[RQ-Rules] Unifying Knockback and Falling Damage

[Nick.Middleton at invensys.com]

>I thought plate was reasonably well done, in that it had great
protection
>value but became a liability in extended combats.

>Acording to a blacksmith that makes full plate armor, you can do anything
in full plate that you can do without >(perhaps exept pissing, etc.).

Try swimming - a well made leather faced Jack will _initialy_ act as a
buoyancy aid (but will be a liability once saturated): Plate will simply
sink you. But by and large I agree, plate is less restrictive of mobility
than people think; all that business about winching Knights onto their
horses is Hollywood nonsense. One could do combat rolls in well made
English field plate of the 1470's...

>The critical factor in all armor is temperature, but even bambersons,
(Linen padded with "sossages" of >horsetailhair) is hot as hell! (I know,
because I fight in one.) You allso slow a bit down, due to the extra mass
>you're moving, try to imagine a fight between two dudes in full plate and
a hellebard each as a "Robin Hood vs. >Little John" at 70% speed.


Well, people stupid enough to use a dog of a weapon like a Halberd deserve
everything they get... not that I'm biased or anything ;-), but I always
hated Halberds (never liked the balance and they always seemed outclassed
by other pole-weapons). I fought in steel weapon re-enactments in half and
full plate using an english bill-hook and regularly chased swordsman (and
other bill-hook users for that matter off the field) because I was too fast
for them - provided plate is strapped on correctly over well fitted padding
(a good arming doublet for example), it is slows you down no more than a
decent padded jack, but because it has multiple layers, is even worse at
shedding heat... although the worse armour IME is ill-fitting chain
(another armour that really requires padding underneath) as all the weight
hangs from your shoulders and, if it is poorly maintained and thus rusty,
chain really does impede ones movement as the links bind against each
other... I still have flash-backs to a small battle re-enactment some ten
years back where I collapsed due to heat exhaustion thanks to a lousy set
of chain...

>I have varied over the years between liking

>that sort of break down and finding it a faff to keep track of. At
present

>(But I reserve the right to change my mind...)

>My system only slows things down when buying armor and during character
creation. I've introduced 27 hit locations >(!) and 3 armour values for
each... -But once this is done, the game flows as normal speed (just a bit
more figures >to keep track on)

Oh, quite possibly. It's just that (at present as I said), I'm really not
convinced that the added maths etc really adds anything I would personally
want in my games. But I was at one time very fond of Other Suns, which I
IIRC did something similar?

>I find that the RQIII rules

>for Impales and blunt weapons vs. non-rigid armour cover the bases

>adequately for me...


>I don't. I thought the critical impale -stuff , to be too lethal, and,
>
>for instance, only retain the "extra d6 dam. for pulling out an impaled
weapon" for arrows with fishbonestyle \ >tridents.

Hmm, well RQIII Impales (which stack with Crits) are VERY scary, but that's
why one should IMO use the associated rules (weapon damages on parry,
closing rules) to mitigate their effectiveness. As for weapons getting
stuck, I think the extra d6 does a reasonable job of representing the
standard first aid instruction that wounds involving significant inpalement
(where the item is still lodged in the wound) should NOT be disturbed, as
removing the item (even where it appears a clean thrust wound) will cause
more harm (usually from additional bleeding IIRC). On the other hand I have
(fortunately) never had such a wound so I can't speak from personal
experience there! Perhaps the additional damage should be applied as
bleeding in the book-keeping phase?

In the end, I like the RQ combat rule because they _felt_ plausible and,
when I started steel weapon re-enacting, I was pleasantly surprised to
discover that they _remained_ plausible. These days I tend more to
Stormbringer/Elric/CoC/BRP, because I'm more interested in a flowing game
that de-emphasises combat and those systems are easier to explain to the
current game group. I may yet lure them into RQ though...

Cheers,

Nick Middleton