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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Shields Again and Knights of the Round Table

So, I'm watching Knights of the Round Table on TCM right now and thought - I need to blog this. I don't think I've ever seen it before, and I rather like the way the aforementioned knights are not treated as super-heroes, but rather men in armor with weapons trying to kill each other - some heroically, some villainously. The fight scenes are nice as well - a good antidote to modern movie fights, which I must admit tend to leave me cold.



Anyhow - Armor vs. Weapons - A little notion popped into my head earlier today about armor and weapons, so I figured I'd throw it into this post as well. Armor at one point was sometimes classified as "proof" against a weapon - usually firearms. This made me think that, assuming you use variable weapon damage, you could classify armor as proof against a damage dice, such that weapons using that dice or smaller would suffer a penalty to hit someone in that armor. So, for example:

Platemail is proof against 1d6
Chainmail is proof against 1d4
Leather is proof against nothing

Thus, attacking a platemail armored knight with a short sword or hand axe or dagger is done at a -1 penalty. Likewise, attacking a man in chainmail with a dagger or club. Obviously, you could alter the specifics as you like. Or perhaps in place of a penalty, you allow those weapons to do but minimum damage (i.e. 1 point plus strength bonus). This could also allow you to reduce the armor modifier for plate, chain and leather and boost the bonus for using a shield. Maybe change the modifier for leather/chain/plate to +1/+2/+3, while shields grants a +3 bonus to AC.

6 comments:

  1. Watching it right now! Very cool!

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  2. That was good fun! I could see the dice rolling and the DM fiating when Lancelot torched, hacked, slashed, bashed, and mercilessly slew his way out of Guinevere's chambers. What a fighting man! Also, fantastic two-handed sword battle at the end...followed by a fully armored plunge into quicksand! Screw CGI!

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  3. Going off your "proof" idea - you could harken back to 1E's different weapon damage v. large creatures. Maybe your sword only does 1d4 v. plate, but 1d8 v. leather. Could be an intresting variation.

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  4. Have you ever seen this scene from El Cid (1961). Wonderfully acted and choreographed. I always picture fights in 'Pendragon' this way.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvLmVa_goXY

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  5. That was dandy. You know, I've never watched El Cid. I'm going to have to remedy that situation.

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