead, the knowledge and library of the whole family is scattered with all of its members, and the Kuni shugenja train by apprenticing themselves to usually a relative. They must possess a strong stomach and a burning desire to understand the Shadowlands, or else they will fail. The bleakness of their lands seems to stick to the Kuni, and others are often ill at ease around them, sensing some sort of coldness of vacuum in their presence. It probably doesn't help that they are known to touch dead flesh in their autopsies of Shadowlands monsters, but it's bad manners to bring that up in front of the Kuni. They gather once a year at the Hida fortress to discuss matters of magic and present their findings to the daimyo, and at this time the Witch Hunters take in promising apprentices. These tsukai-sagasu (literally "user-seek" but supposed to mean "hunters of evil") learn some of the family's mystic secrets, but also the martial arts, and stories of their exploits in popular culture are as wild as those of the Dragon Tattooed Men. Incidents of Non-Kuni becoming a witch hunter can be counted on one hand. The hunters learn their skills through experience and example, and when the time is right they leave their master to seek their own way.  The Yasuki mon, a golden carp. It's supposed to mean good fortune! The Yasuki are among the greatest merchants in Rokugan, and as such seem to have little in common with the Hida. They have adapted well to their current Clan in spite of the Crane harassment, and still focus themselves on mercantile interests. Unlike most nobles, the Yasuki revere the merchant class. Money and commerce are the Empire's lifeblood in their view, and increase the fortunes of everyone participating in it. But they are different from their Crane counterparts in that they still have the Crab's reputation for rough honesty. They can fleece you as far as you're willing to pay for a thing, but they are honest about fleecing you, which the nobles find crude but heimin like to know where they stand. And Yasuki rarely sell shoddy or inferior products: the customer gets what they pay for. They are also involved in "paralegal" enterprises, which they will admit cheerfully while suggesting critics to try before condemning. They simply claim they are providing a desired service, supply and demand and so on. Their continued battle with the Crane forms the basis for Rokugan's organized crime. Smuggling is also a favored profession due to these enterprises and by more over the table but still dangerous jobs like getting shipments of weapons to the Lion past the Crane and Scorpion. They also serve as diplomats and ambassadors for the Clan, which other Clans much prefer (Crane excepting). Yasuki diplomats are also the family heads on a region to which all operatives must report before opening a new business. Their family tradition allows them more flexibility in their education, and after their gempukku they're taken in by family masters that teach them the tricks of the trade while guiding them to what the new Yasuki is best at. Character options! New skills are Engineering (build, design and repair large structures, Kaiu characters should all have at least one or two points of this), Goblin Culture (unsurprisingly a Low skill), Intimidation (cuz Crab), Maho-Tsukai Lore (Bugei skill for Witch Hunters and Low for everyone else), Origami (turns out the Kaiu love origami, who would've thought), Ratling Speech (a Low skill, and characters lose a Honor point if they use it outside the presence of Nezumi  ), Siege (taking down what Engineering builds) and Traps (how to set them up, build them and disarm them; Bugei for Kaiu, Low for everyone else). Crab characters that get Shadowlands Lore 3 also get 1 point in Ratling Speech, Goblin Culture or Maho-Tsukai Lore for free. New Advantages are Blood of Osano-Wo (5 points, 3 for Crab and Mantis, you can't be harmed by natural weather phenomena and always succeed at Stamina checks involving temperature changes), Crab Hands (6 points, Crab and Mantis only, you have basically 1 point in all weapon skills) Hands of Stone (5 points, Crab only, you keep 2 dice instead of 1 when barehanded), Kaiu Sword (you have a Kaiu blade, 3k3 but must never leave your side, if someone else touches it you lose 1 Honor point and losing it means losing 2 Honor Ranks) and Ratling Ally (2 points, Crab only, you should detail the ratling buddy and their history with your character). The only Disadvantage is Shadowlands Taint (for each Disadvantage point you get two Shadowlands Taint points) Gobbo's gonna get shank-shanked. The Hiruma family (+1 Stamina) learns at the Shinjo-run Hiruma Scout school. +1 Perception, 2.0 Honor. Skills are Stealth 2, Archery, Athletics, Hand to Hand, Kenjutsu and Shadowlands Lore. They start with their swords, a piece of jade and little else.
Well, I hope you like loving around in the Shadowlands if you take this one. The Kaiu family (+1 Perception) teaches the Kaiu Engineering school. They are considered bushi as combat engineers. +1 Intelligence, 2.0 Honor. Their skills are Siege, Engineering, Traps, History, Armorer, Battle and Weaponsmith. Instead of techniques, they may choose one of their school skills each Insight Rank and roll and keep an extra die for all skill rolls. They may select another skill for the bonus each Rank or specialize, as they wish. Not much to talk about, going into Battle can be interesting in a game with mass combat rolls but otherwise it's very bland support.  Playing with the guys that basically design the setting's Tomb of Horrors should be cooler, IMO. The Kuni Witch Hunters are trained on the road by experienced hunter sensei. They undergo a rudimentary magical education (can take the Spellcraft skill) but they are considered bushi, not shugenja. +1 Awareness, 1.5 Honor. Their skills are Shadowlands Lore or Maho-Tsukai Lore, Defense, Hunting, Herbalism, 2 Bugei skills, Athletics or Stealth. They start with their swords, clothes, and a jade pendant as their badge of office. Also, since they are so rare and solitary only one Witch Hunter per party should be allowed.
Like the Hiruma Scouts, they're anti-Shadowlands specialized, but they have more of a punch against Tainted freaks. Interesting in a game dealing with sorcerers and monsters. The Yasuki teach the Yasuki Merchant school. +1 Perception, 0.5 Honor. Their skills are Etiquette, Heraldry, Sincerity, Defense, Commerce, Craft and Gambling. Commerce is not considered dishonorable for the Yasuki family, and in addition no matter their school all Yasuki start with +2 koku. Merchants are not considered bushi. They have no techniques, but as the merchant grows in Insight they gain greater ability to source what they need. Each rank has a list of things that the merchant can get with a School Rank + Commerce roll at a TN set by the GM, this gets the item in a week. The TN can be Raised to increase the quality or amount of items, or to reduce the acquisition time, and items from a rank lower than the merchant's own can be obtained in two days less per Rank (so a Rank 1 item can be obtained by a Rank 3 merchant in 3 days) Rank 1 items are stuff like carts, bolts of cloth, peasant weapons. Rank 2 items are boats, ponies, average jewelry. Rank 3 items are safe travel to a distant town, a finger of jade, and illicit goods. Rank 4 items are armor, fine weapons, a non-Unicorn warhorse. Rank 5 items are second-hand Unicorn horses, official travel papers, a girl with green eyes (really, game?) Berserkers are not a school per se. The "dead-eyes" use the code of bushido as a bulwark against the horror of the Shadowlands. They thrive in the Crab clan, where their killing prowess is always needed. Most berserkers are Hiruma; Hida berserkers are less common and do it out of a love of battle rather than a need to cleanse their dishonor. Berserkers spend hours before battle psyching themselves up in meditation, and in battle they achieve a Zen-like state where they strike with heedless abandon, move like panthers and show no fear (or pretty much any other emotion) whether the enemy is goblins or the mightiest oni. All are the same to their deadened eyes. The Berserker "school" (+1 Stamina, 1.0 Honor) requires a Crab character with the Death Trance advantage. They have no techniques and in fact they must drop all of the techniques of their previous school. When a berserker enters combat, they ignore wound penalties for (Earth x 2) rounds, and roll and keep an extra die of damage per Berserker rank no matter what weapon they are using. After the Earth x 2 rounds, however, they fall down in a semiconscious haze (Incapacitated, I think they mean Down) and must be protected by others if they wish to stay alive. Berserkers are notoriously short-lived. Even a starter character with an Earth of 3 is going to be berserk for 6 rounds, though, and that's a long time in L5R combat. The heritage tables follow with the usual possibility of lovely results. I like that there's a greater possibility of a Crab ancestor ending in an affair with an Unicorn ancestor and that Yasuki have to reroll if they get a result like "Great Battle" or "Glorious Death," though.  Next: MMO tanks. Traveller fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Aug 24, 2016 |
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Aug 24, 2016 05:27
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Traveller posted:Hands of Stone (5 points, Crab only, you keep 2 dice instead of 1 when barehanded) If I beat someone to death with my bare hands, does that mean that I've touched dead flesh and am now unclean? Or is their a grace period as long as I drop them fast enough?
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Aug 24, 2016 10:21
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The Lone Badger posted:If I beat someone to death with my bare hands, does that mean that I've touched dead flesh and am now unclean? Or is their a grace period as long as I drop them fast enough? You're a Crab, you probably don't really care. If you had to fist-fight a zombie to survive, then that's what you had to do. If you have to fist-fight a Crane..same principle, I imagine. EDIT: I now have a mental image of a Crane stepping up into full Marquess of Queensbury boxing stance and a Crab just shrugging and punching his lights out.
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Aug 24, 2016 12:42
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The Lone Badger posted:If I beat someone to death with my bare hands, does that mean that I've touched dead flesh and am now unclean? Or is their a grace period as long as I drop them fast enough? If we're going to be technical here, as long as you're not literally beating them while they're down. There's usually a period between "oh gently caress my body can no longer sustain autonomic processes" and "dead"
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Aug 24, 2016 14:47
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ninjaiguana posted:EDIT: I now have a mental image of a Crane stepping up into full Marquess of Queensbury boxing stance and a Crab just shrugging and punching his lights out. Something very similar to this in a game I was in back in the day. One the PCs was a big fuckoff Crab bruiser with Hands of Stone and very little in the way of social etiquette, and he got himself into trouble with a Crane duelist. In the ensuing Iaijutsu duel, the Crane either missed or failed to do any real damage to the absurdly beefy Crab PC, who then announced his counter-attack: "I kick him square in the nuts." Thanks to the triple threat of beefy stats, an insanely good roll, and exploding dice, the Crane took somewhere in the neighborhood of 42 damage and died on the spot.
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Aug 24, 2016 14:59
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Kurieg posted:Oh what's that, your iron is too low quality to hold a proper edge? I've always found it kind of funny how a lot of dnd weapons lists (and some other fantasy games in a similar vein) seem to treat things like maces and warhammers as less damaging than swords, in a setting where getting very good armor seems to be relatively commonplace. If anything, it would seem like those types of bludgeoning weapons should be a lot more useful than swords in a place where shlub adventurer mercenaries are regularly facing badguys in plate. Of course, you get the flipside, where some settings seem to treat warhammers as melee howitzers, with heads the size of a human torso. Which also seems to be drastically less useful in most situations than what actual warhammers were like.
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Aug 24, 2016 15:08
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Desiden posted:I've always found it kind of funny how a lot of dnd weapons lists (and some other fantasy games in a similar vein) seem to treat things like maces and warhammers as less damaging than swords, in a setting where getting very good armor seems to be relatively commonplace. If anything, it would seem like those types of bludgeoning weapons should be a lot more useful than swords in a place where shlub adventurer mercenaries are regularly facing badguys in plate. That's why you need to use the to-hit adjustments based on weapon vs armor class chart:  So that the maces and hammers are more effective against AC 1 plate.
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Aug 24, 2016 15:17
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gradenko_2000 posted:All this stuff about swords and combat is sort of why I have a soft-spot for OD&D's combat: if you hit, you deal 1d6 damage, full stop. No BS about 1d4 unarmed damage, or armor check penalties for wearing plate, or arguing whether a katana should have an 18-20 x3 crit multiplier and 1d12 damage dice. I like WHFRP's compromise for this: Stuff is in broad categories like Hand Weapon, Great Weapon, etc. It doesn't really matter if it's a mace or a greatsword or a katana or whatever: Just how many hands you need to use it effectively and what special talent it needs if it does something above the baseline.
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Aug 24, 2016 15:20
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gradenko_2000 posted:That's why you need to use the to-hit adjustments based on weapon vs armor class chart: I love how useless the sap and the whip are against anyone even slightly armoured.
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Aug 24, 2016 15:26
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potatocubed posted:I love how useless the sap and the whip are against anyone even slightly armoured. IIRC the whip in 3.5 is too. Literally any amount of Armor Bonus to AC makes it worthless.
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Aug 24, 2016 15:42
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The Crab are probably my favorite clan for their ability to just give zero fucks. Later editions add a lot of cool details about the Crab. The Emerald Empire book in 3rd edition introduced "Draw Lot Plays" where Crab bushi on the wall performed their own plays that had copious audience participation and were basically "Rocky Horror Picture Show, kabuki edition." Another splat told how the Crab stumbled onto psychology and began trying to treat genuine mental breakdowns. While a lot of new stuff has done a good job distancing itself from the dumb poo poo of old L5R, there are times I feel like they missed a chance to add nuance. For example, in the Space setting included in Imperial Histories 2 book, the Lion Clan are taking the Imperium of Man approach to any alien race it comes across, which at first glance makes perfect sense, but when you take into account the whole story of the Kitsu, it feels like we're back to 1st edition. Space-Lion 1: Hey Taiso-sama, remember the story of how our Clan's founder nearly wiped out a wise and honorable species and was super regretful about it? Space-Lion 2: Who wouldn't, Gunso-san? We can't get enough of talking about our history! Space-Lion 1: Ever wondered if anything in that story had relevance to what we're doing right now? Space-Lion 2: Hmm....nope, I can't see any connection. Anyway, did you bring the Space Agent Orange like I asked? Space-Lion 1: Sure did Taiso-sama!
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Aug 24, 2016 15:49
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Kurieg posted:IIRC the whip in 3.5 is too. Literally any amount of Armor Bonus to AC makes it worthless. The only point of the whip in 3.5 is that it's a tripping weapon you an hold in one hand. It's pretty lovely, though, considering you have to take an exotic weapon proficiency in order to get it and if you're already doing that you might as well just go two-handed and take a spiked chain which gives up 5' of reach you weren't going to use anyway and adds actual damage.
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Aug 24, 2016 16:04
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Traveller posted:Legend of the Five Rings First Edition All in all it's just another brick in the claw.
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Aug 24, 2016 18:25
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We don't need no Edo Nation
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Aug 24, 2016 18:43
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